Because I’m Bored: My Firefox Add-ons

Can’ Live Without

• Adblock Plus, together with the ABP Element Hiding Helper
• Greasemonkey – for the userscripts, naturally. You can find the below at userscripts.org
• Flickr Multi-group Sender – because Flickrites are lazy
• Yousable Tubefix – adds YouTube options
• Gawker Enhanced Comments (07-2009) – fixes a lot of things that wrong with the new comments system.
• LiveClick – Slide-up notifications! (I think they used to be called Growl-style, but I’m not all too sure what Growl notifications look like relative to the rest of the screen)
• QuickDrag
• PDF Download – the one I currently use is by Nitro Software, but there are many alternatives out there.
• Delicious Bookmarks
• StumbleUpon
• TwitterBar
• YouTube Comment Snob – Ah, YouTube bliss…
• Web Developer – Every time I want to uninstall it, something comes up which justifies having it around. It’s kinda spooky.

I Don’t Know

• Yahoo! Mail Notifier – It’s kind of useless because I keep Mail open in background tab, but I can set it to check more often. Of course I could use Postbox for that as well, but it’s still very much in beta and it’s got a lot of kinks that must be worked out.
• CustomizeGoogle – I keep it for the random options not related to ads.
• Web of Trust – it does come in handy sometimes…sometimes.
• LeechBlock – does it work? I don’t know yet. I keep tricking myself out of setting a combination.

Can Totally Live Without (i.e. uninstalled today)

• Sxipper
• Aviary (other than one-click screenshot capture and upload, it’s pretty useless, since Aviary went to a pay model eons ago)

Now, on to Low Earth Orbit satellites…

Office 2010: First Day

Yeah so as about 8 people know by now, I managed to get an invite to the Technical Preview of Office 2010, which I really wanted because since Office 2007 came out I’ve been wanting to ditch 2003. Jump for screenshots and stuff.

31% Geeky, apparently.

From Anton Olsen’s post on Wired, 100 Essential Skills for Geeks. I have a horrible feeling that I’m going to get less than 10% on this…

Here we go! Bolded means yes. Strikethrough means it’s not applicable. Prepare to jump.

Really Bad Singing: Viva La Vida Edition

Chels and I sang Viva La Vida on a whim. Erm, it sounds pretty crappy.

Make that very crappy.

Jump if you’re really bored, and also, it’s best to listen with a lot of reverb.

Extract Lineart in 8 Simple Steps

I got a new phone today! In other news, because I finished all my imminently due homework and haven’t slacked much the whole weekend, here’s a tutorial (?) on how to extract lineart onto a layer of its own in Photoshop. Version used here is CS3 – but it works with even 5 or 6, I think.

You will need: Photoshop/GIMP/image editor of your choice, and a scanned image with lineart in either pencil or pen. Pen gives you much nicer results though.
Time: Under 2 minutes.

Step 1

Open your image. As you can see there’s some, um, debris on the right side so I’m going to delete it.

Step 2

Press Ctrl/Cmd + L to open up the Levels dialog as shown above. Play around with the sliders until most of the gray junk is cleaned off the image, like in the next step.

I find it most effective to drag the right slider towards the left, and the leftmost slider to the right. The middle slider adjusts the overall brightness of your image.

Step 3

You may also find it helpful to zoom in while you’re adjusting (keyboard shortcuts Ctrl/Cmd + + and – still work even though you’re in the dialog) to make sure finer details are not lost.

Step 4

After this is done, open up your Channels tab (if it’s not visible, go hunting in the Window menu). While holding down Ctrl/Cmd click on the RGB Channel, which produces a selection delineated by the marching ants.

Step 5

Press Ctrl/Cmd + I or use “Inverse” in the Select menu. In the screenshot above I haven’t actually done this, so the marching ants still look the same as in the previous step.

Step 6

After that’s done, create a new layer but don’t deselect!

Step 7

Press Alt+Backspace or use the Fill command in the Edit menu. Make sure your foreground color is set to the color you’d like your lines to be – I was too lazy to find a nice shade of brown, so I used black.

Step 8

If you hide the Background layer you should now see your lineart presented on its own in a separate layer.

Final Result

And you’re done! Sort of. My image still has a lot of junk here and there that is very obvious if you zoom in, so next I’m going to have to zoom in and do cleanup with the Eraser tool. You can stop here if you’d like – I’m just feeling a bit industrious right now.

A word about the type of art you begin with – pen is the smart choice, because as you can see in the photograph below the lines are already very clear on paper so when you scan it in it should be easier. Another plus point is that ink is less reflective than graphite, giving you lines with more contrast in the scanned image.

Watercolors and Palette

At long last, proper watercolors and a proper palette!

My dad bought me five Daler-Rowney Aquafine 8ml tubes.

Scarlet Lake, Ultramarine, Lemon Yellow, Permanent Rose and Payne’s Grey. I wanted Rose Madder but he couldn’t find it. Ultramarine and Payne’s Grey are opaque watercolor (gouache?) but hopefully they’ll work together with the transparent ones.

The palette is the Saintograph kind you see everyone using, with lots of wells and five mixing areas.

All I need now is proper watercolor paper. But it’s insanely expensive so I’ll just pinch from the art supply room for now.

I have to buy new drawing block.

bomomo

Probably one of the most beautifully pointless playthings I’ve seen in a while.

bomomo – have fun!

My triangle casts Lv.3 Confusion!

From Zitian, because MAGIC TRIANGLES ARE KILLING MY BRAIN AGAIN. Thankfully for you I’ve hidden it behind a cut. But I tag Sugi, Pam, Marshy, Chiachia and Yong.

