2011: The Good, The Bad and Some Changes

First off, I would like to greet everyone a HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

From the multimedia industry (game development companies and associations) to the academe to the blogosphere to my wonderful colleagues, my readers, professors, classmates, former students, fellow bloggers, friends and family: Thank you all for being part of my 2011. You have made my year very memorable.

You may have noticed that I started updating less and less during the middle part of the year, but the irony was that I was in so many places -- seemingly at once -- and that there were a lot of stories to share. I just hardly had the time to actually sit down and actually savor them all. Hence my online life had been reduced to 150 characters per post on micro-blogging/social networking sites, posting while on the go. (Thank you, Samsung Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab!)

Anyway, 2011 had been a year of victory for me, even though half of it was spent dealing with a lot of self-esteem issues (for both work and my studies). Let me just be thankful for the following.

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com


The Good

• Bagged two multimedia (web-related) awards. Won at both the 12th Philippine Web Awards in April and the 2011 Philippine Blog Awards in December.
• Held an exhibit (Transitions in February) that had me exploring various traditional and new media techniques.
• Became a Producer for Anino Games Inc. I was also a Communications Director for a short while, but requested to step down because visits to the hospital (due to stress) became a regular thing. Haha!
• Passed my PhD candidacy exam in May.
• Successfully defended my doctoral dissertation proposal in November.
• Meeting some of my readers during the earlier part of the year.
• Collaborating with heads of various CHED and TESDA institutions (DLSU, FEU-EA, UP, DLS-CSB, APC, Informatics, PLM, FEATI), ironically when I have already left the academe.
• My company winning in two categories at the Philippine Game Development Festival 2011. One for Best Browser Game (Lords and Colonies) and another for the Cultural Award (Jan-Jan the Jeepney, a project with CCP & CICT).
• Getting warm feedback from the production teams I have been handling. I have been blessed with developers who are extremely intelligent, talented, industrious and ultra supportive of each other. I want to win awards for our games in 2012 so... Hahahahaha! (Ambisyosa ba?)
• My brother Pau getting married to the kind and beautiful Keng, resulting to a very hectic but productive October - December.
• Traveling to Cebu, Singapore and Hong Kong.
• On mentoring: I consider it a victory that even though I no longer am teaching, there are still students and graduates from various schools that contact/visit me for consultations and they have successfully passed their defenses/presentations/interviews. I am honored by the trust these extremely talented students have bestowed upon me.

Truly, 2011 was so generous to me that even my former boss, Gerard Cadlum, said: "Congratulating you is getting boring =)"

So if I had such a blessed year, how come I had self-esteem issues? Hahaha. Well, it can't be helped. Some of my friends say that I am too hard on myself, but sometimes there are things that are out of your control so...

"Piled Higher and Deeper" by Jorge Cham www.phdcomics.com

The Bad

• Delayed projects due to forces beyond our control.
• For some reason, I became insecure of my own dissertation. After passing the defense, I suddenly felt like I don't know what I'm doing. Heh.
• Loss of time for myself and my friends. Hence, the lack of blog updates.
• High levels of stress causing me so much physical strain (and weight loss) that I am now on a special diet in order to manage it. (Broke that diet during the holidays and ate everything the doctor forbade and gained back the weight I lost. Hahahaha! Made up for it by drinking lots of Yakult and staying on meds. xD)
• Deaths of people I consider important, both personally and those I idolized from afar. There were just too many of them in 2011.

Changes to Blogging Habits

Since 2011 has been my year of individuality, 2012 is actually going to be the opposite even though my forecasts for the Year of the Dragon indicate that I will be very successful in individual endeavors. (It also says there is a possibility of seeing dead people. Wah!!!! Thank goodness, it's superstition.)

On blog updates: Because I will have lesser time for myself in 2012 -- as I will devote myself to being a Producer (I want to win awards for games I produced this time, di ba? Hehe) -- the content of my blogs will be severely...hm. Let's just say I want to concentrate on posts that have deep significance to me.

The biggest irony of 2011 for me, blog-wise, was that I have been receiving a deluge of event and commercial requests when I hardly have time to spare for myself. I was afraid to log into my personal email because there were hundreds of stuff to read. (And many of them are still unread, huhuhuhu!!!) I don't want to break my ties with my favorite PR companies, though, so I have decided that press releases and product endorsements would be relegated to my Facebook page, Skysenshi's Hermitage, where I will also be holding contests from time to time.

From now on, the only time I will actually post a product-related event on any of my blogs is if I have personally attended an event and experienced the product for myself. How's that for compromise?

I hope this turns out to be a win-win situation for all.

Again, happy new year to all and I'm wishing everyone a great 2012. In the meantime, do enjoy a bit of fun with astrological (both Western and Eastern) forecasts. Hehe.

