Cool Facts About Leap Year

Today is one of the rare chance to seal down "29 February, 2016" on my blog. Hence, I would be sharing some cool facts about Leap Year.

2016 is a leap year. That means we get a bonus day to catch up on and get our act together... or maybe not.


So Why Do We Have Leap Year?

Every four years, an extra day is added to the calendar, making the length of the year 366 days, instead of the normal 365.

The calendar is supposed to match the solar year, in other words, the length of time it takes for Earth to revolve around the Sun once.

However, things aren't quite that simple. The Earth actually takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds to make one complete revolution around the sun (about 365 1/4 days).

Those extra 6 hours gradually add up so that after four years the calendar is out of step by about one day. Adding a day every four years keeps the calendar in sync to the solar year again. This extra day is called a Leap Day.


Why 29 February?

Why add a day to February? Why not 31 April or 31 June or any other month with 30 days?

You would say, "That's easy. Because February has the least number of days!"

But have you wondered why February has the least number of days?

The early Roman calendar, way before Julius Caesar’s time, began the year with March. It had only ten months, each lasting about 30 days, ending with December.

It is thought that two extra months, January and February, were added sometime around 715-673 BCE. This would have made February the end of the year, which might explain why a leap day was added to that month.

Later it was decided to start the year with January, as that month contained a festival dedicated to Janus, the god of gates (and later, all beginnings).

The picture below would help explain things better!


[Image Source]



But... Not every 4th year is a Leap Year

The Julian calendar's formula to calculate leap years produced a leap year every four years. However, the solar year isn’t exactly 365 days. Adding a leap day every four years means that the calendar is still out of step by 11 minutes and 14 seconds each year.

Eventually the Julian calendar was 24 days out of sync with the fixed dates for astronomical events like equinoxes and solstices and important religious holidays, like Easter.

Over the course of 400 years this would add up to three extra days. In order to solve this problem, it was decided to leave out the leap year three times every 400 years.

The introduction of the Gregorian calendar allowed for the realignment with events like the Vernal equinox and Winter solstice.



So, the new rule was, a century year (1600, 1700, 1800, etc.) would only be a leap year if it was evenly divisible by 400. This means that the year 2000 was a leap year, but 2100 will not be.

The year must follow these 3 rules to be a Leap Year:

1. The year could be evenly divided by 4
2. The year is NOT evenly divided by 100 UNLESS
3. The year is also evenly divided by 400

[Image Source]

This is also why the year 1900 was NOT a Leap Year but the year 2000 WAS a Leap Year.

The Gregorian calendar is today's internationally accepted civil calendar and is also known as the Western or Christian calendar.


Born on a Leap Day?

A person born on Leap Day is known as a "leapling". Some sites mentioned "leaper" too but I wouldn't use that as it reminds me of "leper" and I wouldn't want to call anyone that.

According to astrologers, leaplings were born under the sign of Pisces on February 29. Owing to the unique day on which they arrived into the world, they are more apt to go their own way and exhibit an independent and optimistic spirit.

While they have to wait every four years to "officially" observe their birthdays, leap year babies typically choose either 28 February or 1 March to celebrate in years that aren't leap years.




Leap Year and Leap Day

Let's learn how to use Leap Year and Leap Day correctly.

Someone born on February 29 was born on Leap Day, or Leap Year Day. They were NOT born on Leap Year. Leap Year is the year we are in like 2012 or 2016.

Anyone can be born IN a Leap Year. Leap Year lasts all year.

But Leap Day Babies were born ON Leap Day.

THAT is what is rare. In fact, the odds are 1 in 1461!

You don't have to be born on February 29 to enjoy Leap Day.

It's everyone's extra day!

Did you do anything special to commemorate Leap Day?



Afternote: I'm looking at the someecards above and thinking it should be "Leap Day" instead of "Leap Year.

Connect with Me on Facebook!

*Blows the 2-week-old virtual cobwebs off my blog*

I've been slacking on my blog and my turtle friend has pushed the reminder button to update my blog so that he could have something to read.

I've got lots of half edited photos and drafts for photo-story posts but they are nowhere near complete.

