Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Blogging. Show all posts

Tuesday, 18 June 2019

Memory Hard At Work

I know this sounds crazy, but ever since I acquired this lovely MacBook, I have been using it on a daily basis, and making an effort to get back to blogging. It has also inspired me to 'retrieve' my memories. I was reminded of most beautiful vacation I ever had, which was in Italy. I decided to make some attempts to blog about it. Of course, most of the details and even the not-so-detailed contents must have been largely forgotten, but the pictures froze the memorable moments for me. I'll try my best to recall whatever I can.

The Italy pictures are contained in a few SD cards like this:
So I have to sieve through the cards to find out what pictures are in which cards! Massive rummaging!

Venice is the simplest, yet the loveliest, city in my opinion. It was the last city we went to, but I think I'll start from there. 

Saturday, 2 July 2016

Wait! I Can Explain.

I have been rather erratic in blogging especially this year, and probably the latter part of last year, because I am spending less time on the desktop computer and more time on my handphone.

During the time I appeared to have stopped blogging, I had still wanted to blog but we only have one computer at home and I didn't want my train of thought to be broken intermittently by William who uses the computer every hour, for five minutes or a few hours at a stretch.

I tried blogging via Safari on the phone but it didn't work. I would type half the post and get stuck halfway or 3/4 way because of some technical limitation - not sure what. I was not able to complete the whole post and I did not like to come back to a post to continue it after an extended period of time. The 'feel' is not the same anymore.

On top of that, I have been taking pictures with my iPhone. The technophobic in me is reluctant to learn new ways to transfer pictures from an iPhone onto the computer, and then upload them onto Blogspot. I have been getting lazy to transfer the pictures in my camera onto the computer as well. Having at least two external hard disks crashing on me and turning a few years of my photo-taking to ashes was a huge disincentive to saving pictures on external devices, and the computer gets slowed down to turtle pace when I save them on the desktop.

However, recently, I downloaded an app, Blog Touch, that allows me to blog on the phone, upload pictures directly from the phone (yay!), and save my posts as 'Draft' before I 'Publish' it from the computer.

It's a free app and I would have to pay for the app if I want to publish my posts directly from my phone, but coming to the computer to press the 'Publish' button is not that troublesome, and typing on the phone blinds us to glaring errors, so I save what I can and get to preview what I type before I click 'Publish'.

Technically speaking, I did consciously stop blogging for a while because I did not like what I had typed. I did not like the limited, pathetic and insipid vocabulary and sentences I was using. I felt like I was writing P2 or P3 compositions that had simple sentence structures like 'I went to the zoo. I saw the lion. I saw the giraffe. I was very happy. I went home.'

I felt discouraged and of course, stupid like hell. So I took a hiatus from blogging to see if I would get out of my insipid phase, but it became quite a long break. 

Another reason I didn't blog much was because I was going through a very difficult period in my life. Coco was a very difficult teenager last year. The situation was so bad I broke down a few times at work, suffered insomnia, cried every night before I went to sleep and cried in the morning when I woke up. Kind friends told me I had given my best and should not blame myself for what had happened, but it was too hard not to feel guilty for not doing more as a mother. Many times, I started to blog, but decided to stop halfway, or delete the posts, or simply save the posts as drafts, as I didn't think such posts would be edifying for Coco if she had read them. 

She has changed a lot for the better and taken responsibility for her own learning this year so I am able to focus my energy on the betterment of my physical and emotional being these few months and that's why I am able to blog more.

I am also blogging more because I am inspired by a blogger-mother who blogged every single day for a year, with a photo per day no less. I know that is a tall order. I wish I could say 'Hey, I am going to do just that: blog every single day.' but being too free-spirited a person I am, I might not be able to live up to that, but I will try to blog more frequently. When I read back on some of the stuff I had written, I would be surprised I had certain insights I don't remember having and sometimes, I would go 'Did that really happen?' or 'Did I really say that?'

It's fun!

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

The Intimate Relationship of Blogging and Photoshop

One of the reasons I hadn't blogged consistently was because we had a new computer, ironically.

