Archive for » April, 2007 «
20
April
I’ve paid for my air ticket to go to Beijing in August…
wOOt!! 
I have to say, STA at Curtin is really good! Well, usually anyways. You’ll find that they’re really friendly and efficient, but most importantly, they help get you the best prices (well… if you’re a student 
).
This makes it feel more real! I love how excited I get just dreaming about when I’m going, planning on that I’ll see or do and thinking about what to pack or not 
!
So what are my travel plans?
- I’ll be flying out on the 26th August, Sunday, to spend about a week in KL with relatives.
- Then I’ll be flying out from KL to Beijing on the 1st Sept (red eye flight
)! - I might travel around China during my stay… But unfortunately, China doesn’t have many holidays :no: They don’t really celebrate Christmas or Calendar New Year …
- Planning to go someplace after the semester ends but before I fly back home…
- I’ll fly back to KL after CNY (7th Feb 2008!) on the 9th Feb
- Stay one night in KL (transit)
- And fly home on the 10th Feb
Don’t ask me about the accomodation, don’t ask me if the school has even accepted me, don’t ask me about where I’ll find food, don’t ask me because I have no idea! I’ve only been focusing on getting a ticket and that’s it 
Other things I need to do:
- Book my accomodation
- See if BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture University) has accepted my application
- Check out what kind of insurance I need to get (at the cheapest price!) … it’s not really a big deal though
- Renew my drivers license (it’s due in September!)
- Renew my Dental Hygiene registration (due in December) … I should also check on my Hygiene insurance & membership details
- Find out what I’m meant to do in regards to voting … There’s an election coming up in October?
- Organise how I’ll handle my finances (credit/debit card, travellers cheques?)
- Buy a security cable & power adapter for my lappy!
- Plan what to pack (winter clothes etc)
- Plan what to buy
- Get my scholarship $
- Fly out~!
- Buy a simcard in Beijing
- Get access to the internet!
Category: BLCU, Observations
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18
April
yaY! 
I can finally post with a YouTube Video!
My first thought when watching this was: That poor kiwi is going to die for its dream to fly 
… But this is exactly what life is about isn’t it??
I suppose the film in short, represents ‘Peer Pressure Gone Wrong’ since the little kiwi wanted to achieve something that all the other birds in the neighbourhood could do… fly.
It’s my belief that people have this Self Preservation Mechanism which tells us to be weary of those who are a little different from us. What’s wrong with being different? 
Well, nothing really, it kind of just depends on whose eyes you look through.
We all know that pressure, the pressure to find our place in society and act our role, period. This is the social contract which we signed at birth 
- Option A: To follow the rules and restrictions to fit in to society
(which also allows for special exceptions for those who earn it) or - Option B: To be different and looked upon as abnormal or strange.
We’re all expected to go through both stages. You know, the typical “Teenage Rebellion” thing, and then we later grow up and learn to be “Responsible Adults” (although some people never seem to reach this stage ). But really, by being rebellious and different is just another way to fit in to society isn’t it?
hRmm… I guess one of the toughest things we struggle to deal with is to be able to find a balance between being an individual and ‘fitting in’ (collectivist). To perhaps avoid becoming just another person brainwashed by society 
forced to think in a certain way, to believe in some specific values etc. all set out by society, but at the same time accepted by our peers.
When I first entered OHCWA (Oral Health Center of WA) to study Dental Hygiene, a lecturer jokingly warned us that we would all be brainwashed by the Dental School. He was right. I went in not knowing I would become dentally obsessed
It took me a while to realise that life is NOT only about teeth, that sometimes teeth aren’t exactly top priority in the minds of people, and that it’s OK! … to an extent …
Soo ….. I’ve lost track of what I was writing about. All in all, don’t be scared to be an individual… a TRUE individual. Sure there’ll be people pointing, staring and whispering about you, but no matter how alone you think you are, there’s someone out there who is as freaky as you (or even more so ).
I mean come on! There’s HOW many billion people on this Earth? Do you really think you’re that unique?
Category: Observations
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17
April
My previous WordPress theme, Flush, looked good but didn’t function very well . I had trouble with trying to get rid of the hover function on certain links, the width was not fixed (php is foreign to me 
) and most importantly IT WOUDLN’T EMBED YOUTUBE VIDEOS!! I was at the point of frustration trying to work out the problem 
stupid theme -mumbles-
And as we all know, when it comes right down to it, we would all rather be able to embed YouTube videos than to have a pretty looking page. So I had to surf around for a decent looking theme for my WordPress blog …. like it?? 
