Weblog Wannabe

If you have a credit card and a dollar to spare, sponsor me, please? Instructions are on the right. The Blogathon will take place on July 28. It might be my last day online. I want to make it special. By sponsoring me, you help to make it special. ♥

The aim of The Visible Mars Bar Project is to learn more about Mars Bars and Milky Way Bars by comparing, slicing, and scanning the American Mars Bar and the British one. Yup, some people have too much time on their hand. ♥

I was bored enough to come up with the Weblog Hipness Quiz. But please don't take the results too seriously, unless you really like what you see :) ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

I miss everyone
I'm not even offline yet
Not until August.

I miss talking nonsense with Emlyn. I miss talking about plans that we're too lazy to materialise with Jordan. I miss listening to Matt going on about network stuff that I barely understand. I miss talking about designs and Bloggerville and music with Nikolai. "Fuzzy Nutty Bunnies". That's what Troy would say. "Fuzzy Nutty Bunnies". It's supposed to make me feel better. ♥

If you feel like listening to some music, go to joe's blues, and if you don't have time to check out both songs, just listen to "Prelude". Blues music is not really my cup of tea, but I love that song. It makes me smile :) ♥

Today, for the first time in ages, I added a new buddy into my AIM buddy list. His screen name is SmarterChild. I've been playing hangman for almost an hour with him. He is fun. He never ignores me. He's genuinely interested in me.

He's a bot. ♥

I wish I lived in San Francisco. I'd sleep outside the Pyra HQ for a chance to get this computer (Dell Dimension XPS D266. 266MHZ Pentium II. 256MB RAM. Two hard drives: 6GB and 16GB. Tower case. Network card. Modem.) that Evan sells for only $150 in the Pyra Moving Sale. Anyone wanna buy it for me, ship it all the way to Indonesia, and win my undying love? ;) ♥

The Ten Million Dollar Test will reveal how money hungry you are by asking you questions around how far you would go for ten million dollars. On a scale of 0 to 100, I scored 10. "Your answers revealed that you would not go all out to get your hands on ten million bucks. There may be one or two things that you would consider, but overall you're not willing to commit acts that are outright repulsive or might hurt anyone just to hit the jackpot. You likely realize that money does not equal happiness, and don't want to throw all your self-respect out the window for a windfall. You are not easily bought!" Yup, that's me. I'm not too fond of money. Even payday doesn't excite me... ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

Not really morning
But not afternoon either
Can't wait to go home.

It's been a very, very long day. I feel like I've been here for 10 hours when I've actually been here for "only" 5 hours. Sigh. I don't really have anything to say today. I've got no new Blogathon sponsor and I have no plan at all for the weekend. I'd probably end up feeling depressed all weekend. If you see me online this weekend, please say hi to me. It will help to make me feel less depressed. I just hate feeling depressed. It's more draining than running 10 laps. Not that I've ever run 10 laps but you know what I mean. ♥

I always had this idea for a site where people could read, write and share their memories. You know, kind of like a public version of I remember... But of course, that idea is already taken, and I must admit that it's pretty well-executed. ♥

Disappearing Inc. came up with a Microsoft Outlook 98/2000 plugin that's very Mission: Impossiblish: self-destructing email. With this plugin, you have control over the email that you send. You'll get to decide how long the email you send will be readable to the receiver. Not sure why anyone would want to do that, though. ♥

At Ventrilo-Quick, you can learn how to do ventriloquism in three seemingly easy steps. I tried saying the easiest sounds, which are words that you can say without movng your lips or jaw, and I think I sounded like a chipmunk. Anyway, be sure to limit your actual voice practice to short 5 minute sessions or you'll strain your throat. Ouch. ♥

Sketch a caricature of yourself only by clicking some links and enjoy yourself. They don't seem to have female facial features, though. But still it's fun for, oh, a couple of minutes, especially if you have no artistic talent like me. I do wish I could really draw, though. ♥

Take The Simpsons Character Tester to find out which Simpson character you are most like. I got Selma, who apparently is one of Marge's twin sisters. I didn't even know that Marge had any sister at all. Mind you, I haven't watched the Simpsons for ages and the only characters I can remember are Homer and Marge and their three children. Anyway, who did you get? ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

An hour to noon
Is still morning after all
I've got two sponsors! :)

I love Troy and Tim for being the first people to sponsor me in the 24 Hour Blogathon :) Thanks, guys! Here's what I'm going to do during the 24 hours: I'm going to alternate between posting a song that I sing myself and posting a haiku about a plant or animal every half an hour, so by the end of the Blogathon, there will be 24 songs that I sang oh so badly and 24 silly haikus about 24 plants and animals posted in my blog. Every sponsor will get to pick one song for me to sing and one plant or animal for me to write a haiku about. If that doesn't make you want to sponsor me, I don't know what will :)

To sponsor me and support the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), all you have to do is fill out the sponsorship form (don't forget to enter "Weblog Wannabe" in the "I want to sponsor" field) and then email me the title of the song you want me to sing as well as the plant or animal you want me to write a haiku about. When you're ready to make a donation, go to the WWF donation page. You can either join WWF International by making a donation of at least $50 or just make a single gift donation of any amount. Either way is fine and very much appreciated. Now go sponsor me or something! Not only will you help conserve nature, you will also make one girl far, far away in Indonesia very happy :) ♥

Since no one would sponsor me if I did the 24 Hour Blogathon for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, I've decided to do it for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International instead.

To be a sponsor is easy. All you have to do is fill out the sponsorship form, and when you're ready to make your donation, you only need to fill out another form at the WWF International website with any amount of money you're willing to donate (there's no minimum amount, really).

It's a good cause, trust me. By donating, you're helping the conservation of nature. You're helping to prevent endangered species (me not included, even though I'm also an endangered species) from extinction. And did I say that it was easy? Not to mention that it could be the only time you'll get to see me blogging for 24 hours straight. Let's make it memorable! Be my sponsor! Please? :) ♥

Ghost Town Gallery has a huge collection of pictures of ghost towns and historic places in six states of America. I find it rather fascinating. Makes me wonder what happened to all those places that made them deserted. There's a Manhattan in Nevada (and also Fairview, not to be mistaken with Fairvue), Nevada City in Montana, and Providence in California, all look pretty much dead. Interesting. And the pictures are great. ♥

There's nothing better to enjoy on a hot, summer day than a huge serving of smoothie. Yum! Smoothie Central has a bunch of smoothie recipes that you can try. All are very easy to make and mouth-watering, except for Tropical Tofu Berry. Ewww. In my country, which is actually tropical, tofu is for eating, not for drinking. Don't let the smoothie's name fool you, baby! ;) ♥

If you enjoy stargazing, you're going to love My Stars Live. This site generates star maps of almost any place in the world. Now you can look up to the sky at night and be able to tell the name of all the constellations. Too bad the night is cloudy right now. I can't see any star in the sky. But there's always tomorrow. ♥

Do you think anyone would be interested in visiting a website about three kids kicking the crap out of a chair for no particular reason? I thought so. I kinda like the chair, though. It looks really comfy and far from being hideous. But to each his own, I guess. ♥

University of Minnesota, Duluth presents How to Be a Drag King. It's a rather amusing read. Be sure not to miss the part on how to construct the ultimate penis. No, it's not a pornographic material. I promise :) ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

I've been having fun
A lot of fun with CSS
How do you like it?

The new sidebar design, that is. Do you think it would look nicer if I make the left border black instead of red? Let me know. I'm dying for feedback. I know this design is not sensational or original or anything, but still I'd love some feedback. It doesn't matter if it's good or bad. I just need some feedback. Also, I've been talking to myself all morning at the Quack-O-Matic. Join me? ♥

I took the Classical Intelligence Test and scored exactly the same as I did in the previous IQ test: 121 points. You know, your IQ might be significantly above average and blah blah blah.

