Lately, I am becoming more and more involved in my schoolwork. First and foremost is the computer coursework, which I can safely say I have completed 50% of it. My turmoil doesn't just end there. I have signed myself up voluntarily (woe is me for doing that!) to participate in an oratory speech contest and a debate. Even though it begins in a few days time, I have not done any work on that. My mind has been engulfed by thoughts of computer coursework, computer coursework, computer coursework! It's terrible, I tell you. =(

Relaxation nowadays is a luxury, if not, I was forced to take some. It feels sickening because I'm paranoid that it will eat up precious time which could instead be used for doing the coursework. Handing it up next week does not spell the end yet! I have to spend roughly 3 weeks on my upcoming mocks. I can't believe I will abuse my brain and try to cram as much as I can. 2 years' work in 2-3 weeks. I seriously wonder how I will manage...

By the way, the October/November Cambridge GCE O Level examinations schedule is out! I have just got my statement of entry a couple of days already and I can't believe I am going to sit for it so soon! I still remember when I was in primary school, I used to look at the paper which tells O Level candidates the venue of the exams and I wondered when it would be my turn. And my turn is nearly here! *shudder*

So, in the interest of my studies, I'm staying away from the Internet and the blogosphere. I really miss you guys and I hope you all are doing well. I'm not coping with academic stress as well over here, but it's not too bad (and hopefully it won't get worse!). Priorities comes first, and getting distinctions is my top priority. Yeah, I guess I have to sacrifice most of my time spent surfing the Internet. =( Harsh, but something has got to go to accommodate something else. I guess that's how things work.

Take care guys, and I hope things go well in your life! I'll be back after all these is over (or when I have to blog about something urgently), I promise!

[+] There's more!

5 April 2007 - I hate taking breaks like this again. Unfortunately, there are many things to do in school as well as extra-curricular activities that I have participated and do. There are many things I want to blog about, such as jealousy, tutoring friends and sudden hatred bred towards some subjects. Time is not on my side and I'm sleep deprived (okay, so maybe 6 or 7 hours of sleep is sufficient for you, but not for me). Since there is no school tomorrow, I want to take that opportunity to catch up on my schoolwork and research purposes. Hopefully, I will see you guys soon!

21 February 2007 - Hey everyone! I hope you don't mind me taking a short break from the blogosphere because I need to settle my academic life and tackle my priorities. I definitely will be back as soon as they are done (probably a few days to a week). =)

I catch you guys later! =D

[+] There's more!

Err... are you really at http://soliloguy.blogspot.com?

Yes, you are! Behold, the new face of this blog after spending so much time trying to migrate from old Blogger to the new one after three vain attempts. I finally did it at the last attempt! =D Of course, I used a Wordpress lookalike template from Gecko & Fly as the base of this template.

I cannot stand knowing the fact that I was unable to make full use of the new Blogger's features and widgets(which aren't so new anymore =P), like labels. Horray for organisation! It's too bad it's pretty time-consuming to add labels to my previous blog post. It's okay, I don't think there's a need to rush. ;)

As you can see here, I fully exploited made use of the cool new features. There's of course labels and an archive-cum-previous posts widget and I finally able to use the convenient GUI-interface provided by Blogger when modifying the page elements. No need to strain my eyes and seek for the correct section tediously!

Bobby's cool new widget called the Random Blog Button is now up at the NavBar above. I think it's a fabulous and nifty widget. ;)

As you are reading this, you probably notice smiley faces dotting all over my blog posts. It looks better now compared to text emoticons. Credits to Aditya Mukherjee for the script in adding emoticons. Thanks!

To the right of you is a picture of a shy kid (or rather, a toddler) holding a ten-gallon hat in front of his face. I thought it was rather apt for this blog (I'm talking more about the anonymity), plus it's also easier to vectorize it in Photoshop CS2. ;) Since this was my first experiment with vector art, I used a "rather simple" image from Getty Images and traced over it, vectorized and improvised the background a little bit to create a pseudo-cartoon character. Below is the original image:



It looks vastly different from the original one, and I'm quite happy with the output even though it's kind of tedious and time-consuming. I enjoyed doing it, though. =) If you want to learn this form of art, there are some pretty good tutorials over at Vexels.net. :)

Right below the cartoon kid are my awards. =) Scroll down a bit more and you'll see a new window which was not previously there, and they are the recent comments widget. You can even subscribe to the comments going on here. This is far by the most useful widget to me as sometimes I did not know a comment was left there in my previous blog posts until much, much later. =P Thanks to Ramani for sharing this cool widget.

And of course, there is the labels cloud where all the labels are clustered to form a cool looking "cloud". The code for it can be obtained from Phydeaux3.