Our computer was at least 5 years old. Its storage capacity was incredibly low.

So we got a new one, with a significantly smaller-built CPU. William said that no one used bulky CPUs like ours anymore.

However, removing my old computer effectively means that my Adobe Photoshop 4 is gone.

My Adobe Photoshop software was a one-time installation due to the low price Adobe was offering, so it was not possible to reinstall it unless I purchased a new one.

It's kind of depressing not to be able to edit your photographs. I am not an expert at photo-editing although I had attended a basic Photoshop class. I mostly simply brightened and cropped the pictures. Without the software, I couldn't make my pictures better, and it demotivated me to blog or even upload pictures on Facebook.

Although the desktop and laptop do have photo-editing function, but the images they created can't be compared to Photoshop.

So now, I take pictures with my Samsung S4, upload to Facebook before posting them on my blog.

Using a camera-phone for picture-taking and posting online is not all bad though. Its greatest merit is convenience. Not just the convenience of taking pictures anytime and anywhere I want, but also posting. I simply post it to Facebook before saving it into my laptop, and then post it on my blog. It's not as troublesome as taking out a bulky DSLR and a USB cable, connecting the camera to the laptop, waiting for the about 1000 pictures to load, and then go through the pain of selecting the pictures I want before saving on my laptop, and then post on my blog. Not to mention the stress of worrying that something might crash and corrupt my entire SD card! I did have the experience of my SD card becoming corrupted as I was transferring pictures to a laptop, and I also had the experience of an external hard disk crashing when I was saving the pictures from my camera to the hard disk. I certainly don't want to go through any of those again!

I have to admit that sometimes, just the thought of connecting the camera and the laptop makes me go into the 'sian' mode, and then, I skip blogging altogether!

That said, I still hope to get another Photoshop software installed in my computer or laptop so that I can edit my pictures. Till an offer comes up!

Sunday, 21 July 2013

Haven't been blogging

... because a supposedly civil online exchange in a forum turned ugly when the other party became unscrupulous and started calling me names when his arguments did not hold water.

And he attacked me on a personal basis by apparently searching for my posts in the forum to find out which schools my kid went or goes to.

I also suspect, with good reasons, that he reads my blog.

A sense of vulnerability seized me, making me feel foolish to expose myself to such underhanded methods of attack.

I just didn't want to share what happened and how I felt for that period.

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Frustrated with Blogspot

I have been having a lot of problems with blogspot.

First, I couldn't upload pictures anymore because it said that I have used up all my storage, so I paid more than $3 every month just so that I could continue to upload pictures.

However, much to my disappointment, I realised that after I made the payment, uploading of pictures has been tortoise-slow. It's like 5 or 10 minutes per picture?

So I decided to save my unfinished post and tried to upload pictures the next time.

Today, when I decided to upload pictures, it's worse! I am prompted to 'select a file' and that 'You can upload JPG, GIF or PNG files'. Nonsense. There is no button for me to open my folders or pictures, much less 'select' and 'upload'!

I am starting to get frustrated with blogspot. Arghhh!

Sunday, 9 December 2012

Pay the Price for Blogging

I had not been able to post any pictures because apparently, I had used up the "free 1 GB storage" provided by blogger.

Whenever I tried to post an image, a message that reads:

"Whoops! You are out of space. You are currently using 100% of your 1 GB quota for photos. Upgrade storage."


It seems that the photos I post on blogger are stored in a Picasa Web Album. So I went to the Web Album, and deleted some of my photos, thinking that that would free the space up. Surprise, surprise - the photos on my blog got deleted too!

After a lot of emotional and mental struggles, and the attempt to open another blog dedicated to travelling (since the bulk of the images come from there), I finally decided to just purchase the additional storage space for USD 2.45 per month for 25 GB. Sigh! Who says money can't buy happiness? When even $3 is a consideration ('What if I stop working and have problems with the subscription? What if something happens and I need that $3 per month?"), it's misery.