Like this post? Subscribe to this blog NOW.
Or become a Facebook Fan for updates, contests and discussions.

Hong Kong Nights 2011

From the moment we arrived in Hong Kong, it was very clear how commercial the entire place was. It was around midnight then but the streets of Kowloon was still buzzing with activity and was very well-lighted.

I was actually shocked that we were in Kowloon, haha. Because the last time I was there (approximately 14 years ago), it looked a lot like a more packed Binondo. Kowloon now is full of well-lighted modern buildings -- you can hardly tell where one started and one ended -- with Chanel and Sasa branches in every corner. Marking Chanel as a landmark there is like marking Mini Stop as a landmark here.

I saw HK mostly at night. I mentioned in my previous post that during the day, Cris and I would be stuck in the largest convention center I have ever seen. That being the case, we did our best to entertain ourselves, while fighting the temptation to buy just about everything in sight.

Ah...and our worst experience while traveling, I guess, was when these bunch of gargantuan, Amazon-like party girls pulled then pushed us away from the cab we were grabbing. We were there first, huh! They were big bullies in the literal sense and were talking in super fast and super loud tones but I suppose that was part of the adventure. I was actually tempted to take a photo of them and then blog about the experience but they were 5...and like I said, huge. I've seen YouTube videos of people being mauled in Hong Kong that I dare not risk ending up in the hospital. (My mom, who used to work for San Miguel Corporation in HK, says they're probably not really from HK and promptly blamed another country. LOL.)

In any case, we still had fun. After recovering from the shock, that is, as I have never encountered such monumental rudeness in all my travels. Anyhoo, here are some snippets of our fun nights in HK. You can also view the rest of the photos on the Skysenshi's Hermitage Facebook Page.

Second night: Studying the map at a Japanese restaurant in Kowloon. The funny thing is, despite having a map, we'd still get lost.

Satisfied. I think I can't stop eating Japanese food everywhere.

Cris pointing to an old school bottle-cap. I miss these, actually, as I think the new ones are kinda weird (they dip into your drink, ew).

I was in the mood for something warm and sea weed heavy. This udon dish hit the spot.

Cris loves tonkatsu!

The next day, we decided to book a cruise ship dinner at the hotel lobby just before leaving for the Siggraph convention.

Another cruise ship over thar. The lights in HK are beautiful at night.

More lights. ^_^

This is what the cruise ship looks like from the inside. I didn't take photos of the buffet tables because they looked messy (after all the tourists had gotten to them), but there were lots and lots and lots.

Our entertainment. Cris actually guessed that they were Filipinos, and when I smiled at that girl over there, we seem to have understood each other.

That's the funny thing. I kept getting asked about directions from Mainland Chinese and their questions were in Chinese...which had me checking the mirror to make sure that my eyes still looked big. Got the same reaction from Singaporeans.  But Pinoys can tell, even the ones that I thought were Singaporeans because they spoke fluent Singlish.

What I ate. Well, about half of it since I came back for seconds, thirds, fourth...Needless to say, those pounds I lost in the last 7 months due to stress? I ate my way back to them.

Beautiful Symphony of Lights. HK is renowned for them. What happens is that at a certain time during the night, many of the popular buildings would do an exhibition of lights. More photos of that in the Facebook Page.

Viewing the city through the windows. It's actually cold up on the deck so I quickly climbed back down after the Symphony of Lights.

The showgirls performing Nobody, which was the only song I recognized since they seem to be singing ancient Chinese songs all the time...and a few ancient Japanese songs as well.

Ah, this is what the convention center looks like. Those green lights change to pink.

The legendary Hong Kong Clock Tower. We took the scenic route after the cruise and passed by the Avenue of Stars, which is like the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Posing by the harbor.

Finally got to the Avenue of Stars. Sorry, I couldn't get a proper shot of the lady's head. This place is better seen during the day, as there are lots of interesting statues to see.

The marker of an actress with an enchanting name. I took photos of Jackie Chan's, Bruce Lee's (of course!), Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and other HK actors that I know of. Jackie Chan's marker had his hand prints. You can see more photos here.

Just had to take a photo of this Chinese junk. The reds were beautiful.

Bruce Lee!

Busy busy busy nights steeped in commerce.

And thiiiiiiiis...is a giant Ferrero Christmas Tree.

Up close. Enough to make a chocolate-lover's mouth water.

Ah, this is street food. I believe they're called bubble waffles. They're so much fun to eat, especially when you're walking down so many avenues. ^_^;

Up next, HK by day. But that was just a few hours before our flight so we didn't get to explore much.

Like this post? Subscribe to this blog NOW.
Or become a Facebook Fan for updates, contests and discussions.

