I've gone ahead and upgraded to the new blogger. They didn't give me any choice in the matter actually, but I am liking it quite well.
Was afraid of losing my template when I upgraded but I wanted to have labels in my sidebar more than I was sentimental about the old template. I suppose I will have to say goodbye to my ancient method of creating categories for blogger. It is time to move on. Life as someone put so eloquently, is a trapeze act, grabbing and letting go, grabbing and letting go, until you get to the final bar that is greased.
This is my 989th post and I'm anal enough to want to go back to label everything. It is starting to look a bit like what I would like my brain to look like: posts on running, reading, etc. and all the important and interesting stuff uncategorised. ;) I'm deliberating how specific I want my labels to be. Do I want a post on "Irving" or "Gaiman" or just leave everything under "Books"?
I'll figure it out along the way. :)
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
New blogger here I come
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
11:17am
I lie about the time. I type in 11:17am and then when I'm mid-way through the post, it is 11:18am and I wonder what is the precise time I am writing this. Is it 11:17am, 11:18am, or 11:20am, when I finish? Or is it the median minute between the start and end, 11:18:30?
Read More!8:43am
I think I'm in the mood for journaling. An incredulous friend asked me yesterday why I keep my "diary" online, and I told her it wasn't really like a diary, it's more filtered blah blah blah, until I remembered the two posts yesterday.
But I'm in the mood for telling you the little things.
It is 8:43am and I'm waiting for a work programme to start. I'm tired today, to the point of nausea: have you ever noticed how you're more sensitive to how things smell when you're really tired?
8:45am. Time to go. :)
Monday, January 29, 2007
6:07pm
A Monday Chronicle.
It's about time to head home. I'm craving Bibimbap. When I first tried it at an authentic Korean restaurant, I didn't like it. I think mixing a runny egg that I suspected was raw into my rice just didn't do it for me. (Is it raw by the way?) But after I traveled on Korean Air on a long haul flight and eating Bibimbap at least three times there and back, I think the taste has grown on me.
(The entire paragraph above was written by my stomach.)
What a day. Handed in my resignation letter today and it feels strange. Neither liberating nor sad, just strange. I forget who I was I said this:
I am not only between the proverbial devil and the deep blue sea, there are sharp nails under my feet. You can make a home of sharp nails, you know, the way a salamader makes a home of consuming fire. I have uncannily made a home of this uncomfortable place: where there are no ambitions, no dreams, no principles, no hope for a future, just today, tomorrow and everyday after.
I don't think I was talking only about work there, but I can't remember.
I don't think I've ever been so keenly aware of the calendar year as I am right now.
Anyone up for Bibimbap? Read More!
9:14am
Sitting in front of my computer, waiting for my coffee to kick in. Why are Mondays so hard?
Today is A's birthday. Happy birthday A! :) I'm praying for you today. I'm actually looking forward to turning 30. It feels... right.
Mondays are all in my mind. I don't have a grueling day in front of me at all. A staff meeting in the morning, handing in my letter late morning, arranging for Microsoft Exchange training for staff, tying up loose ends here and there, but I sit here like a morose giant waiting for the end of the world.
It is time to wake up. What would I do without coffee? Caffeinated doughnuts perhaps.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
The Sandman: Dream Country, Vol. 3
I love the weekend. Today we celebrated a friend's birthday with chilli crab, awfully chocolate cake, ice cream, and wine. I got to hang out with old friends and talk with my sis on Skype. And I had enough time last night and this morning to finish reading this comic by Neil Gaiman.
At this point, I can truthfully say that I am happy.
Volume three explores where great writers get their inspiration from. The Sandman, being the source of dreams, is the source of inspiration for all the great works created by men as well. It is kinda mind-boggling 'cos if the Sandman inspired Shakespeare, did he inspire Gaiman to write the story you hold in your hand as well? It is a little like looking into a pair of parallel mirrors with images retreating into infinity.
