Goodbye Friendster

Friendster was my very first social network site as far as i could remember. And sadly today, 31st May is its last day.

News had it, and Friendster made an announcement as well that they will be shifting from social networking site to a social entertainment site which will focus on gaming and music. The accounts are unchanged and still existing. However, all the photos, messages, comments, testimonials, shoutouts, blogs, forums and groups that the users may have now will no longer be part of the account by May 31, 2011. However due to public requests and demand and possibly to market the new Friendster Content to existing users, they have extended the Exporting Tool until 27th June.

An exporting tool is provided to back-up the information of the user account.

This tool has an ability to export photos to Flickr and Multiply.

How to export photos?

To export your photos:

1. Login to your Friendster Account

2. Install the Friendster Exporter Application (http://apps.friendster.com/exporter)

3. Once installed, open the app and select the option to export photos.

4. Select which site you'd want to export your photos to

5. Select the photo album/s you'd want to export - All albums, whether public or private, can be exported.

6. Authorize the export - You'll be asked to login to the site that you chose, so make sure that you're ready for this.

7. Wait for the export to be completed – You will get a notification email when the export is ready. If the export is still "pending", it means the export is still in-process and not yet ready. There's no problem here. If it is more than 48 hours and it is still pending, please email help@friendster.com

To find your exported photos in Multiply:

- Login to your Multiply account at http://multiply.com/.

- Click "Media Locker" tab and go to "Photos".

To check your exported photos in Flickr:

- Login to your Flickr account at http://www.flickr.com/.

- Click "Your Photostream" link.

Note: Friendster will process your request but not real time, they will send you a confirmation via email that the (Zip) file of your profile is ready for download..

If you don't want to gamble on your precious memories lost and wants to be sure you have them safe before the time runs out, You can logon to Friendster and download the photos one by one.. Or you can follow the steps below to download the files to your computer and have it posted somewhere else in the internet.

1. Open friendster.com in Mozilla Firefox browser

2. Login using your username and password

3. Click Photos tab

4. You need to do this per album, so open the first album you want to save

5. Then click on the first photo on the album

6. In the menu bar of the browser, click Tools-->Page Info

7. On Page Info, click MEDIA tab

8. On the list of addresses, select the links which start with http://photos-p.friendster.com. You can select multiple addresses by pressing CTRL button while clicking the links.

9. Click Save As

10. Select the folder where you want to save the images

11. Click Ok. Wait for the images to download.

13. Repeat the same procedure for all images

14. Once the photos have been downloaded, login to your Facebook account, myspace, multiply, or any online sites you have

15. Upload the photos using the upload feature of the site.

16. By default the downloaded file should go somewhere in your computer, it could be in the /Downloads folder.

Disclaimer : Image Quality from that of Friendster after this procedure may differ.

Maruya (Banana Fritters)

Maruya is my Mom's new recipe for her merienda store.

But her maruya was a lot different from what i know. I thought of only one variant of Maruya (Banana Fritters) and they are sliced bananas sitting side by side cooked using Riceflour mixture.

Maruya - Finished Product

Well, ive learned that this "Pounded Maruya" tastes a lot better because it has more flavour..

So here it goes .

Ingredients:

one whole set (isang piling) Banana (Saba)

half cup Baking powder

one cup Flour

one cup Sugar

two eggs (optional)

half cup milk (optional)

Banana Leaf (optional)

Step 1

Peel off banana skin and prepare them for pounding. You can use mortar and pestle. Slice the bananas in small pieces to make it easy to pound. The outcome does not need to perfectly pounded. A little roughness is fine. Do this for all the bananas.

Step 2

Mix in sifted flour and baking powder to the banana. Add sugar. Optionally you can add eggs and milk for more flavour. Mix untill all ingredients are smooth. Your product will gain a little volume due to the baking powder. Try to taste if it needs more sugar.

mixing the banana paste with all the ingredients

Step 3

Scoop a good amount of the banana paste then put it in a small banana leaf.

The use of banana leaf is optional but it is one of the easiest and most conventional way to do this. Some would directly scoop and put in oil, however it comes messy because it is sticky.

placing the mixture in leaves

Step 4

Heat the pan. Put the banana leaf with the paste in the pan, the maruya will fall off the banana leaf a few second after it is drenched in oil, when that happens carefully remove the banana leaf. You can still use it for the next scoop. In replacement of banana leaf use wax paper, or in other provinces they use palm leaf.

frying the maruya

Fry the maruya evenly, medium to low, poke the middle with a toothpick to know if it is cooked already.

Step 5

Cool and place in basket with tissue paper to remove excess oil.

Serve with a chilling drink of your choice. For me i like to eat it with ice cream. :P

cooling..

For a really nice effect in serving, dash the maruya with confectioner's sugar or for more flavour, try adding cooked ingredients in the mixture likes raisins, etc. I love it with walnuts.

Have a happy meryenda !!

Our Ribbon Design Weekend

Hello - The ladies at Whimsical Whites have been creating and learning. Last weekend we participated in a Ribbon Arts class. Our teacher Candace Kling is an expert in design and manipulation of vintage & new ribbon. She is also the author of "The Artful Ribbon".

This is Simmy & Candace. (Kathy & Kris are camera shy.)

Please enjoy a few photos of the wonderful sample boards. The visuals are extremely helpful.

This cute garden hat that we designed is vintage, and the flowers are made with vintage ribbon:

The puppies are growing FAST! They have been a great pleasure (except for when they run in from the rain).

From left to right: Hazel, Richard, Magnolia, and Alice.

