mababang langit

the blog i got this from seems to be down at the moment, so i'll just repost the whole thing here: Researchers from Japan’s ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories have developed new brain analysis technology that can reconstruct the images inside a person’s mind and display them on a computer monitor, it was announced on December 11. According to the researchers, further development of the technology may soon make it possible to view other people’s dreams while they sleep. The scientists were able to reconstruct various images viewed by a person by analyzing changes in their cerebral blood flow. Using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the researchers first mapped the blood flow changes that occurred in the cerebral visual cortex as subjects viewed various images held in front of their eyes. Subjects were shown 400 random 10 x 10 pixel black-and-white images for a period of 12 seconds each. While the fMRI machine monitored the changes in brain activity, a...

penshoppe's latest ad campaign. and why it's so wrong. the video is even worse. it's on youtube .

so yeah i went, just didn't blog about it till almost two weeks later. so what? here's my haul: i went a bit overbudget thanks to a used copy of scott mccloud's understanding comics (it's there beneath the SKP tome), but i did win two issues of batch '72 in the caricature contest, so that evens things out a bit. a teeny tiny bit. it doesn't really even things out. well i guess i should just be thankful the el indio book (compilation? restoration?) didn't come out in time for the 'kon, or i would have been in quite a financial dilemma. i thought about buying arnold arre's andong agimat but it was selling at non-discounted prices... why is that? why? why? lotsa people this year, compared to the last 'kon i attended, which was the first one in '05. back then i basically bought one of each from all the indie comics booths, but this year i had to pick and choose. and what i didn't choose was superheroes. dunno why, just didn...

the moleskine notebook i won arrived today via overnight delivery--thoughtfully wrapped in several layers of heavy magazine paper: it's a reporter-style plain notebook, with the binding along one short side. but if i lay it down "landscape" instead of "portrait", it looks just like my traditional sketchbook, only smaller. and about twenty times more expensive. speaking of class, this little note on the front page gave me a laugh: moleskine's target market is apparently so rich it offers cash rewards for the return of misplaced notebooks. in dollars. the notebook came with a manual. really. moleskine--it's the YC bikini brief of notebooks. jokes aside though, thanks to mr. jasper ong of avalon.ph and djong of down a notch. i'd also like to express my gratitude to the "atmoshperic noise" at random.org for spewing out my name after being fed the list of finalists. if you'd like to try your luck, there are two more moleskine contests...

so i'm turning this back into a personal blog now. say, didja notice the "smiley face in the sky" last night?

luciano lozano's ilustrista was one the first illustration blogs i ever subscribed to. so when he offered to give away signed postcards for his blog's second anniversary, i thanked the rss gods that allowed me to get my email in early. check out the lovely sparrow sketch on the envelope! i'm just thrilled. thank you very much mr. lozano!

click to enlarge

smilies of the non-digital kind: and a serving suggestion: available now at mollystamps . and i thought these were really cute, stamp pieces that work like those paper dolls you mix n' match... ... so you get something like this: and they come with glasses and baubles and things: you can get' em here .

new strips for a niche blog about domaining , the business of buying and selling web addresses: and also a series of strips for a portuguese fan site dedicated to the national football team, benfica. unfortunately a lot of comments about the characters not looking like the players they should have been based on :(

art in site calls itself a "magazine for artists, by artists, about artists". imagine that. the maiden issue isn't due out until next year, but they're looking for 3,000 people to create [not design, create--you need to mail in the thing you made so they can stick it on the book] 3,000 unique covers for the release. pretty cool idea. interested? click here to register and reserve a slot. there's still over 2,000 slots left, and you have until september 15. credit to toni for telling me about it. and speaking of magazines: graphikapinoy is a free, periodical pdf magazine about the local visual arts scene. their latest issue is about pinoy illustrators, some wicked stuff in there :] via komikero

via insomnio

nakita nyo na ba yung jollitown sa GMA-7? bumili kami ng cd nun kamakailan. konyo na silang lahat. si jollibee, si mr. yum, si hetty, si twirly, pati yang traydor na hiphop na yan, si popo, nagtataglish na rin. parang awa nyo na ibalik nyo na'ng batibooooot!

more tutoring-related promo material, this time for the boys:

it is such a treat to have a client mail over a complimentary set of the stamps i designed for her: i've never seen transparent stamps before. the very first physical evidence of my labors. :) here's some of the art:

here's a bookmark-slash-business card i designed for a friend's tutoring service: i couldn't find any pictures of the powerpuff girls reading or writing or anything, so i had to draw them from scratch. it was trickier than i thought.

i am shocked, shocked no one's thought of this before. (and by no one's thought of this before i mean nothing showed up on the first page of my google search for " lolcats tagalog") click on the image for bigger ulolcats. more to follow soon.

a nice reader named kathy stumbled upon this blog while looking for educational materials for her 5th grade art class' "webquest" , which (this makes me feel so old) includes a virtual field trip to the musuem. so now this post of mine is part of her online lesson (it's down near the bottom here) , and i get a nice mention in the credits page. yay!

sweet revenge is when the contest holder, who had earlier declared as winner a work that plagiarized your own work , contacts you and asks you to do the rest of the illustrations. oh no no, sweet revenge is gloating about it. bwa ha ha ha

saw this web ad while checking my email. apparently, mastercard's definition of "more rewarding journeys" includes being able to afford huge-ass luggage big enough to fit an open laptop .

did a couple of four-letter jobs this past week. one paid out, one got cancelled, but both featured the f-bomb:

so he said he wanted: A hamster in an army helmet, firing an assault rifle. The helmet can be any type of modern infantry head protection. The beast itself must be a brutal Golden Hamster, none of those puny Russian dwarf things please. The rifle must be either an SA80 , M4 Carbine or an Avtomat Kalashnikova Forty Seven -whichever you prefer. i thought hamsters and AK-47's just seem to naturally go together, and so...

did this for an infant wear company. the client asked for like fifty revisions :)

how do you make the biggest drawing in the world? this guy used DHL to fly a GPS device along a path that traced an image around the globe. some may question the loops and squiggles (would transport planes fly like that?), but it's one hell of a grand idea. via laughing squid

college/high school reunion season is upon us, and this post from the totally excellent advertising is good for you triggered a reverie of lazy undergrad afternoons. in college, this guy was me: only instead of a cubicle it was a student's club room, and instead of a jacket i wore a t-shirt with holes, and instead of a really low chair i slept on the floor. i could do the same thing now but it's just isn't the same at home.