… I’ve obviously customised it to suit me (I definately prefer it over those ducks!)
So anyhow, for anyone who has trouble with embedding YouTube on their WordPress blog, the support forum has many many posts on this problem and the solution is always the same…
- But to stress the importance of it, because it seems that there are a lot of threads with the same question and answers, here’s a check list to go through when you’re having trouble with it:
- Check that you have TURNED OFF your rich text editor aka visual editor aka wysiwyg etc etc.
- To do this, go to your Dashboard (www.[insert your webaddress].com/wp-admin)
- Next click on the “Users” tab. Then click on “Your Profile“
- And UNCHECK the little box at the top that says ‘use the visual editor when writing‘
- Check if the problem is with your theme. For Example, If you are using Flush or similar non user-friendly themes.
That’s it!! If you have any other problems, it is possibly your browser or your computer illiteracy 
so just go to the WordPress support forum and have a browse around (don’t be lazy!)
Category: Reviews
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15
April
I can’t really say too much about this years Buddha’s Birthday aka Wesak (Vesak) Day … The one day I helped out and it happens to be the day it rained cats & dogs 
why oH why didn’t I do the Saturday shift when the weather was perfect?? … yes well, 姐 can answer that.
So as usual, this BLIA event was held at the Supreme Court Gardens. It was held earlier than usual again to avoid the rain (but that obviously didn’t quite work).
Again, I missed out on a lot of the entertainment. Well, that’s to be expected working behind the scenes…. But I watched the Lion Dance ! I don’t really know what it is about lion dancing, maybe the cute lions, the entertainment factor or the music, but it seems to just draw in a crowd like the Pied Piper.
And now, just because I’m lazy and I’m not great at writing coherently, here’s some random things to note:
- The lion didn’t catch the orange!
- -tut tut- to the Deputy Lord Mayor, Michael Sutherland, for arriving late. But hey, I guess he was just running on Asian Time aka Rubber Time (Jam Karet)
- A big chunk of food and drink is consumed by the volunteers
- There were definate improvements from last year, namely the ‘Eating Area’ (they have one!)
- Summer on Saturday and Winter on Sunday
- I now know what Icey Ice is!
- A Macedonian Orthodox Wedding involves a lot of work (crowns, candles, bread, incence, vocal work of the priest, walking in circles? etc)
- People still eat Ice Kachang when it’s raining
Category: Events, Reviews
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10
April
Pitas -> Xanga -> Pitas -> Xanga -> Blogger – > Pitas -> Xanga … -> WORDPRESS!
On the move … yet again
Pitas was my foundation, the one that helped me through that time in my life when I was learning what HTML really stood for. It’s very basic and well, easy to get bored of … Kind of like a Rubik’s Cube.
I moved on to Xanga when I found it harder and harder to find a free image host for Pitas with enough bandwidth for me! Alas that isn’t the end of the story; after using Xanga for about a month, I became fed up with the stupid restrictions on the design of layouts as well as the inability to edit timestamps 
!
After some time back at Pitas, real life (as opposed to virtual life) caught up with me and I just didn’t believe the time and effort I spent on the various layouts were worth it, so I packed up and moved back to Xanga! But I still had my doubts about Xanga (first impressions last 
), so I explored the world of Bloggers….
Let’s just say Blogger.com didn’t cut it for me, it felt as foreign to me as using a Mac! So I returned to Pitas to play around with designs and finally settled at Xanga when I got lazy. Xanga pretty much provides everything now (they’ve upgraded the site a whole heap! ). But I find that they’re a bit elitist in that you can only comment if you’re a Xangan, subscribe only to Xangan’s etc.
At a quick glance:
| 5 = Excellent || 0 = N/A |
| Features |
Blogger |
Pitas |
WordPress |
Xanga |
| Blog Communities |
2 |
0 |
? |
5 |
| Dashboard |
5 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
| Flexible Layout |
? |
5 |
4 |
3 |
| Footprints |
1 |
1 |
1 |
5 |
| Group Blog |
5 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
| Multiple Blogs |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Search Feature |
5 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
| Subscriptions |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
| Video/Photo Blogs |
5 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
Category: Reviews
One Comment
