Bottled Sky

Last June my friends and I went on a trip to Cebu, where we jumped off waterfalls and took naps on the beach. The post-vacation high somehow managed to seduce my web design muse out of wherever the hell she’d been hiding for the past year.

When I got back to Singapore, I started working on a remake of the summer-inspired layout that I created back in 2006. (Translation: I was too lazy and not quite inspired enough to start from scratch.) Unfortunately real work got in the way and sent my muse packing. I never got around to finishing the layout.

Well, not until now! You see, I went on another trip recently, this time to Batam, Indonesia with two of my fellow slaves colleagues. We went cable skiing, gorged on surprisingly fantastic pizza, tanned poolside, and spent hours being massaged into blissful, boneless relaxation. The trip gave me just the right amount of juice to finish what I started months ago.

I’m kind of in love with it, if I may be so immodest. I found a few bugs just now that would have normally sent my anal side on a rampage, but I’m just so happy that I don’t even mind. Take that, obsessive-compulsive tendencies! Let me know, if the layout isn’t working right on your end, though. I’m not too far gone to not care about that.

Continue reading Summer Makes a Comeback »

This website used to have an Extras section, where I stashed all kinds of odds and ends that didn’t fit anywhere else. I dropped it during the last redesign, so now I’ve moved a few of the aforementioned odds and ends here.

The following wallpapers and LJ icons, which feature some of my illustrations, are free to download for personal use only. As long as you don’t sell, distribute or make derivative works out of them without my permission, we’re cool. Enjoy!

Continue reading Whimsical Desktops and Icons »

I made the following themes a couple of years ago for my own LiveJournal, but I’m sharing them with anyone who’s interested. I retired the Extras section that used to house these, so I decided to archive them here.

Please note that I no longer provide support for these LJ themes. Feel free to modify the CSS however you want, but please don’t make any derivative works out of the graphics. If you do use any of these layouts, a link back to this post would be nice.

Continue reading Free LiveJournal Themes »

I recently took a much-needed break from work to go on a short trip to Cebu with some old friends. Let me tell you, it did my soul good. When I got back to Singapore, at least five different people told me I was glowing. Here are some highlights from our vacation:

We threw ourselves off a bunch of waterfalls. Calling all thrill seekers! If you ever visit Cebu, you have to go canyoning at Montaneza Falls. You probably can’t tell, but that’s me throwing a peace sign while rappelling down a 100-foot waterfall. Pardon my French, but it felt fucking fantastic.

Continue reading Vacations Are Good for the Soul »

If I worked at a leave-your-imagination-at-the-door corporation and excitedly told colleagues that I had just seen a dinosaur-shaped puddle on the way to the loo, the normal reaction would have been to say, “What the hell are you smoking? Go back to your cubicle and finish writing that 37-page report that no one will bother to read.”

Luckily I work at a quirky company with people who can appreciate a little silliness here and there. Case in point: when I dragged my coworker, Gabe, to see the said puddle, he snapped a photo, edited it to create the diagram below, then sent an email announcing the momentous dinosaur sighting to the rest of the office.

Nikki and Gabe, brand consultants by day, wicked awesome archeologists by night.

Continue reading Dinosaur Sighting »