I present to you my new permanent blog at

http://nanyate.com

I will no longer update this site. However, this site will still remain for the enjoyment of CSS galleries and magazines that feature me. This is the least I can do for my fellow designers and those who kindly featured me. Thank you very much Design Meltdown, Smashing Magazine, Dr. Web and Coliss.

Malaysian Singaporean Students’ Association

I designed this around June 2007. The color scheme is slate blue and light red. Their both variations of the Singaporean and Malaysian flags bright colors. IMO, it’s really tacky to have too much brightness on a page. Oh and the header graphic was taken by a friend who is a professional photographer in Malaysia.

Leave The Pack Behind (UofT)

This was designed over the course of this week. I kept changing things because I wasn’t able to find a suitable navigation. Initially, it was meant to be inspired by Mac OS X’s dock, but it just didn’t fit. Or rather, it would taint my record of originality, so I tried my hand in installing MooTools. I’ve never really delved into the world of JavaScript , so figuring out made me so proud of myself! (EGO BOOST!!) The navigation is using the Accordion script. BTW, I haven’t seen any sites using Accordion as a navigation panel - most of them use them for the actual content. I personally think it’s more functional as a navigation panel. I smell a new trend started by yours truly, again? (Yes, it’ll take a few hours for the super ego boost to wash off.) The color scheme of orange and green isn’t really mine. It belongs to the organization. I just gave them a slightly yellowish tint to match my pink.

What do you guys think?

Anyways, my host WebHostingBuzz just sent me an exclusive coupon code that gives a 25% discount on whatever they order. This code will be valid from 20th August to 1st September.

Coupon Code: webhostingbuzz

Their shared hosting prices are as follows:

And you get:

1. Unlimited FTP Accounts
2. Unlimited Domain Addons
3. Unlimited Domain Sub-domains
4. Unlimited Databases
5. Fantastico: Wordpress auto-install/update
6. Lotsa other stuff!

Click to WebHostingBuzz!

They also have reseller, dedicated and semi-dedicated hosting. The coupon code can also be used for these other services. I also have a review on them at my host review page here.

Site Updates!
The iRadio has been drastically updated. I’ve deleted ‘Party Tracks’, added “Acoustic” and renamed “Salsa” to include Bossa Nova and R&B-styled Reggaeton. (No, not all reggaeton tracks sound like Gasolina!) You’ll get the idea when you listen to Daddy Yankee’s Coraza Divina. Oh and a bunch of songs have been deleted and a lot more have been uploaded.

To those who are new to this site, my music is centered around Korean music, lightly flavored with English, Spanish, French & Japanese music. Enjoy!

Just when I get my Photoshop, it died. The damn thing just stopped working while I was checking my gmail. It wouldn’t force quit nor restart, so I had to reboot the hard way. Then it couldn’t startup again. I mean, it has only been 2 months since I got my Macbook and it’s already half dead either because of overheating or a hard disk error.

My laptop is my life. I play, communicate and work with it. No computer under my use has ever had major problems. I meticulously care for its software and other functions (though not too conscious about the cleanliness of its exterior heh!). No one defrags and run anti-virus/spyware programs as frequently as I do. Even the supposed impenetrable Mac was well taken care of.

Seriously, with all the hype about how superior Macs are to Windows, this is the shittiest experience I’ve had with a computer. I didn’t even do anything for it to die. Gmail can’t possibly kill 2GB RAM on a 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo with enough space left to fit 20 HQ movies. Can you imagine if I was in a middle of an essay and it just suddenly died? I would have seriously jumped off the building.

Steve Jobs better be making laptops with some durability in the future. I mean you are quite a failure of an engineer if a user can’t trust his/her own computer to function without suddenly wiping out the hard disk for no reason at all.

When Apple is done fixing it, I will be selling it for cheap. I should have stayed a loyal customer to Sony to begin with. Looks like I will end up with a Pink Sony Laptop after all.

TO MAC FANATICS: Shut the hell up. It’s not hip for a computer to die on you may it be Windows, Linux or Mac. With such a horrifying experience, I will probably never own an Apple product again.

Animes offer a mature escape from reality - unlike most cartoons. For me, watching TV or movies have always just been an escapade from reality. That means I don’t watch anything unless I’m forced, stressed or emotionally disturbed. This is why I don’t like watching shows with real actors. I prefer them to be as far as reality as possible. As a kid/teen, I’d watch cartoons. But now, at 21, cartoons have lost their appeal. And animes has filled the hole that cartoons cannot.

#1 - Death Note

The anime illustrates the mentality of Light Yagami, the #1 ranked college student in Japan. Before he graduates from high school, he chanced upon a notebook called Death Note. Whenever a person’s name is written in the notebook, he/she will die. Light decides to rid the world of evil by writing names of criminals. However, INTERPOL becomes worried with his actions and tries to snuff him out by sending the world’s most famous detective - codename “L”. They try hard to find each other and kill each other before
they find out.

It struck a lot of emotions out of me. I despise Light and yet some part of me agrees with him. This anime, while showing the psychological states of both, forces you to evaluate your own. Truly Amazing.