This volume includes the original script for "Calliope" and it is interesting to see how a comic gets written. It is rather detailed work and requires a lot of cooperation between the writer and the artist. It is also congruent to include the script in this particular volume since the theme of this volume is the process of writing stories, and the script gives a backstage look at this process.
Art is the translation of memoirs, history, and human experience into stories that never die because their truth echoes through time. And The Sandman series is art.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Protected CDs: a step forward or back?
I got one of those fancy copyright-protected CDs and I can actually do less with it than a CD I bought five years ago.
1. I have to use the player the CD comes bundled with. Neither iTunes nor Windows Media Player would recognise the CD.
2. I can only burn the disc three times.
3. To burn the disc, I can only use Windows Media Player.
4. And not just any old Windows Media Player, but only the latest version which I have to download from the Microsoft site.
It is my music and my iPod!
Friday, January 26, 2007
'tis the season
I'm keeping more money in my wallet than usual 'cos tis the season to buy my colleagues lunch.
C.S. Lewis wrote a book titled "A Grief Observed" where he noted and described the symptoms of his own grief when he lost his beloved wife. Along those lines in a much less serious matter, these are my observations of the phases I'm going through.
Phase 1: Catalyst for change
There was actually a precise point where I realised that I couldn't stay any longer.
Phase 2: Process of looking
Tried out options, somewhat optimistic and confident.
Phase 3: Disappointment
Most options didn't work out and got into a rut thinking that I would not be able to leave even if I wanted to. It was depressing and bad for the self-esteem.
Phase 4: An opportunity
Got a job offer.
Phase 5: Decision time
Forgot why I wanted to go in the first place.
Phase 6: Speaking to the boss
Re-aligned my thoughts, pursued a few options at current job.
Phase 7: Still deciding
What to do, I'm an indecisive person. ;)
Phase 8: Telling the boss a firm answer
Was going to be polite and apologise but when it came down to it, all I said was, "er. I've decided to go." I'll never go into Public Relations.
Phase 9: Buying colleagues lunch
Hence the need to have more cash in the pocket. :)
I'm feeling better about it now that I've decided. My last day is still a long way off and so I'm not worried about being thrown into the deep end of the pool yet. But it'll come, I'm sure of it.
Jitters to come, do tune in. :)
I hope I don't change my mind!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Stuff that caught my eye
- Check out this awesome picture by Graham Jeffery. I mean, you can see the pollen on the bee's legs!
- Donald Crowdis, the 93-year-old blogger of Don to Earth, has a brave and bittersweet entry about not wanting to die. His blog is witty too!
- You had a bad day?
- This boy's voice kills 400 chickens. I think it's a scam.
- Lawyer survives kidnapping and writes a book.
Conversations with a guy friend
Your perspective of a wedding really depends on whether you're wearing a veil or a tux. I didn't realise this until my close guy friend got married this month and I found myself thinking in ways that I've never thought before when my close female friends got married.
When my female friends get married, I get all sentimental and happy about the love they've found; I melt when they say their vows; I gush about how beautiful the bride looks.
When my guy friend got married, I actually felt a little nervous and sad about his loss of freedom and wondered if his new wife would listen to what he says! It is very strange. Over lunch today, my newly wedded friend and I talked about a mutual friend who gets driven around by his big-earning wife and we both agreed that it is better for this mutual friend to pick up driving fast while they are still in honeymoon bliss.
I would never talk like this in a conversation with a girl I think.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Something to think about
- Because of a higher life expectancy, females outnumber males by 10% among those aged 65 years or more.
- But among elderly singles, males outnumber the females by 13.8% in the year 2000.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
pianississimo*
I'm even more confused now. Was 95% sure about moving out of my current job into something new, but I talked to my boss this afternoon and he asked if I would be willing to stay another 2 years.
And then I went back to being 40% sure.