Best Regards,

The W/W Ladies

Opera

Hours before the new opera production of Macbeth is to premiere, its lead gets injured in an unfortunate accident, forcing her inexperienced understudy, Betty, to step in. Betty's reservations about taking on the role in this supposedly cursed opera proves valid when a fanatic psycho shows up with a serious obsession with bloody voyeurism.

After being tied up, sharp sewing needles are placed under Betty's eyelids to prevent her from closing them and forcing her to watch as this psycho brutally butchers one person after another.

I don't quite know how to feel about Dario Argento at this point; my thoughts on him tend to drastically change from one moment to the next. After seeing Suspiria for the first time as a young'un....I hated it. But as time went on, it began to grow on me more and more until it ended up as one of my favorite films and Argento became a master of horror. This hate/love system has pretty much become routine for me when it comes to his films, and I can feel it happening once again with Opera.

Argento's iconic style is mostly present here with much attention paid to visuals and the giallo techniques we've come to expect from him. The giallo-rific killer, roaming around in the shadows wearing the typical ski mask and black leather gloves, doesn't exactly go easy on his victims, stopping only when buckets of blood have been shed and Betty, forcibly watching, has been treated to a "great" show. Unfortunately, though, the killer's show didn't exactly work for me. I didn't necessarily enjoy the murders, nor was I disturbed by it, leaving me feeling very underwhelmed by it all. And considering how the film's success relies on voyeurism and the affects it has on people, this is a major flaw, ultimately hindering Opera from being as great as it should have been.

Between the killer's vague motive and Betty's odd choice of actions that leave you scratching your head, the characters/actors in this film are laughable at best. Most of the actors use inappropriate body language and facial expressions and are topped off with some truly dumb dialogue and awful English dubbing by voice actors who clearly don't know the meaning of subtlety, all amalgamating into a big, unrealistic mess.

However harsh that may sound, though, that's not to say the film is an altogether failure. The setting of the opera house, the opera itself and the clever use of ravens, which automatically invoke thoughts of Poe, drench the film in a gothic tone that compliments the giallo approach quite nicely. Although the voyeurism theme isn't entirely successful, it's still worked into the story well in other ways, keeping you on edge as everyone seems to have a creepy, watchful eye. And it makes you wonder what message Argento was even trying to convey in the first place. Are horror film directors as sick as this killer, who forces Betty to watch him kill? Are we Betty, watching these bloody films that they make? How are we meant to be affected by such grotesque imagery? These ideas are enough to make the film an intriguing watch.

In the end, I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about Opera or Argento. As I mentioned earlier, I always start out hating his films, but then grow to like them as time goes by. So who knows how I'll feel about Opera in the future. But at the moment, I'm going to give it a marginally favorable review and recommend it to those giallo fans out there. Opera clearly has style, gore and some great ideas—enough to make me appreciate the film, but not quite enough for me to like it all that much.

RATING:

Opera

Hours before the new opera production of Macbeth is to premiere, its lead gets injured in an unfortunate accident, forcing her inexperienced understudy, Betty, to step in. Betty's reservations about taking on the role in this supposedly cursed opera proves valid when a fanatic psycho shows up with a serious obsession with bloody voyeurism.

After being tied up, sharp sewing needles are placed under Betty's eyelids to prevent her from closing them and forcing her to watch as this psycho brutally butchers one person after another.

I don't quite know how to feel about Dario Argento at this point; my thoughts on him tend to drastically change from one moment to the next. After seeing Suspiria for the first time as a young'un....I hated it. But as time went on, it began to grow on me more and more until it ended up as one of my favorite films and Argento became a master of horror. This hate/love system has pretty much become routine for me when it comes to his films, and I can feel it happening once again with Opera.

Argento's iconic style is mostly present here with much attention paid to visuals and the giallo techniques we've come to expect from him. The giallo-rific killer, roaming around in the shadows wearing the typical ski mask and black leather gloves, doesn't exactly go easy on his victims, stopping only when buckets of blood have been shed and Betty, forcibly watching, has been treated to a "great" show. Unfortunately, though, the killer's show didn't exactly work for me. I didn't necessarily enjoy the murders, nor was I disturbed by it, leaving me feeling very underwhelmed by it all. And considering how the film's success relies on voyeurism and the affects it has on people, this is a major flaw, ultimately hindering Opera from being as great as it should have been.

Between the killer's vague motive and Betty's odd choice of actions that leave you scratching your head, the characters/actors in this film are laughable at best. Most of the actors use inappropriate body language and facial expressions and are topped off with some truly dumb dialogue and awful English dubbing by voice actors who clearly don't know the meaning of subtlety, all amalgamating into a big, unrealistic mess.

However harsh that may sound, though, that's not to say the film is an altogether failure. The setting of the opera house, the opera itself and the clever use of ravens, which automatically invoke thoughts of Poe, drench the film in a gothic tone that compliments the giallo approach quite nicely. Although the voyeurism theme isn't entirely successful, it's still worked into the story well in other ways, keeping you on edge as everyone seems to have a creepy, watchful eye. And it makes you wonder what message Argento was even trying to convey in the first place. Are horror film directors as sick as this killer, who forces Betty to watch him kill? Are we Betty, watching these bloody films that they make? How are we meant to be affected by such grotesque imagery? These ideas are enough to make the film an intriguing watch.

In the end, I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about Opera or Argento. As I mentioned earlier, I always start out hating his films, but then grow to like them as time goes by. So who knows how I'll feel about Opera in the future. But at the moment, I'm going to give it a marginally favorable review and recommend it to those giallo fans out there. Opera clearly has style, gore and some great ideas—enough to make me appreciate the film, but not quite enough for me to like it all that much.

RATING: