Odds and Ends

Alright, I'm taking half-day off work today for an early weekend. But before I skiddadle outta here, I would like to share two amazing flash-based sites that I stumbled onto (via whatdoiknow.org). Namely, MeCompany, and its equally scrumptious subsidiary web site called Chromasoma. MeCompany, by the way, is the London-based design firm that created the abstract desktop images which came pre-installed on newer Macintosh computers (and of course, any variant of OS9 and X).

Have a great weekend folks. Ta!

posted at 11:52 AM |  |

 Still

With a forecasted temperature of 108ºF, Las Vegas looks to be scorching hot, quite possibly, incinerating passing tourists along the way with nary a care. Without a doubt, it is a long way to travel for a short weekend. Regardless of which, I couldn't think of a better way to spend my time than with the person whom I am still deeply, madly, irrevocably...

posted at 1:42 AM |  |

 Nice Guys Always Finish Last

When it comes to certain stereotypes, it can be of great entertainment value to observe someone (such as myself), not only live up to, but additionally, turn said clichés up a notch and beyond expectation: Nice guys always finish last.

Am I that nice? Er, not too sure about that, but the 'always last' bit, a resounding yea-huh. Somehow, I'm often times the last person on everyone's list, including my friends'. I got blown-off twice this week, and by one of my dearest friends no less.

Discarded even, I say. Ouch.

She feels awful about it though. And I'm certain that whatever the reason, it is valid and true. Not a big deal really, but I wouldn't live up to the aforementioned cliché if I didn't give her a hard time about it. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity, the potential guilt-trip.

Is that mean? He heh, its all good.

posted at 10:38 AM |  | 3 Comments

 Learning when to shutup

This week has been chockfull of woe and misery. I was assigned the task of designing the intranet site for one of the company's multitude of departments. After several days of email exchanges with the department head, endless futzing with HTML, and a myriad of changes/corrections, I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel (then again, it could be just phosphor burns from the monitor).

Having the director of that department personally take the time out to acknowledge the work I've done is very flattering, not to mention, the air of pride it brings to the internet team. While brainstorming with the boss on the subject of usability, the question of what other site improvements and/or features we could possibly offer, arose. Still fresh from the after-glow of the recent accolades, I unwittingly opened my big mouth and suggested that it might be a worthwhile feature to add a form that would allow the user to upload (via browser) all the files that needs to be (constantly) updated for the site. My take was, that it would save our department (me) from doing FTP tech support for that page, one more step to bypass, thus rendering the process of updates a maintenance-free affair.

The man was immediately sold on the idea, "that's great!", he exclaims while turning around to hand me a PHP book. "Here you go Luis, start coding it". I stood there, staring blankly at my boss for a good minute before the entire inflection of the message sank in. Wha? Waitasec, what did I miss? Did I just get tagged? I'm suddenly reminded of a familiar line from the movie The Hunt for Red October, "next time Jack, write a goddamn memo".

posted at 10:12 PM |  | 3 Comments

 Time out

Normally, I refrain from reposting jokes I get via email from friends. But this one sent me rolling on the floor and deserves an exception.

Comprehending the IT guy:

An IT guy was crossing a road one day when a frog called out to him and said, "If you kiss me, I'll turn into a beautiful princess." He bent over, picked up the frog and put it in his pocket. The frog spoke up again and said, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a beautiful princess, I will stay with you for one week."

The IT guy took the frog out of his pocket, smiled at it and returned it to his pocket. The frog then cried out, "If you kiss me and turn me back into a princess, I'll stay with you for a week and do ANYTHING you want." Again the IT guy took the frog out, smiled at it and put it back into his pocket.

Finally, the frog asked, "What is the matter? I've told you I'm a beautiful princess, that I'll stay with you for a week and do anything you want. Why won't you kiss me?" The IT guy said, "Look, I work in IT. I don't have time for a girlfriend, but a talking frog - now that's cool.

And if you find yourself wondering what the heck an IT guy is (or what IT stands for - Info Tech), may I offer up the mental image of Dilbert.

posted at 12:32 PM |  | 6 Comments

 Switch bitch

The mudslinging has begun. The dolt even got Mark's name wrong (of boingboing.net). Sheesh, talk about immature, any more name calling and I would have thought I wandered right into a grade school brouhaha.

