Here are some goal-setting videos to help us make better goals (and resolutions) for the coming new year. It's been a while since I made proper goals for myself. I kept putting it off because of the kids or work, but I should take the time to figure out what I need to achieve, what I need to do to, and how I can accomplish my goals for the year.
I want to learn new things at work and at home, hopefully to make me more productive in both areas of my life. I also want to go back into writing fiction, as well as learning more about illustration and drawing.
Pacquiao Vector Poster
Finished another photoshop/illustrator tutorial, courtesy of vector.tutsplus.com. The original tutorial teaches you how to create one of those inspirational political posters. It starts off with some basic image editing techniques in Photoshop and then load the images to illustrator.
Here is the original image taken from the vectortuts+ website:
I decided to use Manny Pacquiao as the poster boy for my vector exercise. I got this image of him from MFJ Tribune:
Actually I cheated a few steps in the tutorial. I should have used the Pen tool to trace the image of Manny (as suggested in the tutorial), but I got lazy. Instead, I used Illlustrator's Live Trace feature to automatically draw the image outline. But it works for me.
Celebrating the "End of the World"
To kick-start the doomsday/end-of-the-world party, I would like to share some of the earth-shattering videos I found online. These videos might not be as apocalyptic as the Mayans predict, but they are plausible scenarios that might happen/
I do believe we are too dependent on oil and oil is a finite resource that would run out one day. It would be wise to prepare for such an event. Personally I found the video's reaction to oil depletion a bit extreme. I think the effects of dwindling oil would be played out in a longer span of time. People would have time and resources to transition out of oil dependence into renewable energy.
Imagine the problems of global warming, global financial recession, terrorism, and dwindling resources mixed into one ticking time bomb that can trigger at any time soon. This could be another doomsday scenario that has a greater chance of occurring. I think we can weather these disasters if we are properly informed and are prepared to face these events when they happen.
Living here in Manila, I think we are too familiar with the effects of population explosion. But I think this is another possible doomsday scenario that could happen here in the Philippines more than in any other parts of the world.
I do believe we are too dependent on oil and oil is a finite resource that would run out one day. It would be wise to prepare for such an event. Personally I found the video's reaction to oil depletion a bit extreme. I think the effects of dwindling oil would be played out in a longer span of time. People would have time and resources to transition out of oil dependence into renewable energy.
Imagine the problems of global warming, global financial recession, terrorism, and dwindling resources mixed into one ticking time bomb that can trigger at any time soon. This could be another doomsday scenario that has a greater chance of occurring. I think we can weather these disasters if we are properly informed and are prepared to face these events when they happen.
Living here in Manila, I think we are too familiar with the effects of population explosion. But I think this is another possible doomsday scenario that could happen here in the Philippines more than in any other parts of the world.
The Big Four and Zero...
Wow I can't believe I have reached this stage in life. It's like hitting another big landmark (or a major stop over) in a very long journey. I can't help but think back on the old days. Occasions like this often make me want to dig up all those memories buried deep inside my head. I don't want to get sentimental or anything. But I do feel grateful for everything I had and experienced -- the good and the bad. And I am really grateful that I was given the freedom make these decisions.
Some people would want to be reminded of their accomplishments and failures. Others would prefer to spend the day in the company of their loved ones. But I prefer celebrating this day by being thankful and appreciating the things in my life. And I hope I would continue to make the most out of this borrowed time that we call life.
Some people would want to be reminded of their accomplishments and failures. Others would prefer to spend the day in the company of their loved ones. But I prefer celebrating this day by being thankful and appreciating the things in my life. And I hope I would continue to make the most out of this borrowed time that we call life.
Christmas Gifts for the Kids
With Christmas just around the corner, we have been thinking real hard on what gifts to give the kids. Both of them have been good this year so we decided to reward them with something nice. This year we avoided shopping presents in the big malls and Divisoria, knowing that we'll be competing with other consumers, hunting for the best toy bargains.