Feel so cheated by blogger lah. I don't remember reading anything about pictures posted having limited storage space and you need to buy the space if it runs out.

Sunday, 22 January 2012

At H&M

I was at H&M yesterday, explaining to a helpful staff that the cashier on the previous day had keyed in my items wrongly. Instead of $19.90, he scanned the same barcode of another item priced $29.90 into the cash register, so I ended up paying $10 more.

I'm glad it was quite hassle-free to get that $10 cancelled in my credit card repayment.

My sisters were telling me they would argue with me about how my complaint could not hold water since I had taken the stuff home already. They would not be able to verify if I were telling the truth or hiding a $29.90 item at home.

I told my sisters that I didn't think it would happen, and if it did, I was prepared to make a fuss over it.

It's the money, not the principle. ;)

What happened at the cashier's while I was waiting there was even better:

I saw Leonny, an Indonesian family blogger who resides in Singapore, pushing her baby's pram away from the cashier's unassumingly.

I caught up with her just in time to see her family standing altogether at the lift.

For the stupid and naive person that I am, after the first not-so-pleasant experience of approaching a blogger, I called out to her,"Leonny."

She looked at me in surprise.

I stated simply,"I'm your reader."

She was a likeable person. Not pretentious or proud at all even though her blog is quite known in the local blogging circle.

She was very friendly and was those kind of person who are good at making small talks.

Her voice was a little husky as she was losing her voice, but it still sounded very 'earthly'. I'd imagined that it would be a saccharine-sweet one from her all-positive blog.

I just checked out her blog and she just did something that I have always wanted to do:

Take pictures for individual orphans and give to them.

Hers is not even a DSLR, but her photography and editing skills are amazing!

Friday, 24 December 2010

A Blogger in Reality

I was walking out of Ikea Tampines last Thursday when I heard a young mother asking her toddler not to run.

Instinctively, I glanced at the active toddler and felt that she bore a striking resemblance to a blogger's daughter I read about.

I looked at the mother, and I couldn't be certain about it. I turned and looked at the father, and I was rather sure. The father looked more like how he looked in the blog.

I asked,"Is she A?"
The mother was surprised,"Yes."
I said,"I read your multiply." hoping to break the ice.
The ice was not broken.
I continued,"I also have a two-year-old daughter."
"Oh ... " then more silence.

It was awkward to say the least, with me and them standing on the escalator.

The blogger was not as friendly as I had assumed and gathered from the blog.

The couple even looked a little offended, if I interpreted the expressions right, that some stranger was reading their multiply - a type of blog.

I had started reading the multiply since my singaporebrides days, which date back to more than five years ago, when the bride-to-be was eager to share the design of her wedding gown.

The episode left me feeling foolish to try speaking with a blogger whom I knew but who did not know me.

I wasn't exactly trying to strike up a sustained conversation. I thought we could at least chat a little since we are both mothers of a two-year-old. Unfortunately, the naive me had overestimated the supposedly invisible 'link' between a blogger and her readers.

I wonder if most bloggers are like that in real life: react coldly to someone who has been reading their blogs. It so happened that I chanced upon a blog right before I met the multiply-blogger at Ikea and in it, the blogger wrote that she met a blogger whose blog she frequently read in Kuala Lumpur. She wrote,"I went up to her and asked if she was P X and she said yes." With that, the encounter ended. I had thought it was strange that there was no other conversation. But it turned out that I had a similar experience.

The incident also leaves me wondering how I would react if I ever have a stranger telling me in my face that she's been reading my blog. I don't want to be caught offguard like the blogger I met and give cold shoulder to the reader, intentionally or unintentionally. That would be too awful!

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Striking off texts in a blog

I learnt another thing about blogspot:

How to strike off /cancel texts on blogspot.

Steps:
1) Click 'Edit Html'
2) Type (s) at the beginning and (/s)of the text you want cancelled (Replace ( ) with < >)
3) Click 'Compose'

Eg. how to striek off words
how to striek strike off words

Why didn't I google for it earlier?

