shrink my world? shrink, my world.

truth hurts.

2009-11-29T22:01:00.002+09:00

Recently, I began to realized how truth really hurts. Although all blogs and all tweets of everyone supposedly have voice that are equality as loud as those of celebrities.... its not true. Just like how my blog is mute. And Al Gore's blog is on full volume, loud enough to wake his neighbor 1046 blocks down his hose.

Truth hurts.

World only appreciates, reveres, honors the ones who are already at the apex. Only the ones who have reached to the top are recognized. If you aren't first... You are only stepping in to the steps the first had already taken.

Truth hurts.

No matter how much one strives to become a good citizen- one will always be in the shadow of others who have the extra 'fame' that make them a better citizens, and makes them in the spotlight. Although there maybe exceptions, reality is. The value of service you rendered is equivalent to what you did multiply by your fame. People will know Ashton Kutcher helped prevent malaria in Africa. Do people know that you've been to Malaysia to build houses?

Truth hurts.

KISTIVAL

2009-11-22T23:27:00.003+09:00

PLEASE COME TO KISTIVAL! National Honor Society has been working very hard for the last two months to prepare for Kistival! It will be held on December 4th after school on a Friday! Please come watch Phoenix Basketball game against YISS, at our new Phoenix gym as well!

By the way, the poster made above used the photoshop trick I posted before!

catoonize a picture.

2009-11-22T23:07:00.004+09:00

Recently, I began Adobe Photoshop for yearbook. Thousands of icons and toolbars have always scared me from beginning Photoshop, but thanks to google and bloggers out there, I was able to master one thing.

"CARTOONIZING A PICTURE"

Here is an example!

And since it feels like a waste keeping this trick to myself, I'll be sharing ever step and settings necessary to produce the same effect!

Here it is!

SMART BLUR SETTINGS
Radius 9.1
Threshold 33.2
Quality: High

HIGHPASS SETTING
2.0

1. Open an image and duplicate the background into another layer so you have the same picture in two layers. The top one will be the "ink" and the bottom one will be the "color".

2. We'll start by making the "ink" first. Go into filter/blur/smart blur, use the settings listed above.

3. After applying this filter, go to filter/sharpen/sharpen edges. This will better define the basic edges of your image.

4. Go to filter/other/highpass and use the settings in the image posted. This will turn the layer into a barely recognizable gray tone image.

5. Go to image/adjustment/threshold, this will turn the layer into a black and white line drawing of the image. Play with the setting until you are satisfied with what you see. Once that is done, with the magic wand select a white area. Go to select/similar to select everything white in the image. Press delete and your "ink" layer is done.

Now go back and click on your Background layer and go to filter/blur/smart blur and use the same settings as presented in the image. You can also play with the color settings of the background layer after you do this to make the colors brighter. 
Now we will do an artistic cut out effect to give it that cartoon look. Go to Filter > Artistic > Cut Out.

life without us.

2009-11-16T20:31:00.004+09:00

I've always thought that there were two conclusion to story of the Earth.

Scenario 1) Science will eventually develop and our world would eventually be turn out to be "The Jetsons." Cars would fly. Robots will be able to understand human language. Traffic will be taken place in the air. Everything from your car to your house will be portable. Yaddah Yaddah.

*click on photo to move to image sourceScenario 2) In the worst case, all human life on this planet would die. And eventually would go back to time period when humans did not exist and nature was dominant.

And in fact, scenario 2 seemed to be the result most 'support' or predict with concern.
It's been a long time since my environmental science teacher had shown us a 'cool' or rather 'shocking' video on how our world would turn out without us, human beings. Although I have always known global warming, energy source, and overpopulation had been great issues all over the globe caused by us, I have never thought that solutions to all these issues could be...

EXTINCTION OF HUMAN.

Since I can't add a video without saving on my poor little storage macbook, here is a link to the video of life without human beings,

LIFE AFTER PEOPLE

blogging.

2009-11-16T20:18:00.003+09:00

It's been a while... or forever since the last time I've blogged.

Yes. I clearly have not been doing my blog homework.
Yes. I clearly dislike blogs.
Yes. I clearly am back on my blog.

