Blog Impressions: Shewhoeats.blogspot.com

Mama Sarah has found an absolutely amazing recipe blog: http://shewhoeats.blogspot.com/. The blog has AMAZING recipes and EXCELLENT, professional quality pictures. These pictures wouldn't look out of place in a cooking magazine, or a (high quality) recipe book.

If you're even remotely interested in cooking, or like me, just would like to look at pretty pictures of food and salivate: head over there.

Verdict: 5+/5. Unmissable. (I've added the link to her blog in my sidebar).

Thanks Mama Sarah for discovering the blog!

Anime Review: Naruto the Movie 2

Review of Naruto Movie 2: Daigekitotsu! Maboroshi no Chitei Iseki Dattebayo!!

Sorry but I haven't got the time to write a proper review!

Plot:
The Sand country is attacked by an assault fortress led by a megalomaniac looking for pieces of an ancient artifact to gain supreme power in order to create a "utopia". Meanwhile, Naruto and team encounters someone from the fortress.

Dislikes:

• The plot is nothing special and is predictable.
• The movie is set post Sasuke's betrayal, so he is absent and is sorely missed.
• The movie is more like an extended TV episode

Likes:

• The enemies are cool. Designs for the enemies are probably inspired by European knights. They come complete with armour, shield and sword. Ninjas vs knights = cool.
• The fighting scenes are definitely something to behold. Truly amazing animation as is typical with the Naruto series.
• The movie assumes the viewers are familiar with the Naruto universe and non of the regular characters are explained.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5. Great animation, but the plot is nothing interesting and the movie is more like an extended TV episode (which is not necessarily a bad thing). However, anything Naruto is unmissable for fans and here's one hoping for more movies in the future.

Qumana: Desktop Blog Editor

Nowadays, I simply use the Performancing extension in Firefox to post my blogs (fast, but not really hassle free). Qumana, like Performancing, is also a WYSIWYG blog editor that is free to download for both Windows and Mac. Unlike Performancing Qumana is not a Firefox extension. The latest version is Qumana 3.0 and it features:

• One button posting to weblogs
• Tagging
• Drag and drop content, links and pictures to the editor via DropPad
• Insert keyword-specific ads in one click
• Integration with all major blog platforms
• Save as HTML or RTF for offline editing

Sounds really good. I like the look of the interface (only from looking at the website). However, please note that I have yet to try out this software for myself.

Worth a try if you want an easy way to post your blogs.

Another Tokidoki Flash Game: Sushi Race

Lucky! Discovered 2 Tokidoki games in one night. This one is called Sushi Race. It looks very pretty, and I just cannot get the tune out of my head.

Sushi Race

Update: oh I just discovered it is actually a racing game]
Update2: I've just discovered that if you explore both the tokidoki sites you'll get access to more artworks. Superb!

Tokidoki art and Flash game

It's been a day for Flash games today. Introducing the Tokidoki Ninja Cupid game. Go to the tokidoki website and make sure you allow popups if you use Firefox as the game is a popup on the main page. This is probably the CUTEST game I've played, EVER. I really love the Japanese style art. The music is quirky and fun too.

A must try.

Credits
1up.com blogs
shop.tokidoki.it/images


Toki Doki art
Site 1
Site 2
Site 3 (wow!)
Site 4

Wii

Nintendo's next generation console, previously code-named "Revolution" has recently been given an official name ...

[cue jokes and innuendoes]

Nintendo's official statement regarding the name:

Introducing… Wii.

As in “we.”

While the code-name “Revolution” expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.

Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.

Wii will put people more in touch with their games… and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?

Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes this console is for everyone.

Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.

Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.

And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.

So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.

Because, it’s really not about you or me.

It’s about Wii.

And together, Wii will change everything.

Parody of the official statement: here

Personally, I like the name. I think it's short and cute, easy to pronounce and I think it's clever using the letter "i" to represent the controller as well as people gaming together.