It would be easy to decide to go if I was excited about the new job, but the truth is I'm scared like anything and I hate change and I would rather stay. But how long more can I wait? I turn 30 this year! The thought of starting all over again is bad enough this year, let alone in two years' time.
I thought about staying and doing a Masters in the meanwhile, but I missed the deadline of one by a week, and the other required certain work experience that I did not have. And it appears that the starting pay for Bachelor degree holders and Master degree holders is the same, so getting a Masters won't put me any higher in the food chain in two years' time.
Back to 50-50. I think I will whimper quietly to myself now*.
I'm proposing to myself...
...a new attitude towards work.
I give you five days every week, for my bread and butter.
Two days I reserve, for my pleasure and sanity.
_____But the five days are yours so I'll do what I have to do.
But it is still my life so I intend to be happy doing it.
Monday, January 22, 2007
The things I am doing at 10:13pm
- Listening to "Put your Records On" and trying to see what it is about it that B likes so much that she actually bought the CD for me.
- Trying not to think about what I have to sign tomorrow.
Should selling organs be legitimate?
It is somewhat worrying that neurologist Lee Wei Ling thinks that it is a good thing if people were allowed to sell their body parts. It makes me somewhat relieved that she is a doctor rather than a politician.
On 18 January 2007, The Straits Times reported that a straw poll on its interactive website indicated that the number who voted for and against the sale of organs is about equal. Sometimes my country is so utilitarian that it scares the bejibbers out of me.
I am against the sale of human body parts. The donation of body parts should only be done with altruistic motivation, not monetary. By putting a price on an organ, it creates a market for human organs.
A market! Gracious me. Do you know what a market for human organs means? It means that the rich will get a disproportionately larger share of body parts, the way the rich gets a disproportionately larger share of everything else that you can buy with money.
A poor family struggling with their day-to-day finances will be sorely tempted to sell a kidney, or a liver, or an eye to make ends meet. True, the rich man will live because of that poor man’s kidney, but at what expense?
When I was in the US, a quiet, reserved guy I played guitar with donated his kidney to another church member. He wasn't related to him or anything, he just did it out of Christian love. After they took out his kidney, he lost his appetite and so lost weight. It was a while before he regained his fitness. He's a hero.
When I was younger, Jamie Oliver and I were tempted to donate our eggs for a bit of hard cash. We weren’t doing anything with them anyway—not that I’m doing anything with mine right now—but the internet sites looked a little too dodgy. So we passed. I guess we weren't desperate enough.
Poor people take risks all the time with their health—some become prostitutes, some smuggle drugs into countries with capital punishment, most eat cheaply and poorly—but that is somehow different from selling parts of your body.
People don’t get paid for giving blood for the same reason. If there was money involved, people in the high-risk category may be more motivated to try to cheat and beat the system for a few extra dollars in the pocket.
I don’t know if it is possible to create a system that eliminates the ethical issues this raises. It may be possible, but I haven't seen it yet. I realize that you get very desperate when your own organ has failed. All of us will be willing to pay any price for a functioning one in such a situation. But sometimes money isn't everything.
Fables: Storybook Love, by Bill Willingham
This is the fourth comic this week. Possibly too much, considering that the first one I've read in my life was on Wednesday.
Storybook love is volume three is the series Fables. I am not used to how quickly and easily characters are done away with in this series. I'm used to story lines that take a long time to ripen, where protagonists hang around till at least the end of the novel. But graphic novels excel in the absurd. Who knows if they won't return in the next volume? Read More!
Saturday, January 20, 2007
The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman
What if my dreams came true?
It is a scary thought. I don't think I would survive it. My dreams have a pattern running through them, recurring themes that I can't shake off: love, guilt, fear... and if what I dreamed were real, I would go mad.
