Dance celebration

Celebrating a family’s special day has been a tradition to us.  Being away from them, me and hubby normally see to it that we don’t miss celebrating their birthdays or anniversaries even if we’re miles apart from each other.  Lately, our big sis Cookie had her first celebration of her natal day in Finland. Staying in the city of Pori is quite different from TH, she said. Still they are so blessed to have everything they need and do things on their own as one happy family.

Our other family members have prepared special meals in time for her birthday, mom&dad went to the nearby church in the place were they are staying in Prague, for me and T we celebrated it by dancing in FF.  Since Ate Cooks was our dance buddy before, we thought it would be nice remebering the fun moments with her through our dance. =)

Looking for models

I’m faced with a slight dilemma with my photo assignment today.  I noticed that almost all of my classmates have come up with quick and creative response to our new set of tasks listed on our photo club website.  Ideas are hard to find when you need it the most. I surely  wait for the proper timing if not I will settle for the old photos nonetheless.

Significant Weight Watching

Oh, the weather has been cooperating with me very well these days.  I love it! For three consecutive days I didn’t miss going to fitness first with friends who also shares the same passion for hip-hop, salsa, rumba etc. 

Tuesday- We left together at 5:40 and arrived at 6:00 PM at Future Park. It was orientation time for our friends who came with us.  Ann, Orfa and Lei tried a combination of yoga/taichi/pilates in body balance class then later we joined the body jam. 

Wednesday- only joined body jam and had some yummy yoghurt at the counter.

Thursday- still another dance exercise.

Happiness is here at last

ZZZzzzzzzz! I finally had my mind rested and freed from stress related issues at work.  I will have my sleeping spree at last! One thing I realize during workshop period is that I am more alert even with late night errands. Was I only excited or tensed? Whatever it may be I wish it would remain that way.  I really want to start the day early as it gives me a lot of time to plan for the day or do some brisk walking around the campus before breakfast.  How about you, how would you like to start your day?

group photo of last week’s consultation meeting

Big Day’s Coming

The most awaited climate change-adaptation meeting will be held tomorrow.  I have coordinated with the participants for over a month now.  So far a good number of consultants have responded to our call for invitation. 

I am blessed to have angels who are helping me out the entire period.  Kirstin, Ann and Agnes will be taking care of other important matters. Checklist for reimbursement requirements, kits and materials needed are now ready. I have to leave the office soon as I have to rest and wake up early by tomorrow.  No serious blogging at this time.  Only current events for an update.

Another holiday to enjoy

It’s Visakha Bucha Day here in Thailand.  I have seen people rushing last Friday to leave early and start their journey somewhere.  A three day vacation meant another great adventure for travelers and a time to unwind for me who’s only staying home.  It would be great if I could play tennis today.  Let’s pray it won’t rain in the afternoon.

ContentLink is driving me crazy

This program has been affecting my entries lately.  I am thinking of closing this site because of this ContentLink thing that takes credit on my posts which is in contradiction to the rules of other advertisers. Everytime a new highlighted word appears I immediately edit or delete them to avoid being displayed together with supported links. Crazy, yeah I know. I think there’s no other way to stop this.  Is there any good explanation why should I maintain the links?

I.ph may have the prerogative to attach Google Adsense on every free site being opened.  But I guess, in the case of ContentLink it is totally different.  I wish to have the consensus of other i.ph bloggers on this, if you please.

Poll survey:

• Do we have a win-win situation over here? With ContentLink invading i.ph blog entries.

Possible answers:
A.  Yes. It helps both site owner and bloggers.
B. No. I have lost my interest in using i.ph now.
C.  Neutral. That’s not a problem since I am not a pro-blogger.

Interactive Website Loaded with Flash Components

I’ve been stalking on interactive sites run by flash programs lately to serve as my basis of creating a let’s say, a more professional photo site. I am more attracted to automatic displays of images. It’s very interesting to look at cool photography sites with flash components. When people tries to open your site, viewers will know instantly how well you want your pictures get protected.  Flash programs sort of safeguards you from any possible photo theft online.

I recommend you check out the photoFlow in flashloaded.com.  I love it how it flips the images either by manual control or automatic within 2 second flip interval. Some features that you can find from this software are as follows:

    * Easily update images using the Component Inspector, ActionScript or an XML file
    * Adjustable flip speed, spacing between stacked images and image size
    * Customizable perspective view and reflections
    * Option to flip images as a slideshow
    * Add links/hyperlinks to each image
    * ActionScript events to perform an action when an image has loaded, is selected, etc…
    * Images can be external or included in the library
    * Mouse wheel image flipping (Windows only)
    * Optionally display a name for each image
    * Option to set the number of images to preload
    * Option to automatically scale images to fit or to fill the defined size
    * Zoom in on selected image or on all images on mouse over
    * photoFlow can open on a pre-defined image
    * Customizable color of background and opacity
    * Option to start flipping from left-to-right or right-to-left
    * Supports sound effects for image flipping
    * Built-in preloader
    * Light weight (weighs only 18kb with the scrollbar)

I hope this discovery will help aspiring web photo developers out there. Do check out the site now.

