Fingers crossed it works out well.

Teddy of the mascot.

Yes, I finally own a university hoody, which is proportionate. My SoJ hoody has a short bodice but normal length sleeves. :/  Now, where’s my name…?

Uni. hoody.

Congratulations to fellow graduates of BIAD.

Image © www.advancedmp3players.co.uk

I have had this video/mp3 player for about a month so thought this was an adequate time to review the product.  I should note that I am a bit of a Sony fangirl but will try and keep the tinted glasses off, and give a fair perspective.

Firstly the specification (taken from the Sony website):

On first appearance the player is a nice size, similar to an iPod Nano¹, just not as slim.  The packaging it comes in is nice and compact but no charger is supplied so you’ll either have to purchase one or stick with the USB.  Quite light but the weight is noticeable when strapped or hooked onto the body.  On the touch screen is a sticker, with no important information, just be careful when peeling that you’re not trying to peel the protective layer off…like I did. -_-  Oh yeah, and there is no CD for the software included.  Probably for the best really it having downloaded it from the Sony website I found Content Transfer absolutely pants and unnecessary.  The interface doesn’t leave a good impression either, a little bit like Winamp in it’s early stage².  I should also note that files can also be transferred via bluetooth so you’re options are open.

Right, onto the more technical stuff.  Though is is a touch screen player it still has a “Home” button with the volume, play and hold button on the left side of the player.  The player is quick starting up and the touch screen is very responsive.  To transfer files is literally as simple as drag-and-drop.  The sound is beautiful, with the option  to set the VPT (i.e. studio, arena…).  If you’re into karaoke you can set the track to that mode and sharpen or flatten the keys of the songs.  Note that with karaoke mode you can still her the main vocals of the songs, they’re just more subdued.  The downside is you can’t create playlists on the go, playlists can only be created with  a computer – just sync a playlist from your computer to the player.  Again, don’t bother with Content Transfer.

I haven’t put any videos onto the player but from the default ones provided the quality seems quite impressive for an mp3 player – this is only in comparison to the Zen Mosaic, Sony S2 Sports Walkman and Zen Micro, which I have previously owned.

Hmm…what’s this?   SensMe™ channels is interesting and quite brilliant.  If you’re feeling in a certain mood (e.g disco, emotional, extreme…) the player will play the songs according to the chosen mood type.  Clever.

What else…there’s also voice recording.  Oh and despite popular belief³ you can easily sift through song/artist/etc lists, the letters denoted by dots on top of the screen.  There is also a “123″ icon and “etc” before and after the dots.  The only issue you will find, not surprisingly, is trying scan through songs which are more characters-based than letter.

Overall this Sony Walkman is nifty with great sound, as you would expect from a Sony product.  However, the price might be off-putting as it does seem dear for what it includes.  Currently, the price stands at £259⁴.  Also, if you were to buy the charger that would set you back another £8, roughly.

1. Having to mention an Apply product really hurts…
2. That’s an injustice to Winamp though.
3. Well, in short reviews I’ve read.
4. It was £299, mind.

The Good

• Winning an award for my pendant.
• The work experience at Charles Green.
• Getting to go to Germany for Inhorgenta with my friend and getting one final chance to go to our favourite takeaway in Passing – the food is so good¹.
• Completing the final year of university and having a degree.  I felt that I wasn’t going to achieve a good final mark but I’m extremely happy that all the hard work and travelling expenses paid off.
• Getting a few chances to work on commissions, which I love.  Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than turning a collation of thoughts and ideas, of the ideal jewellery piece, into an adornment they can actually wear, or give to their loved ones.
• Completing my website/shop².  Thanks to my host’s help I finally have an EPOS to actually sell my jewellery.  Now, all I need to jewellery to sell…
• Getting to go back to Hong Kong and staying for more than two weeks.

The Bad

• Nothing worth mentioning here.

