++-End Her

Migration

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:55:13 GMT

http://www.pmilanes.com - Main site.

http://www.pmilanes.com/news - New blog. Not yet linked from the main site as I have to update a few more things.

Livejournal doesn't really scream "professionalism" you know?

I'll still have this though cuz the feeds are awesome. I like reading comics all in one place.

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:07:30 GMT

What I've been working on for the last 3 months...

Sustainable multi-purpose/mixed use residential/commercial high-rise. Meaning it must have floors and wind turbines... lots and lots of wind turbines.

Architectural Process:

From experimentation (moving a picture through a scanner and photocopiers...)

...to inspiration

...to conceptual

...through planning and refining

...to realization (5' 10" model...!)

90% complete model. Now I need a 5 foot drawing and a video and some plans. All due on the 12th... Drive to Toronto the 13th. Philippines on the 14th. Wow. Too crazy.

Now, I just need a more creative name than dragonfly tower... haha.

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 06:01:43 GMT

Gonna try and mix it up with the photos. Got a couple of volunteers for model photography lined up. Should be awesome. Haha. Except I don't know where to shoot or what to shoot?

I'm abandoning my quest to buy an 18-200 lens with optical stabilization technology. I've convinced myself that I don't need it and that my current gear covers 18-300 and my current lenses are probably sharper. I'll just buy a dedicated flash because it will be much more useful.

The power went out for a few hours a couple of days ago at our place, so my roommate and I decided to go outside for once. Haha. She went on to play and proceeded to wet herself whilst I took pictures. Sounds creepy? Yes. But she says that's the way she likes it. Or so I hear.

I tested out my new circular polarizer and it is awesome. Makes the colours richer and takes away the nasty water reflections!

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 05:00:24 GMT

Ottawa's version of the EX is here. Seems pretty cool. Not as big as Toronto's but I don't know. The atmosphere is a little happier since it's not as crowded. Maybe because I visited it late at night. But in any case, I've always wanted to take pictures of a fair. Here they are!

And before I went to the EX, I decided to revisit a site pretty close to my house.

Here it is in 2005

Here's the one I just took

Tired of these yet?

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:42:41 GMT

Last ones I swear. Tonight was the finale. Good show. I wish I was at the lake where it's actually held instead of 10 kilometres across the river with hills blocking half of the fireworks :(

Ottawa's lame version of the EX is in town. I think I'll go tomorrow night and take carnival pictures. I've always wanted to do that.

*edit*
Ahahaha. The secret behind Michael Phelps' success at the olympics:

More fireworks

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 04:28:35 GMT

Spain's entry this week. I finally got a sweet as spot on a bridge above some small waterfalls. I got there half an hour early and there were some people, but it filled up real quick.

The view was magnificent. My pictures? Still not as hot. Oh well. Tried out the new tripod tonight. It works pretty fucking rad. The only problem is that my camera is TOO HEAVY! THe package wasn't lying when it said 2.2 lbs max. I couldn't take pictures with my camera oriented portrait as the ball head just kept slipping even though I locked it. I love everything else about it though! So lightweight, compact, and can become a tripod at almost ground level! But alas, I might return it and buy a separate ball head + tripod because my camera just weighs too much. And I'm also thinking of just upgrading to a Sigma 18-200 which will make it even heavier.

ANyway, on to the unobstructed fireworks!!

This building was across the site. DOn't know what building it is but it looked way too awesome in the moonlight and in the water.

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:02:27 GMT

More fireworks. Different location. Almost the same result. I gotta keep moving north to find an unobstructed view, hehe. My tripod was on concrete this time and not on grass so not as shaky/blurred. Wed is Spain, Saturday is the finale. Should be awesome.

Streaming Olympics on the internet is amazing since we don't have cable, heh.

