Sleepyman Reminds you laptops blink too

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  Sleepyman.qtz
  

  stare hard enough and his eye twitches
  

  1024x768
  

  
  

  Instructions for screensaver
  

  1. download file to /Libary/Screen Savers
  

  2. open up System Preferences - Screen Savers and select 'Sleepyman'
  

  3. crank up itunes volume and activate screen saver
  

  
  
  

  
  
  

  Instructions for itunes visualizer
  

  1. download ivisualizer (Mac)
  

  2. download 'sleepyman.qtz'
  

  3. restart iTunes and select /View/Visualizer/iVisualize
  

  4. select /View/Visualizer/Options, click the + button and find 'sleepyman.qtz'
  

  5. Crank up volume and enjoy!
  
  
  
  
  

Of laptops that suffer

That's how my laptop looks like when I met him in person. He hasn't had a proper shut eye in 3 days now.

Oh Holy.... my god.

Oh my lord I am scared. I was wondering why I suddenly felt so so tired that last night I slept from about 1:30am to 11am today. Then I work up and realize it must have been a freaking freaking blessing from someone watching over me.

That photo above... if you can see the man in it, he's wearing a surgical mask and an apron actually. I can't tell if he's the forensic detective or just the clean up man. But he's taking notes and walking to and fro.

This is directly outside my window. This is where the forensic or clean up man has been walking to, bend down and then walk away again. Then I checked my phone and realize my flatmate tried to call me but I was asleep so she messaged that there was a dead body found at 3am so the entire area is closed to the police now. Guess where the dead body is?

Shit. Can you imagine if I was still awake, on my laptop, which is right by the window last night at 3am?

I'm going off to work later. I can't decided if I want to come home early and be safe or to come home late and stay away.

Of Canned Tuna and Darwinism

Dinner of canned tuna in sunflower oil. Dolphin safe and Omega-3 destroyed.

Was reading about Darwin's Beagle journey and how he came up with his theory.  It's quite amazing how throughout history inventions and break-through has always been a case of who presented it best. For each brilliant new theory or invention, there is always a series of people who has done it before albeit in slightly different methods and with different intentions but with the similar conclusion. And of these, some faded into oblivion only to be rediscovered long after their lifespan, some ended up looking like bitter and sore losers, some were beheaded and yet some just don't make that big an impact.

So what makes that perfect equation of Marketing + Idea + Correct Timing = Genius of the Century and how do you make sure you don't end up as some others you see at the end of the wikipedia page?

On another note, it's quite amazing how a bald monk who spent his entire solitary life staring at bean stalks and probably eating beans, one day decided to call us all BB, Bb, Bb. bb and the entire world nodded seriously in agreement. Isn't life logical!

The Greeks were probably doing the same when Socrates said that being born a women is the ultimate divine punishment. *nods seriously in agreement*

can you tell I just had a really crappy day?

Okonomiyaki

Okay or should I say a mutation of okonomiyaki. I don't have bonito flakes or okonomiyaki sauce so I substituted them with baked beans and tomato sauce... don't ask me how baked beans replace bonito flakes. Beggars can't be choosers! Fortunately it tastes better than it looks.

I used flour, eggs, cabbage, lettuce, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, onions, broccoli stalk, peas, chicken strips, cheese and hotdogs. Doesn't sound Japanese at all!

Next up... canned tuna.

Of understanding and what is that?

If someone explains something to you, do you understand or do you conform?

When a person of supposedly better knowledge of the subject produces reasonings and theories and talks their way inside your mind and it slowly dawns on you that you are agreeing with them. Does that mean you now understand? Or does that mean you just lost your own opinion?

Truth is, if you take it just at surface level, you are generally conforming. Moulding yourself to a shape casted by many others. Anyone who's been through school will have experienced that regurgitation of formulas, scientific facts (only so called because they have yet to be debunked) and whatever it is that they call education. But unless you take each piece of information and analyze on it, reflect and draw up your own conclusions, you are simply taking a very watered-down version of another person's intellect, isn't it? But come on, who in the right mind would be able to take that sheer amount of information piled on them and dissect each and every one? So that's it! Every single one of us is a copy!

Michael Bierut once wrote an article on his 'accidental' plagiarism of a Willi Kunz's typographic work. One of very first comment that popped up was by someone who feared this act of unoriginality so condemned by the design world that he refuses to read design magazines.