But, whatever. Sticks and stones.

posted at 5:04 PM |  | 3 Comments

 Fonts R Us

It drives me insane when the machine goes on a fritz for seemingly no apparent reason. With the advent of OS X (and a multitude of features such as protected memory), the crashes are far and few in between (if any), and most importantly, less obtrusive. When a crash does occur, the affected applications quits out but leaves the rest of the system unaffected and fully operable. Unfortunately, OS 9, or Classic, as it is monickered these days, is quite the opposite. A single application crash could hang-up the machine. Sometimes, a force quit (cmd+opt+esc) would give you a way out, but often times, a total lockup would occur leaving the user no alternative but to force restart (cmd+opt+power key), or worse, to pull the plug and get a sledge hammer.

With that said, the one major cause of this migraine that I'd like to particularly isolate today is the font. Quite fascinating that this miniscule file (by itself or collectively) can bring an entire system to its knees, and the unwitting user to the brink of insanity. Even OS X users are not spared from this Achilles' heel. If you have a minimal collection of fonts, there's not much trouble in locating the culprit and deleting or replacing it. But on the other hand, if your font folder consists of the entire Adobe Font Library, goodluck. Isolating corrupted or damaged fonts in a sea of font suitcases is like looking for Martha Stewart in Home Depot.

Enter FontDoctor. This nifty little utility is a godsend to fontaholics such as myself. Sure, there are others like Extensis Suitcase, or even Adobe's now defunct ATM Deluxe, but none of these applications can do what most font mavens crave: locate and eliminate hard-to-find font problems that wreak havoc on the Macintosh system performance and applications. FontDoctor will scan any specified font folders (on your local hard drives or over a network) to locate and repair common font illnesses, including missing Postscript fonts, missing bitmaps, corrupt/damaged fonts, font ID conflicts, extra fonts sizes, mixed fonts types, and lots more.

But don't take my word for it, if your Mac seems to be acting kinda ditzy lately (even on OS X), chances are it is rooted to font conflicts or corruption. And no, not even Norton or TechTool can detect if it were a font-based conflict. If anyone needs to um, try it out, just holler at me and I can probably let you in on a little secret. Shhhh, you didn't hear that from me, okay?

Last Minute Addition: While we're on the font subject, if you are a print designer, then you've probably found yourself with the need to insert characters from any font into other applications, yes? PickChar (similar to PopChar) does just that, and its free from Shawnware! (link via whatdoiknow.org)

Quick OS9 Tips: To manually 'fix' Font ID conflicts, just drag out the entire contents of the Fonts folder, within your System 9 folder, and drag it back in. This little move forces the system to reassign unique IDs to each font. To check for corrupt fonts, double click on the font file, or if its enclosed within a suitcase, open the suitcase, damaged font files would usually yield the error message, "This file is damaged and cannot be opened", or something to that effect. If you have the free utility ResEdit, use it to open the damaged files. ResEdit will prompt you if you want these files fixed, say "yes please", and it will.

posted at 12:12 PM |  | 4 Comments

 Come for the water, stay for the air...

Spent the entire day today at Norco to help out our Promotions Manager with his computer ailments. Around lunch time, Dee treated us to some pizza from Crusty's. Don't mock the name, its quite good and contrary to its namesake.

For a few more hours, I played tech support-support (meaning, Barry did all the work while I kicked back and looked on), checked out an array of cool musical equipment, and sweated profusely from playing drums (which was located inside a quaint make-shift studio).

Three things I learned while I was there: One, there are more horses than people in Norco. Two, people on horseback have the right of way, violate this and you will get a ticket. Three, it is fucking hot over there (102ºF), if you have no air conditioning, you will die.

posted at 10:56 PM |  |

 Friday Exodus

Dropped my pen near the copier machine, damn thing decided to roll where I cannot easily reach it. Squatted like an old man in pain to pick-up the wretched thing, and then, clumsily hit the back of my head with the paper tray on the way up.

Kicked the stupid copier and sternly cussed the pen ("take that you #$!@!!", and that!). From across the hall, the H.R. personnel looks on with deep concerns. I slyly wave back and avoid further eye contact.

