Octwelve – A Web Designer's Blog by Luc Melgar

Because accomodation in Singapore is so damn expensive, foreign workers usually share the house. In my case, I rented a room of an old psycho lady. She accused me of stealing her bloody picture and started doing funny stuff to me. It’s a totally lame accusation to kick me out. There’s one night that she didn’t let me in. In the middle of the night, I had to go back to our office and spend the night there. I never thought I could encounter people like this in Singapore. I thought Singapore is a very very safe and peaceful place to live in. But there are many cheaters out there. My colleague has been cheated twice too. I wanted to move to another place as soon as possible but she gave a deadline shorter than what I’ve expected…2 days. Stress stress stresss…

Now I’m staying at a temporary room here at Toa Payoh. I’ve been here for a week. Tomorrow I’ll be moving to another house shared with a filipino family in Bedok. I have a good feeling that I’ll be ok there. The people and house is nicer, unlike my last house in Hougang, which is so rubbish like the owner. First time, I went inside that house at Hougang, I had a feeling that I don’t really like it…I had a bad vibe. I guess vibes are true. Thank God, I’m out of that house. And I gotta thank my colleagues too for helping me to get the hell out.

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I know this is boring but L’s journey will begin here in my room. How to kill time when you’re stuck at home during Sunday? Take photos of L while doing the laundry :P

Please watch out for my upcoming blog series.

I finally got myself a new camera. After all the advices, I decided to go with Nikon D40. It’s nothing grand but I guess it’s enough for a novice like me. Also, I don’t wanna spend so much while I’m at level 1. I’m still trying to figure out how to operate this and I can’t wait for the day to master it and shoot nice photos! For now, excuse my blurry shots! Haha

And here’s my first test shot (auto focus). Meet Killua!

After an hour, I realized I can focus manually haha.

That’s it for now. Wish me luck! ^_^

Being an employee drains out a lot of energy. And if I become an employee and a freelancer at the same time, it will also gonna drain out my sanity. Because of this, I won’t be able to take on freelance projects…at least not at the moment.

This lifestyle is totally different. But I decided to give more time for myself and chill out.

I’m terribly sorry if I wasn’t able to get back to you if you contacted me for a quote.

I’ve received some FAQ and here’s my answer.

Q: Are you looking for employment?
A: No, I’m not. I’m already employed.

Q: Do you have time to work on our website?
A: Not much, but it depends how much you’re willing to pay me ^_^

Q: Can you do our website in exchange for free hosting or link because we’re quite popular?
A: No thanks. Unfortunately, my landlord doesn’t accept free hosting or link exchange as a payment.

Q: When will you be available?
A: Honestly, I don’t know. Time is off my hands now. Occassionally, I’ll be available and I’ll definitely give a shout.

I hope you don’t forget Luc, your friendly neighborhood designer. She’ll be back once in a while to work on your site. For the meantime, let her chill :)

7:00 Cellphone alarms with Doraemon theme tone.

7:10 snooze…

7:20 snooze

7:30 Drag myself out of bed

7:35 Quick breakfast

7:40 Bath

8:10 Remind myself that I need to hurry up bathing

8:15 Dress up

8:25 Walk to MRT Station

8:30 Miss the train

8:35 Get squeezed at MRT

9:00 Reach office

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First off, I want to apologize to all the people who emailed me but did not receive a reply. I received all your emails and I will get back to you all once my connection is stable. I’m still alive and I’m working my butt off here at Singapore. Yes I am here at Singapore at last! About a month ago, I moved here to work as a designer for a web development company. Ahhhh so many things to tell, but so little time I have. I’ve been really busy with work and settling down. Where to start…I really don’t know. Anyway, I’ve uploaded a few shots. I plan on getting into photography. But first I need to buy a decent DSLR. My camera is quite old.

More to come. Laters!

Well, I know I’m late, but anyway, the 2008 Philippine Blog Awards is now open for nominations. It aims to recognize the finest blogs and bloggers in the Philippines.

I’m really happy that my blog design has been recognized internationally, but ofcourse, as a Filipino, it would be my pleasure to be recognize in my own country.

If you think I’ve got what it takes for the Best Blog Design Award category, feel free to nominate me. ^_^
http://www.philippineblogawards.com.ph/entries/nomination-form-special-awards/

I get a lot of emails asking about the plugins I use here at Octwelve blog. So today I’d like to share it with you.

Adsense Deluxe

Adsense Deluxe is a very easy to use plugin for quickly inserting Google ads. So instead of copy pasting the google code over and over again, you simply put an HTML comment “<!–adsense–>” anywhere in a post. Download the plugin here.

FlickrRSS

FlickrRSS allows you to integrate the photos from a flickr rss feed into your site. Download the plugin here.

Twitter Tools

Twitter Tools lets you create a complete integration of your WordPress blog and Twitter account. It brings your tweets into your blog and pass your blog posts to Twitter. I have a previous post here on How to add Twitter on your blog. Download the plugin here.

SimpleTags

Allows you to create a list of Technorati tags at the bottom of your post by providing a comma separated list of tags between the [tags] tags. Download the plugin here.

That’s all the plugins I use. I hope that helps :) Laters!

Technorati Tags: wordpress plugins

As you know, Octwelve is my first blog and the character is my first original illustration. I am really happy that my blog design is making it into different lists like this. But what truly flatters me is to see my work featured amongst other great designers I look up to..like Meomi. Now I wish I could see my blog design on magazines too someday. ^_^

Anyway, here’s the 25 Incredibly Artistic Websites by Vandelay. I’m sure these will inspire you. Thanks Vandelay!!

Here’s my personal pick:

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Technorati Tags: artistic, website, design