Darlings

Updates of my darlings...

Haven't brought them for dog walks since Darling No 3 had her menses. Dogs (or rather, Bitches) have theirs for 2 weeks, every half a year. It is not really frequent but this is a hassle which most savvy dog owners will avoid by getting a male dog. I was one of them but was persuaded by my Darling No 1 who was awed by how cute Darling No 3 was.

See the videos to see how cute they were (and still are)!

Recently I posted some of their videos on Youtube... Do go there to view :)

Puppy Kyla drinks her first sip from the water bowl 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20WDnHc_BWg

Puppy Kyla exploring her surroundings 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUojg7hJHQI

Puppy Kyla and @sh 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KM35hD4y4M

Schnauzers and Hamsters 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K986t_Awu4A

*Lynspirations

Be inspired by my darlings :)

Old Videos

 I was browsing through my old files (those that I managed to copy to my new HP pc. Click here for this post.) and found these videos.

They are my Darling No 3's first baby steps and her introduction with Darling No 2, taken by Darling No1. Quite a mouthful right!


Puppy Kyla and @sh

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KM35hD4y4M




Puppy Kyla exploring her surroundings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUojg7hJHQI






Puppy Kyla drinks her first sip from the water bowl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20WDnHc_BWg&feature=channel






Wow, Darling No 3 was so black when she was young and she was so cute! Puppies just melt my heart!

*Lynspirations
Videos refresh your memories like it just happened yesterday!

Pastor Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism

I wrote in to the Singapore website, Racial Harmony, after I saw his videos.

This is the feedback I gave on 4 February 2010:

I would like to bring to your attention a few videos from Youtube, on Pastor Rony from Singapore Lighthouse Evangelist Church.

He denounces other religions and specifically mentions "satan and demons coming into people's minds". (timed at 4.50)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?...d

There are a few more videos of him and a few other people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?...d

I believe this is a serious denouncement of religions and he should be reminded, if not reprimanded, of the importance of racial harmony in Singapore.

Please take the necessary actions to ensure that he does not repeat such speech nor are these to be broadcast in public domains.

I have removed the video links because I don't think it needs any more broadcasting. If you have absolutely no clue what I am talking about, read the article from Channel News Asia (Source) as below:

Pastor apologises personally to Buddhist & Taoist federations
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 09 February 2010 2332 hrs     
     
SINGAPORE: The pastor who was called up by the Internal Security Department (ISD) for making insensitive remarks against the Buddhist and Taoist faiths has apologised personally to the leaders of the two religions.

The leaders of the two faiths accepted Pastor Rony Tan's apology, and wish to let the matter rest.

Pastor Tan of Lighthouse Evangelism made the comments at his church sessions. These sessions were video-recorded and made available on Lighthouse Evangelism's website.

Video clips of these sessions subsequently became available on YouTube and other websites. The clips showed Pastor Tan interviewing a former monk and a former nun.

Some who viewed the videos felt the pastor had insulted the Buddhist and Taoist faiths.

On Monday, the pastor was called up by the ISD. That same night Pastor Tan issued a public apology on his church's website.

On Tuesday, he met the leaders of both faiths at the monastery at Bright Hill for about an hour and apologised in person.

Venerable Kwang Sheng, president of Singapore Buddhist Federation, described the meeting as amiable. "When he first came in, he said he wished to apologise to us, saying that things on the video clip seemed to be very uncalled for.

"He realised that it was a mistake and the magnitude of the response was quite large. So he realised it was a serious issue, and he wishes to apologise to the Buddhists and Taoists for his wrongdoing.

"And (he) said that he will not repeat his mistake again. We accepted his apology."

When asked if he was satisfied with what Pastor Tan said, Venerable Kwang Sheng told MediaCorp: "Yes, because what else can we demand if someone else has already apologised? He said he was quite ignorant of other religions, he doesn't know the practice of Buddhism."

Venerable Kwang Sheng added that there will be room for better communication in future. "We exchanged name cards, and perhaps in future we may be able to meet and talk about our religion and his religion and if there are any misunderstandings in future, we can communicate."