That's silly isn't it? It's like saying "I insist on being original and hence I will not study the dictionary or read any books". How on earth is he going to learn? Besides, it is not just Communication Arts or Grafik that are design related. Every single object produced by man is design related. That means Vogue, that crappy tabloid newspaper, receipts from the supermarket, the power socket on the wall... chances are whatever you're touching now has been through a design process. Now try avoiding all these and come up with something totally original. I'd give 2 pences (I'm broke) to bet someone else has thought of the exact or similar idea. Hah!

Going off on a tangent, my prof recently mentioned Design for Life the BBC series kind of like Project Runway for product designers. It's pretty crappy even though Philippe Starck is the big boss insulting British design at every episode's beginning. Not surprising the series has faded into the thermosphere of public consciousness. You can catch it on Vimeo if you have an hour to spare.

Of Hello and キティ!

Guess who I saw? Guess who was in my school? HELLO KITTY! Alright, not her but the lady who designs her! Yuko Yamaguchi was giving a lecture in school but I missed it as I was having class crit. By the time we sneaked in it was the last Q&A question. This is my best sneak shot of her giving autographs!

(from what I recall of the last question)

Q: As a designer, are you not bored of Hello Kitty after 12 years?

A: Trends change and there are always something new to try or do, so no, she will never be bored of Hello Kitty.

Of Curry Spice Chicken and Stuffed Mushrooms

Broccoli with cheese, stuffed mushrooms, potato cake with sausages and pan-fried chicken with curry spice. This is my next 4 meals! The chicken turned out surprisingly well. Okay, so curry spices is really just cumin and turmeric. But the best part is the hot steamed rice. Ah... so comforting.

A hearty meal after I finally went grocery shopping again! Otherwise it would be rice and pasta sauce again. But I've effectively used up my monthly allowance. If only transport isn't so costly here! It's a shame they have one of the world's most expensive transportation and yet stations are often closed on weekends, delays are normal and it's not entirely surprising to spend the ride home in a dark carriage with bad ventilation (does that sound like a medieval torture chamber?).

Coming up next, Okonomiyaki!

Of Speech and Stupids

Part of what I love at Central Saint Martins is that we get to do Academic Research. I apologize for being a geek! But really, doesn't it give you pings of joy to find out that UPPERCASE and LOWERCASE were so called because that was how they stacked letterpress in drawers? 

So it's all great fun to find out that Italics were once favoured by the Italians (well, duh.) as a sort of Carolingian script revival, Romans used to write in full majuscule WITHOUTSPACINGBETWEENEACHLETTER (god know how they read without going cross-eyed) and BOLD typefaces only came about pretty much in the advertising boom of the 19th century. (makes sense, who can read Futura Extra Light on billboards? or a 12th century scribe furiously thickening the lines of an entire sentence with a sharp nib and blotchy ink?)

So the next time someone tells you nobody writes entire books in italics and that not using commas in your essay makes for uncomfortable reading, remind them that once upon a time, people wouldn't have been able to read properly with strange markings next to their words. 

But reading textbooks are pulling my eyeballs out! I am still unable to read normal spaced books without the lines blending into a starry mess occasionally. I need a leading of at least 20pt for a 12pt text to be really comfortable.

Do you find speech superior to writing? Or vice versa? 

A school of thought is that much of western languages are phonetic built and therefore a poor rip off of trying to reproduce sounds on paper. Which is an interesting thought since such languages have a particular set of phonetic alphabets that you rearrange to create new sounds like music notes. But either way, the entire span of vocabulary will always be limited to the base sounds which defines a language. 

On the other hand, ideogram based languages like Chinese or Sanskrit are more or less like polished forms of pictograms where a specific image can mean a whole lot of context. You can either see this as a more primitive form of communicating, or a more sophisticated alternative to writing down sounds. 

Which ever way it is, ideogram languages may be more romantic and culturally relevant but the business world will never give up speedy efficient grunts and squeaks.

Evil Bao

okay. So staying alone with serious lack of sleep and thinking too much can do strange things to your brain... what else?

Spinach Ricotta

Spinach and Ricotta with Pitted Black Olives and Hot dogs. Potato cakes with cheese on the side.

Not too bad! I don't really like the hot dogs though. They taste salty and unhealthy... but what do I expect! They're hot dogs!

I learnt my lesson after spending Halloween with an upset tummy from eating potatoes gone bad. Now I'm sticking to fresh hot food! (Okay frozen food that are within the expiry dates are considered fresh in this case.)