Chip...chip...chip n Dale, rescue rangers! I was addicted to the TV most of my childhood days, watching cartoons and TVB dramas with my grandma. Cartoons were how I learned English, I used to watch a few hours of TV whenever possible. The cartoons that I loved watching was Chip n Dale Rescue Rangers, Tail Spin, Gummy Bears, CareBears, Smurf, Jem, Transformers, My Little Pony, Dungeons and Dragons, Thundercats, Looney Tunes and many more.
These cartoons are all unique and you don't see their stories overlapping or repetative at all. Children nowadays don't have cartoons like those times, now we have Ben 10, Teen Titans and many that I don't know. Most of it are action cartoons and children have also shifted their attention to Japanese animation.
When we watched Gummy bears, Smurf and Care bears we learn about community, living in a big family, helping each other. Those were the values being portraited, everyone working together towards a common goal and having a common enemy.
Besides cartoons being shown on TV, animation that are movies was also a favorite of mine. We have The Nutcracker Prince, Swan Princess, Anastasia, Cinderella, Snow White, Quest for Camelot, Beauty and the Beast and many more. If you ask the children about the old Disney movies they may know a few due to the Disney Princess having merchandisers sold worldwide. But I'm sure many would not know the stories they came, yes the name but not the whole story.
One thing that I find about those movies is that they have a great soundtrack, most of it always have very good love songs. In this new 21st century I can't remember any movies that like the ones that I used to watch, most of it are either 3D comedy, family related or action packed, I miss the good old love stories where the couple in the story always have a duet.
Below are pictures of the mentioned cartoons and also youtube video links of the wonderful songs:
Time really flies, just like that I've been in this world for 24 years already, if counting the 9 months in my mother's womb then it would be 24 yrs and 9 months :P. According to my mother I was suppose to come into the world on the 2nd of November, but I was two days late. As she planned for my sister to have to same birthday, she too was late by two days, coming into the world on the 6th.
If I was asked to remember my childhood days, I really can't bring anything up. Even if I looked at my baby pictures, I still can't recall. One thing for sure it has been a good 24 years, I think I've have been born into a wonderful family. But sometimes I can't help but wonder what if, what if I was born into a different family, what if I was born as a boy, what if......
These many what if make me look back at my primary years and secondary years, I've always wondered if I had a different personality would it have shaped a different future for me. If I weren't to study IT what other path would it be for me? All along IT was my secondary choice, I've always wanted to be a writer, if not an editor for books or magazines. I wanted to take journalism but I was put off by my father as he states it's not a good career in this country.
Voicing out your thoughts and opinions are difficult here, we have to be careful in what we say. Even if it's the truth, many reluctant to hear and many more think those are lies. With less freedom of speech given, there isn't much you can write to share. It is true that in books and magazine, we seldom have local writers.
I have always read books in english that are written by people who are from USA, England, Australia. Even when I read Cleo magazine I often note that the article writer have a foreign name. It is common that those articles are taken from past issues of Cleo magazines from other countries.
I really love to express my thoughts and imagination in articles, stories and if possible a book. The thought of having another person picking up your materials, reading it and having an impact in their lives, that gives me enjoyment. One day I hope I can improve and really have written something worth reading.
From the writer of "The Black Magician Trilogy",
Trudi Canavan, comes a new epic story that happened hundreds of years before Sonea, "The Magician's Apprentice".
The new book from Trudi Canavan talks about what happened in the past where there is no Magician's guild yet and black magic was considered as high magic which was practiced everywhere. The story revolves around one main character, Tessia who loves healing but can't be a proper one because she is a woman. She assists her father as he is a legimate healer for a country ley. One day her world changes where she used magic naturally and was taken in by Lord Dakon as an apprentice. Lord Dakon also has an apprentice, Jayan who is near to completing his learning and will become a higher magician too. Jayan don't quite like Tessia and she could feel it, so she doesn't ask too many questions when Jayan is around in her training.
Her adventure begins where she travels to the city Imardin following Lord Dakon. While she is there she met new people and see how the city works. She was also introduced to the king as Lord Dakon's apprentice. Something terrible happened when they were away from home, the ley was attacked by neighbouring country , Sachaka. Tessia's journey continues on where she lost her home and follows Lord Dakon and many other magicians to chase the Sachakans magicians away.
