Ouverture

To recurse divine.

About lies, misconceptions and allegations thou can’t sleep. Every word has its liminal energy, its own boundary, its own confinement of meaning; to dissect is to liberate.

in mortem liber.

Users are not stupid, but often very busy so that they ignore warning labels, buttons and obvious passages. It is up to the designer to cut the noise down and reduce clutter. The best design is non-obstructive.

A tiny fraction of people will always fail. It is up to the designer to rescue them — a beneficiary gesture. Empowerment leads to soaring individual intelligence, and only with empowering the users can everybody benefit.

This is very obvious.

What I’ve Been Up To

My 18th birthday just passed in flying colors (cast by intelligent code-formatting).

I learnt modo, and started modeling something out of interest and career prerequisite.

I attended the SCAD in your area meet-up, and found Julie Loupee, the senior counselor of SCAD, a lovely figure. Speak of southern hospitality; hear, hear.

I started working on a commissioned project, creating brochures and data-sheets, in both Chinese Traditional and Chinese Simplified, for a kind of machine that examines how well-made the parts are by seeing thru its lens. It works like Unit Testing in Ruby.

I also signed a NDA.

I plotted a codename advisory that would randomly draw a Greek or Roman mythological name from its memory pool.

I briefly played with an enticing device made of 2 pieces of thick paper sheets called the Latin Verb Wheel. The top sheet is round and perforated many times over; rotating it would occlude certain printed parts on the base sheet, showing some others. Names of the verbs in question are printed around the outermost edge, and an indication triangle is etched on the top sheet for easy reference. Think of a constellation plate.

I revised the new hypo 12² page over at hypo Global, and re-wrote every single character of the copy. There might be a slight difference between the master page (in Chinese) and my interpretation…

But I am single and untaken yet. Somebody hug me?

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Any way, I digress. It is crucial that a designer learn anything that helps producing better work. Being lazy is one thing and unproductive another; being stupid one thing, not craving knowledge another. All truth is one: from narrowness to broad-mindedness. Those who despise other fellows are despised; art slaves who can’t code… are doomed.

Julie advised against work-learning because of:

a. Students in the work-learn programs are paid the minimum wage; b. Time could be much more efficiently used on learning new knowledge, which helps the students produce better work; c. Better work means a better portfolio. A better portfolio means better job offers.

SCAD would be on my list with Pratt, SAIC and RISD. I am going to do more experiments, then revise the portfolio again and again. A piece of work that is never finished…

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Not a Joke: Somebody claimed seeing me “in a girl’s outfit.” Heck, I felt overly masculine that day.

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In this working week (“today” since it’s Friday), I plan to polish up my oral performance, finish the commissioned project, start iconology, and have the statement of intent drafted.

Life is difficult. I am a psycho under well-done disguise. Psychos and starving artists do not get to sleep in.

Heck, how can I send in something whose quality does not match that of those they sent me? I do not have much time to lose.

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Both arriving early, Julie asked me about my vision of the future years. I found myself stuttering, unable to ascertain. There are just too many career tracks and too short a life to begin with. I am constantly reminded by that haunting voice that one step fumbled would detonate my whole career. Ah, to be honest, my aspiration equals to triple- or quadruple-majoring.

She suggested taking a foundation year; I can’t smell the exact energy.

There are no second glances. I have passed the point of no return for ever. May the innocent light lead me across this troubled surface. There once was a chantingly song —

Soon we will be done with the troubles of the world — troubles of the world, aye, troubles of the world…

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And seriously, I started deciphering my astrology graph. Highly unbalanced, it is full of raw, unbalanced, contradicting powers yielded from each of the planets. And most “houses” are plain empty.

I saw a neutral face glancing over; s/he beamed broadly. No hallucination. It is time to close the screen; a new play imminent.