I’ve always loved watching sports on TV since my parents are die-hard sports fans, however (American) football had become one of my least favorite sports to watch as of late. Only reason being is because my local NFL teams are pretty much has beens as the San Francisco 49ers ruled the 80s and early 90s while the Oakland Raiders ruled the 70s (which I wasn’t born yet). However, the match up between past Super Bowl champ Indianapolis Colts and the underdog team, New Orleans Saints, really intrigued me to watch the actual game itself and not watch just for the witty and funny commercials. Unfortunately this year’s Super Bowl commercials were kinda weak compared to the ones in the past years.

Earlier at church today, I was expecting that the youth group would be sponsoring their chapter of the annual SOUPER BOWL of Caring, in which they raise money for the homeless and the hungry and feed them soup during this early year historical Sunday for (American) football and beyond. What I was not expecting was that our pastor actually prayed in a mass that the New Orleans Saints would win this year’s Super Bowl. Now, I’m not overly religious, but that doesn’t mean I’m acting all Atheist and what not (I am an active Catholic after all), but I don’t find it appropriate for the priest to actually make a prayer to have the Saints win. His reasoning wasn’t flattering to me either. His only reason why he wanted the Saints to win was because as Catholics (and other Christian sects who look up and support the saints in the past) we have to support any team that’s somewhat related to Christianity. The New Orleans Saints name was only influenced by its historical French culture (as we all know most French are Catholic) in Louisiana, as well as the historical jazz song When the Saints Go Marching In (it’s somewhat of a Children’s song too, had to learn the song when I was in 5th grade). Just now after I read the Wikipedia article about the team, the foundation of the team franchise was on November 1st, 1966— All Saints Day. Thus, the team name Saints came about.

I understand that you would root for the Saints because you want the underdog team to win or simply because you have beliefs of this team’s talent, but to root for them just because they’re religiously connected? That’s just inappropriate reasoning to me.

My family and I love to see underdog teams upset the more popular teams. The Indianapolis Colts have won a Super Bowl championship not too long ago and the Colts’ quarterback, Payton Manning, pretty much became a household name. Not very many people (including me) recognized the Saints’ quarterback, Drew Brees, but with his close to record complete passes in the game, his name will become a household name. I have never seen any quarterback from any team who made complete passes to their receivers throughout the entire game. I admit that I missed the first quarter of the game because I was taking a nap, reading, or playing video games when I forgot the time the game was going to start, but according to my dad, Brees played so well that he truly matched the power of (Payton) Manning’s arm in that game. Something like that.

The halftime show was pretty awesome. It had The Who performing it. Sure, the halftime shows were not as high energy as the ones in the past (and I still remember the whole Janet Jackson incident in those Super Bowl halftime shows. I forget which year was it), but it was still an awesome performance. My parents recognized them as they did grow up (well, not quite. They were just starting college when The Who debuted as a band in the public). I was hoping they would sing the entire Hold Me, Feel Me, Touch Me song (which was one of the songs they sung during the original 1969 (?) Woodstock Festival) but Roger Daltrey only sang the first few lines and not the chorus part. They did perform the now-famous Who Are You?, which is also the theme song for the hit primetime crime drama series CSI (the original one, not the Miami or the New York one).

Anyway, the game was fun. We just had a small gathering with some refreshments from fresh popcorn, baked potato chips, and beverages (beer to the dudes, soda to my mom and sisters, and iced milk tea for me haha!). We had fun screaming and complaining when there was a yellow flag, and since we’ve got an awesome huge screen HDTV, it felt as if we were actually at the game.

• Currently Drinking: Bonkers Super Skinny Lemon Peppermint Green Tea
• Mood: Sleepy

Before I got in to digital design, I used to be quite heavy with traditional art. To be more precise, towards traditional calligraphy, simple sketch cartooning, silkscreen printing (I did design some t-shirts as part of my final project in silkscreen printing class, but supplies are so expensive), and (what was considered back then) “illegal” art (graffiti art (on paper) and even tagging (like you see those messy “tag” art on the walls). I also used to draw “street”/”hip-hop” style art back in high school simply because a group of my friends were in to it and somehow gave me some inspiration. No, I didn’t violate any school roots by doing some crazy graffiti typography on one of those Hello, My name is… tag stickers that people use on meetings to identify themselves. As an open-minded artist I always thought that those “dirty graffiti” seen on walls of buildings and structures looked creatively and vividly beautiful. Today, it’s become an official integral part of general traditional art. All you need are pencils, colored pencils, markers, and if you decided to do murals on the wall, you’ll need paint— lots of paint— from airbrush painting to… airbrush printing.