Am I cross today? You bet I am. But wait, why are the cubicle farms quiet? Upon closer examination, I noticed people discreetly leaving early, en masse. Wonder what's the rush. Could it? Is it? Nah, it can't be (scrambles to look at the calendar).

Zounds! It is Friday! I am so out of here...

posted at 4:01 PM |  |

 Wanna be like Mike

Iconic, grid-based layouts, those that resemble blueprints, has never failed to fascinate. There's always something to look at, some obscure detail to be discovered, an easter egg if you will, that viewing such sites (online) seems as natural as walking through the hallways of an art gallery. Not to mention, it is also a welcome break from the bland, monotonous, corporate world that I deal with on a daily basis.

I had drafting classes intertwined with my regular curriculum of four years. Adhering to strict layout guides and precise execution of your work was the order of the day. I suppose it was one of the welcome perks going to Bosco Tech during high school. And somehow, the mechanical aspect of this medium has impacted the latter styles I chose to implement when creating layouts (my sis insists that my style is borderline sterile -- too clean she says, maybe so).

Minimalism has carved a niche in my design sense, constantly influencing my approach to projects, both on the web and in print. Mike Cina ("I've never worked for an agency because I don't want to sell plane tickets.") has been a huge factor in this style and methodology. His no-nonsense approach is that of the relaxed, take-a-breather-and-smell-the-roses variety. And you should (stop and smell the roses, I mean), because most of his work is designed around the premise of layered steps. His sites intentionally wants you to wait for things to load, sometimes in a few seconds, often times hours before anything becomes clickable (although, he may altogether omit that too).

Take a gander at several delicious eye candy, of the Cina persuasion: mikecina.com, trueistrue.com, ourcommon.com, weworkforthem.com, and testpilotcollective.com (the aforementioned case studies are very experimental, rough around the edges, and non-conforming).

When I grow up, I wanna be like Mike.

posted at 8:49 AM |  |

 Slug-bugged

During the drive home, some neanderthal illegally cut through the carpool lane causing me to abruptly slam on the breaks, alongside which, a mouthful of french words were also exchanged (I blared the foghorn, he responded with a middle finger salute, I wanted to take that finger and shove it down his throat -- but hey, who keeps tabs right?). The wanker was driving a black, early seventies type beetle ragtop, which also reminded me of another incident.

Back when I used to work for this company, there was this cowork (she's a very tall blonde - about five foot eleven) whom I'd always end up going out to lunch with whenever Grace (my regular lunch partner) was unavailable. During the drive back, she'd always smack me and yell "slug-bug!!!", while giddily pointing to a passing VW Bug to justify the action. With my peripheral senses being slow, and her having the height advantage, I'd always be the unwelcome (and surprised) recipient of several smack points. Oww.

As juvenile as it may seem, out of common courtesy, I never said anything about it. But little did she know, day by day, I was deviously plotting a major payback (laughs eerily while rubbing knuckles). So on this particular day, I volunteered, nay, I insisted that I drive, knowing fully well the predetermined route we were going to take. Once we reached the intersection...

"Slug-buuug!!! -- *bhap! whap! whamo! and kerpow!*"

She was quite surprised from the sudden multiple thwacks unleashed upside her head. Still recovering from the flurry of hits that came her way, she managed to stammer a "what da, how da, who da?". I sheepishly pointed to a used car lot full of VWs. She retorted, "I can see that you sneaky bastard, but what was that last hard hit for??". I simply stated, "that my dear, is for bonus points". She cried, "for what?". I then redirected her attention to the VW Bus parked near the corner. "Bonus points". She never played slug-bug ever again after that. Sheesh, spoiled sport.

posted at 11:42 PM |  | 8 Comments

 Sounds foreign

Occasionally, I'd listen to several CDs that are of the non-mainstream variety. Nothing specific, whatever happens to be around will do. The selection spans the gamut of Filipino, Latin, French, German and Japanese. I have always been fascinated by songs written in languages I don't understand (with the exception of Tagalog and Japanese, which I do), or even those without any real words (name a pop group).

It is amusing that I find relational attachment to most alternative samplings, especially the troubled sort (like Staind, Smashing Pumpkins and Nickleback). Understanding the words that inadvertently taps into underlying personal idiosyncracies makes one read too much into the lyrics. In short, its safe to assume that you can tell my mood by taking a peek at my playlist for that particular day. But not so with the foreign variety. I don't feel quite guilty then, vesting interest in words that nobody else understands, much less, cares about. I can simply make up my own interpretations and emotions.

