Threaded comments, colors, and resolution update

Just noticed the new feature on wordpress… very nice, but not so useful at this point considering how few comments I’ve been getting!

It would have been great back when I first started this blog.  Neverthless, I’ve decided to activate it just in case my blog gets busy again (right, in forever and a day).

Oh and you might have noticed that my blog has turned pink.  What is that supposed to indicate if I prefer pink to the other colors..? other than that I’m being girly. :p

On another note, resolutions have been a bust but that’s ok they’re only really guidelines.  I don’t consider it failing if i don’t accomplish it every day, since that’ll just make me give up.

Besides, bedtimes take a while to reset.. especially when you occasionally have sleepless nights.  And the flickr update has been a few pictures rather than a whole album because I feel like I’m starting to run out of pictures.. haha

I know, boring post.  Hopefully the next one will be slightly more interesting.  For once I know what it’s going to be about!

Local pictures

I just found this group on flickr.  It’s specific to SF but after looking at the photos on there, I think it could be specific to any city you’re in.

Anyway, I just thought it was a nice idea to capture your city in ways most people don’t think about/notice.  It’d be a good project someday. =)

Flickr Widget

I discovered the flickr widget (seen on the right of this blog) while looking for a place to put the flickr badge.  It’s either new or I never had any use for it before.  Either way, I have an easy solution to my problem!

I prefer the flickr flash badge, which has a mosaic of pictures and enlarges random ones periodically, but until I figure out how to put that on this, the flickr widget will have to do.

So now you can keep track of whether I’m keeping resolution #2.  I failed in all resolutions last week because I got sick again, but I should be able to keep them now that I’m feeling better. =)

Subscribing to RSS/atom feeds

I’ve added new subscriptions links in the top left menu — it has some extra features in comparison to the old links.

For example, the old links were only RSS – the new links are more compatible and will be in whatever format your feed reader application requires. There are also extra links to the feed that you may find useful.

Also, the feed cuts my entries so that you don’t have to see the entire post unless you want to. I’m not sure if I really want this feature yet — I’d appreciate feedback on that (aka. should I show more/less of the entry, or don’t cut at all, etc).

Brief summary of feeds (because I’ve been asked)

Happy Earth Week!

Tuesday was Earth Day, making this whole week Earth Week.

For people in southern California, Sprinkles cupcake is donating proceeds of their vanilla cupcakes to local tree planting and environmental organizations. See here for details.

Additionally, I found out UC Berkeley also has a whole week of events. It’s not too late to check out the Transportation and Energy Faire or the Creativity and Community Celebration!

I’m sure there’s plenty of other stuff going on — these are just the couple I managed to come across.

Remember, reduce, reuse, and recycle. =p

Free Half-Day Tour in Taipei

I was looking up some tourism stuff and found this page. Unfortunately, I can’t take advantage of it because it’s for transit or transfer passengers (at Taoyuan Airport) only.

Anyway, thought I’d put it up in case anyone has some time to spare between flights and want a free half day tour through parts of Taipei.

Looks like a pretty good deal, although the morning tour seems to go to less places. I assume it’s because the temples and pottery center are further/more spread out, while the other tour is focused on spots inside the city (which you could probably get to with MRT).

Media bias 2

When looking at the situation from the last post (of Melbourne press not reporting an anti-media demonstration), some questions immediately come to mind.

First Question: “Did Western press receive a timely press release?” If they weren’t sent one or were given the notice too late, the blame is on the organizers, not the press.

Second Question: “If they had covered it, wouldn’t you criticize it as biased anyway?” Western media would surely have tried to defend themselves against an attack on their integrity.

Biased reporting is a serious allegation (at least in the US), so I imagine anyone covering it would address the claims somehow. It’s personal so it will most definitely be biased.

Third Question: “Would you rather have ‘biased’ defensive reporting of the event or no reporting?” If I were organizing this event, I’d say no reporting.

Media Bias?

EDIT: My bad – that’s what I get for posting in the middle of the night and not reading well enough. So the blogger was referring to an anti-media demonstration. In which case, after a brief internet search, yes, the Melbourne paper did not cover it.

What I wrote before was because I was under the impression it was a torch rally. My comments still stand in that regard because I -have- heard complaints of media not showing pro-China supporters at the relay.

I’m planning to add another entry to address the actual Melbourne situation, so stay tuned!

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I read this blog post by someone who lives(? Au news sources linked were labeled as “where I live”) in Australia and expressed outrage at their media. The previous entry that was alluded to was quite logical and sensible.. which is why I don’t understand this entry.

S/he may be complaining about Au reporting, but I think the complaint is universal enough to also apply to Chinese Americans.

I couldn’t read all the text in that link, but I don’t understand the outrage. I’ve seen plenty of pictures of Chinese supporters, as well as pictures where Chinese and anti-Tibet supporters are intermixed. In fact, the first pictures I saw of the SF relay was a sea of red flags lined up.

Blog Colors

For those who’ve visited this blog several times and noticed different colors each time:

I alternate the colors because I couldn’t quite decide on one.  So each color will be up for one or two days (or whenever I get around to it).  At this point, I’m simply going down the list, but in the future I may change the colors depending on my mood.

So you never know, what you get each time will be a surprise!

Taiwanese Heart, Global Perspectives (台灣心、國際眼)

EDIT: for those of you who checked my blog before I fixed it (around 8pm PST), I accidentally deleted a few paragraphs of my entry after the more tag. It has been re-added.

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First things first — I’d like to introduce and promote the following blog:

Taiwanese Heart, Global Perspectives (台灣心、國際眼)

This newly-created blog is maintained and authored by a fellow Cal alumni who currently lives in Taiwan. From the first few entries so far, it’s clear that this blog is unique among others in its category (Taiwanese political blogs).

Why is it unique? To answer that I need to give you some background.