We live in a flat - Page 38 of 75 - Many Adults, 1 Boy & 1 Dog's Montessori Life in a Singapore flat

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1st Blogiversary! Woot!

On March 6, 2014

One of Timethief’s post titles came to mind as I start to type these first words to this post. The title is – Celebrate your blogging journey. She opened with a good quote about success being built out of small successes along the way and then pointed out that first thing first, we need to be able to define what success is to us.

Another article I read recently illustrates this idea pretty well. The writer talked about an Olympic winner and how his success was not defined by that instant he won a gold at the Olympics, but by all the times he turned up every single day for practice. That discipline and endeavour was critical for setting him on the road to winning his medal.

This story repeats itself many times. Tina Rice (Ashcroft54) shared a Ted video – your elusive, creative genius – in which writer Elizabeth Gilbert talks about turning up everyday for “her part of the job” even when she had writer’s block and her genius seemed to be evading her.

Now this blog isn’t award-winning. We never won medals for anything. Last I heard, we weren’t a famous writer. And if you check our Facebook page, we’re not very well-liked either :P

But guess what?

Within a year, this blog published 375 posts, more than 1 post a day. I’ll take that as a small success to celebrate. Every post contributed to the over 4000 comments and 7000 likes that the blog received. Thank everyone of you who viewed, commented and liked the posts! ; )

weliveinaflat wordpress blog
No. of published posts	Comments	Likes
375 (more than 1 post a day)	4116	7504

weliveinaflat.com self-hosted blog
No. of published posts	Comments	Likes
338 (removed some lame posts)	4573	unreported

Some of the other little milestones to celebrate:

More than a handful of blogger generated awards from these lovely people.

Jun 2013 | Featured on the Versatile Blogger Award blog
The VBA award creator said of our post Mugshots are ugly as “One of the best I got a Versatile Blogger Award announcements I’ve read!“

July 2013 | Guest blogged a Haiku for HaikubyKuruk

Aug 2013 – Feb 2014 | I ran my first photo challenge. I got 10 participants. (^____^)y
You could say 10 participants is not a lot. But when I first started, I didn’t even know if I would get any participants at all! The fact that this blog is more a dog blog than a photo blog meant I had the odds stacked against me. I put it out there, 10 wonderful people responded. I think it’s awesome. Check out the work of the 10 people here.
My second photo challenge is on-going and more awesome than the first, check it out!

Sep 2013 | We were runner up in the Don’t Parsley Me by Pigture Contest
It was a great activity by Hutch a Good Life to give visibility to adopted animals and promote awareness of animal adoption.
Sep 2013 | Our tutorial link was shared on the Spanish site srperro.com
In a post on the popularity of dog selfies, SrPerro included a link to our tutorial – How to take a good dog selfie.

Oct 2013 | Gentle Paws shared our link on their Facebook
Very cool!

Nov 2013 | We were mentioned in the wordpress newsletter, Daily Post Digest
Miss Harper Lee and I play 20 Facts was mentioned in the Nov 2013 newsletter.

Dec 2013 | Moved from weliveinaflat.wordpress.com to weliveinaflat.com

Feb 2014 | Wrote a parody of NomadRuss’s post, sent it to him and he said it made him laugh! Awesome!
Photographing Dogs: NomadRuss Ten Tips Reinvented! hit a record (for us) 31 shares on Facebook.

Mar 2014 | We survived!! Blog is one year old.

If you are counting, that’s 3 Awesomes in 7 bullet points. Yes! Everything is awesome! :D

But that’s enough of tooting my own little horn, let’s talk about you.

