For years, Firefox users have been crowing at me for being a dinosaur and still using IE for surfing the Internet.

“Ditch IE,” they say. “Firefox is the only way to go.”

“Why?” I ask.

“Tabbed browsing.”

“I can live without it.”

“Not after you’ve tried it.”

“I’m happy without it.”

“Firefox is more stable and efficient.”

“But IE is doing well enough for me.”

Actually, the truth was that I just didn’t feel like adapting to a new interface. It’s like changing your phone from Nokia to Sony Ericsson. Suddenly you’re all thumbs and you have to relearn everything. It’s annoying.

And then IE came up with tabbed browsing and I thought that was the end of it. One fewer reason for Firefox fanatics to rave at me.

Until two days ago.

Suddenly, IE kept crashing on me for no reason. Every few minutes, it would freeze while loading a page (mostly when I try to scroll down before the page is fully loaded) and the cursor would freeze in its hourglass-icon state. All buttons and links dead. The only clickable thing is the little red cross on the top right corner.

At first I thought it was my computer. But my other applications were working fine and it was only IE that kept crashing.

So I got fed up and downloaded Firefox.

Like magic! I visited all the same websites on Firefox and it didn’t crash a single time.

Now, I’m forced to become a Firefox user. You fanatics should be happy.

But I have complaints about it. Text in Firefox looks lame. Here’s an example:

Internet Explorer sample:

Mozilla Firefox sample:

Can you see how the text looks stronger in IE? Firefox’s text looks like the printer ran out of ink.

If I’m going to read anything at length on my monitor, I’d rather read on IE because it looks easier on the eyes.

Also, see how, in Firefox, my links are hardly noticeable.

I wonder if you Firefox users have even noticed that I have links on my blog. *lol*

After two days of using Firefox, I want to go back to IE.

The IE interface is prettier and more sleek.

IE allows you to open a new tab with just one click because it has that little tab corner sticking out.

On Firefox, you need to right click first, then select New Tab.

I suppose I could just do a Ctrl-T, but that’s different.

And, most irritating of all, I changed my blog password last night and now Firefox refuses to let me log into my blog admin. It keeps telling me that my password is wrong. And I’ve tried typing it like 20 times, very carefully. So now I have to blog from IE and risk it crashing on me.

How annoying.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

By the way, you might have noticed that I’ve just installed a new plugin called Similar Posts. It gives you a bunch of links at the bottom of each post in order to entice you to stay on my blog longer. Nothing new. Just something I wanted to add since time immemorial but kept putting off.

I’m also thinking of changing my blog skin. My side bar is getting ridiculously cluttered and I want a three-column blog theme so I can have two side bars to organise my nonsense.

I’m thinking of this one:

I want something very clean and simple and neat. This looks like it. What to do you think? I might attempt to change the blue to pink. Heh.

If you visit my blog over the next week and see any weird stuff going on, please bear with me. I’ll be experimenting with themes and plugins and widgets.

Other than that, it’s business as usual.

Categories: Regular Blogs
33 Comments »

Singapore is becoming a scary place to live in.

Of course, never as scary as, say, Detroit or Johor Bahru, but it’s suddenly scarier than it used to be.

When was the last time the police shot anyone in Singapore, never mind shot them dead?

According to this news report, the correct answer is the year 2002.

Pretty long ago, huh?

When was the last time a dangerous terrorist leader was reported skulking around safe, sterile Singapore?

Before Mas Selamat Kastari, never?

When news of the JI leader’s escape first broke, I was amused. I know I shouldn’t have been, because it’s a matter of national security, but I was amused because it felt like a movie come to life. It grew into such a huge event that it’s hard to take it seriously because it’s so surreal.

When I imagine myself bumping into Mas Selamat Kastari on the street, my first reponse is, “How cool!” when it should realistically be “OMFBBQGSHIT RUN FOR YOUR LIFE HEEEEELP MUMMYYYY!!!”

Maybe it’s just me. I find it hard to take life seriously, sometimes.

And then, before the press is even done making a big deal out of our now world-famous terrorist escapee, the police goes and shoots someone dead.

When I first saw the headlines, “Man shot dead by police in Outram Park MRT” my immediate thought was that it was related to Mas Selemat Kastari.

Turns out that it’s not. It’s just another random violent episode.

I’m sure random violent episodes happen in Singapore all the time. It’s just that I’ve never witnessed or heard of them so many times in a month.

On Feb 23, the Goonfather witnessed a group of boys beating another boy bloody outside Bugis Junction. I was inside the building at the time so I didn’t see it, but the Goonfather said it was really gory and bloody and awful.

The next day, on Feb 24, I witnessed a fight in a Tiong Bahru carpark between at least two men, while other men tried to pull them apart. There was possibly a sharp weapon but no one was seriously hurt because of timely intervention. There was a lot of shouting and cursing, though.

I hardly witness serious fights in Singapore, much less twice consecutively.

Life in Singapore is getting weird, what with terrorist leaders being at large and fights and killings happening with alarming frequency.

Maybe a significant portion of Singaporeans feel scared and threatened by all these happenings. Maybe there are as many who still feel safely insulated in our Singapore-brand safety bubble.

I think I belong to the latter catergory, but I’m going to get more weirded out if these events don’t stop happening.

What about you?

Categories: Regular Blogs
18 Comments »

[Photos by Justyn Olby]

By popular reader and photographer demand, I put together a “little skirt with normal shoes” outfit.

Even then, my dear photographer wasn’t entirely thrilled.

“Is this your idea of sexy-elegant?”

“You said you wanted little skirt and heels, so here’s little skirt and heels.”

“It’s too cute,” he complained.