Saturday, 28 August 2010

Blog translation

Oh my goodness! I was looking at the links that surface my blog when I came across this: a translation of my blog!

Some Chinese mainlander must have stumbled upon my blog via the searchword 'Create Talents' (probably he or she have been 'scouted' too!) and had problems understanding English, so resorted to getting my blog translated into Mandarin!

I thought some of the translation is hilarious eg. 'model' is translated as '型号' or '模式'; 'if'(as in 'whether'), '如果'; 'recognised', '承认'; 'A Pte Ltd some more','阿私人有限公司多一些'.

The translation is clearly done by a software which does not decode the words based on context, but simply rigid interpretation.

Hadn't had a good laugh over language for so long!

The translation even had a Chinese name for my blog: 阁楼的思考. :) I like that.


星期日,2010年4月4日
Create Talents Pte Ltd 建立人才私人有限公司
I was in town last Wednesday and walking past Orchard MRT (underground).我是上周三在城里走过去和乌节地铁(地下)。

A Chinese Mainlander approached me and told me that she was looking for models.一个中国内地走过来告诉我说,她要查找的型号。 She passed me a namecard which read 'Create Talents'.她递给我一个名片内容如下'建立人才。

I asked casually if they accept child models.我随便问,如果他们的孩子接受的模式。 She said,"Yes, yes."她说:“是的,是的。” And she asked me for my phone number.她问我对我的电话号码。

I turned her down a few times, as I was sure it was a bluff.我拒绝了她几次,因为我确信这是一个虚张声势。 How many talent scouts in their right mind would approach an auntie to scout as a talent?如何在心智正常的方法很多人才球探球探作为一个阿姨到人才? My share of unpleasant cheating experience with Chinese Mainlander helped and I recognised that accent.我与中国内地不愉快的经验分享帮助作弊,我承认这样的口音。 Seeing that I refused to back down, she took the namecard back from me, without a word of apology and walked away.看到我拒绝让步,她把我的名片回来,没有一个字的道歉走开了。

I remembered the website and googled for it under http://www.createtalents.com/ .我想起了GOOGLE上搜索网站,并根据http://www.createtalents.com/ 。

The home page looked promising.主页上看起来前途无量。 A Pte Ltd some more.阿私人有限公司多一些。

But as I googled for reviews on it, I realised that it is a scam.但正如我为它评语GOOGLE上搜索,我意识到这是一个骗局。

The 'talent scouts' earn commission by bringing people to the 'modeling agency' and make them pay more than $500 for a portfolio.在'人才球探'赚取佣金,使人民的'模特儿公司',使他们付出的投资组合超过500元。

Of these links that I have googled, this has someone, a goon doo by the nick of goodheavenz, speaking up for them and pretending to be a neutral party.这些GOOGLE了联系,我有, 这有一个人,一个goodheavenz呆子斗尼克的对象,为他们说话,假装是一个中立的一方。

He offered a few links and claimed that Create Talents was likely a legitimate agency:他提供了一些链接,并声称,创造型人才,可能是合法的机构:
http://collettem.createtalents.com/ http://collettem.createtalents.com/
http://dasd.createtalents.com http://dasd.createtalents.com
http://kelvinh.createtalents.com http://kelvinh.createtalents.com
http://fredericky.createtalents.com http://fredericky.createtalents.com

However, all the more I find it dubious, because all the blogs have only one or two entries and they are all about how great Create Talents is.然而,更我觉得可疑,因为所有的博客只有一个或两个项目,他们都对人才是多么伟大的创造。

Good heavens!天哪!

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Strangers in being Better than Friends

What prompted me to blog about this is my grouse about not being able to blog as often as I would like.

Being an introspective person, I certainly have loads to blog about. But I don't have the luxury to blog as and when I like. I can't blog at work, not because I'm so lousy at multi-tasking that I can't blog while in school, but because I heard that the school tracks down every website and links the staff go to. A colleague was warned by the higher authorities when he was found to sell things on Ebay in the staffroom! Not so recently after I logged onto the web-based yahoo messenger, I realised that that particular website is being locked from my school laptop. It is considered as a 'malicious site'! Fortunately, Amjad has informed me of yet another web-based yahoo website. I call this '道高一尺,魔高一丈'.

