Thursday, December 4, 2014

How to download videos from Facebook

Some of you must have tried to find an easy way to download videos from Facebook like me. You sometime find your friends sharing videos that you would like to save to watch later, or for reference. You could do that easily following the tutorial here:

 

Courtesy: https://www.facebook.com/tutovidsblog

It is for videos that are hosted on Facebook.

If you are too lazy to open the video tutorial, here are the steps:
1. Play the video on facebook
2. On the url, replace 'www' with the letter 'm'
3. Play the video again
4. Right click on the video and click on 'save video as'
5. You can choose where on your computer you want to save the video
6. Change the file name as you want and click 'save'

That is all there is. Hope it helps.


Monday, November 10, 2014

How to download free podcasts from iTunes


I struggled a bit trying to look up on the web for help on downloading free podcasts that are available on iTunes. The help online were confusing. None was clear.

So trying it on trial and error basis was the best. Here is how:

Please look at the picture on the left.

You have to just left click once on the 'free' button that is under 'price'. The links that indicated had help on how to download these podcasts only talked about subscribing to them. 

Once you download them, they are saved under iTunes-->iTunes media-->iTunes U.

For those of you who know this, it may sound very simple but for those who are just beginning to figure out, I hope it helps. 

Friday, October 31, 2014

When you can’t be who you want to be

My husband is out of station for two weeks and I am alone to attend to my daughter. Work at office had to become heavier exactly at this time! So, it has become bit stressful to get my daughter ready for her school, drop her there and then pick her up in the evening. There were two times when I had to request my friend and then, her teacher to take her to their home because I would be getting away from work late. The consequence? I was stressed. As soon as I was with her, she became cranky and nagging. Thinking back, I guess she was seeking my attention because she missed me. But at that time, I was impatient and I lost my temper faster than my usual self. And the consequence was that, everyday I had to spank her (but readers, be gentle with me here. I don’t spank her with the intensity to hurt her). It is just a little spank on her bank or bottom, just to show that I am upset.

I want to be a good mother. And yes, I want to be a good daughter too. And what is more? I want to be a sincere civil servant. So, I’m stretched in between the desire to fulfill all these expectations. Lately, I have come to realize that maybe my problem is that I want to be the best for everyone. I don’t want to be branded as ‘bad’, as in not fitting the norms and expectations of the society. After a while it starts to feel too heavy a weight on me.

People I know tell me that I am the most patient mother they have come across. Is it true? I don’t know. I want to be the best mother and I try to be, but I feel I fail despite all that.

Take for example last evening. I had requested her madam to take her to her house. When I finally got home there at 7 p.m. from office, she got so irritable that she didn’t want to get in the car. She started throwing her hands on to me, kicking my bag and pulling away from the car with all her strength. No coaxing worked and I had to spank her. We got home tired – both of us feeling so drained. I was even angry with my mother for not having taken the door key and thus having to wait for us. I felt like the pent up emotions were engulfing me. I cried too.

Later when both of us were calmed down, I asked my mother what it was like for her. Her answer? She never felt so exhausted and tired. Giving birth to eight children wasn’t even a struggle. My problem is like a speck of dust compared to what she went through. Raising seven children in the times when there was no school, no education, no electricity and road, and no shops nearby. I can only imagine what it was like to wake up everyday to the farmer’s life of drudgery – and yet, to have not a single complaint. She is the most grateful person I have known. I see it in her eyes, in her everyday gesture. Surely it is a consolation for me.

When I say all this, I don’t mean that I feel ungrateful towards life. Neither am I a pessimistic person in general. I cannot attribute yesterday’s tiredness to anything really. I probably went zig-zag because of some hormonal change. But isn’t that a bit too early?  I just hope it doesn’t come back again. Today, I am determined to be my usual self – the gentle and compassionate mother, and caring and doting daughter. I hope I live up to this wish till my husband returns.


Motherhood is a blessing. And with it comes many more tests. I want to pass each one and yet, I already feel like I am failing.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Converting from PDF to Word on MacBook

I am sure many of you are struggling like me to get a software that will convert the files from PDF format to Word format. We often need them because when some documents are available only in PDF,  it is a tedious job to actually be able to take a chunk of the words from them  -- for whatever purposes.

Here is the easy trick of doing that, if you are using Mac:


Once you have created the app to convert the PDF to Word, all you have to do is drag and drop the pdf file onto that app, which converts it into rtf file. Then you drag and drop the rtf file onto the 'word' icon (app) and there is your pdf document converted to word.

Tips: You could now check what kind of repetitive works you can use automator for. Make your life easy! 

Thursday, September 25, 2014

A mother’s daily joy

I have not written a letter to my daughter for a long time now but it does not mean that I don’t have my daily joys and laughter with her. Yesterday after office, we went to my cousin’s house where they were making a tshog offering. There, when one of my cousins asked her what she studies at school, she stood in front of her in full attention and sang the ‘ABC song’ to her. Back at home, she played with the marker and the white board. She wrote something and then showed me saying, ‘P’. She had really written a P. She had learned to write ‘A’ quite sometime back and I didn’t consider it too striking (I don’t know why).

