Fri October 27th, 2006

I’m pleased to announce that the above photo that I shot (at Club Deluxe last December) has been selected as a top ten finalist in 7×7 Magazine’s Bring on the Night Photography contest!

The top ten photographs will be featured in the November issue of the magazine (which, as you can see, has an “After Dark” theme). The issue should be out any day now… so keep an eye out for it!

Prints of the top 25 photos are being auctioned off to benefit SF Camerawork, a “non-profit organization encouraging emerging and mid-career artists to explore new directions in photography and related media by fostering creative forms of expression that push existing boundaries”.

Congrats also go to Derek, who I noticed was also on the list of top ten photos for this contest as well!

I’m excited that my photography is slowly making its way into the public eye. I’m even more proud that I’ve been forgiving enough to myself and to my artwork that I feel comfortable in submitting my photography to these kinds of things. Self-criticism is a hard to thing to overcome.

Wed September 27th, 2006

Three decades, have I been on this earth.
(when did I turn into Yoda?)

Close to 7 o’clock in the morning, thirty years ago, I was born in Walnut Creek, CA, to my parents, Chris and Pat, and gave my sister Nicolette someone to pick on eternally.

My parents are both Filipino (my mom part Spanish), both born in the Philippines and moving to the states as children. Our family is very American, we don’t speak the language (although my parents kinda understand it) and I don’t think any of us have been back to the Philippines.

Mom and Dad, pre-kids. My sister is three years older than me and we grew up arguing about who was going to get my Dad’s Audi with 8-Track and sunroof when we turned 16. I also have a younger brother, Brendon. He’s 10 years younger than me, but we are good friends.
(wish I had a pic of him and I when he was a baby, but this will suffice) I grew up as an extremely timid young girl who only spoke when spoken to. I don’t think it was until well into High School that I started coming out of my shell. I even was a cheerleader for a couple years, which I’m not sure if it necessarily helped.
Senior Ball posed shot
(sorry, don’t have my cheerleader shot scanned yet, which would go here) As far as high education goes, I bounced around community college as well as film school while earning a living as a graphic designer at Kinko’s and some freelancing. Little did I know I was cultivating my skills for my career then, for I am now a working graphic designer in marketing for video gaming.
3-person in-house Design Studio I’ve lived in the SF Bay Area most of my life, save a couple of years living on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
Leis from my HI co-workers That was a great experience, and I loved it there, but I can’t go far from home. I also love the ocean and cannot be too far from her either.

I have never felt any anxieties about my age or getting older. Tease me all you want about me being old (I’ve gotten a fair share already), but it won’t faze me. My physical state only reminds me of how much I’ve experienced, and I kinda laugh when my joints pop in the morning. Perhaps one day, it will hit me in the stereotypical negative way that birthdays seem to have on people, but for now, I’m enjoying my life as it comes, and enjoying simply being me.

Buzz & I share the same birthday.
We celebrated this weekend on the beach. I haven’t really thought much of my birthdays in the past, oh, ten years or so, they passed with no real feeling of accomplishment or celebration. I also haven’t wanted to celebrate my birthday in a large capacity until this year, probably because I’m happier and want to share that feeling with people I care about. For the first time in a long time, I feel I have friends I have a good connection with (not just faces at a party) and this makes me very happy. I also find myself in a rewarding relationship with someone who encourages and inspires me to be the best me I could be.

It is good to be thirty.

May those of you looking forward to this age find comfort and happiness at this milestone as well.

Love,
Me

Tue May 30th, 2006

As he cooked dinner for us last night, I was puttering around in his office space next to the kitchen.

I walked over to the kitchen island, dusted off my shirt, and faced him as he was slicing the garlic bread. I stared at him for a moment, and we had this exchange:

C: You know, some girlfriends leave their beauty products all over their boyfriend’s bathroom. I create computer networks and leave cat-5 cables all around your office.

R: That’s why I love you.

truly.

Wed May 17th, 2006

I debated succumbing to another meme, but this one is informative! (found via Cygnoir)

1. Go to Wikipedia.
2. In the Search box, type your birth month and day (but not year).
3. List three events that happened on your birthday.
4. List two important birthdays and one interesting death.
5. Post it.

My birthday is 27 September.

Three events:

• 1821 - Mexico gains its independence from Spain.
• 1822 - Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.
• 1998 - Google is first established

Two important births:

• 1840 - Thomas Nast, German-born political cartoonist (d. 1902)
• 1934 - Wilford Brimley, American actor (heh)

One interesting death:

• 1917 - Edgar Degas, French painter (b. 1834)

I ain’t taggin’ anyone, so tag yourself.

Tue May 16th, 2006

This comment at Plastic sums up my sentiments about E3 and the current console wars quite nicely:

Console company A is first to market with its console of generation N. It’s proclaimed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but critics are somewhat reserved because they know there are at least two competing consoles coming out.

Console company B debuts its product at the next big trade show. Bored with console A, which doesn’t have enough games yet, critics proclaim B to be the obvious winner, since it’s so stunning and they just got their hot little hands on it.

Meanwhile, console company C is showing demos and mockups of their product, and everyone denounces it as the obvious loser and points out that that company must be about to go out of business, or at least that they’re about to go out of the console business.

Some months later at another trade show, company C debuts their console and the pundits proclaim that it’s just not as good as the others.

Consumers, meanwhile, tend to buy the console that has the games they want. The manufacturers consequently have their ups and downs but stay in the game. Sometimes a new company enters the market, and perhaps forces out an old one. But, life goes on.

Look, this is just another round of an old cycle. The Xbox is going to continue to be the console of people who want console games that act a bit more like desktop computer games, the Sony will take the middle of the market, and the Nintendo will be the more family and party game centric unit. The only detail will be that the market will shift a little between the three, until a viable fourth player enters the market.

I’m going to stick with my Atari Jaguar for now, maybe buy a few of the games I don’t have yet on eBay. I don’t have time to spend on a new console, and the games aren’t compelling enough for me.

End of line.

This really isn’t a war anyway. No one’s gonna win, per se, we have our audiences and fans and I don’t think they’re gonna change their minds…