Oldie but goodie...

So as you can see, dear readers, ghetto of our mind has reverted back to Blog Template #4. Blog Template #5, a.k.a. Birds on a Wire met an untimely demise when the header image disappeared on us. I suspect either the template designer deleted the image not knowing that people were using it or their image hosting account got deleted. I should have known better and saved the image on our own. But oh well, the pomegranates are still adorable I still love the fresh, clean aesthetic of the design. It was our longest running template so there has to be something enduring and endearing about it :)

Tweet tweet...

Goodbye pomegranates.


So to usher in the new year, ghetto of our mind has taken on a new look again. It's been close to a year and a half since the last change (the post describes the evolution of our blog) and with little to do while we were in Wisconsin, I occupied my time by searching for, finding, tweaking, Photoshopping, Illustratoring, and tweaking some more this final blog template you see now. As some of our more frequent readers know, this birdie design has been up for about a week or so now-- a soft release if you will ;)-- but from then till now, there have been little things I've been playing around with, like the tree image at the bottom of the page, the letter and line spacings, the blockquote code, fixing Jude's last fm widget, etc... But as of 4.47pm, 1/2/09, I think this is about as final as it's going to get for now. For a while, I got a little obsessed with correcting every little quirk, error or flaw I noticed in the formating till it frustrated even me. But like Emilee said, there's a bit of a obsessive-compulsive-perfectionist in every PhD student, so I'm just going to have to embrace that side of my personality whether I like it or not.

Besides, I really don't mind putting a little work into the blog. Ever since we started it, it's become a fairly important part of my life in terms of putting into words thoughts that would otherwise have remained internal. It's probably as much for myself as it is for the people reading, sort of like therapy if you will. And for that I thank you, our dear readers, for allowing us to inflict on you all our verbiage, no matter how mundane or banal :)

Retrosepctive

These were the things that defined the blog-- and by extension, us-- this past year. Thanks 2008, you've been good to us :)

[click for larger image]

Thanks to wordle.

Home vs. blogging

What is it about being at home in Singapore that gets in the way of blogging? It's almost like I'm uninspired to blog- OK, maybe "uninspired" isn't quite the right word, "unmotivated", perhaps. It surely doesn't have to do with time, since it's been so nice taking a break from work these past few days and just spending time with the family, during which I could have easily found some time to blog if I wanted to.

It probably also has little to do with the lack of things to blog about- I could have told you about my first data collection session with a class of ten-year-olds (which went extremely well, except for one rather precocious kid who kept asking how old I am. Apparently, telling me over and over that I look 20 is supposed to be a compliment- which it would have been had it not been so weird..), or the excruciating heat and humidity I had to endure as I ran my first 8K through MacRitchie Reservoir over the weekend (if I can survive keeping up my running regimen here, I really might be able to survive the Detroit Half). Or maybe you would have liked to read about the fiasco otherwise known as Serene Koh's attempt to renew her student visa? (who still requests for cashier's orders these days?? The American Embassy in Singapore, it would seem...). And then there's the insane storm of a meal my sister and I whizzed up tonight- anchovy-onion pasta, glazed ginger ale carrots, Parmesan-crusted fried lamb chops with tzatziki, and a banoffee pie thrown in just in case we weren't in enough of a food coma.

At the end of the day, I think blogging has become our way of updating our friends and family here about our lives in A2, but since we're now home and a "hey you!", "why are you late?", and "what *is* that you're wearing?" are just a text message, phone call, or shout down the hallway away, it's almost like there's little need to blog. Of course, there are those of you who are now on the other end- our friends stateside- who pop in once in a while to make sure we haven't fallen off the edge of the world. Don't worry, we'll make sure to update as often as we can. Hope you guys had a great 4th July weekend!- I can't believe Kobayashi lost the hotdog-eating contest again- c'mon, dude! Asia represent!- and that returning to the grind of work today has been forgiving after all that partying, BBQ and fireworks!

ghetto of our mind- finally why...

In the three years we've kept the blog, I've lost count of the number of times people have asked us why the blog is named the way it is, and it never occurred to me to blog about it. Well, after stumbling across this video yesterday, I figured it's about time I did.



ghetto of our mind is named after the Rickie Lee Jones song, "Ghetto of My Mind" from the album, Flying Cowboys. Rickie Lee was one of the first things Jude and I discovered we had in common way back when, which pleasantly surprised us both since few people we knew then appreciated the sometimes idiosyncratic quality of her vocals. The album became the first of many CDs and books we started swapping and sharing, which is also why Rickie Lee has had a special place in our hearts ever since :)

She was actually here in Ann Arbor earlier this year to promote her latest album but we both had to be in school and couldn't make it. Bummer... :( It's not just her voice and the originality of her compositions that we love so much, but also the creativity and musical richness of the arrangements. And you can see in the video just how much fun she has making music- pure joy- and she's so genuine with her emotions, it's infectious! The last few moments are particularly precious- enjoy!