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:47:58 GMT

Frick man. Fireworks are fucking ridiculous to shoot.

a) My tripod sucks. The build quality is shit, and it's for video cameras, fuck. I need to invest me in a very nice quick release ball head tripods or something.
b) Since the tripod sucks, every time I press the shutter, the whole thing shakes. It's unnoticeable until I load the photos in the computer.
c) The smoke from the fireworks follows the wind, and for some reason, the wind always comes towards me. Haha. So sometimes the smoke is so thick, the you can't even see the fireworks show.

I bought some photo accessories to try and get over the fucking tripod business.

A remote. Whoo-hoo! Yay for unattended photo taking.

Got me some filters too, circular polarizer the one being the most interesting/useful.

When I save up, I want to get me one of these

With a sweet quick release head. No more adjusting knobs and missing all the action shots.

And this, a colour laser printer for 150 bucks. So I can start printing my own photos. Yay!

Hell, I recommend everyone buy one of those and stop supporting shitty inkjet printers.

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 04:50:38 GMT

here's a shot of a bridge while I waited for Italy's fireworks to start. More info here.

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:43:41 GMT

Christian Bale Arrested for Allegedly Assaulting Mother, Sister; Actor Denies Allegation

"The joker was so much better"
"SHUT UP MOM! JUST SHUT UP!"

Looks like Bale needs Bail....

He was still in character.

I thought his parents died after the opera???

It wasn't very "Christian" of him.

I wonder if he hit them with a bat, man.

KAPOW

Hahahahhahahahhahahahh

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:37:43 GMT

It's 4:30 on a friday. we went at 12:30 to get lunch at the uni bar. grabbed a burger and a pitcher. fuck. it's 4:30. 4 pitchers later. I am hammered. going to see the dark knight ina2 hours. i just realized. i do a lot of drunk dialing when i am drunk. i have to stop that.

falwkefjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

fuuuck. i didn't do any work all week. fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Canada Day

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:14:01 GMT

Canada Day was another adventure. I made plans for the entire day and here's what it was.

Go downtown

.

It didn't disappoint. I lugged my camera and tripod pretty much the entire day.

We ended up having a picnic in Parliament Hill with a bunch of bands playing for free. Getting there felt like sardines though with the thousands of people. !

Then people decided to go to the beach. I said I'd just stay downtown and experience the sights and sounds of busy buskers.

Chess players,

breakdancers,

bmx riders,

...all downtown~! Roads were closed but the shops were bustling! It took us 1.5 hrs to eat an overpriced dinner >:( [the only bad part of the day!]

Then fireworks started. It is hard to photograph fireworks with a sea of people in front of me. Plus, most of my pictures were underexposed *cry*. Here are the ones I somewhat salvaged =/.

Afterwards, we climbed a parking garage and scaled over to the roof of the adjacent building and just chilled. It was awesome as we had a view of the downtown market, live dj music right below the building, and it was our own private place. Perfect way to end the night.

How did everyone else spend their Canada Day?

Need Water

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:50:33 GMT

This weekend has been so random that it's amazing.

Saturday:
Hosted another BBQ. Not as big as last time since people went home to their respective towns for the summer but whomever could make it - did. Things were picking up when a couple of guys with fake moustaches and chops came by and said they too were having a party at 19 (I live on 7, so they were literally 6 houses down and a 20 second walk from us).

So we get there, and we're all pretty drunk from our bbq. Everyone took shots of grappa, limoncello, and a ton of beer.

We arrive and there's free alcohol at the party. They had a sexy bartender who bartends for a living in a makeshift bar with a tooooooon of alcohol and mixes. She was just mixing whatever we anted and giving out ridiculously good shots! It was literally an open bar and man was it ever amazing. One of the bartender's specialty was an Apple Pie Shot.

Everyone was retardedly hammered. At the peak of the party, there were more arch kids than our neighbours+their guests lol. They kept giving out lei's and streamers. But it's all in good fun. Apparently, they only throw a party like this once a year and we caught it last night. Fantastic.

Oh, by the way, did I mention the theme was trailer trash?

We did not know the theme beforehand so we made-do with what we had. Roll up pants, sleeves, or just strip apparently.

The dude with the aviators was one of the hosts.

Amy Winehouse + other host

Retarded! And that was just half of the night. I don't even want to describe the rest of the night because I'll probably sound like a raging alcoholic. But yeah, I am just really glad that a lot of people had a fun that night.

Fast forward 6 hours after I went to bed...

Hungover Tennis was Awesome. Dehydrated plus playing for 3 hours underneath the scorching sun. More fun!

An hour later. Eurocup at a pub. OMFG. That equated to more drinking.

Oh. 4 hours later. First years from Toronto are up until Canada Day. So we all went to the Byward Market to Dance. The club was packed so we just ended up listening to a live band. Oh. And more drinking.

My liver is going to hate me until Tuesday. :(

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:40:12 GMT

One of the neat things about being a designer is that I get to see people's houses, the interiors, their rooms, etc. I can usually pick up a habit (obsessive, messy, chill) or two just by walking through their house. Some of them have really cool gardens though and you instantly know that there was a lot of hard work put into them.

What follows are a few flower photographs.

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:53:24 GMT

A few weeks ago, there were these cherry blossoms surrounding a wooden bridge by the river. I've always wanted to take pictures of it whenever there was good lighting but never got around to it - until today. I packed up my gear and tripod and rode my bike beside the river a half hour before the sun set. To my chagrin, the cherry blossoms were all gone and the bridge just wasn't as nice. Not to waste my trip (and the nice lighting!), I decided to wander about and discovered the arboretum! Tis a very surreal place indeed.

I love places like these y'know? Places where you feel like you got away from everything and you're in your very own world.

Naturally, there would be boats in the river too.

Then some skyline shots.

First time to use RAW. I was wary because of the huuuuge file sizes (5-6 MB!) But much better results in the end. I'd definitely recommend it if you're shooting a hundred shots or less. Otherwise stick to the jpg's or spend hours editing. I for one will be using RAW from now on if I really, really want the crisp, vibrant pictures. Otherwise, jpg for the point and shoot.

I hate itunes.

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 08:25:40 GMT

4th year Archies graduated this Thursday. I can't believe that's going to be me next year. !
Summer is definitely in full swing.
It's the weekend.

So I present to you...
Paolo's overall awesome Friday the 13th Summer Mix!

Feel like throwing a party? Just throw this mix on to your playlist and in an instant, everyone's gonna be groovin' on the dancefloor. Or burn it onto a conveniently sized CD, roll down the windows in your car and just blast it as you're driving down the empty street. This music will make you want to speed though. But don't.

I just felt like playing around with some audio mixers for future projects. Here's the result: filled with the most enjoyable party beats guaranteed to make your neighbours call the cops on you. At around track 5 is where shit hits the proverbial fan, although my fave track of the year is track 7. La musique, la musique!

Tracklisting:

1) Rondo Veneziano - La Serenissima
2) Bag Raiders - Fun Punch
3) The Presets - This Boy's in Love (Lifelike Remix)
4) Alex Gopher - Aurora (Cajuan Remix)
5) Hail Social - Heaven (Designer Drugs Remix)
6) Trash Yourself & The Toxic Avenger - Song 2
7) Riot in Belgium - La Musique
8) Foreign Islands - Fine Dining with the Future (Boys Noize Remix)
9) Pryda - Pjanoo (Patrick L Remix)
10) Justice - Phantom Pt. II (Boys Noize Remix)
11) We Are Scientists - Chick Lit (Danger Remix)
12) Boys Noize - Ne.Oh!.Pen (Danger Remix)
13) Trash Yourself - Touch

Be forewarned. Starts of innocent enough, but then it's a lot of heavy hitting electro, house, and synths. Very filthy. Very trashy. Oh, and my mixing is very amateur.

Paolo's Friday the 13th Mix.mp3 ! (86 MB)

I wanted to add some Britney as the climax, but i couldn't mix it right. So I'll offer it as a separate download.

