Happy Merry Xmas!

Happy Merry Christmas to all readers!! Happy Merry New Year too! :D

Hi.

I do know I have foreign readers from countries I have never heard of in this blog. So I'm just going to do a little marketing of my novel blog here so that my foreign readers can be more entertained with my words. Thanks.

US Elections!

I'm rooting for Barack Obama! My house has been torn into Democrats vs Republicans. Dad's McCain's supporter. ZZZ to that.




Yes we can.

Change is good. :D

Its just me missing Comms blog.

Well. Its either I'm too bored or too lazy to really sit down and start studying or missing writing here too much.

Friends are taking Comms 101 this semester. Hurray for them. I love comms. Ok. I love what I am doing now. Am really enjoying it. With comparison to designing, I reckon I'm far more happier doing comms.

So what is comms anyway?


Satellites are just a medium to get communicated. Friends from Comms 101 this semester(let's call them c101ts. I know, sounds like some computer bug.) are well, complaining that it is hard to blog about comms. Ok, I did pretty well for the blog (90 marks out of 100). I don't know. I didn't really felt the stress about what I should write here. Some way so, I just knew what I needed to write. Yes. I do have incomplete entries on this blog that has yet to seen daylight but then again I don't see the trouble of writing on blogs. Maybe its just me writing on blogs since 2005? I don't know.


Well, I definitely do miss writing here.

YOUTUBE!

The best thing, I feel, that has happened to the internet community is YOUTUBE! Yes. I am definitely the latest fan to YOUTUBE! I seriously think that the internet is definitely the NEW media in the world. I suppose the youtube has turned into this canvas like portal for people to create weird/interesting/wacky/infomative/music videos.

To inform:


http://youtube.com/user/panacea81
Her name is Lauren Luke. And she teaches make up techniques on youtube. It's not really professional but it does guide those who are clueless about make up. Oh ya. And she's also most subscribed user in UK.
Here's her success story.

Cool right?

To entertain (wacky/all those funny and interesting videos):

Have a good laugh.

This is by Kevin. He's a Chinese dude born, breed and raised in Texas, USA. He does talk about rather controvesial topics like racial sterotypes; and of course daily life anedotes.
http://youtube.com/user/kevjumba
And of course you can definitely make friends in youtube, afterall it is a community.

This video is a collaboration with Christine Gambito a.k.a Happyslip. Check out the wiki site.
http://youtube.com/user/HappySlip

And of course my all time favourite, WILLIAM SLEDD. He looks cute right but he's GAY. And he criticise on fugly ways people around his town dresse or how trends are like.

Call me crazy, but I seriously think that he's the coolest gay in the world. If only straight men were able to dress as well as gay men.


Post note: This happens to be the 7th and final post for my comms blog submission. Would this blog just end here? Seriously, I myself am not sure. As and when I might post some stuff to do with communications. Well, we'll see about that then. Cheerios for now!

Giberish.

Well, its the last few blog entries for school. And I seriously tempted to write the nonsense I write in my blog all the time. As most of you know, I did my design diploma before Comms. And while doing design, there's always this label(stereotype) for designers:

Designers are just weird.

Having been there and done that, I'm clearing the air on this statement. There are a few some excuses reasons for such a claim to be made.

1. Designers often are required to think out of the box. The box retrains thinking. So our brain's kinda not in the skull 24/7. Hence the occasional weird control of movements.
   
2. While the brain's not at home, designers are required forced to come out with totally new concepts 24/7 (again). Forcing just makes thinking weirder cause the brain just refuses to return to base. Reason for that: home base is under attack, who in the world would want to stay home and get bombed to death. --.--
3. After the "bombings", the brain does return to the designer's skull. However, the designer's brain has to start on the restoration of the home base (motivation/to de-unmoralise oneself). This process often amazes the laymen. Even amazes the designer.
   
4. When restoration is done, you'll then realise that the designer is sleep-deprived, food-deprived, play-deprived, (in my case) booze-deprived and in some drastic cases; sex-deprived. No wonder most designers are emo, gay and skinny. (Why didn't the skinny happen to me? Guess I didn't stay in the industry long enough. ~Shrugs~)

Most of us (the young ones) look like that, probably plus minus here and there.

Hey. But we do create the coolest stuff in the world. Think the movie Alien. Ok. The guy's totally weird even from my own point of view. H.R. Giger. He's the dude that designed the alien and the set in the movie.
But didn't it appeal greatly to the masses?

Designers are weird but we are definitely great too. If not, where do all your lovely handphone designs come from?

Ebony and Ivory.

We complain everyday about not getting the attention we desire. But in Tanzania, albinos get so much attention that they fear for their lives. Please view the video as well.

Albinism is a condition due to the lack of melanin pigment in the body. And albinos' greatest enemy is the sun.
It is actually quite sad to see people killing people for the sake of unjustified beliefs of people towards something or someone out of the norm. It is of course nice to know that the Tanzania government is taking action to protect their minority people. But this is only after 19 albinos have been killed. I won't deny that humans tend to act when a cure is needed than when its better to prevent.

