Don’t you hate it? Now blogs are hit by SPAM. I wonder why people will go all the way out to create junks that people do not read. It is like creating more garbage. At the end of the day, who benefit from it? The software company that produce anti spam ware. It is so annoying.

My blogs just attracted SPAM a few weeks back. Initially it was 1 or 2 in a week, slowly increasing to 5 per day. Last week, it was worst, it went up to 10 per day. I decided to put a stop to it.

I upgraded my blog software, WordPress to 1.5.2 (not sure now whether it is the latest) and install a third party anti-spam ware called SpamKarma2 by DrDave.
(Source: http://unknowngenius.com/blog/wordpress/spam-karma/).

It has been catching spam up to 50 per day and allowed genuine comments to go through. SpamKarma2 only work for WordPress 1.5.1 and above. If you have an old version, I suggest you upgrade. For this upgrade, it only takes 5 minutes to do it. Remember to backup before changing.

I am not sure whether there is any anti spam ware for blogspot, anyone out there know? I have lots of friends who are using blogspot who wants to throw spam to the garbage bin. If you know of any, please comment.

That was what I did this weekend. I started a sofa cushion cover project. I regretted buying a pale color sofa because my children leave stains on it. I took it to the dry cleaner and they did the worst job ever. Instead of removing the stain, it got worst. I decided to do another set of covers on my own.

My aunt MIL gave loan me this sewing machine. It is an antique as you can see from the picture below. It is a hand sewing machine. I can only sew simple stuff like cushion covers or curtains. I don’t know how to do dresses although I would love to learn but no time. I remember during the old school days, I did sew an apron, house coat and a simple skirt. Yeah I did Home Science and I am proud of it.

Jasmine gave me another idea, she will give me a bean bag pattern to sew. I think I will do that right after this cushion cover project. By the way I have finished one cushion cover and will do another one next weekend. Then I will start on the bean bag. Bean bag are really expensive and over priced. I saw one cloth bean bag selling for > RM150. Maybe I can open a store just to sell bean bag.

Someone send me this, today. For those children out there who loves the purple dino, pamper your parents to take you.

Source: http://www.ticketcharge.com.my/html/detpg.asp?eid=283

Long ago I took a class called “Think on Your Feet”. It has thought me how to present a topic without preparation. I was given a topic and needs to speak about the topic for 5 mins. Suddenly 5 mins seem a very long time. There are some differences between Asian and Westerners. If you give an unknown topic to a Westerner, he can come up with creative speech where Asian will have some difficulty. Asian is very good in solving problems like maths, chemistry equation and Sudoku. Sudoku is a new game, I read in the newspaper if you solve 6-7 Sudoku a day, you will improve your mental age.

The differences here are, who actually utilise which part of the brain. The right brain is the creativity side and the left brain is the logic side. When you sing, you use your right brain, when you calculate your monthly expenses, that is your left brain working. Asian education usually concentrates in training our left brain which neglects our right brain. For those parents who take their children to music class, it is very helpful. Western education trained the right brain, in music and studying base on seeing, touching, feeling. In school, they have lots of excursion to places to learn, not just class room learning.

Now, how can we train both side of the brain? As for me, I usually use left brain for work, especially in solving work issues. My colleague gave me a funny idea, if want to train your right brain, try doing things with your left hand. By the way, left side of the body connects to the right brain and vice versa. Listen to the phone with left ear. I am not sure it works, but it is worth the try. Hey by the way, blogging is a good way to train up our right brain too. Unless you blog about mathematics equations.

When someone asks you a question, try using your right brain to answer instead of left. That is think out of the box, thinking away from what a common answer would be. Try it, it is fun! Like what I did to mumsgather’s blog this morning.

Take this quiz if you want to find out which side of the brain you use the most: http://www.blogthings.com/rightorleftbrainedquiz/. Do tell me in your comments.

Congratulations Daniel!! Somehow I had that instinct that he will win. I think he was at the top from day 1. You just make 8TV or TV3 richer, 1.2 million (& 6 million in total with the rest) votes for finale!! I think he has a bright future. Look at Leon Lai, Andy Lau and Aaron Kwok. Don’t underestimate the young generation fans. Die hard fans. I just don’t believe what I read in those MI forums. They are all out for the one they like, even if no pocket money for the rest of the month or year.

Now I know being a parent is not easy, if you know what I mean. One day, if my gal or boy came up to me and said “Ma, I need RM100 to vote for their favourite idol?” Give or not to give? I hope I don’t face with that question in the future.

In my humble opinion after watching the Finale, I think NITA ROCKS!!! Her stage performance was excellent, her power and spirit was superb. I just hope she is the next Malaysian Idol.

Anyone who is a fan of Malaysian Idol? Tonight Finals In Genting, live at 8:30pm, showing in both 8TV and TV3. Daniel & Nita will be performing. The idols will sing 3 songs each, one judges’ choice, one personal choice and one theme song. The theme song is titled ‘Mimpi’ and it was written by Pot Amir of Innuendo.

I like to watch MI from Auditions to Workshops to Spectaculars to Finals. I also vote for Nita. I think she has talent and her stage performance is excellent. Tonight I will judge by the performance, whoever does the best performance will get my votes. I have so much balance in my handphone. I am not a phone person that is why I have so much balance in there.

For those of you who is out of malaysia who wants to watch. Click here: http://www.malaysianidol.com.my/msianidol05.asx

Who are you voting for?

Finally we got to go to Spice Garden with my family. It was the haze, wedding dinner and rainy weather that keep us from going. The Spice Garden is located somewhere in between Batu Ferringhi and Teluk Bahang of Penang. It was not what I expected. No doubt the scenery was very beautiful with lot of greens and water falls. The place has alot of hiking trails that you need to climb. Lots of stair way up and of course no place for stroller. I had to carry Emily to hike up. My children had fun and so did I (exhausted), to enjoy God’s creation again and always remind me there is someone out there who created the world perfect.

The above picture shows that Emily actually was holding a big giant spice called the Kayu Manis (Cinnamon).

I came across this blog and was very touch by this young lady Yvonne, who have strong character although she is having cancer. People with heart, help her out whether big or small.

Source: http://www.yvonnefoong.com/donate-to-my-medical-fund

My uncle got some bug chocolates for my children from Turkey. Before my son wallops it all up, I asked my hubby to take some digital shots. It looks very cute and whoever design it is very creative too.

THE END