Gah whatever. Let’s do this. 

I’m back in Cebu! :D 

Back to reality. Back to work. Back to school. Back-ache. 

May bago na namang pinagpi-pyestahan ang internet. Sige, Go ahead. Be one of the thousands who comment against her. Hindi ba kayo naaawa? Ganyan na nga ugali nya, iniinsulto nyo pa. Yes, her attitude in this situation is unacceptable pero one mistake doesn’t define a person. Posting a paragraph-long comment about how wrong she is and how right you are? Look at yourselves! Mga perpekto. Palibhasa hindi nyo pa nararanasan mapahiya. Pwe.

I’m pissed. If they bring up the Anti Cyber Crime bill again, I won’t be joining in. Is this what I’m fighting for? Narrow minded bullies who only care about being badass?

I fought for freedom alongside you. But you abused it. I’m out of the Cyber Crime fight. Good luck to the rest of the team.

I am Helix. I’m out. - Helix, Anonymous Manila

Well, there you go guys. It’s like high school all over again, isn’t it? We feast on one person’s mistakes until she hides herself. Yay internet! Sabi nga ni Randal Graves (Clerks): 

“I hope it feels so good to be right. There’s nothing more exhilarating than pointing out the shortcomings of others, is there?”

Perpekto kasi tayo. Magaling tayo mag-english, and that totally gives us the right to bully one person. We’re no different from her—in fact, we’re much worse. Mas balasubas pa tayo kasi pinagpye-pyestahan natin ang isang tao. 

o

potskilove:

Two-Minute Mug Brownie

Adapted from Instructables.com

1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
2 Tbsp canola or other mild vegetable oil
2 Tbsp milk, coffee or water

In a heatproof mug or ramekin, stir together the dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Stir in the oil and milk until you have a thick paste.

Microwave on high for a minute, checking it after 30 seconds (microwaves vary) – it will be done when it’s springy on top but still a bit gooey – like the very best brownie. Eat warm.

Mediocrity. 

feanne:

JUNE 6, 2012, 12NN UPDATE:

Hi everyone! First of all, a big thanks to my friends and family and acquaintances and strangers who have been so supportive of me throughout all this. I would like you to know that my family members and my lawyer are currently in touch with Lendl Dale Romero. I am no longer contacting him directly at this point. In addition, most of the design websites that I emailed to report his copyright infringement have already responded to me and promised to take care of this matter on their end, by taking down his submissions. I’m just waiting for the reply from C28.com, the Christian t-shirts store (it’s only been a little over 24 hours so I’m not yet too worried).

I am grateful to everyone for spreading the word and for even being indignant on my behalf. I would like to encourage everyone, though, to remain civil and humane. Lendl Dale Romero committed copyright infringement, not a heinous crime. I would like to focus on the facts and the actions in this situation; after all, I don’t know him personally. I know I have the advantage in this situation, thanks to the amount of support I have from you all. I only want to protect my artwork as well as warn my fellow artists— this can be done in a civil and humane way.

I hope this incident inspires dialogue on the complex issues of copyright law in relation to creative culture. I hope that this incident somehow contributes something positive and meaningful to the local, even global, creative industry. I encourage artists everywhere to share their creative work for the benefit of the community as a whole; and I call for updated copyright laws that will enrich creative culture while ensuring that artists are rewarded for their work. (You can read more about my thoughts on that near the end of this long blog post.)

What follows below is my record of the events so far.

—- —- —- —- —- —-

On June 4, 2012, I came across this. The winning design as shown on this page (under “Partner Prize”):

It was already being sold as a t-shirt here until Graniph kindly responded to me (June 5, 20120) to take care of the issue.Thank you to Dave at Graniph for emailing me a quick response!

My 2007 drawing originally posted in my deviantart gallery:

On June 5, 2012, I found two more designs that this guy stole from me. Fellow artists beware!

T-shirt design on this Christian website.

It was also posted on his coroflot portfolio, until he removed it after seeing my blog entry (June 5, 2012).

From my original artwork entitled “THE SONG” from my 2010 exhibit.

This design was submitted to Springleap:

My original artwork from 2010, originally posted in my deviantart account:

I emailed Springleap and they kindly took down his submissions for me. Thank you to Eran at Springleap for the quick response! (June 5, 2012)

—- —- —-

Romero already emailed me. To be fair, I am also posting his side of the story, verbatim. It reads thus:

(June 5, 2012)

Hi feanne! I’m dale. The one you posted on your tumblr dealing the one that copy your design.
I personaly would like to ask an apologize to you, but that thing was not a “ripped off”.
I was very disappointed when you put that on your tumblr. and saying the whole world that it has been ripped.
A friend of mine gave me a file with that tree that similarly like the ones you have on your original art, I don’t know where he got it
It was a collab of my friend to work with it together with the deer and the sun elements, I would say everything was drawn except the “tree” which was maybe yours….
I couldn’t blame myself for submitting that design without knowing the source was yours, It was just given by friend together with the raw file of the tree
and I enhanced of course to make it look nice,but I wasn’t aware where it was taken,copied or what.

I personaly want to say sorry to you for having that joined and almost posted in store in graniph.
I would just pay you for the consequences if you are really mad with what you saw. I’m an artist too and I know how it feels.
I’m telling everything to you,I mean the truth behind it. All of my works are original ,I’m striving to be great artist like everyone too.

I”m writing this email to you ,to personaly say sorry and pls, remove everything you said bad about my reputation on your tumblr and your facebook site.
I beg you feanne.. I love my works, and if my clients saw this I may have lose reputation ,and my job maybe affected too.
It was just an “ISOLATED CASE” .. I would definitely blame my co -artist collab friend dealing with this, I wasn’t aware.

My sincerest apology feanne ….
Please…

-

If you want I can give you my personal number feanne so we could talk about it.
I’m not a bad guy, pls understand my case ,the situation and my reason.

I’m just concern about my reputation being exploited in your blog,it was a drastic thing of an artist experiencing that .
I’m really sorry ,It was really really an isolated case situation. It was my first time to saw your blog ,your site and everything about your artworks,
If only I could find the main source of that file. I worked with that design almost last year ,and so I’m having difficulty finding the main file where my friend got that tree of yours
Just to show you I was telling the truth.

I just hope it would not be a bigger issue for both of us after talking to you and explaining to you about this .

My apology for the second time ….

—- —- —-

My reply to Dale’s emails:

—- —- —-

(June 5, 2012)

1. You can’t call them your ORIGINAL artworks if you used material which you didn’t make yourself and you don’t know the source of.

2. You can’t call it an APOLOGY if you blame others and don’t take responsibility for your own actions.

3. You can’t call it an ISOLATED CASE if it happened two more times. See below: (I included links and images above.)

I feel sorry for you. It is obvious you are inclined towards the arts, but you failed to apply yourself. The time and effort that you spent in taking my work, removing my signature, modifying and submitting to various contests— you could have used that time and effort to invest in your own art. You could have used it to research public domain images that you can incorporate to create your own original images. You could have used it to practice your freehand drawing skills. You could have made a great contribution to the Filipino creative industry! Instead, you are an embarrassment. Nahihiya akong tawagin kang kapwa Pilipino.*

I could have easily forgiven you if you had only used my art for personal works, which I actually do allow because, so far, I have only encountered people who were nice and sensible enough to give me credit for my work and not make money off of my work. But you actually used my work for design contest submissions and profited from them! Well, so far you have reaped the benefits of your actions— now you will also reap the consequences.

* Nahihiya akong tawagin kang kapwa Pilipino. = I am ashamed to call you my fellow Filipino.

—- —- —-

After writing that email response to him, I found a few more on his Threadless account. As of June 6, 2012, Threadless has also responded to my email already and confirmed that they will take down his submissions. Thanks Threadless!

Design submitted to Threadless:

Parts of this he stole from my peacock artwork below, and the bird which I already posted earlier, both from my 2010 exhibit:

Design submitted to Threadless:

My original artwork also from my 2010 exhibit:

—- —- —-

I received two more emails from Romero:

Feanne I’m really for what have you seen, I wasn’t aware about everything that these reference are yours,
I know how you feel right now, with my humble self let’s just keep this on both sides and don’t just shout it out to your blogs.

I have no literal or direct intention to steal your works, for truth.
Can I call you now so we could talk? please.

-

Please can I call you? I just want to explain everything. please ……..
I know you’re really mad ,please …

—- —- —-

In reply to that, I sent him the additional stolen artworks I found, and said:

I found two more. Really, you expect me to believe this is unintentional? And to give you my personal phone number or any other personal details for that matter? No way.

—- —- —-

I also found a few more on his DesignByHumans profile. As of June 5, 2012, DesignByHumans already responded to me and promised to take down the submissions and investigate this matter. Thank you to Craig at DesignByHumans!

Design submitted to DesignByHumans, using the butterflies from my peacock artwork from my 2010 exhibit:

Another design submitted to DesignByHumans, really small elements this time but I managed to spot them, from my 2010 drawing originally posted in my deviantart account:

—- —- —-

As of June 5, 2012, 2:55PM, representatives at Graniph, DesignByHumans, and Springleap have already emailed me back promising to resolve this matter. Thank you.

As of June 6, 2012, 11AM, Threadless also replied to me already, thanks. I am just awaiting the response from C28 (the Christian t-shirt store). Hopefully they respond soon. Romero himself already deleted his Coroflot profile.

That’s it for now. I’ll keep you guys posted by updating this blog entry. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone supporting me through this!

For the record, I support the Creative Commons movement, and I still believe that current copyright law needs changing and remixing is an integral part of creative culture (as explained thoroughly in the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig— legally available to read in its entirety online). I am a big fan of collaborative creative communities such as hitrecord, which legally allow and encourage people to build upon each other’s creative work.

I am not afraid to post my artwork on the Internet, and I am not afraid of technologies which allow people to easily remix, copy, and share creative works. I built a big part of my artist reputation online and these technologies have helped me, much more than harmed me. In fact, I don’t really feel very much harmed at all because these technologies helped me build the reputation that I can now rely on to easily prove that these artworks rightfully belong to me and not to Lendl Dale Romero.

I am happy to share my images online without much of a watermark, in spite of (rare and easily remedied) incidents such as this, because I am happy that people enjoy my artwork. I am happy to share my music online, with free downloads, because I am happy that people enjoy my singing and songwriting. This will not change. I refuse to let one person’s careless actions steal the sheer joy I have in making and sharing my creative work.

“I am not a precious sparkly unicorn who is obsessed with the purity of his characters — rather, I am a glittery and avaricious dragon who is jealous of his steaming pile of gold. If you do not steal the dragon’s gold, the dragon will leave you alone. Offer to bring the dragon more gold and the dragon will be your friend.”
— Author Charlie Stross wrote this, regarding fanfiction, and I feel the same about my artwork. I’m fine with people using my work, as long as it’s for non-commercial non-evil purposes and they credit me. (My personal favourite is when people tattoo my artwork on their own skin— what an honor! They even send me photos, which I really appreciate.)

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported me and my art— please continue enjoying my work!

veliseraptor:

download .zip here

track 01. everything is alright by me now | DAVID USHER
I am not the one wanting
Fought off desire
Everything is alright by me now

track 02. bad education |TILLY AND THE WALL
Sparkling, a sparkled fight
The grittiest of crimes, your clothes are ruined
You’re running in the wild

track 03. reckoner (cathartic mix) | RADIOHEAD
Because we separate
Like ripples on a blank shore
In rainbows

track 04. we are wolves here (electric city) | DAVID USHER
And if we danced all night
Fell so deep
If we could live to tell
What our eyes have seen

track 05. a man like me | BEULAH
Try wasting all your days
On a man
A man like me

track 06. the frog prince | KEANE
You’ve wandered so far
From the person you are
Let go brother, let go

track 07. you don’t know me (feat. regina spektor) | BEN FOLDS
That we could be together for
So long, and never know, never care
What goes on in the other one’s head?

track 08. liar | MUMFORD & SONS
And you lean in for your last kiss
Who in this world could ask me to resist
Your hands cold as they find my neck
Oh this love that I’ve found, I detest

Well, I love how episode 6 deviated from the books, but *spoilers*

Read More

potskilove:

This summer I am;

1. Doing summer classes
2. Looking for a job 
3. NEED TO START BAND PRACTICE 
4. Need to start shoot for “Remembering you” 
5. I want a DS D:
6. I need/want a dSLR (For shooting)

I need a job D:

WHEN I HAZ MONIES. D: 

Also, you guys should be free on a Friday night. WHAT SONGS DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? D: Gotta learn them before going in the studio so time won’t be wasted :)) 

said Hodor.

pinoytumblr:

Baybayin

Baybayin is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system, it is a member of the Brahmic family and is recorded as being in use in the 16th century.

The term Baybay literally means “to spell” in Tagalog. Baybayin was extensively documented by the Spanish. Some have attributed it the name Alibata, but this name is incorrect.

Baybayin is one of a number individual writing systems used in Southeast Asia, nearly all of which are abugidas where any consonant is pronounced with the inherent vowel a following it — diacritical marks being used to express other vowels (this vowel occurs with greatest frequency in Sanskrit, and also probably in all Philippine languages).

Above: The word Tumblr in Baybayin post-kudlit form.

Time to make that best of 2011 post.