Coin Collecting - Coin Album

I remember I saw some coin albums in the stationery shop when I was a small kid. Since then, I had this thought, I wanted to collect coins. So, I started to put the coins I have into one small ceramic container. From one container, it started to grow until I have 3 containers. I kept only the coins minted before 1989. Whenever I went out to buy things, I would give paper notes, so that I could get coins as change. For this practice, I ended up with many coins. My family benefited from that, I told them they could spend the coins minted after 1988. 

However, I couldn't find coin album in the stationery shops here when I started to try to get serious, to arrange the coins the proper way. Searching Lazada and Rakuten, no online stores sell coin album. So, I expanded the search and found Ebay. I chose the cheapest price with free shipping, and asked my brother to buy it for me because I didn't have Paypal. The total cost was less than RM20, not cheap, but not so expensive either. That was my first coin album, I didn't check properly the dimension first. The slots in the album were only suitable for one cent to ten cents coins, twenty cents and above were too big for the slots. Anyway, the slots quantity were enough for my collections of one cent, five cents and ten cents only.

my first coin album (bought from Ebay)

Make A Gif From Video Using VLC & PhotoScape

I am quite free today, so I decided to learn how to make a Gif from video. I have installed Photoscape in my computer already, however Photoscape can only make Gifs from pictures. So, I googled around, netizens provide a lot of ideas and tips. There are many online editors that are able to convert video file to Gif file directly, however I am afraid that those free editors are malware. Finally, I found out that VLC player can convert video file to multiple screenshots. I didn't have VLC player, so I downloaded and installed it in my computer. 

*I have confidence on VLC player because many people I know are using it.

my first Gif on wind up tin robot!

There are 2 options to screenshot in VLC

1. one screenshot at a time
2. multiple screenshots as the video file is running

My First Foray Into Gardening

May 2011

I reached Japan on March 2011 for a work attachment in Japan for two years duration. Away from home, suddenly I found myself have nothing to do on weekends. So, I planned to develop a new hobby which was gardening!

I didn't fancy flower because it's just for decorating purposes, I planned to plant something edible. After reading from many gardening forums, I decided to plant tomatoes because a lot of people claimed that it's a very easy plant, very suitable for newbies.

After deciding on that, I went to Daiso (there's a Daiso in the Kumamoto Station) after work and bought a plastic pot, pot tray, trowel, a bag of soil and a plant support. Sometimes, this 100 yen shop is like a convenient shop, we can buy almost everything in Daiso or Seria. Then, on a fine Saturday morning,  I cycled to a gardening supermarket to buy tomato seedlings. The supermarket was quite awesome, there were so many seedlings, seeds, gardening tools, soils, flowers, decoration stuffs for garden, etc. There're many kinds of tomato seedlings, finally I settled for a cherry tomatoes and momotaro tomatoes (桃太郎トマト). I bought only 1 pot, so I took a plastic container and punch holes under it and turned it into a pot.

One Piece Puzzle (Kyoto & Okinawa)

10th February 2013 (大年初一)

I did not go back home for Chinese New Year celebrations. So, spending all the time today in front of computer looking at the updates of friends and family on the facebook. After awhile, I felt sad. So, decided to do something else. I did jig-saw puzzle. I bought both of the puzzles from a hobby shop in Okinawa. In that shop, the 'One Piece' puzzle from all the prefectures in Japan were available. So, I bought a Kyoto themed puzzle too. I like the way the eyes of Chopper and Luffy glittered after seeing the Kinkakuji (a temple with gold leaves coating). 

One piece jig-saw puzzle

However, for my Kyoto themed jig-saw puzzle, 10 pieces were missing. First I thought I could ask for the remaining pieces from the maker. However, later I found out that the maker guarantee is only until one year after manufactured. So sad, now I am stuck with a incomplete puzzle!(・・;) 

Maker's guarantee only one year after manufactured for the jig-saw puzzle

Hokkaido 'One Piece' Puzzle

Bought a set of mini puzzle in Hokkaido. I will go back to Malaysia soon and no chance to visit the lavender season in Hokkaido. So, although I visited on winter, I bought a summer themed puzzle instead. 

mini puzzle of "one piece"

I helped my friend to buy a mini puzzle. The frame is Hokkaido themed too! However, the themed frame is a little bit more expensive than the normal one with just plain colour. Since I started my collection with plain frame, I continued to do so. 

mini puzzle (Hokkaido themed for both frame & puzzle)

♥ Google+ Photo Editing Tool

Frankly speaking, the reason I uploaded my photos to Google+ was this blog. I needed a space to store all the pictures because the space in my Picasa was full. However, now there is another reason for me to use the Google+ , I just found out that there is a photo editing tool in Google+. I felt that it was quite a decent photo editing tool. I am not the kind of person with high expectation on the photo editing software. As long as it does the job, I am fine with it. Plus, I do not possess high skill in using all the software. "Easy" and "free" are very important for me.