I made purchases online, mostly through ebay.ph and sulit.com. It sounds funny but I think I have grown more confident and trusting of online shopping (compared to a few years back). And I think we made some good choices in the presents we'd give our kids.
For Nika, we'll be giving her a Doc McStuffin doll. At first I wanted to buy her a collection of Disney Princess dolls, but I don't think she'll appreciate them. Nika absolutely adores Doc McStuffin, so I think she'll treasure this gift more.
For Aaron, we'll be giving him another set of Thomas Tomy toy trains. One of the trains would be a new Hiro train set. He lost his old Hiro train at school and he has been hoping to find him again. I also saw some second hand Thomas Tomy trains at ebay, worth 180 to 280 pesos. I think these trains would be a good addition to his Thomas train collection.
I made purchases online, mostly through ebay.ph and sulit.com. It sounds funny but I think I have grown more confident and trusting of online shopping (compared to a few years back). And I think we made some good choices in the presents we'd give our kids.
For Nika, we'll be giving her a Doc McStuffin doll. At first I wanted to buy her a collection of Disney Princess dolls, but I don't think she'll appreciate them. Nika absolutely adores Doc McStuffin, so I think she'll treasure this gift more.
For Aaron, we'll be giving him another set of Thomas Tomy toy trains. One of the trains would be a new Hiro train set. He lost his old Hiro train at school and he has been hoping to find him again. I also saw some second hand Thomas Tomy trains at ebay, worth 180 to 280 pesos. I think these trains would be a good addition to his Thomas train collection.
Aside from the Train set, I am still not sure if it is time to get Aaron his own set of Lego bricks. He now makes wonderful Duplo buildings, cars, and planes. But I don't think his hands are capable of manipulating smaller Lego bricks. I am thinking of getting two more Lego Shell Ferrari car sets, have him play around with it, and see how he manages with the small sets. Hopefully I will be able to decide if he can finally graduate from Duplo toys and move to Lego.
Printing Large Posters Using Home Printer
I am writing an instructional post, explaining how to create a large poster using a lot of A4 (standard white bond) paper, a normal home printer (I used a Canon MP 287), and Adobe Acrobat (standard edition).
I was tasked to draw animals for our church's nativity play and I came out with a few vector illustrations.
Once the animals were approved, I needed to convert these digital images into large drawings for the Christmas play. I searched online, hoping to find some tutorials on how to make these big illustrations.
I did find a few useful sites that can help my work, but the perfect site (for me) was blockposters.com. The site offers a three step approach to creating wall-sized posters from any size image. Obviously, the three steps are -- (1) uploading the image, (2) slicing the image, and (3) downloading the image.
The site can only slice any image file with 1MB file size or lower. I wish they could increase the file size up to 5MB or more, but we have to do with what is available to us.
So I uploaded one of my vector sheep images into the site and this is how it sliced up the image:
Once the animals were approved, I needed to convert these digital images into large drawings for the Christmas play. I searched online, hoping to find some tutorials on how to make these big illustrations.
I did find a few useful sites that can help my work, but the perfect site (for me) was blockposters.com. The site offers a three step approach to creating wall-sized posters from any size image. Obviously, the three steps are -- (1) uploading the image, (2) slicing the image, and (3) downloading the image.
The site can only slice any image file with 1MB file size or lower. I wish they could increase the file size up to 5MB or more, but we have to do with what is available to us.
So I uploaded one of my vector sheep images into the site and this is how it sliced up the image:
You must select how many pages wide you like your poster to come out. I decided to make my poster four pages wide (portrait sized). You will be able to see how your image looks like once you made the selection.
Once the image has been sliced up, you can download a pdf version of the image. You can open the pdf image using Adobe Reader and print it out with any home printer.
Another way of printing large images is with Adobe Acrobat Professional, using the Tile Large Page feature. Make sure you convert your large image into a pdf file and open the file in Adobe Acrobat Professional.
Once the pdf image is open, click File > Print. The Print window appears, showing different printing options and settings. On the Page Handling section, select "Tile large pages" from the Page Scaling option. The preview image on the right will show how your image would be printed. Click OK to print your image.
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