Where is Derek?

Hey yall, long time no speak. The start of this new year has been really good. I have renewed my efforts in learning Japanese and started designing again. Currently I am designing a logo for a voice over artist named Bill Lloyd and here is the logo that I am working on.

The brief for this project mentioned awesome so I gave, awesome. A bacon wrapped grenade! I think it says… I am loud, proud and so dayum good… You must admit, anything bacon wrapped is pretty dayum awesome. I will see what he says…

I have been networking and have met a bunch of cool people. Some are designers and some not but I have goals for this year and I will do my best to get them all done. Oh, I have picked up a new design skill and that is WordPress theme design. This blog uses WordPress but isnt exactly what I want for a blog so I plan on upgrading everything from UI to functionality.

Hope everyone is doing well. Just writing so people know that I am still breathing. In the books for spring, a trip to the Philippines! yeah!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I am finishing up my short tour or Cambodia. I decided to hold off on Vietnam because of visa costs and time constraints. I am currently in Phenom Penh and I saw S-21 prision, the Killing Fields, the Central and Russian markets. Phenom Penh is a bustling city filled with people looking for work. The harassment is ever present but luckily for me, I dont have blond hair and blue eyes. Yesterday, I got rid of touts by saying that I am Chinese and saying, “Give up, you know you cant get the Chinese to give up any money”. They knew I was right and immediately went after the Dutch couple that I was traveling with.

Let me backtrack for a bit… My first day was in Siam Reap, the gateway to the famed Angkor Wat. Siam Reap is very toursity and the border cross from Aranya Pratet, Thailand to Poipet, Cambodia was easier than people wrote about. I met Jeffery and Johnny, a Dutch couple heading to Siam Reap also so we teamed up to find a place to stay and explore Angkor Wat.

The next day we went to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat which was nice but there were clouds blocking the sun. Angkor Wat was a sight to behold and my other favorites were, The Bayon which had several stupas with faces carved in them and Ta Phrom aka the Tombraider Temple. All awesome!

The next day I went to Phenom Penh and met three British girls who were volunteering at an orphanage near town. They invited me to teach a class at their orphanage. I taught a two hour class to kids about animals. Awesome, working on vacation.

The next morning I went to S-21 prison, Polpot’s largest detention center and prision, the Killing Fields aka Chheuk Ek, where there is a stupa dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide, the Central Market aka everything you want in a maze of stalls and the Russian Market aka the black market.

Besides the tourist sites, Cambodia seems like it is at the bottom of the totem pole of southeast Asia. The Cambodian people are very friendly and Khmer curry is awesome.

Today it rained like crazy and the streets were flooded, I had to ride my bicycle through several flooded streets, I hope I don’t get cholera!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]