Bottled Sky

If you have hundreds of vacation photos sitting in your hard drive and want to make better use of them, try turning them into cartoon postcards! It’s quite simple to do if you have some basic drawing and Photoshop skills.

In my aunt’s case, she had a niece with a lot of free time. Below are three of eight postcards that I made for her a few years ago (she needed them for a personal project). Click on the thumbnails for a bigger view.

I used photos from her trip to China, choosing those of her standing in front of different tourists spots with very few other people in the background. Those are the best types of photos for this kind of project.

Here’s a rundown of how you can make unique postcards out of your travel photos. One caveat: This is definitely not a tutorial. It’s more of a detailed idea for you to play around with.

Continue reading Personalized Cartoon Postcards »

I got scratched and bitten by cats many times in my childhood, because I didn’t know that this facial expression meant “Little girl, if you value your limbs, you will immediately cease your attempts to hug me.”

If I had been raised in a Bengal forest, surely I would have become tiger food before my third birthday.

Continue reading Not Amused »

Despite not being a Formula 1 fan, I will be watching the F1 Singapore Grand Prix in September. One of my friends, who is a fan, convinced me to go with her, the bulk of her argument being “It’s the first-ever F1 night race! Pretty please with sugar on top? I will pay for half your ticket!”

This friend is also an avid fan of slash. See below an excerpt from the IM conversation I had with her about our plans for the GP.

Me: Are we going to wear special fangirl outfits?

F1 slasher friend: I wanted to wear a Ralf/JPM OTP shirt. Too bad JPM isn’t in F1 anymore.

Me: Can we still wear those? It can say “I’m old-school.” in smaller letters at the bottom.

FSF: I’m gonna have one made right now. O_O

Me: Yay!

FSF: Maybe people would stay away from us then.

Me: My coworker and her boyfriend will be there, too. We can meet up with them… Unless they’re too embarrassed to be seen with us.

FSF: Ask them if they’d like t-shirts!

Me: Ooh, YES.

FSF: Her boyfriend can wear “I watch F1 for the buttsecks.”

Me: I’m sooo posting this conversation on my blog.

I am in a bit of a bind at work. We’re developing a new matchmaking website for one of our clients, and I’m in charge of coming up with the domain name. According to my boss, the name has to convey the “magic of falling of love.”

I tell you, it is as if the universe is punishing me for all those times I ridiculed people who celebrate monthiversaries. May I remind you that my idea of a romantic Valentine illustration is a rusty robot who fashioned a heart out of an old refrigerator door? Somehow I feel that RefrigeratorHeart.com would be completely lost on my boss.

When I asked a friend for suggestions, the best thing she could come up with was ICanHasMatch.com (inspired, of course, by the ever entertaining ICanHasCheezburger.com) Thanks, FRIEND.

Aside from naming the website, I also have to suggest features and apps that would be appealing to our target audience. For someone who has never even had a Facebook or MySpace profile, that’s a bit of a challenge.

Cue my desperate call for help. I need you to indulge me by describing your ideal matchmaking or online dating website. It doesn’t matter whether you have ever used those kinds of sites before or not. All suggestions and opinions are welcome! You can use the questions below as a guide.

• What features would you like a matchmaking or online dating website to have?
• What would turn you off from joining or continuing to use a particular matchmaking or online dating website?
• What features of your preferred social networking site do you like best or use most often?
• What type of look and feel would you prefer?

Please do share your thoughts. You can’t see the expression on my face right now, but it looks a lot like this:

Thanks so much in advance!

Who knew that weird underwear can be so useful? Not only can they ward off job-interview jitters, they can also serve as a fairly accurate gauge of how long a girl has put off doing her laundry. The stranger the undies, the longer the wait.

It’s inevitable, really. Once in a while, when a girl’s hectic schedule has run her ragged and all she can do as soon as she reaches home is zonk out, she must brave the depths of her dresser drawer known as The Underweird, the domain of mismatched, eccentric underwear that wouldn’t normally see the light of day.

Take me for example. Today I wore a graffiti-patterned demi-bra with silver clips in lieu of the usual strap adjusters and a purple-striped drawstring thong.

Care to venture a guess as to how long I haven’t been able to do my laundry?