Photoshop rocks!

Previously when I was using Panther/Mac OS X v10.3, I had played around with image manipulation programs like GIMP but never had a chance to use Photoshop because I didn’t have the software.

This time round, I’ve discovered the wonders of the program, and boy, is it good. Check out my changed background and t-shirt colour.


From this…


…to this!

There are still some parts that need touching up, but it’s alright, I can do that after lunch. Best of all – I didn’t figure out how to do this through good ol’ trial and error; I used the wisdom of Google to learn instead!

ADDENDUM: The final product here.

Still not very good but not too bad for a first-time effort huh. Well, I’ll get better at this as I go along.

Teknologi, the enabler.

One of my fellow trainee teachers over here at Saint Gabriel’s also rides a motorcycle, so we are usually partners-in-crime in terms of rushing off just before the rain pours.

Our pet peeve is not being to get an early enough headstart because of the lack of a proper notification system. The current technology we use is Windows i.e. we look out of the window in the I & E room where we’re seated and guesstimate when it is we should leave.

Bad jokes aside, we also make use of the NEA’s Local Weather portion of the website quite a bit. But being the humans that we are, pulling the information from the website can be quite a hassle sometimes.

So what does one do? In an age where humanity’s kinship with that of electric currents has long been recognised (i.e. we follow the path of least resistance, LOL), ‘push’ technology comes into the picture.

Presenting to you, ladies and gentlemen, the Weather Widgets for the Mac OS X Dashboard!

The best part is: it didn’t require much technological know-how, just an awareness of Safari’s Web Clip feature in Leopard. For the real Windows users: no worries, there’s something in this for you too, cos I’m a very inclusive person πŸ˜› You might wanna try this Singapore Rain Map Yahoo! Widget, or keep your eyes peeled for NEA to develop its RSS notifications, which you probably might be able to convert into an SMS notification… Somehow. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Recent increase in website traffic.

Not too shure where it’s been coming from, but thanks everyone who’s been visiting the site. One person whom I do know has been reading my blog regularly is Mr Tan Kar Wee (Google him, you know you want to, current and future employers), who recently revealed to me his voyeuristic inclinations by way of an SMS-ed belated birthday greeting. I suspect he didn’t want to be just another statistic. LOL!

Anyway, he says he’s been using Google Reader to read my links. At last count, there were three subscribers to my feed – so I’m guessing the other two subscribers are Dr Ashley Tan and Mr Andrew Chong. Right? πŸ™‚

Kar Wee was also asking where I get my links from and how I post them up. It’s also related to Google Reader – this post should explain everything. Google Reader rocks, but my readers rock more! πŸ™‚