I've always been a fan of twitter. I started last year, when our class was assigned to do social networking. I like twitter because for a person who has hard time transferring what is on her mind into writing, twitter was easier. I had fun condensing what I wanted to say in to 140 characters. It was actually fun to write down my thoughts on to the web and yet be able to have the same impact as President Obama's tweets or even Ashton Kutcher's. As Ashton Kutcher said...

"I found it astonishing that one person can actually have as big of a voice online as what an entire media company can on Twitter."

Any how. Though Kutcher may be right, it is an undeniable fact that celebrity plays great role in how strong your voices are. It disappointing how there are many tweets and blogs out there with such strong voices that are unheard.

As much as I dislike blog.. I hope one day my voice will be as strong as the great leaders and great citizens out there.

And for those purposes...
I am back.

blog about blog.

2009-09-24T08:44:00.003+09:00

Today, I wanted to share with everyone out there, one of my favorite sites.

www.oddee.com

Oddee.com one of my top hits on my internet. Reason being?

"entertainment"

The stories, oddee posts up are probably the most interesting and amazing entertainment you can find online. Fascinating stories, provocative imagines, interesting facts from all around the world. Because images speak for themselves the instinct with see them- oddee is great humor that will fill up the gaps of our busy boring lives. The greatest part of oddee is that, it does not look like every blog out there (like mine), and it is not time consuming to go take a visit.

There are many things we can learn from a fascinating blog like oddee. Oddee definitely breaks the stereotype of blogs, which teaches us to take chance being creative. Blogs don't necessary need words. Rather, images speak thousand words on their own. Oddee allows us to see the oddities around the world.

Now, bloggers- what will you do?

tolerance

2009-09-12T23:30:00.002+09:00

Recently, I came across many things involved with 'leadership'.

Though being entitled with a label leader may be just as simple as it sound, but becoming a leader?

Not so easy.

So here is a little something I want to share with every one out there, a little-something about leadership.

The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When you are lacking in faith, Others will be unfaithful to you. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, All the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it!‘ from the Tao Te Ching attributed to Lao-Tzu

One of the greatest leader I've come to admire is Chul Soo Ahn a professor of KAIST, and CEO of his own vaccine company. Here are some of my favorite quotes;

"Luck is when opportunity and readiness meet. Everyone has an opportunity. But only the ones prepared can make an opportunity his."

"CEO does not represent the highest person. He just has a different role from others. Every one is equal."

"Giving an opportunity to a person is what creates the mind for one to challenge himself."

standing point.

2009-09-03T21:12:00.000+09:00

One of my new interest this year as been economics. Psychology and sociology has been my two favorite subjects because...

I love to study about people.

Mathematicians love to see patterns in numbers.
Scientists love to see patterns of structure and behavior of the natural world.
Linguists love to see patterns of language.

I love to see patterns in people- patterns in our society.

It fascinates me to think how our behaviors and reactions can be predicted.
It fascinates me to think how our predictions of behaviors and reactions may be wrong.
It fascinates me to think how our wrong predictions are due to diversity of people.
-and I believe diversity is what takes society to a new generation, and a factor of evolution in human beings.

Unfortunately the 'coolest' person in middle school appears to be the 'normalest' person.
A girl who is cool tends to be not the girl who can stand up for herself and portray herself as different. A girl who is cool is one who conforms with everyone's opinion.

And now I ask you.
Where do you stand in the society?
How have you made a difference in the society?

beginning.

2009-08-29T23:49:00.000+09:00

I have never been the greatest writer, nor do I believe I would become one. I simply avoid writing because the letters, words, sentences, or paragraphs I write seem to be 'worthless' -to me. From what I remember, I had not written for myself since third grade. And I came to realize that writing had not been fun because I had lost interest.

This blog, currently named "shrink my world? shrink, my world.", will reflect ˆme. And along the blog, I hope it will have some value for others. Like Hong Kong Wong as been to me, I hope my blog can have "some benefit to your life, and add immense value".

I sincerely hope that words I have written are powerful enough to ignite some thoughts into your mind.