For bloggers who aren’t familiar with “linked comment signatures”

Linked comment signatures are just website links placed by the commentators so that interested readers can click on them to see where the links bring them. In my blog, I have linked signatures by commentators. Some are served as adverts, while some might be to highlight similar posts/blogs of related contents. I only allow those links that I deem NOT INAPPROPRIATE after personally visiting those links so that my readers are not exposed to any harm/inappropriate contents. However, it will be difficult to really ascertain that those links will still maintain the status quo content after some time (especially considering that it’s impractical for me to visit those sites intermittently). The best solution would be for Blogger.com to disable such feature in the comment/feedback field. Having none of the block, then readers have use use self-discretion to visit such links.

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For avid bloggers, you can read more about linked signature here, “Hyperlink signature for the A-Z Blogging Challenge” by AtoZchallenge. There is a tip of how to hyperlink your signature.

Reason for hyperlink signature

• Hope the person whom you gave feedback will visit your site
• Ease for other readers to visit your site
• Advert

Just to share.

How I rubbed a nettle with my thumb and finger in Germany

For a gullible visitor to Germany like me, nettle (I didn't even know what the plant was called) looked like a mint. I am from the tropic and had never seen a nettle before. Here are two photos of a mint and one of a nettle for comparison.

Mint (wikipedia)

This is a korean mint (aka Agastache rugosa) www.wellgrowhorti.com

Nettle

When I visited the botanical garden in Singapore, and while I was there at the herbs garden (also available at Science Center and other parks), I would try to rub the leafy herb softly before savouring the aroma. The Korean mint is very aromatic, and several types of leafy herbs give out different aromas.

What a SURPRISE when I tried to rub a nettle with my thumb and finger. It was excruciatingly painful at first. My first thought was that a spider must had hidden under the leaf and sensing impending danger, it stung me multiple times. I retracted my fingers lightning quick and tried to suck out any poison. It was still painful and beginning to get numb. I thought I was poisoned. Still in pain, I tried to spot the spider up close (because it would be informative to doctors if I can describe the appearance of what stung me). I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw fine "needle-lets" (transparent needles/spikes as fine as hair) sticking out from the leaves of a plant I thought was a herb. Not just the leaves, but the stem and flowerlet (floret) are also covered by the needles! "What kind of a sick plant was this?", was my first thought. A plant that doesn't want to be eaten should warn predators by exhibiting large warning signs (e.g. thorns) instead of insidious and transparent needles! I was worried that I might be poisoned.

Transparent needles are everywhere on the nettle! What a crazy plant (or rather, crazy person trying to rub it).

I tried keying in many different key words to search on Google what was the plant that stung me. Using Google Image, I managed to pin point the culprit. NETTLE. I tried to search for the toxicology aspect of this plant and fortunately, I will only get a numbing and painful experience for a couple of days before I can hold on to a paper or book without the discomfort. FYI, nettle has been used as medicine to boost up immunity and other ailments (herbwisdom).

I only recovered after a week's time.

How to set up your Canon Selphy CP900 wireless printing

Introduction
First, it's a bummer that Selphy Photo Print can only work with USB connection.

Second, Selphy CP900 is Wifi capable (good news), but I have no clue as how to set up a Wifi connection to print photos over Wifi to Selphy.

I tried to search for resources in Canon official sites, but to no avail. What is not cool is that the help page has no user input to grade and give comment about these help pages (thus prevent Canon from ever improving their help content). For that, I commend Microsoft for being better in that sense.

I switched to Google search for contribution by others about Selphy Wifi setup. I tried and fumbled with no luck until I tried the following steps.

Content

1. It seemed that Selphy only allowed installation of either USB connection OR Wifi connection. Canon doesn't allow installation of both USB and Wifi connections!
2. When I uninstalled my previous USB connected Selphy and reinstalled the Selphy Photo Print and its driver, it only allowed choosing either Wifi or USB. Reluctantly I chose Wifi and forsake USB connection.
3. One problem though, if I lose my internet connection (or communication with my router due to radio interference), will I be able to print or would I have to wait until I gain access to internet (or router) again?

