A New Beginning

Guess what?! I've decided to take the plunge and convert this blog over to Blogger Beta! Yups! I had just signed in to my account yesterday when I noticed that Blogger had wonderfully gave me the link to convert over! That's just great! I was afraid of compatibility issues at first, but after about 2 hours of tinkering with the new format, I realised that if your blogger template isn't one that is highly customised, then the change over is pretty painless! In fact, my guess is taht you will probably end up spending more time playing with the new options and trying to customise your blog with the new options!

As for this blog, I have decided to use one of the standard templates as a base for now. Somehow, it looks neater and more organised. However that also means no customised header and the return of the annoying blogger bar at the top. Besides that though, everything seems to fit right in. Just a note to those who are going through previous entries though: My previous background colour was black, so the words were sometimes in white. That means, if you happen to come across some posts with a big chunk of emptiness, it's because the words have simply faded into the white background. Click and drag your cursor over and you will be able to read them.
I am in the midst of thinking through and finding out how to build my own template from scratch. That means, learning about flash, css files and improving my somewhat limited understanding of html. By then, blogger should have already completed their support for raw html editing of blog templates in Blogger Beta.

For now, I will try to write about my experiences in building up the previous blog. My aim when I started this blog was to take advantage of all the free plugins and 3rd party programs out there to create a blog that was fun, creative, customisable, interactive and unexpected. I have not paid a single cent except for my Flickr pro account which I thought was extremely value for money. Much of my experiments and discoveries so far have been in the area of displaying photos, screening shows and playing music, so these are probably what I can share with you all. Hopefully, it will help those trying to start their own blogs and lessen the learning curve for you. If you have been blogging for a while already, you might just find something that interests you too! For starters, here are 2 tutorials that will help in your conversion to Blogger Beta. Enjoy. :)

HOW TO ADD CATEGORIES TO YOUR OLD TEMPLATE

HOW TO HIDE/REMOVE NAVBAR AND ADD SEARCH BOX

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The Dawn of a New Blogger

Did you know that the NEW version of Blogger is in the works? For now, only a selected number of people are allowed to convert their existing blog into the Blogger Beta version. If you see a link on your dashboard letting you do that, then you know you are one of the lucky ones. If you don't, you can still sign in to blogger with your existing Google account (eg. gmail login id) and start a new blog with Blogger Beta.

I'm sure we have all been wondering what the good people at Google Planet have been doing since they bought over Blogger. For a long while, we thought they slacking their butts off didn't we? Well, this is proof that they were hard at work with something great! While they try their best to complete the transition process, I'll be contented experimenting with my very own new Blogger Beta account to see how much things have changed. For one, you will be glad to know that there is FINALLY in-built support for Tags or Categories (whichever you call it). Hooray! But what took you so long??! You can see my experiments on Blogger Beta at http://punksterteo.blogspot.com/.

It's great to see Google/Blogger working hard on the new version. Now, perhaps the same could be done with the already-great-but-could-do-with-an-upgrade Picassa. Do you hear me Google?!

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Finding "x"

This is so hilarious I just had to copy it off my friend's blog to show it to the rest of you! Kenny, if you are reading this, don't mind me spreading some laughter around hor. :) I think the student in the first 2 examples really has a sense of humour!!! Ha ha ha. Not that funny if he doesn't buck up for the 'A's though. But seriously, if you really didn't know the answer to a math question, what else could you have done??! Ha ha ha. I bet the teacher laughed his/her socks off! Excellent! I give you 5 stars! :)

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Preach your heart out!

Preach for 5 min. I think I can do that. More importantly, this would be the start of my journey to become an anointed preacher for God. If you happen to be at Expo Hall 9 at 4pm, look out for me. You know what the wierd thing is? My brother's preaching too, he and his spiritual son, Stevie are representing their tribe. And guess what, my spiritual son, Keng San and me are representing Ps Seng Lee's tribe. I've said this before, I'll say it again. My brother and I are so different, yet so alike.

Oh yes, there hasn't been much posts recently cos I have been busy with my architecture dissertation. I was just thinking the other day... I started this blog to write on my own terms, but here I am making an effort to apologise and explain the lack of postings recently. I realise that a blog is never really entirely your blog. When you open it up to others, it becomes theirs too.

Ever asked someone why there hasn't been updates on his/her blog recently? That's what I'm talking about.

Anyway, do you know that Xiaxue, Singapore's famous blogger is a "professional blogger"? That's kind of interesting isn't it? What does a professional blogger do? It's mind-boggling how almost anything can be considered a profession these days. Soon we will see professional gamers, professional trainers for gamers and maybe even professional commentators for game competitions. Wait a minute... don't we have these already?

Anyway, I'm not trying to be sacarstic here, but seriously, I am quite impressed with the different ways human beings come out with new ways to amuse and entertain themselves. And make money from, of course. It goes to show how all these are really tools that can be used for good or for bad, to encourage creativity or to entice into addiction. I'm glad when I hear of people who want to be a famous blogger so that they can influence people with good values. I'm proud of the fact that organisations like TYS (TOUCH Youth Services) have programs to encourage healthy gaming among other things. It helps put things in perspective for the rest of us.

I like this quote from the Bible, "Everything is persmissible, but not everything is beneficial".

Go chew on it. :)

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Is change always for the better?

I just came back from Tiong Bahru market where I had supper after visiting my grandfather in hosipital. I had quite a surprise when I discovered that the old place has actually been transformed into a built-up 2 storey complex. I knew renovations were taking place, but had no idea of its extent and scale.

My first impressions of the new place? It's bad. Yes, it's clean, brighter, there are hundreds more seats and so many more stalls. But it looks like any other refurbished hawker centre I've been to. None of the character or distinctiveness of the old hawker centre remained. There is a sense of disorientation as you try and figure out where you favourite corner carrot cake stall etc. is located in this huge new complex.

I'm not kidding when I say it is big. Correct me if I am wrong, but there must be like twice the number of stalls now. I thought one of the great things about the old place was that it was just big enough for a certain sense of intimacy. And people came because they knew there was good food. Now the place is so big, you feel like you are in just another generic hawker centre or coffee shop, or food court for that matter.

The only good thing now is that you no longer have to wait long for a seat. Then again, that was part of the old market's charm wasn't it. I wish I had taken photos of the place and its people when it was still around. Would have been good to preserve some memories. I am trying to find time now to go take pictures of the National Stadium before it is torn down. Anyone care to join me?

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