I can't blog when William stands just beside me or hangs around in the house. It's like having someone standing behind you when you're making a diary entry, looking over your shoulder to see your inner thoughts.

I don't want my bosses to come to know about my blog since I have various grouses about my job, which I have freely expressed. And I'm not comfortable with the idea that they read my blog from that day forth. I'd probably stop blogging, or start from scratch with another blog address. Sometimes when I look at the amount of blog posts I've chalked up over the months and years, I really think it'll be a waste if I ever have to shut it down. I don't know how I would be able to save all these information and feelings as soft copies (!).

It's a strange feeling knowing that some strangers are reading your blog. I'm not sure how many people think like me, but I feel vulnerable sharing my inner thoughts with people I know. More often than not, people who are close to you could use what they know about you intimately to attack you when the relationship goes through a rough patch. We have a choice in what we want to share or keep secret, but it hurts doubly when your closed ones are using what you have chosen to divulge to them in a vicious way. On top of that, it makes you feel insipid to have opened your innermost self to someone who does not give a damn about how you feel just because it is a heated moment.

My favourite authoress has mentioned in one of her short prose collection that friends are for the purpose of despising. What she meant is: human beings have the tendency to compare themselves and their friends. When others compliment that your friend is excellent in something, you are tempted to say,"Is it? She wasn't like this when I first knew her." or something to that effect. Because we know our friends from a long time ago, we know much more about them and their history compared to our acquaintance, and we can easily use this knowledge to discredit them.

I remember when I was 15, I confessed to a close friend that I had 'tested' her several times to 'test' her character, half thinking naively that she would be happy that she'd stood the 'tests'. She got angry and bitter with me instead and ignored me for some time. It probably changed the way she looked at me and our friendship as well.

I had a close friend when I was at NIE. We hung out together in and out of school. Eventually, I thought she was close enough to be deemed a best friend during that time. I told her about my life story. I was sorely disappointed that she immediately viewed me with a different kind of look that sentenced me to a 'status' lower than her.

These hurting incidents taught me that most people, no matter how close you are, prefer strengths to weaknesses. So now, I don't share with people about my innermost thoughts unless I am sure I won't be bothered about how they look at me, rather than out of the closeness we share.

It sounds ironical that it's easier to be understood or accepted when you're total strangers. Strangers do not have any bearing on your life (most of the time) and they can't or can't be bothered to hurt you (most of the time). Strangers generally don't have fixed or preconceived expectations on you and thus it's easier for them to accept you in your initial, truest form, especially when you don't meet physically. First impression counts, and like what a friend said,"First impression lasts, unfortunately." But in a virtual world, the only first impression is the presentation of a blog, which can be deceiving. Most people are shallow, but not to the extent of staying at the level of a blog presentation.

Apart from being understood by perfect strangers, I have enjoyed reading the comments posted by them, although being a poor conversationist, I sometimes don't really know how to respond, or sometimes it just feels unnatural to respond after a long lapse. Such lack of response is also common to my style of chatting. Sometimes I keep quiet for so long the other party thought I am gone when it is really because I don't know what to say next.

I am not sure if this is an extension of how I was like when I was on the phone with boys when I was in my mid teens to early twenties . I didn't make an effort to say something when I didn't know what to say because I felt that they were the ones who should entertain me rather than me being hard on myself and trying too hard to reciprocate the chat. The reluctance to make an effort probably evolved into a 'disability' in making conversations work both ways even when it's hard. I've seen and read how other bloggers are able to comment back anytime, on anything. I thought that's admirable, especially when after reading some difficult-to-reply comments, I thought to myself,"Now, how is the blogger going to respond to this comment?" and the bloggers surprisingly reply in unexpected ways. Or I supposed any way would be 'unexpected' to me since I could not think of any decent reply to those comments.

Okay, I digress.

That about sums up why I am often a weekend blogger, just like how I am a weekend mum.