Other matter

1. I wanted to find out if there is any other software besides Selphy Photo Print and I came upon Easy PhotoPrint Ex. It is like Selphy Photo Print but with more options. However, I can only use it to print on my other Canon printers BUT not Selphy.
2. The link for download of Easy Photo Print Ex is available here.
3. Selphy Wifi Ad hoc function seems to be useless with PCs and notebook running on earlier than Windows 8. I guess the ad hoc function is good for wifi cameras, camera phones and tablets?
4. Privacy. If you are as curious as me, you would have dismantled the ink cartridge after it is over. To my surprise, there is no ink but a roll of coloured films (e.g. blue, yellow, red, and white sections) inside the cartridge. Close examination of these coloured films over a light source revealed "printed photographs" still visible on the "ink" film (which is regarded as waste)! Well, I tried to salvage it to make art.
5. Laminated version. It would be great if next version of Selphy will incorporate lamination (matted) to the printed photograph. There is a requirement for matted passport photos and I couldn't use Selphy for printing. Wow, matted printing papers are expensive!

 All in all, I like Selphy and it will be very useful during travel (if the weight is not an issue and I can't wait to print photos of myself on vacation and mailing them to close relative and friends like postcards.

My favourite picnic food

Going to picnic or "berkelah" (in Malay) is a fun thing to do with family. In addition to the scenes and the activities, we get to enjoy home-made tasty food. Here is a list of my favourite food, fruits and drinks.

• Fried chicken or nuggets. For the ease of preparation, fried chicken and nuggets can be prepared by getting the ready to fry type at grocery shops. For home-made type in which you want to tweak the spices (like KFC), you can follow an example from "Triple Dipped Fried chicken" by AllRecipes.
• Char bee hoon (or fried rice vermicelli). There is a recipe for this dish, "Char bee hoon" by TheBondingTool. Sometimes, having a Maggie mee goreng (or fried Maggir noodle) is desired. A recipe for that can be found in "Maggi mee goreng (15 min, 5 ingredients)" by JewelPie.
• Egg and ham sandwich. It is considered tasty and yet easy to prepare. The easiest would be to mash boiled eggs and mix it with butter, mayoinnaise (with a little seasoning), and cucumber slices. There is a recipe for "delicious egg salad for sandwiches" by AllRecipes.
• Meat balls. I love fish balls and other meat balls. The way to prepare them is to deep fry them.

Different types of meat balls, e.g. shrimp, beef, pork, fish, mushroom-with-meat, and many other variety of preparation are available. Pics taken from www.best-food.com.tw. 

• Finger food, e.g. fried tofu, siew mai, char siew (either packed or home-cooked by RasaMalaysia), popiah (popiah recipe by RasaMalaysia), and other spicy fried food.
• Fruits. If weight is not a problem, then watermelon is the best fruit to bring along!
• Junk food and chips.
• Drinks such as isotonic drinks (e.g. 100plus or H-Two-O), plain water, lemonade (less sweetened to match the hot weather here), and ice block/chunks with ice picks.
  

Normally I wouldn't want to bring along anything that is too sweet such as cakes, puddings, etc. because of the hot weather and ants. The hot weather induces a stronger taste for spicy food rather than sweet (my own opinion). Also, normally I will have to compete with ants to the food (unless the picnic is on the beach).

Activities that we normally do while having a picnic would be to fish, fly a kite, catching grasshoppers or butterflies, look at water-strider, feed the birds bread, catch small fries with net, blow bubbles so that our kids can chase after them, take pics, dig for clams or small crabs (when on a beach), collect seashells, play with sand, build sand castle, etc.

If we do get to stay overnight on a beach, having a BBQ would be wonderful. In Singapore, it is easy to prepare the food (by ordering from suppliers, e.g. search "BBQ food Singapore delivery" in Google). In addition to the food supplied, adding a sweet corn and potatoes will be super.

Looking forward to our next picnic.