Link to Nintendo Revolution's Official Site: here



Joystiq's take
Gizmodo's take
Kotaku's take

Credits:
all the above
eurogamer.net
1up.com

Sudoku King

Thank you Uncle and Auntie De for coming to visit us again today on the way to Kent. We appreciate that you guys still come to see us even though it means arriving late to your destination.

This is a picture of Uncle De tackling the latest Sudoku puzzle. Notice the level of concentration, focused eyes, pink checkered shirt, predatory pose, thick glasses and prickling hair? No wonder he's so good at Sudoku! [update: using some of Uncle De's techniques I managed to jump to number 25 at medium setting. I normally rank near the hundreds at the easy setting.]

Week Summary

Week Summary 21/4/2006-28/4/2006

Reading

• (Textbook) Essential Revision Notes for MRCP
• (Site) eMedicine.com
• (Book) Hedgecoe's Complete Guide to Photography

Watching

• (Anime) Eureka Seven
• (Anime) School Rumble Season 2

Listening

• Still Yuna Ito, still endlessly
• Mika Nakashima, Glamorous Sky

Playing

• Sudoku
  

Game: flOw

"flOw" is a game developed by Jenova Chen as his/her Master's thesis. The game involes guiding a worm like protozoa to evolve by eating other small creatures and diving deeper and deeper into the evolutionary soup. Features simplistic but cute graphics, easy mouse-only controls and cool sound.

Link to site: here
Direct download to play offline: here

via somethingawful.com

[nOte: nOt as addictive as sudOku]

Videogame rocks

A comparison of how stones may be rendered in different videogames from Half Life to Halo 2. Funny.

Credit: http://www.4chan.org, via Kotaku

Backpack: Web based Organisation Tool

Backpack is a web based organisational tool. Features:

• Create to do lists, notes
• Plan a project
• Gather information for a research project
• Colloborate with others on your project
• Upload and organise images
• Upload files (for example txt or pdf files) for colloborators to download
• Set email or sms reminders

To use my sushi project as an example, with backpack I could:

• Do a shopping list of things to buy
• Upload images of the ingredients
• Upload images of the steps to make sushi
• Create a downloadable pdf file containing all the above
• Set an allow list for people I would like to view my project
• Get other people in the group to add to the page

1. Reviews of backpack could be found here
2. Video review from Attack of the Show
3. Link: www.backpackit.com

Blog Impressions: Anime Tempy

I used to be a real fan of the website Anime Tempy back in the days, many years ago. Anime Tempy was probably my favourite anime review site as it had collections of reviews from more than one author, and I really liked that review system. It was from Anime Tempy that I knew about Read or Die OVA, Vampire Hunter D, Seishuu Heiki Kanojo, Fruit's Basket, Arjuna and all the other anime classics. Unfortunately Tempy have stopped updating the site since November 2004, and I have been out of touch with anime reviews ever since.

Well, I rejoiced today upon discovering his blog. What I like about the blog are the pictures he posts up. I normally become interested in a particular series only if I happen to like the artwork. Also, from the pictures you could tell the general "mood" and theme of the series. Tempy also helps by giving introductions and plot descriptions.

The main strength of the blog is also its weakness, as the blog loads s..l..o..w..l..y due to the multitude of pictures. The fact that it is slightly echi may also deter some people.

Still it's my current favourite blog for anime reviews.

Link to Tempy's Live Journal.
I've also added his blog to my sidebar.

Blog Impressions: My Life in Cardiff Wales UK

I came upon this blog earlier today linked to Dyanna's blog, and I was really intrigued as the author writes about the city we really miss; Cardiff. It made me really nostalgic reading about the Millenium Stadium, Grangetown, Cardiff Bay and the Asda near our old house :~

She writes eloquently, there's even history of the famous places in Wales and I was really impressed reading the blog.

She probably writes better and definitely spells alot better than me!

Did I mention she's like 10 years old? (sorry if I miscalculated your age :p).

Love this song: Sekai no Yakusoku

Favourite song of Sarah and I from "Howl's Moving Castle".

