in mortem liber.

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.

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…

—

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

—

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.

—

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…

—

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.

—

Ciel

On 10gui.com there is a new concept that argues traditional UI be replaced by a more intuitive multi-touch UI, claiming that the old is less intuitive, therefore inefficient. Judging from the trend, multi-touch has gone from the iPhone (mobile) to the MacBook Air, to the MacBooks and finally the desktop Macs. A glimpse into the Apple-supported, open-source WebKit project echoes this trend: CSS transitions and transformations are also coming to the desktop. I do sense that the thematic concept here is direct manipulation:

a. Personal empowerment is at its all-time high; trivial emotion is getting its place, and the ability to scribe and record is now widespread.

b. With personal empowerment comes a wider dialogue, which in reverse empowers more individual to come and contribute.

c. The world is therefore transforming from bivalent to omnipotent, from narrowness to broadmindedness.

d. With great change strikes a greater sense of weird, joyous uncertainty; the arts is getting its place, figures leniently ceding their thrones.

e. The Web is a very young medium, but this time there are way more people defining their own pieces of, and contributing to it.

f. People will get dumbed-down and be conquered by their rabidly growing collective consciousness.

The world is getting more and more interesting a place. Let’s see what comes along in the next year.

ps Weeks ago, finished Loos’ essay on Ornament and Crime; would not take back my early words. He really sounds like a Protestant, yet is also sharp-witted.

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Nota

Technologies invented to help mobile users do better are going all the way to invade desktop computing. Personal empowerment is the oath to mobility; this trend denotes the imminent demolishment of institutional atrocity. Reading and writing is the only convenient way to conquer the vagueness and impreciseness of human memory; everybody acquiring these skills mean that physical and institutional limitations are no longer hinderances; souls can finally be set free.

Visit http://monoceroi.com.

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Redesigned Custom Plurk CSS

“Spot-on”, I said shamelessly. Google for “Plurk Interface” to see how it might look like before this customization…

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Quotes From the Great Storybook on Silence

It costs to be extraordinary; the major lesson is in learning to cope with it.

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; — Isaiah 54:2 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. — Isaiah 54:3 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. — Isaiah 54:4

—

Nota

You’re in deep trouble not being — or, aspiring to be — great. The richest and the poorest people (or, the ones on the very top and the poor ones down under) get to re-create history; others get to reproduce.

突然回想起了很多事情，發現其實就算以前在一起做事，每個人的夢想終究是不一樣的。一直在想為甚麼，但現在發現愈來愈沒有必要猜測跟解釋。而關乎 typography 的辯論，並不比關乎遙遠議題的辯論更具深度或者重量。生命是爬滿虱子的袍。回憶是魔法河流深不見底。大概如是，看見自己以往的比天高的、誰也不服誰的驕傲的時候，就代表自己長大了，而且終究老了。

當年的他生在苗栗，高中時期奔來台北，圓自己的一個夢。最後有沒有得到他所要的，我不知道。但我很肯定的是他抓到了一點轉變自己的機會。所以我選擇忘記祇有衝勁，沒有腦漿的渾沌年代。這樣的話說來並不輕巧，但如果想要飛得更高，則是絕對必要。

當然，搶著把夢作大以前，問題在於到底應不應該把夢作在這塊土地上？同理質問建中青年社員。自然而然地，form follow function 這種極端壓抑的語言會消失，多極的世界會愈來愈容忍個人史與自我書寫；在眼見為憑的假性做作平等之前，當然也沒有甚麼「但是」可以說。

我相信建中青年社與社刊（我不願政治正確地稱它為校刊）的意識變形，目前看來仍然與我之前寫的歷史脈絡分析吻合。問題是，處在一個沒有巨人可以打倒的年代，能夠傷害的就只有自己，以及周遭的其它生物與無生物。這是一個沒有石像的年代⋯⋯沒有假說、沒有論述、沒有中心、沒有聲音與影子的年代。多極的個人主義盛行的年代。是一個沒有神的亟需新造的神的年代。在自我造神與神聖化的立場上，社眾裡的尖端者一向做得很不錯。

—

And

是個冰冷而殘酷的季節。其實沒有很多可以說的。多數的感覺，都是祇有個人史重量的經歷而已。

Below: KKI Icon Concept Sketch

馴服原來就是這樣一件事情。