In response to MediaCorp's query, the Singapore Bible College said it trains would-be pastors to be mindful of what they say, especially in a multi-religious society.

Dr Albert Ting, principal of Singapore Bible College, said: "You can talk about your uniqueness, you can talk about your values, you can talk about your doctrines, you can talk about what constitutes the basis of your faith.

"That is all within the allowable discussion. That is your faith, you can't change it. But whenever you're engaged with others, then you want to show your respect."

In a statement, the National Council of Churches said an advisory was issued to Christians in 2008 "not to denounce other religions" even as they evangelise.

But in the heat of the moment, a preacher can cross the line. And here is where the popularity of new media has made the situation more complex, because once these speeches are uploaded on the Internet, they can be easily forwarded to other people and posted on other websites.

Alvin Yeo, chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Home Affairs and Law, said: "There becomes a greater onus on whoever is making the video or being in the video, to take responsibility for their actions."

"The new phenomenon of the Internet and, you know, where everyone's mobile phone has a video facility, means that whatever you say and do, even in more limited confines, can well be spread to thousands, or hundreds of thousands, or potentially millions others," he added.

He also said the answer is not greater regulation but personal responsibility, adding that "depending on whether the message is incendiary (or not), I think authorities will move fast to take action, particularly if the outreach is that much greater."

The Islamic Council of Singapore said comments that "denigrate and trivialise" other faiths are unacceptable in Islam, while the Inter-Religious Organisation said it is "comforting" to see that many of the public comments speak for the need for religious harmony in Singapore.

I cannot believe it took so long for his comments to be noticed. Does this mean that everyone who heard it kept quiet because they agreed with him or simply do not feel the need to take action?

*Lynspirations
Racial harmony is important.

Schnauzers and Hamsters

Found this video of my darlings.

I took this when my 2 darlings were first "introduced" to hamsters. I did not meant to scare the hamsters but I did not expect my normally docile and quiet dogs to become so fascinated with the caged hammies.

Yes, that is HIM barking (or rather screaming).

No prizes for guessing, but he is a natural soprano *wink*


My Darling No 1 is in the background (no guest star appearance, by the way)...

*Lynspirations
I love my darlings :)

Lion Dance (2008 at SIM HQ)

These are the 2 videos I took in 2008. It was a Lion Dance to welcome the 2008 Chinese New Year.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqjb29FMm5Y




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3voaTvu8lI





Here are some of the pictures of the Cai Qing.

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

*Lynspirations

I love Lion Dances because they are loud and noisy!

Youtube Annotations

I was experimenting the other day and found out that Youtube allows you to do annotations. It is so cool!

It also allows you to send an invite to a friend to add in annotations for you!

See mine here:

*Lynspirations

Videos refresh memories and lock it in!

the secret place (video)

Just uploaded a video for my previous blog post.

Wow, Youtube allows you to do annotations, that is so cool! And it is easy too!

*Lynspirations
Enjoy the fun!

Never Ending Sun - Avi Hochberg

Hope you enjoyed this video sent to me by Darling No 1.

*Lynspirations

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. Buddha 

Baidu with Google logo? Baidu wasn't hacked!

This is interesting!

wow. Was Baidu hacked? (scroll below if you don't know what is Baidu)

Taking a closer scrutiny at the websites, I went to see baidu.tw (top left), baidu.com (top right), google.tw (bottom left) and baidu.tw (bottom right).

Domains are interesting stuff.


A domain name is an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).

Read about domains here:

Good Domain names
Domain Name News
Domain Name Wire




If you need to know (Source)

Baidu, Inc. (Baidu) (Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù) (NASDAQ: BIDU), incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum.

Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files and content including MP3 music and movies. It is the first China company to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search.

The content of Baidu is controlled by the Chinese government through Internet censorship. The user-agent string of Baidu search engine is baiduspider, which is the backbone to locate information, products and services using Chinese-language search terms. The Chinese language search are mainly through phonetics. Information covers snapshots, spell checker, stock quotes, news, postbar, images, video, weather, train and flight schedules and other local information.


Comments
All this focus on Google comes from its blog.