The Forgettable

• Tonsillitis.  In particular getting is so close to my trip for Germany, where is was too cold.
• It was also kind of the reason I missed the awards ceremony.  Not good at all.
• My final exhibition.  My pieces weren’t bad, they just weren’t finished trying to get them perfect was not going to happen.  However, it tough me one valuable lesson: to keep the precesses less and simple!
• Eh…some of the football results…

Oh how rude of me… Happy New Year everyone!  If I drank I’d virtually clink glasses with you but since I don’t I’ll give two very Asian “victory” signs.

1. That is good pronounced with elongated o’s.
2. Designed and imperfectly coded by me.

When I got back to my aunt’s appartment to test it out I took a closer look at the glamourous box. Upon inspection, I realised that the cover is missing one of the main actors’ name. That gave me the first clue that this was not a legit copy. The second clue was the actual DVDs. There were four in total but placed in plastic sleeves, two in each sleeve – not to mention all discs were scratched. No wonder it was cheap…but…I wasn’t going to complain so long as the viewing was of high quality.

After inserting the first disc a wave of green pixels flashed across the menu screen. That, and the menu buttons didn’t match those that I had seen screenshots of. Also, the picture was not as high quality as was told to me (yes, I found it odd that a seller would use that as a selling point). After doing some research online I had deduced that the version I had bought was the Hong Kong version, AKA poor man’s recording.

I attempted to return it and get my money back but the seller refused and tested the DVD out, viewing it on what I guess is a 7″ screen, compared to my sisters 15.5″ laptop. She didn’t see anything wrong, of course she wouldn’t with that poxy size screen, anything would look HQ on that… It was pointed out that even on her small screen the quality looked low. After refusing to believe that, the pixilation issue was brought up. She tried to pass them off as part of the starry effect. What the – The excuse of the “green glitch screen” was that it blinked when the viewer was spending too long on the menu screen. Then she insisted that it was a clip before the menu. Amazing. In the end, I didn’t get a refund (she wouldn’t give one with a receipt!) so…either I take that DVD, take a different copy or choose something else. I chose a live tour DVD of Jay Chou, an artist of whom my sister enjoys and is known to have corrupted all things of technology within the house… Hmph.

The moral is: don’t by DVDs from Hong Kong shops, which are piled with assorted CDs, DVDs and the like that aren’t presented in an orderly fashion.

Hopefully before the day my Cantonese will have improved vastly. If only Hakka wasn’t a dying language…

Off topic: but I have a Cantonese app and I wonder why 60% of the categories are to do with flirting. Not that I’m the master of picking men up but I’m sure the provided pick-up lines won’t be taken the way the app creator intended, heh. Admittedly though, they are pretty funny…just as long as you read the Chinese because the English translation is off.

Anyway, back on subject. I’m excited at the prospect of going to the Hong Kong International Jewellery Manufacturers’ Show. It will be my first time so hopefully my Chinese won’t get laughed at too much and I’ll leave with useful contacts. The only thing I won’t be looking forward to is the journey. I still haven’t “grown out of” travel sickness.

Does anyway have any suggestions of where I could go or what?could do? I know technically I’m the Hong Kong citizen but I only ever visit Sha Tin, Tai Po and TTS (I think that’s the acronym).

Two problems occured with my portfolio website.  This was a while back and I was modifying my template.  Everything was sorted but the next time I go onto WordPress to activate the template I notice a bar of unwanted padding on the top.  Not only that put modifying the settings to my gallery seemed to have messed up the quality of my images (they were reduced from the original size).

For weeks, on and off, I had been trying to fix/counter attack the padding issue, thinking it was something to do with my CSS.  Nothing.  Today I looked at the source code from a visitor’s point of view…low and behold:

html { margin-top: 28px !important; }
* html body { margin-top: 28px !important; }

I didn’t have the foggiest at to where this coding came from but it certainly wasn’t from me.  I checked my plugins individually to see if that was the problem but it wasn’t.  Then I “Google-d” the code and finally find that it’s a bug in WordPress.  At first I tried modifying the CSS with the suggested code:

#wp-admin-bar-comments {display:none;}
#wp-admin-bar-appearance {display:none;}

…nothing came of it.  It then came to my attention that it’s a bug in WordPress.  The visitors of my website don’t see any top padding, just me through the admin panel.  Now, I feel stupid – trying to fix a padding problem, which isn’t even there. XD  Oh well, I’m in the process of getting a more simplistic template up.