Video : 1001 Wishes

What a touching video. Reminds me of Hoshi no Koe.

Link
via Flashland.com 

Software Impressions: Virtual Dimension

Have you ever felt flustered from having too many windows open while working on your PC? (imagine multi-tasking by opening 7 browser windows, MS Word, iTunes and Picasa all at once). Your screen would be less cluttered if for example, all the browsers are grouped into one desktop, the Word document in another, and iTunes in another.

Virtual Dimension offers to do just that, organise and group windows onto several desktops. It is an open-source, free, virtual desktop manager for Windows, and features:

• Unlimited number of desktops
• Set a different wallpaper, name and background colour to each desktop
• Customisable shortcuts
• Ability to move a window from one desktop to another

I've tried the software today and I find:

• The software size is extremely small
• Minimal CPU usage
  
• Fast
• Very convenient to use, I assigned one desktop for myself, and one for Mama Sarah (useful when we are sharing the PC)
  
• I like the way each desktop could be given individual names and wallpapers (seperate wallpapers for Mama Sarah and I)
  

For all multi-taskers out there: definitely worth a try.

Link to Virtual Dimension's download page
via lifehacker

Omedeto!!

Congratulations on the new purchase! I thought it's really funny you put "ureshii" on the screen. LOL, very appropriate. I wonder what are the features of this "Wordtank"??

School Rumble Season 2 has started! In season 1 my favourite characters were Harima and Erin chan. This season it's Yakumo. (Credit: Allthingschill.com)

Blog Impressions : autoblog

I stumbled upon a new blog today, to add to my already huge lists of blogs to read everyday. autoblog.com is a blog about cars.

If you love cars, check it out: www.autoblog.com

Credit: autoblog

Explorer Destroyer

People are becoming really serious about changing to Firefox! Via explorerdestroyer.com, Google will reward you $1 for every person you convert from using IE to Firefox. All you have to have is a blog (paste the script on your blog) and an Adsense account.

Amazing isn't it?? Google is giving money for us to convert. Here's a graph at explorerdestroyer.com: illustrating the "dramatic transfer of wealth" from Google to you if you participate in this program:

LOL :)

Hey try it guys, you never know how much money you could make. As for me, I promote Firefox because I really do think it's currently the best browser out there, definitely better than IE. I'll think about it, just maybe I'll paste the script on this blog, just for fun to see how many I could convert.

There's also this site: www.killbillsbrowser.com. It's so funny, Go and have a read now!! I'll cut and paste a few but not all points they say why we should convert to Firefox:

You'll only see porn when you want to

Your kids will only see porn when they want to

Your computer won't spend its free time telling the world about viagra soft tabs.

Okay, you have to go there to read the rest, but it's well worth it. Hurry!

Links

1. http://www.explorerdestroyer.com/
2. http://www.killbillsbrowser.com/
   

via dvorak.org/blog

Off Sick Today

Part 1: Off Sick
I'm on sick leave today, for vomiting and diarrhoea. I also have a sore throat and a fever.

It's a big NO to come to work with diarrhoea and vomiting in the UK as we may transmit the disease to patients.

I feel so sorry for my PRHO who's left alone to attend the wards, but unfortunately I'm in no shape to work. Right now I'm still considering just going to work despite being ill, but sometimes you have to accept there are times when you get unwell and should not attempt certain things. I always feel disoriented whenever I stay at home when I'm supposed to be at work.

Now, I wonder where I got this diarrhoea and vomiting from?

I'm suspecting it's the food from the dinner! (I hope and don't think it's the sushi as everyone else are okay, and they ate loads of it).

Part 2: Fotopages
I managed to get myself slightly depressed this morning from browsing Fotopages links from Rosli's gallery. My goodness, there are so many good photographers out there, excellent even. And I don't mean good only in terms of their technique, but they are very creative in terms of their compositions and subject matter. Very inspirational.

I was also browsing Ikelah's (photo)blog and I thought his photos were excellent. Then a guy commented & suggested ways to improve his pictures and I thought to myself wow, I didn't even see the microscopic faults before. They were really constructive comments, and really helped someone who's still learning, like me.