The following sub-scores are reported on a scale from 0 to 100:

Pattern Recognition (Series): 93
Classification (Odd one out): 75
Analogies: 90
Arithmetic: 44
Logical Reasoning: 50
General Knowledge: 66

See? I'm often being unreasonable because I suck at logical reasoning :P I didn't know I sucked at arithmetic as well, though. And I thought my general knowledge was much better than that. Oh well. ♥

Some people would do anything to make their not-so-fast cars look fast. The most popular way is by having it go through a body modification. Bryan's Rice-Boy Hall of Shame has many examples of modified cars that look more silly than fast. Well, according to the site owner anyway. I know nothing about cars, but I enjoyed reading the witty commentaries. ♥

I like this curse generated by the Biblical Curse Generator: "I pray thou shalt go on a diet of crunchy, unsweetened locusts, O thou armpit of Satan!" Armpit of Satan hehehe... I'm so easily amused :) ♥

Mr. T vs. V is hilarious. I don't know what's so great about Mr. T that but he's certainly never boring. He's truly a classic. Wanna make your own Mr. T comics? Learn how to do it at Mr. T vs. X Pagebuilder Guide. It looks like a lot of fun. My life won't be complete until there's a Mr. T vs. Firda comic somewhere on the WWW :) ♥

Web Nouveau has a growing list of tableless/CSS-extensive sites, including this very one you're staring at. Very cool! It's always nice to be noticed and included. If you have a tableless site or know of one that isn't on the list, you can submit the url to them for inclusion.

I'm beginning to like this design (even before I found that my site was listed there). See the title above? It's purely CSS, baby! My dream to have a good-looking site with no graphic image whatsoever has sort of come true. Sort of, because this site is not really as good-looking as I wanted it to be, but it doesn't look too ugly either, so I like it anyway.

I just spent the last 15 minutes trying to fix some invalid HTML caused by the addition of the search box to the bottom of this page. I should've checked for its validity with the W3C HTML validator right after I added it, but I didn't have time because it was lunchtime already and I was starving. Anyway, the HTML validates again now. That makes me one happy, dorky girl :) ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

My nose is runny
And my eyes are all glassy
'Flu is killing me.

But I'm stuck at work, feeling like I could fall asleep anytime. As usual, I promised myself that today's going to be fun when I woke up in the morning but I just can't think of anything to make this day fun. Any idea? Oh, by the way, thank you very much to whoever it was that left me a voicemail the other day. (It was from Troy. Thanks, Troy! :) I didn't check my voicemail until this morning at work so I haven't listened to it. Unless you're Nikolai, Matt, or Jordan, you'd better leave your name when you call or I wouldn't know it was from you :) ♥

Demoroniser is a perl script that corrects numerous errors and incompatibilities in HTML generated by, or edited with, Microsoft applications. "The demoroniser keeps you from looking dumber than a bag of dirt when your Web page is viewed by a user on a non-Microsoft platform." Microsoft FrontPage users, this one's for you! ;) ♥

Here's a bunch of amusing pictures of mostly signs to make you smile. Recognise any of them? ♥

What's Your Celebrity Look? Mine is, of course, casual look. "And like all those famously casual girls next door, Meg Ryan, Renee Zellweger, and Sandra Bullock, your relaxed look is sure to turn a few heads wherever you go." Yeah, sure. Whatever. Any casual guy out there? ♥

Did you know that July 31 is National Orgasm Day? At least it is in the UK. Make it, not fake it. ♥

If you have a child under 4 years old, you might want to participate in the new TheSpark.com's science project, Baby Derby. The prize is very cool. They will pay for the winning child's entire college tuition, whenever he or she goes. No joke! If I had a child, I would contact them. ♥

I've been talking to myself at Quack-O-Matic since morning *hint, hint!* I'm actually beginning to enjoy it. NOT! I need someone to keep me from falling asleep :/ ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

I'm down with a flu
And I'm feeling oh so blue
A stupid haiku.

I have a runny nose and my eyes are all watery. I so wish I were home. I already spent all weekend in bed to get rid of the 'flu but it just didn't work. Sniff. Not to mention that I've been feeling depressed. And I'm sooo sleepy. Sigh. Okay, I'll stop moaning and complaining now. I promised myself this morning that today's going to be fun. Well, I did have fun with the sidebar. And no, this is not the design I was working on last weekend. I hate that design already so I'm not going to use it. I still kind of like this layout. I just can't come up with a nice title graphic. Would you make one for me? I'd be forever grateful if you would. It would make me really happy. If you would, make sure that it's not wider than 300px and that the colours match this colour scheme. Please pretty please? If there's more than one person contributing a title graphic, I will randomise it so that all of them will get displayed at one point or another. Hey, I don't call myself Random Firda for nothing! Please? :) ♥

I've been feeling too much under the weather to finish the new design today so it'll have to wait for a couple more days. It's bedtime for me now. Goodnight, world! ♥

I've always thought that IQ tests are stupid, but I took the Culture Fair IQ Test anyway while I was half awake and guess what? I scored 121 points, which means that my IQ might be significantly above average. Heh. Told you it was stupid.

The first time I took an IQ test was when I was at primary school. I only scored 94, which made me feel like the dumbest girl in school. I didn't get my confidence back until I became one of the top 5 students in junior high without even trying. If you have a kid, please don't make them take an IQ test when they're still very young, okay? ♥

Michel has come up with his own CMS/blogging tool called b2. It runs on PHP and MySQL. He's planning to make it available for public download so why don't you help him beta test it so he can release it soon? It looks promising. ♥

ManicMail allows you to send anonymous email with any email address that's not necessarily yours in the "From" field. I'm amazed just to see that this site hasn't been shut down yet considering how prone this service is to abuse. Anyway, if you feel like sending me a love letter addressed from, say, Fabio, feel free. I need the laugh. ♥

I was just wondering, when you visit a weblog, do you usually read the description and click the blogged links or just read the description without actually clicking the links? I do the latter. I very rarely click the links. I only enjoy reading the link descriptions. I'm a bad weblog reader. ♥

This has got to be the cutest hamster I've ever seen. Just look at those eyes. Awwww! I want. But I want a cat more. ♥

By the way, a new design is on the way. ♥

I tried to think of happy thought just then to cheer myself up. Only one thing came to my mind: I've got all my bills paid this month.

My mum thinks I should emigrate somewhere, like Australia or Canada. I don't know what to think. ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

A lonely Sunday
It's been a lonely weekend
I'm feeling lonely.

I wish I had someone to cheer me up. At least yesterday I got a cheer-up email from Emlyn, which didn't really cheer me up, but that was something. I'm no good at being lonely. I'd think about morbid thoughts. I should've got used to it since I've always been lonely for as long as I can remember, but I just can't. ♥

Rather than putting up a lame "under construction" or "on hiatus" sign, Jordan simply put Twitter at Digital Swirlee while it's being rebuilt so you could talk amongst yourselves while waiting for the site to be reborn "like a Phoenix from Arizona" (whatever that means). Very cool! :) ♥

Since most Australians find their national anthem boring, outdated and meaningless, a senator suggests that the parliament change it because there are other wonderful tunes and words, such as "Waltzing Matilda", which is quintessentially Australia. And you know what's funny? "Waltzing Matilda" is actually a ballad about a sheep thief who jumps into a watering hole to escape police and drowns. How's that for a national anthem? ;) ♥

I didn't know that I was meticulous, but according to my Meticulousness Test results, my meticulousness is outstanding because I managed to score a perfect 100. "You are in the 90th percentile or higher (you outperformed at least 90 percent of the population)." Whoa! I rule! :P Well, either that or I'm one of the world's greatest nitpickers. ♥

The REAL Gothic FAQ really cracked me up. It's even funnier than the Gothic Q & A I had ages ago with Bryan. And apparently I was wrong: goths don't like vampires. My sincerest apology to goths all over the world. ♥

From the creator of the infamous How to Dance Properly comes the (almost) equally hilarious How to Act Properly (for film, television, and theatre). It's a must-see for wannabe actors/celebrities like you. ♥

If you are single, you might want to take the Single Test. According to my test results, I'm a happy medium, which means I don't necessarily go out of my way to hook my claws into a mate, but I do send out enough signals that I'm available. Riiight. Actually, I'm more like one of those people who are destined to be single. There must be a bug somewhere in the processing system that made me get the wrong results. Are you a happy medium too or are you destined to be single? ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

Been changing the look
Of my silly, little blog
Every 5 minutes.