Siggraph Hong Kong 2011

I'm actually going to have to divide my posts into three parts: work, night time and day time. Why? Because the entire time I was in HK, I spent most of the daylight inside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center at Wanchai. By the time I'd go out of the convention center, dark had already descended and there was nothing left to see but overly lighted shopping malls.

Like I mentioned in my Singapore trip, the next time I visit a country, I must add LEISURE to my itinerary because what the heck is traveling for if you can't even enjoy what the land has to offer? Luckily for my HK trip, I had half a day/weekend (just before my flight) to go around. Still not enough because we should've been able to explore history, art and culture.

Ok, let's start with work.
(You can view all 90 photos at the Facebook page, along with each exhibitor's artist notes. It's difficult to choose, really, and I ended up with 21 photos for this blog still.)

Siggraph is the brainchild of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and is usually held in the US and Canada. This is the Asian leg. What you'll normally expect are presentation of technical papers, art exhibits (and by that I mean multimedia art, not just visual art), emerging technologies and animation festivals.

My thoughts on that at the end of this blog post.

I heard that this cover was done by Bryan Sola, a former student.

Now this is a multimedia installation art. That thing over there changes shape depending on what's being projected. The logic is simple, really, but the results are amazing.

A booth by an animation studio.

Autodesk's is my favorite even though it looks weird. Haha!

Lucasfilm is one of the partners of Siggraph Asia 2011.

I had my lunch in the mall adjacent to the convention center. This strangely feels European.

Back to the convention center. The place is so huge, we almost got lost. The only comparison I can name is probably SM Mall of Asia x 2. You can put around 4-6 SMX's inside it, I think.

Cris testing a Korean invention that's reminiscent of Alexander Graham Bell's earlier experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson.

After a few seconds, your reflection on the mirror changes into that of a holographic animal. Here, I see a giraffe.

This is actually my favorite piece in the entire exhibit. Judith Darmont is a photographer but instead of stopping at regular still images, she demonstrated her multimedia arts expertise by coming up with an interactive experience for her audience. Full explanation starting here. (I included her artist notes among the photos.)

This interactive painting is from Japan. If you look closely, I am sitting at the table, supposedly celebrating my birthday (I lighted the candle at the middle), while one of the creatures comes out with my cake. At the middle of the painting is a furry animal carrying my cake.

A rather simple presentation, but very beautiful. I was drawn to this.

Here is a game you play by moving your entire body. Controlling that projection can be quite tricky. If you move too fast, the character falls off. If you move too slow, you don't get to reach the goal.

A coloring book coming to life in 3D right before my very eyes.

Aaaand I took a photo of Cris with Adrian as he was demonstrating the project...because I thought he looked cute. LOL.

These little robotic critters would follow you around.

Ken Perlin of New York University discusses graphics.

I love how he is talking on the podium but plays with a holographic image on his projection. The topic was about the future of user interfaces and how human beings are hard-wired for face-to-face interaction despite the advancement of technlogy.

Cris having a discussion with Lucasfilm people after a seminar.

Can't leave Siggraph without a photo. Hehe.

Ok, on to my thoughts:
Professors and industry practitioners in our Philippine multimedia scene would probably stab me with pitchforks for this but it has to be said. It saddens me that we are not participating in such a research-oriented endeavor but I can see why.

Schools are still busy internally arguing whether multimedia programs should be based on Fine Arts, Computer Science, Media Arts or Behavioral Science when this shouldn't be so. We have gone beyond fine arts, beyond technology, beyond traditional media. Most local schools are either one way or the other, when it shouldn't be so. I've seen university projects in the exhibit that have shown that they can marry Fine Arts concepts rather well with Information Technology, even interweaving terminologies expertly in their artist notes.

(Heck, animation itself is not solely about aesthetics, but there's a lot of physics involved. In Siggraph, you don't hear multimedia students and practitioners complain that they only want to do photography. Instead, they take pride and joy in pushing the boundaries of their craft to the next level, expertly using technology as a tool in order to do so.)

Now for our industry...We don't put much value on research and design because many companies think that it is not profitable. Which is true. And sad. Because I don't really want to be a third party developer forever. I want to innovate and come up with something that I can call my creation, even at the expense of my own pockets. Like the universities that are sponsored by exhibiting companies in Siggraph. (Watching Ken Perlin up there made me sorely miss being a professor, experimenting with stuff that I would later present and get funding for.)

We have a long way to go, it seems. We're still stuck in "this is how things have always been done" thinking when we should be breaking out of the industrial age way of doing things, especially since we're handling new media. But I dunno...Somehow, Siggraph gave me a lot of realizations about the things I really want to pursue and I'm looking at the coming year as my waiting period, since I can't do anything but absorb information in the meantime.

Up next: 
What we did in HK every night, at the end of each conference day.

