Addicted to Flickr

I finally created my own Flickr account the other Saturday (I didn't have my Harry Potter book to read, remember?) and uploaded my favorite homemade Federer wallpapers into a set called Tennis Wallpapers. Of course, I applied for a free account as I can't afford to pay the annual fee of US$24.95 to avail of more features. I did this more as a trial just to see how it is to use Flickr, to create sets, to edit photo descriptions, tags, etc. I even found out how to make a badge so that I could display a random wallpaper on the sidebar of my Federer blog. Then to try more features available on Flickr like, I slowly began to upload some of my favorite photos organize them into sets and add them to groups. (I found out that I could have just three sets and no collections with my free account. Sigh!) Since I made my photos viewable by the public, it was amusing to see which ones people would take notice of, which ones people were likely to view and tag as their favorite or even comment on.

I began to also browse other people's photos based on "interestingness" and as soon as something caught my fancy, I would tag it as my favorite and continue browsing. Eventually I began to realize that whenever I would tag a photo as my favorite, the owner of the photo was likely to browse my photostream and tag a few of mine as his or her favorite as well. Quite a friendly community. I also found out that adding one's photos to pools of other similar photos increases the chances of your photos getting viewed by others.

Anyway, it was really so addicting in a way to see all those beautiful photos other people had taken and posted on their accounts that I quickly accumulated 72 favorites by yesterday evening:
Most were made by professional photographers or else serious photo hobbyists who maintained pro accounts on Flickr. How I envy those people! I wish I could pay for a pro account to be able to see not just my most recent 200 images but all images that I could upload into my account, to have more than three sets, to organize my sets into collections...

The lame pigeon

This is a story from my sister has a soft spot for animals just like me.

Last Saturday, she went out to watch the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at an IMAX theatre in downtown Toronto. Since she went to the 12:30pm showing, she had no choice but to have a late lunch. So after the movie, she bought a slice of pizza from one of those little shops that sell authentic wooden stove baked pizzas and walked over to a small nearby park with a fountain to eat her lunch.

As in most open spaces in Toronto, this particular spot had its share of pigeons hanging around waiting for people to drop them some crumbs. My sister wasn't in the mood then to share her pizza so most of the pigeons eventually left her alone--except for this one pigeon who refused to leave. Knowing that giving just one morsel would encourage it to wait for more, my sister still didn't give it anything. But then she noticed that the little thing had some missing claws/toes on one leg so that it was practically standing on one leg most of the time. Ah the poor thing. (It probably stayed around because it can't perched on branches like the others.) My sister eventually took pity on it and gave it a bit of the crust of her pizza that didn't have any of the pizza sauce. The little pigeon eagerly ate it up. Of course, many other creatures in the vicinity showed up soon after: a little maya, then a squirrel, then finally the rest of the pigeons came walking back. She gave each of them a bits from her pizza making sure that the lame one got more than its share. The poor things were probably so used to being fed by strangers who stopped by.

Reading the last book

I did mention that I wasn't feeling well enough last weekend to go out and pick up my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, didn't I? Well, yes, I was sorely disappointed not to be able to get it right away and start reading it during the weekend. I so wanted to beat the articles or reactions with the usual spoilers that surely would be popping up all over the Internet and other media. Last weekend seemed to be the best time to laze around and read a good book as I wasn't feeling too well to do anything else and had no class-related things to catch up on.

But I got a surprise yesterday (Monday) morning. A friend lent me his copy of the book--if you know what I mean. Naturally, I thought I could put off reading it til I got home that evening but I made the big mistake of reading the opening chapter. The trouble with J.K. Rowling is like any other brilliant author she makes sure that once you start reading her books, you can't let go until the end. Just like peanuts... or Pringles: "once you pop, you can't stop" sort-of-thing. And so there I was reading Deathly Hallows--it was around 10am--just stopping to have lunch and to go my hour-long lecture class at 1pm. It was a miracle nobody came by to interrupt me that afternoon when I resumed reading. By the time it was time for me to get going home around 6:15pm, I had read until the beginning of Chapter 20. Of course, I began reading again soon after I got home and only managed to tear myself away from it after finishing Chapter 30 at 1am. You see, I had to make sure I got enough sleep for the next day (today) when I'd have my three lecture classes, the first of which starts at 8am.

So this morning, after my 8am class, I began reading from where I left off the night before, then broke off (I was in the middle of Chapter 31 then) to go to my 10am lecture after which, needless to say, I resumed reading. I was thoroughly enjoying a most crucial and intriguing Chapter 33 when I had to leave to buy lunch. I managed to complete the next chapter before I had to leave once again this time for my 1pm class. I had a meeting as well to attend after my class, unfortunately, so I had to patiently wait until just past 3pm before I could get back to reading. I finally finished the last three chapters (including the epilogue) about an hour later, sat back, took a deep breath and thought, "Wow!"

Right now back here at my laptop, I just feel drained and think I will make it an early night. Reading Deathly Hallows was like going on a journey myself. It was exhausting physically and emotionally and a good night's sleep should help me recover after a total of 15 hours of reading. I suppose I'll just have to write about my reactions to the book --with spoilers, of course--next time.

Google Notebook improvements

I was clipping articles from the web and saving them into my Google Notebook as usual yesterday when I noticed changes in the interface of Google Notebook:

• There is now a button to change the background color of (or highlight) selected text.
  
• There are buttons now for creating lists.
• The left panel now lists sections created within each notebook making navigation through the notebook easier. Now instead of having to manually scroll down the right panel in search of a particular section, one can just click on the section link on the panel and voila! you've scrolled down to the section.

