Summer of 2005 must have been my busiest yet, with all the gimiks, outings and even seminars that I attended. I began this month with a Life in the Spirit seminar at the PACEM Novitiate House in Antipolo City and I got to see all the folks from Good Shepherd again.

Another big event this May was the big move of the DES department to the next door office. Then of course Stephen, a former officemate in GS, got married to his girlfriend Lovely, last May 7 at Muntinlupa. We also celebrated Mother’s Day at home with my brother’s girlfriend Janice.
Ma got us a cute little puppy that I promptly named baby Blogger but he died after a few days. He was then replaced by his sibling, a white pup that I call Blogger II.

In the workplace, I’ve become a dedicated blogger specialist so I’ve been introduced to the world of RSS feeds, headline animators and blog search engines.

Last May 15, my blockmates and I went back to our alma mater to play badminton, go jogging and eat at our favorite restaurant, Chocolate Kiss, at the UP Bahay ng Alumni. On May 19, our community celebrated our annual fiesta with bands, contests and sports fests.

I also went back to Enchanted Kingdom just 29 days since I went there. Ryan hadn’t been there since our field trip during our senior year in High school! Highlights of the trip include watching a 4D movie for the first time and getting to win a stuffed toy tarsier at the Safari Shootout using a crossbow.

Finally, the last weekend of May was spent in Mount Daguldol, San Juan, Batangas, where Jasper and I joined the Talikasan of the UP Mountaineers. I got to meet some wonderful people and I hope to see them again soon in our post-climb and when I sign up for their organization’s snorkelling lessons this schoolyear.

May 2005 has been magical and memorable and I can’t wait to create even better memories next summer.

I kept tossing and turning the night before we left since I kept running my list over my head so I could be sure I didn’t leave anything important behind. I finally fell asleep at around  midnight and after a few hours, I got up to go to our meeting place at the JAM bus station in EDSA Kamuning.

Arriving at 4:30 AM, I was the first one in our group and pretty soon Jasper, Leslie and Sarah arrived at the bus station. By 5:45 AM, we boarded the bus but Rafa had not yet arrived. I called him up and learned that he was still in Quezon Avenue. Dennis, the team leader, stayed behind to wait for him and another person who was late.

By 8:20 AM, our bus arrived at Lipa City and we hired two jeepneys to take us to Brgy Hugom in San Juan, Batangas. Rafa and the others caught up with us in McDo Lipa, where we had our second breakfast.

The jeepney ride took about two hours and to while away our time, we played several rounds of pusoy dos.

We registered at HEGA (Hugom Ecological Guides Association) and they let us leave behind our non-essentials to lighten our load for the trek. The jeep brought us to the jump off point and we started our climb at around 11 AM.

We paused for a break every 15-20 minutes so we could catch our breath and take some pictures of the amazing view. At some points, we could see the blue ocean below and several peaks beside Mount Daguldol as well.

One of the breathtaking views that kept me going.

We stopped for lunch at around 12:30 at a bahay kubo, where we bought Mountain Dew — it wasn’t cold though. I was quite surprised to learn that they had electricity there and we could hear the residents watching a noon time show. Halfway to the top, we passed by another store that sold ice-cold Mountain Dew and ice water.

We finally reached the campsite at around 3:45 PM and immediately started pitching our tents. Jasper had brought an earth mat while I laid down my plastic mat with its inflatable pillow. The campsite had a hose where we could get water but just to make sure, I boiled some water to be used the next day.

We walked for a bit to reach the summit where we took pictures of each other and the surrounding mountains and the clear blue sky. We talked with Patrick, who told us about his trip to Pandan Island (where the sea turtles are just as big as people!) and informed me that the prequel of Sassy Girl is entitled Windtalkers (got to find that movie!).

Our group consisted of  (from left to right) me, Rafa, Leslie, Sarah and Jasper.

Our group stayed the longest at the top since we had already pre-cooked our meals and all we had to do was cook rice. Dinner that night consisted of fried chicken with gravy and soup with shiitake mushrooms.

While boiling water for the next day, I got to talk with Leslie and he told me more about Linux and Opera, a browser that is supposedly way faster than IE or Mozilla.

At around 8 PM, they started the socials by introducing each other while downing shots of vodka and juice. I was hoping there would be a bonfire but apparently, it’s against the Mountaineer’s creed to create one. Our group of 32 was a mix of different nationalities — Leslie is Malaysian while Kyle is German.

Our group slept pretty early since we were all tired but the rest continued to talk and drink until the wee hours of the morning.

I woke up at around 3 AM and was awed by the sight of the half-moon (yes, that is just a half-moon) glowing eerily in the sky.

After a few more hours, we woke up at around 6 AM and got to see mist covering the entire valley below. It was truly amazing and just as Leslie described it — it’s as if you can walk right through the bridge of mist.

We ate our breakfast of fried rice, corned beef and cheese omelet before breaking camp and packing up our stuff. We spent around 15 minutes taking pictures of every group (six in all) as well as the organizers of this Talikasan, Batch Woohoo of the UPM.

