Fiddling with Photoshop

The header is already an example. 😀 😀
By the way, I now have a new header and I made it! The previous one was made by my brother, credits to him. I still have the old header. I want to retain it but it says “2008” and I cannot see the PSD file around so I have to change it since it’s 2009 already.

I’m fiddling with Adobe Photoshop for a while now and I’ve learned a lot from the basics that my brother taught me before. Now I am making designs that are quite difficult to understand (for me) from the tutorials present in the intarwebz. My favorite now are silhouettes. 😀 (as you can see from the header). But it is not a simple silhouette like black shadows, the typical ones. I was fascinated by the silhouette design used for the game “Burnout Paradise”. 😀 Now, I’m making several ones, similar to Burnout’s design. It may not be exactly the same as I am using captured images while the design in Burnout seemed to be made directly from the computer. (Weird, I can’t seem to put it in better words.) Anyhoo, here are the designs I made so far:

Last Week

Man, I don’t know if I will call last week a good week or not. Anyhoo…

A blockmate of mine went to Canada last Saturday because he will start studying there. I managed to join him together with Nikki in his night before he goes abroad. Happily, Drex managed, too, to get to Roasters before we go together with Emil and Arvin was walking towards Jollibee. 😀 😀 😀 So nice though sad. 😀 I will not be able to thrash around Ateneo in his Automatic Corolla, go to megamall with it and so on. I was able to drive the car for the last time before I go home. 😀 anyway, he said he will be back by Christmas and that should be a grand Christmas celebration. 😀

LIFE~!!

yes, how would you describe your life right now? Maybe some of you will say “My Life is Wasted” and the like. I admit I also consider some days like that but what can I do? There are ups and downs in my life and in everyone’s life everyday.

For instance, I enjoy small stuff everyday. When I say stuff, those are the things I encounter everyday. The Ateneo’s Cafeteria is one big place for me to happily spend money on food. My PSP is mainly used for Music, not for games but when the urge of driving comes along, two driving simulators are inside the device, namely F12006 and Colin McRae Rally 2005+. Those are racing simulations in its greatest graphics which makes it realistic. 😀 My Lappy~! This Laptop which is already 1 year old never failed to serve me when I need it the most. Although there were errors that I encountered but I learned a lot from them and applied them on my lappy as well.

I also enjoy having a company around. My block, of course and other people. Although I had a lot of bad experiences in choosing the people I want to be close with. I always end up in a big hole or ditch. That’s why sometimes I prefer to be alone. But there are people who are willing to accept me in my form, in my attitude. I hope I would fit just right with the new people I knew recently, like LSAT.

Love Life? Favorite part of most people! hhahahah~! Well in love life, I don’t have someone to court. I don’t even have a decent social life. But who knows? Maybe I’m just looking for the right group of people…. 😀

What else? the Downs? I don’t have a girlfriend. I suck in academics. I don’t have that much friends. Some people use me for their own purpose. I can’t be seen by people, I’m short. I am stupid. I don’t have the luxury. I don’t fit in Ateneo, really. (Some people from __________ told me that, and I think they’re right. :D) I’m a boring person. I want to get at least a small amount of attention at some point. Small social life. Strict life by parents. No Money. I look bad big time.

Do I care? at some point, yup. But I live a simple life. Simple in the sense that all wants like a girlfriend, gadgets and a glamorous image or a leader kind of image are not considered top priority in my life. Sure, they give something that is unique in your life but only God can decide on those things. 😀 I want to live my life as simple as possible, no worries (only college life. joke) live my life in peace, quiet, happy.