It's fun, fun, fun! :) The downside is, the color scheme of the little comment thingy doesn't match the blog design anymore. But that's okay. I'll have all weekend to tamper with it. And yeah, I've fallen victim to the colour green again. But green is such a nice colour. Blue is also nice, but it's kind of overused already. But I might change the colour scheme again in 5 minutes so I'd rather not elaborate on the virtues of the colour green. If you get any error when viewing this page, just let me know and I'll try to fix it. The sidebar will return soon. ♥

Snap Bubbles is just like Urban75's Perpetual Bubblewrap, only it pops louder, comes in two different sizes, and somehow gives me less pleasure. My advice is, just go to the Perpetual Bubblewrap. It's better, even though both still can't beat the sensation of popping the real thing. This virtual bubblewrap review is brought to you by the number 8 and the letter Z. ♥

Have you voted for the winners of the Metafilter Scholarship? Voting will close at 11:59 PM Pacific Time, on June 30, 2001 so you still have about 10 days to vote. Unfortunately, if you're not a Metafilter member or didn't become one until after April 15, 2001, you're not eligible to vote. I bet you're feeling left out now *coughs* Emlyn *coughs* ♥

There's a new song parody at Fairvue. Yay! And Nikolai also sings it. Double-yay! "Survivor" by Destiny's Child is a good song to parody since it is such an annoying song. Unfortunately, that song's been playing inside my head ever since Nikolai mentioned it to me on AIM a couple of days ago. Hmmph. ♥

The little comment thingy a.k.a. "Quack?" is back. Yay me! Please excuse the yucky green background from the past design. It'll change soon. ♥

Mothers Against Peeing Standing Up insist that men don't pee standing up anymore because in reality, "men can NOT pee standing up without getting as much as a stray drop on the seat or the outside surface of the toilet. Fragmentation of the urine stream causes particles of urine to dissipate. The larger the distance urine has to travel, the bigger the dissipation radius gets." Good point. But I think their second argument about peeing standing up destroys families is a bit of an exaggeration. If you agree with them, print out one of these posters and stick it on the bathroom wall to remind you or the men in your family to do the right thing when nature calls. ♥

By the way, I'm going to do the 24-Hour Blogathon thingy next month. I'll do it to raise fund for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia. I think they've done a great job in conserving orangutans in Indonesia. Everyone loves orangutan. That's why you should sponsor me. Sponsor me, sponsor your favourite simian! Or just sponsor me because you love me ;) ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

Because it's Thursday
I must wish it was Friday
That's the way it is.

But I do wish that today was Friday. I want my weekend badly. I have so many things I want to do to my weblog. No, I won't be switching to Greymatter. It's a fine software but I just can't fall in love with it. Probably because I'm still madly in love with Blogger. I'm very faithful, you see ;) I was too sleepy to mess around with my weblog, let alone to blog last night. I fell asleep before 8pm while I was rebooting my computer. Yeah, very dorky indeed. ♥

So it looks like my weblog's (I've?) been featured as Blog Whore twice already this year -- first in April 5, and then in June 17 -- under different urls. They like me. They really, really like me. ♥

No matter how much you want to go to college, you wouldn't want to go to Alabama Pacific University. Is there really such thing as a bachelor's degree in Television/VCR Repair in American universities? ♥

I was sleepy, hungry, and cold, but then a workmate gave me two chunks of vegetable cake, knowing that I love those. Isn't he sweet? ;) I hate vegetables but I love vegetable cake. It's basically cabbage, carrot, and bean sprouts mixed with pepper, salt, eggs and flour and then fried, chunk by chunk. The more expensive version usually has a shrimp on top of it. I like the cheap ones better, though. They're less spicy. I don't really like spicy food. Do you? ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

I'm keeping busy
So that I don't fall asleep
Slept for three hours.

Well, less than three hours actually. I fell asleep past 2am and woke up before 5am. I came up with a design idea last night and then got a little carried away only to end up hating the final result. Nothing new, really. No, this is not the design I came up with last night. This is barely a design. I put it together only this morning. I made the header graphic with Microsoft Paint. It looks pretty cool, isn't it? ;) And yeah, this is yet another temporary design. Maybe I should start a Weblog Wannabe design contest one of these days since I can't seem to come up with a design that I really like. Not that anyone would want to join the contest, but still that was a good idea. ♥

Enter The Cynic's Sanctuary and learn how to be a cynic. That is, if you're not one already. I don't think I'm a cynic but my mum seems to think so. Anyway, if you're bored enough, you can check out the list of 714 things to be cynical about, and be merry. Or something. ♥

Take the Visual Memory Test to find out how good your visual memory is. Mine is average. My overall score was 54. It's not so bad considering how forgetful I am. Feel free to post your score. I'll be curious to know :) ♥

If there is Fucked Company, there must be Lucked Company. There's already Fucked Weblog, but someone has yet to come up with Lucked Weblog. Why don't YOU start it? ;) Anyway, Lucked Company will show you that not all is doomed in the dotcom world. There's still a little light coming from a tiny candle after all. ♥

When I was an internet newbie, Bud Uggly was my design hero. His website never failed to crack me up. I participated in its design contest once, and this was my entry. Lovely, eh? ;) I was rather proud of it. Really. ♥

So I went to a record store at lunchtime today. I was looking for that CD again that I couldn't find there last week. I was just killing some time, okay? I didn't want to go back to my office right away after I had my lunch because, well, I just didn't feel like it. Anyway, I was the only customer in that record store. They probably thought I was going to steal something (do I look like a thief?) so they watched me really closely. I just pretended I didn't see them and kept on browsing the CDs and tapes while humming some silly tunes.

I couldn't find anything I liked but I bought a tape anyway even though my tape recorder is barely working. I felt kind of sorry for the people working at the record store and thought they'd be happy if I bought something from them. The cashier did smile at me when I paid for the tape so, well, at least I made one person smile today. That's good, I guess. I love making people smile. It's my one and only talent. ♥

Ev was nice enough to email me about the Blogger problem, so go visit Ev now! That is, if you haven't done so already. I don't think he needs the plug but what the heck. A plug is a plug. Everyone loves a plug. Hi Ev! :) ♥

If you ever wondered about what happens when type terminology meets classic and not-so-classic bumper sticker culture, the answer is Bumperstuck! My favourite? "Kiss me, I'm Italic." ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

Went to bed early
And I woke up too early
3am, no less.

Went back to bed at 4am but I couldn't go back to sleep. Instead, I felt depressed. I should've stayed online until 5am. Anyway, it looks like Blogger still hasn't made peace with my FTP server. I read somewhere that this problem is usually only temporary. But I also read a case where this problem lasted for a week then it disappeared but then it came back again. I hope it won't happen to me. Well, I'd like things to go back to normal but I don't want the problem to return. It's really driving me crazy. ♥

Whirly Wiry Web has a bunch of really neat DHTML and ActiveX scripts to enhance your web pages. I think this script might help to make Quack-O-Matic less annoying. Now if only someone would explain how it works to me in plain English so I could implement it, my life would be complete. ♥

I think these people would be really happy if I stopped writing my stupid daily haiku. They have my sympathy. Should I sign the pledge never to write another joke haiku, and never to participate in the promotion or propagation of joke haikus on the internet? But that would mean the death of Haiku the Blog! I don't think I could do that. Haiku the Blog is my favourite baby... ♥

I'm a really clumsy girl, but still it doesn't stop me from wanting to try these juggling tricks. I love juggling things, especially fruits. If I were a circus member, I'd be a juggler. The world's worst juggler, that is. I could never juggle more than 2 apples or oranges at once. ♥

If I keep on trying for an hour straight, I'm sure I'll get all these entries posted. Patience is the name of the game. Patience is what I'm lacking of. ♥

I am on The Big Picture, which is Andy's latest project, along with some other webloggers. I assume we are all sitting down on that picture because if we were standing I couldn't be as tall as Nikolai, unless I'm standing on at least three Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionaries since I'm at least one foot shorter than him. And my hair is not and has never been as long as that (it actually looks more like this). It's a lovely picture so it's nice to be included. Thanks, Andy! :) Just contact him if you want to be on The Big Picture.

Speaking of pictures, I'm beginning to like my sad picture. I'm sure I took this picture with my right hand but I don't know why it looks as if my right arm was down. It was taken without a flash light and the only light was coming from my computer screen. My brother thinks it's a great picture. I rendered it a bit with Photoshop. Not much. I just used the Paint Daubs (spelling?) filter on it and that was the result. In case you're wondering, that's a picture of two bunnies on my t-shirt. My mum bought me that t-shirt ages ago. I just love my old t-shirts :) ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

I am so sleepy
I wish I were still in bed
Instead of at work.

I couldn't sleep last night so I just watched TV until past midnight and then suddenly I felt depressed and I ended up crying myself to sleep. When I woke up, I felt beat and my eyes were all swollen and when I was having a shower, I felt sick and I threw up. All in all, it's been a lousy Monday morning. I really can't wait for this day to be over.

