falling in love all over again

I'm not sure if "kids these days" (can't believe i'm uttering these words myself) still learn about Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 in highschool for SPM but I really hope they do and I hope they appreciate it and have the ability to understand it and fully appreciate it as much as I didn't then. Back then I thought, "Oh yeah it's be Shakespeare I like it because it's by him and he's a famous English writer and I want to sound smart and cultured."

After reading it again tonight in my set of Shakespeare collection (which i only got for $40 from Borders with my dearest Edward Couper) I am ashamed of my immature behaviour in high school. I did not fully understand the beauty of this piece nor did i appreciate it for the right reason.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

Read it out loud softly and slowly to yourself, as if you were reading it to someone you love. REad it as if you're not just reading a sonnet written by a 16th century writer but as yourself delivering sweet compliments and subtle love messages to your beloved. Notice how smooth and easy it is to read. it just flows from one sentence to the other and when all these sentences are pulled together you get a sonnet.

A sonnet is generally a fixed poem form consisting of 14 lines. Sonnet means "little song" and are short lyrical poems. The original form of sonnets are 14 lines with the first 8 lines arranged to the rhyme scheme of abba abba and then the final sextet with a rhyme of cdecde or simply cdcdcd. What Shakespeare has done was maintained the 14 line limit but introduced the simple yet satin-like rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef and gg the last two are called the closing rhymed heroic couplet. The final two lines makes a final statement and has to rhyme with each other. Overall not an easy task to write a sonnet let alone a captivating one that really hits home and as they say, home is where the heart is.

Conclusion: my thoughts on Shakespeare as a literature genius has never faltered but now I fully understand why he is a genius.

"So long lives this and this gives life to thee"- as long as your work continues to exist, you shall live forever

you're wrong

"I'm afraid that you'll never find someone who can take care of you like I do, emotionally, your emotional outburst no one but me can handle that." Was what he said to me more than a year ago. I believed him but I didn't care. I knew that if no one could take care of me better than he did, then it's better to never have anyone. I knew I wouldn't regret it.

A year later I found out he was wrong. I found someone who's been so amazingly sweet to me. Who doesn't manipulate me, but lets me make up my own mind. Someone who still gives me hugs and kisses when I'm wrong. Someone who comes to find me at uni at 5am in the morning because he's been thinking about me throughout the entire night he just has to see me. Who would change not just for me but for 'us'.

Who always makes me feel all right because he makes it all right again. I feel safest in his arms. Like no one and nothing can hurt me when his arms are holding me close to his chest so I can hear his heartbeat and know that he is real and alive and it makes me feel alive too. Someone who I can't get angry at when I see his face because I can see how sorry he really is and I know he really loves me. Someone I can't stop thinking about even when I try to because it makes me miss him more. Someone I trust so much with myself and my emotions. He makes me confident all the time and gets disappointed in me when I don't do things that's good for me. And I don't want to disappoint him either because I just care.

Someone that I make my priority sometimes even though I shouldn't because I can't help it. He brings out the best in me and points out my qualities that I never noticed. He's my boyfriend and I love him and best of all he proved the previous wrong.

just when you thought you lost it

Having a lunch conversation with Jun Yeu we mentioned how we lost inspiration to write songs and we only did covers so far I actually did feel sad about it. I felt like I lost something I thought I had and will forever have with me. I took it for granted that it will always come when i need it so when I did have a thought I was too lazy to pen it down.

Well after dinner and after listening to a bit of Michelle Branch and I thought of the guy who can make me smile so wide and hold it for so long that my face would hurt, I had it. Well i only got to 2 lines, then I was about to just close the notepad and then I told myself "NO! sit down and continue this, if it sucks that's natural you can just edit it later." 2 minutes later it was done, I knew how I wanted it to sound. I got my guitar (who is still nameless) out of the closet and I had it. I could hear Tzer showering outside my room but I still had it done and I was soo happy I felt like accomplished something great :D

Video might be up soon.

making the eye look bigger and brighter

Before closeup

So here was where we left off after making her hair silver/white. I had already coloured the eye blue in there. I'm using Photoshop CS2.

Now firstly for the eye I used the dodge tool, set it to 17% exposure and range to Highlight. Then I used a brush the same size as the Iris and highlighted it a few times till it became light enough for thee blue to cover it. Then I chose a nice blur, set the colour opacity to 36% and the blending options to darken and I coloured the eye in. Now zooming in youcan see the blue tinge and that looks ery unnatural. We're gonna cover that darker part up with black.

