I was reminded my a friend on MSN and noticed it was today! I’m definitely going to turn off all the lights where I live. It’s going to be so fun especially since I won’t tell anyone and they’ll be like ‘why is it so dark?’

I really like the idea of Earth Hour. It really makes you think about how much energy we’d save if everyone in the world turns off all their lights for one hour. A lot. I’m definitely going to participate. Already set an alarm at 8:28pm today! 

If you happen to be reading this and 8:30pm, March 28th still hasn’t arrived yet, set your alarm and get involved! Make your mark and help the Earth! EARTH RULEZ so let’s help it out!

Major thanks for WWF for organising such an event. Already twittered and Facebooked, and Japanimusic’ed it. Hope everyone who reads it participates too.

More info: http://www.earthhour.org/home/

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At first, I tried adding events and repeating them, but then found a better way… activating the birthday calendar. In order for it to work, I needed to add profiles of each person in Address Book with their birthdays… then it’ll show up in iCal. Along with their real names, I can add their titles (like Da Yi, Lao Lao etc) in the Nickname field, and it’ll work if I search that too!. Now I know everyone’s birthdays! No more asking around ^__^

Today, I installed Things. It’s basically like a ‘to-do’ planner thing. I need one of these. It replaces the need for a diary when used with iCal. Things is pretty cool, as it syncs with iCal, as well as being able to sync with iPod Touch and iPhone’s Things application too. I can set things on dates and it’ll sync the to-dos with iCal etc. My first to-do was to finish these blog entries I missed, so after I finish it, I can tick the to-do and it’ll be marked as completed Yay!

I’ve added things to do tomorrow when I go to Da Yi’s house with internet (we disconnected the one here at Lao Lao’s house as they charge by calendar months, so I’ll be paying for the whole month…) and instead of a text file I wrote, I can use Things to help me stay on track and organised and not waste time surfing around trying to remember what I should do with the valuable time! Things is awesome! (In fact, all applications I’ve used so far are awesome and are more sleek than Windows applications!)

Another item was for Pizza Hut, it is a new pasta dish they’re introducing, scollop and pumpkin pasta… mmmmm. I brought this up saying ‘Oooo I want to eat this, they don’t have it back home’ and so my Grandma said we’ll go tomorrow (today now).

Anyway, we got up and Zhang Lao Lao came while I was still in bed. I got up after she left, and then Piang Da Yi came and visited us, and gave us $100 for our New Years gift. I accepted it after hesitating a little. She came and then left.

We got dressed in our coats etc and then went down to the shops as Grandma needed to exchange her money into smaller bits (instead of from the taxi driver as there are fakes around). Anyway, I got my $100 in case we needed to use it.

We got into the taxi and went to KFC. I saw people had already tried the crab as I saw a box with a crab on the table as I walked towards KFC. Anyway, we went in and Neoneo was speaking to the cashier. I got a fish burger (yes, fish at KFC) and my Neoneo got a chicken one (apparently has a New Orleans flavour or something). 1 and 4. Then wanted to get the crab, so ordered it and then switched it to a combo meal that includes it instead. I then wanted one of those egg pastry with taro/purple sweet potato (Dan Ta). Apparently it costs 5.50 for one. Neoneo said you’re meant to get a free Kit Kat but I didn’t get one. Didn’t want to fuss around anyway to didn’t bother.

Found some seats and sat down. I ate a crab first (very eager). Wasn’t surprised by the size despite being so small, since they seem smaller than ads anyway (fair advertising? xD, like the Big Mac) and it was nice. The crab meat was two little though, just batter. I wondered where they got so many crabs claws LOL. They sell, like heaps, and there are only two claws on a crab.

Then got the egg pastry. It looked better in the ads too. It was just purple sweet potato at the bottom and egg at the top. Tasted a little burnt I think. Where is my free Kit Kat?!?!?!?

Then ate my fish burger. It was not hard and there was actual fish meat inside (100%) and I had thought it was something like the crab with just batter, but it tasted really nice (better than Fillet o Fish at Mc Donalds). Grandma ate some fries and Neoneo ate her burger.

Neoneo and Grandma then went to the bathroom (long time…, queue?) and so afterwards we walked along outside onto the Wai Tan. Looked through some shops but didn’t have anything we wanted (didn’t know where to wander anyway). Then went up the Tai Tan steps to get Neoneo candy floss (apparently there was someone selling it last time she went with Da Yi the other day when I got my Macbook Pro).

We walked but to no avail. There was white doves where people can feed but I remembered… Bird flu so kept a bit far away. Saw this really cute Chihuahua in a lady’s arms. Wanted to touch it but it’ll seem really random lol. Went up the steps and blurrr was it cold! (It is near the river, so yeah it’s cold. River was like frozen xD.