I've got lots of contents about life's lessons both in my mind and on drafts and they would most likely remain as drafts till I figure a way to piece all of them together.

I thought of writing about my most recent dreams and nightmares while they are still vivid in my mind but that would take some time and I'm already typing this with my eyes half close. Besides, you should hear me recounting my dreams and nightmares to you face to face for the impact. I like how I scared the hubby and creeped my colleagues out.

So I've to think on my feet for a quick post.

I always try to keep blog updates to one post a week just to keep my blog running but I'm too swarmed by many things that I've neglected this little space of mine.

If you are following me on Facebook and Instagram, you would still get my on-the-go-updates daily or once every few days from my mobile.

During the past 2 months, I was so glad to have connected with so many blog friends on Facebook. I guess FB was stalking my contact list and Instagram friends and I found many of them under the section of "People you may know".

To my long time blog friends who are not acquainted on FB yet, please send me a request as I would love to connect with all of you there!

To my newer blog friends with constant meaningful engagement , please send me a request too. You definitely know who you are!

To anyone else reading who wanna be friends on FB, I'm sorry but I'm pretty selective about accepting friend requests. You could still follow me to get updates as I have public albums and posts too.

If you ever noticed those buttons below my blog header, you could explore them too! Let's connect on more social media platforms.

Facebook
Instagram
Pinterest
YouTube

And there, I took 10 minutes to craft a post just to keep my blog going and attempting to connect with all of you on my more active platforms. Gotta crash...

What Do You See In This Picture?

[Edited on 27 April with published comments and my views added in pink. Highlight to read if the font colour is too light for you.]


This vintage picture of a vintage miniature van has been the wallpaper of my work laptop for the past few months.



One day during a department meeting, I was staring blankly into this picture when I noticed for the first time something which I've never noticed before. Apparently, two other colleagues sitting behind me were also drawn to my wallpaper. After the meeting, one of them asked me what this image was about and we started talking about it. I asked if she had found anything amiss in the picture and to share her views with me. After coming to conclusion with almost the same view, we started eliciting responses from the people around us.

So folks, what do you see in this picture? Do share with me your views. It could be anything! An interpretation, a picture description or your feelings about this picture. I'm bursting to tell you what I see but I would love to hear from all of you first!

[Publishing of comments are on hold coz some of you might just be notti and read the comments before forming your view.]


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My views:

This photo exudes a lovely vintage feel with a sunset wash of tone. The depth of field photography brings our focus to the van. This van reminds me of a vintage VW van. It is definitely a miniature as you could compare its size in relation to the fallen leaves around it. Everything looks so beautiful but there is something that sticks out like a sore thumb -- the thumb tack on top of the van and what looks like blood!

What is the intent of this picture? Why is a miniature van with a bloody thumbtack being depicted? Is there a sinister story behind it all? Was this little toy left at some playground to hurt people? Why is such a beautiful miniature van used for such purpose?

All the above questions were running through my mind once I spotted the bloody thumb tack. I can't even remember where I got this image from. It must have been during the period when I was choosing vintage images as part of my personalized Christmas gifts to friends. Try as I might, I couldn't trace back the source. 

It was fun reading your comments and for those who spotted the bloody thumb tack, good for you! I had so much wanted to reply to you in excitement. I can't believe I only noticed this detail way after having this image as my wallpaper. For those who didn't spot it, it's ok. You are just like me. Some of my colleagues couldn't even see it was a miniature van. One commented that the umbrella on top of the van looks weird though she can't figure out why. 

I guess I would have to find a new wallpaper soon. The bloody thumb tack has since grown from disturbing to intriguing and any longer I might just become desensitized to such morbidity. It is just so difficult to find a picture I like with enough simplicity on the left so that my desktop icons are still easily visible. 

Getting to Know Me. Getting to Know You.

Ever since I wrote the post on Blog Comments Dos and Don'ts, I've made a lot more new blog friends, been getting a lot more comments from followers and stumblers alike, and receiving consistent return visits from fellow blog authors even if we aren't following each other. I simply love all these connections and interactions from everyone of you across the globe. And I'm always curious to know where all of you are from.