Thrills and Frills

Work has been daunting these past few weeks as the workshop is getting nearer. Tension escalates which forced my immune system to weaken.  Undermanned and sick. Whew! Pretty tough week for me. Nevertheless, I’m still alive and kicking every inconveniences that comes along the way.  I don’t know why serious things happen to me and to most of my colleagues as well during the course of worksop preparation.  It’s funny to know that almost workshop liasons gets sick either before or after the event. Is there any scientific explanation to this? Good thing my agony is now over.  

Handling the logistics can be challenging when participants doesn’t confirm on time, conference rooms are fully booked, preparation of budget & convertions into other currencies are not balanced etc.  When things goes a bit crazy, I immediately retrieve and listen to music or check out my blogs. With that my attention is diverted even for a sec helps in balancing my mood for the whole day.

Now that my officemates are back, I enjoy the luxury of choco breaks and the gifts that they brought from their vacation. My thrills and frills of the week.

The Shutterbug Me

Things have been pretty exciting lately for our CREATIVELENS photoclub.  Each members have pitched in their ideas of the current season in each others domain. Me, here in TH, particularly living in a small community shares the simple things I encounter in my day to day life.  All of the series can be viewed in my Digital Vew Finder photo site. It is available weekly.  Normally I post new entries for the photo assignment every Monday (afternoon or evening) as it is the proper schedule of submission.  Although, workshops and other important activities are the only contraints that I have. However, I have vowed to do it seriously.  So rain or shine, late or early, rest assured I’ll post my photos their frequently.

Optimizing Space On Rented Flat

Living on a rented city flat doesn’t allow one to have all the space. The living room, kitchen, bedroom is cramped. One’s creativity is challenged on how to reorganize everything to make the whole place a bit spacious. Space saving racks, cabinets, and shelves. Workbenches that are multi-purpose would be a good addition also.

The key is to have practical and flexible furniture that could serve many uses. I have seen some furniture that becomes a bed in the evening and in the day time becomes a sofa. Then it has some drawers for keeping clothes and books.

How I wish to have one in our rented flat. It would be an effective solution to the cramped living quarters at home.

Our Photo Club has been Resurrected

With a more comprehensive way of looking at my classmates work of art.  Our teacher, A. Siroy together with the very talented classmate Chelo have created CREATIVELENS.wordpress.com to showcase our works.

For this class, the theme is "Freezing Season" as inspired by our different locations of group members.  It is aimed to feature the beauty of things around us as the season evolves from Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. I, from Southeast Asia is getting conscious more and more about the little things I see around me. 

Handling Priceless Ancient Artifacts

In Thailand there are many ancient temples around and for sure there are hidden gems and artifact on them waiting to be discovered. Have you seen the movie "tomb raider"? I like the the actress Angelina Jolie who plays Lara Croft. She’s skilled in martial arts hand-to-hand combat, weapons training, foreign languages, and what more could you ask from a woman. The movie reminds me of collecting ancient artifacts from ruins of temples found in cities all over the world.

Tomb Raider is an interesting movie that shows the value of a priceless piece of art work. Things found in a museum are viewed by the commoner as things with little value or no value at all, but art lovers reveres them as precious items. Thus, moving, storing, displaying old-age documents, portraits, sculptures, antiques requires special care.

There’s a need for example to have a custom built Art Storage vault. The vault has controlled temperature and security system to prevent thief of the valuable art work. In addition, a fire suppressant system is installed to protect it from fire.

Moving art works is as important as storage; custom packaging and crating are done for every item. Also, items are moved in a climate controlled truck to protect the art works from changes in outside temperatures which could affect or change the portraits or sculptures.

Displaying these priceless art works also requires delicate handling, and it’s important to get some professional help. An expert handling these objects will ensure that the valuable pieces of art are preserved in any stage of storage, transport, and display.

