WHAT IS LENT?
Lent is a period in the Christian Liturgical year in which (certain) Christians prepare the commemoration of the Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The preparation includes prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. It’s pretty much the same as Ramadan for the Islamic Religion, except that we abstain from meat and meat products on Ash Wednesday, every Fridays during the period, and on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday during Holy Week. We also abstain from one of our usual habits (for some reason, it’s usually a type of favorite food that we like to eat to one of our everyday habits, like playing videogames, shopping and going to the mall, and all that). Depending on the Christian sect (Catholic, Orthodox, etc.), the Lent period usually lasts for forty days and forty nights.

Before Ash Wednesday, there are some nations where they have a huge celebration of going “all out” on Tuesday, such as Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, Carnival in South America, and Pancake Day in the UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland. They do this because they know it would be their last day of “going all out” before they abstain in to excessive habits the next day.

More on Lent here: Wikipedia – Lent

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• Current Location: Work (San Francisco)
• Currently Drinking: White Cranberry Peach juice
• Currently Eating: Crunchitos
• Mood: Sleepy

So, one of the greatest moments in sports begun last Friday, the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, BC (British Columbia), Canada. I always felt that 2010 would be a good year for me, or rather, hopeful that I would have a good year this year.  The Olympics was always something I look forward to, simply because I am a general sports fan. I get excited just seeing all these athletes all over the world compete in these different sport events and fulfill their dreams and desires. Many athletes are just excited to be able to compete in the Olympics and experience one of the greatest, possibly a once-in-a-lifetime moment or an ongoing moment in their lives. Some athletes dream of challenging themselves that they can achieve their personal best and the whole world gets to witness these personal bests being made. And then there is the rarity where some athletes are under pressure by the expectations of their home countries where their goals are either Olympic Gold or nothing, which to many people, is a dream that is near impossible unless you seriously have to put a lot of your time and your effort— even safe to say to give up your life— in order to be perfect with whatever sport you may do.

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• Currently Drinking: Mint Chocolate Rooibos Milk Tea
• Currently Reading: The Pillow Book by Sei Shounagon
• Currently Watching: 2010 Winter Olympics
• Mood: Sleepy

Three things going on in that particular day. Best part of it all, it’s a three-day weekend for me. Yay President’s Day! Sure, most of you peeps are probably groan on this particular day due to a certain celebration that majority of the people in the world somewhat abhor or simply don’t really care about, but hey, it’s also a brand-new year for many people at many parts of the world, so don’t fret! February 14th still rocks!

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• Currently Drinking: Crystal Light Sunrise Classic Orange Juice
• Currently Eating: Baked Crunchitos
• Currently Reading: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

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.

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• 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.

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• 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.

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• Mood: Rushed