The book also changes perspective to other character such as Hanara, a sachakan slave and Stara, a woman who is used to Elyne but brought back to Arvice (main city of Sachaka) by her father for a reason. These two people have a story of their own which connects to the main story. This writer loves to put female as main characters which I enjoy a lot. In the "Black Magician Trilogy", Sonea was the main character. In the "The Age of Five Trilogy", Auraya is the main character. All these character are strong women and have their minds set on healing most of the time. Often fantasy books have warriors, thieves, hunters and demons but Trudi Canavan prefers to write about women magicians/healers. I truly enjoy her writing and can't wait for more new novels from her.
The most famous social networking site around, "Facebook". Some joined facebook to connect with their friends and families that around the world. You get to see pictures, share videos on the site. Others joined facebook for the "delights" that I'm bout to write. There are many flash games offered by facebook and it attracted people to join, it keeps people interested. Look what happened to friendster, it got boring.
When I first joined facebook, the games available were very static. It had games such as mafia, vampires, where you do jobs, level up and more options are unlocked. Those games had no flash, just pictures as descriptions of items, words, links and virtual money used to do buy/sell like Utopia the online game on the internet.
Slowly, more developers joined in developing applications either for making money or for interest which bring birth to flash games. I started with playing "Pet Society", "Who has the biggest brain?" which was owned by Playfish games. Then more games started to come and compete with them which brought Zynga's "Farmville", "CafeWorld", "Roller Coaster Kingdom" and many more from both.
Pet Society was about you having a pet, you earn money by racing and visiting other people, you use the money to buy clothes, food, furniture. Earning money was hard but it was fun to buy stuff, sort of like a Sims 3 game but in a much smaller scale.
Then the fun "Restaurant City" from playfish games became the hype, most of my friends were playing it. The game is about you owning a restaurant and serving customers a variety of dishes based on the ingredients you have. Everyday you'll get ingredient and there is also a quiz that gives an ingredient as a reward. Ingredients given are totally random so it's hard to upgrade your dish cause a few are needed for one dish. Serving those dishes to the customers (AI ones) increases your level in the game which unlock more space or more staff. Money is used where yo can buy furniture to decorate the restaurant and change the clothing of your staff.
Competing with Playfish games was Zynga. The first game I played from this group is "Farmville" where you own farm and you plant vegetables, you can have an orchard. All those grow in different timing. You also have farm animals to produce goods for you to sell.
After this game came out, Playfish games introduced "Country Story", in comparison, "Country Story" was drawn better but less vegetables are available for harvesting, but it had quest for you to complete that rewards points and food to level up and many items for decorating the farm.
Zynga has "Roller Coaster Kingdom" which reminded me of Rollercoaster Tycoon. Basically you own a theme park, you level up by having customers visit your park, you add more features by the money you earn. In terms of graphics, it is much better than "Farmville".
The current game that most of my friends are playing now is "Cafe World", the concept is similar to "Restaurant City" where you sell food and earn money to decorate. But one thing different is you get to prepare the dishes, there is a time limit on how long it takes to cook it, therefore you are not serving the same thing in your restaurant.
While some surf Facebook to check out on their friends and look at pictures, many of us indulge in the games that are available to spend our time using the internet. Facebook certainly changes the concept of Social Networking sites compared to Friendster, with this they remain interesting for all ages.
Twitter
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 |
7:10 PM
| Author:
Lizzie
I first heard of this application last year in Tech Ed SEA 2008, to me it was a new way of communication. Twitter was slightly famous in the US, but not many people have heard of it locally. Then 2009 came and more people started using it, even movie stars, singers uses it. The success of twitter finally came, because it was widely used by famous people like Ryan Seacrest, Ashton Kutcher, and John Mayer.
Now it has become such a hype that websites uses it, such as Engadget, Eonline, Wired.com, all to keep people updated from time to time. Twitter is a great way to market yourself to the public, for movie stars it's a way for them to let people know what they're doing, their thoughts, fans feel closer to them. One thing goo about twitter is that you can update it with your mobile easily, it's like sending an sms.
Unlike Facebook, you have to log in to change your status message, where else twitter is on the go, which is why it is widely used in the US because sending in a new tweet is just cheap. Unfortunately for people in other parts of the world, it will cost us a bundle. I like reading tweets from movie stars, they constantly update all the time. People I follow are like Ryan Seacrest, Ellen DeGeneres, Greg Grunberg (Heroes), Dane Cook. I do follow a few of my friends too, but we here in Malaysia are still a bit converse, we don't tweet about everything and anything. Sometimes we still like to keep our lives private :p.