Top 10 countries reading weliveinaflat.com

1. USA
2. Singapore
3. United Kingdom
4. Australia
5. Canada

6. Thailand
7. South Africa
8. India
9. Netherlands
10. Japan

You are a lover of dogs/pets or photography, probably both.
You have no breed prejudice. You think Donna the local mongrel is just as cute as a known breed dog and that, I think, is Awesome! :)
You support dog rescue and adoption causes. And if you are in Singapore, you probably know Donna in real life from Gentle Paws.
You own a photographic device and/or a wonderful dog(s) of you own. You enjoy looking at photos and being the true photography enthusiast or dog lover, you take a lot of photos as well!
That said, you don’t have a rigid concept of what makes a good photo. You are open to experimentation or reading blogs like mine where most photos are edited to a greater or lesser degree.
You enjoy sharing knowledge and stories about your own dogs/photographs.
You know quite a fair bit about dog training and positive training, or you have an interest in getting started.
You have active social circles where it comes to dogs and photography. You may run a photo/dog blog/social media account of your own.
You have a sense of humour. Funny posts and stories entertain you more than the others.

Now that’s 10 things I think I know about you based on all your comments, which has some influence over what I write and how I present the story using words and photos.

But I also remember the me one year ago. The newly-minted dog idiot with a dog.

The dog didn’t come with a Dummies guide or instruction manual. I researched, tried to understand the available information and made logical conclusions from there. Then I started creating this page – The Dummies Guide for Dog Idiots – with the aim of making it easier for new dog idiots like myself. But sad to say that is not one of the things I can celebrate. It’s not very well done or helpful at all.

Coming back to the theme of celebrating small wins, I’m just going to write helpful articles one at a time. My first one is done and published – Target train your dog to touch nose to hand.

I tried to make it a lively, easy and fun read so that the me one year ago would have found it interesting and useful to try it out with the new dog at the start. But if you already know these stuff, I do hope you enjoy them for the photos and the attempts at humour.

I thank you for the thoughtful comments and also any other suggestions that could make the posts better. And if you do find a value in these articles, I thank you for sharing them with new dog adopters, people considering to adopt, etc, etc. ; )

Are you curious about what else 2014 will bring for this blog? You’ll find the goals here.

And so, my friends. Tis time to end yet another long and naggy post from yours truly.

What small successes about your blog or your life do you celebrate?

Looking back the last 12 months

By weliveinaflat

On March 5, 2014

In Archive

Our blog turns One tomorrow. So I thought it’s appropriate to take a look back at some of the posts I wrote across the last 12 months. If you are not familiar to this blog, the posts also give you a sense of what is available here. ; )

First reader comment

What a fun looking little girl! She isn’t a ‘mongrel’ by the way, she’s a Perfection Hound – a little bit of the best of a lot of things :) – runamuckranch

Mar 2013 | Likes (16) We spent too much time waiting for the future – photo post
Apr 2013 | Likes (1) Nothing in life is free – I thought this was rather funny though. :P
May 2013 | Likes (31) In which the dog amuses herself – I thought this was funny too :P
Jun 2013 | Comments (32) Share the lift with my dog please? – apartment living
Jul 2013 | Comments (54) Will you play with me – video
Aug 2013 | Comments (32) Think she’s being good? – behaviour
Sep 2013 | Comments (35) Introducing the Thundershirt or any shirt to our dog – behaviour
Oct 2013 | Comments (42) Donna is off the best friend list, said Hippo – photo
Nov 2013 | Comments (30) Donna takes her own sweet time – video
Dec 2013 | Comments(14) Christmas week, a year ago and today – fiction
Jan 2014 | Comments (13) Apartment Dog Killer Danger – Dog Hanged by Lift – safety
Feb 2014 | Comments (48) Talk to the paw, human! – photo

Thank you for looking, all the likes and comments! :)

Check out the other pet photos in the following hops!

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge Week 4 – Cutouts

By weliveinaflat

On March 5, 2014

In Photography

Welcome back to Week 4 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge hosted by weliveinaflat and firebonnet ;) This challenge asks you to (1) share a good photo that you took or edited last week, (2) run it through a photo app on your smartphone or mobile device and share with us the result. This week, we are looking at Cutouts. : )

Our awesome Snappy H’appy crew includes co-host Meghan (Firebonnet) and also Melinda (1stWorldDog), Christy (Sassmuffins), CompletelyDisappear, Gretchen (Zeke’s Adventures), Meg (Little Dogs Laughed), Blogagaini and Mary (RoxyTheTravelingDog).