On a lighter note, one of my trainers at work pointed me to a job opportunity as an IT Assistant at the Unicef representative office that she saw on yesterday's newspaper and that I happened to miss. (Yes, Jordan. I've started looking for another job.) That was very sweet and thoughtful of her. I hope I'm qualified for the job so I could apply. ♥

Well, the re-redesign didn't go very well. All weekend I could only come up with this very lame trick. It's a static logo kind of thing. For some reasons, I like it. I know it's lame but I like it. I'm a fan of all things lame, mind you. Even I am lame. I drew the picture myself with a pencil on a piece of paper when I was supposed to be working last Friday (except for the octopus and the sunflower, which are actually dingbat characters). I'm rather proud of the result. I guess I'm not as hopeless as I think I am when it comes to drawing. ♥

I love the Colour Schemer. If you like colours and and you like making colourful web pages, you're going to love it too. ♥

I think I'll just redesign now rather than blogging. I spoke too soon. Blogger and my FTP server are not making any progress at all. I was just lucky that one time. Sigh. ♥

The below post were posted after less than half a dozen attempts. I think we're making some progress here.

Blogger must be having problems communicating with my FTP server because I can connect to my FTP manually just fine. Could it be because Blogger doesn't understand Indonesian language? ;) ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

I don't feel like it
But I'll do it anyway
Posting a haiku.

I'm not sure this post will get through, but I think I'll just press my luck. I succeeded in posting the below post after following these instructions written by pb (thank you, pb). If you have FTP problems with Blogger, you'd better check it first before pestering anyone. I just read some questions posted in Blogger Discuss, and while I found some of the questions amusing, I don't think I'd be amused if I had to respond to them. ♥

Just in case this post will get through, I've been having problems posting with Blogger. It will only post once in, like, 100 attempts to post. I have no problem with my FTP server. I can connect to it all right with WS-FTP. But everytime I try to post with Blogger, I get the following errors:

ERROR: Error reading from the control connection! Not connected to any FTP server. ERROR: You are not connected to FTP Server, unable to send file! Not connected to any FTP server. ERROR: You are not connected to FTP Server, unable to send file! You are not connected to any FTP server.

I've never changed my FTP settings in Blogger so I have no idea why it suddenly happens. There will be no more updates until Blogger and my FTP server become friends again. If they still can't be friends, I think I'm going to have to switch to Greymatter. I would hate to do that because I really, really love Blogger, but there seems to be no other way. I just want to blog and post my bloggage real-time. Is that too much too ask? Anyway, if you happen to know how to work around those errors, please let me know. ♥

According to The Heartless Bitch Personality Filter, I'm a heartless bitch, but I already knew it. Yeah, sure, tell me something I don't know. ♥

Dammit Blogger, post this! Please? ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

Another haiku
That should not have ben written
Aren't you sick of it?

Sorry for not posting much yesterday. I was trying to find some inspirations for the re-redesign, but of course, I couldn't come up with anything worth working on. I was going to make a design based on this picture, but then decided that I looked too sad in it. It just wouldn't work because Weblog Wannabe is all about happiness, baby!

Speaking of that picture, I should be the one who took it because I did all the shots in that particular roll of film last month, but the weird thing is both my arms seem to be down. Spooky, huh? Some ghost with nothing better to do must've taken that picture. ♥

You can view some beautiful photographs from Java (the island where I live) and Bali as well as from some other places in Southeast Asia at SEAEK. I miss travelling. ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

Don't feel like posting
Or doing anything else
But I think I'll post.

I'm on the highest level of my slacking mode. I haven't done anything this morning, except for drawing a new random firda that looks kind of weird. Yup, I'm going to re-redesign this weekend. I really can't stand the pink. Besides, the code doesn't seem to work anywhere other than in IE 5.x. That pretty much sucks. I suck.

On a totally unrelated note, I think everyone looks beautiful when they smile. ♥

Ever wondered what may have caused Mozart's death? Neither have I, but it's an interesting read nonetheless. I like classical music, but I'm not really that big into Mozart. I much prefer Bach. His "Brandenburg Concertos" are brilliant. Now that I think of it, I don't think I could die like Mozart. What a shame. ♥

I was searching for Indonesian online music store when I came across this. The promotional line really cracked me up:

"Free shipping for order more than $60 and receive free beef dendeng for order more than $100."

Beef dendeng? As a bonus? Dendeng is beef sliced thinly, flattened with a stone, and then fried, usually eaten with chilli sauce. I just don't think anyone would want to buy more CDs from them just to get some free beef dendeng. ♥

When I'm bored, I take some silly quizzes. Today I took the Music Personality Quiz and found that the music that suits me best is Rock/Pop:

"Get into the groove! You tend to be upbeat, so your music should be too. You love to dance and feel the beat. You've probably been known to sing in the car and bop around in your seat. There's no doubt rock 'n' roll revolutionized music, so be proud to be a part of the pop culture."

Then I took the Friendship Style Quiz and found that I'm 40% Lone Wolf:

"You're an independent, intelligent free thinker who cherishes her individuality as well as her friendships -- people love being friends with you because you inspire them to self-reflection and self-improvement. Your friends may not see you every day, but they know you support them and care about them, and you share your knowledge and your gifts freely when asked."

The results of both quizzes sound like me all right, which is nice for a change. Well, I don't dance but I sing just about anywhere. I just love to sing. And I don't see my friends every day but I'm sure they know that I support them and care about them. If they don't know, they should :) ♥

What's on Dubya's mind today? Just in case you're curious. ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

It's foggy and grey
But it's hot instead of cold
Out there, not in here.

My sad office corner is freezing cold, as always. And I'm sleepy, as always. I hate changes, but experiencing the same old things every day is getting kind of old. I desperately need some changes. Would you do something for a change today, like emailing me or leaving me a voicemail? That would really make my day. Speaking of emails, I got two non-spam emails when I checked my inbox this morning. One is from Russ who wrote the nicest email I've ever got in months, and the other is from Ed of the Blog You! fame who wrote to let me know that Blog You! is not on hiatus. Yay! Let's celebrate! ;) ♥

I've made a few changes here and there which should be resulting in this page looking better in Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x than before. I don't know for sure since I don't use any of those browsers at home. If you happen to use any of them and this page does look nicer, please let me know by jumping with joy and say yay. Thank you. ♥

Turn any word into music with Muse-O-Matic. Here's the music it made out of my name in A algorithm and B algorithm. Beautiful, isn't it? ;) Not that I could listen to it. For some reasons, my computer won't play MIDI files. But I just know it's beautiful. I'm psychic that way *grins* ♥

The Non-Verbal Dictionary is a dictionary of gestures, signs, and body language cues. It covers the meaning of everything from Adam's apple jump through to zygomatic smile. Zygomatic smile? ♥

The Japanese come up with the most original products. Time Can Cup Noodle is one. It's kind of like an edible time-capsule. The only question is, who on earth would wait as long as 10 years just to eat some instant noodles that you buy today? ♥

I took the Famous Musician/Celebrity Twin Quiz and guess who my celebrity twin is? Madonna! How disturbing. I'm so not Madonna. Hmm, maybe if I retake the quiz, I would get another twin that is more like me. ♥

How Panic-Proof Are You? I scored less than 50 (49, actually), which means I'm likely to panic in an emergency. Heh. Tell me something I don't know. I'm good under pressure, though. And now the song "Under Pressure" by Queen is playing inside my head. Blech. ♥

I just want to thank my guest bloggers for having been in the Team Wannabe for two weeks. Thank you, boys! Yup, I've removed all of you 'cause your time was up. Besides, you've already got your sites back up. Go visit him, him, him, and him, and feel good about yourself! Or something. ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

I'm feeling better
I have been laughing a lot
Thanks to the ghost here.