By 10 AM, we took a buko break at a kubo we passed by. The trek down was a lot easier and I got to enjoy the scenery — it felt like a walk in the park with all the flora and fauna. We passed by a little stream where I got to take close up shots of dragonflies with my SLR and we even saw a monkey playing on one of the trees.

We reached the foot of the mountain by 11:15 and waited for the jeep that would bring us back to HEGA. After thirty minutes, we were already by the beach and set up our place in one of the kubos. Rafa and I cooked lunch — adobo and the stir-fried sitaw, which could have turned out better.

We played around in the warm waters while others swam to a big boat where they could use the katig as a diving platform. We left the beach at around 3 PM and again boarded a jeepney to Lipa City. We encountered some heavy traffic since there was a Santracruzan going on that same day.

By 6 PM, our bus left the terminal to head back to EDSA Kamuning while Rafa opted to ride the bus going to Lawton. We also got to buy buko pie as pasalubong when we passed by Calamba, Laguna. I got off at Ortigas station and bade goodbye to them, with the hope of seeing everyone again at our post-climb on Friday night.

Click here to see my photo album of this event.

I’m back online, and a bit sore after a grueling hike up Mount Daguldol in San Juan, Batangas, which is 2,099 feet high (when you convert that to building floors, it’s equivalent to a staggering 210 story-high building — one way!).

Just when I thought I had gotten away from the influence of the Net, I got to talk with Leslie (our group leader) about Linux, Opera (the browser) and GUIs (graphical user interface). Of course I also learned a lot about falling off cliffs and seeing reali live sea turtles in Pandan Island so it’s still good.

Drop by tomorrow to learn more about our extreme adventure in Batangas since I still have to rest my tired body from the beating it just took. It’s a wonder I even had the strength to get up from bed this morning. =)

I’ll be climbing Mount Daguldol in a few hours, so I won’t be connecting to the Net  until I get back on Sunday night. I just hope I don’t experience any withdrawal symptoms! =)

I’m looking forward to communing with nature and getting to use an SLR for the first time. It’s also my first time to join the UP Mountaineers even though I’ve been trying to join their open climbs way back in college.

Wish me luck!

P.S.

You might notice some new elements on my sidebar (my flickr badge, my headline animator, a google search engine and several ads). I just discovered that I can use HTML (and even javascript) in my friendster blog so that will give me leverage when it comes to site desgin.

I read somewhere that there is a blogumentary to be done about the blogging phenomenon and  they were asking for volunteers to be featured in the film. It’s called 59Bloggers and is expected to be shown in film festivals, TV and the big screen. They will select the 59 bloggers based on a 100-word essay explaining why you believe you and your blog should be featured in this blogumentary.

To date, there are already 16 bloggers who have agreed to be featured in the blogumentary and they are accepting applications until all the 59 slots are filled up.

They are considering foreign bloggers but the catch is that they will not provide the cost of travelling to the United States, where the blogumentary will be filmed.

I’m not sure if they will select me and my blog, or if I even have the resources to go to the US, but heck, I’ll be drafting my 100 word essay and we’ll see what happens.

Here’s my entry for this blogumentary: 

Going on gimiks or outings is not just a diversion for me — it’s a way of life. For this reason, I’ve chosen to showcase my gimiks in photo albums and post about them in my blog, "Gimikera Is In." As a budding blogger, I also post entries about the blogosphere and mini-tutorials that I think would benefit those who are still in the early phases of blogging. With three fifths
of the world’s population residing in Asia, I think this continent deserves adequate representation in this blogumentary. I believe that my blog can do that by introducing to the world a typical Asian blogger with a zest for life.

In Photoshop you can achieve an excellent red eye reduction by doing the following few easy steps.

Here is our starting image. This girl has beautiful brown eyes. However
the flash of the camera made her look like a bunny.

Make a Channel mixer adjustment layer and set the Red channel to Red
0%, Green 50%, Blue 50%. Don’t get scared you’ll get a completely off
color image.

Now select the mask of the adjustment layer and fill it with black by
pressing Alt-Backspace. Now we have our bunny back. As the last step
select the paint brush and paint on the mask with white to reveal the
effect of the adjustment layer. Select the paint brush the size of the
red spot in the eye.

The final result is very natural and convincing.

From Ivan Raszl of CreativeBits

I’ve borrowed a  backpack from my officemate Jayson and I’ve also gone shopping for stuff to bring this weekend. I bought Gatorade, Milo power bars, string beans and even chicken gravy for our fried chicken. We’re planning to have a full-course meal up there, complete with mushroom soup (with real button mushrooms) and dessert consisting of power bars. =)

One of the many questions I have been asked over the years is how I
create simple web animations. The animations I am refering to are the
simple .gif animations that people see on my web banners and web
buttons. Most people that I have talked to and use Adobe Photoshop
never have really taken the time to find out the many millions of uses
the program has to offer. One of the programs that comes with Adobe
Photoshop is Adobe ImageReady. This program has been overlooked by the
majority of new users that are using Adobe Photoshop.

Adobe ImageReady is what I use when I create all my animated .gif
banners and buttons. I can easily convert my Photoshop file to
ImageReady in seconds, and back again if needed. The animation is
simple, once you get the hang of how to use layers in Adobe Photoshop.