My next ponder is what gallery to use.  Any suggestions?

1. Good actually meaning average in this sense.

It’s strange how opinions can change almost at a click of the finger.  After college I was adamant that further education was not  the path for me but thanks to my cousin and then-colleagues who persuaded me to take on the challenge of university.  Were it not for them I probably would either be still inspecting cameras or feverishly coding and designing websites¹.

*Memory lane*

Whilst on MSN Messenger² to my cousin she mentioned a jewellery course she was considering, which was jewellery making-related.  It was something we could do together.  The course sounded great fun but I still wasn’t sure but thought I might as well since I needed to make something of my life.  However, I knew persuading my parents was going to be a job and a half – and I was right.  They weren’t particularly keen on the idea, being the kind of Asian parents where if an immediate career wasn’t a dead cert. then maybe the course wasn’t the right one.  Eventually with some wise words and words of encouragement I made sure I pushed forward my choice – I wouldn’t say my mum was in agreement more so than annoyed with my constant pestering.  It resulted in an “ask your father” response.  Needless to say he didn’t disagree.

That was when I felt I needed to prove, not only my parents but also myself, that I am good at something.  Particularly since school and college results left a lot to be desired.  I needed something to be pleased about and to rectify what I didn’t do before.  Going to university was an opportunity to give my confidence a boost.

After sending my application I managed to get an interview for a gemology course, which I had to decline because I didn’t apply for that course.  I called to rectify and was told to come in and see the interviewer.  Since I had left the application late I thought there wasn’t going to be a fudge of a chance that I’d get onto the course but I guess we got a lucky break; my cousin and I secured a place on the course.  We both came out of the interview very happy and were about to enrol on ND Design Crafts.  Having earlier been shown around the exhibition by the interviewer we looked in amazement at the spectacular jewellery pieces.  Was I really going to be able to create jewellery like those?  I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped when I saw an 18ct gold brooch, which was made by a former ND student.

*End of memory lane*

Never mind prematurely thinking university was not an option I stuck with it for a further 3 years – completing the Higher National Diploma and BA(Hons).  It’s a chapter in my life I’m extremely proud of because I achieved a lot better than what I thought I would have and have been wanting a career in jewellery since I made my first gold brooch.  I can finally say that I have found my future, which wasn’t the case after college.

All in all I”m excited to see what I can bring to the future so remember my name because in the future my name may be plastered on shops. :P I know I’ve made it when I can price my jewellery more towards the higher market, or as some may say ridiculous prices.   I’m thinking big as in Thomas Sabo big!

1. Not that there’s anything wrong with the latter occupation but it’s just not healthy losing slept trying to fathom why something you’ve coded isn’t translating correctly.  Heh.
2. The thing back then.

With that said, it’s onwards and upwards.  I’m going to get a couple of the rings’ components redone¹ and laser weld the parts together before the starts of the Graduates’ Exhibition.

It will be that mark of something though.  University has been an experience, well, you would think I experienced at least one thing having spent 5 years there.   I probably would be in the situation (with a degree) if it weren’t for my cousin or work colleagues so I’m glad they gave me that little push I needed.  I never thought I’d find “it”; the job that would lead to a career I now desire but it’s happened.

I won’t get to graduate until next year in February but I very much look forward to what the future has in stall for me.

Congratulations to those who have made  it to the end of university and all the best in the future.  I will certainly let you know how mine goes.  I’ll either bore you with it here or on my more professional jeweller’s blog.

1. The sublimation and laser cutting.