I did this on my Instagram and I'm going to do the same for my blog with a slightly similar agenda.

Instagrammers often asked me about my nationality and ethnicity. Nobody could ever get these 2 parts of me correct, with the most number of people asking if I am Japanese, Taiwanese, Hong Konger or Cantonese (Cantonese why??? It is a dialect and dialect group, not ethnicity btw).

I'm from Singapore and I'm a Singaporean Chinese. Whenever I'm in a foreign land and anybody guessed correctly that I'm from Singapore, I get really ecstatic. I'm bilingual in English and Mandarin-Chinese though my Chinese kinda sux. As for my Chinese dialect group, I'm a Hokkien. I can't speak much Hokkien but I can understand a smattering of it, especially the vulgarities. =D Some people mistake me for being a mix but I suspect it could be my grey or green-grey coloured contact lenses misleading them. Most Asians of Chinese descent, I reckon, don't have grey eyes unless you are Sayuri from Memoirs of a Geisha.




Old and new blog friends alike, I want to get to know where all of you are from, your nationality, ethnicity and anything interesting about yourself. Some of us have been the oldest blog friends for years but I only know the fashion side of you, the review side of you, the make-up junkie side of you, but I do not exactly know deeper aspects of you and I would love to get to know you!

Any questions for me? Leave me a comment and let's get to know each other better. Stumblers are welcome to comment too, if you do read the contents of this post. *winks*

Let's keep in touch via other platforms too! I don't do follow for follow but I would definitely return visits to your blogs and follow back if I find meaningful connection with you. Have a lovely weekend ahead!

bloglovin | GFC | Google Plus | Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest |YouTube

Happy Birthday to Me

This is a scheduled post and at this time later, I guess I would be eating takeaway fried rice with the hubz who had been at work till now.




It had been quite a bad birthday week. I knocked off from work without seeing the sun for four days in five and there were times when I just felt like I was no longer my positive self. I came home so tired every day that I could do nothing much at all.

Hoping for better days.

Happy birthday to me.





Edited to add.

Google really surprised me earlier in the day! The Google Doodle for today had little colourful cakes and I wondered if it was the birthday of somebody famous. Imagine my surprise when I moused over the doodle...

Google certainly made my painful, crampy and gloomy birthday a lot less gloomy and of coz, all the well wishes pouring in from every medium too!




As I got older, I think that birthdays are nothing at all. I mean I spent my last two birthdays at the specialist centre and hospital. I used to think that my birthday is one day in the whole year when I get to behave like a queen. I no longer think that way any more. To me, birthday is just another day. People used to say that I had so many groups of good friends that I had a birth week instead of a birth day. Well, I think it is still pretty much that way! Hahaha... Sometimes the meet ups for belated birthday  meals could stretch right up to June. Though to me, I would just treat these as get-togethers and catching up with friends instead of celebrating my birthday.

If you followed me on Instagram, you would have seen that it wasn't a gloomy birthday after all. Hubby made a dinner reservation at Sky on 57 Marina Bay Sands and said that I could not be cooping myself at home on my birthday.  It was one of the best fine dining experience we ever had!

Hoping for better days ahead!

Fighting The Z Monster

I'm back from my trip and I've been sleeping A LOT the past few days. The hubz and I spent the entire weekend drifting in and out of sleep, only waking up to run errands and go out for Mother's Day celebrations. We practically led a pig's life.

For those of you who are following me on Instagram, you would have known that I was in Taiwan the past week.

The weather in Taiwan was cold and during our last few days, it was rainy. We continued touring around in the rain and probably caught some bug from the wet shoes, clothes and sometimes hair and scalp. The hubz and I suffered from severe headache and nausea-- He, on the 2nd last day of our trip and I, on the last day.

So I called in sick for work today while the hubz was still on leave and I slept till the sun was almost setting. I had planned to catch up on uploading my photos from the camera and iPhone, my photo editing and blogging over the weekend but it just felt so good to simply sleep the lethargy and bug away. Fortunately, it is the Vesak Day public holiday tomorrow. More sleep!