I know there are other programs out there that do a good job at .gif
animation, but … why bother with those when I have what I need right
in front of me. With a few simple clicks, some time and imagination, I
end up with a great looking animated graphic banner.

All my buttons on my blog
are designed the same way. I use 108×15 pixels for my x-small banners
to fit for what I use on my blog. I know most sites use 80×15, but I go
up a few pixels to fit in more information. I create the button style
in Adobe Photoshop CS. Then after I have all my static layers I am
going to use in the animation sequences, I goto File >> Edit In
ImageReady. ImageReady opens up and places all my Photoshop layers the
same way you would see them in Adobe Photoshop. I then use the
Animation sequence window to make each frame and time setting. After I
complete the task of getting the animation right, I goto File >>
Save Optimized As and save to my desired location.

Remember : 
If you haven’t saved your work as an Adobe Photoshop file, just goto
File >> Save As >> and save as a .psd file. If you do not
save it as a .psd file and you click out of ImageReady, you will have
lost your work in going back and making any changes to that graphic in
Adobe Photoshop.

Posted by William Love

Q. How many bloggers does it take to change a light bulb?

A.  One to change the light bulb and to post the fact that the light bulb has been changed

14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently

7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs

27 to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs

41 to correct spelling/grammar flames

6 to argue over whether it’s "lightbulb" or "light bulb" …

Another 6 to condemn those 6 as anal-retentive

Two industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp"

27 to post URL’s where one can see examples of different light bulbs

12 to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy

4 to suggest that posters request the light bulb FAQ

44 to ask what is a "FAQ"?

2 to post reasons why the light bulb burning out is the result of a government conspiracy.

4 to say "didn’t we cover this a few months ago?"

43 to say "do a Google search on light bulbs"

5 to say "thank you"

1 lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now and start it all over again

A Favicon is a little custom icon that appears next to a website’s URL
in the address bar of a web browser. And when I say little, I mean 16
pixels by 16 pixels. So if you like a good design challenge try your
hand at this one.

All you need to add a Favicon to
your site is a Windows Icon (.ico) file called favicon.ico that you
upload to the main directory of your website.

Download The Plugin

You’ll need the Windows Icon (ICO) file format Photoshop Plugin to
export to the .ico file format. You can download the plugin from Telegraphics.
The plugin reads and writes ICO files in 1, 4 and 8-bit Indexed and
24-bit RGB modes, and also reads and writes 32-bit "XP" icons (with
8-bit alpha channel).

Let’s Begin
Because
16 x 16 is such a small canvas area, it can be very difficult to be
creative. So instead start your project with a canvas set at 64 x 64
(always use even multiples when you plan on resizing files). Do this by
selecting File>New, and opening a new canvas that is 64 x 64 pixels
in size.

The Design
If
you already have a logo you should reduce it to the 16 x 16 size to see
if it holds up. If it doesn’t look good at this size, work with the 64
x 64 canvas and try creating a simple design that incorporates colors
from your website’s palette.

When you’re ready to
test the design select Image>Image Size menu and enter 16 x 16.
Click on Resample Image and choose "Bicubic Sharper" from the drop-down
menu (CS only for this step). This is the best setting for making sure
that an image doesn’t blur as it’s being resized.

If
you feel the icon is not quite what you wanted, just keep tweaking it
until it is perfect. At this tiny size it can take a few tries before
you get it right.

Saving The Custom Icon
Go
to File>Save As and make sure you name the file favicon.ico. Under
Format you must choose Windows Icon (ICO) from the pulldown menu. This
format will only be available in Photoshop after you download and
install the plugin. In the next step you’ll need to upload this new
file to the root folder of your website, so it’s a good idea to
navigate and save it to that location on your hard drive now.

Uploading The Favicon.ico File

Connect to your server and upload your Favicon.ico file to your
website. You must place it into the same directory as your home (index)
page, and leave it loose, making sure not to put it in an images
directory or other folder.

Some
browsers will look for a direct link in the HTML source code to your
site’s favicon.ico file. You can help these browsers by adding this
link in the head section of each page on which you want the Favicon.ico
to appear.
Here is the link code to include: <link rel="Shortcut Icon" href="/favicon.ico">
Once you’ve added this code, upload all of your modified pages.

Testing

If your new Favicon does not show up right away, try refreshing the
page — or put a ‘?’ at the end of the url, which will trick a browser
into thinking the page is new and not cached.

Troubleshooting
Browser Issues:
Microsoft IE 6 for Windows will not display the favicon until the URL
has been added to the favorites, and Safari for the MAC will not
display an updated favicon until the browser cache has been cleared.
But choosing ‘empty cache’ from the menu won’t help because Safari
stores favicons in a separate cache. You must empty the icon cache
yourself. Look for it in User>Library>Safari>Icons.
File Format Not Available:
The Windows Icon (ICO) file format will not be available until you have
downloaded and installed the plugin, and then Quit and Restarted
Photoshop.

Inspiration

If you need some inspiration have a look through this nice collection of favicons. You might find something that triggers an idea for your own.

From Jennifer Apple of PhotoshopSupport.com