Sunday, 27 June 2010

Travel blogging

I really admire people who maintain a travel blog.

It's fine if it's a really short trip and you take few pictures. The uploading of pictures is not so annoying - when you have a lot of pictures, you need to choose the ones you think speak of the essence of the moment or place. Or perhaps it's just me. If you choose not to be detailed, it'll be much easier to blog about the trip.

I've had a few drafts about my HK trip, and the more I save as drafts, the more I don't feel motivated to blog about them.

When I first returned and saved the pics in the comp, I had grand plans to blog about them in details. But as I start to venture into the Days ie. Day 1, Day 2, I find myself starting to feel burnt out by Day 3.

I guess I'm more of a 'reflective' than 'documenting' person. I have more reflection posts than documenting ones - I don't need to count. I'm very sure.

I'll try to keep it simple, but knowing myself, it's not easy.

Sunday, 14 March 2010

Blogging as Feedback

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a student's blog.

In it, she expressed her resentment about me complimenting a better class and downplaying my own class which she is in.

She also commented that English lesson is boring.

I went back to class and discussed the reasons behind my compliments to the other class ie. to let them know that they too are capable of being equally good, if not for their lack of diligence. The better class is not better simply because they are smarter and I didn't state that I liked them because they are 'better'.

I also discussed with them why English lessons are boring. Almost all the time, it's about doing worksheets and going through answers. I told them that I felt even more bored than they do. I wish to do something else with them, but these worksheets are mandatory and have deadlines to complete them for the benefit of their assessments.

The girl was quiet throughout, as usual.

After the lesson, I asked for 2 helpers to help me carry the books to the staffroom, with one of them being the blogger.

At the staffroom, I dismissed the other helper and spoke to the blogger. I asked her if she knew I was talking about her blog. She nodded her head.

I asked,"Are you worried?"

She nodded, and gave an awkward smile.

I assured her that I was not angry or upset. In fact, I was glad to read her comments on the lessons and her unhappiness about me. I felt that I got to understand her better and it served as a good form of feedback for me. I also educated her about the confidentiality of certain matters versus the publicity of a blog and she might want to be more careful about what she blogs from then on.

At this point, you might think that it's such an irony that while advising my students to be mindful about what she blogs, I'm less than careful about what I blog.

Part of me is prepared to shut down the blog if I'm ever asked to. Another part of me decides that if I'm ever so careful about what I blog, then it defeats the purpose of blogging.

That said, my student is only a child, all of 10 or 11 years old on the face of this earth. An adult will have problems handling issues or complications arising from blogging if his blog is ever worthy of a controversy, much less a child at that tender age. And a teacher is obliged to educate her students on the don'ts, more so than the dos, just like my favourite authoress who has the social responsibility of asking her teenage or early-twenties readers to focus on their studies instead of being in love although she genuinely feels that youth is the best time to fall in love while studying diligently ought to be reserved for an older age when one is more settled and mature in his thinking.

Saturday, 27 February 2010

Blogging and Commenting

Recently, I've been blogging like mad.

I am in every capacity to limit my blog to invited readers. So why don't I?

I think blogging, like online chatting, is an outlet of frustration for me. I sound like I've a lot of pent-up frustration huh. I suppose to a great extent, I'm quite a restrained person, outwardly. Already, I'm reading on a thread in a forum I frequent that people born in my zodiac years are 'weird' or 'mad' (mostly 'weird'), probably due to our restraint or inaptness at expressing ourselves. So blogging does help to relieve the inability or disallowance of expression.

I have very low readership. That doesn't bother me because I like the privacy that the blogging world offers. It sounds like an oxymoron: private blogging world, but it's precisely I'm sharing with strangers that I'm open with my life.

Perhaps there are some truth in saying that we're, or I'm, weird. I don't share my blog with my family or friends. One or two friends know that I have a blog and had asked me to share it. I eluded that request because I am a firm believer of 'Familiarity breeds contempt'. Just like in a chatroom, I am able to tell strangers everything about myself, excluding the lurid details, but I don't do that with my friends or family in the real world.

