blog has moved

I finally spent some time and set up and wordpress on my portfolio so I will retire this blog (which I hardly ever used...) Check out the new blog at www.aknowledgedesign.com/blog

Privacy policies...my arse

Wow...it's been a while since my last post...oh well, on to the subject at hand:

Lately I have been receiving e-mail newsletters from this one company (whom shall remain anonymous) for the past month or two and I have no recollection of subscribing to them, which I'm pretty positive I did not considering this company is based in Hong Kong. I finally decided to unsubscribe because their e-mails were bypassed my spam filter. Not to mention, my name in the newsletters was kai wa wong...that's no where near correct! Anyway, contact contacted me with this message:

Dear Aaron,

Thank you for your e-mail. Please be informed we are not able to retrieve your record according to this e-mail address (aaron.kwong@gmail.com). Kindly provide your membership number or the e-mail address which you have provided to your (name removed) account

Thank you for your kind attention.

This is how I responded:

Hi (name removed),

Another party must have provided you my e-mail address without my permission so, unfortunately, I do not know my super e account membership details. If still possible, I would appreciate it if you could remove this e-mail address from your mailing list.

Thank you,
Aaron

Now we play the waiting game...and now I'm curious who they received my info from.

Weird Random Thoughts

I don't know why, but I've been using the word "weird" much more frequently this past month, and I noticed something weird. I think many of us know the saying, "'i' before 'e' except after 'c'." Now think about that term for a moment...then look at how "weird" is spelled. The last I recall, "w" does not count as "c." And that is correct spelling; I double checked with dictionary.com and various spell checkers). Weird huh?

Now you know what kinds of things go through my insomniac mind when attempting to fall asleep for 1-2 hours.

Free Kobe beef + great interior design = happy designer

The title is as far as my math knowledge goes. But on to the topic:

As with most people on this planet, I am a huge fan of great tasting food. In other words, buffet food is generally no go, especially those generic chinese buffets filled with fried rice, fried noodles, fried chicken...might as well call it fried buffet. The only exception off the top of my head is Fuji's sushi buffet in Davis, CA (which you should definitely check out some time if you have not.)

Today was my mother's friend's relative's red egg and ginger party. If you don't know what that is, please look it up on wikipedia or something of the like. They held this party in San Francisco's A5 steak lounge. They have great food, swift service, and an inviting interior. One of the most unique things about this lounge was the restroom, though. I did not even know I was in the restroom when I walked in. There was a counter in the center of the room lined with many faucets that streamed out the smoothest water I've ever seen. I just wanted to sit there and watch it all day. But the weirdest thing was there was no separation between the men's and women's restroom. It was just one large facility with separate stalls completely closed off from anything else. Once you step in and lock the door behind, the environment feels so serene you could fall asleep in the stall (not that you'd want to).

Oh, and to top it off, there was free kobe beef. Of course, it probably won't happen again unless someone throws another huge party that was split into two shifts because the lounge could not accomodate so many people.

If you read through this, and you ever have some free time, I definitely recommend coming here with your friends, enjoy the bar and friendly ambience, and relax. This post just can't do the place justice. No words I write could describe this exquisite experience.

Freebies? Don't Mind if I Do!

Uprinting.com recently had a new year promotional offer for "creative professionals" and offered up to 1000 business cards for free until March 31. Of course, I jumped on the opportunity immediately, spent some time designing a simple/clean card, then submitted it for printing. You can find the design under the "cards" section on my portfolio. I only ended up paying about $6 for shipping and I just received them today! That means I can potentially expose myself to 999 other individuals (I'm keeping one for myself, thank you).

Freelance gigs don't just walk up to your doorstep. Finding a job is pretty much a job in itself, and hopefully these cards will help spread the word out and get things going.

What's the internet without blogging?

My apologies first, for the post does not actually have anything to do with the title. But here begins yet another blog on the internet.

As a designer, I frequent other design blogs, such as "You The Designer". And in these blogs I read about "things all graphic designers should have." If remembered correctly, the post said blogs are useful tools for designers, if not all people, for exposing themselves. So here I am, exposing myself!

It's late, so I need to sleep.