ALISAURUS.net
...kinda like a dinosaur, a bit less like a thesaurus, but mostly just Alice.
• Welcome to alisaurus.NET, my personal website. I've been playing around with HTML and stuff for years, but never really got anywhere. Since discovering CSS, things have got a whooooole lot easier. Now, mainly through wanting a blog I can access in China, I have bought a website. The site, and domain name were purchased in November 2007, from Bluehost.com. The name is basically what kind of dinosaur I'd be, if I was a dinosaur. RAAAR! (because my name is Alice and most dinosaurs end in "-saurus". Getit?). And it's .net, as in what you'd catch such a creature in. So it's mainly a home for my blog, but is also going to serve as a dumping ground for all my things on the net. When it comes to web-design, I hate coding tables, but loved making graphics... until PSP stopped working. :(ABOUT ME
...not at all like a dinosaur, or a thesaurus. Pretty much only Alice.
• My name is Alice, I'm 20 and come from Scotland. I am 5'3", have blonde hair and blue eyes... but this is not a personals ad. I have a multitude of nicknames which don't make sense without a backstory, including Dave, Malice, Mr. Alan Benson, and Princess Alice Christmas-Bunny Wynd. I'm not going to give you the backstories. My Chinese name is 彭娅玲 (Péng Yàlíng), and my Japanese name would be アリス (Arisu). I enjoy chocolate, dangly earrings, pink, monkey actors in films, walking through cities at night, walking on beaches before night, cafés (eating in, people-watching from, and going in so often that the staff recognise me), blowing bubbles, bursting bubblewrap, jumping on crunchy leaves, hugs, hot showers, wearing odd socks and symmetry. If she was real, and had profound things to say (and a mouth to say them with), Hello Kitty might well be my role-model. My favourite TV shows are Neighbours, Hollyoaks, Ugly Betty and House. When in Britain, I'm also rather partial to daytime TV including, but not limited to the "murder mystery", "antiques" and "property development" genres. I love music and listen to all sorts of genres, from different countries and in different languages. See my Last.FM for specific artists and songs.• I study Chinese at the University of Edinburgh, but I'm spending the '07-'08 academic year studying abroad at Yunnan Normal University (云南师范大学) in Kunming, China. My degree comprises not just Mandarin Chinese, but history, literature, film and all sorts. I really enjoy it, but I don't know what I want to do with it
• I'm not going to go through all my old, embarassing screennames, but there are 2 that I currently use. ayuvolution is a combination of "Ayu", the nickname of Japanese singer Ayumi Hamasaki (浜崎あゆみ) and "evolution", one of my favourite songs of hers. ayumiix comes from the title of one of Ayu's remix album series' "ayu-mi-x" (Ayumi + mix). Since "ayumix" was taken on gmail, I added an extra "i".
The Bahá'í Faith
...what I believe in and why.
• I'm a Bahá'í, which means I do my best to live my life in accordance with the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'ís believe all religion comes from one, unknowable God, who's will is revealed to humanity through a series of Manifestations (of which Bahá'u'lláh is the most recent), who's message and spiritual laws are the same, but who's explanations and social laws are appropriate to the needs and understanding of humanity at the time. The main purpose of The Bahá'í Faith (in other words, the current chapter of religion), which started in Persia around 150 years ago, is to bring about unity. "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." ~ Bahá'u'lláh. Some of the main principles of the faith include "unity in diversity" - the removal of prejudice and understanding of the unity of mankind, as well as the preservation of cultural diversity; the equality of the sexes - recognising the strengths of both genders, and allowing them equal opportunities; independant investigation of truth - there are no clergy in the faith; and the harmony of science and religion - both are attempts to understand and explain the universe we live in, and if they disagree, one of them does not have the whole truth. I became a Bahá'í on May 12th 2007 after about 9 months of investigation, having first heard of the faith through a friend at university. For me, it answers a lot of questions, resolves everything about religion that I had a problem with in the past, and just makes a lot of sense. It gives me purpose, and a reason and a way to improve myself while improving society. "To be a Bahá'í simply means to love all the world; to love humanity and try to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal brotherhood." ~ `Abdu'l-Bahá."Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility." ~ Bahá'u'lláh
WHERE TO FIND ME
...social networking sites I have profiles on, and the like.
If you want to get in contact with me, leave a comment on my blog, or e-mail me at ayumiixatgmaildotcom. |
• Facebook is my favourite social networking site. Most of my university friends, as well as a lot of others, are on it, and check it regularly, it's really handy for organising events, sharing photos, and just keeping in touch with people. I spend an unhealthy amount of time facebooking, so it's the best place to find me. Please note that I only add people as friends who I actually know. I don't use it to make friends. |
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• I don't use MySpace as much as I used to. It's another social networking site which allows you to customise your profile to a greater extent than facebook, but means there are a lot more painful-on-the-eyes profiles. Although I don't use it all that often, I can't bear to part with my profile. |
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• Urgh. I wish I wasn't a Bebo user, but I am. I joined one day when I was trying to avoid writing an essay, and found a lot of my old school friends were on it. I use it mainly to get back in touch with people I used to know. It's blocked in China right now, so I don't check it. Not the best place to find me. |
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• Livejournal is also blocked in China, so I don't use mine at the moment. The entries that are on it are "friends-only" and I only have a few friends on LJ, or private, so unless you're one of the few, there's not much point going there. I'm including it here for the sake of completeness. |
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• For Last.FM, you download a plugin for your media player(s), which gathers information on the songs you play, and sends it to your profile, which displays charts and stuff. So you can go there and see what music I've been listening to. I love this site XD |
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• I've uploaded several of my videos to YouTube. I'll link them on this site too, but they're all there if you want a look. My "favourites" there are mostly music videos that I like the songs of, but don't have them in audio format to listen to. |