Use a brush size that covers only the darker area and paint it black. Use a 20% opacity to gradually cover it up. It's always safer to put on light layers first. This part is optionl but I also then used bit of yellow to go around the colored part of the eye to bring out the green some more. Now we've got a sky and ocean combined colour. The eyes already look slightly bigger and brighter however if you want to make it bigger you can always use the liquify tool under Filter. Select the bloat tool, adjust brush size to slightly bigger than the eye and bloat it to as big as you want it to be.

So next we are going to get rid of the puffyness underneath the eye. This is the most fun. Use the spot heling tool and set it to replace and just go over the part you want to hide. You may find that someties the skincoloour doesn't blend but that's ok justgo over it again until you do, or you can use the clone stamp tool to select the area you would like to literally "clone". Then use it over the un even skin colour to blend it in. Also you can use the spot healing tool an adjust the mode to darken or lighten parts.

This is my result after a combination of "replace" and "darken" spot healing tool and the clone stamp tool.

So here's the befores and after results

How to photoshop black/brown hair to white/silver

So here's the original. Her hair is black at the top and sort of brown at the bottom from previous colouring. She gave me a challenge to make her hair pink with white polka dots. Stupid me said I'd do it white with pink polka dots which was even harder and I wasn't sure if it will work.

So as usual we first get the photo on photoshop I'm using CS2 and we make a background copy by right clicking the image on the bottom right corner and selecting Duplicate Layer. Then we follow the same step as the previous tutorial where I coloured her hair orange and red. Now because white against black is weak you will have to make several layers over and over. Set your brush to 100% opacity and normal blending and just paint white all over the hair.

In the photo below her hair already looks grey because I've gone through 3 layers and combined them. you don't have to combine them. Then after you finished painting the parts you want. in the right hand corner change your blending options to "Soft Light" to create a more natural look. Use your eraser or history brush to touch up parts. Set the opacity to 68% to be more gentle on the photo. Repeat the entire process until you get the right shade you want. Don't worry about it not looking realistic yet. I'll go through that later.

Now after achieving the shade you want get your dodge tool and set exposure to 17% and your range to "Highlights". It's good if your original picture captures the light reflected off the hair because then you can use tht as your guideline. Use your dodge tool to go over the entire hair area first, then once you're done concentrate on those light reflecting parts only. This gives the illusion that the hair is part of the image.

Next post I'll go through something funky like adding polka dots to the hair and changing her eye colour. In the original she's wearing green/brown contacts, here I've changed it to blue.

How to photoshop black hair to orange/red

Started out with me chatting to my bestie Lizzie and we somehow got this point where she sent me two photos and asked me to make her hair red/ bright. Then she went off for dinner. Here's the original photo. Isn't she just so cute?!






Firstly we start of by getting the photo onto photoshop. I'm using CS2. Make a copy of the background layer by right clicking "Background" and selecting "duplicate Layer". This is the layer you will be working on. (I'm really suppose to be sleeping/studying). Set your brush to "normal" and opacity to 100%. Then choose the brush tool and select your colour. It's better to choose a brush with a softer circumference. The size depends on you, larger brush would cover the larger parts quicker. Smaller sizes for those few strands of hair covering the eyes.







This part may seem intimidating but don't be afraid. Use your brush and cover the entire hair area or parts of it if you want to do streaks. There's no need to change your colours. Once you've finished with that on the right bottom corner where it says "Layers" you will see a white bar, that's your "Blending options". Choose "soft light" and your result should be as the picture after this.

You can play with the blending options to alter the results you get. Soft Light gives a more natural result while "Color" would give a more vibrant rockstar poster effect. Reminds you of Hayley Williams, no?

Play with colours as well! Here's a red because she requested, and a green just for laughs.

Pieces

He said to me, "they can take us apart, but they can never take away our memories."

I realised I always spend too much time worrying about the future, thinking too far ahead and getting upset over something that hasn't happened and might not happen. Instead of worrying about the future I should concentrate more on my present and enjoy it. Because these are going to be the memories that will stay with me all my life. I need to make the most of it and make sure it's the best it will ever be.

Someday I'm going to look back and whether I think of this with a tear or a smile, nothing's gonna change it. It happened and hey, no regrets :)