Walked and walked and there was no candy floss maker apart from people offering to take photos for money. I wonder how they get to earn money when there are no one around xD, and those that do have their own cameras of some sort (nowadays all phones have cameras anyway). NO CANDY FLOSS and I was freezing! Finally we got down and got into a taxi. First taxi didn’t move when we signaled him so we walked past him and got into another lol.

We got back and I watched Table tennis on TV and Neoneo was making some stick figure and then later made Apple and Kiwifruit soup/syrup/salad.

I got up and my mum rang to wish me Happy Birthday. I went for a shower, and then my dad called and wished Lao Lao happy birthday too and then me (while I was in the shower lol). Da Yi came early and went out for shopping.

Then people came from Tianjin. Da Yi (Da Da), 3 Yi, Da Jiu (Da Da) and ____, Lao Jiu Ma and Li Chao, Li Rei and her wife and their baby. It was kind of awkward having so many people arrive as I didn’t really know them. I just asked if they needed help in the kitchen etc. I got $400 in total from them while I was watching TV. Did the Asian ‘hesitant’ thing, if you know what I mean.

We had many yummy dishes. There were so many people that there needed to have a seperate table for the children (well, me, Yaoyao and Neoneo :P). We ate and ate and drank and ate and ate. I played around with the free paper king crown that was given with the cake. I gave it to the baby and he ripped it. I had a bad vibe from that couple and their kid, seriously. Anyway, I just went and sat down myself and talked with Neoneo. She felt pretty awkward too I guess, or just being my buddy and feeling sorry for me by myself.

Me, Neoneo and Yaoyao wished Lao Lao Happy Birthday!

… Time passes

I help wash the dishes as it really was pretty random and I needed something to do. Da Yi told me to take some photos with my Macbook, but I didn’t want to a little as I don’t want them seeing that I had a flash computer and all, but I took it down and opened it. As I had sort of predicted, Li Rei’s wife was asking about the computer, like where I got it and where it was sold etc. Meh.

Well trying to ignore that, I get the relatives to take photos with Photobooth, the inbuilt feature I found. Did some warping photos as well. It was fun and they were laughing (Li Rei didn’t do it. Bad vibe? Meh)

Then Li Rei and their couple finally left. I didn’t like them that much really. Their baby is like trained to accept only red 100 notes D: . I don’t like babies like that, even if they don’t know what they are doing. It shows a lot about the parents and what they teach. No caek for you!

When they left, Da Yi asked if it was okay to cut some cake for ____ and Li Chao. Of course it was duh, so I opened it and I lit the candle and ate the cake. It was delicious, although the baker still put too much cream on the cake despite me repeating to not put so much, maybe she didn’t hear it… or she was ignoring me.

I took some photos and recorded a video!

It was a fun day. It was quite a coincidence that me and Lao Lao celebrated birthday on the same day!

When I woke up, we arrived and we got off and waited for someone to come meet us. Suprisingly, there was a lack of cars on very wide roads… There was these dogs around and we joked about the people arriving to collect us :P. I’m really silly at times.

___ and her boyfriend came and meet us, riding bikes. Sure, it allowed them to come to us quickly, but were we supposed to walk with them? xD. We finally went and got into a taxi and finally knowing the restaurant we were supposed to be meeting up at. We got there (room 301) and there were four tables. We were using two. Some people came in and I was like ‘who are they’ and apparently there were using the two unused tables. It was a little awkward at first Then OUR relatives came in from the door. I don’t remember half of them and just said what Da Yi told me to say :P. The dishes then started coming along and we started eating. At our table, sat the women and their children, while the other sat the old people and the men. We ate (sweet potato with salted duck egg sauce… mmmm and) mushroom soup, chicken and pork with fried leaves (yes, leaves. I tried eating the leaves, first thing I picked up. I started biting it and I was told that it wasn’t edible), sweet and sour jelly and Xiong Hua Dan and other stuff I can’t remember.

While talking about birthdays, I found out that 6 Yi has the same birthday as Neoneo! As well as being the same zodiac! Cool!

After eating, we went out and headed into a tourist attraction of an old courtyard and houses to see how life was like a long time ago. 4 Yi was the ‘guide’ as she lived near the area we were in (Yang Liu Ching). While we were walking I saw a giant gold monument of a bady and cod as well as horses with carts.

The courtyard was very large. When we got inside it was hard to keep track of direction. It was a bit like a maze. The houses themselves were not very large, but the yards were. I think it would have been better if they built a giant house instead :P. The courtyard itself was very like what you see in television dramas.

