graphing paper + bus + Gimp

I’ve been practicing with Gimp (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a share software for image editing. I haven’t got hold of Adobe Photoshop yet, so I’m starting over with Gimp – I like the sound of it /gimp/. I’ve been doing my sketches manually and I am so intimidated by Adobe Illustrator. I feel like a total moron the moment I open it. I’m still starting with Gimp and I have no idea if I can draw vectors with it as easily as Visio – how I missed Visio. So out of frustration, I bought a graphing paper and drew my sketch, took a picture of it, and did some rendering with Gimp. And there goes my “Hop on, hop off” bus… a bit disproportioned and out of perspective. Next time, I’ll draw a flat cartoon, this way I don’t have to worry about being disfigured. So much for the graphing paper.

Recall: simple life of an 80’s child

I remembered when asked to tell a story of my childhood in a ValuesEd class in high school with Ms. Ferarren, a classmate of mine commented that it was like in Tom Sawyer’s – my story. Truly, my childhood escapades were quite comparable to that of Tom Sawyer’s adventurous and truant undertakings. Growing in a barangay of a small town and in a small island, I had all the opportunity to explore and discover, and to engage in quite hazardous child’s play. In contrast, back to the high school ValuesEd class, my close friend’s childhood was quite confined to the limits of the four corners of a concrete wall that normally surrounds a house in the city. She practically grew up with hundreds of books and toys – almost all kind of toys. Me and my sibs grew up with a simple life, very seldom do we have a plastic toy. However, the beauty of a simple life is that as a child, the world is your toy. You observe, discover and create. My brothers were quite craftsmen and inventors, me I watch and imitate, and frequently almost have my fingers cut. My sister was already a young lady during that time and had different interests.

From these childhood memories that I so treasure, I am inspired to write down those memories in this blog. Specifically, I would feature the games that we played, the toys we invented, and any contraptions and accoutrement made of indigenous materials that we played with. I wish to represent them as much as possible in the best way with my own sketches. I would have loved to do them in Visio or some other neat drawings but I really got none of those now. So as a starter, here’s a sample of a  rough sketch. This will be featured on its own sometime.

Taking notes at a NatGeo program?

Having been immersed in science ever since I learned how to read – grew up with Grolier’s encyclopedia, went to a science high school and pursued an undergraduate and masters field in science – pretty much, I am a huge science buff. Thus follows my extreme fascination with The National Geographic Channel and Discovery Channel. I could watch these shows for an entire day and still not having enough of it. Dang, I even actually took notes a couple of times! Yep, if I were Dr. Sheldon Cooper’s student, he would be very satisfied, would even give me a star. 🙂

Below is an example of a NatGeo topic I noted, and later made into an assignment. Good thing my housemate is an extremely quick and intelligent geek, he never failed to answer and even illustrate my inquiries in an instant, in a very scholarly manner, just like a professor.

I got so fascinated and amazed with Sea Launch, an extremely high-tec platform in the middle of the Pacific for launching satellites such as DirectTV, PanAmSat, and some satellite phone providers.

Here’s an instant illustrated lecture of my housemate when asked about the distance in which for example a boat would drop from a line of sight or horizon. This is in relation to the topic above regarding satellite orbiting the earth; and  the distance in which the earth curves to a certain degree.