Marie Digby’s album unfolded

If Christmas could have been sooner… Geessh! I find it difficult to make an alibi for this one.  Another unpredicted expenses. I’m planning to purchase her album online.  Sssshhhh! Somebody would certainly react on this soon. But isn’t she awesome? I really like her voice the first time I spotted her in Youtube.  Now she’s just reaping the harvest of her great works.  Way to go Marie!!! All the best on your singing career =)

Say it Again

the thing about love
is i never saw it coming
it kind of crept up
and took me by surprise
and now there’s a voice inside my heart
its got me wondering
is it true..? I wanna hear it one more time
move in a little closer
take it to a whisper
just a little louder…
Say it Again for me
cause i love the way it feels
when you are telling me that i’m
the only one who blows your mind
say it again for me
it’s like the whole world
stops to listen
when you tell me you’re in love…
say it again

the thing about you
is you know just how to get me
you talk about us
like there’s not end in sight
the thing about me
is that i really wanna let you
open that door
and walk into my life
move in a little closer
take it to a whisper
just a little louder..
Say it Again for me
cause i love the way it feels
when you are telling me that i’m
the only one who blows your mind
say it again for me
it’s like the whole world
stops to listen
when you tell me you’re in love..
and it feels like
it’s the first time
that anybody’s ever brought
the sun without the rain
never in my whole life
have i heard words
as beautiful as when you say my name..

How Smart Buyer Am I?

Investing in a real estate is part of our longterm goal as a couple.  We feel this is necessary before a major life project takes place. 

The things that made it easier for me to decide before pushing with such endeavor is the good offer from authorized agents.  It is always good to avail a unit on a pre-selling period or either at the end of selling period.  In this case, on the pre-selling you can obviously get discounted for introductory prices.  Whereas, at the end you will notice that units are being offered with special promotions like additional furnishings just to close the deal for the whole building. Ours was acquired on the end selling.  When counted the furnishings actually costs more than the discount you get on the pre-selling.

Other things that I tried to consider are the location, accessibility, security, and the amenities.  The location and accessibility determines the market price of any estate. Like the one we opted to, it is located near the international airport, main road and shopping area. Security is also important to ensure your property is safe from intruders or unwanted sales persons knocking at your doorsteps.  The amenities comes last as its not always in use but it helps during special occassions.

Learning all about  the advantages of the unit is no less than liking someone and his/her characteristics. It is a mixed emotion to realize ones dreams sooner. Grateful for the blessing and a bit hesitant to acquire a housing loan. In God’s grace and with the help of several good samaritans, our unit is now ready for occupancy.

Day 2- Power Camp 08

Welcoming the sunrise with an early meditation was a whole new experience for me.  We did that on the second day of our camp.  All of us assembled in the middle of the soccer field facing the east. It was a nice way to witness the dawn.  At peace with nature and within oneself. Praising Him and thanking Him for another new life of grace.

Here’s a brief report of what had transpired during the day. After receiving some instructions from our coordinators, each group gathered to practice their cheers & yells, followed by running, biking, and swimming competition. Later we had the volleyball and basketball games near the U dormitory. All sports activities where done in the morning, culminated with an awarding ceremony and closing remarks by the leaders in the afternoon.

Day 1- Power Camp 08

The first activity that we have was the "name game". The instruction was to describe yourself in one word based from the initials of your first name. Like for example: agile Aileen, sexy Sofie, merry Mercy and so on and so forth. Each members are to memorize the name and description of their group mates. A little game will be played and next will be the question & answer portion for group presentation.

• The second activity was "role playing". It was organized by Hydie.
•  The third activity was "stranded in an island". As instructed by Mercy.
•  The fourth activity was "photo scavengers hunt". Led by yours truly.



• Lastly, we had a "telephone charade". Which was coordinated by Barry.

Power Camp 2008

Thailand is experiencing intense heat
and we in our community are going to brave the street
with an energetic Power Camp retreat! =)

We have a couple of activities in store for the next two days.  In a very convenient place of no other than— AIT. Fellow members were excited to know that this year’s venue is in our place.  For me it’s quite normal to be here whereas for them coming from the big city, they felt like they’re heading to a mountain resort. They packed their clothes, toilettries etc. and stuffed them on their trolleys.  Seeing them is like having a vacation myself.

It’s the yearly activity of our prayer group which is the El Shaddai, Prayer Partners Foundation International.  How was I able to join them?  It’s a long story. But just to give you a brief background it is a Catholic charismatic community. 

Power Camp is not just an ordinary gathering for us. Same time last year we had a meditation retreat. Whereas this year, its the first ever interactive activity aimed to develop cammaraderie within each member.

Aileen means Light

Most parents in my country would name their children after saints.  But my father took mine from our Christian dictionary of names at home, he told me. Curiousity set in when a friend in highschool brought a book of names with corresponding meanings on it.  I felt elated to know that my name means "light." On the other hand, Aileen is the Irish version of Helen in our dictionary.  Either both, I was happy with the result of my search.

At this time it’s funny how some parents would name their kids based from unique combinations and the-longer-the-cuter impression that they create. But not to me. I pity the kids who got three worded first names.  And speaking of unique names. There’s single person that carries the name Jennifer Keilp solely in the entire world. How’s that possible? That is up for me to know and for you to find out.