Been quite fed up with making collage using Picasa, with its limited way of arranging the pictures, and no way of shifting them around. Then, I dun like to use Photoshop for such simple stuff, most importantly because it hogs up a lot of RAM.
So, I comb the web for an alternative software. Something that won't hog up too much RAM (like Picasa), yet allow me total freedom to rearrange, resize, and edit the pictures (like Photoshop). Something that have the better of both.
After trying out a few software trials, I found what I want.
Pearl Mountain: Picture Collage Maker v1.9.3
I like its simple layout, with all the necessary tools nicely-placed on the toolbar. To create a picture collage, you only need to follow the Pictuce Collage Wizard. Or like me, you can do it manually with complete freedom over the layout of your collage. One thing to note, even doing it manually, creating a collage of 7 pictures takes me only ~10minutes.
Step 1: Choose the Template you want from the left window. Step 2: Browse to the folder with pictures you wanna add in the right window. Step 3: Drag & Drop the pictures into the boxes in the template in the center window. Step 4: Rearrange, resize, & edit the pictures (shadow, negative, mask, and many other effects.). Can even change the background. Step 5: Save the collage in picture format (jpg, bmp, gif)
TADAA!!
My 1st set of collages made with Picture Collage Maker. =)
------------------------------------------------------------------------- Find out more about the software & download it from here <http://www.picturecollagesoftware.com/>
To my dear friends, Thanks... For sending me b'day wishes through SMSes. Thanks... For dropping me B'day messages in Facebook. Thanks... For celebrating my b'day with me after a tiring Rag Day in SRC, and a long night watching the Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony.
You and me Heart to heart We are family ------------------------------------- 太多人写了对北京奥运开幕典礼的观后感了。 我就不多写了… 只想说，北京奥运开幕典礼 果然很张艺谋… 果然够大气… 果然够赞！！！ ------------------------------------- 那晚在lounge和大家一起看奥运开幕之后，自己得到的结论就是： 个人还是比较喜欢在较安静的气氛下看这类比较艺术的表演… 真正觉得好，轻微赞叹就好… 动不动就拍手，spoil完我的mood… 表演时静静观赏，表演后热烈鼓掌… 才是对艺术创造者、表演者的尊敬…
My 4th time joining KE7 Rag. Year 1 as a side prop helper. Year 2 as a Supporter IC (connection between KEWOC,Freshmen & Float). Year 3 as a Static Department Head. This year as a validator, going other hall n 鸡蛋里挑骨头. To be honest it is quite a sai kang. cos personally I think validating other Participating Bodies (PBs) isn't really that important. A winning float will still be a winning float no matter how many minor faults they made, no matter how many pts you deduct from them... Thus, I would really prefer to bump in with the floaters n freshmen, than spending my night with another validator from Sheares Hall, validating Eusoff Hall. Anyway, my last year in hall d. Next year I shall just sit back n watch the whole presentation. =) --------------------------------------------- "Alcázar, Where tales come to life" That's the theme of KE7 float this year. (Dunno if it is mere coincidence, this year's Orientation theme also uses a Spanish word-Constelación, Together We Shine)
The story tells of a little boy who dreamed of becoming a knight. He was summon to the poker kingdom to defeat the evil Joker who capture the King & Queen and plague the kingdom. Like all fairy tales, after overcoming waves n waves of obstacles, he finally released the kingdom from the hand of the Joker. (*reminds me a lot of the manga, MÄR Heaven, Märchen Awakens Romance)
Overall the Floaters and Dancers have put in a lot of effort to make this magnificently beautiful float, not forgetting the help from the freshmen during the last few weeks b4 Rag Day, and for their help for moving the props. For the number of ppl in the committee, I think it is a job well done. Although there are still rooms for improvements.
Here is the Dynamic Presentation of the KE7 Float - Alcázar
Dynamic Presentation from another angle
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The 'Little Boy' in the story
The people working behind the float Photos with the Main FloatThe KEVIIans cheering behind
"An alcázar is a Spanish castle, from the Arabic word القصر al qasr meaning palace or fortress." Wikipedia --------------------------------------------- Green Hall & Yellow Hall have uploaded the dynamic presentation of the 6 halls to YouTube. Can visit their user page to see the presentation of the other 5 halls bluewards EusoffWorks --------------------------------------------- Something to ponder for the 小的们: To be very very frank, when I 1st got back on 19/7, I was quite shocked with the workmanship. I dunno what went wrong in the 传承 process, and I am quite sure many seniors share the same view as me.