I still have a long way yet to develop my photography sharingan. I'm absolutely humbled.

The photos I've been browsing today:
http://azlijamil.fotopages.com/
http://cekya.fotopages.com/
http://zuhrikamarzaman.fotopages.com/
http://muncung.fotopages.com/
http://alynnsis.fotopages.com/
http://www.tedadnanphotography.com/

I absolutely hate it to know if someone takes what looks like a really excellent picture and it turns out he/she is using just a normal autofocus digital camera. Please teach me!

Part 3: Sick Schedule
Since today I'm off sick, I'm going to try and make it as productive as possible. My time-table:

1. Read blogs [check]
2. Play a few rounds of sudoku [next]
3. then Study as much as possible until tea break

Note

1. It seems lately that I'm using lots of numbered lists, probably from playing too much sudoku!
2. Dr Roza, we are all off this Monday in the UK as it's bank holiday (i.e another long weekend from Saturday to Monday). Yup, we just had Easter holidays. And I'm not working so jangan jealous!

I'm Not Well

I felt the symptoms as soon as I woke up this morning with a sore throat. I blamed the sore throat on the arid atmosphere of my flat. During work, I was sneezing the whole day. I thought that was because workers were repairing our ward doors and there were sawdust in the air.
When I got back from work, I had a headache and felt more tired than usual. I went to bed at 11.30pm just now, but now I'm up again with vomiting! ["now" is 01:50 am]

I can't lie down as everytime I do, I'd feel like vomiting. My stomach churns. I don't have diarrhoea (?yet).

I hope it's not food poisoning from my own sushi last night!

nb1: all my friends seemed okay this morning, so perhaps (hopefully!) it's not food poisoning.
nb2: anyone would offer me a faecal enema? (LOL)

I want this one too! Card Flash Drive

16Gb flash card, with a built in retractable USB cable. Would complement my portable office nicely!

via Gizmodo
Link

Bie, I want this pleaseee

From www.ak.com:

The AK Rocker 200 is the ideal chair to
enhance the gaming and media viewing experience. Some of its features
and benefits include:

• Sleek, Formula1™ racing design
• Ergonomic bucket seat for long-lasting comfort
• Rocks and reclines to the perfect rest angle
• Easy assembly (no tools required)
• Heavy duty construction for ultra-durability
  
  
• Designed to wear any AK Rocker skin
  
  (sold separately)

via www.ak.com via Gizmodo

I also found this on Kotaku: Pictures of Reader's Game Rooms. Cool.

It'd be so cool if I could do a post like that.

Behind the Scenes: Making Sushi for the Pot-Luck

Fillings for the sushi: Shitake mushrooms, cucumber, peppers in 3 colours, (not in picture) smoked salmon and rolled egg


Topic 1: Target Readers
Alarmingly, an increasing number of my work mates are starting to become aware of my blog and worryingly, some are starting to read it.

Yesterday during lunch time, a colleague came up to me saying she has been reading my blog, especially the "pink shirt" post. She said she was anticipating what I'd write next. My team mates are also aware of my blog, although, I doubt they'll read it regularly. At least, I'm very happy they consented to their pictures being posted. Infact, today they even suggested a few posts based on the jokes they were making! Unfortunately, due to the inappropriate nature of the joke, I think it's probably not suitable for Itchiness (Sorry guys! I may rethink and post it up later). Some are even promoting the blog to other people working in the hospital, something I really want to discourage.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that, it's disconcerting knowing people you know at work are reading what you are thinking and writing. I used to think my blog would be the place that I could write about anything and everything I feel like (and at times moan about people you work with). Being aware of my colleagues reading this post makes me feel like holding back on what I really want to say. We'll see how it goes. Probably if I have to write about something personal, I'll switch to another language. However, I've just realised how appalling my written Malay language/Bahasa Malaysia/Bahasa Melayu (what is the correct term nowadays?) is, huuu;( My BM certainly would not be fit for writing on this blog (but please don't mock it! I got excellent grades for BM in SPM. My written BM is just "rusty" that's all).

