Twenty-twelve is the Year of the Golden Dragon in the Chinese calendar, and I'd like to note that since my age is divisible by 12 from 1988, this coming year is our year.

A classic Chinese decorative dragon. I splashed the other colors for study.

In the Orient, dragons are placed the highest in the animal hierarchy (what's ironic is that they're the only ones that don't exist), and is the symbol of the universe, life and imperial power. Who doesn't like these mythical creatures, anyway? They are fiery, colorful and boast of much tradition and art.

But we dig contrasts, too, don't we? As much as I like visual depictions of dragons, I find the black and white versions more appealing. So for 2012 I customized a noir-et-blanc template to have a burnt orange, pthalo green and teal scheme for the New Year.

I'm also working on revising this blog's old school sidebar bit by bit to eventually agree with the new look. And I also matched the portfolio sub-domain which I upload things to for a much improved user experience.

And our tech team's prepping for our last web client projects early this year, so I'm still going to design two more exciting! digital domains which readers of this blog probably won't ever know about, wrap up a standing e-commerce project, and after those wired jobs--a grand battle offline. Not to mention a brand new portal gateway and mobile web for ze Dragon University without fail, and other things that might still crop up that we've to welcome with open arms. All's well that ends well.

And then, whether you win or lose, you will always triumph in the end, because you will have carried out your work with Love.

Hope y'all like the blog's new look, and merry Christmas, still! #

This is what you call impulsive blogging. I hope I don't end up deleting this again. Just want to share a quote on writing from one of our favorite stops on the Web.

"Writing Postcards" (2008) by Robert Marschelewski.

The price of learning to use words is the development of an acute self-consciousness. Nor is it enough to pay attention to words only when you face the task of writing—that is like playing the violin only on the night of the concert. You must attend to words when you read, when you speak, when others speak. Words must become ever present in your waking life, an incessant concern, like color and design if the graphic arts matter to you, or pitch and rhythm if it is music, or speed and form if it is athletics.

These are reason and faith-driven holidays. There won't be deeply cherished holidays for nothing if time and eternity didn't meet 2,000 years ago, besides the historically preparatory Hanukkah and Yule. "Don't let Grinches steal your Christmas by substituting meaningless slogans." And this occasion isn't the most joyful and the most inspiring one for families and friends throughout the world by accident or by sentiment, but by reason and reality. Otherwise, we wouldn't know how to explain it.

And even children know why:



Don't replace the decorative stars and parols with neutral snowflakes to mark the season. The most beautiful greeting cards are still those that depict the child in the manger. Keep the "Christmas" in your salutations.

Happy Christmas, everyone!

So I've worked in the University for almost two years now (and see that I type the word with a capital U by default), and every single week--and I'm not exaggerating--amazing things are discovered and learned in campus. Many of them are newsworthy, some are groundbreaking, while a few are gems waiting to be weighed.


Although our job, and my joy, is to turn "high-nigh, hoity-toity academic papers with bulky paragraphs into digestible news stories," there is a limitation here. Sure, many university-based communications teams do this job quite magnificently seen in the grand quasi-journalistic examples of Bostonia, the Harvard Gazette, and Columbia Magazine, but they don't seem to be making great strides in bringing these valuable information to wider audiences--a power naturally belonging to the mainstream press.

Besides, what corporately-established campus reporting lacks is the key journalistic principle of independence, that its loyalty lies in the campus and most of the exposure remains there.

Columbia Magazine's summer 2011 issue.

Acknowledged: We have what you call media liaisons that serve as channel between these so-called Ivory Towers (cough: "academic elitism") and media organizations to bring content to the masses, but what gets carried isn't usually the story most useful to public, civic education. Note that this is due to a loss in translation when political and relational decisions come into play. To put it simply, there is a lack of disinterestedness in both parties.

Another problem: Mainstream media haven't really done a very good job in educating its audiences. Most of these outfits just live on day-to-day reporting or rewriting of press releases or, well, fluff.

Political news reports are, of course, the bread and butter of journalism, but whatever is written about the arts or our history as a nation or scientific innovations usually lacks depth, breadth and height. Not to mention studies and research with potential social impact almost never get to the pages of our dailies.

The people are journalists' bosses (cliche, I know). Their job is to bear the truth and even, whenever possible, to deliver the best of truth. Setting aside ethical dilemmas for argument's sake, this obligation to the people is fundamental. This is sacred.

And isn't the best of truth what universities are on a quest for?

Now let's bridge this gap: What our people need is education. Ivory towers are in the business of education. So let's make the media the ladder between the two. That's it. (Or read a similar article I wrote for TNGG.)

While we dream of widespread university accessibility in the name of social justice, or integral community participation of academic institutions beyond CSR, we can establish and strengthen that "ladder" by making changes in journalism structures and practices.

And the change I propose is simple, but admittedly unorthodox: A university beat. Higher education reporting. Academic journalism. Call it whatever you want. But it's something we need today. #

Thought of reblogging something originally from a longer article on Psychology Today by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi. Don't ask me to type that name again. But I hope this will help us know ourselves even just a little better, "to make more understandable the mysterious process by which they (we) come up with new ideas and new things," wrote Mr. Csik~, who sadly also makes psychic apparatus remarks in the article.

Since creative personalities can get more complex than others, it helps that they check themselves more often and ask whether they live a coherent (ergo, more heroic) life. Never mind psychology, and never mind that Walt Whitman said in one of my loved/hated poems, which any student of anthropology or philosophy or the humanities would find very amusing, annoying and baffling at the same time:

"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"

Photo of our Secret Santa draw the other night by @_claireness.