Music of My Life

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Singapore Flyer

It has been almost a month since our vacation to Singapore and I haven't posted a single photo yet. Well, it's about time to change this. Here is my first colorful and watery view. You can see the Singapore Flyer at the right.

PS. My friend Jama just explained in the comment section that the colors are the Marina Bay Floating Platform. It's a 30 000 capacity grandstand seat fronting the floating platform. The Singapore National Day was celebrated there. According to my friend Elaine, the high building at the left is the Ritz Carlton Hotel. Thanks for the information :).

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Thank you for hosting this great meme, Martha!

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Thank you for hosting this great blog carnival, T. Bruce.

Random Dozen #12

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Thanks for hosting this wonderful meme, Linda!

1. If you could master one sport, what would it be? I actually participated in a lot of DLRG swimming competitions when I was a teen. So, it would be swimming.

2. When you make a major purchase, do you go with your gut instinct, or do you do research to make an informed decision? Me and my husband prefer to do some research to make an informed decision. But there are also these gut instinct moments.

3. There is an old kids' game that says you can find out what your movie star name would be by using your middle name as your first name and the name of the street you grew up on as your last. What is your movie star name? I don't have a middle name as you can see in my Blogger profile and there were several streets where I grew up. Based on two of them my name would be Friedrich Ebert (I spent 10 years of my childhood in Germany) or Red River (translation of the Indonesian word Kaliabang). I'll go for the second one. It should be Reed River, though. I think according to these game I would be a man.

4. Would you rather give up your favorite music or your favorite food? Gosh, this is a tough question. Selfish me wouldn't like to be without my favorites. Hmm... but if I had to choose it would be... my favorite food. Sigh... bye, bye seafood! I'm not a picky eater, so I think I'll live through it. But when it comes to music, not every tune pleases my mind. I need particular soul food. Music of My Life. Hehehe.

5. There are two types of banana preferences. One is pristine yellow, almost to the point of being green; the other is spotty and more ripe. Which is your preference? I'm not too fond of bananas, because I'm kind of allergic to them. Sometimes my lips get swollen and I have no idea why. But, my choice would be spotty and more ripe.

6. Your favorite tree is? Another tough question. I love nature very much. But if I had to choose it would be... hmm... eh... well... oh my goodness, this is torturing me ;p. I'm going for the apple tree. I love apples and... hey they inspired Newton.

7. On a scale of 1-10, how tech savvy are you? It depends on which level we are talking about from the Begginer to Advanced level. I think as beginner, I'm doing quite well. The scale could be 7-8, may be. But when we are talking about the high-tech level. I'm way below the average.

8. Has H1N1 touched your family? Thank goodness, no. I hope it stays this way. Hopefully in the future no other families have to go through this as well.

9. Are you an analytical person, or do you just accept things the way they are without questioning or scrutinizing? Well, I think I'm in between. There are things that I have to analyze, but some things I can accept without questioning or scrutinizing.

10. Is your personality more like that of a dog, cat, or Koala? I went to Blogthings and according to the result I am a cow. LOL. I have to know more about what kind of personalities these 3 animals represent before I can make a choice.

You Are a Cow

You are strong and very determined. You can remain stoic when times are tough.

You are stable and patient. You are able to do mundane tasks without resentment or boredom.

You are a caring, nurturing creature. You are willing to sacrifice a lot to take care of those you love.

You are smart and very observant. While you may seem passive, you are just taking in everything around you.

What Animal Are You?

11. Do you keep in touch with friends you made years ago? Of course. Some of my best friends are from elementary school.

12. You are checking out at a grocery store. In the express lane, there are more people than the regular lanes, but of course, their load is less than those in the regular lanes. Which lane do you choose (assuming you qualify for the express lane) and why? I think it would depend on the load of the people in the regular lanes. I'll take any lane which seems to be faster.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

How I Ended Up With Three More...

You might already know that last week I decided to give my blog a new look. But did you know that I ended up with THREE more in the process ;p.

Well, I actually don't know if I can keep up with them all. Let's just say that these Blogger templates were just too tempting for me. No, I'm not getting paid for writing this. LOL

Before deciding on Music of My Life's new template, I came upon BloggerTube - The First Blogger Video Template by Dante Araujo and decided to make it the new home for A Compilation of My Favorite YouTubes. I think it is a real great way for me to have easier access to all my favorite videos on this site.

Next, I came upon a beautiful travel template. I just loved how you could add links into the destination sign at the header. I thought it could be a place to share some reviews, photos and/or travel tips in A Family's Travel Guide. Okay, okay... I must admit that these destination sign links did it for me. Not a match for my personal blog, though.

Then, I finally got a click when I came upon this now applied template. Like my dear friend Pacey said in my previous comment section. It is very obvious that I loooove green... and flowers as matter of fact :). This is my ultimate comfort place, where I connect with my beloved friends. Please forgive me, if I still haven't put you back in my Bloglist. I forgot to keep a back up of my Bloglist links. So, there might be a possibility I have missed you.

Last but not least, I decided to join Zazzle.com and created some designs based on my photos. You can see them at Amalia's Gallery and in the slide show at the bottom of this blog. Amalia is taken from my daughter's last name. We don't have any family names here in Indonesia. That's why I kept my family name. I have one, because I was born in Germany.

To be truth, creating these products gives me a very mixed feeling. I actually don't know, if I will proceed or not. I love spending my time working on the product designs. Hopefully the products will always be as good as they look on screen. You can say that I have a great passion for crafts and designs... and now photography. Even though I don't have as much time as before and I'm not a pro, there is something very appealing in the creative process. Challenging, relaxing... PASSION :)! Zazzle seems to be a place to combine all of my hobbies. Besides, I love the thought of having my own store (well actually it's not my store, only designs). Not that I'm not grateful as Stay at Home Mom. I have decided to leave my career for almost ten years now, and I'm positive that the decision would be exactly the same if I could go back in time. I'll just wait and see what happens next.

How To Change Your Blogger / Blogspot Template

Last week I decided to change the look of my blog and started to search for some free Blogger templates. It turned out that there are so many great sources on the Web that I had a hard time to choose. But first things first. My dear friends Thom and Keats reminded me about safety and I couldn't agree more. Before searching for a new template, I copied and saved all of the html/javasript codes in my sidebar. I have been blogging for almost a year here and it would be a shame, if I lost the data. After that, I copied the codes file again for double assurance ;).

Now, back to those awesome Blogger templates. There are a lot of sites offering there wonderful help to give your blog a new fresh look for free. Just make sure that you get the codes from their original source, not somewhere else. Here are my favorite sites for free Blogger/Blogspot templates:

Blogger Templates
Dante Araujo
Deluxe Templates
FalconHive

All you have to do is to read the description of template, view the template's demo blog to see its real look and then download your choice on your PC. I advice you to read the comment section as well to find out some possible bugs or problems from other users. Please respect the creative rights of the template developers by keeping their link intact. Don't delete them and change it with your own name! You have to be grateful to people who help you. It's that simple.

Extract the file, go to your Blogger dashboard, click layout and then edit html. Click browse to get to your extracted file and after that upload.

Uploading a new template usually will delete your added page elements and widgets. That's why it is so important to save and back up your codes first, before you start. It would be a great loss, if anything goes wrong. You definitely don't want this to happen! After uploading the new template, Blogger will ask you to confirm and save. Click at the button and you should be able to access your new template. Contact the template designer for further questions, if you get some troubles. I don't advice you to change your template, if you are not sure about the process unless you are okay about losing your page elements and widgets in the worst case.

Have fun rearranging your blog :)!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Short Notice: Under Construction ;)

Hello my dear friends,

just a short notice to let you know that I'm alright.
I hope everyone is doing great.

I decided to change my blog template to give it a new look.
Please, bare with me until everything gets intact again.

Have a wonderful week, everyone :)!