I would be collating my 2nd blog giveaway points and announcing the winner soon (on top of reading your comments, replying them and visiting your blogs if possible). For now, let me succumb to the Z Monster.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Update on My 2nd Blog Giveaway

Here is a quick update of all the participants of my giveaway thus far and the points awarded for each:

1. karin -- Pending
2. MizzSandyChau -- Pending
3. PAPS – 22
4. Shamu Boo – 32
5. aki! – Pending
6. Birdie Liau – Pending
7. Mira – 17
8. Shayne – 17
9. Galaxia @ Hopeful Kiss – 37
10. krystal ♥ – 32
11. Vanessa N – 17
12. Winda – 37
13. The Dainty Dolls House – Pending
14. Rowena @ rolala loves – 17
15. Thais Magalhães – 22
16. Alison Gibb – Pending
17. inge – 12
18. Kim Alston – Pending
19. Grace Hui – Pending
20. Demi Mist – 32
21. Karina Melias – 37
22. Elaine Factor – Pending
23. va – Pending
24. Bianca Rogoveanu – 31 (Pending follow on GFC)
25. Melanie Miranda – 37
26. erma riestiana – 37
27. Tanya Soyer – 17 (Pending like on FB)
28. AboutClaire – Pending all steps stated

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Could the following people please re-enter so that I could total up your points accordingly? Thank you.

1. Karin 
2. MizzSandyChau
3. aki!
4. Birdie Liau
5. The Dainty Dolls House
6. Alison Gibb
7. Kim Alston
8. Grace Hui
9. Elaine Factor
10. va
11. Bianca Rogoveanu
12. Tanya Soyer
13. AboutClaire

1--8:

For those who have entered via Rafflecopter, I'm so sorry that you have to re-enter as I'm not able to retrieve any detail of the entries. To re-enter, please go to the original giveaway blog post and re-enter by commenting under your comment, following the "template" I've included in the same blog post. You could also refer to my individual replies to your comments to know what to do.

9--13:
Please refer to my replies to your comments individually and update with the steps taken in the template.

Thank you.





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The giveaway ends on 1 May 2014 midnight Singapore time

BUT...

I would not have the time to process the entries

COZ...

I'm going on a holiday!!!




SO...

Do bear with the wait.


I would be overseas from 1 May onwards. Yeah, it was a slight impromptu decision. Last month, the hubz was looking at his whole year's work schedule and informed me that other than December, he only had this period of May to take leave. Hence, we scrambled to make things work out for a short holiday and we only booked our plane tickets and accommodation just 2 weeks ago. Pretty rushed but the both of us are very happy to take a break from work.

In the meantime, I would try to do some scheduled posts and would probably update Instagram more often. So if you liked to see more of my "adventures", follow me on my Instagram.

Adios!

Valentine's Day -- A Double Dose of Love

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! It certainly didn't feel like Valentine's Day today. Mine was rather nondescript like any other work day. How did you spend your Valentine's Day?

Something worth noting this year is that Valentine's Day and the Lantern Festival (元宵节) fall on the same day this year.

The Lantern Festival, which is also known casually as Chinese Valentine's Day, is a festival celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month in the lunar calendar marking the last day of the lunar new year celebration. The last time that happened was 19 years ago! Hence you could imagine how many Chinese couples have chosen to get married on this date?

Interesting facts aside, I was simply mesmerized by this whimsical pastel photo shoot. It was featured on Style Me Pretty Australia. I've always had a thing for pastel coloured desserts as they always look so good in photos. I can't decide which is my favourite detail as I love them all. Which are your favourite details?

The Chronicles of the Injured Pinky

DISCLAIMER: Pictures contain wound and blood. Not for the faint-hearted. You've been warned.


I hurt my left little finger last Sunday. The story of how it happened sounds quite silly and all who heard of it either grimaced or laughed, or grimaced and laughed.

I cut my pinky with my hubby's shaver. Now, that's one of the silliest thing ever right? My hubby always puts his shaver in a travel pouch hung on the glass shower door. It has been like placed like this routinely for years.

Then came the questions of:

"Didn't he face the shaver inwards?"

