Myspace: USA or UK?

Jenna's latest blog entry prompted me to post this, especially after realizing that not all of my friends had the capability of creating photo albums to organize their Myspace photos. Worse yet, unless their Myspace was set to USA, they couldn't see MY albums (or anyone else's), either!

I figured this out with a bit of experimentation. I discovered that I could change which Myspace country I wanted by going into "Account Settings" and selecting from the short drop-down list (I thought I would have to change my registered address-- nope, simple as this, it turns out).

So I selected "UK" and went back to my homepage. And I noticed a number of differences. First, the spelling ("favourites" vs. "favorites"), as discussed in Jenna's blog comments. Second, the date format (day-month vs. month-day). Both are circled in red in the below screenshots. Third, the ads for Myspace Mobile (which only applies to AT&T (formerly Cingular) customers-- hence will only show up on the US sites).

But most importantly, the ability to create photo albums, as evidenced by the differing name of the photo link (circled in pink) next to my avatar.

So-- if you're wondering why you can't create photo albums, and why you can't view other friends' photo albums when they've created them, this is why. I still don't get why it only seems to be available on Myspace USA. But hey-- at least you can get around it by pretending to be an American, LOL!

Helly on Myspace USA:



Helly on Myspace UK:




(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/247043411)

More Pictures from Lisa's visit

Okay, so I've written a nice summary of the weekend with Lisa, I thought I'd post a few more pictures taken while she was here.

First up, here's all 4 of us during our "Girls' Night Out" at the karaoke bar in Hollywood: Anna, Ev, Lisa and me:



Here's Ev and me belting out Joan Jett's "I Love Rock and Roll"



Sacked out in the limo on the ride back home-- hey, it was getting late!



Next day, at Universal Studios-- here's me (in my Grab polo shirt!) with the Access Hollywood reporters. Yeah, I'm famous and on the red carpet ;-)



This one cracks me up to no end, because it showcases quite perfectly exactly how freakishly tall Allan is-- notice how he, in his sandals, is nearly eye level with Frankenstein (who, by the way, is wearing big clunky shoes!)



Finally, Lisa's last night in LA, Ev and I joined her for dinner in Old Town Pasadena:



And now that you've finished reading all that, hightail it over to Lisa's blog, where more pictures await you :-D

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/241841402)

Lisa does LA

Just as Lisa beat me in blogging about my visit to the UK, I'm gonna blog about our weekend together, when it was Lisa's turn to fly into LA :-D

Unfortunately, I don't have very many pictures to share, so those will have to wait until Lisa returns home and posts them in her own blog (and hopefully zips up the remainder and emails them to me :-D)

Saturday I took Todd with me to pick up Lisa at LAX, after which we stopped by the Northridge Fashion Center, had an early dinner in the food court, and watched Todd play in the indoor playground. Then it was back to my parents' place to quickly change and get ready to go out.

Evelyn and Anna arrived to pick us up-- ostensibly to "carpool"... but when we got out the door, there was a limo waiting for us at the end of the driveway! And moreover-- flowers and booze waiting for her inside the car. It was truly a great way to highlight Lisa's week of living like a princess-- all that was missing was a tiara!

Here's Anna, Lisa and me inside the limo:

We ended up going to a karaoke bar in Hollywood, which was a little quiet at first (and that was a good thing, as it allowed me to totally bomb a song before anybody got there, thus making a fool of myself only in front of the girls) but soon picked up after about 10pm. The place was soon packed with what looked like regulars, and some damn talented ones at that. Like Lisa said, it was like American Idol-- and quite a sharp contrast to when I went out on the pub crawl with my British friends in Wales.

The night was quite entertaining with a variety of performances that never failed to bring the house down, such as "cute guy"'s rendition of "Let's Get it On", Ken's dedication to "Lisa from Wales", and a guy-- that's right, a guy-- doing Britney Spears' "Oops I Did it Again"-- he rocked! Evelyn and I wrapped up our evening with a duet of "I Love Rock and Roll", and thankfully didn't get booed off the stage ;-)

Made it home safe and sound by 1am. Well, it was actually 2am, as that was the night we moved forward to Daylight Saving Time. Talk about an inopportune weekend to lose an hour-- on the very night when I need my sleep the most!