If you didn’t join us in the last three weeks, it’s not too late. :) We have 9 weeks left in the challenge and you can join us starting this week. Backdated posts for the previous weeks are optional. ; ) For more details about the challenge, check out the Photo Challenge page. Now then, let’s talk cut outs, shall we?

Cutouts

The Modern Dance from Rogier Wieland on Vimeo.If you are into crafts or collages, then cutouts would not be unfamiliar to you. Cutouts can be decorative, they can also convey a message. The art of juxtaposing a cut out from a photo or picture with another different photo or picture can create some wildly imaginative scenerios, landscapes or portraits. Check out CollageArtByJesse to see what I mean.

Oddly enough, cutouts would not be a topic here, if I had not discovered this particular feature in a well used app on both my iPhone and now my Samsung Galaxy Note 3. That it works on both devices is a bonus.

I am talking about Moldiv.

How to use Moldiv for Cutouts

Commonly known as a collage app, I actually use Moldiv a lot more for its text function than for its collage options! I like to think of Moldiv as a very misunderstood app, simply because it’s creators decided to put the collage options right on the first page!

But you can pretty much use Moldiv for just 1 photo as well, just pick the 1st option like in Screen #1. The “Frame Adjust” button in the next screen takes you to a page that let’s you choose the dimensions of the photo so it does not need to be at a 1:1 square ratio, although at first glance it does create that impression.

Moldiv starting screen and stamp editing screen

The Cutout feature we shall explore today is hidden in the Stamp Editing section (screen #2). So tap on that. Then tap on the dotted line with the scissors icon (screen #3). You will be prompted to select a photo from your camera or gallery to use for your cut out. You then proceed to draw a dotted line around the object you want to cut out (screen #4). In my case, I am cutting Donna out.

Moldiv stamp editing and cutout screen

The cut out will appear as a layer on top of the photo you choose to use as the background. The cut out can be moved around and resized/rotated, as long as you are in the Stamp Editing section of the app.

Now cutouts can potentially look tacky or in bad taste.

Rude dog, bad human
Dog cutout on birds on a ledge photo. Text on the roof using Moldiv text, the [T] icon in screen #3.

But with a little thought put into it, you can make it look as wildly imaginative or surreal as you like!

Leaping lizards! Invader alert!! Invader alert!!
Cartoon effect in Moldiv with lizard cutouts. The [+] icon next to “cutout” in Screen #3 lets me create multiple copies of the same lizard cutout.

If you’re interested, here is a pretty comprehensive video tutorial on How to use Moldiv on Youtube.

So this week’s photo challenge asks you to get as witty or creative with your photo as you like.

On top of your good photo that you took last week, you will also need to pick some photo(s) of objects that you would want to cutout and tack onto of your photo to make a statement. Don’t worry if the cutout sticks out like a sore thumb or doesn’t seem to blend in with the rest of the scene. Cutouts are supposed to stick out, draw attention to themselves, not unlike graffiti on a wall. ; )

Meghan and I look forward to seeing your thoughts in your photos! ;)

Get inspired

Go get it!
Apps with cut out effects for mobile devices

iPhone/iPad users

Feel free to check out other apps with Cut Out features

Android devices

Moldiv, Photo Punch (Cnet review)

Host challenge post

My photo of the week

Birds on a rail, edited with snapseed and photoshop.

These birds, whatever they are since they didn’t stop to tell me their names :P, don’t look that remarkable with their dull plumage, but it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to take their picture. I had time for just one shot at a distance before they flew away.

App Challenge Image

Donna learns to speak bird. Edited with Snapseed, Moldiv and Toon Camera.

My Donna cutout hides the trash below the birds somewhat :P Donna’s photo has been processed in ToonCamera before it was made into a cutout in Moldiv. I was trying for a somewhat whimsical effect here.

Now it’s your turn to share!

Create your challenge post from now until Sunday, 9 Mar end of your day. Post your Photo of the Week and your App-ed version of that photo on your blog. (You can follow my format above if you like).

