3 down, none to go. Hopefully...

Here comes an update after a while. I have just finished the graphics for the “Piker Poker” blog. Yes, it is my third blog. Yes, I am fully aware that it sounds a bit pathetic, but I don't really mind, I just love writing. Although, I've been thinking a bit about this particular blog. I really don't know if it makes sense writing it, since I really don't know who should I show it to. I've made quite a few English-speaking friends lately, but I don't know if all the graphic stuff is going to interest anyone. And besides, I'm not really good at designing, practically still learning. Well, we'll see, I'll try to do my best in any case.
As I said, just finished the design for my poker blog, actually it's a redesign of one of the original templates. I'm a bit proud of the font that I drew for the logo. I wanted something sharp, something intriguing and it pretty much does the job. Oh yeah, about the name of the blog. In Slovene, the word “piker” means bitter, cynical. And from the beginning, it sounded as it has a meaning in English, too. So I checked some online dictionaries and was surprised about the obvious reference:

pik·er /ˈpaɪkər/ [pahy-ker]
–noun Informal.
1. a person who does anything in a contemptibly small or cheap way.
2. a stingy, tight-fisted person; tightwad.
3. a person who gambles, speculates, etc., in a small, cautious way.

Here is also a little test how the color combination + logo would look like on the T-shirt or baseball cap. Maybe one day...

People have been asking me about the name of this blog, too. My surname is Muhič, which (in Slovene) sounds a lot like "fly". Yeah, I didn't like the nickname "little fly" when I was young, but now I kind of like it when some friends call me that. I guess right now the correct term would be "spanish fly" ;) A fly is "mosca" in Spanish. Since I currently live in Albacete, the pronounciation for mosca is "mohka". Therefore - mohqa design.

I recently installed Ubuntu on my computer, I decided to switch from Corel to Gimp. Dear CorelDraw and PhotoPaint, I'm going to miss you so much. I like the Gimp, though. I'm still a bit new on all the functions, but the layers work great and I've really enjoyed working with it. I have to check the university library for some books on it. I'm also very satisfied with Ubuntu. I used to hate Linux, but Ubuntu totally changed my opinion. It is fast, minimalistic (we DO love that, don't we) and reliable. I've been having few problems with installing certain things and working with partitions and some other stuff, but luckily Lefty a.k.a Mr. Nice has a job with lots of free time so he is usually there (on the messenger ;) to help me. Thanks, mate.
So, now I'm on to my next project thingy – modification of the PartyPoker table appearance. It's really dull and boring, even without people and chairs, so I'll try to lighten it up a bit. Until next time, enjoy the life.

Hello...errrm...what is this place?

I guess that every blog needs an opening post which announces it's birth and shows the first insight into the owner's mind. Since I'm a student of computer science, the first phrase that drops on my mind on such occasions is "Hello World!". For all those lucky people who will never have the honor to meet Java, C, or any other obscure language of the computer world, this is the first thing that They ¹ teach you in almost any programming course. They show you how to write a primitive program whose only function is to write an utmost simple sentence on the screen, the aforementioned "Hello world!". With this little trick, this innocent sleight of hand, They convince you that programming is a simple and joyful activity which will eventually replace afternoon football with friends. And then, when you finally realize that you are trapped in a horrible world of dangerous loops, treacherous methods and countless sneaky IF-sentences, it is too late to get away - you are Theirs...

Those of us that get through the programming exams but have the power to resist the beauty of working behind the computer 10 hours per day become informatics². There is a joke on our university which says that we have three study programs - hardware, software and nowhere. I guess it's not to hard to guess that nowhere stands for informatics. But as far as it looks right now, the future won't be nowhere but everywhere. Computer science is leaking into every pore of our society and there has never been so much need for people that "know computers" than right now in every aspect of everyday life. We will see, there is still a lot of exams to pass before I venture into The World of Real Jobs³. Until then, I will try to improve myself in one of the rare fields of computer science which enchants me - graphic design. This is the main purpose of this blog, here I will post my Design Stuff⁴ and probably some links to the Design Stuff that I like from other authors. I chose a blog instead of a web page because it is more convenient to use, especially to update on a regular basis. And besides, I really enjoy writing my "ordinary life" blog - Šund (only in Slovenian language). Oh yeah, you probably noticed already, I love to talk/write a lot. My friend from Poland would say "about everything and nothing". Get used to it...

To get back to the starting topic, what the fuck is this "Hello world!" thing anyway? Does it mean that the program is so happy to be alive that it's laughing merrily at the world and is screaming "Hello!" at the top of it's lungs? Well this is an obvious proof that it's a pretty retarded piece of code. Imagine a newborn baby. He/she spent 9 months in a warm, cosy environment with a constant supply of food and then he/she is abruptly taken from that friendly environment and pulled to a cold, huge world where the first breath feels like eating a razor even though you have no idea what a razor is. And the first sight is a bunch of people dressed in green with masks over their faces that are waiting to stick tubes and god-knows-what-else god-knows-where. If you can laugh to that, well, welcome. There will be plenty of laughs on the way. If there is such a thing as a newborn program, the first thing that it sees is a bunch of geeks with unwashed hair, contact lenses (haha!, stereotypes with coke-bottomed glasses can kiss their big fat asses) and a look in their eyes which says "I'm gonna take over the world of computers!"⁵ Hmm, after all, maybe it is possible to start the life with laughter after all...

P.S: Oh yeah, the graphic stuff in this post is of course the page itself. Fly, isn't it?

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1. They a.k.a The Programmers. They can obtain the form of professors, assistants, students or even ordinary-looking people. You recognize them by one common thing - the shine in their eyes when someone mentions pointers. What are pointers? Consider yourself lucky you don't know...↩

2. informatic [info´:mae´tik] n, adj - a person who is studying computer science but prefers other things to computers, usually sports and women. In a sentence: "The Internet is not working again, where is that informatic guy that we pay a lot and is never here?" or even more often: "I'm calling my informatic friend to fix my computer again but I don't understand why he doesn't answer."↩

3.The World of Real Jobs - a place where there is no sleeping until noon when you "feel too tired to wake up", no unplanned road trips for a whole month and no weekdays when you are soooo wasted from the last night's drinking that you spend all day lying on the couch hugging a bottle of water. Preferably lemon-flavored.↩

4.Design Stuff - graphics in general, web design, interior design, worthless ideas... Sky's the limit.↩

5. Lazyboy - Underwear Goes Inside The Pants. I just love the irony...↩