5 posts tagged “digital”

Hours, minutes and seconds before Earth Hour, I remember the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth where former US President candidate Al Gore talks about global warming and its impact to every aspect of human life as we know it. I remember him using the lift in order to indicate the high rising of carbon dioxide emissions, the heat level in the atmosphere, talking about the weather changes and how, through a pattern of time, we have managed to accelerate it.
I remember too National Geographic’s documentary titled 6 Degrees Could Change the World and how people from different countries, who had little to do with global warming, who had barely consumed energy or produced carbon dioxide emissions, are the one who are experiencing the brisk changes; and how they are placed on the very forefront of global warming’s ugly effects.

And so, while I remember all these things, while I recall Lisa Simpson on the lift (in Simpsons the Movie) in imitation of Al Gore, while pictures of melting ice and glaciers flood my mind, I began to think of other worse nightmares that might come to life just because we didn’t care about the diminishing polar ice caps or the polar bears that are being endangered of drowning.

Quite ironic, isn’t it?

And while it is still unsure whether this phenomena (if we dare call it that) is reversible, the best we can do right now is to educate ourselves little by little. And with that understanding, we can resort to lessening our carbon footprints, reducing our energy consumption, and conserving our environment in the very little ways we know how.

Earth Hour is just that – a small hour that can spell a difference.

It is a small hour that we could have used up surfing through various channels on the television instead of just talking to another person and having a real conversation. It is just another hour that we could have spent on playing video games when we could have had the chance to read a really good book and used our own imagination. So what’s in an hour really?

It is the hour we don’t spend in order save ourselves.

And so, the age-old adage proves itself – You save what you don’t spend. And it goes to apply itself even further in the things we buy but do not need.

We can go on about saving electricity by turning lights off, but what the products we buy that required electricity to produce? Maybe it is also about time we think of switching to certain things, changing old ways and habits, and think better about how we do our shopping.

Why not fluorescent lights? Why not range free chicken? Why not organic food? Why not digital printing? Why not recycled paper?

Why not?

Why not!

Finally, the speculations will now stop. It’s $50 million, folks. And Heather Mills says that she will no longer complain, she just wants it over.

This is where the line ends for Paul McCartney and Heather Mills’ oh-so-publicized divorce procedures. This girl really knows how to make the world spin around her, eh?

For years, by golly, all I can ever see on news are Heather Mills, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears. Oh well, with a little Paris and Nicole on the side. But among the three, Heather is the most surprising winner.

All Britney ever got was a reputation that she’s mentally ill. She lost custody of her sons as well as her career. She’s losing her touch on men as she is losing her sanity.

While Lindsay has become an alcoholic pretending that everything is okay. She walks the world ready to be photographed at her most drunken state. She had also lost her career. And if she’ll continue being what she is now, soon, she’ll also lose her sanity and her appeal to men. I don’t really know what matters more to these girls, sanity or men.

They should learn a thing or two from Heather Mills. From a dishwasher salesman to an ex-Beatle, this girl really knows how to climb up the ladder despite having only one real leg. Her first marriage with the salesman ended in 1991 after two years of being together.

She led a very controversial life after. Actually, her life was full of controversy all throughout. That is why the tabloids are really giving her a hard time to move on. She has been called a liar, a porn star, even a shoplifter, a hooker and most pertinently, a gold digger.

She may have such a rough road before. But now, she should be able to start anew. Actually, girl, you should just stop the press by not being seen and heard. Don’t ask the public’s sympathy over how the money you got from the divorce with McCartney could not cover your daughter’s flight expenditures for holiday travels, ideally five times a year, of course, on first class trips.

You should just stop the drama and learn to live a peaceful life. Don’t push your luck or you might also end up like Brit or Lindsay who have been favorite topics of the press and digital printing media for the uncanny situations they get themselves into.

March is Women’s Month. It is the month for celebrations, for promoting women’s rights, for campaigning women advocacies and women’s causes, and in the be all and end all – women’s power.
 
March, unfortunately, is also the time when one woman’s power failed.

A close friend of mine had succumbed to breast cancer. The disease has defeated her in the ripe age of 56. Today is her burial and I can’t take leave to see her one last time. I can’t catch a glimpse of her salt and pepper hair or her small frame.

I’ve been imagining her lying down, sleeping in her coffin but it’s too morose and so I think of her face when we were still together, spiritedly laughing. I think of her and I hear her voice, her advice and soft pats. I think of her and I remember her stories. I think of her and I grow afraid that I might forget. I think of her and I grow weak that what I know isn’t enough to sustain a memory of her.

I tried making a eulogy for her, listing down the little details I know of her, of her life, of what she shared with me. And I think that this is the only chance I will get to do so, so here goes.

“ I can probably count the things I know about you with both my fingers and toes.

