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Catalog web design for Bryan

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Catalog blogshop for Yuni

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Namecard for KY

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Namecard for Yuni

When I decided to work on Jill, I was skeptical bout my own abilities, experience and most of all thoroughness. There is so many things to research and learn (no one to ask what, I cant ask my future competitors right?) and the planning is spanning across months n months.

This brings me back to the days when I was noob with CSS, HTML or basic website creating. I downloaded some themes for my blog and there was so many settings so many things to fill in I dunch even know filling in which will change what. It was difficult to use, change, implement my own design and most of all, making it unique(it’s so difficult to make it look not-templatish).

I worked on planning, research, copywriting and the proposal of Jill for weeks now. Each time I hit a block I wanted to blog about Jill to reorganize my thoughts and I couldn’t cuz I can’t reveal too much(kiasu max I know).

During research bout current competitors, I noticed that wp premium themes providers are all very diversified. Some provide options only when nessescary, some provide so much control and customization settings. Not only that, some only have one theme for sale while there are those that charge crazily cheap for their themes. It takes a call for a choice, to be yet another different one or be the one best preferred out there.

The problems are clear, too little options = easy to use. Too much options = more uniqueness in the theme. Is there a balance between both n can a theme have both? I dunch know but I feel like I wanna aim for that direction.

This calls for a good UI for the backend options. I downloaded a few premium themes from a few of the competitors to look see look see. It’s confusing for newbies and developers still have to hit code to further customize the theme. Right now the pie can either be targeted at design or uniqueness. Its impossible to have both. More design means less options, the design is decided for you by the theme provider. More uniqueness means you get to put in your own design, if your design is bad you’ll end up hating the theme anyway. But in this micro-industry, you still gotta make a mega theme of nothingness but options and customization by the user at one point in time. So design focus it is, less options. The mega theme, oh well next time maybe.

This is bad cuz u can’t just target newbies or just developers. Newbies probably buy from you one time and developers are the one that subscribes to your themes and consistently use it. If options have to be in 2 packages catered for each market, it just means the ui is not good enough. More expensive pricing for the developers package is beneficial to the provider not to the users.

In terms of shopping cart n payment system for intangible goods like downloadable themes, there are a few options from Paypal, Google co to 2checkout. I am going to stick to 2checkout eventhough there is a setup fee and they charge high transaction fees mainly due to the following reasons : they provide shopping cart and ready links, they check for fraud and handles all the buying, upgrading, refunds n exchanges. The difficult part comes when I read their terms, there are so many hidden fees involved. But there is no choice, each payment gateway have their horror stories but still gotta use them.

Ok now my thoughts are organized.

2 weeks ago, I went to the Mini Driver Training with KY, Kimberlycun and ShaolinTiger at Sepang. It was the most overkill-managed event I been to, ever.

We were given tags with our own name and breakfast is served by Shangri-la.

After a good breakfast, we introduced ourselves and attended a driving lecture given by Hammond Lai. He taught us (with great humor) theories on braking, lateral forces on tires and the gist of driving smoothly. They even have their own photographer that shoots most of the great pics in this post. Awesome!!

We head out to the car park to find beautiful Mini Cooper S waiting for us, all brand new and polished for us to learn.

KY and I took a sneak peek in the dashboard drawer (which slides out slow-mo when we press it) and found a list of spare parts for the car. The whole course is over RM 1000, but it is definitely worth it. All the adjustments for a brand new car plus we actually get to drive it aggressively enough to harsh the car.

Let’s not forget the Shangri-la breakfast and lunch as well. Oh and, helmets are provided AND umbrellas (it rained slightly). These guys seriously do not miss any details when it comes to event management.

This is the reason why I took so long to blog about this. I lovingly edit the videos and compiled them into a 4 minute plus video with effects and slates. The videos is shot on 2 GoPro HD wide angle cameras and KY’s Canon s90. Song is from Need for Speed Carbon soundtrack, blardy Youtube WMG emailed me a copyright warning within minutes of processing the uploaded video. Enjoy the video You can subscribe to my Youtube channel here too!
Sections : Slalom 0.12, Emergency Lane Change 0.24. Straight Line Braking 0.40, Understeering 0.56, Brake & Swerve, 1.25, Agent Turn, 1.39, Mini Contest 1.54, Sepang Track Fascination 2.22

At the end of the training, we were all presented with our certificates and lovely gifts from the instructors. From left : Hammond Lai, Wong Kah Keen, me, Ivan Khong and Irwan Ismail.

For the mini contest, KY won first place with 21.01 seconds. You can watch the contest in the video above. I won second place with 22 seconds. ST got third place too (I think they mixed up, he is supposed to be faster than me wtf) I wasn’t prepared to win and I walked up there with hair undone and a lollipop in my hand. -_-

Our awesome instructors, Ivan Khong and Hammond Lai.

KY, me, Kim and ST in wide angle GoPro shot

The GoPro HD camera comes with only 2 buttons and no preview, the good thing is I can put it anywhere and get a shot of EVERYTHING I want cuz the angle is really wide.

Monsters at Sepang’s pit.

Lovely kimcunberly and I. :3

To my surprise, Dwong went for the training the next day. I got the photo from Sashi’s email. A big big thanks to Sashi for the invitation to this max hardcore awesome event!

I have always been an avid follower of Christopher Nolan‘s movies, from Memento-Insomnia-Prestige-Batman movies and finally, Inception.

In Memento, he played with time in the storytelling. In Prestige he played with illusions and the whole movie felt like an illusion. This time, he played with time and the whole movie felt like a dream.

I think this is his masterpiece to date. Eventhough I don’t really like Leonardo DiCaprio, he fit into the character like a glove. Gordon-Levitt did an amazing job too. And the usual suspect, Michael Caine is of course casted again.

The soundtrack is similar to the Nolan’s Batman franchise. Composed by Hans Zimmer once again. In the Batman movies, they searched high and low for a sound that could properly define the mood of the Joker and the darkness of the setting. After weeks and weeks of testing instruments, scores they resorted to the library of single tones. And they settled just on one note. A one key tone, made by a cello. The end-result was epic and raised goosebumps in me everytime I watch the trailer again and again.

As for the plot, I don’t think I should spoil it. But Chris took a concept, built a world around it placed characters in it and too the concept a few levels beyond the initial one, making it intelligent and strangely easy to understand. For that amount of deep sci-fi concept to be conveyed together with drama, complications, actions and climax in just 2 and a half hours is just pure genius of him.

Beware however, that the climax start early and drag all the way to the end. The suspense was so heavy to the point I actually notice the sound effects. (Good sfx are meant to be unnoticeable, once you start noticing the volume, the song, the crashes.. it means something gone wrong somewhere in the audio editing session.) This time however, the sfx were noticeable due to the lengthy climax.

This is the kind of movie you can never forget in time. Pun unintended.

Thanks nuffnang for the tix

If you just got robbed like me, lost some of your cosmetics.. mainly mascara, you will feel like you just got screwed over badly. Here’s what you can do:

First of all, do your makeup like usual. My pressed powder got stolen so I had to replace that with a skin toned eyeshadow. -_- fml.

Then curl your lashes just like usual.

Then for the remedy, use either a liquid or gel eyeliner on your lashes. Coat the top of your lashes before applying from the bottom. Application may take some time. If your lashes clump together after the application, you can use a lash comb and comb thru your lashes.

Now I just need my Maybankard back so I can buy back my cosmetics. No nais tutorials until then.