Like most games in Facebook, Cafe World is very easy to understand. The game starts with you being given a cafe to manage. You start out with a stove, a counter, a few tables, and an employee. When you click the stove, a cookbook will open indicating the dishes that you can cook at the level you are in. Once you decide on a dish, you continue to click the stove until the image indicates the amount of time it will take until the dish is cooked. Afterwards, you will be asked to click on the stove to serve the food. This will trigger your character, the cook, to bring it to the counter so that your waiter can start serving the dish. To be able to find out how many servings you have left, you place the mouse pointer on the counter. Those are the basic things you need to know to be able to serve a dish.

I like this game because you can design the cafe any way you want. You can go crazy with the decoration you can use. A friend of mine designed his cafe with a Moroccan theme. Let your creativity flow. The only thing that will limit you is the cash you have which you also use for buying a dish before you can cook it. It is fairly easy to earn money in Cafe World so this should not be a problem.

Another thing why I like Cafe World is because I imagine cooking, and eating, some of these dishes that sound so appetizing. Just thinking of dishes like Lemon Butter Lobster, Atomic Buffalo Wings, and Triple Berry Cheesecake makes my mouth water.

So if you haven’t yet, try out Cafe World and start cooking.

Cheers!

One of the problems I have with this borrowed camera is that when it is too bright, tiny dots appear on the lens which also appear on the pictures.  The reason for this has actually been explained to me but right now I can’t remember what it was.  Anyway, my problem was how to fix the pictures.

I just started using GIMP, so don’t laugh when I tell you that the image editor I used before was Paint.  I don’t really know what terms like saturate, color balance and layers mean.  For me Paint is enough to modify the image attributes like when I need to resize a photo.

After asking an expert, I learned that it’s actually very easy “fix” photos in GIMP.  All I needed to use is the Heal Tool (Tools > Paint Tools > Heal).

In this example, I was working on a photo in Grayscale mode.

Notice the encircled black dot? There are also several noticeable dots on the picture. So what I need to do is to look for a part of the photo that I can use to overlap those dots. I pressed the CTRL key while clicking on that part that I want to use to cover the dot with. Then, I clicked on the dot, this time without pressing the CTRL key to erase the dot. It is simple, just like Copy – Paste, right?!

So there you go. Here’s the finished product.

P.S.
I also learned how to create a custom brush. Check out my signature on that finished photo. I’ll provide the tutorial link later.

Here are other photos that I enjoyed editing.

I know, I know… The photos need a lot of improvement but that initial attempt might have opened up the field of graphic design for me. I just took one quick peek. Perhaps there’s something for me there.

Since May 2008 Plurk has been giving internet users a way of updating their friends (and fans) with a minute-by-minute account of their lives. It is instant messaging, blogging, and social networking all rolled into one. Just like Yahoo Messenger, AIM, or Windows Messenger you will be able to send instant messages (with cute new emoticons) to your friends. Similar to blogging, you will be able to send short messages containing links, photos, and even YouTube videos. Social networking comes into play because you can add a number of fans who can follow your timeline, and a set of friends who you can follow and who can follow your timeline as well. So long as the plurks (which are actually the messages) are viewable to the world, people in the plurkiverse (who may or may not be your friends) can post replies to them.

As the A-Team puts it, you are a celebrity! So no matter what you do, or how boring you think your life is, there will be people who will tune in to your social journal.

There are features in Plurk that are not available on their (considered-to-be) rival, Twitter. In Plurk, the plurkers (or subscribers) can post new messages with a given set of qualifiers. These are one-word verbs that can be used to represent a thought (ex. hopes, wonders, wants, etc.). Also, there is a list of supported languages for qualifiers that you can opt to use: Filipino, Italiano, and Bahasa Indonesia are just some of them. You can also suggest your native language if it’s not on the current list yet.

Karma is another feature. Every plurker has a Karma value that is recalculated everyday. The Karma value depends on several things: updating the profile, the number of plurks, friends and fans, and inviting more friends to Plurk. It is very important to know the difference of quality plurking from spamming. A high Karma value rewards you with exclusive features. For instance, a Karma value of more than 10 will earn you the ability to give a title to your own timeline. A Karma value of more than 50 will give you access to exclusive emoticons.

Because of the increasing number of members, along with their demands, add-ons and widgets have been created for its users that would quickly post the plurks without having to visit their own user profile. In the Philippines, PhPlurk has provided Plurk users with a way of updating their timeline just by sending a message from a mobile phone to PhPlurk’s gateway. They have created a gateway for the following mobile network provider:Globe, Smart and Sun Cellular.

Plurk is just one of the many tools in the internet that gives you a chance to connect with people, be it with family, friends, and even strangers. What are you waiting for? Start plurking.

Mac vs PC

Thanks to the youtube user who patiently put this all in one video.