Pic 1 – Your Photo of the Week can be taken with any equipment – a regular camera, a DSLR, a smartphone, hack even a pin-hole camera if you so choose!

Pic 2 – Pic 2 is optional. The theme this week is Cutouts, but if that is not your cup of tea, you are free to choose other app effects for your app-ed photo. In all cases, it would be helpful if you can name the app effect used so we can understand what you are doing ; )

Add the challenge badge and link your post to the host and co-host sites. Be nice and visit with some of the other challengers for this week! :) And do remember to leave me your blog post link in the comments below, in case I do not receive the pingback/trackback from your link.

For more information, you can read in detail more about the challenge and the instructions at the About page here. You can also grab the badges here.

Questions? Feel free to pose any questions in the comments below or email me at weliveinaflat@gmail.com. Next up, what happens after you have linked up? Why you start getting your challenger photo grid filled up!

Challenger Photo Grids

Every week, challenger grids get updated with the new photos! At the end, you get to grab your grid off this blog for your own pleasure. :D Meanwhile, you can view one another’s photos on the blogs by clicking on the linked numbered weeks above each challenger’s photo grid. I will try to keep it up to date as quick as I can ;)

Host| weliveinaflat.com
[ photos tagged “snappy happy” ]
weliveinaflat's Snappy H'appy Photo Grid

Host| firebonnet.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
firebonnet snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| 1stworlddog.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
1st world dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Roxy The Traveling Dog
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Roxy the Traveling Dog snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Zeke’s Adventures
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Zeke's Adventures snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Little Dogs Laughed
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Little Dogs Laughed snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| sassmuffins.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
sassmuffin snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| completelydisappear.com
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
completelydisappear snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Blogagaini
[week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12]
Blogagaini snappy happy photo challenge photo grid

Challenger| Claim your photo grid, join the challenge today!

Next week, we’ll get Snappy H’appy with Light effects! Thanks for checking out this Photo Challenge and making it all the way to the end of the post! ;)

Phoneography Weekly: Sunset Cove

By weliveinaflat

On March 3, 2014

In Photography

chrysanthemum photo with blue filter applied to it Phoneography Monday Challenge: Nature
Apps: Samsung Galaxy Note 3 native camera, unfiltered
Some random shots as we strolled along in the evening. The sunset was striking, but not so well captured by the smartphone. The captures were pretty low resolution, might have to do with the photo settings on Mr P’s phone.

This week, weliveinaflat.com turns one. I have done 11 iterations of mobile photography posts under the theme of Nature. I have grouped them here on a Pinterest board. Feel free to take look down the past 11 months with me. :)

Our first dog agility experience!

By weliveinaflat

On March 2, 2014

In Training

Donna climbing the A-ramp. Donna and I had a tiny taste of dog agility at the PetExpo Saturday morning (that’s yesterday!)

I had some difficulty trying to get Donna to weave through the poles, but Mr P says it’s because half the time I’m standing too close and blocking her from weaving. OMG!

Target Train your dog to Touch Nose to Hand

By weliveinaflat

On March 1, 2014

In Training

dog does not respond correctly to Touch or Hand to Nose targeting training command

“May I gently boop your nose?”

Is nose booping something that you do?

I don’t. In fact, the word wasn’t in my vocabulary until I got that comment on Instagram!

That’s ironic because I spent the last week encouraging Donna to “boop” her nose against my two fingers by herself. We were specifically training the Nose to Hand behaviour, also called Touch, which is part of Target Training.

The blog this week – 27 Feb, 2014

By weliveinaflat

On February 27, 2014

In Archive

Just a quick snapshot of the posts for the past week ;)

Mongrel Barks

Saturday | Donna’s reaction to the Nose command
The Nose to Hand command can be so practical in situations like moving the dog around without tugging on the leash and also really cool in canine freestyle. But what does Donna say?

Sunday | Keep your eyes on the rope toy, human
Four simple lessons from 1stWorldDog, that Donna shows can be universal truths. :)

Keep your eyes on the rope toy, humans!