Britney Spears - Break the Ice (Soul Seekerz Remix)

P.S. I was sleeping on Sunday and a SNAKE crawled on my face. No Fucking Joke. A Goddamned snaked slithered on my face at 5 in the fucking morning. I'm going to take pictures of it because I trapped it in a 100 CD case then let it go to some poor unsuspecting sap.

P.P.S. I miss Paris and Italy!

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:46:20 GMT

Young Me, Now Me. Pretty cool photos.

Don't Look Down

Wed, 28 May 2008 04:22:41 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caminito_del_Rey

"Catwalks of steel to match that guy's balls!"
"That's an ass clincher right there."

Reminded me of cinque terre. Minus the crumbling concrete beneath your feet or the non-existent guardrails.

Riot in Belgium - La Musique

www.pmilanes.com

Tue, 20 May 2008 04:49:19 GMT

www.pmilanes.com ! Definitely more content to be added soon.

Breaking the Wall

Mon, 12 May 2008 03:34:30 GMT

Now that summer's here, hopefully I'll get back to the wacky world of updating.

Work:

Got two clients to kick off the summer work. One is landscaping, the other is a huge house addition & kitchen renovation. I'm a little scared due to the amount of work involved + the research needed to finish these projects. The house addition is very complicated, customized, and tricky. But it's more modern. They like a mediterannean style, and looooove the open concept (which I like too). The landscape one is basically a fence, and a lot more fun and open to design ideas :D. Long narrow site with lots of horizontality. Mmmm.

Recreation:

I'm putting my rollerblades to good use :D. Today was a balmy 20 degrees. Skated beside the canal, downhill to some park which I've always wanted to visited, and ended up at some Tulip Festival. It got really crowded in the pathway so I decided to turn around and go to the beaches. Man, Ottawa is actually really nice during the summer. I wonder if I'll get bored of it in a few weeks.

With the extra time, I've also gotten around to cooking food for myself and not just eating out or binging on really good (but msg ladened!) cheap chinese food. I only had chicken so I made pasta for lunch and butter chicken for dinner. Hopefully, my fridge and cupboards will be restocked because I really want to try out a lot of things I never got around to during the school year.

Music:

Hating radio a lot. Liking the remixes. Switching from Dance/House to something filthier like electro. Partly because maybe that's where the music scene is going, partly because Ministry of Sound and Hed Kandi haven't compiled quality stuff in a while - maybe I'm not keeping updated? - and partly because there are some very sick podcasts out there (e.g. Iax). A lil' sum 4 the weekend and These high heels are killing me have some killer tracks for the floor.

Another awesome place is the Hype Machine. It's basically the google of music blogs with added functionality such as playing the songs in its entire length, and linking to the posts containing the songs.

Hopefully everyone's enjoying their summer!

Ladyhawke - Back of the Van (Van She Tech Turbo Fire Engine Remix)

Wed, 07 May 2008 04:45:29 GMT

Well, ...

Crits have come and gone. My prof told me I did very well in both my courses. That's a relief.

Work starts pretty soon (or started already, with unpaid meetings and lectures.) I'm basically practicing architecture in the real world. I am set up with clients who wants projects (renovations, additions, decks, pools, etc.) and I take them on. I get to design and pretty much go through the process the way a licensed architect would. I'm a little nervous though. I can get sued and what not. Plus it's contract work. I tell the clients my estimate of how many hours it would take and they would only pay me that many hours. We've been warned that our first few projects, we'll be working more hours than we contracted for. But ultimately, the goal is to finish projects in less than the number of hours we estimated.

Since summer's here, I decided to be more active and more green. Also, gas prices are skyrocketing and driving my car to school seemed oh so wasteful plus the fact that I would need to buy another parking permit. In search of an alternative transportation, I tried on my old pair of inline skates which I haven't used since I was 15! Stupidly, they were small and hurt my feet but I ended up practicing at night around the neighbourhood anyway. I ended up buying a new pair the next day and they are so sweet! Really cheap too. Very comfortable, smooth, and inline skates just totally look badass in general. The same afternoon, I took them for a lovely skate around the 'hood again and some moron in a car almost hit me. When driving, one of the lessons they emphasize is looking over your right shoulder before turning just in case there's a cyclist... or in my case, an inline skater.