Memes, again!

Taken back from Ruio. I tagged her originally.

1. WHAT IS YOUR FULL NAME

The 10-minute Beta.

2.What colour pants are you wearing?
Checked!

3. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW?
Something wrong with my computer’s sound driver. Been working the whole night without music.

4. ARE YOUR LEGS CROSSED?
No, quite the opposite…

5. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?
Rice, scrambled egg, fish, egg tofu, kangkong. It tastes better than it sounds.

6. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE?
I want to be a real sable Filbert. High-quality watercolor paper here I come!

7. HOW IS THE WEATHER RIGHT NOW?
Angsty.

8. LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE??
Yun!

9. FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT THE OPPOSITE SEX?
If they’re someone I know…

10. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT YOU THIS?
Myself? :V

11. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?
過労死 IMMINENT

12. FAVOURITE DRINK?
Iced lychee juice…and water.

13. FAVOURITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?
Sad to say, I can’t even stand wine.

14. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SPORT?
Avoiding sports.

15. HAIR COLOUR?
Black. Some white here and there, or so Marshy claims.

16.EYE COLOUR?
Black/Really dark brown. I shone a torch in my eyes to check.

17. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS?
Um, no. I like my glasses.

18. SIBLINGS?
One annoying brat.

19. FAVOURITE MONTH?
Nov/Dec. Xiamen and slacking yey

20.FAVOURITE FOOD?
Lots!

21. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED?
LoTR!~

22. FAVOURITE DAY OF THE YEAR?
None, really.

23. SATURDAY OR SUNDAY?
Saturday.

24. ARE YOU TOO SHY TO ASK SOMEONE OUT?
It would depend on the channel, I guess. As in, rl no wai. At any rate, I’d freak out and cancel last minute lawl.

25. DO YOU LIKE MARMITE?
I dunno what it’s like.

26. SUMMER OR WINTER?
Rainy season!

27. HUGS OR KISSES?
Hugs.

28. CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?
Vanilla.

29. DO YOU WANT YOUR FRIENDS TO WRITE BACK?
To…?

30. Who’s most LIKELY TO RESPOND?
To…?

31. WHO IS LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND?
TO…?

32. LIVING ARRANGEMENTS?
Room in flat/apartment/thingy in concrete tower.

33. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING?
LoTR. IN CHINESE.

34. DID YOU WAKE UP BEFORE YOUR ALARM WENT OFF ?
My alarm is light…

36. DO YOU MISS BIG BROTHER YET?
Not really.

37. FAVOURITE SMELLS?
I want to sleep.

38. WHAT INSPIRES YOU?
Sleeepy…

39. BUTTERED, PLAIN, OR SALTED POPCORN?
Honey! Or salted.

40. FAVOURITE CRISPS?
Ruffles.

41. FAVOURITE CAR?
Toyota Camry (2006/7 make) in black.

42. FAVOURITE FLOWER?
If it’s pretty…

43. How MANY KEYS ON YOUR KEY RING?
None.

44. CAN YOU JUGGLE
Work, yes.

45. FAVOURITE DAY OF THE WEEK?
Friday? Night?

46. RED OR WHITE WINE?
I don’t like wine!

47. WHAT DID YOU DO FOR YOUR LAST BIRTHDAY?
A bunch of people sat around in the dark and traded gossip.
So not me, I know.

48. DO YOU OWN A DONOR CARD?
No.

49. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?
Something’s due today, but I can’t remember what…

50. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ONCE YOU HAVE FINISHED THIS ?
Sleep. Now.

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RULES:

Go to Google and type in your first name and the phrase. Copy and paste the first sentence/phrase you get that makes sense. Or is awesome.

Q: Type in “[your name] needs” in the Google search.
A: [realname] needs coffee.

Q: Type in “[your name] looks like” in Google search.
A: [realname] looks like a whore.

Ouch.

Q: Type in “[your name] says” in Google search.
A: [realname] says no to marriage.

Q: Type in “[your name] wants” in Google search.
A: [realname] wants to get rough.

Q: Type in “[your name] does” in Google search.
A: [realname] does Tyra.

Q: Type in “[your name] hates” in Google search.
A: [realname] hates fat people.

Woah. That’s like, self-discriminatory.

Q: Type in “[your name] asks” in Google search.
A: [realname] asks about podcasts.

Q: Type in “[your name] goes” in Google search.
A: [realname] goes Vox.

But I hate Vox!

Q: Type in “[your name] likes ” in Google search.
A: [realname] likes to hurt people.

I don’t, I swear.

Q: Type in “[your name] eats ” in Google search.
A: [realname] eats on Flickr.

Q: Type in “[your name] wears ” in Google search.
A: [realname] wears poetry pants.

Q: Type in “[your name] was arrested for” in Google Search.
A: [realname] arrested for resisting arrest.

That’s just kinda sad.

I’m Doing Work

Marshy distracted me with this quiz. She got Aragorn. And then she made a comment about how we got the characters we liked :/ asdf

Which Lord of the Rings Character Are You?
	You are Legolas. You are a loyal fighter. You stay to your word and would never backstab anybody. Your arrows hit your sworn enemy and when they do, they sting. Your friends never have to worry about you…as long as they don’t cross you.

I think it sucks how it’s really obvious in most quizzes which result you’re going to get if you choose which option, but I did this a few times and kept getting this.

I love the your friends never have to worry about you…as long as they don’t cross you part. It’s so true. Just that I don’t show it.