Then she also wrote the letter ‘B’. 



I think she is being taught nursery rhymes and how to draw and write. This is probably too early for her. I don’t want her to feel any pressure at all but if she is taking this as some fun thing to do – something like playing with a new toy, that is okay with me. I am still with the view that she should be sent to school only at the age of six. She must have a childhood like I did and she must not feel the pressure of time, schedule, routine and school yet, though, in some ways she already has a different time now – of having to go to a child care centre.



She is more active than many children and it sometimes is difficult but at most times, I feel lucky. Like four days back, we had the most excruciatingly painful and scary moment because she put super glue on her left eye sticking the eyelids together. Hundreds of scary thoughts ran through me and I must tell you, if something happened to her, I would never forgive myself. Having a child like her is in a way an exhilarating journey.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Back to Music and Love

As I am writing this post, I am listening to Dolly Parton’s song, ‘Coat of many colors’ (Lyrics at the end, so you know what I am talking about). And I must admit, though I’m not in the right place to cry, tears are streaming down my cheeks. First it is her voice. Second, it is her expression and looks that twitch your heart in the right place with what she is saying in her song. Third, it is the song itself – the lyrics. As I listen to this song, I am taken back to my childhood as well. And I believe that as she wrote this song, she surely did have very strong, vivid memories of how she grew up, just as my memories are running through my mind at this moment.


There is something really, really human about her. I know everyone is beautiful in her own ways. Each individual has a talent. But Dolly? When she sings, she takes you to a totally different place. I must tell you, I am back to music and love. As I listen to music like hers, love simmers through my heart and out – and I feel like I could love everyone just the same and not have even a tiny bit of jealousy. Yes, I am back to having this fluffy feeling of love running in my heart and I feel like I’ll be back to writing love stories.




Lyrics (source: http://www.azlyrics.com/):

Back through the years
I go wonderin' once again
Back to the seasons of my youth
I recall a box of rags that someone gave us
And how my momma put the rags to use
There were rags of many colors
Every piece was small
And I didn't have a coat
And it was way down in the fog
Momma sewed the rags together
Sewin' every piece with love
She made my coat of many colors
That I was so proud of
As she sewed, she told a story
From the bible, she had read
About a coat of many colors
Joseph wore and then she said
Perhaps this coat will bring you
Good luck and happiness
And I just couldn't wait to wear it
And momma blessed it with a kiss

My coat of many colors
That my momma made for me
Made only from rags
But I wore it so proudly
Although we had no money
I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

So with patches on my britches
Holes in both my shoes
In my coat of many colors
I hurried off to school
Just to find the others laughing
And making fun of me
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me

And oh I couldn't understand it
For I felt I was rich
And I told them of the love
My momma sewed in every stitch
And I told 'em all the story
Momma told me while she sewed
And how my coat of many colors
Was worth more than all their clothes

But they didn't understand it
And I tried to make them see
That one is only poor
Only if they choose to be
Now I know we had no money
But I was rich as I could be
In my coat of many colors
My momma made for me
Made just for me

Monday, August 25, 2014

Dechen in K2

Dechen was in K2, Kuensel on August 2, where daycare centres and early childhood development was covered. I just thought putting about it here would help me keep record about it.

So bogged down to add anything more at the moment. I can only say that I am a proud mother.


Thursday, August 21, 2014

Valuing a Friend

My friend Karma’s daughter Jangdren, who goes to Tiny Toes Daycare Centre with my daughter Dechen fell down in the bathroom and hurt her forehead. When the carers called her mother, they informed her that it was a small cut and she need not worry. When she picked her up and got home, she took off the bandaid because of the unease she felt. She couldn’t trust the words of the carers. She was shocked to find that it was a deep cut. It needed two stitches at the Emergency department of  JDWNRH.

But my point is not this. Dechen went to school and Jangdren had been missing from school for nearly the whole week. On Tuesday, when she got home, she told me, ‘Jangdren charo mawa, sad sad riwa’. She meant to tell me that because her friend Jangdren wasn’t there, she was sad. So when we went to school the next day, I told her that she would have come too. Until her remarks, I didn’t know why she literally ran inside the school corridor. It has shoe racks on both sides of the wall, with names and pictures (balloon for Jangdren and helicopter for Dechen) clearly indicating where their shoes should be kept. She eyed the place for Jangdren and said, ‘Jangdren mang pha la’, with her voice dropping in sadness. Of course I know that we build friendship from as young as them but to witness the hollow feeling they get without each other, the way they enjoy each other’s company and the feeling of missing someone dear – the pang of it all hit me and felt for them. And yesterday, when she got home, she happily told me that Jangdren had come to school! I shared the joy with the excitement she felt in getting her friend back, her wound having fully recovered.


I’m glad that I could write about their friendship in August, a month during which a friendship day is celebrated. Though, this is not an elaborate article, I would want them to read it when they have grown up to know that they have been friends since they were 3. I wish that, just as their parents, their friendship will grow and see them through their lives.

When I was on the Verge of Quitting

I am writing this post one year and one month after my last post. I buried writing as a past hobby, or a habit. I buried my urge to write as...