With high readership, you tend to get nasty or rude people who remain anonymous saying unpleasant things in the chatbox or comment section. I just find it stupid to battle with those nasties - "Don't fight with the pigs. You get dirty and they enjoy it."

It's my blog. I write what I feel, even if it's plain whining. As long as I don't hurt anybody intentionally, maliciously with false accusations. I don't see why I can't blog my point of view.

If the pigs don't like what's on the blog, they don't have to read it. It's downright despicable to hit and run - say something nasty or stupid on the chatbox or in the comment section anonymously and run away cowardly.

Ever since I came across this statement decades ago - "If you don't have anything edifying to say, keep it to yourself." I try to abide by it. What's the point in attacking someone maliciously or being underhanded just to hurt the other party? It's worse when the other party has done nothing to hurt you. That's human nature at its worst, I always believe - to seek to destroy when it doesn't benefit you a bit. We call it '损人不利己' in Chinese.

It's immature to leave a comment attacking or hostile in nature when it's uncalled for.

If you don't agree with the writer, just say so and state your point of view, not give some retarded comment. Better yet, share your blog to show how mature your point of view are, if they are so share-worthy.

And I do believe that most statements can be worded in a civilised way without calling another person names, which just shows how low down and 小人 (simply can't resist the use of this term) these pigs are.

I've read blogs literally venting out loud, using tons of exclamation mark as punctuation for just about every sentence typed. I've read blogs that sounded petty and childish, or simply rubbish. Do I go to the Comment section and start to tell the blogger "Stop being childish!"? It's not my perogative to attack someone on his or her blog just because I am a reader, and can remain anonymous in the virtual world. It's not a fair fight and it just goes to show a lack of maturity, integrity and empathy in me. We all know too well that nasty comments affect the writer but make the nasty commenter happy - doesn't that sound like a sicko and loser mentality?

Human nature is such that we are easily antagonised. It takes a high EQ person to take nasty comments in his stride or to ignore it. It's just like people casting stones at you and you try to keep your head up and continue to walk like nothing's happened.

I've always tried to maintain a grateful heart, although I don't say the grateful words, and be kind. It doesn't take alot for me to be kind, but it means alot to the person I'm showing kindness to. I don't need or want the person to be grateful to me eternally. My rewards will come from above. That said, I am not an angel and don't pretend to be one. I struggle to be kind sometimes as most selfish human beings do.

Friday, 26 February 2010

Cutting and Pasting to and from blogs

All it took was hitting a few keys and clicking a few links and I realised that it is possible to cut and paste to and from Microsoft Word onto the blog. I had stupidly typed laboriously some long posts on the blog thinking that there is no solution to it.

If anyone is facing the same problem, just press ctrl+c to copy and ctrl+v to paste onto Microsoft Word document.

To cut and paste from Microsoft Word document onto the blog, right-click 'Copy' and hit the above button 'Edit Html' before you right-click 'Paste'.

It's so easy. Why didn't I think of that?

Saturday, 20 February 2010

Some thoughts on the blog and names

I had abandoned the blog for what I had thought months.

For an intrapersonal person, I have always thought it's something difficult to do - not to write what I think and feel. I recalled a Hong Kong TV drama serial about an unfaithful lawyer, casted by Raymond Lam. He blogged on the private for each day that his girlfriend left him, and he said,"I always thought that when you feel down and out, you would want to talk to someone or hang out with your buddies. But now I realised that it's not the case. When you're depressed, the only thing you just want to do is to write down what you think and how you feel."

During the abandonment, I had a lot to blog about, but there were times when I was too busy and exhausted - after being at your workplace for a straight 11 hours, and needing to come home to do more work, or look after the kids, the only thing on your mind is to sleep, not even eat. More often than not, I don't know where to start.

'Divorce' has been on my mind lately. Yes, again, I know.

Sometimes there are some things that would prick and hurt when you first think about it. After some time, it doesn't feel so bad anymore. After a longer period of time, you don't cry when you think about it anymore. I think that's when you can proceed to actually carrying out the action.