Ghetto of My Mind
Saving all my money all week long
So I can go out driving with you
Down on Hollywood Boulevard
On friday night, dressed right
I don't take no trouble smoke at the wall
But I still have that leopard-skin hat
That you gave me way back
Before it was cool
And they took it to school

Here in the ghetto
The ghetto of my mind
Y aqui, the ghetto
The ghetto of my mind

Hey we wild it up, wild it up

I like to dance with my rooner
'cause when we dance I feel like
We are who we've meant to be
He puts his arms around me
I put my arms around him
And I feel satisfied and free
One night I tried my bandanna around his wrists
And we started to sway and it felt so good
And he said " looky here mamma, looky here
I think I better just see you
Safely out of the neighborhood"
That is to say

The ghetto
The ghetto of my mind
Y aqui, the ghetto
The ghetto of my mind

Hey we wild it up, wild it up

Outside my window the noise is all I've got
There are no stars in the sky
Just the sirens and queens
Breaking glass down in the parking lot
That's the world where I live
Sometimes I wonder, oh how can I go on ?
But I know that the world you make inside your head
That's the one you see around, that's what I said
And the one you see
Is the one you make

Inside of the ghetto
The ghetto of your mind
Y aqui, the ghetto
The ghetto of my mind

Hey we wild it up, wild it you...

-Rickie Lee Jones

Of blogs and pomegranates

Yup, time to change the blog template again. Without our own house to redecorate, I guess the closest approximation to choosing drapes and wallpaper (not that we would ever have wallpaper) is re-doing the blog AGAIN...

We've had the same blog layout for almost 2 years (although the images and colors have changed) so I thought this three-column design might be a refreshing change. I'm sticking to the fruit theme though- don't ask me why. Maybe I just like pomegranates...

The blog's design has evolved quite a bit over the last 3 years, and with it, our coding and customization skills.

The first two were basic Blogger templates- one was too light, and other, too dark:



I briefly toyed with an Arcade Fire template in 2005 but for some reason didn't stick with it. I think it was a little too cluttered for us:


Next was my homage to Laura Ashley in bright pink and blue. I liked it quite a bit and we stuck with this layout for a while. But I think the neon brightness and paisley print might not have sat too well with my husband ;)


The last template was the "A good pear" one- I liked that very much and it was the cleanest and lest cluttered of our designs. And I loved the pretty little daisy.


But like I said, we've had that layout for a while and so to usher in the spring (once this spectacularly ridiculous cold spell blows over!...), I thought to give ghetto of our mind a little spiffying-up :)

This might be a good post to do something Noor calls a comment open-mike night. If you’re reading this post right now, leave a comment with your name, how long you've been reading our blog, or just say "hi". We'd love to hear from everyone!

We aim to please

So, in light of my husband's personal and professional axiom, we've once again improved the usability of the blog. In an initial attempt to provide categories to our entries (as per Noor's suggestion), what resulted was an unwieldy long list of entries for each category (and only a few categories at that...). So, until Jude materializes his grand plan for a home server system so we can host MovableType on our own, we have to rely on del.icio.us for the time-being to make categories.

I created an account just for the blog and tagged every single blog-post into categories (we have 330 posts in case anyone's wondering; 331, if you count this). This might actually be better than the categorizing system in Wordpress or MovableType coz you can tag each post with more than one tag. So if you look at the sidebar now, we have a section for Categories, and each tag will take you to the respective del.icio.us page. Jude should be proud- the tags represent the aggregated information disseminated by this blog, a representation of collective group knowledge formation, and the outward manifestation of both our inner cognitive processes- guess who's been proof-reading all her husband's academic papers?... :)

A good "pear"

Ok, so I've decided to be the good wife and use a blog template that my husband isn't embarassed to associate with as well. Not that he's been complaining- I just figured electric blue & pink paisleys scream more the Serene half of judeandserene.blogspot.com than the Jude half.