And don’t forget to treat. ; )

Wednesday | Reinforcing Heel and why she LOVES it!
One of the things I am inconsistent about, besides training, is reinforcement and proofing. I know trained behaviours need to be continuously reinforced so that it is proofed to stick under various situations and environments, but it is yet another thing that chips away at the limited time we have. That happy face is good encouragement though. ;)

Photography Bytes

Tuesday | Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge – Watercolour
I try to fill each Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge post with relevant information that I find interesting for the Effect that we are exploring for the week. This week’s theme is Watercolor. So if you love to do more with your photos on your phone and find it relevant, click here and check it out!

Monday | The Kitchen Table
Did you ever trying styling buffet items for a food shot. Not easy, but it was fun. And the good thing about food photography is always … well, the food that you get to eat.

I thought this one came out rather interesting with the watercolor filter.

I’ve started adding some affiliate ads from Amazon to a small number of old pages on the blog, where relevant contextually. You may notice this box on the sidebar labelled “Donna uses this”, which lists a few products that have appeared on the blog before. All such ads are labelled advertisement, so you know. :) I don’t know what I’ll get out of it, if anything at all. :P

The last two days have been mildly frustrating as this blog keeps going down, something wrong with the hosting server. So I do apologise if you were unable to load the site properly, if at all, at times. I noticed I have lost a draft I was working on and that I had saved before the server problem. But after the site came back up, that saved draft was gone.

Backup is just such a pain right, but it’s absolutely essential when something like “omg the server crashed” hits you. So I’m now on VaultPress. They backup my data daily for $5/month. So, if you do more on your site than I do, e.g. you sell things or you’re liable to deliver content or numbers to an advertiser or like me, you just care deeply about every “golden” word you type :P Make sure you have backups, and that the backups include your entire database, NOT just a few templates.

Anyway, next week Thursday is our blog anniversary, so check back here and see what else is different!

Some of the posts that got me thinking or cracked me up from other blogs this week:

Finding Romance at Kiyomizu Temple – If you had found my recent post on Kiyomizu-dera at night interesting, I totally recommend you check out Completely Disappear’s photos of the temple in the daylight.
We’re training hand targetting right now, but paw targeting looks fun too :)
Medicating ears, she makes it look so easy!!!
When is it ok to run with senior dogs? (A vet’s point of view) – not that Donna is a senior dog yet, but this knowledge could come in handy in her old age :P… if I could ever get her and me running seriously!
The real tips for running with your dog – apparently hunting dogs like to run with things in their mouths. How cute is that! Donna doesn’t do it, so you know she doesn’t have hunting dog in her genes :P

Thursday Barks and Bytes is hosted by 2browndawgs and HeartLikeADog. 2Browndogs compares the Chesapeake Bay Retriever to the Rhodesian Ridgeback this week and Heart Like a Dog talks about a little lump on her dog Delilah.

Reinforcing Heel and why she LOVES it!

By weliveinaflat

On February 26, 2014

In Behaviour

I think all of our dogs have probably made the happy face at us when they know a treat is soon to come. This is Donna working on heel and trotting along beside me with her eyes shining up towards me in anticipation. A very silly yet endearing face. I call it the Treat Face.

Of course, she has this other face that Eko is demonstrating very well over here. I call that the Pathetic Face. I’ll show you Donna’s pathetic face another time. ;) Though I think most people will prefer the Treat Face to the Pathetic Face. At least, I do :P

Got a photo of your dog/pet’s Treat face or a Pathetic face or both? Give me a link in the comments and I’ll go see. ; )

Discover new blogs and pet photos!

Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge Week 3 – Watercolour apps

By weliveinaflat

On February 26, 2014

In Photography

snappy happy logo Welcome back to Week 3 of the Snappy H’appy Photo Challenge hosted by weliveinaflat and firebonnet ;) This challenge asks you to (1) share a good photo that you took or edited last week, (2) run it through a photo app on your smartphone or mobile device and share with us the result. This week, we are looking at Watercolour apps. : )