So, what's on the changer tray? Ima Demo Anata Ga Suki Dakara.

posted at 6:31 PM |  |

 Shakespeare

/(bb|[^b]{2})/ that is the question.

posted at 3:43 PM |  | 2 Comments

 Day 1

Just wanted to say congrats to Ivonne on the publication of the Dreamweaver X for Dummies book that she co-authored. Now go visit her sublime site and wish her well, better yet, point your browser to Amazon.com and show some love by getting yourself a copy.

So, um, Ivonne, I also heard that Apple wants you in their "switch" commercials. (hehe - jk)

posted at 10:19 PM |  | 3 Comments

 Mugenized

A reminder and a note for my future self to read: Don't forget, a month from today, to bug Hank or Glenn about the car stuff (Mugen tower bar, badge, and twin exhaust) that they were supposed to inquire/order from Japan. Man, this is going to be one of those long, anticipated waits...

posted at 2:20 PM |  |

 Father's Day recap

A recap of the weekend: The family drove (meaning I drove while everyone else slept for the ride) to San Diego. We made reservations at the Hotel Del Coronado for a Father's Day brunch. The place in itself was worth the two-hour trip, considering the hotel's unique location of being smack-dab in the middle of an island, surrounded by lush beaches, expensive houses, and tall palmettos. The cool sea breeze made the hot sun tolerable, and there's always something soothing about hearing waves crashing (made me pine after a hammock tied to a tree, near the beach front). We were fortunate enough to get a table by the window which provides a picturesque glimpse of the local scenery, but distractions looms over at the Crown Ballroom where brunch was served. The expansive and dizzying array of seafood, pasta, deli and desserts made everyone's head swoon (and our stomachs growl). Simply put, there wasn't enough time (and space) to sample every dish spread out before us. Needless to say, this place absolutely merits a second visit (albeit on the pricey side -- $4/hour for parking? -- good lord!), probably even an overnight stay at one of their beach front cottages.

I haven't been getting any descent sleep over the past week, four hours per day is the most I've had (and that's subdivided from three the night prior and an hour spent snoring inside the car during lunch break). So, I took the opportunity to catch up on some zzz's yesterday after returning home early (around 4 P.M.) from our Sunday drive. But my much deserved late afternoon nap was rudely interrupted when I was awakened from all the ruckus happening in our backyard. It was somewhere between my sister calling for me, the dogs yelping, someone incessantly banging away on my window, and my sister calling for me.

Still half-asleep, I stumbled to where the noise was coming from and asked my sis what the hell was going on. She pointed to the ground and implored for me to have a look. "Have a look at what?!?", I barked back (I was still a wee bit grouchy from being roused). After clearing some of the hedge plants, I saw this tiny, featherless, thing with a beak encompassing half the circumference of its head. I gently picked up the poor fella, still quivering while instinctively opening its wide gaping mouth in anticipation of food. There were birds hovering all around us, fluttering about, chirping madly, helplessly panicking, that their youngin' is in danger. After half-an-hour of arguing about how and where to transplant back the baby housebird, I reluctantly climbed up the wobbly aluminum ladder, held on to the side of the roof for dear life, reached inside the gutter and found what looked like bird nesting. The little guy took some effort to squeeze in, but finally managed to help itself. My sis figured she'd hide out and watch for a bit to see if the parents would come nesting back in, and sure enough after some fussing, the mother reunited with its baby. Cool eh? So anyway, that leaves me with no afternoon nap, but otherwise a good feeling.

By the way, here's some articles I read online over the weekend:

• The very talented and soft-spoken Todd Purgason (of Juxt Interactive fame) talks about how a self-taught designer (like him) can make it into the big league. Interviewed by Pixelsurgeon. (link via Zeldman)
• The usability guru, Jakob Neilsen, rates Pixelsurgeon's web site in terms of usability. The Advocate of web usability also waxes poetic on why splash pages are bad and when Flash becomes a distraction as opposed to an attraction. (link via Zeldman)
• Think only women do it? Think again. Men do talk about relationships, you just have to know how to listen. (link via Ev)

Alright, thats enough 'lagging for one day, back to work... hope you all had a great weekend as much as I did.

posted at 10:28 AM |  |

 Designing for web

I'm not quite sure if the process I have chosen for pre-designing a web site is either common or unconventional. Since I began in the advertising industry as a graphic designer first, and web developer later, my natural inclination was to choose the same, familiar, visual tools I use in ad layouts. In this case, the predominant weapon of choice is Photoshop (Adobe's premiere image editing software). There are other tools of course, visual editors (wysiwyg's) such as GoLive and Dreamweaver. But for initial concepts, Photoshop is the better choice. By the way, don't even dare mentioning FrontPage here. As if! This thing does not even come close to being a web design tool, or any kind of tool for that matter. It detracts. You're probably better off using Notepad or SimpleText. Besides, friends don't let friends use FrontPage.

Alas, I digress.

Now, I'm not starting an in-depth, how-to-guide or a tutorial of some sort. There are many excellent books out there that accomplishes that job. What I'm merely discussing here is my personal thought process behind the web design dilemmas I encounter on a daily basis. And on that premise, let me continue...

As I was explaining, being an image-oriented individual, I find it hard to just draft layouts mentally to get things started. I cannot just sit there and imagine everything from thought (although most times, the urge starts from such). I need to flesh it out, either by sketching it on paper, or doing a mock site in Photoshop (often times, I choose the latter). Since it is more difficult to move things around in HTML (ever try hand-coding complex layouts using table hacks? -- feel my pain), I would begin the design process by gathering key elements such as prospective images, logos, buttons, etc. and arrange them by individual layers within a single Photoshop document. This procedure helps me cultivate and refine layout schemes, not to mention the freedom to alter the current layout to my heart's content without fear of re-coding everything (and trust me, sometimes that could take days).

In conjunction, I also do several site surfing and deconstructing, meaning, I find sites that are aesthetically pleasing, peak under their hoods (source code) and figure out just how did they do this 'n that. Eventually (and I use the term loosely), an idea will spawn itself. If not, deadlines and angry clients looming are sure-fire idea motivators. And from that point, the task of composing several mock layouts is handed to Photoshop (and/or sometimes Illustrator -- did I mention Adobe gives me a commission everytime I mention one of their products? Heh, kidding of course).

So I ask: any of you amateur or seasoned webheads out there using a similar approach to site conceptualization? Or, is there a better way to map out your web design ideas? Do pray tell, and shed some light on my inquiries... I am all ears.

posted at 11:53 PM |  | 10 Comments

 Threepeat parade

113-107. 4-0 sweep. 'Nuff said.

Ever seen purple rain (and I don't mean Prince's eighties farse of a movie)? Then come on down to Los Angeles this Friday (10:30 A.M. at Figueroa), and witness the city parade to welcome the three-peating boys home (sans riots, I hope).

Me? I'll be cheering from the safety of my office desk, thank you very much.

posted at 10:30 PM |  | 4 Comments

 Black sun

As I type this, we're experiencing a solar eclipse, and I'm still experiencing one of those hallucinatory heat spots hovering over everything I look at. Haven't seen one of these for quite some time, and I made the mistake of looking directly.

And now, I'm blind as a brat bat.

posted at 7:34 PM |  |

 PCs to Macs

Here we go: Switching from PC to Mac.

Apple has launched a new advertising campaign featuring real people who have switched from PCs to Mac. The idea is to highlight how compatible Macs are with PCs and also to show the great ways a Mac can provide you a better digital life (buzzwords to keep in mind are easier and your possibilities endless). The campaign will debut today on television with eight different ads. This is Apple's largest (and specifically lobbied) ad campaign since "Think Different" was launched in 1998.

One of the regular folks featured is Mark Frauenfelder. And if the name sounds vaguely familiar, it should (especially to all you webloggers). Alright, here's a hint: Does Boing Boing ring a bell? (yeah, pun intended).