I kind of lost my knack for random sketching and traditional art. I could still feel my knack for traditional calligraphy but I don’t have the right materials for me to start creating calligraphy art again. I still have my pen kits, rulers, ink, and guidebooks but all I need is parchment paper and some practice paper so I can warm up my strokes. I thought of getting in to Japanese calligraphy again as I did learn some basics back in college in our university’s Japanese culture club. It was pretty difficult than I thought, not because of the characters that we have to learn the proper stroke order, but simply just controlling the brush and holding the brush the proper way was kind of hard to get used to. I tried to do sumi-e brush painting as well, but I also had a hard time trying to get used to handling the brush.

At the moment I’m going to try getting back in to traditional calligraphy. My current portfolio that is still outdated up to now still lacks new material and I seriously need to update everything (not just the content but also the layout itself). I kept telling myself to start getting my lazy ass up and build a design fit for portfolios. I may probably install Wordpress on this site as well since that software has helped me wonders with my past sites as of late.

I’m heading out to lunch now. Then stop by my local art shop to see if they sell any particular art supplies for cheap. I doubt it though, but right now I need the proper paper material for traditional calligraphy. Maybe buy paper for sumi-e or shoji (Japanese calligraphy) too. We’ll see.

• Currently Drinking: Green Tea Kombucha Milk Tea (so fruity!)
• Mood: relaxed

As I delve deeper in to the wonders of social and environmental sustainability, thanks to the high influences of my co-workers in our department, another aspect of environmental sustainability actually got my attention. That, of course, is industrial ecology and biomimicry.

What the heck are those two things. Well, it’s a concept (or concepts) in which we create our own new systems by copying or being inspired by the natural processes of living creatures in the world around us. Since the human race throughout history just don’t really know (or don’t really care) how on earth we use the resources provided to us by mother nature herself. As of this moment, slowly and gradually, the earth is dying because of… well… us.

We could learn a lot from animals and other creatures co-existing with us in this world. A lot to learn, to be exact. Even the major experts and scientists of biology, bioengineering, and any other nature-related science are aware of many behaviors and systems that each living thing possess that can be proven beneficial to our human lives. We can develop different “man-made” systems that we can adopt to our daily lives in terms of using our natural resources wisely based on the fundamentals of these living things. Not only that it can save lives of every single living creature in this earth, but it can also save our environment, as well as saving a lot of money.

A good example is that a team of materials scientists from MIT have been observing and researching the mysteries behind an ocean floor snail’s shell. The shell of this particular snail was unlike any other material we’ve known that is used for a standard snail’s very frail shell or even man-made armor used for defense mechanisms of police, firemen, military, etc. The unique structure and material of this particular shell, according to this scientist team, may even help improve and upgrade the current armor used by the military if they can simply duplicate its structure or mimic the natural material used on this snail’s shell. Sure, it may not be “original” if you think of it, but for those who are unaware of natural science, they may think it’s pure genius. More info regarding this example is found at the Biomimicry News website.

You can find more discoveries and theories of industrial ecology and biomimicry at the Biomimicry News site and witness the ideas that these experts have come up with. Sure, it’s far from having these possibilities accomplished now, but whent the time comes, innovations such as these to support environmental sustainability can come true.

And that would be it for now. It’s a Hodgepodge entry so it’s a short entry. Getting ready to go home now. Yay for the world!

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• Mood: Rushed

As of late, I have been undergoing through thorough training along with the rest of our department regarding the very popular and important concept of environmental sustainability. First module from last week we learned about the world as of today, its conditions, and all the problems that caused all the pollution and the signs that the earth would be dying out of its resources. For next week we’ll be covering industrial ecology and biomimicry.

At our company intranet this article came out regarding the best tips on doing your laundry (most especially your denim jeans). As I read through I started thinking about my habits with my own laundry (in my house, each of us do our own laundry. I do my own laundry, Mom does hers and Dad’s laundry, bro does his own laundry, etc. etc.). We only got one washing machine that’s almost ten years old but still works.

When I do my laundry I usually separate my clothes based on the color, fabric, and the water temperature required to wash these types of clothes. When one particular clothing— example, a wool sweater— is minimal compared to the rest of the clothes in the pile I still wash them separate because of the care instructions on the label. Otherwise if it has similar care instructions as another particular category of clothes, I just place them with the rest of those clothes.

Though it may sound like I’m wasting water to do these small and separate washes in one load of laundry, what wastes more water mainly depends on how many times you do your laundry. Believe it or not, even if it may sound dirty, I do my laundry once every two weeks (unless if they’re seriously stained, such as blood or food and what not). As for jeans I wear them until they seriously stink (and of course, when they get dirty). It sounds gross (even I get grossed out too), but my habits (according to the experts in my department) is considered “green laundry care”. What I’m doing with my clothes may be disgusting, but I’m saving a lot of water by doing this way. They still come out freshly clean and smell good (from the detergent— depending on the type of detergent (or fabric softener) you use) after they’re laundered anyway so there’s not much difference between clean clothing washed every two weeks compared to clean clothing washed every other day or twice or three times a week.

Read the article I just linked. You’ll see what I mean. It can help you save a lot of water, which in turn you’ll be getting in the habit of being environmentally sustainable in your household. Time is running out for the earth’s resources so we seriously need to think about the environment seriously now and how we can change our habits in order to be more environmentally sustainable.

Hm, now that I realized it, I just remembered that not all the world do their laundry by themselves. Some households in some countries have someone else do the laundry for them (ie. servants, domestic help, etc). This article only refers to people who do their own laundry without any aid from servants or domestic helpers or anyone similar. Personally I’d rather do my own laundry because I can’t trust other people on how they do other people’s laundry. Maybe it’s your turn to learn how to use the washing machine (or wash your clothes manually haha!) one of these days and learn how to be more independent and useful to yourself?

• Current Location: Work (Levi Strauss & Co.)
• Currently Eating: Sobe Lifewater Cherimoya (Atis) Punch
• Currently Listening: Pandora Radio Doo-Wop Channel
• Mood: Sleepy

I’ve only read a few passages, but I’ve been enjoying the book from the beginning. This ancient Japanese literary piece, known as The Pillow Book was written by an imperial court gentlewoman named Sei Shonagon, a lady-in-waiting serving the empress sometime in the 10th-11th Century Heian Period in Japan. During this period, it was the era of cultural flourishing all over Japan. Sort of like the Renaissance Period in Europe where artists of various forms as well as scholars and philosophers promote a brand-new culture in their everyday life through the visual arts to the literary arts. Japan held the record of having one of the very earliest, if not the earliest novel ever written in history, starting with Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) written by another imperial court lady-in-waiting, Murasaki Shikibu.

What makes this book interesting is that this particular piece of written work may be described as history’s very first diary journal. Think of it as a very ancient “blog”, except it’s not on the web, but written on paper (or scrolls of parchment or something. I don’t know what the tools used for writing in ancient Japan). The novel/diary generally describes royal court life during the Heian Era, her vivid description of nature, and other personal ramblings and opinions about society in that era. The translation (made by Meredith McKinney) made it understandable for modern readers to read through as direct translations from ancient classical Japanese to ancient classical English does not work. In addition, reading through her first few entries also gave me an idea on how the author Sei Shonagon was like as a person. (for now, I considered her a prejudiced snob, but she was a servant of the royal court, so in some ways, was expected)

I call this a “pre-review” because I’m still currently reading it. But if you are a regular blogger or someone interested in blogging or if you simply keep a diary and write by hand, give this classic a try. Well, maybe another requirement is that you are open-minded and have high interests in Asian cultures, if not world culture in general. It gives us a world overview of how life was like in Heian era Japan.

Well, just a quick entry. Still working on other projects, but I’ll truly keep in touch.

• Mood: Hungry

Dang, just as I was still working on re-organizing the sections in this blog, I’ve got a request from three dudes in the same house to build a joint “friends blog” hosted in one of my domains. Most likely Akaliane. Well, might as well get to it.

They did allow me to invite a few of my friends (some online, some real-life) just so they would know that they’ve got a following of readers. Originally it was going to be private with just a bunch of their friends in their college and outside college, however they did invite me to join with them and OK to invite some friends as long as they don’t do anything that would ruin their “privacy.” Well, what can you do about it? I do intend to invite the friends I really trust, so…

Somehow, this new project made me feel happy again after the somewhat of a heartbreak of closing down AMNOS.net (Arashi fansite function) for good. When this “friends blog” is done, would you read and follow them? ^^;