Faster and Better Bestfriend

my 1st edit on my new PC spec ^^

I got my b-day gift in advance and it was the speeding up of the performance of one of my bestfriend, my PC. I have two best friends and my PC is on of it. I named it “Distroyd”. We’re been together for almost 2 years. It is my partner and I spend most of the time with it more than anything else.

Few months ago, I asked my parents to have my CPU upgraded because of its low speed. It can’t accommodate my gaming and application needs. That time my procesor was a lame Pentium 4 and I only got 64mb graphics card(quite extinct nowadays lol ^^). It hangs a lot during the times I’m using heavy wares like Photoshop and Corel. Despite of my PC’s low specification, I still install it with Adobe CS3 and Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 and bear the consequences.It is so frustrating working with my PC’s performance. Multitasking is what I need. I want to edit pics and listen to music or play a game at the same time.

My parents gave my 15k for the upgrade of my PC(Whoa 2^nd largest amount of money I’ve held hihi). They said “Kaw na bahala”. Hearing it from them makes me so excited for the next things that would happen thinking that 15k is too much but it isjust enough. With the money, I was able to buy the following:

-ASUS motherboard
-512mb NVIDIA GeForce 8400 SE
-DVD writer and labeler
-1 gig DDR2 ram
-2 pieces of 160 gig SATA Hard Disk
-Core2Duo Processor E7200 2.53GHz

At home, I immediately assemble it and install it with Adobe CS3. And men it rocks. It’s really faster than the old one. Its speed is equivalent to two computers. The graphics is more clearer. The best thing was it executes photoshop in less than 20 seconds unlike the old one that takes 3-4 minutes. I hope my photo editing skills would be enhance now that I have a more faster best friend.

Josh Farro in action

This morning, I turn on my PC and look for a picture to edit. I dig up my Paramore collection folder and browse some pics. I choose the picture of Josh Farro. It was taken two years ago during their 1st hit album “All We Know Is Falling”. For me, he’s one of the best guitarist ever made. I am one of his fans and the pierce on my lips proves it (trying to be like him though I stop putting earrings). He used to be a backing vocals for Hayley (hope they become more than friends ^_^. I love their tandem).

Here is the pic:

Here is the edited one:

The first thing that I did was to erase its background by making a selection using the pen tool and delete it. Next was to turn Josh’s picture into a silhouette by adding a black color overlay on its layer effect. I created a radial gradient as my background and adjust its level to show some highlights. I duplicate Josh’s image remove its color overlay and desaturate it. Using the soft brush I erase some parts of it to show some depths. Then I began adding some vector curves and glowing stars. For the finishing touches I turn it into a multicolor picture using large soft brushes scattered around the image with an overlay blending and opacity of 50%.
I always try to do my own style in designing. I apply the things I know in one single image. Yes its true, tutorials online are great but I try to create my own art by not looking on tutorials. My photoshop motto is “Design is not about the looks, it’s the imagination behind it that counts”.

My 3rd flash profile for Friendster

Aside from photoshop, I’m also into Flash Designing. I use Adobe Flash CS3 in creating animations. I still don’t have the subject that tackles about flash making but then I’m studying it by myself to be advanced and it’s more challenging than photoshop. From the past, I used to finish one simple animation for 3 hours and I can’t repeat it without looking to the tutorial. I experience not just a nosebleed but also brainbleed. I download and watch tutorials on the web and it really helps a lot. Flash can also be used as your profile in friendster. The first flash profile that I have created is a techy one and until now I’m still using it for my friendster. The second was a cute one. It is a girly one and it’s for my friend Joni.

Last Saturday, I started doing my third flash layout. A friend requested it to me. Her name was Dixie. She asked me for a dark theme. She’s kinda rockstar so I just look forward to a boyish thing flash profile. I ask her to provide the information and pictures that I’ll be putting on the profile. And finally, after a week I’m done with it. It’s so cool. Honestly, I envy her profile. It’s more beautiful than my profile (^^,)

Here’s the screen capture of it:

To see it in action click here

My 1st Drawing in Photoshop

Finally I’m done with my first drawing in photoshop. This is my first attempt and I choose “Doraemon” because it looks like it’s easy to draw. The first thing that I did was to draw his head by creating a round shape filled with blue color and a 2 pixels black stroke for its layer property. It took me a long time choosing the color that fits well. I exert a lot of effort on it because the real beauty of your work is seen in its colors. Next thing that I did is to draw his body, which is a painful one because you need to treat your mouse as a pencil. Damn, I can’t remember how many times I use the eraser tool. I have used the pen tool most of the time. They say that pen tool is the most useful of all. You can do many things with it so now I’m trying to enhance my skills on it. When I’m done with his entire body, I color it with blue similar to the fill of his head and a red color for his nose. I add some Japanese writings behind him, a metal scratches image with overlay as its layer blending and texts with a 2-3 pixels black stroke. It is composed of 52 layers including the background. I finished my drawing for almost two hours.