Here I just wanna say something in general... -Be proud of your prop. Put in your best effort from designing scales, cutting scales to pasting them onto the prop. If they are hidden or blocked, fight for your prop to be seen. (note: the best view need not necessary be the front view) -The advices and suggestions from the seniors may not always be the best under certain circumstances, but do take them into consideration. After all, we wun have all the time n chances to repeat all their mistakes. -To ensure we can not only sustain our standard, but also continue to grow, we should pass down down our knowledge and skills. The best way to do it is to join the Float Committee again next year. To a certain extent, refer to or even learn from the Blue and Orange Hall.
Another year had passed. Today is the annual Homing Day, where all KEVII Hall alumni are invited by our Hall Master to his flat to have dinner. This year, I see the biggest number of KEVIIans in my 4 years here. Not only the usual float seniors, I see many 'fresh' KE7 alumni like the B2 sorority (Steph, Ivy, Su Lyn, Trixie, Julie), my fellow XQRJ 老人 (Miao Ching, Han Yang, San Min, Ivan, ....). I even see KEWOC and JCRC president from the 1990's. So happy to see so many ppl, ppl I missed after being away for a sem.
Too bad I come back rather late from lab. Din really get to mingle with them. ---------------------------------- The Float Static Pre-judging and Dynamic Presentation come right after dinner. Although some cock-up happen in the middle of the dynamic presentation, 令人捏着一把冷汗. But all went well in the 2nd run. Flow seems very smooth. Well done Floaters, especially Mechanism Operators and Dancers.
Dynamic Presentation
To save some surprise for the Actual Rag Day, I shall put up this photo only. Be there on Rag Day see our floaters' 结晶after months of hard work. Rag Day: 8 August 2008 (Friday) @ SRC Field, NUS Static Pre-judging: 7.30am-8.30am Dynamic Presentation: about 11.15am
The Dancers, and Side Prop Helpers and Eric giving his motivating speech. =)
Just finish my 2nd week of lab. Starting to get a bit bored, especially when there is a lot of waiting time. -waiting for the gel to harden -waiting for gel electrophoresis to finish running -waiting for PCR -waiting for centrifuge machine to stop spinning -waiting for seed to germinate and grow -waiting for ........
still can't foresee myself doing this for the rest of my life.. ------------------------------------------------ Doing FYP is starting to get a bit 棘手. Things no longer run as smooth as the year 1,2,3 experiments. Designed and ordered my primers last week. It arrived last Friday, so have to postpone the whole set of experiment to the following week.
Just wanna express my sienness here. So skip the next big chunk of more technical stuff, which will bore you. ------------------------------------------------ Monday (28/7/08) PCR, using my JmjC primers with Arabidopsis thaliana Columbia DNA as template. Electrophoresis of the PCR products. Gel extraction of the PCR products.
Tuesday (29/7/08) Purify my PCR product. Clone the PCR product into TOPO cloning vector. Transformation of the competent cells. Culture the cell, on Kanamycin selective plate.
Wednesday (30/7/08) Pick the correct colony, and inoculate in LB broth.
Thursday (31/7/08) Plasmid extraction from the bacteria cells. Run restriction test.
Everything was surprisingly smooth so far... THEN.... shit happened... I used EcoRI to run restriction test, cos my gene was flank by EcoRI sites in the vector. but the gel turn out to have a lot of small bands. =( not the result I want. Bo pian, went back to check the 5 genes, only to realize that some of the genes got a few internal EcoRI sites. sien.
So have to use other restriction enzymes to do the test... some more the enzymes have different optimum temperature, so have to do sequential digestion and incubate twice..
Double-sienness
Friday (1/8/08) Analyze the product after restriction test n gel electrophoresis. Funny... the band size wasn't what I wanted... Went back to check all the gel photos... Then... I think I cut the wrong band on Monday...
Shit.. whole week's effort wasted.
Running experiments where results aren't guaranteed sure is a different story. ------------------------------------------------ My lab notes and protocols