It's not a secret that my office is haunted. There have been some staff here who have had the pleasure of meeting the ghost. But last weekend, it was the boss who saw the ghost, so during a staff meeting yesterday, they were discussing how to get rid of the ghost. We found it hilariously funny so we've been talking and laughing about it all morning. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes. We believe in ghosts, mind you. We just do. It's part of being Indonesian, I guess. But we're not really all that afraid of them. So there are ghosts, so what? But the boss, who is American, is kind of freaked out. I'd be interested to know what's going to happen next :) ♥

AutoAntonyms prove that English is indeed a confusing language. ♥

If you like chicken, you'll like Random Chicken. What better way to kill the time at work than by refreshing the random chicken page for a picture of a random chicken? Believe it or not, I'm afraid of chickens, especially hens. Hens are the meanest creature in the world. Well, after swans and turkeys anyway. Ducks are of course the best. I am one :) ♥

I am so sad, I spent about 15 minutes pulling out some guy's nasal hair. It's quite addictive, really. And therapeutic too. Just try it. It's perfect for a slow Tuesday morning. ♥

Has any of you ever lost your template to Blogger which left you with a generic Blogger template? I'm experiencing it right now and I don't know how to get it back. Weird Blogger. First it's my archives went MIA, now it's my template. What to do, what to do... Update: Looks like I'm not the only one with the template problem, but there's no tips or hints or anything on how to troubleshoot the problem. Sigh. I wonder if Ev is aware of this problem. I like Ev's new design, by the way. It looks nicer than mine. ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

Still Friday morning
Many more hours to go
Before going home.

I'm not feeling very well today. I so wish I were still home, sleeping in my warm bed, instead of here in my cold, office corner. Anyway, thanks to Andy, Michel, John, and Wari for the screen shots. This design looks the way it's intended to be in Netscape 4.x and IE 4.x (read: ugly). I don't feel the need to add the sorry-your-browser-sucks-go-download-the-latest-one kind of thing to this design because I'm sure if you could download the latest browser, you would've done it a long time ago. I use IE 4.x at work, mind you, and I can't change it because the policy here is you may not install any unauthorised software to your computer. I've been trying to get the power-that-be to upgrade the browser but to no avail, so I'm stuck with this crappy one. I don't know about you, but I don't mind a web page looking ugly as long as it's readable.

Still, as a contribution to the whole Browser Upgrade Campaign, I'm offering to send a CD-ROM with the latest browsers in it (IE 5.5 and Netscape 6) to anyone who can't afford to download them due to their slow internet connection, provided they're willing to pass it on to the next person who needs it. If you're interested, email me to let me know and I'll give you the details. So, any Netscape 6 and IE 6 Beta screenshots of this page you can give me? ;) ♥

Would you do me a favour? It's not really a big favour. I was just wondering if you could make me a screenshot of this page in any browser other than IE5.5 for PC. Mind you, I only tested this design in IE5.5 (for PC) since my computer is running out of space as it is and can't accommodate any more software, let alone another browser. I'd really, really appreciate your help. ♥

If you enjoy word play or are just easily amused like me, you're going to like mockok.com, which is a site dedicated to sharing and archiving palindromes. Some of the palindromic sentences/phrases don't really make sense to me, but still they're amusing. Try to make sense of this one if you can: "O gol', Sal, U-card sees Dracula's logo!" Tough, huh? But hey, it's palindromic! ♥

If you wish to read some journals written by some death row inmates, Death Row Speaks is the place to go. One of the inmates, David Paul Hammer, was incarcerated for 23 years, during which he obtained a GED and 3 Associates' Degrees in the areas of criminal justice, psychology and paralegal studies. Wow. And to think that the man was there to die... ♥

Those of you living in the northern hemisphere and currently enjoying a hot, summer days might want to create your own ice cream cone or sundae for free or send one to a friend. Or not. I know it's silly but, hey, if it's silly, it's blogworthy! ♥

Since Emlyn won't give it a plug himself, I'll give EgoLevel a plug. It's a new metablog, folks. There aren't so many metablogs being born every day, if any, so let's give EgoLevel a cheer! Cheers!

I won't complain about the design because, well, it's okayish even though it's grey. I just thought that Emlyn might want to blog about more recent topics instead of those that everyone has forgotten about. You know, topics like Kottke's X10 gag, which, by the way, is one of the worst gags I've ever seen coming from him. ♥

Now that Friends of Jezebel Mirror has become the database-driven Mirror Project, you can find my mirror photos much easily. Very cool! Now if only I could edit my entries and change my url, my life would be complete. Update: Heather has changed the url. Yay! My life is now complete :) Thanks, Heather! ♥

And then we called Firda puts a face into the voices. Oh yeah, I was there all week in spirit indeed :) Check out the rest of The Brad's SxSW 2001 Scrapbook if you feel so inclined. Come for the pictures, stay for the witty commentaries! ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

Toothache and headache
Combined to make my life hell
This Monday morning.

But at least it gave me a reason to call in sick. Yup, I'm home today even though it's Monday and it's not a holiday. Sorry for not posting much this weekend but I'm redesigning. It's 75% ready. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in a couple of hours. No sneak peek. All I can tell you is that it's pink. Yeah. I hate pink. I didn't plan it to be pink, but it just ended up that way... ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

Feeling reflective,
Jordan spews forth sentiment.
Quietly listen.

Being without a blog for awhile, and then being able to post to mine, has led me to a few conclusions. First, I really enjoy blogging. I regret being such an absentee blogger these past weeks as a wannabe. Second, there's a whole lot of stuff out there. Bits between bits. Two-hundreds between Four-oh-fours, so to speak. A lot of it is good. Damn good. Yeah, that includes Wannabe and Fairvue and the other blogs on my big sidebar. But that sidebar needs to be gutted, revamped. And it will. On a slow day at peak hours, a dozen posts or more are made on blogger every minute. Just blogger. And while some (myself included) often forget it, blogger isn't the whole or even the half of the weblog community. Some of this comes to light to me as I find that I, myself, may not be using blogger for much longer. I'll miss it, yeah, and I'll still support it, fervently as ever (I'm wearing my newly-arrived blogger t-shirt right now). But Ev's a big boy -- he'll make it. And much like blogger, webloggerville has grown up. It's webloggeropolis now, to put it lightly. Every kind of social interaction possible goes on here. A million souls live here. A billion memes, a trillion links. Reason? Yeah, sure, it's around here somewhere, but don't bother -- it got scared into hiding a long time ago.

Alright, I'll make a point here somehow, I promise. First, I found Firda, or Firda found bloggerville, because I felt high and mighty at the time because I was known. Well known, perhaps, to a certain slice of the then-small blogging populous. I felt high and mighty, and I said to myself, I was there once, I know what it feels like to be a newbie. So I gave her some advice, and made a friend. Today, Firda is the best blogger I know. Period. Furthermore, a juxtaposition (vocab word, there) has taken place. Now Firda is well known to a proportionate slice of the now-huge populous. And good for her -- if anybody deserves it, she does. In contrast, I've got a zombie of a blog that's more or less unread anymore. There's no blame to lay -- I got distracted, so what? All the better, perhaps. I'm glad for all that's happened and is yet to happen. Some day, perhaps, I'll gain notoriety again. Regardless, though, I'm happy. And maybe I've made others happy, too. And after all, what else counts?

Second, I think you should all know that, as I said in QoM, I'm on the verge of explosion, creatively speaking. This could mean one of two things: Either I'll start a dozen projects and finish none of them, or I'll start one big huge project, finish it mostly, and make a contribution of some sort to my fellow souls. The former is most likely, but the latter, obviously, is most ideal. I've already got something in mind for the latter. And I'm an optimist, so we'll see. Just bear with me, and hey, if I show up in your Inbox begging for your support, inspiration, and influence, lend me your ears, for a moment or two at least.

Third, when I said before that my sidebar needed to be gutted, I meant it. This whole post (essay, rant, lecture, whatever) was supposed to be about how while I've been blogless, I've been doing a lot more idle and random blogsurfing. I've been spending a lot of time on Blogger.com's recently updated list, just clicking on any blog whose name doesn't seem too trite. I've hit on a lot of duds, but I've also been startled at some of the gems I've found. I mentioned Firda before. She was once an unknown, just as I once was and am again now, and just as you perhaps once were or are today. Being an unknown isn't the worst thing in the world. But being listened to is much better. I'm going to try to listen. As my parents once told me when I was a hardwired introvert, I "need to get out more." This time, though, I need to get out of the cycle, off the path I've beaten to death. Out of that damn cobwebbed sidebar. I need to listen to the people who aren't necessarily listened to enough, or even just the people I've never cared to listen to before. Unknown doesn't mean uncompelling, that's for sure. So compel me, and I'll do my best to let the world know that you're worth listening to, just as I hope you think I am. So e-mail me, tell me your URL, or just tell me your story, and I promise I'll read.

