Up Against the Wall

I think my sense of art these days is inspired by the streets and idle walls. Although it doesn't help me that much 'cause what I need most right now is to inject teen spirit to the kind of layout and imagery I'm doing, maybe the colors of street art can inspire my somewhat minimalistic tendencies. hehe

I think street art is not just found in the streets, but in box arts, wallpapers and T-shirts as well. Since the art can be offensive sometimes (it's said to be first and foremost for expression but it shouldn't be an excuse), just look at the nice ones, right? And we shouldn't deny that the attractive forms and colors are really transcending boundaries of not just established art, but well, one's own private yard.

Here are some stunning! examples.


This sculpture is by rather famous graffiti artist only known as "Revs" featured in NYtimes.com



2D or 3D? Street art at its finest. I'm sorry, my source on this one was lost.


nd finally, a trompe l'oeil series by artist Dan Witz featured in Time.com

Photo credit: untitledname.com, Dan Witz -Time.com.
Note: This post was edited on March 20, 2007. Some parts have been taken out and replaced.

Poor Bill

A real conversation over dinner:

Person 1: "Mahirap na si Bill Gates, third na lang siya sa List of Billionaires."
Person 2: "Oo nga, kawawa naman siya."
Me: "Bakit kaya? Pinamigay niya kaya kayamanan niya?"

WHEN HAS BILL GATES EVER BECOME KAWAWA? Absurd.

Pictured here is a Maybach Exelero. This and its relatives cost around $500,000 each. Cringe. I feel like it's worth more than I am. I learned about this auto and dozen other soulless creations from reading Forbes.com regularly.

Forbes.com desensitizes readers (or at least me) from figures. $40 billion is just small if it doesn't make you the richest person on earth. This makes Facebook wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg with his $1.5 billion even poorer. Though I can't imagine how much that is, I have to settle with the figures which mark their rankings. That's my only visual option anyway. I guess I would never see the real amount my whole life. Well, yeah, maybe when the lined-up zeros materialize into million dollar high-tech estates or Bugatti Veyrons or cruise ships or Boeings. Maybe.

But still, it's all theoretical to me, and unfortunately also to majority of the world's $6 billion population. I'd rather see those figures take shape into efficient inventions and designs that are cheap enough for a third world average citizen to purchase and sustainable enough to be used for a long time -- you know, like the one I featured in my May 31, 2007 post. Or like this (very inexpensive!) computer for children that helps improve functional literacy.

photo credit: nytimes.com and digiads.com

It's Not As Easy As It Was In High School

"You probably didn't have to think about exercising in high school. You ran track and played basketball on the weekends, and there was always daily gym class. But in college you weren't good enough to make a team and quickly found other ways to spend your time. An inability to cope with change is one of the biggest reasons physical activity declines as we transition from adolescents to young adults, says McMaster University researcher Steven Bray." --Forbes.com

This is 100% true for me, even the basketball on weekends (and weekdays!) part. But now, no matter how much I really need exercise because I fall asleep awfully in classes --sometimes even extending to 30 minutes in a 1 and half hour class-- I still don't make time for it. I never fully intend to sleep when I don't have to, but my body just does. Sometimes I wake up in class and get surprised that I even feel asleep yet again. And sometimes it breaks my heart especially if I like the teacher anyway but I keep on breaking down.

And now that the exams are coming and everyone is just working their hearts off to finish everything, I can't afford to sneak even one minute of nap aside from evening sleep.