Done! 5th drawing of 2009 - this one seemed really quick. I supposed the hair made it a lot faster...

Since Geocities closed down, I've relocated my resume site here: http://fionalam.elementfx.com/

A website/blog called Connectus that I've also been volunteering on is now live!



I'm not too fond of the colours at the moment - they seem a bit clashy. But I'm not sure if we're going to change it or not.

With no full day job at the moment, I'm at at home 7 days per week! Unless I go out or have tutoring. So what can I do to fill my time? Well, here's a brief look at what I did today.

8:30AM: wake up, breakfast, check emails etc.
9:30AM: do some tutoring preparation and posts for Tutor Tales
11:00AM: do some drawing
12:00PM: lunch and tv
1:00PM: do some more drawing and bake bread at the same time
4:00PM: finish drawing and bread baking
5:00PM: walk DD and make cheese sauce

Although not particularly exciting, it's a nice way to spend the day and I get to do all the things that I enjoy doing! :)

So now I'm unemployed, except for tutoring! Must find something to fill the time.

I'm currently up to 13 out of the 20 books I have to read for my resolution.

This is my 5th drawing of 2009. 5th out of 15 I was supposed to do! :(

I'm amazed!

Tutor Tales got 5,500+ page views yesterday (day before HSC English Paper 2)!

In other web work news, I've been volunteer working on the WordPress blog of Connectus - and it's almost live to go!

I'll also be redesigning and moving my resume site from Geocities to another free host, since Geocities is shutting down.

Started a new drawing today!

Made these clay pokemon with JL and MS! I made the Pikachu and Charmander.



( Clay Pokemon in WIP! )

SM has finally launched his web design portfolio site, Without Boundary!



So plug plug plug!!

In other news, I'm extremely proud of Tutor Tales. It went up to nearly 1000 hits on ONE day during the HSC Trial period! :D And I've had some good regular comments, so it must mean that SOMEONE out there is reading, lol.

This is an easy way to create fade in/out image rotations. Before I used to use Dynamic Drive (http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex14/index.html) but it seems jQuery is easier and more efficient.

You can also create different effects as seen here: http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/lite/

But I just stuck with the default fade in/out. Here I've written a super basic and brief instructions on how to do it, because I found the jquery and cycle websites rather unhelpful. They kind of expect you to know quite a bit about programming and don't exactly tell you HOW to use the code etc.

How to get a basic fading image rotation:
1. Download the latest version of jQuery: http://jquery.com/
2. Upload it onto your server.
3. Download the jQuery Cycle Lite plugin: http://malsup.com/jquery/cycle/lite/
4. Upload it onto your server.
5. Put the following in your head:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery-1.3.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.cycle.lite.js?v1.0"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> $(document).ready(function() { $('.slideshow').cycle({ fx: 'fade' }); }); </script>

6. Add the following to your CSS file and put in the size of your fading images:
.slideshow { height: 209px; width: 728px; }

7. In the body, where you want the fading images to appear, create a div called "slideshow". Then place all your images you want to be in the fading rotation inside that div. For example:
<div class="slideshow"> <img src="img/head1.jpg" width="728" height="209" /> <img src="img/head2.jpg" width="728" height="209" /> <img src="img/head3.jpg" width="728" height="209" /> </div>

I've used this on a site I'm currently working on and love it!

Finally finished it! Despite it's obvious imperfections, I'm quite happy with this one. :)


My failed berry souffle - it didn't taste nice and the top burnt (so I had to remove it).


Hedgehog slice - I made this from a box mix so of course it was very nice!


Dan tart (or egg tart) that you get in yum cha or any asian bakery. The crust was a bit burnt and thick but otherwise successful!


Chocolate muffins! No deformities but needs more chocolate or sugar.

Working on Dean now, finally - then I'll be done!



I've also been making muffins like crazy these uni holidays - almost a batch every 2nd day!

Here's my latest: Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins!


As you can see, they're a bit.....deformed. I don't know why - but it may be an air pocket forming inside our oven (pushing the muffins to particular sides) or what I'm putting into the muffins (chocolate and raspberries).


You can see it here - they practically CLIMB out of their cups! Lol.

Yeah, I really need to get a move on my resolution of 15 drawings!



This is definitely a challenging drawing (because I'm not very good at proportions and drawing male faces!) and should be counted as....THREE drawings, haha.

Anyway - close to seeing how this will turn out...

I was also recently put into my university student magazine, Vertigo,which is super cool! Even though it's small and only the student magazine....still awesome! :D

The rest of the WIP of my Pikachu jacket!!



( See the rest of its construction here! )

I had decided to make my own Pikachu jacket last year or so, and recently had JL's Pokemon themed party! So it was good to finally push myself to make it.

If you don't know who Pikachu is (shame!!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikachu

The pattern was made using another jacket that I know fits me well.

This is the back piece, with 2 dark brown "stripes" sewn onto the back.


( View Part 1 of the process! )

Perhaps I've been a bit cupcake obsessed these days! Here's what we made last time: http://whatnow73.livejournal.com/90188.html

Now this time, for JL's 21st birthday:


We used this recipe: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17653/cupcake+flowers
But modified the top to look like this: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/175/435059206_d1b997b964.jpg



Let me just say that making these cupcakes were INSANE.

