zoom + pan = ken burn effects.

geez. took me this________________long to finally put a name to that special motion treatment for still images. o.O life never stops learning.

----- To Tumblr or not to Tumblr -----

It's hard to resist converting into a Tumblr blogger; there are so many interesting blogs with gigantic archive of lovely photographs, dedicated to one subject, and a magnitude of interesting personalities, it's hard not to follow and reblog their posts, which is how I like to define Tumblr: a space where you mostly reblog likeable and admirable things you find. Eventually, the whole blog becomes a personal collection of the person's favorite things. Not much words are exchanged or expressed, the images will do that for them. Understandably addictive. Then there's the attractive selection of page layouts (Listen up Blogger.com) offered for their members. Here's one blog all about winter. So cozy and warm. Makes all the winter blues go away.

These pictures inspire me to walk out, camera in hand, mind alerted and snap away a million photos. Winter is one of the best time to take pictures; lighting is gorgeous.

----- Just my Thought -----

We recently passed our 7th billionth person. This looks to feed as much. Hope their 15 minutes will be up for the sake of food resources. ugh.

You know you're a graphic designer when you start a to-do list in Adobe InDesign.

----- Just a Thought -----

As I'm sorting and organizing my digital closet—folders and files on both computer and external hard drives—I realized, since we are insidiously moving into the digital home, have we become digital hoarders? In 50/100 years, I imagine paper shifting into extinction, the inclination to keep everything is much much more facilitated and irresistible because we won't physically feel the junk in our space anymore, like the feeling of spending invisible cash with a credit card; it can get dangerous. So is it not worse, digitally? My USB keys and external hard drives are filling up, and I am convincing myself that I do not need to purchase more space—I need to search and destroy. Stress and paranoia overcomes me as I sort out my files and as I back them up, because I lose track of the ones that are updated and the ones not. I end up on an endless loop ride meticulously searching for flaws: double-checking for twin files, folder is missing its proper files or lost files that could not find their homes. It's a job of its own! There must be a documented disease on the paranoia of a losing hard drive space because I have it. Whenever I see an XX number of GB gone, I transform into Monica Gellar (of Friends) and start cleaning out files.

So, long story short, I backed up all external devices a few minutes ago, and I am already sensing that I may have deleted some files or saved over files with old files, which in the very near future I will be slapping my forehead because I cannot find XX file since I deleted it . OH BOY I AM A MESS. A LONELY MESS.

----- Advertising Blunders -----

Racist or not? **

EVERYTIME I see a dumb, slapyourforehead ad or commercial, I always blurt out, "seriously? Who was in that office meeting and said yes to this?" EVERYTIME. Somebody at Nivea did. Because this ad happened. "Look Like You Gave A Damn" is the oil being added to the already burning house. I get it; they're selling grooming products to help clean up unruly American males, but Afro hair means improper? Words should have been chosen carefully, and the head could have been used differently.

Could we have become a society where we judge too quickly and rebuke too apprehensively? Maybe it was an innocent idea, or unthoughtful idea. Overlooked? We could say humans feed power to the insult, and are too sensitive. If it was a depicted as a white male holding an unruly white male's head, would it have been a different outcome? Surely. I feel it's all in all a bad combination of everything: idea, choice of words and image. That's one thing, do we blame it on the person who said yes in the meeting, or the creatives who put this together and didn't have enough sense or courage to speak up and stop, or question? Some would say that it is not fair anymore, that we have to work on our tippy toes in fear that we might pass off racist ideas once ethnicity is involved, preventing multiculturalism from progressing; we control our own civilization. Maybe one day, race wouldn't be a problem, and things like this will be seen with neutral eyes and overlooked, with no intention of hurting or insulting. Designers are not paid to simply create, they are required to research as well, in this case, they did not research enough.

Here's the dealio:
** A black man is shown to be dressed well and groomed as opposed to the stereotype of Black Americans who don't and dresses "ghetto" or savaged like as depicted by the decapitated head of what appears to be an angry, Afro styled Black man. In bold text, it says "Re-civilised Yourself". Blatantly but surreptitiously implies that what he was before was uncivilized. **

Normally I do not bash people's work—at least not on a regular basis—unless there are reasonable arguments. When I saw this poster, I couldn't help but revolt. Is it a 3-in-1 poster? Because I feel like this poster has three posters. At least the designer could do is create a smoother transition from the left image to the right without allowing a visible line splitting down the middle. The "Epps" in the casting names wants to run away too. It just feels lazy and effortless—and not in the good kind of way.