My favorite Beatle, George Harrison in the body of Marilyn Monroe.
I remember my humble beginnings in Photoshop and didn’t have the files to prove it because my hard drive crashed. Well, it really did and that will be another story.
The second batch of practice files are still with me though. Not everyday did I experiment on lo-res stock photos and found pictures on the internet. So I could’ve not improved drastically from the first few years to the next.
Electronic Music Wow
I got this gem inside SM Bacoor.
During the late 90s, armed with an amateurish guitar-playing skill, I got hooked in playing with electronic music using MTV Music Generator in PlayStation 1. And a couple of years after, I upgraded to an early version of Fruity Loops.
Here’s an example of what I managed to produce in the PlayStation:
How I magically got that in MP3 format? I hooked a PC mic in front of the TV speaker while PlayStation is playing the song.
The whole point of this is that I was so excited to design my own (imaginary) album covers. I consider these designs part of my practice files – created out of pure enjoyment.
Evil Twin
Twirler
Picnic Wasted
Escapade
Witches
Void
Tiger
Cross and Die
Coaty Fur
Our Fish
Alarma
One, Two, Three
None
Tricky
Complete
Frost Eat
Leoscalp
Microbes
Sunny Black
Chocolate 100%
I followed this up with more “serious” compositions and with that came more “serious” album covers.
Check back soon for Part 2.
I leave you with a saying by the great Confusious:
The kids who got smirks on their faces know what this “magic chant” by Vic Sotto really meant.
Ang na ang na, sulakihin, sumaskidot, moko moko!
Vic Sotto
So I baffled Jaycelle one day with this abracadabra and told her to write it down to know its meaning.
She still couldn’t get it so I rewrote it in a nice lettering so maybe one day we can hang it up on our wall and get our kid to ask, “what’s that poster, daddy?”
I heard it the first time when my friend from Malate, Ida, gave me a mix CD with 14 tracks. This particular song captivated me in a gloomy manner – just as Diana Krall’s Midnight Sun did. But the problem was that I didn’t know the title since she didn’t bother listing the track info.
Years have passed – and I am talking CD burning here, not MP3s in flashdrives – Android phones came into being and SoundHound found its place into my phone. I tried to scratch this long time itch and was I lucky to find the singer and composer.
Violet Don’t Be Blue is a song by Herbie Mann and sang by Cissy Houston (Whitney’s mom).
Don’t let this song bring you down now:
What’s That She’s Singing?
I’ve reached the depths of Google search results for “Violet Don’t Be Blue lyrics” – page 6 to be exact – and still failed to find the lyrics of this song. I even used different search engines like Bing and Yahoo! to no avail.
So I transcribed the song lyrics myself (I’m unsure of several lines, though).
A summer sun kissed a flower And warmed an hour in May On her young face His smile dried the dew
Oh, but the time was coming near When spring would light another year Hear the cold wind blowing Violet don’t be blue
A wishing star closed his eyes When Violet dreamed of love When her hopes like her petals All were new
But now her tears had turned to snow Her heart’s a place icicles grow Hear the night wind blowin’, singin’ Violet don’t be blue
The reason I wrote a thing or two about this song is because I’m experimenting on animated icons – wherein as the song goes, the icons animate the lyrics.
It’s been a long way since Photoshop 4 – eighteen (18) years and we’re now in the Cloud. Could it be any punnier that it was built from the ground “up”?
This Internet Thing
’96 – I was in high school – clueless as to what the coolest nickname was for an e-mail address because what’s e-mail? We were only using the PeeCee to research on the Encarta CD. It was the same year I left alone the 20-volume encyclopedia and 17-volume macropedia to rot in the shelf.
One very late night, I was asleep in the living room, I awoke to this weird sound – it was a robotic android-y sound coming from the computer area. Brushing my eyes from the slumber, I saw my brother in the dark with his face lit by the 15-inch monitor. I asked him what’s that I heard.
“I’m surfing the internet,” he said it like he couldn’t be bothered.
“Surfing? Internet? Can I watch?” Thought it was a new game he’s got there. Then maybe, just maybe he switched windows to Yahoo! Directories from whatever he’s doing.
And that was the end of the Encarta CD.
Surfing Sounds So Cool
Mickey Mouse is gonna surf the ‘net in a true ’98 style.
You see, surfing the ‘net is quite easy to learn – with all those underlined links and animated GIFs – pure fun in digital form. I waited for my turn every after midnight to connect to the internet with anticipation – that distinct sound of the 56k modem (which is now my ring tone) successfully taking you into another dimension – it’s my Pavlov’s bell.
And so I found another reason to use the computer – to collect pictures of my favorite band of all time, Oasis.
And Graphic Design!
I’ve exhausted my “research” and “data-gathering” on Oasis and it left me with buttloads of band pictures. Then, just like how curiosity killed the cat, I wondered if I could “extend” a cut picture of Liam Gallagher’s shirt.
Oasis Image Search Results
Going past through Notepad, FreeCell, Solitaire, and Minesweeper, I found my way to this piece of software which I tried to tame at least once in my life. It’s called MS Paint. It was a pain to manually copy-and-paste similarly-looking pixels to form an extension of the shirt. But hey, this was no the Photoshop before I knew it existed but it did what I wanted – a pop-out Liam Gallagher.
The Gallagher Brothers in MS Paint”/> I recreated the steps I took years ago – not the original picture I used, though; also this MS Paint is Windows 7 version.