Anyway, I hope that Apple uses more diverse groupings in future ad releases, instead of focusing mainly on artistic/creative types (its like preaching to the converted). Let's hear more from the hard-core NT/Linux/Unix based programmers and IT people (Rick, your name is written all over this ad campaign). Then we'll see if Apple really rocks your computing world.

posted at 7:30 AM |  | 4 Comments

 Everyday is like Sunday

I think I overslept. I had to wake up a wee bit early today to finish some last minute work, do laundry, and then run off to the Anaheim Pet Store (its the Wal-Mart of pets stores) with my younger sibling to pick up some things for our dogs. While there, we met (with a Golden Retriever named Sadie in tow) a nice lady who couldn't quite stop talking (like I am now). My sis, the accommodating person that she is, entertained all the complaints and whines the chatty woman threw at her. Of course, during this time, I just stood there impatiently tapping my feet. Eventually though (after running into this same person for the third time), I grabbed my sister's arm and made a beeline for the counter.

Spent the rest of the gray, sunday afternoon vacuuming, washing, waxing and then gassing up the car before I finally hit the showers and then the sack (this was around three, maybe four p.m.). Time in between was a long blank screen, passing out completely for several hours, save for the moment I was startled when the phone buzzed from a text message sent by one of my friends reminding me to go watch the Laker game.

So I got up just in time to see the Nets loose, unwittingly plopped my sleepy carcass on the kitchen nook while absent-mindedly poking through a couple of to-go boxes full of Thai food leftovers laid out on the table. Suddenly felt this searing pain burning through my mouth, permeating the gums, and engulfing the entire tongue with unbearable heat all the way to my gut...

Holy mother of all that's good and pure! What the heck was that?!? I had to squint to double check if what I just swallowed was either food or Liquid Drano.

Sigh of relief, it wasn't Drano, but it sure felt like one.

Mint chicken (full of crushed peppers laced with something unmistakably lethal) was the culprit, they should mark these sort of dishes with bold warning labels for sleepwalking idiots like me (drunks not excluded). But hey, I'm awake now... so who wants to chat? Aww c'mon, waddya mean its past your bedtime, the night's still young.

Then, there's also this ascertainable urge to call someone. The problem is, I can't call just yet because I'm in a foul mood (earlier, and still), and I can't call while feeling crummy inside. I have to be happy, I have to be upbeat, otherwise it defeats the purpose of calling and cheering up the other person. It's sad in a way, I mean, that I feel compelled to cover up. I'd never lie to her, let alone pretend. So maybe I shouldn't call. Oh right, monday - work - tomorrow. Damn, goodnight then.

posted at 11:58 PM |  |

 New Releases

So its late by web news standards, but Mac OS X is again in the limelight, and its worth mentioning. What's all the hubbub you say? First things first, the OS X 10.1.5 update is out (via software updater, but will soon be available for regular download). And with it, comes a slew of improvements on security, stability, speed and connectivity.

To compliment this week's boatload of new software releases, below are a handful of doodads and can't-live-withouts that I personally find useful in my daily computing life (or my life computing daily).

• Mozilla 1.0 - features full support for HTML 4.0, XML 1.0, Resource Description Framework (RDF), Cascading Style Sheets level 1 (CSS1), the W3C Document Object Model Level 2 (DOM2), and XHTML. Many more oomphas to mention here.
  
  
• Silk 1.0 - enables the Quartz text rendering and smoothing introduced in Mac OS X 10.1.5 in all Carbon applications. This means antialiased text in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and many others. Best of all, its free! (link via Textism)
  
  
• Excentro - ah, this one's for you graphic designer types. Its a small and simple tool that lets computer artist(s) create Guilloche designs on a Macintosh computer. The output is similar to the bands of thin intertwining lines found adorning banknotes. (link via whatdoiknow)
  
  
• Extensis Suitcase 10.1.2 - I couldn't even begin to stress how key this software is in keeping my font-sanity in check. If you love fonts and wrangle with it on a daily basis, this puppy makes it a snap to manage, turn them on or off at a click, and also keeps a watchful eye on conflicts! One tiny caveat, you have to pony-up the dough or you gots to go. Oh behave!

So there you have it folks, that's a wrap for my fab-five. Have a great weekend, root for the Lakers (or not), enjoy the sun, don't forget your sunscreen, and be mindful of where you click, cause you never know when a pop-up ad will appear.

posted at 7:06 AM |  | 5 Comments

 Inspired.