TIPS(rofl):
Patience… a lot of patience
Imagination
Pretend that you’re an artist (lol)
Choose the color that fits
Love your mouse… handle it with care (haha)
Don’t hate the pen tool… it is the boss (>.<)

you can download the psd file here:

http://rapidshare.com/files/165208309/doraemon.psd.html

My 8th Nightmare

Last night was a terrible one. My 8th nightmare happens. A very frightening dream occurs. I don’t know why I’m prone to nightmares. I don’t eat a lot at night w/c most of the people say as the reason for it. I though I was gonna die. All my nightmares are like reality. All fears are in there. It feels like your killed little by little by those fears in the middle of your dreams.
I sleep at around 8 pm. I only eat 3 pieces of munchkins and drink a glass of water (well this not too much right?). I sleep early because I’m planning to continue the doraemon drawing in photoshop in the morning. The nightmare attacks at around 2 am. These are the things I remember on my nightmare:

-I was walking and all I can see is black and suddenly after taking few steps, I fall into a hole that looks like a never ending one. I saw a small light and I try to reach it with my hands. The light got smaller as I continue falling at the hole. I reach the bottom of the hole and it is a deep body of water. Someone is pushing my head down trying to drown me.

-the next thing that happen was I’m again back to the dark surface. I was talking to myself wondering why all I can see is black. I am screaming and I’m the only one who hears it and I thought I’m awake. From that, I become aware that I’m having a nightmare. I want to wake up but I can’t.

-the next scene was I am lying on a grass and saw darkness slowly covering the light. I look behind and I saw a bed. I lie down on the bed to sleep. After few seconds, I saw someone beside me trying to wake me up. I don’t know who he is. His face is covered and wears a black cape. He holds a book on his/her hand. He covers my eyes with his hands and as I open my eyes again all I can see is darkness. A gun was aimed at the back of my head. He whispered “Why” and he pulls the trigger. With the gunshot I woke up back into reality.

When I woke up, I was catching for my breath. I feel like I came from a long run. I’m so exhausted that time. My eyes are teary and I’m sweating a lot. I make a sign of the cross and said “I’m glad I’m alive, thank you Lord”. I drink a glass of water and went back to bed but I’m thinking if I would still continue to sleep. I’m afraid it might happen again so I turn on my pc and design a picture with a theme “nightmare”.

Here is the pic:

I used a vector skull and colored it. i add some strokes to shapes and a sunburst for my background.

The Santa in me

Yesterday, I was riding a jeep on my way home and suddenly an old couple sits beside me. Their age is around 60-70 I guess ^^. They look exhausted. Obviously they were carolers because the old man wears a xylophone around his neck and the old lady was carrying a tambourine. The old lady has teary eyes and I don’t know why. On the halfway of our trip, the couple told the driver that they don’t have money. The old man said “Please sir we don’t earn money today”. The driver stops the jeepney and said “I’m sorry but you have to get off”. Tears fall from the couple. From their eyes you could see that they are telling the truth. When the couple is about to get off the jeep, I said to the driver “I’m gonna pay for them. I took a 50 peso bill from my pocket and gave it to the driver. The old couple is really happy. They say thanks to me and I smiled at them. I talk to them and I ask why don’t they earn and they said the old man says “we aren’t lucky today, this s the only thing we could do to live.” Damn stupid poverty. Even at their age they work hard. They travel far just to carol. The old man said to me “would you mind if we sing for you?” I said “sure, I would love too.” The couple took their instruments and began singing “Boomtarattarat” (do I spell it right?). The old man plays his xylophone with her wife playing the tambourine. Damn they are good. The old man, He rocks. They are so talented. After there performance the passengers clap their hands. They were stunned by the couple’s talent. Wow an amazing act inside a public utility jeepney. Before I get off the jeep, I give 100 pesos to the old man and said “Lo and La merry Christmas. The old man has a shake hand with me and said “thank you and God bless you”. It feels so good helping others even in a small way. It’s an addition to my countable good deeds ^_^

Ouch my friend cuts himself

A friend of mine shows me a picture of his bleeding arm, Emo! He used to cut himself with a blade. Ouch! He’s a brave one. I asked him what’s the reason why he is doing it is. He replied, “I always do this when I’m sad”. Whoa, what a painful way to recover hahaha.