For that reason, Preludes and Nocturnes is a scary book. In his afterward, Gaiman describes the stories in this series:
"The Sleep of the Just" was intended to be a classical English horror story; "Imperfect Hosts" plays with some of the conventions of the old DC and EC horror comics (and the hosts thereof); "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a slightly more contemporary British horror story; "A Hope in Hell" harks back to the kind of dark fantasy found in Unknown in the 1940s; "Passengers" was my (perhaps misguided) attempt to try to mix super-heroes into the SANDMAN world; "24 hours" is an essay on stories and authors, and also one of the very few genuinely horrific tales I've written; "Sound and Fury" wrapped up the storyline; and "The Sound of Her Wings" was the epilogue and the first story in the sequence I felt was truly mine, and in which I knew I was beginning to find my own voice.Did you notice how many times the word "horror"appears?
I had a weird thought. There is a very thin line separating fantasy from theology. The characters of fantasy are heaven and hell, demons and angels, death and salvation, mortals and gods—well, it is the same with theology. (Theology would quibble about the plural used in "gods" but it does have father, son and holy spirit after all.)
I think I'm out of my depth here, so forget about that last paragraph.
I wonder what I'll dream about tonight. Read More!
Fables: Legends in Exile, by Bill Willingham
I bought my first graphic novel: Fables Vol 1, Legends in Exile.
It's so fun to own a comic book. It is like owning a piece of art. I hope I don't get hooked to this feeling 'cos it will prove an expensive hobby.
Fables is about a bunch of fairy tale characters who are in exile in our world, specifically New York. We have the big bad wolf, little red riding hood, the witch in the forest, bluebeard, the three little pigs, Pinocchio, Snow White, etc. going incognito among the Mundanes, i.e. the regular human folk. Volume 1 is about a crime committed in the fable community.
It is available in the library as well, if you would like to thumb through it without having to put up good money, but I'll appreciate it if my hordes of readers (*cough*) will leave me at least one copy. I don't like leaving the library empty-handed. ;) And I really need save myself from the addiction of buying comic books.
(Fables is written by Bill Willingham, Penciled by Lan Medina, Inked by Steve Leialoha and Criag Hamilton, colored by Sherilyn van Valkenburgh, Lettered by Todd Klein, and given covers by James Jean and Alex Maleev. Phew. What a lot of folks it takes to make a comic.) Read More!
Friday, January 19, 2007
How to type the Em dash
In Word
Ctrl + Alt + - (use the minus on the numeric pad)
In PageMaker, Blogger, Word, or any other application that handles text
Alt + 0151
(to type the en dash, use alt + 0150)
Confused about whether to use the hyphen, the en dash or the em dash? Read this.
P.S. On a Mac, it is Shift + Option + -
Getting soft
I'm getting soft, pale and fat. All the better for lovin' and cuddlin', but not so good for running and getting that high that being aware of your body gives. Just one month ago, I knew exactly where and why I ache. That pain in my ITB or thighs or sun-burnt skin can usually be traced to a precise point on a (crazy) run. Now, I ache in strange places for inexplicable reasons. I have a fuzzy ache in my left butt (from doing what??); there is intermittent dull throbbing in my knees; and I have a backache.
Sheesh. A backache!
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Labour force participation rate of Singapore residents by age and sex, 1994 and 2004
I love a good chart. There are so many things you can tell from this chart.
- Both males and females are starting work at an older age.
- Females are more economically driven than males up to their early twenties.
- There is a sharp fall in female participation rates when they reach child-bearing age.
- For females, an absence of a second peak hints at the difficulty of re-entering the job market after giving birth, possibly due to a lack of family-friendly work arrangements. Or maybe they just prefer to stay home. (The worth of the work of a stay-at-home mom.)
- More females are continuing to work after childbirth in 2004 than in 1994.
Lake Toba
On a clear day, the water is blue.
On our way out of Lake Toba, we stopped by the side of the road to take this picture. It was a misty, drizzling day, and the water looked grey, blending into the sky. Our hosts tried to describe how blue it looks on a clear day. But it looked good enough for me that day.