These are not the only things I have changed. There are many more minor changes to this blog but I don't think they need a special mention. =P Oh, in case you guys missed it, I removed the Frappr map. I think it only slows down the download time of this site especially if you are a first-time visitor. Plus, I recently discovered that StatCounter does provide maps of where the visitors come from. Thanks guys for pinning your location onto that map. =) It's still online, you can still check it out. ;)

Anyway, I got to go now as it's getting very late over here. My eyelids are drooping... First off, apologies to Captain Lifecruiser for slacking off in my DJ-ing duties. Hehehehe! I was quite busy the past few days as I hung out with my friends and I had to do this template too. =P Don't worry, I'll be back first thing in the morning!

See you guys soon!

And yes, this is what I have busied myself with these past few days! *cheeky grin*

[+] There's more!

I mean, cracking my head! I have spent at least 2 days trying to recode this blog to utilise the new Blogger widgets, but unfortunately, my efforts were all in vain! I have tried and tried again for three times and I keep failing!

Most of the site appears but the vital parts did not, and they are the blog posts! They keep hiding from me. =( Honestly, I'm really frustrated now because I am quite sure that syntactically, they are correct but somehow, someway, it's wrong! This is so majorly annoying! And I keep on going, I don't give up. It's so strange that I'm making things hard for myself. =( Or maybe I'm just stubborn because I have this feeling that I only need to make a few changes, and everything will work already! The problem is, I can't pinpoint exactly the problems.

Blah, why can't the Blogger employees incorporate the new features into the classic templates?! =\

[/frustrations]

That's weird, why didn't I sound angry? Hahahaha, something is wrong with me today! =D I won't blog anything of interest now as I'm persistent in trying to figure out what is wrong with my HTML stressed and sad because Blogger made me look stupid! quite worn out myself. ;)

[+] There's more!

Hi guys! I finally got the time to switch over and successfully migrated the site from HTML to XHTML. Man, it was tough work at first as I thought I have messed up horribly when previewing offline (the sidebar FLEW up to the left corner and got jumbled with the blog posts!), but fortunately it's fine in Blogger.

I don't know why! I had spent an hour or so trying to figure out what is wrong with my codings (they were all correct!). Thought I should give it a shot a try previewing it with Blogger, and voila! It's completely fine!

*scratches head*

So anyway, I have added a Favicon to this blog, which is that cute little icon up there next to my blog address. Yep, that's the one! If you'd like to make one, come and take a look at this neat tutorial. It's pretty simple to understand! If you would like to host the .ico file but don't know where, don't hesitate to ask me; I'll gladly host it up for you at my unused Goggle Page.

Internet Explorer users will no longer see a cramped blog post with two cliffs (paper) jutting out from the ends. There's some problems with the CSS coding, and I resolved it by adding a DIV tag.

I also freshened up the comments field in each individual post page. Click the number at the post below, or any past posts, and check it out! =)

Yep, that's basically it. Hahaha, I have yet to get myself familiarised with the new Blogger tags! Maybe next time! ;)

*sigh* And I shouldn't stay up so late at night. Got to sleep earlier than this time. Well, see you guys later!

[+] There's more!

So here's my rundown of Blogger BETA. The labels/tags feature introduced by Blogger BETA was the main reason which drove me to switch to it.

One thing good about this new version of Blogger is that your post is published straight away without having to wait for the timer to finish. And there are finally labels which are really long overdue! Unfortunately, I can't make use of it yet as I do have some problems with the template.

For users who are pretty uncomfortable with hordes and hordes of senseless HTML bombarded at him/her, Blogger BETA now allows them to more around their blog content easily by dragging the appropriate page elements using your mouse and place them wherever you want. It's so easy to customise the default Blogger templates by simply dragging and clicking. And you can also add like your Javascript clock, links, archives etc. (those sidebars widgets) into your sidebar very easily.

Unfortunately for amateur HTML tweakers like me, editing the HTML codings are terribly difficult. I have been faithfully using HTML the whole while and suddenly, I have to switch the programming language of my blog to XHTML and XML! I was clueless as to how to tweak my current layout to adapt BETA's new compabilities, because first of all, I have zilch knowledge of those two web programming languages. And that means having to learn everything from scratch once again. And I dread doing that, seriously. It's very time-consuming!

Thank goodness there isn't much to learn for XHTML as it is pretty similar to HTML with a few obvious differences that I can easily adapt to in a relatively short time. Like for instance, the tag elements must be all in lowercase (I have always written them in uppercase). This in my opinion makes tweaking the codings more difficult for me as I cannot really differentiate quickly the tags and the normal text contents.

Hmm, I wonder why Blogger calls it 'Edit HTML'?