And if you are someone from work reading this: do leave comments, I really enjoy reading them :)

Topic 2: Wisecracks
I'm still being teased at work! My colleagues are still teasing me about "past things" but they were also creating things on the go and teasing me about having a blog. I know, they probably don't mean what they say, but most times I find it hard to come up with clever things to parry the insults with.

Last night at the potluck, my team mates were saying; the fact that I only smile and keep quiet makes it seem as if I am validating what people are saying about me, and that I should retaliate to keep negative ideas at bay. They also helped me come up with retorts and I appreciate it. Thanks team.

To be honest, I don't really mind being teased, as long as it's on a subject I approve. Some people DO go overboard, and may create the wrong idea in people listening. The second kind of teasing would be the kind I have to curb.

Topic 3: Flat Sushi
Now to the main topic. I really wanted to share my experiences with the Pot-Luck last night.

I finished work at 5pm, and for the pot-luck I was planning to make sushi. Infact, over the weekend I had been practising to make sure my abilities have not dulled. The Pot-Luck was at 7.30pm, and the SHO was going to pick us up. That meant I had to prepare the sushi within a tight timeframe!

I was quite worried:

1. As Mama Sarah had hinted on her blog, it takes me hours to prepare sushi (but the weekend shouldn't count, I was blogging while cooking, something I find extremely difficult due to my lack of multitasking talent).
2. I was cooking in my flat, without the non-stick pan, the non-stick rice cooker, without salt, sugar nor the proper utensils.
3. I didn't know whether my friends would like sushi or not.

As you could imagine, cooking in the flat was quite a disaster! My rolled egg got burnt, I slightly overestimated the amount of water to go with the rice and I didn't have any salt. I also forgot to bring soy sauce.

I cooked in the flat with all the windows WIDE open (hoping not to set off the alarm, and not to annoy my flatmate). I also had my laptop in the kitchen to entertain me. I don't know how I did it, but the 2 hours we were allowed was enough. Everything was ready just in time.

Thank goodness my friends who probably have never tasted home made sushi yet alone know what a poor rendition of my sushi tasted like were totally oblivious to the fact that the sushi was a slight disaster. Infact, they seemed to really enjoy eating it.

I was extremely relieved.

Umaku ikimashita shi, totemo yokatta desu.

Picture: The Pink Shirt

I found this in my phone today, a picture of the pink shirt I wore on that fated day. I took this on arrival back from work just to commemorate "Pink Shirt Day".

Noise Pollution

Today I arrived to the din of workers repairing upgrading our ward doors. It was extremely noisy, I couldn't even hear myself think. We literally had to shout to each other during the ward round and answering phonecalls was a job of screaming at the top of our lungs.

Probably because of sawdust, I was sneezing throughout the day! My eyes and nose were itchy and I had to take a cetrizine tablet. Today if I write funny and seem abit "high", it's probably the H1 antagonist starting to take effect.

Picture: our ward doors being upgraded and all the tools lying around. At first I wanted to include pictures of the people at work, but thought against it just incase they don't consent to their pictures being on my blog.

Pot Luck

Last night, I joined my team mates for a "pot-luck" at our SSHO's house. We each had to make and bring a dish of our own, and I decided on sushi (pictured above). Overall it was fun, just wanted to share some pictures from last night.
The dinner started at 7.30pm, and JC the SHO kindly offered to drive. The fun part was showing each other what we had made. JC made Teriyaki chicken, the PRHO brought chick peas with gnoche, something he called a "a generic meat dish" and the tomato-on-cheese-on-biscuit-thing-I-don't-remember-what-it-was-called (all three could be spotted in the pictures above and topmost) . Our PRHO cut his finger preparing the dishes (sharp tin can). No wonder I could taste the subtle yet engaging hint of blood infused with the cheese!