We passed by monkeys by the side of the road, and bulls and goats too. Our Korean friends said, "Like safari!" It was cute. I forget how Southeast Asia looks to those used to modern cities.
The road was bumpy and windy. My friend threw up at some point along the way, and we stopped by the road again, leaving the bag of puke by the side of the road. "It is a free country," my hosts said at some other point in the trip. There wouldn't be a rubbish bin for miles.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Flotsam and jetsam
Trivia time.
Do you know the difference between flotsam and jetsam? Jetsam is that part of a shipwreck that has been thrown aboard and flotsam that which has floated off of its own accord. The distinction used to be important because flotsam went to the Crown and jetsam to the lord of the manor on whose land it washed up. Interesting eh?
(Wreckage on the sea floor is lagan.)
- Troublesome Words, Bill Bryson
Brief Lives, by Neil Gaiman
I now know why books in this genre are known as "graphic novels".
But I think I am finally getting Neil Gaiman in his element. He is imaginative, sensual and his work is driven by plot. I love the brooding Morpheus and the Lady Delirium who makes little coloured mushrooms and frogs sprout wherever she sits. It is amazing what a picture can do. For example, Delirium is always drawn in a whimsical pose: she is sprawled on the floor, or her arm is over her head, or she is surrounded in a multi-coloured realm with frivolous and fantastic bits and pieces. Even her eyes are different coloured!
I like Barnabas too, the sarcastic talking dog. He's cool. Isn't it interesting that Barnabas means "son of encouragement"?
It is so much faster to go through a comic than a novel.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Fortississimo*
I've been trying not to think about having to make an important decision but crunch time is coming closer. Sometimes I think, yes, of course I'll do it; other times, I think, no, I think I'll rather kick my legs back and enjoy life. What to do what to do.
So I'm nervous. (I start regular face to face conversations with the word `So' now, thanks to blogging. My friend thinks it is weird. Bill Bryson says it is perfectly acceptable to start a sentence with the word `And', so why not `So'?)
I think I may occupy myself with something else now, like migrating my blog to the new blogger or writing yet another book post or posting another inane picture or reading this post very loudly* to myself, or all four, or something.
Anything. Except having to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. I really ought to think of it in terms of say, between dim sum and papa john's pizza, but I just can't.
It is always the devil and the deep blue sea for me.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Orderly chaos
Somehow being at work in front of a fast computer calms me. I think it is because of an illusive sense of control. There are emails to reply, registration forms to fill up, phone calls to answer—little duties that give order, structure and focus.
At night, it doesn't feel this way. When I lie in bed trying to distract my wandering mind with a story book, I feel like a small child lost in a very large universe. Have you ever stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon? Or in a large field on a dark night where the sky stretches forever? It feels like that. As if my tiny cognizant being is about to be swallowed up by everything that exists.
It takes all my will power to remember that it is okay. Life is a bit like the traffic in Medan, Indonesia—cars, motorbikes, bicycles, richshaws, pedestrians going as they please in every direction, honking and overtaking and going against oncoming traffic; yet remarkably, the drivers are less stressed than the average driver back home. Chaotic, but manageable.
I can cope with that.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
The language of the heart
I'm back! What a trip.
I've been blessed beyond belief by the family of my Indonesian friend. Their hospitality is overwhelming, to the point where you realize that there is nothing you can do but graciously accept their kindness and pay the debt forward.
It was an unforgettable experience. Somewhat hilarious actually, considering how complicated it was to communicate. We traveled as a small group of Koreans, Indonesians and Singaporeans, and there wasn't a single common language. In fact, not a single person was fluent in all the languages. When we sat down for dinner, Indonesian dad would explain the menu in Hokkien to my Indonesian friend, who would translate it into English to my Korean friend, who would then translate it into Korean to her family. After they made their choice, the process would be repeated backwards!