And Blogger BETA's default templates is really straining my eyes when I try to refer to them as examples. Everything, or rather most part of the codes are all clustered up together and I have to try and find the end of a particular piece of code and create line breaks just to separate them from the others (it's easier to edit that way).



And Blogger Help wasn't of much help too, especially this piece of article which teaches me how to properly code the widgets code. It's so frustrating trying to make heads or tails of it, and I was really confused after reading that. And the default templates seem to have complicated things.

Why must there be so many new Blogger-specific tags? I don't get it, the old one was so much better and less complicated to do. But this new one makes use of XML, and not only that, it's pretty confusing too.

And that is why I have reverted back to using the classic template instead of the new one. I simply am really clueless to do anything at all. I even spent the whole day yesterday trying to figure out where to put such codings, with no luck. Blogger BETA kept telling me "My XML file is invalid", therefore my template cannot be even previewed at all! Sigh, why bother... I think I am stuck with this for the time being. And probably read up more later.

Overall, I have a pretty sour experience with this new interface of BETA, which spoils the whole image of everything. So should you change to Blogger BETA?

Yes, if you are uncomfortable with HTML and you prefer working with GUIs, then Blogger BETA is for you! It cuts down on your frustrations and confusions by hundreds of percents. If, on the other hand, you are familiar with XHTML and XML, then I'm sure you can quickly implement and harness the new lucrative features offered by Blogger BETA into your blog.

No, if you are like me who dislikes the rigidity of Page Elements and you prefer working with your layout directly. Unfortunately, the whole editing layout thing would further frustrate you if you are foreign to the terms XHTML and XML and you have absolutely no clue on how to tweak your template. I also heard that BETA blogs suffer glitches too, especially the comments, but they should hopefully be quickly resolved.


Other than these, there aren't many noticeable changes in this new version of Blogger.

P.S. This review is written by a HTML purist, who has recently discovered the wonders of XHTML, and he is slowly adapting to it. This review is also focusing on the new template aspects of Blogger BETA. This might be inapplicable to you if you do not bother much about layouts, and if you are so, I suggest you switch to Blogger BETA just to take advantage of the new labels feature.

[+] There's more!

Okay, so I decided to make a switch to Blogger Beta just now, and the blog may be messed up as I do so. I'm currently trying to familiarise myself with the new features, and in my opinion, the Help wasn't very user-friendly. Something tells me those pseudo-code lessons I learned in computer class are going to be of help, I hope. Well, yeah, in the meantime, I hope things around here are navigable.

[+] There's more!

Hi guys, sorry for the lack of updates here. I've been pretty busy chasing my holiday fun. Hehe... So I decided to say bye-bye to the former layout this site is using, and now it has a notice-board theme! I hope you find this layout alright and not too distracting. I shall blog more later after I take care of my needs. I owe a lot of blog posts, heh, to make up for the lack of updates. See you later!

[+] There's more!

Sorry guys, I won't be blogging for a few days because I have to "start" to get serious on revising for my tests. Yes, I shall join my friends in burning the midnight oil to cram so much, in so little time. Another challenge for me, whoop pee doo!

A blog regarding perfectionism will come up soon. One of my greatest downfalls of life! Making sure that every nook and cranny is totally perfect. Not what you expect from a guy! Alright, I shall return back very soon, and before you know it, a 1000-word essay on that will appear here. [/exaggeration, setting impossible goals].

[+] There's more!

So another blog is created, joining the millions of others that exist in the vast cyberspace. Time to voice out my thoughts, feelings, emotions, opinions etc. on this blog freely, however I like. Because no one knows who I am as I shall be posting anonymously.

Fine, so I'm not new to the blogosphere. I even have my own blog, but the thing is, I face a lot of restrictions while typing out my life and showing it to my friends and the people who know me. So my life is exposed bare. There are some things that are very personal to me, but I yearn to say them out to get them off my chest and breath a sigh of relief. Sometimes they are hurtful. Sometimes they are embarrassing. Sometimes it is just a really big secret that can really burst my bubble if anyone knows about it.

Yes, I can hear you saying, "If it's so personal and secretive, why bother even telling?" Well, I really want to share these with everyone, hoping that someone can empathise and relate to but not necessarily someone who I know. It's best that if you're total strangers to me. I mean, there are things that you couldn't tell to your close friends. It's really hard to put it in words, but I hope you guys can understand...

So from today onwards, I shall update you with my daily rants, life and experiences as well as more angsty thoughts and reflections of yet another one of those wacky teenagers. I shall stop here for the time being. *Sigh* And there's test in a few days time, what am I going to do?

I wish I stop procrastinating and kick into study mode, but it seems like my friends "encourage" me to do so when I told them my problems. So much for them.

Until next time!

[+] There's more!