They say, the happiest people on earth are the people who are happy with small things because they are satisfied of what they have. 😀

LSAT Fun

FUN? Of course not. But it doesn’t mean all the time. 😀 We also had fun together with the Regcom. 😀

1. DAY 1 – The BUFFER MOVES – Just before we left for lunch, the Bufferers went to do something with their terminals. I noticed why those people turn their monitors around. Then when I came back, the screensavers said “I love LSAT”, divided into 3 monitors

2. DAY 1 – Free Assessors? – Just to get the assessors working. 😀 I did what Kuya Kalil did before. I saw that the people were idle and some of them were sleeping. And so, as I walked along the path on the side of the room, I shouted “Free Assessors!”. Mean me. 😀

3. DAY 2 – ‘San si _________ – One of the members of RegCom who’s working on the printing area was shouting names of assessors like a boss because of FIRE scholarship regforms as well as other problematic ones. She even called me “LSAT PERSON”, probably I did not have the chance to introduce myself since I was late. 😀 First victim was Jan Rico. She shouted ” ‘SAN SI RICO?!” and we all turn to him,and saw his shocked face. 😀 Hahahah~! Same goes with Joan Sy and Eric Sy. More laughs to Eric since he puts a letter c beside his surname on the Assessment form. Then the regcom girl shouted again “SINO SI SYC?! BAKIT ITO S-Y-C?!” I was laughing when Eric gave his explanation, just like a kid being punished for eating the cookies in the cookie jar without permission. 😀 The “C” was suppose to be a distinguishing factor between him and Joan since they have the same surname.

I just to thank some people (some are “again”)

-Ma’am DinDin – without her (and without knowing her during the first sem nstp processing session

-Accounting Personnel, especially Ma’am Lani – for persevering in seeing my face every now and then because of numerous questions. But when she stood up to assist the FIRE Scholars, I attended to her concerns and I hope I helped her a lot.

-Sir JJ – I fear him a lot. I even had to stop the people talking when he’s around. Maybe they don’t know sir JJ yet.  But I hope I made a good job for him. I thank him for observing us a lot because that would mean discipline to the assessors. 😀 even me.

-RegCom – The regcom person. (revenge~!) that shouted my assessors’ names. 😀 even mine in LSAT person. 😀 But Regcom people were funny and helpful. I want to thank the OIC? I think they call them OIC or Officer in Charge? I forgot. I forgot the name of the second one since I was late but the first one was Ate Gen~! She was so kind. I also want to thank Ate Les for looking after our problems. See yah, she said, in two months~!

-LSAT Core  -for making fun of me while I’m suffering inside! hahaha but I love them, it was fun having them around especially Ate Ja, who checked us every now and then.

-My Team – So far so good. Good job peepz~! I hope I made I good impression, though I’m not expecting that I did. I think I was a bad Head at start but I hope I can recover all the mistakes I had for this summer reg.

LSAT Second Registration Day

Ok, was the same target obtained? No.

Anyway, I was fscking late today so I already had 2 liability points up my ass. I feel even worse when I saw that I was able to assess only three students for the day. But it can’t be helped as I had the team with most of them as new members and I had to attend to their concerns, after giving them one of the reminders “When in doubt, don’t. Ask Regcom, your Head, Asst. head or the accounting personnel”. Damn, it was pretty hard. Today, we were pretty much idle in the morning and just 2 hours before the real lunch time, Ate Les from Regcom told me that the FIRE scholars were now being arranged downstairs. To give you a little bit of information about FIRE scholars, they were one of the people who come in big batches and had their registration forms with problems. I think the FIRE scholars did not bring their regforms. I think they brought problems. Take note that the batches only had ONE representative which means the actual students were not present at the waiting venue. Just look at the facts:

First Batch: Comprehensive Examinations -> First take or Retake?

Second Batch: Section in  Theo 205 does not exist.

Third Batch : Not a problem. Actually the first one to be finished and no anomalies reported

Fourth batch: Only two people in the list, one of them has section problems.

Fifth batch: Section problems also, I think, and they came in like small bullets from a shotgun. Does not have a list as well.

Good thing, Ma’am Lani had the Master list and I was able to check the Fifth batch. We also had problems regarding the JEA scholarship people who were included under the FIRE batch list. It took Regcom almost an hour and a half to obtain answers to the batches especially batches 1 and 2.  Happily, Ma’am Dindin was very nice to do the checking for Compre exams as well as the advisement for the THEO 205. The Theo 205 subject should have the “dot” beside 205 for the section to appear. This was hardly a problem during the assessment days of the AISIS ver. 1.0 because there’s no need for the assessors to access the advisement database through ORACLE or the program used for the database of the students.