Now, we can both be comfortable calling it our blog... Besides, I do like the pear motif- I initially thought the title of the template- "We make a good pear."- was kinda cheesy, but it grew on me; and now, I think it's actually kinda sweet, especially with the daisy** :)

Also, I just got the new JCrew catalogue in the mail and they were featuring their Fall collection. So I figured oh well, this is the Midwest, I may as well start transitioning, hence the fruits and muted colors. Nothing much has changed so no one go into an apoplectic fit, please... We'd love comments, of course- as Jude always says, "We aim to please!" :)

** I love daisies... They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?
-Meg Ryan in You've Got Mail

[Just for Jude and Chrispy's benefit... ;)]

New addition to sidebar

So Jude & I have decided to dedicate a section of our blog to the friends and family who mean so very much to us. These are either blogs or Flickr sites of the people without whom our time in Ann Arbor would have been totally insufferable, and also those because of whom we always think of home in Singapore. With regards to the latter, there's only my cousin, Terri's blog so far (which btw is awesome because she's smart & funny, and because she speaks and sometimes blogs in French so as far as I'm concerned, it's a cultural experience too) primarily because although both my sisters have blogs, one hasn't updated it in almost a year because the government's working her to the bone churning report after report on the status of our country's labor force, and the other has resolutely refused to let me share her pre-pubescent angst with the rest of world. She loves Billy Martin, that's all you need to know.

We figured it's a good way for those of you who read our blog to 1) also read the blogs of friends you were on the verge of losing contact with and can now revive links, and 2) visit the sites of people you may not know, and in the process, make new contacts. Either way, it's a win-win situation- everyone will love everyone else, the world will be a happier place, global warming will be averted, and the dolphins will be saved. There you go- Q.E.D.

*[Hmm... so someone just informed us that those of you using Internet Explorer actually see the entire sidebar at the bottom of the page instead of next to the posts. I'm not sure how to fix that except suggest that you use Netscape, Firefox or Safari instead. It works fine with those browsers and they're more user-friendly to begin with anyway.]

Ha!

Woo-hoo! I get to keep this template! Everybody knew I was so rooting for the new one anyway- the poll was just my diabolical attempt to publicly legitimize my personal agenda... Anyways, on last count, we have twelve "aye"s and only two semi-"nay"s (my dad who says it's a little TOO clean, but still likes it anyway; and our guitar-and-theremin-making friend who thinks the background should be a color other than white- I tried, it doesn't work...)

So it'll be this floral motif for a while, at least until September 13 2006. In case people are wondering where I got the template, I've credited the designer in the sidebar. It's from francey.org, where I also got the Arcade Fire one. She has some really awesome stuff- there's a Royal Tennebaums template that I was very tempted to try out, and also one inspired by Of Montreal. And of course I still love the moths and train of the Arcade Fire design...

And just a coming attractions shout-out, look out for Jude's post tomorrow on the Sigur Ros concert he's at right now (pronounced Si-ur Rose- the "i" is like the "i" in "hit", silent "g" and "rose" is said very quickly- I got this from their website). The whole town is buzzing and there're kids sulking forlornly outside the theatre because it's sold out (they were sold out a couple of days after the tickets went on sale. We got them the day of man...) I was supposed to go, but am still stuck in the computer lab churning out a paper due at 10 in the morning.

Thank god for Chris.

Anniversary Poll

So... ghetto of our mind is officially a year old today! And I thought to commemorate the event by uploading a new template. Hopefully this one will not be as short-lived as the Arcade Fire one. I've tried to make sure that the images are securely hosted so nothing disappears like the last time. Cross your fingers... This template's way more feminine than the polka dots of the old, but I think also alot cleaner so to speak- clearer, less things going on. Scroll all the way down to the end; there's a pretty design at the bottom that few templates have.

Anyways, maintaining this blog has been a wonderful way to keep in touch with friends and family, and also to share with you our thoughts and experiences (often mundane and inconsequential we apologize, although we do have our days, like yesterday...). We really appreciate the comments and messages you leave, and they never fail to remind us of how much we're loved and how often we're thought of. Thanks guys!

Also, just to add some fun to the festivities (yes, yes, Jude & I are of course throwing a birthday party for the blog- balloons, party hats and cake, plus a pinata thrown in just in case people didn't know it was a birthday party...), I thought to take a poll on the new template. I'll leave it on for a week or so and then depending on whether people think this looks good or if they'd rather the old one back, I'll fix it next week. Do leave a comment or a message on the tag-board and we'll find out next Tuesday if this stays or not.

This should be fun!

Sisyphus

Yes, like the man condemned by the gods to ceaselessly push a rock up the hill, I'm feeling the futility of the search for the perfect blog template. Note to self: by the end of the year, we're not only going to find a reliable server to host all our graphics and blog related files (even if it means having to pay), we're going to learn enough HTML and Flash to design our own website (complete with professional portfolios). Enough of this fiddling around with someone else's design...

Defence

All done. This might be the fastest blog recovery in history- less than an hour and everything's pretty much up and going- Tag-Board and Flickr included.