I couldn't understand Bahasa or Korean; the pastor could understand Bahasa but not Chinese; Indonesian mum was fluent in Bahasa, Chinese and Hokkien, but not English... and so on and so forth. Of course the cool thing was that every time it was time to say grace before a meal, it was always in a different language that at least half in the group would not be able to understand!
But you know what is amazing? That it is still possible to communicate kindness and acceptance in spite of all of this. Apart from the amazing hospitality, the little gestures, gifts, smiles, and `thank yous' in five languages, there was a single event that stood out. It was when a group of middle-aged women from the church got together to present a Korean dance item during the wedding dinner. Each of them had bought a traditional korean dress and they smiled and danced with red fans to a korean tune. The effort they put into welcoming the guests was incredible.
In fact, the entire wedding dinner was incredible. The 60-large church choir and church members presented song item after song item in various permutations non-stop throughout the ten course wedding dinner, and the singing was fantastic. They sang traditional batak songs, love ballads, Christian songs, and even Singaporean tunes! One of the guests commented that even if you were a very rich man, you would not be able to pull such an event off. It humbled me to see how much the church in Medan loves their pastor and si mu (pastor's wife) that they should put in so much effort for their son's wedding.
Sometimes it is only when you have experienced what it is like to be given something amazing that you learn how to be generous yourself.
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Saturday, January 06, 2007
One from the past
Malacca, early '80s. My younger sister had caught a fish. We were both excited and exceedingly frightened of the huge fish on the line -- a catfish, our father said -- the kind that ate up all the rubbish from the bottom of the sea.
She was the only one who caught a fish -- she has always been lucky that way. I was the tiniest bit jealous that it wasn't me that caught it, but I could never stay jealous of my sister for long, except for the time when she took the Lemon Strawberry Shortcake and left me with the brown girl with freckles on her face. That time I was mad and chased her round and round the bush at the Botanic Gardens, but not this time, because I was too excited.
So we posed with the prize with fear and trembling -- her with her shirt neatly tucked in, me with mine sloppily out -- bow-legged and grinning and with our futures in front of us.
Project 365
In the style of Tetanus' ambitious Project 365.
Tetanus is posting a snapshot a day for a year. It is only 5 Jan, but he's got me hooked.
Check it out!
Friday, January 05, 2007
A bridemaid's checklist
I'm the universal friend.
Going to Medan, Indonesia next week for a buddy's wedding, and it looks like I may be bridesmaid again 'cos the sister of the bride is too shy. I've done it four times already. At the last wedding, I told my friends brashly that it would be my last time, but it looks like I may be wrong.
Looks like I have to dig out the trusty bridesmaid's checklist again:
Bridesmaid's "magic box"
- safety pins
- hair pins
- black hair rubber bands
- needle and white thread
- panadol
- band-aid
- tissue paper
- blotter paper
- lipstick
- straw (I always, always forget this)
- breath freshener
- razor
- swiss army knife (I wish I had one. But I don't. So I'll bring a small scissors instead.)
- red packets
Bridesmaid's to-do list
- Mind the bride's train
- Practise dressing the bride and looping up the train.
- Bring a button-down shirt, just in case
- Listen to the bride practise her vows and tell her she is doing wonderfully.
- If you are making a speech, remember to mention the family.
- Smile a lot.
I'm still hoping that the sister will decide to do it.
(You know what's interesting? I've never been a bridesmaid at a church wedding in Singapore!)
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Back to pen and paper
I've downgraded to a pen and paper diary for 2007. It's strange. I'm so used to tapping in an appointment and having in synchronized with my office comp, my home comp, konfabulator on my desktop and being able to choose whether I want to be reminded an hour before, a day before or a week before, that now, after I pencil in my little entry in my paper diary, I stare at it dumbly and wonder where the "OK" button is.
