I just sent out a virtual Christmas card to a bunch of my coworkers via e-mail, and I’ve selected this card for the occasion. It’s pretty generic, isn’t it? I didn’t want it to look too personal or tacky; besides, it’s for coworkers and not friends. Oh, I have to send out one to my friends, too.  Just hope that site isn’t selling our e-mail addresses…
Archive for December, 2007
If you want to add special effects, borders, characters, etc., to your photos or images, check out Custom Sign Generator. It’s also useful when you need a banner or something for your blog. It lists other useful sites as well, so I’m sure you will find what you need. The design of the site could be improved, though. 
Since Christmas is coming up, I thought I’d at least decorate this site a little with a Snowfall Effect. It’s not like we have small children in the house anyway. It will be a quite one as usual.
Hope you like it! 
Edit: Here’s the DHTML version of it foor non-WordPress blogs.
My mother and I haven’t been attending church for about 3 months now for various reasons, and we aren’t even going to attend for this Christmas. Lately, I’ve found that they ask for donations way more often than before. I know that they need money to operate like any other business or organization, but it needs to be done in subtle ways; otherwise, they will drive parishioners like myself away. Furthermore, instead of asking its parishioners for donations in this bad economy, they need to ask the community as a whole by running fundraisers that individuals can participate and assist in; e.g., a community dance sponsored by a local business. This would be a win-win event. Nowadays, Catholic churches feel more like a big corporation.
Besides, Christmas is not Jesus’ real birthday anyway. I’ve read that it’s sometime in January. And I don’t like people who attend churches only once a year on Christmas. They just don’t wanna go to Hell… if it exists, that is. What’s the point of it anyway if you don’t attend at least once a month? God isn’t going to forgive people just because they attended on Christmas which, by the way, was invented and commercialized by men for profits.
I also don’t like places packed with people. 
The WP-SpamFree plugin for WordPress seems to be much better than Akismet at blocking spam bots. It uses a simple method to block automated scripts (bots); i.e., it uses a combination of cookies and JavaScript to detect them. I installed it just last night, and I received only one comment spam so far which Akismet caught. So it looks like it’s working fairly well.
I don’t recall that many details, but I was apparently hospitalized for this surgery. It was white all over, including the gowns that people were wearing, that it was almost too bright to see anything far. One weird thing was that a nurse came by peeking inside my underwear to check the size of my penis and then said something aloud for someone to write it down. 
Talk about an embarrassment! In the next scene, however, the atmosphere totally changed. I think I was walking around by myself, and I was so overwhelmed by it that I was crying aloud for real in my sleep. I’d actually hear myself.
That nurse thing was weird indeed… it’s way out of context. Hmm, maybe I was abducted by aliens???
If you want your WordPress to display the number of words as you type, see this. There are some delays, but it’s better than nothing.
I’ve been looking for this since Wednesday… who would’ve thought it’s in their bug track system!?
UPDATE: This does not work in 2.5. Please vote here if you want an extension developed. It now works in 2.5 and will be included from 2.5.1!
As of this early afternoon, my “journal” subdomain and all of its b2 files ceased to exist. Instead, it now redirects to this one automatically, and if there’s the “p” variable in the URL, I’ve made it so that it directs the user to that post. I’ve also created a subdomain named “weblog” which also redirect users to here. I did this simply because there are some search references pointing to that subdomain, which I first started with in the beginning before the “journal” one.
That’s all.
Drinking eight glasses of water a day isn’t so beneficial as we previously thought, and reading books under a dim light won’t make your eyesight worse according to this article. Also, shaving the hair on your legs won’t make it grow faster and thicker.
Interesting study indeed. You know how much nagging I got for reading/watching things under a bad lighting? And how about eight cups of water a day? My mother nags even now for not drinking enough water a day! Damn… I gotta show her this. 
Personally, I find it a little burdensome to receive Christmas gifts, because I then have to give something back. In every type of relationship, whether it be personal or professional, there got to be a two-way street; in other words, it’s all about give and take, and you have to balance it just right so that the other person and even yourself don’t feel burdened or obligated. However, there’s one good thing about receiving gifts — especially if the other person got something just right: I don’t usually buy stuffs for myself that are not necessities, so it can be thought as treating yourself in a way.
I got stuffs this year that I thought I’d never get myself and at the same time, it reminded me to get something for that person. However, there’s this person in real life who spent way too much for my parents and me that I feel uncomfortable about, because I can’t afford to spend as much as that person. I still even more comfortable knowing that my mother has to “pay” back in some way eventually since she’s that kind of a person whom I take after. Oh, well. 
Anyway, I shopped only for three people this year. That doesn’t counts my niece and nephew, because my mother got them something. I didn’t want to shop for them as they are too young to even understand the concept of gift-giving, but I guess you are really shopping for their parents when their children are still toddlers.