Well, what’s new. He says that about everything I wear.

I can’t help it if I have cute tastes and elegance doesn’t exist in my DNA.

You people complain somemore, I’m going to have to start wearing dowdy auntie clothes and attempt to look 45 years old.

Categories: Fashion Diary
20 Comments »

Last month’s comments grand prix was rather weird.

The first and second places went to the same person. lol.

Imagine that happening at an actual motorsports event. The leading car clones itself somewhere along the way and eventually takes first place and second place. Hahaha. (But I suppose there would be rules against cloning or sorcery in real competitions.)

Well, I don’t know why he did it, but reader Mike M shocked everyone when his name suddenly appeared on the leaderboard twice, both names individually raking up way more comments than anyone else.

Weird but cool.

Let’s recap the leaderboard.

Sheylara.com Comments Grand Prix
:: February 2008 Winners ::

1. Mike M (86)
2. MikeM (71)
3. modchip (58)
4. Jesta (17)
5. Ashtar83 (15)
6. -=}{oT~dEv1L 666=- (14)
7. shin (12)
8. Wang Wang (11)
9. binary_0011 (11)
10. zield (11)

Thanks again to all participants of my blog, past, present and future (we must always be forward-looking).

I’m sorry I haven’t been replying to comments in the last two weeks. I’ve been going through a lot of nonsense. But things are more or less back on normal track now (as normal as my life can get) and I’m going to have more time to spend “hanging out” with you guys here, so to speak.

Keep coming back!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

In other news, I’m helping a couple of my dear blogger friends plug their entries to a competition.

Please read nadnut’s cute blog entry about her fantasy Sydney adventure, where she appears in a bikini! Ooooh! =)

Then register here.

Then vote for nadnut here.

AND…

Please read Barffie’s short and sweet blog entry about her fantasy Adelaide adventure, with a sultry serenade! Swoon. =)

Register here if you haven’t already.

Then vote for Barffie here.

You can vote once a day from now until March 10. Choose your favourite babe to vote for, or vote for them on alternate days. Whatever. Voters get to win stuff, too, so there’s an incentive for you!

The top three voted win an exciting trip to Australia with Radio 91.3 DJs and the chance to talk about the experience live on radio! What a cool competition!

You might ask why I didn’t take part. I didn’t know about it until now lah.

Well, good enough for me if my friends win. Maybe they’ll bring me back a souvenir or two. ;) Maybe a hunky Aussie dude! Whee!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More news, more plugs! I know you love plugs. Don’t deny it.

Hot Mama Xtralicious has started an online boutique called AN XTRALICIOUS LIFE, selling vintage fashion.

I’ve stolen a picture from her site to put here so you can see for yourself:

There isn’t a lot of stuff right now in her shop, but there’s enough for a shopaholic to browse around for several happy minutes. And it’s all great, so please support her! =)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now, one more plug.

Just kidding.

That’s all, really.

Thanks for reading!

Categories: Regular Blogs
10 Comments »

I didn’t want to blog about it when it happened because it was too disturbing an event to blog about.

But a month has passed since Picnic and Pixie died, and I’ve kind of accepted the situation already.

I guess it’s alright to talk about it now.

First of all, I don’t know why and how. One day I woke up and they were dead.

We buried them in the garden.

Later in the night, the Goonfather asked me, “DO YOU THINK THEY WERE MERELY HIBERNATING?”

I stared at him, bug-eyed, and declared unconvincingly, “NO.”

We rushed down to the garden to dig them back up.

We had wrapped them individually in white Ikea table napkins. We didn’t have fancy hamster coffins at our disposal.

So we dug the napkins back up and got into a sort of a argument.

“You open it.”

“No, you open it.”

“No, you open it.”

“No, YOU open it.”

“No.”

It was late at night and dark in the garden. Only the dim, yellow glow of a torchlight illuminated the lumps of napkins laid out before us.

The napkins were unmoving. Damp. Flattened. Little stain dotting a corner that looked suspiciously like blood but could be mud.

We went through a few more cycles of the “You open it” argument. We rationalised the situation. We looked at each other helplessly. We stared at the napkins for minutes, willing them to move.

Finally, we said, “they’re dead,” and buried them back.

I don’t know why and how they died.

We googled it. We considered hibernation because their bodies were relatively soft when we found them. (Dead hamsters are supposed to be stiff.) But we don’t get winter in Singapore so it’s not that possible. Picnic and Pixie lived in our air-conditioned room where the temperature never goes below 18 degrees celcius. Hamsters go into hibernation (or, more accurately, a state resembling hibernation) only around 10 degrees celcius or lower. And dwarf hamsters aren’t known to hibernate.

The Goonfather said Picnic’s cage had smelled bad. Even though I washed it and changed the bedding less than a week before.

So, my babies are dead.

But that isn’t the entire reason why I haven’t published a Hamster Tale in ages.

I do have a few more stories archived in my mind, pictures archived in my hard disk. I just need to write the stories but I haven’t had time to tackle them.

But I will get to them eventually.

In the meantime, I’m deliberating whether to get more hamsters.

I have $300 worth of hamster housing and supplies sitting in a corner of my room.

I miss my naughty, tyrannical Picnic and my sweet, innocent, timid Pixie.

But I don’t want to kill another pair of hamsters. I don’t know how Picnic and Pixie died but they did die under my care.

Picnic died buried under wood shavings. I couldn’t find her at first and thought she’d escaped her cage.

Pixie died in her favourite tube connector, next to the door that’s supposed to open into Picnic’s cage.

I’m moving house next month so I can’t get new hamsters right now.

I guess I will think about it after the move.

Categories: Hamster Tales
50 Comments »