Hi, I’m Brian Dys — a photographer from the inside looking out · a composer entangled in electronic music · a UX designer · a spouse, a parent, & everything in between.
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Music plays a substantial part of my everyday life. From activity to inactivity, it’s like second to the air that I breathe.
Apparently, there’s a thing called “second album syndrome” or the sophomore slump. But this isn’t anything about the literal first-released album of a musician but the first album of that musician you’ve heard of and all the songs in the collection kicked ass.
I noticed this after numerous times I have liked an artist/musician mostly for that one album – the first album that let me discover them. It may have stemmed out from the repetitive playback of that record until it came to mind to try to discover other albums of the same artist but seldom have I liked two in a row.
One (or two) album wonders
Athlete – Tourist
Bon Jovi – These Days
Step 1
Embrace this thing called “internet“. No more red tape, no more grouchy customer-fronting employees, no more 7 am long lines 12 pm you’re given the application form 5 pm you’re ordered to come back tomorrow. No more nothing government, no more.
Step 2
Speak in Filipino. Speak in local dialects. And be understandable in whatever tone you will be speaking in.
and Step 3
Entertain questions and answer questions.
Like this website.
The best place to find government services and information. Simpler, clearer, faster.
It’s true, I’ve tried and used its information.
Every heard of this ancient creature snail mail? I used to send one to my pen pal in Cebu and was exhilarated finding a reply waiting for me.
But that was ages ago.
Living in an apartment complex has got its quirk – receiving tons of mails for people who already moved out of the address. And this morning, I dedicated my time to return them (instead of simply putting them in the junk folder or trash bin).
Hello, mailbox, we meet again
Some of the mail with stamps, I was able to slide into the dropbox of a private mailing company. But for some of the letters, like the pictured “official mail” from a good senator, remained on my hands because the personnel said it won’t be sent without stamps. I tried to buy some to get rid of the irrelevant mails that very minute but they’re not available.
The thing called Philippine Postal Corporation
Searching for a location where I can buy stamps (to return the mails) in Metro Manila on PHLPost’s wesbsite didn’t help either. As far as this website is concerned, other provinces have their post office locations listed down but not for Metro Manila. Are they all gone?
It’s not really extinct yet. Snail mail is a dying breed. Bills are coming into email inboxes and other letters or packages can be delivered within the day by reliable couriers. The people who are mistaken in sending packages thru the Philippine Postal system either gets arbitrarily taxed or gets their goods lost (either by theft of mishandling).
I don’t know how PHLPost will transform its service into a sustainable and relevant one. Maybe its “Shop Online” section will save the day (currently a dead link). But what’s in store? Shop online for envelopes and stamps?
Today, I signed up to be a consultant to manage a government website for several months. At first, the plan was to redesign it piece by piece and integrate a CMS (like WordPress) but news recently came that soon, all government websites will follow a set of guidelines and will be built on Joomla!
Igor the web designer
Mixed feelings of doubt and curiosity immediately entered my mind. From being a webmaster to a webslave. A master might mean someone in control and a slave – someone being ordered around. In reality of this situation, only the level of control varies – being ordered around stays the same whether webmaster or webslave. Nevertheless, a wise designer gets around in packaging his solutions in a way his/her clients would understand and agree on.
The consultancy might not utilize most of my plans to power up the website in terms of better content structure and visual design. Well, as they say:
It sucks but it’s money.
This is the short-term, though. My toe is already in the door, so might as well shove the whole foot in. I am still hopeful that I would be a part of this effort to bring the government in a state-of-the-art information superhighway 21st century time being.
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Yesterday, I was tailgating. A person. Waiting for him to stay away from the road and onto the sidewalk.
Jaycelle asked me why I didn’t bother to honk the guy to alert him. I told her that car horns aren’t meant for people but for other vehicles (and there’s an etiquette for honking, too).
“But how would you alert them (to prevent them from becoming a human burrito, I assume)?” she asked.
Well, a while ago, I beeped a vendor carrying a wide merchandise and he let me pass. But that’s from a distance so I did it.
Ever walked at a sidewalk where on the road there are big buses stuck in traffic? And they blast your left eardrum outside your right?
So I thought, vehicles must have a horn for fellow vehicles and for fellows.
I got FruityLoops 3 to manipulate and produce tracks, good ol’ Winamp 5 to play exported materials and convert files to uncompressed WAV. And now, Audacity to trim and stitch raw materials.
What is this project all about
It’s all about SoundThemes™ wherein sound effects is another layer of the user experience. But that’s not all – it wouldn’t be a theme if the collection of sounds is fragmented. This would be used in all kind of actions and hints in any game or app.
So for this prototype, I used our favorite urine-colored drink – Mountain Dew to collect all sorts of soda can sounds. Using iPhone 4’s Voice Memos app, I recorded all clinks and clanks of the can from full to empty to down the trash can.
Let me hear!
Girls and boys, I present to you the raw recording (but that might probably bore you):
So here’s a trimmed and stitched version:
And an electronic version using only the individual sounds of the can: