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Archive for December, 2007

[Web Design2] Petrina’s Blog

Unlike what I normally do- when I help people to design their websites; blogs, I will charge them. But I did this design FOC. Who does not want to be pay back after contributing something? I think I’m overly-generous. =)

The second project given for me was Petrina’s Blog. This blogskin was designed by me from scratch. Unlike the previous blogskin I did, this time round, I created a new blogskin instead of modifying. The theme was about Jesus, and I named the design as “I’m walking with Jesus“.

I was thinking of a suitable background for the banner. What can Jesus be related to? Then, I thought of heaven, sky. So, i took the background picture from ashlee7307.

I added maple leaves, the cross, drew a pathway to the cross. Then the footsteps. At first, I didnt know what to do after adding the maple leaves and the cross. It will be very plain just that. Then, I thought of the story I saw before. I thought it was quite touching.

Footprints..
The Lord replied, my son, my precious child. I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.

So, this is how i got the pathway and the footsteps.

At the bottom of the banner, you can see this word: I want to have a relationship with you. I got this inspiration from yesterday’s sermon.

So I started to write the html code, and tried published it in blogger.com When I view the blogskin in blogger, Everything is so different from the way I designed. Browsing back the html codes, I realised that I didnt “fix” the tables at the respective location and give them a fixed width. So after editing the codes, I’m finally done with the design.

I spent less than 3 hours to finish the whole blogskins including the designing of the banner.

[Web Design1] Arts Fantasy Blog

Hey! I’m supposed to blog this long time ago but I cant find time to update it. Unlike what I normally do, when I help people to design their websites; blogs, I will charge them. But I did this design FOC. Who does not want to be pay back after contributing something? I think I’m overly-generous. =)

The first project given for me was Arts Fantasy Blog. This is the second time doing a blogskin for Arts Fantasy.

First, let me talk about the banner. This GIF Banner is made from 60 individual gif pictures. What I do was to design the banner first. Then, using Photoshop to move the clouds by 4 moves, then saved it as a picture. So, the clouds will move alot of times before returning to the first still picture. So, I tried this way. In the end, there was 176 gif individual files. I combined all these gif files and make it to a single GIF file. But there was too many files. So, I couldnt add everything. So, I had to redo again. Just for this flash banner, I took more than half a day to complete it.

You may say that I can just use Flash and just motion tween the clouds. But the problem is I dont have the software, and I dont know how to use it. I learned it before, but i forgot already.

This blogskin was modified from pink donut addicts. It originally look like this:

What I did was to change the stylesheet, the background, the banner, and shift around the tables.

[Movie Marathon 1.3] Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia

Counting down 3 more days to the brand new year, 2008! Here, I bring to you my first movie marathon. The third movie I am introducing today is Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia. I dont think the movie is out yet, but I will be the first few to watch this!

Did you guys watched the movie from the second book- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Ok, tell you a brief summary of the first movie before introducing you the recent movie.

In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, there were four ordinary children who found out that the wardrobe in the professor’s house leads to another world-Narnia. Narnia was under the spell of a witch and these children helped the Aslan(Turkish word of Lion) to save Narnia, and beat over the evil White Witch who has reigned over the kingdom of Narnia for a hundred years.

Ok, back to Prince Caspian.

The four children were waiting for the train at the railway station to go back to their respective boarding schools. But there was then a great pull of magic that brings all of them back to Narnia. It has been 1000 years ago ever since they reigned as kings and queens.

They met a dwarf called Trumpkin. He explains that the land has been “civilized” under the domain of a race of men from Telmar. And all the old inhabitants of the kingdom, talking animals and dwarfs and other fantastic creatures, have been driven into the wild and unfriendly parts of the land to live in hiding.

Later, Dr. Cornelius(Prince Caspian’s tutor) told Caspian about Queen Prunaprismia just had a son. Prince Caspian is in danger as the Queen wants to assure his own son’s succession. Caspian flees the castle, but while riding through a forest during a storm, he hits his head on a tree branch and falls off. Caspian and the Old Narnians flee to Aslan’s camp. Before Prince Caspian flee, Dr Cornelius passed him the horn of Queen Susan. He blew the horn, and it brings the Pevensies to Narnia. So, what happened next? What did the Pevensies do?

So, what will happen to Prince Caspian? Will Aslan bring his army to aid Caspian? What will happen in the end? Watch Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia!

[Version4] Rosy Star

This is my fourth wordpress designs. This is a duplication of my version 3- Angelic Star.

I was thinking of giving my readers to choose the theme they like. Angelic Star is a blue-color themed, while Rosy Star is a red-color themed. Readers can change to their favourite wordpress themes from the right sidebar.

The girl in the banner is taken from anaRasha of deviantart. I extracted the girl from the original background, and put it in my own banner background. Since it is a red-color themed, I named this wordpress template as Rosy Star.

The background of this banner was taken from ashlee7307 at deviantart. I just took the bottom portion of her picture as the background.

Like what I did for my version 3, I used the template Blue_sky_ajax by Samir Kamble and modified it to become Rosy Star.

Created the hovering effect at the two sidebars. When you move your mouse to the small item pictures, the images changed. The words will fade off.
Example
Before you hover, it looks like this:When you hover to the image, it looks like this:So, try changing the template between Angelic Star and Rosy Star. Which one do you like? Related Post:
[Version1] Where memories are kept.
[Version2] A ballerina’s dream
[Version2.1] Jay Chou Secret
[Version3] Angelic Star
[Version4] Rosy Star

[Movie Marathon 1.2] The Golden Compass

Counting down 4 more days to the brand new year, 2008! Here, I bring to you my first movie marathon. I will be watching the few latest movies currently showing at the cinemas, and give my reviews about the movie. The second movie I am introducing today is The Golden Compass.

Golden Compass is a movie based on the first novel in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Material.Before its release, the film received criticism from secular organizations and fans of His Dark Materials for the dilution of the religious elements from the novels, as well as from some religious organizations for its perceived anti-Catholic and atheistic themes.

The story concerns Lyra, an orphan living in a fantastical parallel universe in which the dogmatic dictatorship of the Magisterium threatens to dominate the world. When Lyra’s friend(Roger) is kidnapped, she travels to the far North in an attempt to rescue him and rejoin her uncle(Lord Asriel).

After Asriel departs, the college is visited by Mrs. Coulter (Kidman), who offers to take Lyra north as her assistant. Before Lyra left, she was given an alethiometer, which is a device that is able to reveal the answer to any question asked it by a trained user. While unable to operate it, Lyra accepts the gift and takes it with her to Mrs. Coulter’s home.

So, what does the alethiometer tells? Who is the destined reader who can read what the alethiometer said?

My Personal Comments

Rating:
This is one of the movies I could not tell whether is it nice or bad. There are some charming effects here and there, but there wasnt punchline or a great climax in the story. To me, the story was quite dry and calm with no sense of awe. It lacks some quality to allow the viewers to embrace it. It will be more appealing to for young teens but not for the adults.

[Movie Marathon 1.1] I Am Legend

Counting down 5 more days to the brand new year, 2008! Here, I bring to you my first movie marathon. I will be watching the few latest movies currently showing at the cinemas, and give my reviews about the movie. The first movie I am introducing today is I Am Legend.

In 2009, Dr. Alice Krippin invented a cure for caner, but it turns out into a lethal strain. The virus spreads very fast to animals and humans, which caused 90% of the world’s population to be killed. The infected survivors showed the early symptoms of rabies, but then degenerate into an animal state characterized by aggression, skin afflictions and rapid heartbeats and breathing.

Robert Neville(Will Smith) was the last healthy survivor in the world. The infected survivors, we call them dark-seekers, reacted painfully to UV radiation and only comes out at night. Robert never give up on finding the cure for this virus by having a experimental lab at the basement level of his apartment.

One day, his research appears to find a promising treatment, so he captures and treats a female dark, but without apparent success. Shortly after, he is ensnared by a trap after suffering from a fit of delusion. He eventually recovers sometime before sunset and frees himself from the trap, but was attacked by infected dogs at twilight sent by a dark-seekers. Sam, his dog, was seriously wounded and contaminated by the virus. Robert had no choice, but to kill his dog. I was a bit teary when the man’s best companion has to leave the world. Sam was very loyal to his owner, and helped Robert with the research.

Will Robert find the cure for this man-made virus? Will human go extinct by 2012? Watch I Am Legend to find out the ending.

My Personal Comments

Rating:
“Ah..Oh No… ” are the words I used while watching the movie. Imagine watching this movie in the midnight, where all is quiet. Zombies came out at night, and the sound effects from their ruthless actions really freaked me out. It was hanging on my thin vein.

[Version3] Angelic Star

This is my third wordpress designs. I got this inspiration after watching the movie, Stardust. So, I skewed my thoughts towards the genre, Fantasy. Something such as angels, stars, fairies, wings, glitters.

This banner was taken from the artwork Fantasy, designed by nelle-gfx.

I removed the word Fantasy, and removed some of the flowery designed from the pictures. Feather the whole banner so that it will blend with the background color. The verse in the banner “A star cant shine with a broken heart” is extracted from the movie, Stardust. I used the template Blue_sky_ajax by Samir Kamble and modified it to become Angelic Star.
After that, i created small header pictures for the sidebar( categories, archives etc). I used the hovering html code.Before hover:After hover: This makes the website look like it is using macromedia flash to make it. This design allows entries to load within the <body> section.Related Post:
[Version1] Where memories are kept.
[Version2] A ballerina’s dream
[Version2.1] Jay Chou Secret
[Version3] Angelic Star
[Version4] Rosy Star

Bangkok/ Pattaya Trip Day 5

Day 5 30 Nov 2007
Hotel>Platinum Fashion Mall> Bangkok International Airport> Home-Sweet-Home
Finally, it’s the last day of the trip. Thought that I can sleep longer for rejuvenation. But, I got to send Mr Teo and his family off from the hotel. They have been great travellers and we often cracked jokes together to entertain one another.