I want to try it even though I’m not sad. Try it just for fun and I’m just curious what the feeling is. I was at my room and took a blade. This is it pancit hehe. The blade is already at my right arm but then I stopped. I can’t do it. I don’t know how to start. It’s my first time to cut myself. I hate first times. I become afraid that I might cut myself so deep and die. I keep the blade for future use. I can’t do it now.

After that, I write a poem that’s like a suicide note. Here is the poem:

Answered by death

Looking at myself in the mirror
Shows wounds unseen for the long time
Feeling a bloodless useless creature
I pitied my reflection being tortured
Diagnose with melancholic syndrome
With acute perishable heart
I was blinded by never ending darkness
Venom keeps flowing through my veins
I just keep the pain out of sight
I’m out of tears to cry
A strong piece of me yet fractured
I always feel secured around knives
Digging out myself from a shallow grave
Looking for the light into reality
What is the purpose of breathing?
When every air you inhale is a threat
The thorns that I embrace in my entire life
And the punishing blows that I don’t see
Corrupts my soul as time passes by
Hope the hell will be a cold place
Coz I’ll be the soon screaming why
Why all bullshits were showered upon me?
Why the suffering keeps on coming?
Why do I have to let go of what I wanted?
The thing called destiny pisses me off
Should I stay or should I go?
Maybe this blade could answer all my questions
I cut myself and bleed a lot
And found out that death is the answer
In an instant a failure’s life ended

Back to School

Today, the semester starts. New classmates, new cheat mates lol! Last night after finishing the picture that I’ll be using for this blog, I went to bed around 9 pm. I woke up at 7 am still wearing earphones hahaha coz last night before going to sleep; I listen to music with my IPod and sleep over it.

My class starts at 10:30 am w/c is good so that I’m gonna have more quality time with my PC >.< I turn on my best friend and start doing my daily habit; listening to Paramore songs and live concerts. I get used to it since my first year in college and as of now I already have a 3 gigabytes Paramore folder ^_^

I left home at 8:45 and arrived at school at 9:30. I have half an hour to spend at my favorite hangout, at 7 Eleven. After some snacks, I go to my first subject and it’s a major class. Nothings change. A corny teacher and a bunch of not so close to me classmates. Well, the word friendly maybe doesn’t fits me or maybe just because I talk a little in the class. I’m already in my 3rd year but I only know few names of my classmates. Even the name of our college dean is a blank to me. They just approach me in times of paper shortage. I sit on my favorite part of the room, at the back. A very good position to avoid being called and being caught taking some stolen naps XD

Whoa, the first boring hour of the semester has finally gone by. It is time for my next subject. Hope it wouldn’t be like the first one. Our subject will be all about the Philippine Constitution. Again I park myself at the back. In this subject, all the faces are new to me. I think I’m the only I.T. student in the class. A guy weirder than me, a fashion’s victim girl, an oldie about 25 years of age, a good looking gay, a 6 footer girl and a tall dark and never mind guy as my teacher. We started the class by introducing ourselves one by one (damn only first years do this WTF).

And here is what I said (a “papansin” one):
“I’m Lhancer Soriano, 3rd year I.T. student. I talk a little inside the class. I spend most of my time with my best friend my computer. Editing pictures and blogging are my hobbies. The longest time that I was in front of my PC is 12 hours straight. If you have time visit my blog at piecesoffailure.blogspot.com and also get in touch with me through my YM hayleymore_27. I love breaking the rules so I expect to learn more of it in this subject”.
All my classmates laugh and my teacher does too.

Finally, I’m done with my second subject. Again back to 7 Eleven for some snacks. My next class would be at 1:30. Humanities is next in line. Most of my classmates are girls. I think I’m out of place in that subject. Another encounter with a boring hour happens. I just give my class card and escape from the class. Well it’s just the first day the teacher won’t discuss for sure.

Now I’m on my last subject. It’s the major subject that I drop last semester. OMG the same teacher.
All of us already thinks that our subject is in danger. A subject under the class of this instructor would be painful one. Your nose won’t only bleed but also your brain would bleed too. It’s difficult to pass a subject under her but this time I’ll focus on this to be able to pass it and to remove my grades on the chopping block.

Great Escape

Last sembreak, me and my countable friends decided to have an outing at Tondol Beach in Anda Pangasinan. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to come coz my parents would not allow me. But no ne can stop me lol. I escape from our home for the outing. I don’t care if they’ll get mad. This would happen only once in my life so I just bite into the opportunity.