"Didn't he cap the shaver?"

Yes, kh always faces his shaver inwards and no the shaver doesn't have a cap. Due to the looseness of the pocket of the travel pouch where the shaver was placed, it was facing in a slight upward angle that morning.

When I was drying myself with a towel, I flicked my arm and somehow my whole hand went down hard onto the shaver. I felt a sharp pain in my finger and instantaneously, it went hot, then cold, then numb. As I brought my finger in sight, I was greeted with horror. A small piece of flesh near the fingertip was gone! In place was oozing blood in deep red. The picture below shows the blood flow after the second washing under running water. And then some of my friends commented that I was really bimbotic/ funny to take a picture of my injury instead of doing something useful. So hear me out now...

Before that (immediately after the cut), the blood would not stop pouring forth. I was a little stunned seeing so much blood flow from a shaver's cut that I opened the door and squeaked out to kh what just happened. He thought I was being whiny but when he saw the amount of blood flowing, he immediately ceased playing his WoW (World of Warcraft) and came to my side. I didn't dare to put my finger under running water for fear of the pain but he firmly told me that it was absolutely necessary. The cold running water felt like frost bite; I had to purse my lips hard to bear with the pain. It was fortunate that he did not force me to stop the blood flow by pressing something onto the wound coz I reckon that would hurt a lot more.

After the washing, the finger continued bleeding profusely and kh instructed me to apply pressure to stop the flow while he scrambled out of the room to search for antiseptic and gauze. I waited by the basin for a while and did not heed his instruction of pressing onto the wound. In fact, I got so bored waiting that I saw my iPhone nearby and reached out for it to take a picture. (Yes, that picture above.)

You know the phrase "black out" to mean faint? Instead of black out, I usually white out when I feel faint. As I was trying to focus on the picture, I felt nauseous and was on the verge of passing out. My vision was slowly overtaken by whiteness and my legs went wobbly. Instead of feeling pain in my pinky, I felt intense cramping pain in my tummy. I wonder if that was the result of too much loss of blood.

The cramps persisted and by then I felt the surroundings spinning amidst the whiteness. Saliva was fast gathering in my mouth and I knew I was going to vomit very soon. Rather than to let myself stand over the basin to vomit when my vision was already disappearing and my jelly-like legs being unable to support myself, I tore lots of toilet paper to absorb the bleeding and shot to the bed.

As I lay on the bed with eyes closed, the nausea slowly dissipated though the cramps were 10 times more intense by then. When kh came up, he was shocked to see me in that state and forced me to open my eyes. There was another after-effect (of blood loss I suppose) that occurred after that but I shan't type it out on the Internet. All I could say is I really hate it when kh doesn't let me sleep in peace whenever I feel faint. For the 3 times in my life I white out, kh would continue talking to me, tapping me and asking me to open my eyes. Yes, I know it's only right to get a fainting person to respond but I just wanted to sleep in peace at that time coz it felt really good to sleep the nausea and whiteness away.


Removing censored chunks of the story, Kh bandaged my finger in this way. I fell into a deep sleep after that and woke up for Christmas shopping thereafter. My mood was really good and the only pain I felt on my finger was the bearable kind of pain.




I saw my friend's photo of her student with her fingertip gone during an accident in school. It was really terrible. Hence, I told kh and basically all who asked that my cut wasn't serious at all. To which kh replied, "Not serious? Did you see the piece of meat you left on my shaver?" For the rest of the day, he kept laughing at my pathetic bandaged finger and wondered how stupid I could be getting my meat sliced off that way.

When I got home, I wasn't ready to remove the gauze yet. I had been wondering for the whole day how to shower with my bandaged finger. I managed to wash my hands many times that day without wetting the gauze... But shower? How on earth was I going to allow shower foam, shampoo and strands of hair to rub against the raw wound? The hubby got sick of my whole-day wondering and did this.




This was how the wound looked like after removing the gauze. Before the below picture was taken, I had to wash the dried blood away. Apparently, kh bandaged my finger without cleaning the blood off. I even had to cut my nails and slowly scraped those dried blood under my nails. It really isn't that serious as having a whole fingertip sliced off yet serious enough for it not to be merely a razor cut. Some of you might just be scoffing at my disclaimer at the top of this post.




