Ztampfilicious

It’s been a week since the last entry! What’s up? Well, something weird is happening with my body. Somehow I have developed an allergy to something that has yet to be found. It all started at the beginning of this month… just a harmless little itchiness above my left wrist. But then I noticed a splatter of tiny reddish bumps there. Hmmm. Insect bites? I didn’t give it much thought until a few days later when I noticed similar itch and bumps on my right arm, above the wrist – almost symmetrical to the left one! Within a week, it got so much worse – all the way up my arms…

So I’ve been to a doctor twice and to a dermatologist once. So far none of the medication seems to really work. The new medication did ease off the bumps but new ones still appearing here and there… Spreading to my legs and parts of my body. Never mind how my skin looks now… I know one day it will smooth itself out. But maaan… it’s so itchy all over! Although I know that everything must come to an end which means this itchiness will come to an end one day, it is still a royal PITA indeed! What’s worse, it disturb my sleep too so I’m not getting enough sleep although I go to bed early (an achievement for me, the chronic night owl!).

The thing with allergy is that there are thousands of possible allergen. To pin point exactly what it is could take a lot of time, time and resources. So for cases like me – which considered to be not so bad, most doctors would just choose the take the short cut. That is, easing off the allergic reaction without really knowing the cause of it.

Now, allergy could happen suddenly. Things or food that you have been having all your life could out of the blue become allergen. Your body simply decided to react badly to them. I’m worried that this is the case with my allergy because I can’t recall having anything new/unusual around the time I first got the itchiness. Then the possibilities are wide open… it could be anything! Although… according to the dermatologist, judging from my itchiness it doesn’t seem to be from food. Food allergy usually give wider reaction, i.e. retching, dizziness, swelling and such. So I guess my condition is not so bad indeed.

But still… what could it be the cause? A mystery to solve! If I don’t know what it is, then I can’t do anything to prevent it from happening again! And trust me, it’s a royal PITA to have this itch all over your body!

Ohkay. Enough about that unpleasant subject. Let’s move on to something more useful and fun! Have you heard about TrailFire? I found out about it from Heidi of DigiscrapInfo.com. You can read about it here. It looks like a useful thing to implement so I gave it a try!

I’ve always wanted to see how my kits are being used by my customers (you!) and from time to time I’m lucky enough to see them on public galleries such as DST or SBB. Some of you would give me links or even uploaded your layouts to Ztampfest Gallery. But what if we could build a list of layouts done using certain kits that everyone can add to and view! This will create a good inspiration source too!

For example, here I made a trail for Phrench Phoebe Layouts:
http://trailfire.com/fhung/trailview/48120

If you’re registered at TrailFire, you can add to the list! See how easy it is done. I like the nifty buttons – very clever! In the future, I might add more trails for each kit so if you need more inspirations for using certain kits, just visit the trail and you can see various layouts from various sites, not limited to Ztampfest or DST or SBB or wherever:).

I’ve also created this trail: Mac Tips’n Tricks – for Mac users like me. I hope they will find it useful!

To see all the Trails that I’ve created so far, you can visit: http://trailfire.com/fhung/. I’m still building them. I think that over time it could be a handy valuable cross-reference vault that is accessible from anywhere on the net :).

And speaking of Mac… Leopard is unleashed today! I’ve been waiting for it for so long! You know what my plan is? I’m going to get myself a top of the line iMac. 24″. 2.8 GHz. 4 GB RAM. 1 TB HD space. Yes, I need a really powerful machine for my kind of work. Large display will help too! I’ve been doubting over whether to get a desktop or not since the last time I was using desktop was in 1998, on a PC. After much reconsideration… I decided that yes, a desktop will work best for me. So as soon as the iMac is shipped with Leopard inside, I’ll place an order at Fortress. What is Fortress? It is an electronic shop chain in Hong Kong that offers 2-year interest free installment plans when you spend over HKD 2,000 (USD 255). Isn’t it just great? That’s my secret why it seems so easy for me to just decide: “I want the top of of the line iMac available out there!” :D.

Now… the Ztampfans Challenges. I’ve made a boo boo which you can read about in Ztampfans Group @ FaceBook. But more importantly, the voting is now begun! Go there and vote for your favorite layout! The lucky winner will get a $20 Gift Certificate to be used at http://ScrapSupply.com!

And I made a new layout today using my new halloween stuff:

Well, that’s it for now! TEO is just back with chocolates and DVDs for the weekend! He’s cooking dinner now – I’d better go to the kitchen and harass him a bit ;).

Have a wonderful weekend, Everyone! Wish me luck so the allergy will go away soon!