what lies beneath

it only takes a right click to see the horrors that lie beneath a seemingly innocuous layout laden with good images and a tit for tat text. the domain or site the images are pulled out from, the incompliance to standards, the inefficiency, the alt text which should have imployed the title attribute, the use of tables to display non-tabular data... even if the whole body has been commented out of display, it's sure to come out with a simple right click and a view source. anything and everything... it's all there. the so-called naked truth, rendered and undeniably so.

surprising how you can find more info from a person with markup than with the written word.

I am nothing special; of this i am sure. i am a common woman with common thoughts, and i've led a common life. there are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but i've loved with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.

-the notebook

to cy, the one who shares with me a neruda romance.

a happy valentines indeed

loving, being loved and being in love with cy is like a neruda. on the designated day for love (single awareness for those in the other side of the fence) cy and i celebrated like we do everyday, a love that was made our own.

we both got off from work late and had dessert at my place. chocolate mallow cake and buko pandan. cy had wanted me to remember, and i did, the time that my brother was supposed to buy us buko pandan from max and bought instead, buko pandan zagu. my anticipation dampened, i had resorted to a silent fit and cy seeing how disappointed i was, took off and rectified the situation. strange, cy said, how buko pandan could instantly make me happy and my brother replied that it was not the buko pandan.

full from dessert but empty of ideas to celebrate valentines, we capriciously decided to spend the night at cy's place. arriving at cy's house a taxi ride after and being ushered in by porjax (cy's dad) and mai (his mom), we hastily ate lasagna and headed to the fair at sunken garden.

the moon was wide eyed and occasionally obscured from view by a film of passing clouds as we proceeded to watch the bands that offered their music. a tree on the back of the stage posed as an efficient eye candy, being struck by the stage's lights which made it glow a deep violet, red, yellow or green. i counted two planes pass by as the stars gleamed their brightest.

under the canopy of stars, i felt what no philosopher or poet could ever put into words. you're right cy. we are blessed.

happy valentines to my significant other. ily.

happiness

good music.
good coffee.
good man.
good day.

happiness.

updates

it's late and i should be sleeping but instead this. i confuse myself thinking how i manage to generate enough energy to stay awake and blog considering i've spread myself way too thin today and this post isn't so urgent that it can't wait after an encounter with the sandman. but i guess, keeping busy is something that suites me well given the decrease in need for caffeine fixes and the decline of aimless musing. and i have been busy, not just with my pet projects but with almost everything, meetings for yehey's sign-in, globe's g-cash integration, my experiments for class, design and technical editing. the time between busy and panting for my breath, i fill with listening to design related podcasts and reading design articles while i'm having tea at breton. workaholic indeed. probably why my mom is so persistent that i take vitamins.

so that should give a somewhat uninviting idea of my life. what can i say, i am an introvert and a bore.

to cy: i've been keen on designing for usability... i'll be putting some theories into application on my next layouts. hehehehe. valentines is coming and i've got something you might like for you. p.s. i'd trade no peppermit frapuccino for you.

that is perhaps how i am happiest with you. alone in the solice of each other's mind yet together in stride, hands held, grip neither loose nor tight but a perfect fit as if our palms were molded to be so. for love is not in wanting but in remembrance and yearning in absence. i remember. and i yearn.

of current interests

aside from my daily caffeine fix, i'm trying to keep my sanity with:

podcasting - subscribed to the ff: The Web 2.0 Show, Audible Ajax, Graphical Rescue, Learning 2.0 Tip of the Week, Photoshop Radio, Adobe Production Studio, WebDevDesign - 21 Century

typography/typesetting - my resource wishlist are: The Non-Designer's Type Book, Typographic Design: Form & Communication, The Elements of Typographic Style, Alphabet: The History, Evolution & Design of Letters We Use Today and The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson... of course, until the CSS books i ordered online find their way out of Timbuktu and find their way to eager me. for my online resources, you'll have to see my bookmarks.

chihuahua care - trying to read bulks on how to be a mommy to my soon to be baby: a 3 month, all-white, male chihuahua pup (to be christened Cousteau after the great marine explorer Jacques Cousteau). i have yet to puppy proof my pad though. much hugs to cy for this v-day gift.

writing with my left hand - i've just resumed this little exercise of mine. an attempt at ambidexterity i suppose.

these few things, i'll have to queue up some time but not now:

drawing anime
spanish (picking up where i left off)
classical guitar (picking up where i left off)
bass guitar (picking up where i left off)

ahhhh. mediocre i know but they keep me sane.