With love,
Jordan Running ♥

Get a Taxi Driver Name! Mine is Fer�uhast� Cleaver. Thank God I'm not a taxi driver in America. I wouldn't know how to pronounce my own first name if I were one. ♥

I visited kottke.org twice this morning, and everytime I did, I got the annoying X10 pop-up ad. I viewed the source code, and found that the code for the pop-up was there. Then I wondered if Jason really endorsed it. So I went to the X10 website to find how the X10 ad was done and if it only popped up where it was endorsed, and the answer was yes. I just can't believe Jason Kottke, of all people in the WWW, would endorse such an annoying thing as the X10 pop-up! Tell me it ain't so! ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

Every Saturday
I wish to sleep in, but still
I wake up early.

Once a morning person is a morning person, I guess. About half an hour ago I can still see the white, silvery moon up there in the sky but now it's disappeared. Either the clouds are blocking it from my view or the sunlight has overpowered the moon's glow. It's a cloudy morning. I hope it will rain again soon. ♥

You might not know this, but I actually have a blog brother (brother in blog?). His name is Mike. He's a lawyer, and he has a lovely new design! Wooo! Love it, Mike! :) Is that a picture from Ireland on top of the page? ♥

Tired of the old, grey monitor and peripherals made of plastic? Try the wooden ones. It's a beauty. But of course it will also cost you some extra fortune. C'est la vie. Speaking of "c'est la vie", I like that "C'est La Vie" song in Fairvue's "Latest Listens". It's in the right sidebar, in case you've never been there. And make sure you have RealPlayer installed. ♥

The Unofficial Apple Ads Page has a bunch of Apple computer ads from 1998 to 2001 for your enjoyment. I've never seen any Apple ad (we only get IBM ads here, don't know why) but I think I would've liked the Think Different ad from 1998, if only for the narration:

"Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

I think it's quite inspirational. The copywriter must be a genius. ♥

If you want to be like Tony Soprano from the Sopranos, A Day in the Life of Tony Soprano might be able to help you reach your goal. It has a schedule of a typical Tony Soprano's day with pictures. Kinda like the "Day in the Life of A Weblogger" photo project you did last year, only the object's not as good-looking as you ;) ♥

If you like watching the Looney Tunes, you might want to check out the Hidden Looney Tunes Gags. This site features some hidden bits of humour from various Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodie cartoons that you may have never noticed before. ♥

To learn more about me, er, I mean, about the way of the duck (duckism?), go to the Reading Room at the Center for Duck Studies. Be sure to read the k-rad v3rsion of the Introduction to the Way of the Duck. The plain English version is not half as interesting. ♥

Friday Morning Haiku

I want my weekend
Desperately need my weekend
I want to go home.

I'm so sleepy I can't stop yawning. I was staying up late but I can't remember what I did last night. I sat in front of my computer, yes. But what did I do? Oh yeah, blogging. My memory is beginning to fail me. And I'm only 28! Anyway, I had a weird dream last night. It has something to do with computer and the internet but I can't remember the details. Oh well. Maybe I will later. ♥

If you enjoy reading Blog You³, which I think is currently on hiatus, you probably wouldn't like reading The Weblog Review. The reviewer seems to be able to see at least one good thing in even the crappiest of blog. Being the evil girl that I am, I found it somewhat disturbing.

Update: I got reviewed! Woohoo!!! (No, I didn't ask for it.) ♥

MindGuard is a personal anti-psychotronic software for Amiga and Linux that protects your mind from psychotronic mind-control signals and removes harmful engrammic pollutants from your brain. It's also hilarious. ♥

Strunkenwhite Virus is a computer virus that causes e-mail messages that have grammatical or spelling errors to bounce back to sender. Ok, so it's only a satire, but still it would be interesting if such virus really existed because not only is it constructive in nature, it also prevents us from having to deal with bad spellers. ♥

If you want to learn something new during the long vacation, you can try to learn How To Make Trouble And Influence People. It's specially useful for those of you who aspire to be an activist. Any kind of activist. I aspire to be an ubergeek so it's not really the thing for me. ♥

Thursday Morning (for me, anyway) Haiku

Mulciber survives
Rocking Poetsmurf's face off
REM applauds.

Gawd, this feels good. Digital Catharsis is my startup page, and during the entire absence of Mulciber I felt this emptiness whenever I started up Explorer. Now I get the familiar digital catharsis screen again. Don't get me wrong...he's not available to the world--not yet. But he serves pages and pulls the correct stuff out of the database and it's all good. I'm still working on getting e-mail up and there's no FTP access (nor will there be until I can find a way to encrypt it), but at least he has a heartbeat again. I'm quite pleased with myself. ♥

I'm sorry I haven't posted more, but I've been busy getting my own server back up. It got here on monday, and since then I've been either sleeping, eating, or working on getting everything installed again. Bind 9 rocks my face off. Qmail can bite me. Mysql is my little princess. SSH is my new bodyguard. Apache and I will soon do battle once again.

Mulciber shall return. ♥

I hope Jon P. has recovered from thinking that I'd been abducted by aliens or imprisoned by the regime after finding my site missing :) It's good to see that some of my readers have found me again even though I still haven't got around to sending the notification email. Do you think I should set up a mailing list so I could notify you should my site go MIA again? ♥

Computer userus around the world can now submit their photo in their native environment (read: in front of a computer) to Waferbaby's Head Project. I think it's kind of interesting to see. If I could scan one of mine, I would submit it to the project. Unfortunately, my scanner (well, work scanner anyway) is playing up and won't scan anything thicker than a regular sheet of paper so no computerus userus wannabeus photus for you. Sorry! ♥

I keep on getting hits from Nibelung in my referrer stats but only this morning I got around to checking it out. Apparently, Nibelung is a site that enables you to create an "individual webring" or a list of links to sites that you visit regularly. Go see the master list of rings to see what I mean 'cause I really suck at describing things. I still haven't found the ring that lists my weblog, but then again, I've only checked a few of them. Gotcha! :) ♥

If you can't play BlogIRCO!, which is a combination of BlogIRC and Bingo! (I wonder if "Firda is mentioned" box will ever be/has ever been ticked), because you live in the wrong time zone and you have work to do, you can still play Business Buzzword Bingo! during staff meetings. Just print out some game boards, give one to each of your colleagues who are attending the meeting as well, and start playing as soon as the first person open his/her mouth and starts blabbing about nothing. It should be able to make any staff meeting a little less boring. ♥

Would you be an angel and call my toll-free voicemail number at 1 877 651 1555 (USA & Canada) ext. SHEWANNABE (or 7439266223)? I'm just curious if the number works at all. You don't have to say anything (unless you want to). Just dial the number and my extension, and if it works, let me know about about it in the little comment thingy. Please, pretty, please with sugar on top? :) [Pssst, it works! *hint, hint!*] ♥

Actual note from Blogger: "This server will be briefly interrupted in 3 minutes. Save your post!!!!"

Cute. ♥

Thursday Morning Haiku

I am feeling fine
I hope I'll feel this way for
The rest of the day.

It's easy for me to tell that I'm feeling fine. When I look in the mirror and think I look cute, that means I'm feeling fine. Other people always seems to think that I'm feeling fine all the time. I wonder if they always think that I look cute all the time as well. Hmm. That one I'd be curious to know ;) And in case you didn't notice, another sign of my good mood is, of course, vanity. When I'm being vain, you can be sure that I'm feeling okay. I don't think vanity is a really bad thing because if you can't appreciate yourself, who would? ♥

Do you have a cat? Learn to dance with it at Dancing With Cats. It should be more fun than dancing alone or dancing with your pillow or stuffed animal. Yeah, I do that sometimes. But if I had a cat, I'd rather dance with it. Too bad there's no website about dancing with fish. I have four beautiful goldfish. One of them (I think it's Jordan) likes to swim backstroke. Fish are funny. ♥

Sign Language has 27 galleries of original photos of humorous, bizarre, and confusing signs from around the world. Make sure you have some time to spare to browse them all. It's worth the time. You'll laugh. I did. Some of the signs might be from your neighbourhood! ♥

Do you have a well-designed blog? If you do, you might want to submit it to The Best Blogs, which is a weblog design resource (well, sort of). You can also submit other people's blog designs if you want. No, you may not submit mine. Not that anyone would submit this crappy design anywhere. Ok, so it's not crappy. It's just unoriginal, which is only one step away from crappy. What can I say, all the original ideas are already taken! ♥

I was wondering about how many years was one year in internet time so I did a search on Google and came across New Earth Time or NET. I did the following calculation based on the NET standard:

1 NET minute = 4 seconds
1 NET hour = 4 minutes
1 NET day = 96 minutes
1 NET year = 35,040 minutes = 584 hours = ca. 24 days
1 year = ca. 15 NET years

And now my head hurts. I must've done it all wrong. ♥

Hmm, I just realised that I know the (real) middle name of all my guest bloggers but Matt. I like knowing people's middle name, mainly because I don't have one myself. ♥

I just finished compiling a bunch of email addresses of people who still link to Weblog Wannabe's old address as well as those who once recognised my existence for at least a couple of seconds. Yup, I'm going to do what some of you have been telling me to do: sending a mass notification email about the move. I hope they won't think I'm spamming. I still have yet to compose the email. And no, I'm not going to send the email to any of my guest bloggers even though none of them has adjusted the url to the new one *hint, hint!* ♥

Wednesday Morning Haiku

I really don't know
Why I keep on writing this
Bad daily haiku.

I need an honest answer. If I stopped writing the daily haiku, you would:

(a) be happy.
(b) be sad.
(c) not care.

Please post your answer on the little comment thingy. Thank you. ♥

"I love you" in Morse code is: .. -..-. .-.. --- ...- . -..-. -.-- --- ..- Fun, eh? ;) You can get any phrase translated into Morse with the Morse Code Translator. It's yet another entertainment for the easily amused. ♥

Yay, TheBrad is back! With a spiffy new design! And it uses tables! Long live tables! Tables are still trendy after all. *sigh contentedly* ♥

Pick your blood type and learn more about your personality. I know it's stupid, but what's Weblog Wannabe without links to stupid websites? ;) My blood type is O, by the way, which makes me good at crime. Heh. What's yours? ♥

Have you ever heard of Alien Hand Syndrome? To put it simply, it's when your secondary personality takes control of your body, assuming that everyone has at least two personalities. The more you read about it, the creepier it gets. ♥

Regular ironing is so last century. Extreme ironing, which is a combination of extreme sports and ironing, is the way to go. Be sure to check out the galleries, especially the London gallery. It's hilarious. But then again, I've always had a thing for London. ♥

There's no nudity in these Tales of the Bra. Not even a picture of breasts. Just some amused people, including those who are supposed to be celebrities, holding *the* bra. The silliness and uselessness make this site blogworthy. At least here in my blog, the home of useless hypertext products, so unlike Kottke.org. ♥

Hey, it looks like you can download R.E.M.'s "Imitation of Life" for free from Amazon.com in Liquid Audio format. That's cool. It's a really nice and catchy song. If you have any idea how to play sound files in Liquid Audio format (which I obviously don't) and you haven't listened to this song yet, I highly recommend downloading it. ♥

I'm obsessing over my new Stats4All statistics (even though I've already got a Webalizer one). I can't stop refreshing it. So far I've got 4 hits from 2 visitors. One of the visitors is obviously me and I'm responsible for the 3 out of the 4 hits I've got. I know, I'm pathetic. ♥

I wonder who did the copywriting for the Blogger Store. The descriptions are hilarious. But maybe it's just me who is so easily amused. ♥

Note to self: Don't forget to move Metafirda, I Remember, Babes, Wannabe Fairvue, and some designs to this domain sometime this week. ♥

Tuesday Morning Haiku

Sad as it may sound
My online days are numbered
Say hi while you can!

'Cause I might not be around anymore after August. I've said goodbye to some online friends before, which was really sad and depressing, but I've never been the one to leave. It was always them losing their internet access, mostly after graduating from universities. But this time, it's going to be the other way around. I think it's going to be a lot worse. I might end up crying for days. But hey, it's still three months from now. Anything could happen in 3-month time. I could win the lottery (though I've never bought one) and have enough money to be online for the rest of my life. Who knows. Miracle happens. But right now you can find me at the infamous (?) Quack-O-Matic. Feel free to drop by and say hi! ♥

You know what? I think I still enjoy blogging :) ♥

StickerNation is a really cool site where you can send in your sticker designs or download some for free. It's heaven if you have a good colour printer and some sticker paper. Anyway, I found this site from Newfinds, which is a site where you can post urls that you find interesting, that I found via Joe, an extraordinary design link finder. Visit them all! ♥

When I'm bored, I sing. The song? "Lose Your Way", originally sung by Sophie B. Hawkins. I like that song. Been listening to it a lot lately. It soothes me. Mind you, I'm a romantic at heart. Just shoot me. ♥

Don't ask me about the redesign, 'kay? If I could make this design look good in Netscape 4.7, I think I would have nothing to complain. Unfortunately, I have no Netscape 4.7 installed on my computer so I have no way to fix it. If any of you would fix it for me, I would be forever in your debt and I would thank God for having created such a wonderful creature that you are. Fair enough? ;) ♥

If your car is making some strange noises, use Cyberwrench Sound Diagnostic to find the culprit. If you don't have a car, just use it to make some funny music. I kind of like the sound of loose valve :) ♥

If you'd like software companies to release older versions of their software as freeware, sign the AbandonWare Petition. Being a forever broke owner of an old computer with smallish hard disk capacity, I decided to sign the petition. ♥

Usability.gov? Wow. Is there anything at all that the American government haven't thought about? ♥

I'm not a violent person by nature, but there are times I wish I could sit between my cable modem and my home linux box with a shotgun. Or at least some Gibsonian black ICE. I actively encourage the hacker mindset of "Here's a problem, and here's how I can get around the problem in a new and creative way." What I severely dislike about computer culture (and about the whole human race in general) is that need people seem to feel to leave their mark on other people's stuff. World, if you want an account on one of my boxes, E-MAIL ME AND ASK ME! Is that so hard to do? ♥

I need a new hobby but I can't think of anything interesting. I want something fun and rewarding, like weblogging used to be. Any suggestion?

Also, I was wondering if anyone knows how to recover the Blogger archives. I lost a year worth of archives and I can't seem to get it back, no matter what I do. If you know of any undocumented way to recover it, please do let me know. I'd be forever grateful.

When I quit blogging, I want at least my archives to be complete just so that you'll have something to remember me by. I don't want to be forgotten. But I can't blame you if you forget about me anyway. I shouldn't have thought that I was special in the first place. ♥

I was just thinking up a really cool domain name: www.ba.ca. "Baca" is Indonesian for "read". But of course, that domain is already taken. By a company, no less. I think I'd feel better if it were taken by a person. Why? Because firda.com/.net/.org and beka.com/.net/.org are taken by companies, that's why. Silly reason, I know. But then again, I'm a silly girl. ♥

Ford is suing 2600 over a domain name that 2600 bought and linked to Ford as a joke. You know...if you don't like GM, buy a Ford. Funny, right? Ford didn't think so, and decided to sue without even bothering to contact 2600 and ask them to take the link down. I'm not much of a GM fan myself, but I think I will never buy a Ford now. ♥

I wrote a really depressing entry last night which I really regretted... no scratch that, was really embarrassed of and that I really wished I hadn't posted. But guess what? A miracle happened. This morning I found that Blogger didn't post that entry to my blog, so I simply deleted it. I'm so glad that no one but me ever read the silly post. I just love it when Blogger's screwing up at the right time :) ♥

In case you're wondering about the redesign, it's still in progress. It's not as simple as I thought it would be. And I just plain suck at creating graphic images. Why do you think this design is non-graphical? ;) But I hope the new design will be up tonight. Just wish me luck! I need a lot of it. ♥

Monday Morning Haiku

Call me stupid, but
I believe in miracle
I'm waiting for one.

Sometimes a miracle is just someone doing an unexpected thing that you've been looking forward to for like forever at an unexpected time. Simple as that. I was feeling a bit better when I woke up this morning, but then I found that my mother was ill, and now I'm feeling crappy again. Sigh. I often wonder why good things always happen to anyone but me.

