The Kind of Saturday

It's 25°F and windy outside on a Saturday early afternoon. I'm having a bowl of homemade chili made by my friend Brian Owens with 2 slides of toasted Craberry Almond Bread from Fevere. Bossa nova is on the Internet radio. Sometimes this is all I need. Simple.

T2 / Harvest Productions Dining by Design Table from T2 + Back Alley Films on Vimeo.

About this video: "Here's the collaborative table design by T2 Experience Lab and Harvest Productions at the 2010 DIFFA Dining by Design Kansas City. T2 came up with the concept and created the motion content for projection. Harvest Productions provided the projector, truss system and the lighting equipment. Team T2: Michael Ong/Creative Director/Motion Designer, Garrett Fuselier/Experience Designer, Claudia Chagüi/Motion Designer, Drew Bolton/Volunteer Designer and Andrew Kuttler/Volunteer Designer, Nick Balda/Editor. Team Harvest: Joe Athon and the whole gang of hardworking crew."

Documentary “The Next American Dream” Wins Emmy

October 15, 2010 by Screenmag The documentary “The Next American Dream” a coproduction of T2 Entertainment, a division of T2 + Back Alley Films and Inland Sea Productions was honored with an Emmy award by the Mid-America Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences... ...T2 Entertainment editor Cara Myers cut and finished the documentary with creative director Michael Ong and motion graphics designers Cody Beltram and Darton Simons crafting the animated charts and graphs... Read the complete article on screenmag.tv.

Print in Motion: Commercial Spot: Children's Hospital of Illinois

Print in Motion: Commercial Spot: Children's Hospital of Illinois

From Blog to Micro Blog

I can't believe it has been over 2 years since I last posted on this blog. I guess Facebook and Twitter really replace how we post our updates online. Of course, writing a sentence or two is totally different than blogging. However, Facebook has up-to-the-second time stamp which makes any updates more in the moment. I'm not sure how much more I'm going to continue blogging but I thought I'll just write an entry for old time sake.

Charity: Water

This is a very inspiring project. It all started out with one individual who was determined to make a change. Please support Charity: Water.

Greetings from Taipei

Almost 24 hours after we left Kansas City, we finally arrived in Taipei, which is not our final destination. We still have 2 more legs of flight to catch. However, our long flight across the Pacific Ocean was very comfortable and didn't feel the journey at all. Flying the Elite Class on EVA Airlines is definitely the way to go. I highly recommend it. Anyway, we're onto our next flight right now. The journey continues.

Smart and Cute

Our lucky intern got this brand new Smart Car as her graduation gift. I couldn't resist so she took me for a spin. It's so small, it looks like a toy. However, it is surprisingly spacious inside. I love it but I don't think it's practical if this is the only car for a person. I'm not sure if I feel safe driving this little thing on a high way at 70 mph next to all the regular size cars. I wonder how it drives in winter weather. I'll let someone else be the test dummy.

Dining By Design 2008

Last night we attended the annual DIFFA's Dining By Design and here are some of the many pictures I took of the spectacular tables. Many tables are going green this year. One table actually made a chandelier out of clear plastic knifes. I guess if they were used, then I think it was an innovative way to reuse instead of sending them to the landfill. Suba and I sat at the Paint By Number table designed by Jonathan and Kevin. Instead of a big table, they went with 4 of 4 top tables next to a gallery of Paint By Number paintings, most of which were their personal collections. I think their table was one of the most unique ones that evening.

Signs of Spring

Looks like spring is finally here. It is rather late this year. I think this week is the short little window one gets to enjoy the explosion of spectacular flowers blooming in white, red, pink and yellow on trees and bushes. Beautiful bright green of new leafs and fresh grass appears overnight. This is the first Spring for us in our house, so we're discovering the flowering plants in the yard. They are so beautiful. I'm terrible at names of flowers and plants and I can't begin to tell you what's all in our garden. However, I clipped a little branch to bring the season into the house. It is raining outside, and before we know it, our grass in the yard is knee high! Fun.

"Robot"

There's a Robot in our dining room! This is my latest art acquisition for the house. It is a hand signed limited edition silkscreen by Brian Flynn. (4/25). 40.5" x 35". The fun part is, it glows in the dark. Since I our dining room has huge floor to ceiling panels of windows, I framed the artwork with a UV protection glass. Now I'm not sure if the artwork will glow in the dark anymore since the UV was filtered out by the glass. What type of light charges the glow-in-the-dark phosphors? Visible light or UV light? Anyone?