When I saw my finger, the only thing that came to my mind was that I might not have fingerprint on that part of the finger any more. Kh thought that was the most bimbotic thing I could think about. I had wanted to air the wound instead of putting a plaster but the raw flesh felt really tingling when brushed against anything including air.




For the next few days, I would take pictures of my finger after showering.


Day 2. Plasters always makes a wound look wetter and deeper than it should have been.




Day 3. I tried to sleep without a plaster that night.




Day 4. Taken the next morning... The wound was healing a lot faster without the plaster. But I had to continue having a plaster on in the day coz I was constantly brushing stuff against the wound and gritting my teeth.




Day 4. Taken in the night. The wound appeared deeper after a whole day of having plaster on.




Day 6. Went without plaster for the the whole day. The wound was healing fast once more.




Day 7. So folks, always air a wound that isn't that serious coz airing allows faster healing.




Today! Hard skin continues to form over the wound. I could even paint glitters on my nails for the bling party earlier on in the evening.




And that's the chronicles of my injured pinky. I hope I haven't scared or bored anyone. Now for the ultimate question: Do you think I would have fingerprints on that part of the wound after everything heals?

Weekend Hibernation

Hello peeps!

Being absent from the blogging world for a whole week made me feel completely ill at ease. I'm only glad to have recovered from my exhaustion after sleeping for 14 hours just now.

I've been exhausted for the whole week staying in the office till dark while having to fulfill my after-work commitments at the same time that I fell asleep almost immediately when I reached home.




I'm so glad that it is the weekend and also, the end of the most tiring and hectic workweek in the whole history of my short 8-month plus stay at this new organization.

It was the same for many of my colleagues in the same department. We had 2 events occurring on the same week with rehearsals for both and taking up 4 days of the week. On top of that, we were also busy with a few meetings as well as another major task involving our vendors. That took up almost the entire work week and we still had our primary job tasks to balance.

In addition, I took on the task of being a co-emcee for an event yesterday which my senior manager had assigned for me. It was the first time being an emcee for a somewhat major event and I was initially very apprehensive about taking up this task and embarrassing myself and my senior manager in front of many important people. Even though most of my good friends would consider me articulate, I am one who waver and falter when in front of a huge mass of people. I even suffer from stage fright at times.

Hence, you could imagine my relief when the event was finally over yesterday with many of my colleagues and a few important people commending me for a job well done. I would not be have been able to helm it that well if not for my extremely competent and encouraging co-emcee. There are lots to emulate from her in terms of work competence and personality. I'm only glad to have made a new friend for she is one of the sweetest and kindest person I've ever known.

Well, I think the 14 hour sleep just now wasn't enough to replenish all the lost sleep coz I'm already feeling sleepy as I'm typing this. I would probably morph into a pig once more and hit the sack after this post.




PS: Thank you all who left me birthday wishes. You made my day. *blows kisses* I will get back to all of you real soon!

Happy Birthday to Me

This is a scheduled post and at this time later, I would most probably be in the cinema watching the film version of one of the greatest English book to be written in history. You've guessed it-- The Great Gatsby. I do hope I would be enthralled by the film.

It feels just like any ordinary day. In the morning later, I would be having a medical appointment and going through some tests. When the nurse fixed the date a week ago, I said "But it's my birthday." She knew and sounded apologetic for that was the only available slot left. I hope I would still enjoy my day later. In case any of you worry for me, please do not be worried. Nothing can get me down. =D

White, Minimalist

The above two words aptly describe what I have in mind for my next blog layout.

I love my current ligneous blog template of white main body with pink and black combinations throughout. White and pink, and black and pink are combinations that could never go wrong. In my opinion, that is. Furthermore, I have not stumbled upon any other blogs using the same ligneous template too.

I started blogging in 2004 and my blog is almost hitting its 10th year anniversary. I'm looking forward to a minimalist feel as my blog matures along with me and adhering to it.