Anyway, I need you to do me a little favour. Will you blog about my move? You don't need to elaborate, just say that I've moved to a new address so that my readers who found about my weblog from yours can find my new address without too much fuss. I know some of you would blog it if it was a major A-Lister who moved. Why not do it for me? Thanks muchly to all those who already did (including those who have adjusted their sidebar link to point to the new address), and thanks in advance to those who would do me the favour. Just know that you'll make my day by doing so :) ♥

Since all my guest bloggers seem to have disappeared from the face of the WWW and I need to redesign, there'll be no update here until tomorrow, unless I feel like blogging tonight or any of my guest bloggers suddenly feels like posting something here. As I always say, miracle happens. ♥

Earlier this morning, I was feeling really crappy, so I did one thing that never failed to cheer me up: listening to old voicemails. It's just so good to hear the somewhat familiar voices of Nikolai, Matt K., Bryan, Harlan, Jason, and Matt H. That's the reason I felt so lost when my voicemail number stopped functioning. Sure I don't get a voicemail every day, but when I do, it always makes my day. I love surprises. I just don't get enough surprises in life, except for those from our silly president who likes to make all sorts of stupid decisions to surprise his people, but that's another story altogether. ♥

Sunday Morning Haiku

One lazy Sunday
Listening to R.E.M.
Singing about life.

"Imitation of Life", that is. Funny that I used to mistake the title for "Jubilation of Life" which I must admit sounds much nicer than "Imitation of Life". Anyway, I like the song a lot. It's by far the only song from the "Reveal" album that I like. But then again, I've always programmed my CD player to only play "Imitation of Life" over and over again. The other songs in the CD just have to wait until I get tired of that one song and start listening to the rest of the CD. Yeah, I'm weird like that. ♥

I've come to a realisation that nobody reads this thing anymore. Not even my friends. How sad is that? ♥

If you're looking for some desktop wallpapers, Caedes has some pretty interesting ones. My current desktop wallpaper is this. I have a thing for VW Beetle. Now you know what to get me if you want to buy me a car ;) ♥

I always knew that traffic cones were evil. Just read the traffic cones' World Domination Plans. Why do you think they always present at unfortunate scenes like roadworks and accidents if not to show us their evil power? ♥

Now you can get your tea leaves reading without the cup of tea. I really have no idea what my tea leaves reading means. It said, "The atoms you are made of, were formed by an exploding star and will exist into the infinite future. Trust that perhaps your atoms are more purposeful than your fear driven ego, worried about losing the war with your own shadow." Can anyone tell me what that means in plain English? ♥

So I went to the mall today with my brother and his wife. I treated them steak and ice-cream for no reason. We ate ice-cream while watching people playing and dancing at the ice-skating rink (yeah, we actually have ice-skating rinks here), which was a lot more fun and relaxing than watching people playing Dance Dance Revolution at Timezone like we usually did when we went to that particular mall. I knew I shouldn't have had a shopping spree since I haven't paid any of my bills but I did anyway and I ended up buying 7 CDs and a stuffed Snoopy and Woodstock. I just love Snoopy. All in all, I had a good time and now I'm dead beat. I'll post more later if I don't fall asleep. ♥

By the way, I just adjusted the colours in the colour schemes into web-safe colours so you may want to set your colour preference all over again. I've also added the useless but trendy IE5.5+ customised scrollbar thingy that will match whichever colour you choose, for the lack of better things to do. Enjoy. ♥

Saturday Morning Haiku

I can't believe that
It is only Saturday
Such a long weekend.

It's only Saturday morning, a little past 6am, and I still have two more days to go. Ack! It reminds me so much of my university days where I always looked forward to the long, three-month holiday throughout the year only to get all bored and depressed when the holiday was actually there. I had always been one happy cookie on the day I went back to uni after a long break because that meant seeing my crush again (who was always so happy to see me; I miss him a lot), seeing my friends again, eating unhealthy, student food everyday again, attending some silly classes again, taking a walk in the woods again, and many other fun things that only my university could provide. University life is fun. University students of the world, I'm green with envy! ♥

Those damn X10 pop-up ads are freakin' everywhere. If you're as sick as I am of them, you can click here to opt out. For 30 days, at least. ♥

Disgruntled Firday Afternoon Haiku

Summer has begun
Haven't quite realized it yet
Mom driving me nuts

I've been home one day
And she's already started
With the job lecture

I do want a job
But the more she pesters me
Less likely it gets

I'm going to call
"Mr. Computers" today
And ask for a job

It's not the best job
But it's better than Wal-Mart
Gets mom off my back

If that option fails
I'll have to piss my mom off
And do things my way

Find some eager clients
Send out letters and flyers
Do real web design

My mom won't like it
And though she doesn't know it
It's my life, not hers.

An epic haiku, for your enjoyment. My mom really is driving me nuts. Really, if you need any design work done, please let me know. It'll be damn affordable and damn spiffy. ♥

This month is the first month of my fifth year online. The first thing I did as soon as I got online four years ago was signing up for a free web based email. The second thing was signing up for a free homepage account at Geocities (though my first real homepage was located at Angelfire). The third thing was learning HTML. For once, I did the right thing in the right order at the right time :)

So, how long have you been online? ♥

I just found that my hosting package does come with a built-in Webalizer Statistics. That really made my day. I also found that most of my visitors use IE5.5, which is good, because this design looks crappy (read: unreadable) in Nestcape 4.7. But I promise to make it up to Netscape 4.7 users with my next design. Just hang in there, Netscape 4.7 users (you know who you are)! :) ♥

Kid suspended for mock gunplay, for the second time. The first time, he only pointed his finger at someone and said "bang". The second time around, he pointed a breaded chicken finger at a classmate and said "bang". Both resulting in him getting suspended. Only in Canada? ♥

How Much Is Inside? reveals the long-hidden truths of how much really is inside things from batteries and Doritos through to toothpaste and EZ Cheese. Some people just have too much time on their hands. ♥

Check out a bunch of words, phrases, and logos copyrighted by McDonald's (scroll down to the part about "Trademark Information"). Among the phrases that they copyrighted are Have You Had Your Break Today?, Hey, It Could Happen!, Made For You, What�s On Your Place, and You Deserve a Break Today. I couldn't help making a mental note to use those phrases as often as possible. ♥

Defunct Amusement Parks Home Page is a website dedicated to -- you guessed it -- defunct amusement parks. Pretty obvious, huh? My only question is why? It's not like you can take the rides there since the parks are already defunct. But still if I lived in America, I'd be curious to know if any of these defunct amusement parks is near where I live or if the defunct amusement park near where I live is listed there. Yes, I am that much of a curious person. I'm even curious about whether any of these defunct amusement parks is near where you live or if the defunct amusement park near where you live is listed there. I know. I should learn to mind my own business. ♥

Get some British politicians (Ann Widdecombe, Tony Blair, and William Hague) to dance to the background, lighting, and music of your choice in MTV UK's Stereo MPs. It's entertainment for the easily amused. ♥

Well, I'm feeling kind of sad. All the Quack-O-Matic regulars seem to have better things to do this weekend than just sitting in front of their computers and "quck" (no, it's not a typo) with me. That means I'll have no one to talk to in every waking hour for the whole long weekend. Oh the loneliness!

On a happier note, Fairvue is back up and the new feature looks cool as always and is pretty much like what I'd imagined it to be. It's too bad I'll probably never get to play it. But YOU can play it every Wednesday evening if you want so go check it out! :) ♥

So I've got myself a new voicemail number from 2bzd.com. I hope this one will work better than the Excite one. Here's the toll-free numbers you can call if you want to leave me a voicemail:

USA/Canada toll-free number: 1 877 651 1555
Australia toll-free number: 0011 800 2222 1555

My User ID is 7439266223 (or SHEWANNABE, if you have letters on your telephone dial pad). Feel free to call and make my day! :) ♥

It looks like Metafilter has found a new home in the East Coast. It's now living with Jason L., somewhere in New York. Yay Jason! Go MeFi! :) ♥

Big thanks to Joe, John, and Rebecca for having adjusted their sidebar link to the new address :) There are still so many people who liked my weblog enough to link it that I still have yet to notify about the move. Do you think it would count as a spam if I sent them a one-email-for-all kind of thing? It might be a common practice but still I think it's kind of rude. Oh well. I'll find a way somehow. ♥

There are two issues I must resolve:

First, do not call my Excite voicemail number because it doesn't work so well. Your voicemail will get into my inbox, but I can't connect to their server to listen to it. Hopefully, I'll be able to find a better voicemail service. I doubt it, but who knows. Miracle happens.

Second, do not send any email to firda@wannabegirl.org because the address doesn't seem to work anymore. Thanks to Jonno for notifying me about it (I assume it was this Jonno?). Please address all email from now on to firda@shewannabe.com.

Now on with the show! ♥

Friday Morning Haiku:

Call Firda's voicemail.
Make Supreme Wannabe's day.
Quack at her for me. ♥