Like this post? Subscribe to this blog NOW.
Or become a Facebook Fan for updates, contests and discussions.

Singapore and Sitex Expo 2011

Today is officially "Chase Blog Backlogs" day. I can only chase one backlog per blog so I'm choosing to post about my Singapore experience last month. Was there from November 25 to 27.

Unlike my brief sojourn in Singapore four years ago, which was mostly leisure, this trip was really just about the Sitex IT Expo. Cris and I spent our mornings and afternoons in Singapore Expo and what was left of the night was spent on food tripping and exploring whatever we can. In short, we didn't really get to see much outside that convention center.

What I noticed, though, is that many things have changed in the last four years. It's like Singapore is just so eager to make itself as "vertical" as Hong Kong. Culturally speaking, Singaporeans are the same geeky bunch that they've always been (and I love them for it even if they kept talking to Cris and me in Chinese). It's really just their structures that suddenly feel like they sprouted out of nowhere.

Took a photo of the MRT area. I think one of the best features of the country is how easy the transportation system is. You can use one card for both the MRT and their bus lines. Getting anywhere is such a breeze. I like the fact that there was a lot of walking involved and it was good for my circulation.

LOL. Ok, couldn't resist having a photo with the pink Christmas tree. It's so cotton candy cute! =^.^=

This is one of the NEW things that I noticed. That beautiful line of glass buildings fronting the Marina Sands. Last time I visited the country, the Marina Sands had yet to exist. What's nice about this is that to further tourism growth, there are artists that would perform in this area for free on weekends.

My cousin Angel wanted to take us to Singapore's version of Mercato, but since I cannot gorge on fried food, we opted to go to the hawkers. That's probably the only place where I can find some good and cheap vegetarian meals.

La Pa Sat Festival Market. This was where Cris, Angel and I had dinner. The only thing I don't like about the food is that it's so difficult to find non-spicy dishes. Now I understand why Indians have lassi. You really need yogurt drinks for digestion.

Sitex IT Expo. I didn't get to buy anything for myself so I'm not quite sure if I enjoyed this place. I wanted to get a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0+ but it turns out that it isn't in the market yet.

Our  CEO gave me money to buy a laptop for the QA Director. I got a good deal since it cost a mere SGD999 (and came with free memory upgrade to 8GB). I should have waited for this trip before I accepted my company laptop a couple of months ago, hahahaha.

The thing about expos like this is that it sort of reminded me of Divisoria. You dive in there, braving the throng of people going in and out, and haggle about pricing.

And then you get to see people with varying accents tell you how great and inexpensive their digital products are. Most of the stalls had that charming guy with a mic.

One funny experience we have here was that Singaporeans talked to us in Chinese while Filipinos quickly identified us and they immediately switched to Tagalog when dealing with us. The irony is that, those Filipinos looked Chinese to me and I initially thought they were because they spoke Singlish proficiently. Despite the confusion, there were hardly any language barriers because Singaporeans can switch to clear English in a snap. (I say "clear" because many Asians, us included, tend to sound like we're chewing English words.)

What actually shocked me was that for every hour that passed, the prices dropped by SGD100. By afternoon, most of the products have either been sold out or already worth half of what they originally cost.

Above: Sony had one of the best-looking booths in the place.

I was actually raising my camera to take photos because I could not see anything but heads.

More people with microphones.

Cris was able to buy herself a Samsung laptop, a Lenovo tablet for her mom (Tita May), and a portable hard disk drive. Most of them cost about half or 3/4th the price of the gadgets you'd find in the Philippines.

I forgot the name of this Japanese restaurant that served so-so tasting dishes. The portions are huge, though.

That's my cousin Angel smiling for the cam.

Maybe this photo should help identify our location. Hehe.

The interiors are posh. The building itself reminded me of our own Power Plant mall at the Rockwell area.

Cris obsessing over a map. She does this every time we travel. For Singapore, though, she doesn't need this map much since the country is so OC and systematic that getting lost is nearly impossible.

Chillaxing just before leaving for the airport. We had about four hours left before departure so Cris and Angel played Halo on Angel's XBox.

Our last photo of Singapore. This one was taken at the Changi Airport. This is probably the first set of green Christmas trees I've seen.

All in all, I wish I could return to Singapore for a real vacation. When I can explore the place for its own sake and not because I'm in a convention, where I'm cooped up inside an enclosed hall for most of the days. I swear, when I've graduated, I will do just that.

For more photos of our nightly explorations, visit the Skysenshi's Hermitage FB page.

My next post will be about my recent Hong Kong trip, which was a lot more intimidating. (Had some minor trouble with what my mom suspects are people from Mainland China.) 

Like this post? Subscribe to this blog NOW.
Or become a Facebook Fan for updates, contests and discussions.