It is pretty hard for people to accept anything not normal. I had this classmate in kindergarden and she's an albino. Everyone in the class just ostracized her. Even I, being her only friend, was alienated from the class too (partially due to my height as well; I was a head taller than most of my classmates then). My classmates said she had some disease and could be contagious. I don't blame them, after all we were 5-6 at that time. But I didn't see her that way though I did ask her if she was Chinese or a Caucasian. Whichever, to me, she's just different.

I think that we can of course learn all the different techniques and ways of communicating and interacting with people; but at the end of the day, I do think its the choice we make. Do we choose to treat albinos like dirt and think that they are people with leprosy? Or do we choose to just treat them like us as how we would with another normal human being?

Extreme art?

There's a sick dude who thinks that thinks starving a dog's art. It's a really saddening scene to see. And best part is there are many people viewing the art.
Here's the idiot's reason.

Hello everyone. My name is Guillermo Habacuc Vargas. I am 50 years old and an artist. Recently, I have been critisized for my work titled "Eres lo que lees", which features a dog named Nativity. The purpose of the work was not to cause any type of infliction on the poor, innocent creature, but rather to illustrate a point. In my home city of San Jose, Costa Rica, tens of thousands of stray dogs starve and die of illness each year in the streets and no one pays them a second thought.

Now, if you publicly display one of these starving creatures, such as the case with Nativity, it creates a backlash that brings out a big of hypocrisy in all of us. Nativity was a very sick creature and would have died in the streets anyway.

God. Can't you use another way to display such art? There are loads of photographers/artists/writers out there that have shown the many problems in the world without having the resort to such actions. Having educated in the creative field, I have learnt that you can create but in a diplomatic kind of way.Like this photo. The photographer didn't kill the person to illustrate the sense of poverty or the troubles faced in that country.

Blinkymummy has written on someone trying to "illegally" bring in a dog. Some what so contradicts the art that our dear friend has created. Please sign the petition. He has the intention of re-creating such gruesome work. Please stop/prevent him from doing so again. Who knows how many innocent lives that he might have taken in the name of art? I do believe if I were art, I won't want to relate myself to such an act at all!

Point of views.

We are all entitled to our point of views. In a way, it does help shape and mold out the quirkiness.




Yes. The all-time famous Coke vs Pepsi ads. In Pepsi's eyes, of course the Coke doesn't stand a chance at all. So far, I can't seem to find any ads that are Coke based propaganda.
HSBC has done one of their advertising campaigns in such a way. Somewhat so like having 2 sides of a coin. Or rather of how people would perceive a certain thing or idea.

Most of the time people try their best to get their agenda across to the other party, however through the brain, the message will be distorted. Be it 100% entirely or just 0.01%.

So what do you see?

Nike.

Nike. They always never fail to come out with really cool commercials. The first time that I really sat up and took notice of their ad were when I was 15. "Always look on the bright side of life".


When I was studying design, everyone in the course concluded that Nike shoes or products aren't the best in the market. What made them this successful is all thanks to their marketing and advertising team. Gimmicky as the ads seem, they do provide impact to consumers.

Here's one good example. Nike Shox. Here's a review on the product. On a health aspect, Nike Shox is more damaging than its promised performance. There again, people still buy the shoes. They still wear it, and they still believe in the performance of the shoe.

Yes. The all-time "boing" stampede ad.


I was curious once about if the shoe could really give out that "boing" sound. Sadly, it couldn't. I guess I really got conned by the ad. But I'm surely not the only one who thinks so too.

Here's the latest Nike ad.

This was directed by Madonna's husband, Guy Ritche. No mention of any Nike products. I guess its comes to a time that most major companies hardly use any information in their ads. Ads have since become entertainment to people. Maybe for more marketing? Or for more publicity? I can't decide.

Aneroxia

I guess some of you have seen this poster before. This is an ad campaign during a Fashion week in Milan. The shot was taken by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani. The picture is of a naked anorexic woman - Isabelle Caro.

I myself was battling a mild eating disorder some time early this year. When I looked at the poster, it sort of reminded me that besides the pursue of beauty, there seems to be the neglect of health. Sometimes we get so lost with this beauty pursuit, we forget what is the exact beauty that we really do want.

To me, looking at this ad really woke me up. However in some parts of Italy, this poster had been banned. It does stir mix reactions. The extremist point of views - the pro-anorexia & the anti-anorexia. And of those in between.

Pro-anorexia thoughts: That is so not the look of an anorexia person. It's filthy and disgusting. Get it away.

Anti-anorexia thoughts: Finally someone is speaking up. Anorexia should be banned!

Well, having gone through such an experience; you sort of forget the people around you are pretty much suffering. It was hard to really start eating again. Everything you smell food, you'll feel nausea and just don't feel like eating. It's not easy. But with such a campaign, it makes the first step much more worthwhile.