Hooray! That option for changing background color was on my "wishlist" of improvements for Google Notebook. The next thing I'm waiting for now is the incorporation of tags. Keeping my fingers crossed for that one!

P.S.
Come to think of it, whatever happened to the Refresh link? Now I have to click on the name of the notebook/section on the left panel to refresh the contents.

Pluto at its brightest?

I've just received one of the most ridiculous chain text messages. It was forwarded to me by my aunt who I've already said is rather ignorant of things on science and technology. (Though come to think of it, she lent me her book about the night sky when I was in grade school.) The text message goes like this:

Planet Pluto will be brightest in the night sky starting July. It will look as large as the fullmoon to the naked eye.

It will culminate on July 27 when Pluto is 34.56M miles near earth.

Be sure to watch the sky on July 27 at 12:30am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons.

The next time Pluto may come this close will be on year 2287.

Share this with ur loved ones n friends. No one alive today will ever see it again.

Isn't that the stupidest thing? Anyone with grade school knowledge of astronomy will know that Pluto is the farthest planet--oop, one of the farthest minor or dwarf planets--in the solar system. I don't think you can see it with the naked eye; one will need a good-sized telescope to see it. And even then, it would still look like a "star" instead of a disc. Even Venus, Jupiter or Saturn don't appear as discs to the naked eye but rather as "stars", albeit bright ones, and certainly not as large as a full moon even at their smallest distance from earth. Hmmm... that distance from Earth thing doesn't sound right either. Sounds more like the distance between Mars and Earth.

Anyway, it just goes to show how one simply can't believe all that stuff being forwarded through email or text messaging. One thing's for sure: I'm certainly not going to make a fool out of myself by forwarding that chain text message about Pluto to my "loved ones n friends".

P.S.
A horrible thought just came to me. What if somebody did go out to check the night sky on 27 July, see the full moon then (near full moon at least--full moon will be on the 30th) and think it was Pluto?

Happy wishlist

On one of my so-called forays into the world of the wide web, I came across this guy's blog where he posted his wishlist for 2007.

And boy, was it some wishlist! Mostly the latest gadgets and accessories: an LCD monitor, a smart phone, lots of camera accessories, a bluetooth headset, and a watch. The total cost of all the 25 items there must be nearly half a million pesos. What's more is that he's been able to acquire 16 of the items listed by this time of the year. I'm not completely surprised though seeing that the fellow is an alumni of ______ here where the filthy rich send their kids for a college education. I've also noticed that his last item was savings of at least Php50K by the end of the year because he doesn't want to "become a not-so-happy man that has a massive headache." Imagine that? Even if he had all that stuff but zero savings, he still wouldn't be completely happy? This guy doesn't know what he wants. And hello, it's either you spend your money or have savings. Got to pity him.

I made my own wishlist years ago but it's nothing like the rich kid's list. In the first place, it wasn't a wishlist for a particular year and I ended up buying some items over the course of a few years. I'll have to look for it among my papers or files somewhere. All I remember of it (if I remember correctly) was that it was mostly books, audio CD recordings (classical music, of course) and some music sequencing software.

The most expensive item there was a portable digital piano with 88-keys (and not just 5-octaves which is standard in portable keyboards). Happily for me, I was able to buy a Yahama P-80 way back in 2000 at the sale price of Php55K. I just love its genuine wooden piano keys with "graded hammer effect" and beautiful grand piano sound. That was the only major purchase I made--forking out more than Php5K for a single item is a major purchase for me--until I bought myself a laptop (a necessity for graduate studies there) and a digital camera in Singapore sometime in 2003. The camera was a Fujifilm FinePix 2600 Zoom which was the best I could get within my budget. I had to make sure it was the best by doing a lot of research online, checking out reviews and people's experiences with that particular model. Then last year, I got myself a Sony Bravia 15" LCD tv (of course, also at a sale price) for my room which came with a DVD player for just an additional Php1K. The LCD tv wasn't on my wishlist at all but I just took the chance when I saw an ad about the major sale. (They were probably phasing out the model because all I see nowadays are LCD tvs with a screen size of at least 30".)

That's it basically for me. Just these few major purchases for these past eight years. But I'm contented and happy. Besides, I don't understand why some people have to get the latest Nokia cellphone model or the latest Sony Playstation (when they have an old model at home that works just fine) or consider a Tag Heuer watch a must-have. I don't need things like all those high-end high-tech pricey flashy stuff in the rich kid's wishlist to make me happy.

Jerry Hadley, tenor

I'm in shock. I've just learned that tenor Jerry Hadley has just passed away at the age of 55. Even more shocking was the fact that his death was brought on by severe brain damage after an apparent suicide attempt. Gee.

Such a pity. I really enjoyed his performance as Gaylord Ravenal in the studio recording of Jerome Kern's Show Boat and in the title role in Leonard Bernstein's Candide. In fact, I've always kept his "Oh, Happy We" duet with June Anderson and his rendition of Kern's "I Have the Room Above Her", a favorite of mine, on my playlist. The mere mention of his name for some reason also prompts me to hear him singing in my head the opening lines of "Where's the Mate for Me?" one of the songs on Show Boat:

Who cares if my boat goes upstream,
or if the gale bids me blow with the river's flow.
I drift along with my fancies.
Sometimes I thank my lucky stars my heart is free;
And other times I wonder where's the mate for me.

With an expressive voice like his, I thought he'd be leading a successful career at the opera for a long time. I certainly didn't expect him to die like this and so early.

Anyway, after surfing the web a bit for more news about Jerry Hadley's unexpected passing, I came across a link to the blog of a music director of a radio station where reader's have posted their reflections on the death of this opera star. Mr. Hadley was also the subject of a special feature at Performance Today on Public Radio.