The SSHO who was also the hostess cooked the most. She made roast potatoes, cous cous and salad. The Registrar, pictured below, made a vegetarian stir fry and a totally sumptous bread-and-butter pudding which was strangely made of wholemeal bread but was extremely delicious, probably one of the best I'd ever tasted (the best is of course, Mama Sarah's:p. No contest). The food served reflected the "global" nature of our team with dishes of Meditteranean, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and British origin.
I rarely eat alot but needless to say last night I ate ALOT. By ALOT I mean not realising I've eaten much, but eating continuously until coffee when suddenly it suddenly felt as if my stomach was going to burst.

I feel extremely lucky to have such an exciting, funny, yet talented team to work with. Hurray for our team, Aza Aza Fighting!!

Clostridium Difficile

Today at lunch, my colleagues and I were discussing a complication of the prevalent use of antibiotics: Clostridium Difficile

Clostridium difficile is an anaerobic bacteria living naturally as part of our intestine's flora. However, with antibiotics use the elimination of other "protective" colonic microflora fascilitates C difficile's over colonisation and growth. C difficile releases toxins that initiates inflammation of the mucosal surface causing severe diarrhoea, leading to dehydration and more worryingly; death.

Traditionally C. difficile is treated with oral antibiotics, the two main ones are Metronidazole and Vancomycin. More recently "live probiotic" yoghurt (for example Vitagen) and yeast have been utilised to promote recolonisation of the colon with normal colon microflora.

At this point a friend of mine interjected, "Did you know that the latest development in treating C difficile are with faecal enemas?"

A faecal enema is the procedure of introducing through the anus of a patient affected by C difficile, faeces obtained from a healthy individual.

Sick!

Until that point I was enormously enjoying a curry at lunch, but as you could imagine, I immediately lost my appetite.



Credits for images:
1. www.health.qld.gov.au
2. http://media.romanvenable.net

Wireless Surround Speakers

Mama Sarah's dream come true: wireless surround speakers!



Credit: Tom's Hardware
Review of Creative Gigaworks G550 Wireless at Tom's Hardware (translated)

Sudoku Fever

This afternoon while at work my mobile suddenly came alive with an incoming call. I get calls during work extremely rarely, only during emergencies or if my parents wanted to get in touch from Malaysia, again only during emergencies.

From the ring tone I could tell it's Mama Sarah calling from home. Worried, I ran to the coffee room to accept the call. And you know what MS had to say?

"Bie, have you read my blog yet today?"

I went: "Lerrrrrrrrr, I thought it was a real emergency!"

She actually wanted to boast about this:
Not GIMPed or Photoshopped this time (unlike the previous post about Uncle De the Sudoku Monster).

It's worrying thinking that the way MS and I exchange our daily stories nowadays are shifting towards reading each other's blogs!

Part 2: Sudoku

It seems that MS and I are both struck with Sudoku fever. I could only compare it with two of my previous puzzle game addictions: the classic Tetris and the excellent Bejewelled.

Sudoku is the game where you place numbers on a 9 x 9 board with one rule: the same number could not be on the same line either horizontally or vertically.

It's scarily addictive. When I play I probably devote 9% of my brain capacity to solve the puzzles. Considering we only use 10% of our brain, I suppose the remaining 1% is used to only maintain my basic physiological functions like keeping my heart going and continuing breathing.

When I play, it's like everything around me disappears and after a while I don't need to count the numbers anymore, I just could kind of "sense" the missing number.

Indeed, very scary.

Despite using almost the full capacity (9%) of my brain, my best score is only 3-4 minutes ;(

Long way to go before I could beat Uncle De (he upgraded his brain to an AMD Athlon FX67, with 1Tb of RAM recently) and Mama Sarah (she has Mangekyou Sharingan), the two Sudoku Monsters.

1. If you're busy don't click this link! http://www.sudokucraving.com/
2. Link to Advanced Sudoku Strategies (Thanks alot Uncle De!!! No wonder you're so good)

Experimenting with Google Page Creator

I've had the chance to test Google Page Creator, and so far my impressions are very positive. Here is my homepage that I created in around just 10 minutes using Google Page Creator: http://mynn.zero.googlepages.com/home. The site is for experimental purposes only, and was done in a hurry so I'm sorry for any silly mistakes or garish colours.

I did not find using GPC at all difficult. The interface is similar to many WYSIWYG html editors and comes with a standard set of toolbars with icons for uploading images, creating headers, changing the layout of the site, choosing templates, text styles, paragraph justification and many others.

The interface is fast and it's surprising to think that all the editing was done over the internet as it almost seemed like I was using a program installed natively on my laptop.

However, there are a few minor bugs. There were times when the interface behaved bizzarely and I had to reload the page in order to return it back to normal. Despite that, I did not encounter any major issues.

If you are interested to build a website of your own, giving Google Page Creator a try is definitely worth it. I have a feeling it may be the next big thing...

Scrapbook Firefox Extension via Lifehacker

I have always thought of my blog as a sort of scrapbook for me to mark useful links I've found, and note down interesting things I've read on the web. With the award winning Scrapbook extension for Firefox, you would be able to do exactly that through our favourite browser. It features:

• Save web page
• Save snippets of web page
• Save web site (in-depth capture)
• Organise the collection
• Highlighter, Eraser and page editing features
• Ful text search and filtering search
• Text edit feature
  

Extremely useful for all of us using the web for reference and research.

Links:

• Download the Scrapbook Firefox extension.

Via Lifehacker:

• Video tutorial
• Article

How to Take Notes via Lifehacker

To everyone who would like to improve their note taking skills, and to one of you (you know who you are;) who doesn't know how to, here's an amazing article on Lifehacker on how to improve taking notes: crucial for ward rounds, study and business.

(Good articles like this is the reason why I love reading Lifehacker so much)

Article: Take Great Notes

Use the Middle Button

You may notice that Itchiness has many links to other pages I find interesting and sites I would like to bookmark for future reference. I have always thought of this as a good idea until I saw someone having a nightmare reading Itchiness as she was repeatedly clicking in and out of the blog to navigate the links.

Here's a tip: Use the middle mouse button.

If you're using Firefox, and you see a link you're interested in mid-sentence, just click the link with the middle button of your mouse. A new tab will be opened by Firefox in the background. You could continue reading while the new page loads and as soon as you've finished, click the newly opened tab. That's it! No more navigation horrors. 

Not That Itch Again!

For our family, part of our activity for the weekend is to go buy groceries at the local Tesco. Today while shopping, I saw something that made me feel a primal urge, the urge to buy!

I chose “Scratch That Itch” for the title of this blog as a hint to my impulsive nature and I started this blog purely on an impulse. I am also notorious for buying gadgets, games and DVDs. When I have that urge to buy, it would normally ruminate for several days to several weeks. Sometimes I succumb and end up buying what I want, but most times the urge would grumble on for weeks to months.

However, I’m getting slightly better at not "scratching that itch". For example, I can’t even properly remember the last gadget I bought [Mama Sarah says: It’s your laptop!], the last DVDs I bought were around 1 month ago and they were Howl’s Castle and Spirited Away (by the excellent Studio Ghibli). The last PS2 games I bought were around 2 months ago and they were Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (Ico is still in mint condition, while I’m still struggling to finish Shadow of the Colossus).

To make the urge more bearable, I thought I’d share my current “itch”:

Books

Last book bought: Prey by Michael Crichton (MS hid it somewhere so that I wouldn’t read it before my exams!)

Itching for:

• Book 13, the final book in Lemony Snickett’s Series of Unfortunate Events
• Book 1 of The Edge Chronicles, if book 1 is good I would like to collect the whole series.
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Dyanna Wynne Jones
• KKL has made me want the Earthsea Chronicles.
  

PS2 Game

• Dragon Quest VIII, The King’s Journey (really222 want this, probably after the exams) £29.99
• Guitar Hero £49

DVD

• Chronicles of Narnia, Special 2 Disc Edition £16.99
• King Kong 2 Disc Special Edition £14.99

Magazine

The latest issue of Edge Magazine and PC Format

As you can see, the price of DVDs and especially games are extremely expensive, but that makes keeping the buying urge that little bit easier to resist. Thank goodness there are no gadgets I currently want ... oh wait, I just remembered I would like a DSLR!

Today at Tesco, the “something” I saw that made me feel the urge again was the Chronicles of Narnia DVD. But, I managed to walk out of Tescos without buying any of the above. So far I’m still holding!

Ps: My new year’s resolution for 2006 was: Not to buy anymore gadgets.

Reader Poll: What have you been up to this Weekend?

Cancer

Mama Sarah and I were both laughing our guts out on this commentary we read together on Ifos' blog. (Hope you don't mind us cutting and pasting Ifos, cheers)

Anonymous said...

"Atas saranan doktor, Mamat dihantar utk berubat di USA kerana penyakitnya yg agak kritikal. Sesampainya di Hospital New York, Mamat dibawa ke bilik bedah & dipasang tiub getah kiri kanan.Beberapa jam kemudian, seorang pesakit dari UK yg kelihatannya lebih parah dibawa masuk & diletak bersebelahan katil si Mamat.

Si Mat Saleh ini walaupun kelihatannya lemah, dia masih mencuba utk berkomunikasi
dgn Mamat. Dia mengangkat tangannya dgn susah payah & berkata:
"United kingdom... "

Mamat yg juga sedang lemah, menjawab: "Malaysia... "

Setelah itu dua-duanya pengsan karana keletihan. Beberapa jam kemudian mereka kembali sedar & cuba berkomunikasi lagi.

Si Mat Saleh berkata dgn lemah: "James... ".

Dijawab dgn susah payah oleh Mamat: "Mamat... ".

Habis itu mereka pengsan lagi. Beberapa jam kemudian setelah sedar, mereka berdua masih mencuba melanjutkan percakapannya.

"Birmingham... " kata si Mat Saleh.

Dijawab Mamat: "Kuala Kangsor... ". Pengsan lagi.

Tak lama kemudian mereka sedar & masih mencuba utk berbual.

Si Mat Saleh yg sudah hampir kehabisan nafas berkata: "Cancer... "

Dan dgn sisa-sisa nafas yg ada Mamat menyahut: "Capricorn... !"

Thu Feb 16, 03:47:21 PM

Anonymous said...

Dan kita semua yang tercungap-cungap membaca, mengakhiri kalam dengan berkata:

"Mati lah kau Mamat dalam keadaan merapu...."

My goodness, tergolek MS & I gelak...
Whoever you are anonymous, that joke is VERY good. You've made our day!!

Link 1: Maman's blog
Link 2: Ifos' blog

Google Pages

If you're lucky to have a Gmail account, you are also automatically eligible to sign up for a Google Page Creator account.

I signed up around a month ago, and today I was (pleasantly) surprised to find an email from Google saying they have approved my request for a Google Page account. THANK YOU GOOGLE!

Google Pages is a free online WYSIWYG web page creator. Features:

• create a webpage without knowing HTML
• a What You See Is What You Get interface, so the finished product will look exactly as how you designed it.
• Hosted by Google, for free

It's still in the testing phase, and only a handful of accounts have been approved. That's why I'm so happy to have one.

Now to decide on what to put on the web page ...

Link: Google Page Creator Beta

Sudoku Monster!

Wow Uncle De, you're a sudoku monster!!! Terrernya no. 25.

Hey wait a second, who's number 1 to 4? Let's take a look:
Hmmm, you've been beaten by the Sudoku Monster Family!

(Credit to Dyanna for showing me how to do a screen capture, thanks)

How to Make Sushi: Cutting & Done!

1. Wet a sharp knife with cold water.
2. Using the knife, slice through the sushi tube as pictured. I normally make the width around an inch.

And that’s it, we’re done.

Ittadakimasu!