1.    I know that we both started teaching in 2000 and handled the same subject before, College Writing.
2.    I know that you were born the Year of the Dragon.
3.    I know that you love coffee. You loved it so much you roast and grind them yourself. And that you don’t like putting sugar in your coffee. The least you can add is a shot of syrup.
4.    I know that you were a licensed CPA.
5.    I know that have a Labrador retriever that you love so much, it lies with you in your bed. It even uses the same comfort room as you.
6.    I know you can’t have chocolates. The time you tried one, you had a migraine so bad.
7.    I know you suffer from asthma, but you still rarely miss your classes.
8.    I know that you have a great talent for baking. You made me a batch of Food for the Gods on my birthday.
9.    I know how you kept your father’s calligraphy set when he died, even though it was forbidden.
10.    I know how you used to have your brother do your Chinese calligraphy homework because you had ugly handwriting.
11.    I know, of course, that you went to St. Jude School.
12.    I know that you went to Europe and visited Italy among other places.
13.    I know that you have an Opus Dei bible or book of some sort
14.    I know how you would never want to keep a mobile phone, especially if it means your students badgering you beyond school hours.
15.    I know you moved in to Sir Mike’s cubicle once he went to Law School.
16.    I know how you were always organized, checking your student’s papers, keeping tabs who were delinquent and so on.
17.    I know how you handled some of my former students who failed or had a grade of incomplete.
18.    I know how you would listen to me and advice me and joke with me in a non-condescending fashion, for you were at least 30 years my senior.
19.    I know how you love Go Nuts Donuts, better than Krispy Kreme.
20.    I know too who are the people who casually chatted with, if and when you have time.

And I know all these things and I don’t what to do with them now. For all I remember was how you were kind, and gentle, and wise, and understanding. But above all of these things, how you were my friend. “

Maybe it is better this way. The last thing that I will have is a memory of you with your lively face and not some cold reflection of what you used to be. And now that I think about it, it is quite odd, how the last picture you’ll be in is one where you are neither smiling nor frowning, preserved in digital printing technology, while the one that truly has an impression of me is a colorful and vibrant image of you.  
 

These past few days, I’ve done nothing but read on and on about marketing and the next big thing. Yeah, I did pick up a few things, but after a few days, you find out that everything is rehashed, recycled, and repackaged.

There maybe more than just a handful that have me at the edge of my seat listening, and then at midsentence, I catch on to a glaring mistake and realize I’ve been had by a cult like rhetoric. I am sucked in to the idea that markets are becoming so defragmented, diverse, and increasingly intelligent. That as a consumer, I have an angry voice I can use to shout out and shake my cage.

Mass marketing, mass production, mass media are all archaic. Offset printers should be thrown to flames and digital printing press with the capacity to print-one-to-one advertising is the fad. Everyone is all of a sudden talking about premium products, niche markets, and target marketing. Small business built on innovation will outlive the giants.

All the intellectual talk and big words had me going a little, but a quick trip to the grocery changed my mind. With all the brands and choices for a single product in a single shelf in a large grocery store, it’s unlikely that I’ll even pick my brain about it. It’s not like I’d bother looking up every product on the internet to be sure that each fits exactly to my taste.

One time, I was walking through the groceries cold storage section and found some crabsticks for Japanese food, as well as Salmon for Sashimi. There were so many choices it was mind boggling. I thought Japanese food was specific enough. I ended up not buying anything.

It’s not that I don’t like having a choice it’s that too much choices limits my choice. It’s hard to have to second guess every purchase.

I guess what mass marketing does is simply give you the reassurance that somewhere out there, people are buying the same product. It may not be the best item brand in the entire shelf, but its good enough. You buy it and you forget about it. If it tastes funny, you try to remember not to buy it again and move on to the next most familiar brand on the shelf.

Maybe I don’t get it, or perhaps, I am one of those ignorant consumers sold out and brainwashed by mass media. Well, so what if I am? I have more important decisions to use my brain power on.   

Just how does an online digital printing company celebrate the holiday season?

Simple - cater to a growing demand among clients for more individualism in greeting this festive season. Year in and year out you get these usual clichés that come with the holidays - snowmen, striped candy canes, not to mention the jolly fat man who rides in a reindeer-driven sleigh and loves going through chimneys to give children gifts.  No intention to knock the holiday staples here but just how it could be vastly improved if people injected some originality into their seasonal cheer.

No snow?  No problem - ditch Frosty!  Diabetic recipient - there are a hundred and one substitutes for a sugar-laden candy cane.  All that you need to do is inject something that best represents you into your holiday greeting. If you are a doctor, why not have The Fat Guy in olive green scrubs instead of red?  Lifeguards can get away with putting Mr. Claus in red Speedos (never mind if he REALLY needs to work the gut spilling over).

It would greatly help to fly the ethnic flag - show some pride on your roots. How about an African St. Nick?  That cat won't have any problems making his way down soot-filed chimneys.  Chinese? No problem – just ditch the sleigh and let him leap from rooftop to rooftop like Jackie Chan's Drunken Master.  You are but limited by the stretch of your imagination - a gay Santa, St. Patrick's Day leprechauns moonlighting as North Pole elves, even fresh fruits and unsweetened shakes taking place of eggnog and other fattening traditional season fare.

The growing accessibility of graphic software applications to households should bolster the acceptance of truly home-crafted seasonal greetings.  No longer do you sometimes dread going to a stationery shop desperate to look for a card matching your desired recipient only to find it out of stock.

Be resourceful - draw inspiration from what is around you.  Whether you're having a boatload of jolly goodness to share with friends or in such a deep funk as to shame the Grinch himself, there will always be a ready audience willing to share or commiserate with your holiday mood whatever it may be.         

I guess that is what the true celebration of the holiday season is supposed to be – camaraderie amidst individual differences, a true sense of unity not just among friends and family but even with strangers.