I rarely find myself alone these days. Everyday, I am usually around and surrounded by numerous people -- with family, with friends, with co-works with strangers. But only you can inspire me in such a way that no one else can.

posted at 1:14 AM |  | 2 Comments

 Sushified

Yesterday, I got this huge hankering for sushi that I decided to phone in a sizeable order, not only for myself, but also for the rest of the people at home. I frequent this restaurant called Oishi Sushi (Oishi, meaning good food, which it surely is), the owners would always acknowledge me on a first name basis, Ruis-san, as she'd always cheerfully say.

Its quite nice that I receive preferential treatment too, the little things such as miso soup and rice on the house goes a long way. Then there's also the effort they put in packaging the items whenever I get it to-go. The chef is meticulous with his presentations, so rather than just cramming all the food in one container, he separates each and every dish by its own styro box, complete with garnish (wasabe, ginger, seaweed salad) and the swan-shaped lemon slice.

Having ordered more than six items, this translates to several bulky containers which they usually round up in a larger box (a repurposed Asahi or Sapporo Beer carton). While watching the new waitress arrange everything, I decided to yak-up a conversation. It was either that, or stare at the decorative walls for another fifteen-minutes or so.

"Wow, that's a pretty huge container you got there", I said. "I'm glad you decided to place everything in it, makes it easier (well duh) to handle", I added with a chuckle.

The cute Japanese waitress paused, looked up, and gave me a blank, confused expression. She tilts her head to the side, bats an eyelash, then eventually replies in this teensy voice, "You no like box? ...It's no good, yes?".

I realized that our wires crossed and missed each other. I motioned to her to disregard my last remark, and added that everything was fine, and that I was just saying. She gave me a half-smile, "fwoosh!". I could clearly see that everything I just said went completely right over. I simply smiled back, and decided to shut my pie hole from that point, lest I want to irritate the poor sweet thing even more. Gomen nasai.

posted at 7:56 PM |  | 2 Comments

 Work Hazards

Our small party of five have unintentionally garnered a company-wide reputation of being independent, technically adept, multitasking lots -- free from the red tape that binds the entire company to I.S. (Information Services) -- and this truly bothers them. Heck, they even vehemently refer to us as "the maverick trouble makers, the webheads, the hackers or the others". I personally think that's a compliment (even makes us sound like rock stars). Heh. But hey, we're not after their jobs, far from it, we just needed to get things done. Immediately.

So today, while strolling along prepress, with bottled water in hand, I saw one of the I.S. guys conversing and hobnobbing with the art department managers. But as soon as he caught a glimpse of me, his cordial expression changed quickly to a narrow-eyed, daggered stare demeanor (I think I also heard him hiss). I tentatively waved hello to signify truce, but he retorted:

"Yoouu... (points a finger at me) you're one of them... them internet people... I... if... when... ack". I was even more troubled when I noticed the guy making strangling motions. This fella used to be a friend, now he doesn't even like me, let alone recognize me. I reassuringly replied in a very calm tone, "Buddy, pal, its me, Luis... remember?", "and how's the projects going along?"

That's when he lost it.

Oops... it suddenly dawned on me that my department recently broadsided his department with several projects that led to the eventual loss of hair, sanity, and the apparent demise of our camaraderie. I had to quickly retreat for my own safety. I never knew it was humanly possible for a person to morph into several shades of red and purple in an instant.

posted at 5:03 PM |  |

 

This morning, upon arriving at work, the immediate thing I always do is check the voicemail (a record setting 11 messages). And after several minutes of sifting through a colorful mix of inquiring messages and the more aggressive-toned ones, I'll then fire up the email app next (I know, I'm a glutton for punishment).

The first email that came up was from my boss:

From: Director of Internet Services
Date: Mon Jun 03, 2002 01:42:01 PM US/Pacific
To: luisp@pennysaverusa.com
Subject: Missing Image

Luis,

Could you follow up on this please.

Thanks

Yep, story of my life, never take days off...

posted at 11:45 AM |  | 4 Comments

 Movie Rants

Yesterday was a resplendent day, much unlike today, mainly due to the fact that I am back at the eight-to-five grind. But hey, not everyone has the luxury to wait around at home hoping to win the lottery right? Err yeah, right, wishful thinking.

