The Rawpinions Weblog

I just did the logo concept for rawpinions.com, on Flash (ok, it took me just a bloody minute, so McFreakn wo0t).  I LOVE it.  It’s simple, it’s witty (well, at least I think so) and it’s not only got an “R” in it that stands for rawpinions, but it’s a symbol for what rawpinions is about (it should sort of look like the facial expression of someone who’s sort of frustrated/bothered; someone who’s got a nasty opinion, heehee…).

It’s still Friday (for another 45 minutes) so technically, I’m not late.

LOL…it’s a bit funny esp. coz I love it and I didn’t know it would only take me a minute to do.

I’ll polish it up a bit and then apply it to the site.

I’ve added 2 more bloggers on my blogroll.

Creative TX is a blog of a (foreign) friend of mine here in Shanghai, she is creative talent & intelligence rolled into one.  She’s one of those people that I literally get along well with.

About My Recovery is a problog about a filipina mother who talks about her life and what it’s like trying to get over the accidental death of her 6 year old son.  I almost cried reading it, so I’m sure most women…esp. mothers will cry.  I found her blog accidentally, and go back to it from time to time.

Didn’t want to mention this until now: extended Rawpinions for another year! So I don’t have to worry about the domain being expired until late next year.  I’ve also enabled privacy…I usually enable privacy when the domain or website is not for sale. I’m going to have to start saving up now, or the renewal fees for all my domains will strangle my finances.

Ok, that was a bit corny. LOL. Just say “0 Days Left” on the Sex and the City widget so I decided to visit their official site and take the quiz they have on there: Match Your Man. I have to admit that throughout the 6 seasons I found Mr. Big the most attractive, and have never changed my mind. Mr. Big was in a league of his own.

Now I’m convinced that I will never get married, and if I ever do it’ll be because I’m “settling” for a compromise (like most marriages anyhow). Why am I completely convinced? Because I got this:

We all know there’s no such thing as a Harry…and if there was, he’d be gay. Besides, nobody’s ever attracted to Harries (they’re just too damn shy). I might have one or two friends like that; that’s the thing: they’re they types that women only want as friends esp. because they think like women - and that’s meant as a compliment…unfortunately there’s nothing sexy about that.

I just found yet another one of my pet-peeves: someone calling me “sis” or “sister”. After this post, I’m going to try to Google-search people who might be feeling the same way, if any…because it is a weird pet peeve.

It bothers me when either my male or female friends call me that. My own biological sisters don’t even call me that, so why should other people?

The reason one of my close female friends call me “sis” is because, according to her I’m the sister she never had. So instead of calling me ‘buddy’, ‘pal’ or anything that sounds like she’s talking to her dog, she calls me “sis”. I totally understand her reasons, but somehow it still bothers me big time. I can’t really tell her not to call me that, because she’s going to sulk and get all sensitive about it.

Even more horrible is when guys call me that. It’s just a word that has never been in my non-existent culture. So the word only has one meaning to me and that’s “female sibling”, of which I have two.

The ultimate worst however, is when a guy - a steaming hot guy, calls me “sister”. It’s as immoral as incest-ism.

Rawpinions.com have been up for about 7 months now and I haven’t even been able to think up of a proper logo for this place. I will probably change the theme eventually, but I’m too lazy and busy with other things to use Photoshop at this point. I’m thinking of having something that takes half the screen before scrolling down.

I’ll try to do something with both Photoshop and Flash and if everything functions properly I’ll use the .swf file.

Since the site update, the RSS has not been working. It’s most likely a database issue because I omitted a few lines when I re-installed it. The answer to that problem is in the back up files…somewhere…!

Current Mood: Cool

I’ll be taking a break from domaining and I’ll be working on other things this weekend (provided that I’m feeling well). I’ll be finishing off some articles, and I’ll be filling up the new Rawpinions MSN ChatBot database. It’s got barely anything on right now, so I’m going to have to look through MSN conversations I’ve had with my friends to see what sort of questions I get asked a lot.

Rawpinions Chatbot (only on MSN Messenger), add contact: sabz [at] rawpinions [dot] com

The objective is to get the bot chatting the way I would, if I were having a conversation on MSN Messenger. It’s a bot that’s mainly for the sake of conversation (whatever happened to good ol’ chatting?), and basic internet help.

Obviously, the bot promotes my blog too. :p It won’t take long for me to add quite a bit of things (I’ve already started adding conversations).

Chat logs are saved, but they will only be used to better the bot’s replies.

Current Mood: Cool

I’d like to think that having 401 posts is actually a blog achievement! But about 2 weeks ago I came across a problogger (category: personal journals) who had about 4000 post or so, in a span of just 2 years! That’s about 166-167 posts per month if my calculations are right. Her posts are also quality posts, so I have no idea how she does it. I really have to start pulling up my socks.

I’ve added a separate database where I’ll be adding all the scam junk mail I receive via e-mail. If you’re receiving such emails please know that these people are only trying to benefit from you. One of these scammers tricked one of my friends into sending them money. These scammers will most likely reply to your emails and answer your calls especially if you seem cooperative. No matter how nice they are to you, they do not have good intentions. You have been warned.

The best thing to do is to simply ignore these emails, and just delete them. Don’t even bother opening them if they’re title is similar to the ones I’ve posted.

Current Mood: Cool

*Image used to create our current favicon

Some returning visitors might have noticed the change in the rawpinions.com’s first-ever attempt at a web 2.0 theme. Today I’ve got some time to spare so I’ll be working on one or two themes that will be available for download here (and anywhere else I can upload the theme(s) to LOL).

As much as I liked the original narrow version of our current theme, I’ve made the decision to keep the wide version. I’m aware that many people still use the 800×600 display resolution on their computers but unfortunately, a narrow layout is just too difficult to work with. Also, most web surfers are now on the 1024×768 display resolution (the display resolution that I’m currently on). So I do apologize. I can’t cater for everyone, but at least I can cater for the majority.

So the upcoming free Wordpress theme(s) will be wide layouts. I’m a fan of the 3-column themes, so they’ll also be 3-columned. The basic layout will sort of look like the one we have now.