coriander in pho

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  • Billie Eilish and AM/FM memory

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    When I first heard Billie Eilish, I thought her voice is unusual — and I was on the unsavory side.

    But as I listen to her songs, it brings certain memory.

    When I just started university, I had this small AM/FM radio from my dad. I usually listened to it before bedtime, with low volume, and fell asleep as I listened to the songs and the radio DJ. Some nights, I was wide awake, typing my papers. We didn’t have Spotify or even rich enough to subscribe to streaming service. It was the days of MP3s, where college students found MP3s from each other’s USB stick. Either radio or your Winamp MP3 player on infinite loop.

    The crackles from the radio and the white noise afterwards when the broadcast ended had a soft spot on my mind and my heart. I guess that’s the reason why I like lo-fi genre so much — and I found myself listening to Billie more recently.

    Billie Eilish ‘everything i wanted’.

  • 2020: Halfway

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    As we are skeptically looking at the end of August and the rest of 2020, I wanted to see how far we have gone — or didn’t go at all because travel restrictions and all that.

    Early 2020, when we were such sweet summer children — not realizing the horror descended upon us.

    Then… Everything stopped.

    There have been so many pain and tears and anxieties. However, it didn’t deter so many humor and encouraging words.

    “Stay at home. Don’t be afraid of getting weight, because you can always getting slim again. If you died, you can’t go back alive again.”

    And somehow, friendships and connections are reformed through video calls and chats.

    We appreciate more folks, the frontliners — pandemic or not, they are always out there, taking care of our needs. No, I’m not accepting your apology because you have done more than needed and we know you are putting yourselves out there to ensure we are okay. I’m sorry, and thank you.

    Please don’t be sorry! It’s okay! Thank you for your hard work!

    We appreciate small things now — as simple as a haircut.

    Slowly but surely, we starting to build and regain our lives back. It haven’t happened yet on some places, but all of us are working on it.

    Stay safe and stay healthy, folks. We can do this.

    Obligatory KL sunset pic

  • Image and website: Handling HEIC file format

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    This post will sound pretty technical-ish, but I just realized something about it and I wanted to write it here and hopefully it can give some insights or info with you folks.

    Soooo… Huh, I forgot exactly when, mid-2019, early-2019? I guess? Yeah, so during that time, we got some questions from folks on why they unable to upload images from their computer to their WordPress.com website.

    Image upload issue can varied from file size, server issue, Internet connection, and file format. On my previous blog post about doing Support, I mentioned about “replication” — Support team usually asking for details from users to see if they themselves can replicate the issue and narrow down the possibilities. Now, at that time, I was able to upload sample images so I mentioned that I couldn’t replicate the issue. So I asked for more details.

    Then the details started to pour in. “Images from my iPhone…”, “it’s greyed out when I tried to upload it…” — and soon we found the common thread: Apple OS.

    HEIC/HEIF (High Efficiency File Format) was introduced by Apple in 2017 alongside with iOS 11. The format said to be able to store high-quality image with half the storage space. I feel this is pretty expected, knowing how Apple has been selling their iPhone photo quality — and I’m sure they want some efficiency on the file size to ensure no backlash coming from the users.

    Problem is, there is no browser supports HEIF/HEIC format natively as of now — and this including WordPress.com website. The file format is not yet compatible, and the only way to open it is to convert it to JPEG, JPG, PNG, or others.

    So! A bit of tip. If you want to upload/use your photos from your iPhone to your WordPress.com website, do not open the Media Library modal (Media Library > Add New) directly on Photos (if you have your Photos app synced between your Mac and your iPhone.) It will give the greyed file icon and you wouldn’t be able to upload it. What you need to do is, drag-and-drop the photos from the Photos app on your Mac (given the photos are synced between two devices — your Mac and your iPhone) to your Mac desktop or folder. You would see that the image files converted automatically to JPEG. From there, you can upload your images to your website.

    Another alternative is: Use WordPress app. I seriously don’t know how to explain this, but it just works.

    (I wish I could grab a developer from Mobile division and let them share their workflows and the details here because good gosh, it’s really awesome.)

    For some reason, WordPress for iOS works with HEIC file format and you can add the images directly from your phone (or maybe most — or even, all — apps are able to? ?) This is definitely helpful and if you are comfortable in using app for blogging, I definitely recommend this approach (me myself is still pretty 50-50. I like the app, and I like the sit-down-in-front-of-your-laptop-and-type.)

    I hope this helps. This is applicable to many (if not, all) website services out there. If you find some image files can’t be uploaded/greyed out, check the file format and see what it is. You can convert the images using any image processing softwares/apps or using online converter. You can also check Apple’s Support guide related with HEIC/HEIF file format.

Nindya’s quick blurbs

  • A month too late, but I just stumbled upon IKEA France’s Tiktok video, hinting a possible collab with Animal Crossing. Unfortunately, no further information about this other than IGN picked up this news when the video was posted.

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