Photo uploaded to Google+ Album → Click on the "Edit Photo"

There are 4 portions, namely "Basic Edits", "Effects", "Decorate" and "Test".

For "Basic edits", it consists of "AutoFix", "Crop", "Rotate", "Exposure", "Colours", "Sharpen" and "Resize". Well, it is definitely more than Facebook, the only photo editing tool on Facebook is "rotate". I did not use all these functions though.

The Photo Editing Page

The one I love is the "Effects", there are a lot to choose from, I like the "Daguerreotype", "Polaroid* Plus", "Black and White", "Lomo-ish" and "1960s". For the "1960s", one can choose to make the corners of the photo round. So convenient compared to Facebook, have to edit before upload. 

The photo was edited under the "Effects" → I use the "Daguerreotype" and  click "save"

While for the "Decorate", one can insert "Doodle", "Fake beards", "Crowns & Tiaras", "Masks", etc. It was fun to play with and very user friendly. While for "Text", to add text of course, there are more than 40 text fonts to choose from, pretty good selection. 

Ah, all my friends are in Facebook, so for the moment, only the photos for the blog will be edited in Google+, while the other photos will be edited traditionally for Facebook.

Well, I knew that all of these can be done with the iPhone apps or Android apps, but I am still a computer kind of gal. I want big screen, keyboard and a mouse. Hahahah!

"One Piece" Puzzle

I bought mini puzzles from a hobby shop. The main reason I bought it was the end products looked so nice on the wall in that shop! The puzzles theme are "One Piece", a famous Japanese Anime. It is about a pirate, Luffy who inspired to find a treasure called 'Once Piece' and become the next pirate king. Along the way, he organises and leads a 9 member crew named Stray Hat Pirates. Bounties were offered to capture all of them. The puzzles are in the form of bounty poster. Very interesting!

mini puzzles, frames & tapes

Completed Puzzle!

When I went to Miyajima, I found this Hiroshima only "One Piece" puzzle, so I bought it, adding one more to my collections. This was kinda easy compared to the bounty poster, the bounty poster is more difficult due to the colours and the similar 4 sides.

bought this in Miyajima, limited only in Hiroshima prefecture (広島限定)

The Hiroshima only "ONE PIECE" puzzle - with the torii 鳥居 and deers

Next, maybe I will challenge the larger size puzzle!

Mango tree

Mango Tree (18th June 2012)

When we moved into our house, my father bought a small mango tree sapling and planted it in front of the car porch. The tree was kind of funny and stubborn maybe.  We didn't get to eat mangoes from that tree until a few years later. After that, depends on the tree’s mood, sometimes it bears fruits, sometimes it don’t. My parents once planned to chop down the tree, but I was against the idea. So, it stayed there. Later, a fungus infection caused most of the leaves to drop, so my father had to trim most of the branches and it became a ‘botak’ tree. The mango tree has a very strong will to live, not long after that, new leaves grew out of the bare branches. That year, we had a bountiful harvest of mangoes. However, due to the heaty effect of the mango, my mom discouraged us to eat. So, I packed many mangoes and gave it to my bosses and colleagues. I was so proud when they said that the mango was very sweet!

(After I came to Japan and tasted the famous Miyazaki mango, I found out that it tasted almost the same with my house’s mango! The only down point for our mango was it was too fibrous.)

Since secondary school, I was so taken with the biodegradable compost thing. So, I would diligently collect the unfinished food, fish bones, peeled skin of fruits, etc to bury under the ground because I believe that those things will degrade eventually. From this, I knew that for the vegetables and fruits, after it degraded, it would give a very fragrant smell. Well, for the meat, the smell was so awful. However, at least it became fertilizer rather than ended up in rubbish dump and emitted methane gas for nothing.

Although the mango tree hasn't bear fruits for a few years, we still keep the tree because it can become a shape before the sunlight enter the living room and keep it cooler.