Bangkok/ Pattaya Trip Day 4

Day 4 29 Nov 2007
Hotel>Dream World> Bangkok> Four Faced Buddha> Baiyoke Suite Hotel> Night Street>Hotel-sweet-Hotel

As morning dawns in, the morning call phone rang again.

Bangkok/ Pattaya Trip Day 3

Day 3 28 Nov 2007
Hotel>Pattaya Beach>Coral Island>Bee Garden>Nong Nooch Village>Ferry>Floating Market>Temple of Dawn> Sriracha Tiger Zoo>Pattaya Caesar Palace Hotel> Ah Gua Show>Walk outside Hotel>Hotel-sweet-Hotel

As morning dawns in, the morning call phone rang. After breakfast, went to Pattaya Beach, which is 10 minutes from my hotel. Took the speedboat from Pattaya Beach to Coral Island. The waves were big and I must really grip on to some bars to keep me balance.

On the way, I stopped at a port. There, alot of people went for Parasailing. Parasailing is a recreational activity where a person is towed behind a boat while attached to a parachute. The boat then drives off, carrying the parascender into the air. The parascender has little or no control over the parachute. For one round of parasailing, it costs 350 Baht (S$17.50). It was a very great experience to “fly” above the seas.


After parasailing, continue on speedboat to Coral Island. Then, went Jet Skiing which costs 500 Baht(S$25). At first, I was quite reluctant to Jet Ski. But it will be a great and memorable moment. And indeed, it was. The waves were big and I was holding on to the steering plate and the accelerator clutch. When the waves came really big, and when I accidentally gripped the accelerator clutch, I was going at a very high speed. After Jet Skiing, went to shop around Coral Island.

While shopping, you will see many locals (mostly men), carrying a big bag walking along the streets. In their bags were wallets and belts made from crocodile skin, elephant skin.. Their target is foreigners like us. They will ask us if we need anything from them. They will show us the wallets and belts and persuaded us to buy. I rejected them and walked away. But they continued to follow you, stalk you, and said that they will charge cheaper. No matter how many “No” I said, they still dont understand me. So I just kept walking and kept quiet. After some time, they stopped following me.
After that, took speedboat back to Pattaya, and went to Bee Farm. I got to hold the honeycomb rack, and didnt think too much that the bees will sting me. Went for the mini talk about the bee products like honey, royal jelly.

After visiting the bee farm, went to Nong Nooch Village. Nong Nooch (pronounced “nung nut”) Village is approximately 15 km (9 mi.) south-east of Pattaya. When we reached Nong Nooch Village, the elephant welcomed us at our arrival. Nong Nooch Village is a place where you can watch Elephant Performance and Thai Cultural Show. It is very well-known and many tourists will never miss the show.

At Nong Nooch Village, got to watch the Thai Cultural Show. This cultural show comprises a few performances such as Thai Dance, Muay Thai(Thai Boxing), Fighting. The show was full house. It’s free seating and you can sit anywhere you want. By the time I settled down in my seat, there wasnt much seats. So, some people sat on the flight of stairs, on the ground.

the ticket

Thai Boxing-Muay Thai

Thai Boxing- Muay Thai

After cultural show, we headed straight to another area for Elephant Show. We normally say 大笨象(Stupid Elephant), but after watching the Elephant Show, we should no longer said Elephant as 大笨象.

Throwing Darts

Elephant Cycling

Elephant playing basketball

Elephant eating bananas

Elephant Drawing

After the whole performance, we went to have our dinner. After dinner, went for a full body massage. In Pattaya, there are many massage parlours. In Bangkok, many roads has saunas or massage parlours that front for sex. It is important to find those that are “clean”. You can try the massage parlour i went in Palladium Centre. To know if the massage parlours are font for sex, just see if the place for massage is an open room that anyone can join. Like in a big room, there are many beds, with curtains separating the individual beds. This one, you can rest assure. I was told that guys should not go for a massage in the hotel. The massage girls usually provide “special service” for the customers.

The “Entertainment Places Act of 1966″, still in effect today, makes it possible for Thais to render “special services”. This is done, for example, by establishing such places as massage parlors where men come and look at women, who are sitting separated by a glass wall, and may choose whom they want. The women go to a room where they bathe and massage the customers, but in reality may do much more than that. It is left for the customer to decide what kind of special service he really wants, and because of this such establishments are able to avoid being designated as (illegal) brothels
-Extracted from wikipedia

Outside my massage parlour, there are many mobile market. People set their stalls in the vehicles.

Mobile Market

After massage, took a van back to my hotel(Caesar Palace Hotel). On the way, saw many go-go-bars and clubs along the road. Ya, my hotel’s neighbourhood is just like red light district. Go go bars can include a wide variety of venues with dancers and/or hostesses, which typically do not offer striptease. These are most often venues for prostitution. Many Western men fall in love with the girls. Count me lucky or unfortunate. I saw the process of how a Caucasian man was being approached and succumbed by the seduction… …