More interesting read:
TechCrunch
TheRegister
ComputerWorld
 InfoWorld

*Lynspirations
Hacking is illegal!

Haiti Earthquake

Haiti is so far away from Singapore.

The Creole- and French-speaking Caribbean country has been devastated by the earthquake of a massive 7.0 magnitude, just before 5 pm Eastern time.

Frantic rescue efforts are underway to free people trapped in the rubble.


A video on the effects:




Read these:
Earthquakes: 2006 Centennial Update
Aftershock: Earthquake in New York
Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering
Where Is God?: Earthquake, Terrorism, Barbarity, And Hope American Experience - The Great San Francisco Earthquake
Earthquakes: Science & Society (2nd Edition)
Mega Disasters: The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

My other Haiti posts:
http://lynspirations.blogspot.com/2010/01/2009-earthquakes.html
http://lynspirations.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-earthquakes-updates.html
http://lynspirations.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-earthquake-news-source.html
http://lynspirations.blogspot.com/2010/01/earthquakes-in-venezuela.html
http://lynspirations.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-earthquakes-updates-29-jan-2010.html


I hope that this will not be representative of the earthquakes that will happen in 2010.

*Lynspirations
“All things have second birth; The earthquake is not satisfied at once.” William Wordsworth

must-have apps for new PC / laptop

yeah! my new PC is finally here.

I am so impressed with HP's packaging! Read here

These are the must-have apps (applications) for new PC / laptop:

Mozilla Firefox - read the dummy guide here 

I love this browser because it allows you to customize and include Add-Ons. Add-Ons are like mini programs or accessories for the main product (Firefox). Just like earrings to complement your outfit. But they have a purpose. Read here for more information: Mozilla Firefox extensions or more in-depth information.

Read this if you want know why you should switch browsers.

I downloaded the Themes as well as google toolbar since I support Google :)



And then I got myself some more anti-virus software. It came free with the Adobe Flash *yeah* If you are looking for free antivirus programs, here are some for you, from Cnet Download.com This is a great website, a one-stop for all programs, even drivers.

And then I decided I needed some utility programs, like drivers. Because I am using this Acer AL1717P monitor. It looks something like this: . But it is a gray version. I love it because it has built-in speakers and I don't have to get speakers for it. But it is weak though and I still attach earphones when I want dramatic sound effects :) This is the exact one I am using now. A gift from Darling No 1. (Speaking of him, he got me this PC too *smile*)

Also if you always transfer files, it is good to have either Winzip or WinRar. I also recommend VLC as your main music or video player as it plays most files. It is so user friendly that I fall in love with it. Thanks to JC (my ex-colleague) who recommended me this.

She also introduced me to Skype. It is the official communication program in NHG, where I worked for a short period of time.



Then next on my list was the windows download. Well, I wanted to update my windows and I tried so hard to find the update windows icon on the Start Menu. Well, there isn't one!

(This is my current screen layout by the way)

And then I went to see what is new in Windows 7 here and what are the top downloads (they must be good if everyone is getting them?) And I peeked at what are the new programs on the market, just to keep myself up to date.

And as I am a visual person, I need some good simple picture editing programs. I wanted to get SnagIt (read more) but then there is already a program call Snipping Tool. So there is no need for me to go get anything. And of course I pinned my favourite program Paint to the start menu.

So far so good. And not to forget my online buddies, I went to download Windows Live Menssenger (Guide Help for Windows Live Messenger) and the Windows Live Mail. Please don't ask me if I went along with the default installation setup - NO! of course NOT! I refuse to use Bing and I did not like the other applications that were offered in the Windows LIVE Essentials sets (stuff like silverlight and what-nots).

If you want to find out more about Windows 7, here's your bible.

I believe in Open-Source. Find out why.

Then I installed ICQ because I am a sentimental person (it was my second chatting program, MIRC being the first). I may download MIRC later :)

As you can see, i spent alot of time doing my setup. But it is easy to do and you can do it too :)

*Lynspirations
Do leave me a message if you want to join me in Facebook, Twitter, ICQ, MSN or Yahoo!Chat.