Next day Allan, Todd and I took Lisa to Universal Studios (Ev was feeling poorly and stayed home), where we got plenty of sun and behind-the-scenes views of how movies are made. At one point, during the "Sounds and Effects" studio show, I volunteered for one of the segments that showcased how the blue screen works, esp with one actor playing multiple characters. Here's a shot of me interacting with Eddie Murphy's character on "The Nutty Professor"-- in real life I was sitting on a chair in front of a blue screen. It's not very good quality because it was taken with my phone's VGA camera-- my digital camera decided to die on me upon arrival. That marks the THIRD time in a ROW that a camera has broken down on me as SOON as I get inside Universal Studios. I swear, that place is haunted. Next time, I'm bringing two cameras, one as backup for the one that's sure to break down as soon as I step inside the gate :-P

Blowing kisses at the Nutty Professor in front of the green screen:

And this is how it showed up when mixed with the rest of the movie:




It was a long day full of walking, but we lucked out in not having to wait in many lines. Afterward, we went to Buca di Beppo on CityWalk for dinner, where Ev had laid in reservations for us.

In the parking lot I spied an amusing sight-- a Hummer cramped inside a space marked "Compact". The sad thing about this picture? The owner of this vehicle actually did a much better job of parking as best as he/she could within the tiny space, than most SUV's I've seen-- SUV's that are much smaller than a Hummer! What gives??



All in all, a busy but fun-filled weekend. It was nice seeing Lisa again, and having fun showing her my neck of the woods. On more than one occasion has she shaken her head and said "Only in America".
That's right, babes. It is one unique country :-)

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/240611958)

5 and 10 years ago

Swiped from Scot:

10 years ago-- March 1997:
1.) How old were you?  19
2.) Where did you go to school?  I was winding down my senior year at UCLA
3.) Where did you work?  Full-time student
4.) Where did you live?  With my parents (I commuted)
5.) Where did you hang out?  In the (Army ROTC) cadet lounge :-P
6.) Did you wear glasses?  Yes
7.) Who was your best friend?  Hmmm, Ella and Jenniper?
8.) How many tattoos did you have?  None
9.) How many piercings did you have?  None
10.) What car did you drive?  My mom's 1984 Toyota Corolla
11.) Had you been to a real party yet?  Just some military balls, those were always fun!
12.) Had you had your heart broken?  Nope
13.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter:  Single

5 years ago-- March 2002:

1.) How old were you? 24 :-P
2.) Where did you go to school?  Wrapping up my first year at UCSB
3.) Where did you work?  UCSB, as a teaching assistant
4.) Where did you live?  Santa Barbara, CA
5.) Where did you hang out?  The computer lab on campus :-P
6.) Did you wear glasses?  Yes
7.) Who was your best friend?  Didn't really have best friends per se, had my little "gang" of friends that I spent the most time with, though-- Wayne, Darren, Dallas and Ly.
8.) Who was your regular-person crush?  What, as opposed to an irregular person? :-P
9.) How many tattoos did you have? None
10.) How many piercings did you have?  None
11.) What car did you drive?  My beloved baby-- a 1998 Plymouth Neon
12.) Had you had your heart broken?  Nope
13.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter:  Single

Today-- March 2007:

1.) How old are you? 29, going on 30 VERY soon
2.) Where do you work?  Amgen
3.) Where do you live?  Split my time between my parents' house and Santa Barbara
4.) Do you wear glasses?  Still do!
5.) Where do you hang out?  At home, with my son
6.) Who is your best friend?  Lisa :-)
7.) Who's your crush?  No crushes
8.) Do you talk to your old friends?  Not really
9.) How many piercings do you have?  Still don't have any
10.) How many tattoos?  Still don't have any
11.) What kind of car do you have?  2003 Mitsubishi Galant (my poor Neon is kaputt)
12.) Has your heart been broken?  I plead the Fifth
13.) Single/Taken/Married/Divorced/Bitter:  Married, though still in denial and disbelief over that fact :-P

(originally posted at: http://www.myspace.com/hellykwee/blog/237594794)