Please, whoever you are, don't do this again. I type fast and I'm not stupid. The coding is tedious but brainless, so getting things back isn't that big a deal. What disgusts me is the callous disregard for someone else's work. I may not have designed the template but someone talented out there did and this is the product of her toil. This is our blog (note POSSESSIVE pronoun)- time, thought and effort has been put into getting it to help us share of ourselves with our friends and family.

Stay away.

!!!

Believe it or not, the blog's been hacked! We lost everything except the posts and some of the graphics... As you can see, I'm repairing the damage right now... Geeez... and just when I was so proud of my HTML coding. Figures, hubris... This isn't even a celebrity blog like Xiaxue's or anything... If I find out who and how someone managed to do this, things are not going to be pretty.

I'm pissed.

New Template

So, we finally found a template we like that has a little something of the both of us. I love the the way the frothy blue plays against the assertive brown, and the contrast between the primitivism of the butterflies and the industrialism of the train is wonderfully intriguing- like getting lost in a naturalist's nightmare... Besides, since The Arcade Fire is one of Jude's favorite bands, this is perfect. We were actually toying with the idea of buying an Arcade Fire poster, but they were too expensive, so I guess having a blog that looks like one is the next best thing.

There are still some kinks I'm fiddling with (like finding out what on earth is going on with Tag-Board and how to fit in Jude's Flickr bar), but for the moment, we're happy with how this looks.

What say you?

Ch#$b*@ is the new hip

All I ever wanted when I was in primary school was for my name to be called every Monday morning at assembly to go on stage to receive a Speak Good English badge. The Speak Good English campaign was initiated throughout schools in the '80s as part of the government's endeavor to wipe out the use of vernacular dialects and encourage the use of Standard English.

Twenty years later, one blog and one overnight sensation of a blogger comes along and pulls off a coup- not only is the oft-considered crass-and-coarse Hokkien suddenly a celebratory instrument of opinion, he has unwittingly (or not) propelled a Hokkien swear word to celebrity status, making it officially the first curse phrase to appear in our national press.



For an extended guide on the origins and use of this word, click here.

We can't help it- we're devoted readers... Rockson, you rock!

Nice to meet you too

I know it doesn't seem to make much sense in introducing the blog after five posts, but in a universe where life makes sense all the time, I wouldn't be blogging at all but spending my every waking moment dilligently ploughing through educational policies and their impact on student achievement. In that universe, Bambi's mom would also not have to die and everyone would acknowledge that Buffy is and always will be one of the greatest things to ever happen to TV.

Anyways, as I've said to some people already, this blog is still very much finding itself- we're not sure where it's going yet. So far, I've been spending more time updating the sidebar than posting journals actually. So that's the altruistic component of this blog. It's reviews of books we're reading, have read, or are looking forward to reading. No, they do not simply redirect you to Amazon.com as some people have assumed, but are reviews from magazines or journals that we think are worth a good read. The links to the movies are, unfortunately to their official website. But the thing is, many movie sites these days are a lot more than just a description of cast & crew- the Eternal Sunshine one is an excellent example. It's thoroughly interactive and infinitely entertaining. If you've watched the movie, you'd really appreciate the website. We haven't seen all the movies listed but they're here either because of good previews or purely as reminders to ourselves to go watch them when we actually find the time to.

The music section owes a great deal to Jude- he's the music guru in this household. He introduces me to these new sounds, and it's my great task to share his exquisite music taste with you. Of course a lot of it has been filtered through my less-esoteric sensibilities- I don't know how many people would really appreciate techno punk... Anyways, some of these sites allow you to listen to entire albums, others just snippets. There are also a couple of sites which are either online radio-stations or archived music programs. I highly recommend those and if you have one of those lust-worthy media players that allow you to stream your music wirelessly at home, you literally never have to turn on to a regular radio station again.

My favorite section of the sidebar is the random fodder one. These are truly random sites that have caught our fancy for one reason or another and will probably be the ones that wil be most often updated, although some are more enduring than others (the kate spade site will be there for a while- a reminder to self about what to buy when I get my first REAL paycheck...)We've chosen sites that promise a great deal of fun and/ or information and we hope you'll enjoy them as much as we do.

As for the more self-centered section of this blog, a.k.a. the posts themselves, they'll be updated whenever something worth talking about pops up. We have neither the time nor the inclination to share with the world our daily shenanigans (nor dare to assume that the world would want any information about us...). It'll be more likely to revolve around topics which have either tickled, frustrated, gratified, confused, surprised, comforted or intrigued us- sometimes maybe all of the above. The Comments option is open to everyone so feel free to jump into a conversation if you feel strongly about what we've posted. Even if you're one of those people who don't feel very much for anything anyway but just want to say "hi", go ahead. We don't discriminate- we're equal-opportunity comment recipients.