I feel like I'm back in school. Because back then, I always started the year full of aspirations about being organized and I would buy a nice paper diary and it would end up semi-filled with all the miserable deadlines of the year. Some years the diary would be chock-full of cheesy quotations and notes from classmates; some years I forgot about its existence until the year was over.
All in all, this paper diary doesn't bring back good vibes. I thought I would be happy to get back to pen and paper, but my handwriting is so ugly.
Dang it, I don't think I could go back to school. :(
Shift-delete in Outlook
Do you use outlook? Do you receive spam and deadly viruses? Then you will like this nifty shortcut.
To permanently delete an email, hold down SHIFT while deleting the message.
Can't wait for the next unsuspecting mydoom32 virus to come my way. muahahahahah!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Free stuff to write home about: Picasa + Hello
One of the best things about having a few large players dominating the cyber-world is that when they buy over promising online services with the aim of increasing their market share, they tend to offer it back to the public for free.
When Yahoo! bought Konfabulator (see earlier post), it became freeware. Picasa, a photo management software, used to be a paid-for service. Since Google bought it over in 2004, it has become freeware as well. More power to us.
I wouldn't dare say that Picasa is the best product for organising your photos because there may be better and more professional photo management software out there. But it works for me. The first time I loaded it up, it searched my hard drive for photos and automatically sorted them by date, and then by the folders I had created in my hard drive. So under "2006", I would have, for example, "Valentine's Day Lunch", "Christmas at J's", "Malacca", etc.
Adding keywords to photos is a breeze. All you have to do is to use your mouse to select the photos you want with the Ctrl key held down, go to "keywords" under "view", and type in your keywords. The next time you want to find, say, a good picture of your mother to send to your family, all you have to do is to type the keyword you had set into the search bar (`mum') and it'll pull out all her beautiful photos.
Picasa also makes batch editing easy. Under "Picture" and "Batch Edit", you can apply all of these effects to a large number of photos at the same time: batch rename, rotate, auto colour, auto contrast, sepia, warmify, black and white, and "I'm feeling lucky" which I assume does auto colour and contrast.
Picasa also has a useful bag of tools for you to edit your photo with. You can crop, straighten, undo red eye, etc without having to use a resource-heavy photo editing software. It also saves the original for you in case you change your mind.
Picasa is cool, but Hello is even cooler. Hello is a photo sharing software that is nothing like flickr. Flickr is awesome when you want to share your photos with the world. Hello is impressive when your sister is online halfway across the world and you want to show her ALL your photos of your recent mahjong party, including the ones of you holding out a thong (i.e. not safe for public consumption), and she wants to show you pictures of her dog, both at the same time.
It is blazingly fast. It isn't like sending a picture via MSN where you click, wait for the other party to click, wait, wait some more, then "hey, cool! nice pic! what were we talking about again?" Hello sends photos boom! boom! boom! Literally that quick. Just drag and drop. And you get to see what the other party is looking at so when your sister says "What nice legs!" (we use skype so that we can chat while looking at photos), you can check to see if she is really talking about your legs before grinning to the moon.
And this is really fun: it tickles us to no end every time. Using any of the following in the chat box on Hello will give you a different falling emoticon.
:)
:(
;)
:P
:o
:| (our fav)
<:)
lol
love
What fun. :) The best thing is that when you are done talking and laughing over the photos, all the photos that your sister sent to you is conveniently saved for you in the section "from hello" in a folder titled "from your sister" in Picasa.
It really doesn't get better than this.
Monday, January 01, 2007
On the first day of 2007
I woke up with a fever.
I steamed a hot dog bun from last year and had it for breakfast.
I made Turtle pose for a picture.
And now I wish all who stop by a good and blessed year ahead!
Some say making new year's resolutions is a useless exercise 'cos we break them by February. But I'm going to make a few anyway.
So hear ye, I, mis_nomer, resolve for the year two thousand and seven, to be less grumpy after work, to be fully present every moment of this blessed life, to be brave, and to remember not to despair because we have a God who cares.