I couldn't stop in time so I bailed and landed on my wrist and bum. I should've just ran straight into his car and dented that POS. In any case, my wrist is sore but hopefully it's just strained. It would suck if I can't draw for work.

Other than that, few parties have been thrown. One, my own. the BYOBBBQ was quite the success. The Doric column in my living room saw a lot of action from drunk dancing. Everyone ate everything. Someone brought a sheesha and the double apple smell was quite enticing. People ran out of alcohol and were drunk by 10:00 p.m. lol. But it was the right amount of drunk. No one puked, no one bled, no one shot anyone. Bubble machine + strobe light made quite the surreal faux-club atmosphere. Music was great, people were great, and the cops were nice enough not to give me a $400 fine at 3 in the morning since everyone was just having a blast. My backyard connects to this huge field so night frisbee + night football was pretty popular. It was nice to host something where everyone just unwound after studio.

Exhibit A: Dance

Exhibit B: Bubbles

A few days later came "friendcraft". A party hosted by pretty much the most awesome person in our school who is done his thesis. That one was even more retarded. Doilies were made, everyone wore aviators. Cops came at 11 to shut it down. We had to move the party to the park near his house. Again, the sheesha was the central point? People walked around while smoking it haha.

Exhibit C: "this is oh-so-baller"

We ended up making an impromptu bonfire at the park because it was so cold. Everyone ended up huddling around the fire. A few hours later, cops came with firemen. LOL! Everyone tried to stamp out the fire and bolted. Again, people were running, carrying the sheesha and smoking it. Haha. Eventually, we all ended up back at the apartment. Save for one person. We call him. The conversation goes like this:

Mal: Seb, where are you?
Seb: Shut up. I'm hiding behind some bushes. The last coals for the sheesha are on the picnic table. I'm going to get it once the cops leave.
Mal: What?! Are you crazy? They might see you
Seb: I think they're leaving. I'm making a run for it! Bye!
*click*

Apparently, when we called him, his phone started vibrating and lit up the entire bush area around him. It was funny how the cops and firemen too busy putting out our fire didn't notice him. Back at the apartment, the party continued until 6:00 AM.

Two hours of sleep later, I had to go back to school to put up my Colour Theory workshop panels for an exhibition. An amalgamation of people's description can be summed up to "Psychedelic Album Covers"

A collage of pictures I took of my spatial model + colour wheel. Man, both were fucked up assignments. Fun though.

A collage of DSA Italy sketches.

Collage of our final assignments in which I had to redesign 3 entries always thinking about light, colour, texture, materiality.

The only photoshop used was basically for collaging. The images in them were pretty much all hand drawn, coloured, and textured.

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 19:38:00 GMT

Haha. New York got rickroll'd!

http://my.break.com/Content/view.aspx?ContentID=484569
(television spot)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0VJZMxode4
(best quality, upper deck)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh9jaKZC-bI
(shitty quality, tons of boos, lower deck, funny :)

Fuck you New York!

Iax - These High Heels are Killing Me

time dreamt is time wasted.

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:57:06 GMT

Often times, I have to fly back to reality.

[/procrastination]

Shala - The Great Chicago Winter (Zebo Remix)

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:54:10 GMT

Ah Northern Ontario. A much quieter and peaceful times. I can't believe it's been almost a year since I planted. Time has gone by so fast. I don't regret planting. I do regret not pushing myself enough. Man, were the pictures ever great.

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:40:47 GMT

Hi Paolo,

I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo has been selected for inclusion in the newly released second edition of our Schmap Canada Guide:

BCE Place
www.schmap.com/canada/attractions/p=94996/i=94996_5.jpg

Awesome. I know it's not the greatest picture or anything like that, but I'm still pretty proud to be in a Schmap Canada guide.