Anda is far from our place. We left the bus station at 5:30. The trip was a pain. You’ll be bored at your seat. Good thing I have my phone to listen some music. We have passed 8 towns and I said to myself “are we still in Pangasinan?” This place is farther than Baguio. We arrive at Anda at 8:30 pm. I though we were already on the beach thinking it was a walking distance from were we are. One of my friend who lives there that told us that we still need to travel a 12 kilometer travel in a tricycle. WTF, the fare is 120.

The road to the beach is so scary. No streetlights around. The only light you could see is the light coming from the tricycle. The place is very rural. There’s no signal on our phones. After a 30 minutes ride, we arrived at my friends house. His father welcomes us. They are so hospitable. After eating there, we decided to go to the beach for a walk at the shore. On the way to the beach, still no lights. We use the lights from our phones to see the road. When we arrive at the beach, we can’t see its beauty but we can still see the white sand. We return at my friend’s house, play cards for a while and went to sleep.

We woke up early coz we’re excited to show our talent in swimming lol. We are amazed of the beach’s beauty. You could compare it to Boracay because of the sand. We rent a cottage and put our foods and stuffs there. We walk at the shore and take some pictures. We captured 200 plus pictures of happy and stupid moments. While taking pictures, we noticed an island. Even in a distance we could see its beauty.

We don’t know the island’s name and one of my friends told us that it is the “Isla Babae”. We laugh of what he says and we decided to go to that island. “Wow challenging” I said to myself. I love challenges. Another adventure coming up. It was low tide that time so we travel by foot going to the island. On half way going there, all of us began to say ouch. It’s because of the rocks under the sea. One of my friend unfortunately steps on a sea urchins. He deserves an “ouch” haha. When you look it from a distance it looks like it is near but on the way going there it is far. WTF, almost a kilometer walk. When we arrive at the island, we check the wounds and cuts on our feet. Luckily I only got 5 not so deep cuts. Another pictorial happens. Whoa it feels like we are castaways from survivor. We stay there for half an hour and decided to return at he main island before the water level gets high. We get back to the cottage and rest for a while and we swim again. We show some cool back flips at the sea. I enjoy that moment a lot. It was a great experience at the beach showing your crazy acts. We return at my friends house and pack our stuffs so that we’ll be able to catch up the last trip on the bus station.

When I arrive at home, I need to listen on a long homily (“sermon”) from my parents haha. They are mad at me coz I escape.

We arrived at last

On our way to the beach

The beauty of the beach

We named this "ISLA BABAE" lol

Cosmo: A friend from the beach

Castaways

waiting for the tribal council

may gagamba kunin nyo!! haha

i dont know what is this..some says its an egg of a starfish haha

I’m done with pearl

Pearl is not a person name. It’s a version of pokemon played in Nintendo DS. I’m addicted to playing pokemon since high school. I already finished a lots of it’s version like red, gold, crystal, emerald, leaf green, ruby and sapphire. Many says I’m too old for this but I don’t care.

I love catching pokemon. You be fighting with it a train it to be strong. It’s like taking care of a pet. You character is also cute and adorable like your pokemons. You can travel different places with your bicycle and surf the seas with your pokemon. Fly with your pokemon into far places. Enter caves and climb rocks with your pokemon. It’s fun to play a game like this.

I look for the games walkthroughs on the internet so that I could finish it easily. Walkthrough contains guides , hints, tips and secret of the game. The last thing that I did on the game is being the champion and capturing legendary pokemons. The latest pokemon that I acquired is Giratina. It was so difficult to capture. I spend 63 dusk pokeballs for it.I finish the game for 33 hours of playing time.i’ll be waiting for the latest version to play.

A Very Inspiring Grade lol ^_^

Yesterday, I went to school for the enrollment. When I arrive I was disappointed. The line at the teller is long about 40 meters. The tellers in our school are oldies. They are slow in rendering service. So, I decided to just get my grade and enroll the next day. I’m afraid to see my grades. I have seven subjects and I thought that four of it is in danger. I go to our department and get my CEL (computer evaluation list) w/c contains my grades in the last semester. I didn’t open it yet. I go to 7/11 for a snack and look at my grades there.
And these are my grades:

I only have 2 subjects that has grade. I have 4 majors. I drop two of it coz I knew from the very start that I wouldn’t be able to pass it. I got no friends on those subjects. My PE is a taekwondo class. I didn’t take my final exam and I miss some practicum so my grades got incomplete. It’s ok coz I could apply for completion of it.
I can’t believe that I got 82 on my econ coz I only attend this class every exams. My two other subjects says no grades yet maybe because my instructors haven’t yet finish computing our grades.

Although I can edit my grades, I still won’t do that coz my talent isn’t for things like this. My parents would get mad at me. They just keep on telling me to study hard. But the more I study, the more I realized how little I know. LOL hehe