300+ cupcakes made by 6 people in 5 hours! :D We x10 the recipe in one GIANT BATCH....before realising that we weren't able to mix the 20 eggs, 1.250kg butter, 20 cups of flour, 15 cups of milk and more... into ONE BOWL.

Great memories that night though, :D

A quick post!

I'm back at uni after the mid-sem break. But the next 2 weeks are going to be hectic!

Anyway, I've been busy starting up a new project:



TUTOR TALES!

I'm not sure where this will go, but hopefully it'll turn out to be quite helpful (to HSC students and tutors)!

TO DO THESE NEXT 2 WEEKS
- Write JL's 21st speech
- Make my Pikachu jacket
- Help SM make his Poliwrath jumper
- Write my 1000 word "essay" on Jane Eyre
- Watch Rent and Hamlet
- Prepare for discussion leading on 11 May 2009

Well, I just spent this entire night working on the UTS AIA website/blog: http://utsaia.com/index.php

And I'm quite happy, because I think I learnt a lot tonight about WordPress! ^^"
- how to embed the latest posts of your (self hosted) WordPress blog into your website
- how to offer Subscription for your blog readers
- how to read/edit more PHP in WordPress templates

How to embed the latest posts of your (self hosted) WordPress blog into your website:
My working example is here: http://utsaia.com/index.php - near the bottom of the page.

Here's how I got there:

1. Find out what your RSS link is: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Feeds - mine was http://utsaia.com/blog/wp-rss2.php?cat=9 (since I wanted a particular category of posts to be embedded).


2. Feed it into FeedBurner: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/myfeeds


3. Go through the next few steps...including getting a new RSS link: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/utsaiahumanrightsblog


4. Eventually, you reach something called Publicize > BuzzBoost (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/publishers/buzzboost)


5. Here, you get your feed (your posts) in a little HTML script that you can add to your website, where you want the latest posts to appear.


6. You can then CSS style your feed to fit into the design of your website: http://www.google.com/support/feedburner/bin/answer.py?answer=78991

How to offer Subscription for your blog readers
Yes, I realise this is very simple - but today, I actually bothered to add such a feature to the AI blogs: http://utsaia.com/blog/?cat=9

All it requires to putting a link to your RSS link: eg. http://feeds2.feedburner.com/utsaiahumanrightsblog

Anyway - going to Easter Show tomorrow! :)

Some baking photos!


These are butterfly cakes that I made with MS and JL - we made almost 90 of them!
See more: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=241946&id=836755721&l=eda49b3612

We baked these from a packet mix on my mum's birthday! They came out very cute and yummy (of course, they came from a packet!)
See more: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=11696&id=836755721&l=d2cc79b384

I finished reading my 5th book of 2009! I'm so slow, lol. Anyway, it was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I remember watching a black/white film version of it when I was VERY YOUNG, but it seems I only remembered the ending. As I was reading it, I didn't recognise anything from my memory of the movie until near the end!

NEXT:
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (must finish!)
- Good Wives by LM Alcott (sequel to Little Women)
- Catch 22 (next BPM book!)

Anyway, it's the mid semester now. Have been studying for my Corporate Law exam for Wednesday. Need to start on my Family Law essay too. Since uni's started, my resolutions have kind of been put on a hold. So, somehow I've really got to battle through and stick to them no matter what.

EDIT: went running today - didn't go very far, but at least I went!

As L pointed out to me last week, I haven't updated since February!

So here's a basic rundown on what's been keeping me off LJ:
- 4 uni subjects (30 credit points) this semester. I'm doing my last core Law subjects, so it's quite amazing that I'm starting to feel the end of this degree!
- tutoring 7 students at the moment. It's hectic and taking more time than last year, because I'm actually bothering to read the set texts.
- 21st birthdays: congrats to DM, KH, JM, JS (tmr) on all reaching 21!
- RL's farewell! :( How strange that she'll be gone to Japan for a whole year in just a few days.

I've been quite busy over the last weeks. So much so that I was having trouble sleeping at night. But I feel better now - I'm on top of the work! For now...

Another good thing is that MF has started coming back to badminton on Wednesday nights again - it's so odd, because he kind of "disappeared" for about 2 years and now it seems like he's back and well it's just good to see and talk again.

On a sad note, I think there's this growing distance between me and X. Sometimes I think that what we have in common is actually only the past and things we look back on fondly. And from just general observance, not talking about myself, I do see it happening....that friendships change and grow apart (no matter how stable you think they are). You become closer to some people and drift away from people you once considered your closest friends. It's not to say that they aren't your friends anymore, just that the relationship isn't the same.

I'm not sure what to make of it though.

I guess it happens all the time - but I wish it didn't sadden me so much to see it happen.

Why do I need someone like you in my life? You don't apologise, you don't treat me with respect, you're late, you don't seem to care. I had thought we were better than that. But I'm starting to think I was wrong. We're not that good friends. I don't know you as well I thought I did. As well as I wish I did.

Sometimes I think it would be better if we weren't friends.

But somehow I think that would be unbearable.

Trying to get back into Photoshopness.