My Grandma told me that she used to live in a similar courtyard when she was small, so she didn’t come with us. I found it pretty boring but like it being very big like a maze. There were houses for the newly wed couple, elderly, servants and even the dead! (including where to place pictures etc). Besides that, there was a temple, a school and an opera house. Talk about planning :P, but I guess it is similar to having a mansion with a tennis court, bowling alley and movie theatre in present day life.

Neoneo went with Zhao Ying and we didn’t see them until near the end. I wanted to take photos of her but she didn’t want to. I got lost once inside

Near the end, Yaoyao spotted a puzzle competition. She got one where she thought she knew the answer, but later found out that the competition had already ended lol.

We came out and walked back and took the bus, and then another. We went to a hospital to check up on 2 Yi Fu. Apparently he suffered a stroke (well something to do with straining the brain) and he couldn’t talk or move half his body. He recovered pretty well and was going to leave the hospital tomorrow afternoon. We got 100 yuan from him each

We then went on a bus to the bus station to catch the 621 to go back to Tanggu. The bus station was next to the train station as well, and I don’t know if they’re related, but there were a lot of people waiting in the queue!

While in the queue, Da Yi went to get some food for us, and came back with Lotte chocolate pies (which I later found out was twice the price from a normal shop!). There was a kid that needed to go to the bathroom but if they went to the toilet, if would risk losing their spot, so the father got a bottle… (the kid was a boy, so you know what happens next).

The first coach left and people were squeezing into it and being packed like sardines. The aisle was filled with people standing up for a 2+ hour drive. Each person on the coach meant one extra paying person, so they tried to pack them in as much as they can. Obviously we were in no hurry so waited for the next one, which was about 15 minutes. When the next coach did arrive, people squeezed through the door. While holding two boxes of chocolate pies, I was being squashed around and I couldn’t get on (I guess everyone wanted a seat), and so I swore some unholy words and finally went on. It was, like ridiculous. Only in China I guess. When I did get on, I saw this old lady getting her shoe slipped off while she was trying to get on. xD

Finally after a long drive, we finally arrive back in Tanggu. Da Yi Fu went off to check up on her mum, as she was sick. Me, Neoneo, Yaoyao and Da Yi went to order cake for me and Lao Lao (we have our birthday tomorrow on the same date! She uses lunar calendar while I use the normal one so tomorrow they are the same day). We went to Vilicom and ordered one. It was $143 + $8 extra for a flower candle. Da Yi went back to her own home, and me, Yaoyao and Neoneo got into a taxi and went back to Lao Lao’s house.

It was a fun day. Especially getting on the bus at the end, even though it wasn’t the main thing

Photobooth uses the inbuilt camera and you are able to use many effects (thermo, sepia, b/w, x-ray) as well as warping, like what I have on my Sony Ericsson phone (Facewarp) where it distorts your face in many various shapes to look like weird aliens and creatures. It also has this cool scene feature where you are able to set pre existing backgrounds or custom ones of your choice. I went swimming in the tropical oceans today, as well as nearly falling off a rollercoaster, walk on the moon and go to France. It’s so cool.

I wonder what other nifty features I can find tomorrow! Buying a Mac is like the best tech decision ever! It’s just, a fun entertaining computer!

I even called my Grandma to take some photos. When I showed her the warping feature and got her into a scene she laughed really loudly (never seen her laugh that loud in my life :P). We had our 30 minutes of fun xD. It is awesome!

If you want to check out the photos, check out my Picasa Web Albums and/or click via the Lifestream links

Here, for commercials, they repeat it 3 times in a row. Maybe it has something to do with the mind remembering in threes. (Oh dang there we go, another ad that’s repeated three times). It’s so annoying. xD. Why not play it once and then after a few different ads? You have a habit of speaking along with the ad since it’s so etched into your mind. Wait, that’s what it’s meant to do.

I’ve heard many comments from various other people, saying that the new Aluminum Macbook range have a very glossy screen that is equivalent to a mirror when used in daylight or under light indoors. 

Maybe it’s because of the lights here, but I see no reflection, and love the wide glass screen. It’s bright (thanks to LED) and is very, very clear! (I don’t like matte, but I’m not a designer). Sure if you intentionally look at the light on the roof through your screen to see if it show, then duh of course it will! But if you are under normal conditions, it’s perfectly fine!

More will be posted soon!

After installing a bunch of must-have softwares for my new Mac, a friend recommended me try Speed Download as a download manager. I searched ‘Speed Download’ in the Safari Google search and found Yazsoft’s website (which I love the design!)

I downloaded the Lite version, as I didn’t need the FTP or any other features that the full feature has. I only needed a download manager and this is it!

You are able to get the Lite version for $20, while the full featured version is avaliable for $25, avaliable at Yazsoft’s website. You should definitely check it out! They have a 21 day FREE trial avaliable too! So what’s to lose? Nothing! Try it!