“Enter” Adobe Photoshop 4
Adobe Photoshop, you were a mere proper noun and a software with the coolest splash image – congratulations you’ve already been verbalized. I’ve seen you in your Undo/Redo ability until your History capability.
A splash image of Adobe Photoshop 4.
It sounded funny – the word “Adobe” – while I pictured an orange-y block of stone. And that nearly hindered me from getting interested in launching the program. “Photoshop” – it was just a place where you go to develop and print photos. No big deal.
I wondered if it could take the pain MS Paint gave me. I launched the program and thought to replicate what I did in MS Paint – just click “File > Open…” and find whatever picture was lying on the Desktop. Or in the bowels of a 100-folder directory.
Long story short, I found my brother’s pr0n stash.
And that’s the beginning of the tale of a wide-eyed pimply teenager in front of a computer about to uncover life’s biggest secrets.
Photoshop and Boobies
Sunbathing dolls with a Photoshop placard.
I opened one file from the stash.
Why not the same picture of Oasis? You might ask. My reasons, my disposition at that time – I could not recall. But I remember I was happy, a determined person.
The picture made me forget about my original plan – to extend Liam’s clothes, remember? Ironically, there it was – a picture of a flawlessly naked woman in front of me. I was being challenged to erase some itsy-bitsy body parts.
And so I clone stamped it out.
Alt+click-release + click, alt+click-release + click, alt+click-release + click. And more alt+click-release + click.
I couldn’t post the actual edited picture because my hard drive crashed.
Done. It’s not a work of art – but this accomplishment, like how the internet dawned on me, opened a new dimension – a world of possibilities what could be done to, say, a landscape picture or even a blank canvas!
And so they say, “curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back.” Only to get curious again.
Today is the 2013 Philippine general election, a midterm-kind of election since elected officials will be sworn in to office midway from the president’s term.
Brian Sahagun showing the indelible ink on his finger.
Last night, my brother, Jaycelle and I came home all the way from Quezon City to exercise our right to vote and the right to not vote epal candidates. From the news, we could hear all sorts of violence springing from this event–who should win and gain back their investments and more. And that’s what we saw–clumps of people on every corner as we drove by nearer our house in Cavite City.
We arrived in front of our house by 11 PM. From afar, I saw a dark spot on the street. It was a pool of blood as I inferred from the commotion of people nearby. I honked the car to tell my brother to quit probing and start opening the gate. Thanks to the goto late-night meal we had we didn’t reach home early enough to be part of this news.
The dried blood in front of our house.
A close-up of the dried blood.
—
At Ladislao Diwa Elementary School
We planned to wake up early to vote by 7 AM to avoid a long queue of voters. I readied my camera and stepped out to walk up to the school.
Our neighbor, Macho, delivering softdrinks.
The entrance were barricaded by candidate supporters handing out flyers to people going in. There were many people already–some were there to vote, some were only hanging around.
On election day outside Ladislao Diwa Elementary School. Cavite City
Flyers littered over the plants.
Classrooms used as election precincts.
Right by the very first building in the school was a voters’ assistance desk with roaming volunteers for a CHAMP elections:
Clean Honest Accurate Meaningful Peaceful Elections
Clean would be difficult to achieve given those loads of campaign materials that outnumbered trash cans; accurate would be a black and white thing–if the PCOS (Precinct Count Optical Scan) machine isn’t accurate then there wouldn’t be any event today; meaningful–I don’t know–this isn’t Christmas to be meaningful enough.
All I want is an HP elections–honest and peaceful.
The voters’ assistance desk and its volunteers.
Months before the elections, we’ve been bombarded with teevee ads and jingling campaigns where some were a pain to the sight and hearing and a nuisance to that teleserye we were watching. Days before the event I still didn’t have any senatorial roster. All I had was a list of “senatoriables” (what a term) I would not vote. Aside from being unready to vote, I had no idea where my designated precinct was.
Internet Precinct Finder? Wow!
COMELEC has a website, they say. COMELEC has an app, they say. It’s downright unusable, I found out–it’s always down. Even those who tried to help the government like GMA News Online couldn’t deliver the hopes and dreams of people who wished to immediately know where to go to vote on this day.
And the best damn thing that greeted me today–the Barangay Map Locator. Located in front of the school, it will tell you where you’re supposed to go without any search box or FAQ. It doesn’t need any data plan or even a keypad. It simply worked.
The Barangay Map Locator written on a blackboard.
Voting proper
Our precinct was located way beyond the school grounds. Past the field and into the classroom, there were a few people loitering around. The good thing was that there wasn’t any queue.
The stage of Ladislao Diwa Elementary School.
The precinct number signage.
The voter’s list.
Some of my relatives weren’t able to vote–them, being trapped in another city or country, they couldn’t afford to teleport here and back. I wondered how easy would it be for someone to pretend to be one of those absentees.
A voter signing his name on the registration.
People casting their votes.
I didn’t use the ballot secrecy folder because there are no secrets to keep (like in some love songs). But really, I didn’t want to look like I’ve studied for an exam and was being overzealous in not sharing the answers.
Casting my votes for the senatorial candidates.
The indelible ink getting applied to a voter’s right index finger.
A voter being attended to by the teacher-volunteers.
I went home right after feeding my ballot to the machine and getting the ink. All we’re left with is the chance to hope that some candidates don’t get into position. For a better tomorrow.