I found that I was lenient this Reg, probably because the new members were testing me as well. I can see some of the new members were playing games which is not allowed. I also saw some members who were not raising their hands when Regcom calls for free assessors. That was the reason behind the 3-ID no. assessed by me, I can hardly sit in front of my terminal because there were a lot of questions as well as looking after the new members who were doing nasty shit. Anyway, they have liability points for that. 😀 Good luck for them.

Now, I can say that I can be more strict with them as we will not include new members. I was happy that Ma’am Lani was able to keep her patience seeing my face every now and then for questions but I also told the assessors that if ever they had problems with their regforms, they can proceed directly to the accounting personnel and ask.

I can’t believe I was able to manage the Reg, well for now. I am still waiting for numerous errors. Now, I can rest. Thanks for the new people as well as the LSAT Core Group.

But most of all, thank you GOD. You made me persevere. 😀

“LSAT”

Stands for Loyola Schools Assessment Team. It was my first day, today, as the head of the Graduate Studies Team and the first part of the assessment was a pretty big battering ram that hit me.

You’d expect that Ateneans with the cramming culture and tradition would certainly have their papers, including the batch people, be processed by afternoon. Surprisingly we were pretty much idle in the afternoon and was very busy during the morning. I had a target that day that no Graduate student would come up to the Assessment venue to check on his or her registration form. The thing is, the students were isolated from the assessment venue and just let them wait in a specific waiting area for them. Unfortunately there were at least 5 people who went up, waiting for their papers to be processed. Hmmm….

Of course, like any Grad Assessment situation, the first wave of batch regforms was totally a great shock. This was the batch of AMF students who came in jigsaw puzzle pieces and left the job for regcom and lsat to rebuild the picture. They were complaining a lot but if only they knew that they just brought problems and not their regforms… And there were a couple of mistakes already made. Although I’m still deciding if I’m to give liability points to all since the error was committed by a large margin. It was the decision to choose the NONE OF THE ABOVE option for others but there was another option for SCHOLARSHIP FROM ANOTHER AGENCY. Good thing the regforms were not yet passed and Ma’am Lani said all we have to do is re-assess the forms to the appropriate option and we don’t have to reprint the assessment forms since the resulting assessment form will still be the same.

The AMD SH*T lasted until we had lunch. In fact it ate our lunch time by 30 minutes but I was glad that the assessors were back exactly 1 pm. After that there were idle moments most of the time. I even shouted “Free Assessors” and I saw how the assessors like to do something. The buffers were the people who enjoyed most of the time since Minotz was one of them, and the two other people having fun during the assessment were two new boys. 😀

I noted some of the events where conflicts came, just to make sure. Ate Ja and the others were surely laughing at me since the four schools did not have any work most of the time, only in the afternoon when the krammerz came by a huge basket. Tom actually told the people not to tease me and I might burst out in the conference in meebo. Hahaha, don’t worry Tom, I’m used to those things and I’m actually used to it ever since high school. 😀 I was really tired and ate Jarylle was able to notice the immediate attack of stress into my face as we walk towards the cafeteria. There, I only ate cheesedog on stick (I still feel Good Friday without the abstinence but fasting) a bottle of orange juice and a back-up water bottle for the latter part of the registration period. Hayz

It was a good thing that I knew some of the people and I met new ones. First, there was Ma’am Dindin (who still remembers me! I was touched!) then there was kuya Arnold from MIS who assisted me most of the time with the hardware and Aisis problems. Then there was Ate Gen from Regcom who was kind of nice. 😀 then ate Lesly whom I met last sem’s reg. She probably predicted that Kuya Alec would throw me into his position as the replacement. 😀 Hahahah! And of course, last but not the least, the new members of my team. I think I would love this bunch since most of them are energetic. Hahaha!

“When you want to give up and your heart’s about to break, remember that you’re perfect, God makes no mistakes. ” – Bon Jovi

Holy Week

Ah, yes. Holy Week. I decided to go with my Mom’s decision for me to go to a retreat but before that I went to give few reminders for the Grad Assessors. After that, I prepared myself for a 3-day retreat.

It was my first time in Laguna Hills and the place really gave me a good impression after stepping down from the van. The retreat really helped me to realize more things, get a right decision to most confusions I had for the past few days. I guess God was really doing his job. Even though I have numerous headaches and worries about a lot of stuff like not waking up early, I was able to, weirdly, overcome those.  I was reading a book during the entire retreat period, though I’m not yet done but I can say it is a great book. The book was “Man the Saint” by Jesus Urteaga. Erwin suggested me to read that book. I realized a lot more about different people regarding my religion after reading few pages. I’ve also learned more but I cannot put those into words right now. Maybe when I’m done with the book.

Few things though, I was able to come up with a decision to one of my confusions in life. Yup, maybe you can say that it’s rubbish but it means a lot to me. It was the very first girl I fell in love with, though she’s not now. I tried talking to her before just to regain the friendship but I guess I left a very big ditch that cannot be patched anymore. I guess I really made a big mistake, that’s why I’m trying to get the bricks back to rebuild the wall. But I think my efforts aren’t going anywhere. So I think I have to do the U-turn. Um, I see no point talking to her now since she’s not following any of the advices I gave, which makes me think that I’m a pretty useless friend. Lets me think also that her words before might be sugarcoated. Hay, I guess I really have to move on. I feel useless and besides, I’ve done all I can to retain the friendship but I guess her side is the one not complying. I guess one word can describe it, bitterness. 😀 Hhahah! Just a joke. MOViNG ON~!

The retreat was very nice but the most memorable part of the retreat was when one of our tires were torn after entering the South Luzon Expressway. The cops or the highway security were making fun of us, I guess, just because we were having fun lifting the van. 😀 And there was one instance where a wind blew the van and since the foundation of the jack was pretty much unstable, the jack went off, dropping the drumbrake on the ground. Yep, the wheel was already removed. But with a bit of thinking with most of us from Management courses and few in engineering courses, and a great help from a cop by giving us a wooden which took him minutes to get, we were able to lift the van. But we saw that the spare tire was also torn. Good thing, Gab, who was one of us at the center and happened to pass by was able to give us a ride to purchase a new tire. It was fun. It was my first time to get my hands filthy dirty on the road for real. 😀

After that, we went back to Lauan and I was fetched by my family to go to the Easter Vigil at UA&P. After the vigil, we ate dinner with my older brother’s godparents and their family and went home afterwards.

For the realizations, I still can’t put them into words but any habits involving physical attributes, maybe I can say some. I can now wake up by myself though I still have to work on it so that I can wake up early. I now have to balance my eating times as well as get everything organized. That retreat was really a big help, it even made me take a bath in cold water which I usually don’t like. 😀

Dust

Oh, My Blog here is gathering some dust for a while.For the past few days I’ve been busy with schoolwork and I think I’ve posted something about my survival in one subject. It was actually the same professor… 😀 Totally happy with it. What a relief! Anyway, maybe most of the time I’ll be posting here. It’s just that I check my multiply account most of the time. For a change, I’ll be writing here for the whole summer. I’ve been bored here ever since my classes ended.  So at some point, I fiddled with my brother’s SLR and took some pictures, subjects were Q-steer as usual.  Here are some pictures, to kick off with my wordpress revival!

Cheers to me and my blog!

Few things that I miss and things that I want to celebrate!

First I want to write down the things that I miss

1.My Barkada – Yup, I miss them. It just happened that my barkada has just encountered a big wall but I’m trying to work out the big wall though not this time. I miss the times when we go to EK, go to BNP, go to movies……sobrang dami.

2.High School research group – Yup, every time I step inside the laboratories inside PIPAC, my research group pops in my mind first and every time I go to UP Diliman, I get to visit NSRI first to see how it is going every now and then.