Over the past weekend, I was also nursing a very bad food poisoning incident (fish). After trying out everything on MickeyDee's menu, I thought that I had experienced nearly every digestive tract malady known to man. I was wrong. Needless to say, it was a welcome relief (no puns, please) to be able to just stay home the following day. While the rest of my Monday afternoon was spent mulling around the house or taking several lazy old man's naps, earlier around eightish in the morn, I had to take the car in for maintenance and an oil change. It was surprisingly a brief visit to the dealership, fifteen minutes tops, and the car was ready to roll. I suppose it was the dealership's nice way of saying, "Please, back away slowly from our doughnuts, you may leave now. Really."

The idea of just driving around to wherever, instead of heading straight home sounded more appealing -- the mood decided it wanted to go to a record store. Going to a record store always spells disaster, it usually translates to unscheduled, impulse-driven purchases that I regret later on. But this time, I bought some DVDs and rounded out my Jack Ryan collection, and it was worth it. Yep, got all three now: The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games and Clear & Present Danger. I've read most of Tom Clancy's books (even Cardinal of The Kremlin, Rainbow Six (partly), and Sum of All Fears), which made me eager to watch the upcoming Clancy movie.

Then so happens that I caught a glimpse of the movie trailer, and it left me somewhat flustered and very disappointed (I saw it awhile back, but it never sank in). You see, in the book Sum of All Fears, Jack Ryan is supposed to be this experienced albeit, tired, weathered and demoralized version of himself. In the novel, he's well into his late forties, a DDI (Deputy Director of Intelligence) a devout husband, and a father to two kids (a young teenaged girl and a tike). Instead, what they presented in the movie (or from what I saw in the preview) was a very young, a very naive Jack Ryan, who is not only new to the CIA but also somewhat roguish in his demeanor (and seemingly unattached -- as in, no wife and kids yet).

I have nothing against Ben Affleck, but I think they made a mistake of casting the poor fella to take on such a mature and intense role. This film is clearly tailored for the likes of Harrison Ford, he's more befitting the character (as he has demonstrated in the last two Ryan-based films). I should also mention that Alec Baldwin (who played a much more convincing Ryan in the Hunt for Red October) could have done a better, if not, a perfect Jack Ryan. And with his current age, he (Alec's) would have suited the part well, that is if the script writers had stuck to the original plot of the book, but they didn't. And oh, one more thing, Clancy supposedly had a hand in this film? What was he thinking? I remember the time when he had sworn off selling his books to Hollywood, because they always butcher the plot. So this time its okay 'cause he helped in doing so? Damn shame... (but I suppose I'll still want to watch it nevertheless)

posted at 7:52 AM |  | 7 Comments

 An Insomniac's Nightmare

I woke up with a start around 4 a.m. this morning.

I dreamt that I was halfway home, driving from a San Francisco visit, when I realized that I had forgotten my laptop in the hotel room. This particular machine contains sensitive and important information, and that includes my passwords, pin numbers and records of several personal artifacts. Thus, anyone getting a hold of this laptop, would acquire free reign on all of my files. Shite! So, upon arriving home (still within the dreamscape), I immediately logged on to the internet to check my accounts and change passwords. Too late, I was mortified to find out that I couldn't log in, all of my passwords were changed, and it would seem that I have been completely erased from existence, online!

Heck, even Ebay doesn't know me anymore!

It is at this peaked moment that I woke up from this freakish nightmare. Everything felt so real, so much so that I noticed my pulse was still running at a marathon-like pace. Instinctively, I reached over the side of my bed, and fired up the computer to jot down what I just dreamed about (I guess everything nowadays are fair-game journal entries). The startup window prompted for a password: "Eep!", says my Mac emphatically. What da? I was greeted with a glaring "Loggin Error" message.

Tried again, then again, "Eep! Eep! and f'in Eep!" No dice. WTF?

Streams of cold sweat started to bead around my furrowed brow as I kept getting denied every single time I attempted to key-in the password. My heart slowly began to pound, and a sinking feeling started to creep up on me. This can't be good, I thought. Am I still asleep and dreaming of being awake, or is the bloody dream turning into reality (or vice versa)?

I was still in a hazy state of twilight when I suddenly remembered I changed my password(s) last night -- all of them. Clouds suddenly parted, and a ray of white light shone through the darkness inside my head. Duh? I swear, I'll never eat Spam (musubi incarnate or not) before going to bed ever again.

posted at 7:55 AM |  | 7 Comments

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