I dabbled around, switched my template to one of those default white blogger template and previewed it. While I really love how clean and minimalist my blog would look with that white template, I have so many stuff to tweak. With my limited html knowledge, I would certainly need a lot more time to fully transform my blog layout into what I've envisioned.

The following are screen shots which I've captured during the preview. All pictures could be enlarge upon clicking.


I definitely need a better header. Content wise, I've always liked my blog title and the little description that goes with the title. I wrote that in 2004 and I'm so glad that after 9 years, the words still hold true to my blog. Aesthetic wise, I'm envisioning a banner that truly reflects me and my blog, probably a really well-edited photo or an illustration by myself for the text to be encased in. I'm wrecking my brains about which photo or what to draw. And yes, I need to get rid of that ugly font!




I'm not sure if some of you noticed that I've created social media buttons for my blog as seen on the sidebar. I love the light and dreamy swirls of pink and corals which would match the future minimalist layout. The colour of the clickable hyperlinks has to be changed from blue to pink. The blue text doesn't complement the pink tone buttons at all. Does anyone have any idea on how to change the clickable text to pink?




In my current ligneous template, the categories are classified in a list. I am irked by the way my categories are classified as a cloud for this white template. It is such an eyesore. That has to be tweaked as well.




I do not like the borders surrounding my photos too. I have to find out how to tweak the html code to remove them. I'm already editing my photos with borders from Photoscape and hence the additional border around the photos are really redundant.




The border's redundancy might not be that obvious for all the photos shown so far. The overall aesthetic appeal for this template clearly dips when seen lining borders like the one shown below. The extra lines are really unnecessary.




Above are the few changes that could be tweaked with html knowledge. In addition, I'm also deciding on how to style my blog. Should I have a left or right sidebar or both sides or none? Should I place my buttons under the header? Do I need more buttons for my blog? How do I create buttons like "about the author", "the author's journey" and other buttons to complement the appearance of the social media buttons? Gasp! I clearly need to update the contents under these two pages now that I am re-reading them.

What kind of blog template do you have? Is having a clean feel important to you? How do you style your blog to reflect your personality?

Google Reader Retiring?

Argh... I really hate change even though the only thing constant in life is change.

I must be the last person to know that Google Reader would retire in July 2013. I found it a little strange that my bloglovin started to have a few more followers last week.

Here comes the noob questions:
Is Google Reader the same as the blogger followers as seen on my sidebar as Google Friend Connect?
Is this also the same as the reading list on the blogger home page upon logging in?

I usually get updates from my blogger-google reading list since it is more convenient to have it all in one place when I log in to my blogger account. I dread  to think that I have to open another tab to log into bloglovin just to get updates. However, if everyone on blogosphere is gonna use bloglovin, then I don't see an issue in this change.

What are you people intending to do? All switching to bloglovin from July onwards? If so, follow me here or click the bloglovin badge on my sidebar. I think bloglovin can't keep track of who follows who so do drop me a message if you have followed me.

Thank You for Your Concern

Thank you all for your concern for my eye. I will get back to your comments soon. 

I went back to work on the 2^nd day of my MC as there is just too much to do. It’s been almost 2 weeks and I’m feeling a lot better. I could still see the ulcers in the eye but the pain and eventually the discomfort thereafter when blinking is gone. I’ve been going to work in glasses with no make up and thankfully I haven’t frightened many with my bare face.

Work and after work commitment for the whole of February have been leaving me really exhausted every day by the time I reach home. Since I don’t have make up on, I fall asleep till weird hours every night and wake up sleepily to wash up or shower. Sometimes I just continue to sleep till the next morning. I also like to think that I would be resting my eye more by continuing to sleep.

I would be laying off contact lens for quite some time I suppose. Let’s see how it goes. 

Happy Snake Year

Happy Lunar New Year to all my Chinese readers! 新年快樂!

身體健康

心想事成

一帆風順

And to all my Singaporean Chinese readers, enjoy these 4 days of visiting, feasting and spending time with your loved ones. To my non-Chinese Singaporean readers, enjoy the break! Yeah, we lost 2 days due to the weekend but still, 4 days away from work is worth popping the champagne bottle.

Have fun!