UMKC Shoot

These pictures were taken during the shoot for UMKC TV commercial on March 12. It was very chilly morning, and the breeze made it even more unbearable. Just when I was cursing internally on how long and dreary this winter was, I looked up the sky and there was a group of Canadian Geese flying in V formation, heading Northward. I guess that was a sign of hope that Spring is finally here!

The rest of the pictures are just the skateboarder in the commercial, doing his jump. This young kid was totally fearless! And I, on the other hand, cringed at every jump he made.

Update: Please visit www.umkc.edu/getalife to check out the really cool spots.

Who is Superman?

I came back from lunch today and sitting at the front desk of my office was this crazy big Valentine gift. It was a huge stuffed with a rose in it's mouth, and above it was 10 huge helium balloons in the shape of roses. And it was for me! I opened the envelope and inside was a hand-made card that said, To my sweet Michael from Superman, written with glue and glitter! Superman!? Clark Kent? Who could that be? I had tried to investigate as much as I could but I still could not figure it out. So whoever you are, Superman, thank you for such a thoughtful gift but please reveal yourself before I go crazy. How bizarre!

"One Voice"

In October, 2006, the Heartland Men's Chorus had a joint concert with the Turtle Creek Chorale in Dallas at the Meyerson Symphony Hall. I feel very proud to be part of this memorable and rare event. I came across this clip posted by our chorus over a year later. I wish to share this with those who read my blog. Enjoy!

A Change of Scenery

It was only a month ago that I posted the beautiful Fall color pictures, and now, Nature gave us a little change of scenery - Ice! Even though we didn't get hit as bad as the one in 2002, it still affected many homes in the area. I hope that if we're going to get any precipitation for the rest of the winter, please let it be snow!

Shades of Fall

No matter how many times I've experienced the beauty of the fall season each year, I'm still amazed by the vivid range of colors that nature brings us. Just like many wonderful things, these moments only last for a short time. I have to remind myself to appreciate the moment. Soak it in. Better yet, snap a few digital pics and post them on the blog so others could experience it, too.

Jack-O-Lantern 2007

Yesterday we had our annual pumpkin carving party at Tom and Mark's. Although I didn't win the best pumpkin, I think my creation was pretty original. Mine was inspired by the new Sprint Center in Downtown Kansas City. It looks fabulous when lit because you can see lights from all 360 degrees. It creates a very nice pattern around it!

More Pictures

It seems like six weeks had passed at a blink since I posted the last entry. The warm weather is finally changing and so are the leafs. It went up to about 80 today despite the fact that it'll be Halloween in a week!

Here are some pictures of our living and dining room of our house, which is not so new now since we've already moved in for 2 months.

Fast Forward

Things happen for a reason. I was rather disappointed after the Central Project went away and decided to start exploring other options. We looked at a some lots and some other houses. After having our mind set for such a long time on building and totally customize everything in our house, it's difficult to find any existing that suits our needs, and in an ideal location, that is within our budget. Then we found this mid-century modern home, built by the original owner, who was an architect. We knew as we walked in that it has our names written all over it. Fast forward to today: I sold my home bought this house, and had moved into it for 3 weeks already. Now when I looked back, it just went by so quickly that it's all a blur, but within it was a ton of stress selling and closing on my house, working on loans and buying the house, and packing and moving and unpacking...all in 60 days! So, here the destination that we ended up which we don't even know it existed when we started the journey of building our dream home. Even though this house was not built by us, it's certainly a dream come true because it reflects our design sensibility. The best of it, at this moment, we're already living in it and enjoying it!

Hello. iPhone.

Today is like 1984, the year Macintosh was introduced. Just like the Mac has revolutionized desktop computers, the iPhone has revolutionized mobile phones; not only mobile phones, but touch-screen technology! I was totally fascinated by the user interface and how natural and tactile the touch screen experience, I didn't even pay too much attention to the feature of the phone. I remember when Steve Job first showed the "pinching" gesture to zoom and out of a page, I was floored. That was a "Minority Report" moment and I had been waiting to try it with my own fingers since then and I have to say, I am absolutely impressed! My good friend Cello and his wife each bought one today. I longingly looked at the bag in their hands, and wished I have that kind of a disposable income to drop $500 for a super-cool phone just like that. One thing I'm afraid of is that the a year from now, Apple will come out with an even cooler model! When is it going to end? I did feel a little embarrassed calling with my Motorola PEBL, which seems really cool when I first got it. Now my PEBL is more like a fossil.

By the way, this photo was taken at the Apple Store using PhotoBooth on one of the iMacs and e-mailed to myself. How fun!