This time is the right time to join twitter, learn to express yourself to the world through a simple application. You can always be creative and update it with special messages. You can follow my twitter account at : www.twitter.com/LiZan_Hiu. I don't update daily but from today onwards I'll try to be creative and update everyday :)
Shh...Let me tell you a secret....can you keep it? You must promise not to tell another soul, okay I'll take your word for it. I actually saw my neighbour kissing another woman and I took a picture of it. Actually I have more to share, I feed my neighbour's cat chilli because it always shits in my garden. I once put salt in my manager's coffee and blamed it on someone else....I think I've talked too much. That's how the story is for Emma.
Emma has plenty of secrets, none that she can tell even to her best friend. Unfortunately she spilled it all out to a stranger that she met on a plane. She panicked as the plane had some turbulence and she could not control the things that kept coming out of her mouth. She thought all would be well because it was a stranger and then when she got back to work, the stranger is there. He is the founder of the company she is working for, big big disaster for Emma. She tries hard to avoid but he calls out to her most of the time for work.
This is a chic book that has much comedy like the other Sophie Kinsella books. Much mystery lies with out main male character. Emma has a wonderful best friend who is always there, a handsome boyfriend who everyones thinks they are the perfect match. But somewhere iside Emma she doesn't feel like she is in love with him, instead she notices her boss more. There is fun in wanting to know how the ending will turn up and how this typical story can be not typical at the end.
Geek is a stereotype for people in the IT line, owns many gadgets, know the computer well, can't live without a computer, the internet and many more. I'm often called a Geek by my sister, I remember when I was in college and we had some argument and she couldn't win, she would keep repeating, "geek, geek, geek" in a high pitch voice. That time it annoys me big time, but now I think being a geek is cool, it's the "in" thing. Sadly after reading a list of "
100 Essential Skills for Geeks" I realise I'm not a true geek.
After analysing the list, here what I have from that list:
- Remove a virus from a computer. (That's because I have anti-virus software and Google)
- Understand what “There’s no Place Like 127.0.0.1” means.
- Know the difference between skills and traits.
- Understand the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel.
- Know why it is just wrong for Luke and Leia to kiss.
- Sleep with a Cricket bat next to your bed. (Mine's a baseball bat)
- The meaning of technical acronyms.
Out of 100 I only have 7, boy do I suck bad. Haha. Skills that I think cool to have from that list:
- Crack the WEP key on a wireless router.
- Leech Wifi from your neighbor.
- Screw with Wifi leeches.
- Program a universal remote.
- Recover data from a dead hard drive
- Successfully disassemble and reassemble a laptop.
- Build a fighting robot.
- Program a fighting robot.
These are skills that I wished I have, it's definitely useful. You can have "free" wifi because you're using your neighbours' haha.
Skills I find funny to have from the list:
- The ability to name actors, characters and plotlines from the majority of sci-fi movies produced since 1968.
- Have a documented plan on what to do during a zombie or robot uprising.
- Identify evil alternate universe versions of friends, family, co-workers or self.
- Be able to recite at least one Geek Movie word for word.
- Be able to trace the Fellowship’s journey on a map of Middle Earth.
- Know all the names of the Dwarves in The Hobbit.
I would say that not all geeks read fantasy novels, therefore some might not even touch Lord of the rings series. I did read all three of the books but I don't know how to trace the journey on a map. Maybe this skill is good for people in reading maps, haha.
Lastly skills that I myself feel that Geeks should have (not from the list):
- Know how to program "Hello World" in 3-4 different programming languages
- Is always updated with the latest games whether in PC or consoles
- Love playing strategy games and RPGs
- Always in front of the computer surfing, playing games, programming
- Understands acronyms used in games
- Know how to assemble a computer without instructions
- Is always updated with the latest technology news
I do have a few out of the above so I guess that still makes me a geek but not a full fledged one. The more I know the better I'll be. Knowledge is power.
Porcupine are animals that will defend themselves with their quills when face with danger. "Porcupine" in this charming little book I found defines people who are defensive and difficult (annoying, bad tempered). Often in our lives we have to deal with people who are like this, whether at home, friends, working world, and even strangers. It is hard to deal with them as people who are defensive are hard to reach to.
Sometimes we ourselves are porcupines, there's definitely one in all of us. When dealing with people like them, we first put ourselves in their shoes, what made them defend themselves. Sometimes the words we choose and the gesture we show can be misunderstood and people will start to defend, it's nobody's fault, the best way to approach is to interact calmly with that person and find out what made them defensive.
This book offers simple steps to love "porcupines". It addresses "porcupines" that are your lovers, parents, children and work place. It's an interesting book to me because I only know that when people are defensive I either become defensive myself or I try to communicate calmly. This book managed to offer more advice because it's written by a psychiatrist. Best to listen to experts who have studied on this subject and apply them. The more you practise the more it will become a norm to you :).