I don't want to type out another post that threatens to divorce and yet does not materialise. It has the same effect as threatening to break off with a lousy boyfriend and yet does not really do it - ineffective, or 'lame', as in kids' words.

Recently, I was thinking about how names affect their owners. A staunch Christian friend used to tell me,"There is power in confession." meaning if you keep saying something, whether you mean for it to happen, it will happen.

Where names are concerned, if you keep responding to a particular name, you will become what the name encompasses.

I think it's getting to be quite true for my own name, at least. For convenience's sake, I had given myself a Christian name, and it means 'noble'.

I never thought myself as noble. In fact, I've always been a very self-centred and selfish person. My interests had to come first. I didn't think I could be a mother, because mothers are generally sacrificial people and I couldn't bear the idea of being that sacrificial for another human being.

But ever since I had Coco, I find myself making alot of efforts, conscious or otherwise, to be sacrificial in small and big ways. There are times when I don't realise that I am being sacrificial and these sacrificial moments are pointed out by single-but-happy friends. But to me, those are not sacrifices. They are simply what a mother would naturally and happily do for her child.

Since young, my parents would give us the best they could. During mealtimes, they would eat last and let us have the best part of the meat ie. drumstick, chicken wings, sweetest portion of a fish. It has become a habit for us to covet the best from our parents.

In the recent years, I find myself putting myself in the shoes of my parents and making an effort to give them the better portion, if not something equally good, of the meals.

Honestly, I don't really want to be 'noble', although I really like the fact that I have learnt to put my family's interests first sometimes and wish to keep up with it for the simple fact that it makes me happy as well. 'Nobility' usually entails sacrifices and being self-sacrificial, giving up one's priorities and preferences. Sometimes I find myself trying to balance between the extent of sacrificing and self-interest.

'William' means 'great protector', as he mentioned. I was thinking how the meaning could fit a highly selfish man. I thought the only explanation is 'great protector of himself and his interests' will be most apt.

Sunday, 30 December 2007

Blogging fears

Sometimes, I fear that I get too honest on my blog.

I don't want to end up like Otto Fong, who was forced to close down his blog after his student chanced upon his page on his thoughts on being a gay. I think that's really sad.

I don't know, but blogs are diaries aren't they? As you get more 'intimate' with blogging, you can't help but start to type your genuine thoughts, like my thoughts on teaching. It's so stupid to start an online diary and yet not say what you have on your mind. Or perhaps there're too many grey areas. I do agree that we ought to be 'professional'. When I first read about Otto Fong's incident, I did agree that perhaps he shouldn't be so upfront about his sexual inclination since he's a teacher. But well then, if a teacher who is of an ordinary profession can't reveal his sexual orientation, who can? A writer perhaps - since he works in isolation? And what's the point in making diplomatic, obedient entries when this is supposed to be your thoughts in manisfestation?

Sometimes, I find myself getting too enthusiastic about updating my blog with pictures.

But I don't develop them. I take too many pictures it's become unrealistic to develop them all. But I do want to show them, to God-knows-who, and myself. I find myself getting more daring when it comes to blogging. It's worrying. One day, this blog might end up on my boss' computer screen and it'll be hard not to be upset with me over my opinion and views on my job.

I think it's exciting to know what kind of search renders your blog uncovered. Most of the time it's Home Decor Survivor. One of these days, Mediacorp might approach me to get me to take down what I entered for the show, especially the defects of the furniture.

Sometimes, I worry that someone I know might chance upon my blog.

I don't like to air dirty laundry in public, but my blogs have almost all the records of my unhappiness in my marriage. It will make me vulnerable to public and private scrutiny if someone I know decides to share my blog with mutual friends.

Sure. I can make my blog private by not disenabling the search option, or putting a password on my blog.

But I like sharing my thoughts with strangers. I find safety in sharing my secrets with people I totally don't know.

If you chance upon my blog, keep it to yourself, so that I can continue to share my deepest thoughts with you.