3.Relatives – So sad that I could only go to two places most of the time: house and Ateneo. Although I get in touch with my cousins on the web, but presence is still better,

4. Friends – of course I have friends other than my barkada and I miss them as well.

5. Money evaporation for Food with Paul – Yup, but he’s in Canada now and I envy his visit @ HoOtErs…. rawr. hahahh! Pero nung kasama ko si Paul, tumaba ako sobra, and I was introduced to new food around. 😀

6.Driving by night – Tagal na rin yung last kong drive from house to any part as far as Ortigas, stepping at around 80-100 kph at Edsa, Commonwealth and C5. and this was midnight so wala masyadong sasakyan. It’s nice because I’m driving a heavy nearly 2 ton turbocharged, 4X4 Mitsubishi Van. Man, hear the turbo whistling kahit mahina lang. I love it, the sudden surge of power from 2000 to 3000 rpm. 😀

Things that I want to celebrate:

1. I PASSED ANOTHER SUBJECT UNDER SIR MONJE! – It was those “bingit ng kamatayan” moments. Sobra, as in! I was praying a lot so that for the very last chance that I have which is the fifth exam, I will be able to make my current standing that time which was “F”(fail) at least “D” because a “D” mark is 1.0 which is passing. Happily, Lord gave a hint to work harder next time by giving me a “C” mark! C means Celebrate!!

2. My brother will study @ Ateneo! – another critical situation but still he got the slot! I will see him when the Sem Starts! Good Job, Bro!

3. LSAT – Even though the real challenge will come by April 13 and 14, I still want to celebrate this. For one, we had a dry run for Grad Assessment which was nice because I was having a hard time digging space on the minds of new Grad Assessors that Grad Assessment is not as easy as the job experienced by the four schools. I hope they’re shocked! >.< joke. But at least they were able to see how things were going and I hope I was able to explain to the people how things will go by April 13 and 14. Grad Assessors, pag pasensyahan niyo muna yung bubwit niyong head, once natapos na ito, fulfilling for sure ang experience. 😀

4. An afternoon drive with Joseph’s car – Drex wants to get a new circuit board so we had to go to Megamall and Joseph went along. However, Joseph was not so eager to bring his car since he haven’t eaten lunch. But we still brought the car. Yep. 😀 heheheh! @#$%^&!*!! Fsckin MMDA people. They scare the hell out of me.

For all of these, I’ll have some drinks with my Kuya tonight (kung makakasama man siya). If not, ako na lang. Sanay naman ako magcelebrate mag isa. 😀 Cheers to me and to all of us who obtained success through this school year that has ended and taught us new things with trauma. HAHAhAH~!

Q-steer/Choro-Q Diffuser Painting

This is only a small modification so I won’t be posting this together with the other tutorials. This is just painting the diffusers of the cars I have and only two popped out with obvious diffusers namely the Evo X and Impreza.

I was looking at these cars when I noticed that the whole car is red or blue for the scooby. I wanted to put some detail on the cars. I wished to start on the panel lines but I dont have a fine marker, 0.1 mm point to be exact. So I went to another part and I noticed the diffusers.  I took both cars and took some shots before they were modified:

So, you can see the diffuser at the pictures. For those who don’t know, diffusers are seen under the car’s bumper to improve the air flow underneath the car, thus making it improve the aerodynamics. Though it’s not used as an aerodynamic component for Q-steer. 😀 So to get them look like diffusers which is usually dark and not shiny, I used these:

A Black plastic paint can from Tamiya and Flat Finish from Mr. Hobby! The black paint, of course, will color the diffuser black and the Flat Finish will make the diffuser not shiny or have a matte surface.

But before I get happy spraying stuff, I needed to cover the parts that do not need painting. I used one of the hidden hobby masking tapes at the house and I find them more effective than conventional masking tapes that you can buy in bookstores.

It’s not enough to just cover the places around the diffuser or else it will have the whole body a different color. It is also not ideal to use masking tape all over so what I did:

I taped the cars with small pieces of paper. 😀 After checking the predictions of not painting other parts of the body, I started spraying some paint. Really scary, though. You can’t tell if the paint only goes to the parts you want it to go. After drying the paint for a few moments, I sprayed the Flat Coating and this is how it turned out:

Tada! Now the diffusers look realistic! Heheheh~! There you go!