#2 - Neon Genesis Evangelion

The fame this anime has achieved in Japan is akin to Batman in the U.S. It’s about a boy Shinji Ikari, who pilots Eva, which are supposed giant robots, to prevent mankind’s enemy called “Angels” from destroying the world. The Angels and Mankind are two races who strive for dominance over Earth. Destruction is inevitable for the evolution of the world.

Like Death Note, this is a serious anime that deals with things in a large scale. However, the portrayal of its main and supporting characters and the progression of events somehow forces you to question about your morals and reason for living.

#3 - Naruto

Naruto is about the life of a talented albeit dense and clumsy ninja named Uzumaki Naruto. He’s impossible to hate. So lovable. I would say it is THE best anime in the 2000s. It got my whole university crazy for the longest time. Even though he’s 12 and 15 in the 2nd series, he appeals to older audiences because of his nature. I can’t even begin to tell you how large the Naruto universe is, with 242 episodes and 4 movies.

You’re definitely the clumsy idiot if you miss out on this one!

#4 - Fullmetal Alchemist

FMA is set at a parallel dimension, where alchemy progresses instead of science. Two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, journey across their world to reclaim their body and limbs, which they lost during a failed alchemy transmutation. It’s a story of brotherly love. It’s very touching! They’re very lovable too. Anyone who has siblings would really enjoy it!

#5 - Prince of Tennis

A great anime to relax with. No brotherly love, no fights and no personality checks. It’s just about Ryoma Echizen, the son of professional tennis player trying to surpass his father and his captain. You’ll end up knowing all the rules of tennis and loving all the characters by the end of the show.

The cat Karupin is soooooooo adorable.

–

You can find all of the animes on YouTube or Veoh. I will be continuing with top 6-10 in the next post!

I have to admit the switch wasn’t as smooth as I hoped it would be. I accidentally renamed the home folder and screwed up a lot of settings. I ended up reinstalling the bundled apps, deleting the original users and so forth. Rectifying it took me 3 hours. Then I wasn’t able to transfer files from my trusty old vaio to my mac because the external hard drive was formatted in NFTS, which is a system that Macs can only read but not write. (Think CHMOD, web designers) My external HDD got stuck on the Mac, I couldn’t eject or force quit, so I just plugged it out in the end.

But after all the hassle and the frustration. I love the Mac. The screen is amazingly bright even without the power cord. The keyboard is really easy to type on, and the iSight Webcam is really high quality for its size. Oh and did I mention, I have Windows Vista Ultimate running on my mac? Too bad the sound isn’t working on the Vista.

Now, if only I have all my web design programs on this machine. Then maybe I could actually completing my layouts and making new ones.

Oh and if you happen to be around Bloor/Bay or Yorkville in Toronto, (or in Singapore or Oslo) go grab a coffee at Far Coast (farcoast.ca). The interior designer really brought the ‘feel’ of my websites to life! I was so shocked when I realized that it’s actually a concept cafe established by Coca-Cola because there’s no hint of Coke at all! The selection of teas and coffees are amazing.They have all these cool names for them. It’s not even the decor that has influenced my liking for their drinks. They’re really good!! I’ve tried the Foxhall and Zwina teas and just tried the Opale Noire coffee yesterday. Anyways, enough gushing! Hahaha! I took a couple of pics on my cellphone. The quality isn’t that great but I’m sure you’ll get the idea!

Oh and sorry I haven’t been blogging; I have 2 exams and 1 essay due next week. I’ll be updating the iRadio in a couple hours with new songs and maybe a new playlist! Enjoy!

That happened when I was 13, while hiking near Jakarta. Obviously, I managed to climb back onto the trail. I was convinced that was my time to go. I thought I would be afraid, but I wasn’t. For a moment, I accepted my fate. Ironically, that moment was the most peaceful moment I have ever felt in my entire life.

Isn’t it ironic that peace is found closer to death, than in life?

Due to the personal nature of this entry, the rest of it is found at http://asiansoul.livejournal.com. Only a few handpicked livejournal friends have access to it. Sorry.

I’ve also been working on my portfolio. The idea has been executed. The logo is designed. The layout is closed to finished. All I need is to translate it into code. It’ll be released sometime in late April/early May. Woot Woot!

Saturated Fat: 43% of Daily Value (DV)

That’s almost as bad as a Whopper! Just that a whopper is infinitely more filling than a pack of flash-fried noodles. (Sorry ladies but it’s less than ONE piece of Godiva truffle)

I’ve been very conscious of nutritional labels since the fateful day when I decided to flip the fast food tray cover around at Burger King. I found out that Iced Tea had twice the amount of sugar than a normal Coke of the same size. Poutine as 150% DV of fat. For all you non-Canadians, Poutine (pronounced as POO-TEEN, and please refrain from saying POO-T’ON, means F***K in French) is gravy-covered french fries. It looks like this:

Anyways, I also found out a 3 piece combo at Popeye’s has almost 1600 calories, that’s more than what a girl around 52kg/120pounds should be eating.

I’ve lost quite a bit of weight after watching these labels carefully. I urge any one who wants to shed some weight to do the same. It’s a lot better than going on crash diets and gaining all the weight back once you stop. Make a life commitment to reading labels. You still get your chips, cookies, sodas and chocolates - but just without the weight gain.

Site Updates: Added a few more songs. Some Canadian and lotsa Korean just coz it’s still my agenda to convert people.