It's the Day to Switch to Bloglovin

The day we've all dreaded is finally here - Google Reader is shutting down tomorrow, July 1st. That means that most of us will have to find a new way to follow our favourite blogs. I used GR to browse my blog subscriptions without having to deal with fancy layouts slowing down loading time, sorted into my faves and other categories, etc, but after the sad announcement a few months back I gave Bloglovin another try and found it similarly useful with a favourites folder, blogs by subject, and popular posts of the day. It does force you to open up the full blog page, but it benefits the bloggers (like you!) with pageviews. Another opportune feature is the "import from Google Reader" page which allows you to automatically transfer all your subscriptions to Bloglovin so you can pick up where you left off.

Please continue your support by following pandaphilia on Bloglovin !

A New Chapter

A much-belated and mini rite of passage for me is updating my About Me page to describe my current life as a medical student. Below is the retired one for 2011-2012, describing my personal mission as a science major with born-with-it artistic inclinations.

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pan·da·phil·ia     noun     \ˈpan-də-ˈfi-lē-ə\
1 : friendly feeling toward pandas
2 : fashion philosophy that is never black and white
3 : St. Louis-based style blog of a Neuroscience student who likes to "lab in style" and experiment in the wardrobe

I am a 22-year-old Neuroscience student at a predominantly pre-med Midwest university. When not racking my brain for names of sulci and neurotransmitters, I delve deep into the world of aesthetics. I refuse to wear the collegiate uniform of sweatpants and hoodies every day, so I throw open the doors of my growing closet and pick out something fashionable to wear. People will stare as I take pictures of myself, wondering, "Who's that crazy girl always macro'ing her eye?" or "What is she all dressed up for?" I've got someplace to be, and that's far, far away from the reality of the mundane.

I am a firm believer in huge, macro photographs and picture spam. Pandaphilia's all about the obsessions of a panda fanatic who sees the world beyond the black and white. I grew up playing with robots and helicopters, shunning those ridiculous Barbie dolls and their unrealistic proportions. I grew up doing math problems, reading the entire library's section on animals, and with a serious attitude. Now, I kick back and try to enjoy the dying days of the childhood that passed me by -  while reconciling a new, materialistic girly side with my lifetime pragmatism and nerdiness.

You can't slap a label on me. I am a girly tomboy, a daydreaming realist, a writer, a musician. I blog about anything and everything that sneaks into my mind, spilling it out in 010011's for the world wide web to remember forever. My very existence depends on unraveling what's stirring in my brain and making something beautiful out of the chaos.

Camera: Canon Rebel T2i
(photos prior to 6/22/11 taken with Canon Powershot SX120 IS)
Lens: Canon 50mm f/1.8 USM lens
Photos of me are usually by my boyfriend (JJ); other pictures are usually by me.
Photo editing by me: Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Size: XS-S
Shoe size: US 4-5 (foot length 215 mm)

List of blog awards

Contact me at angie [at] pandaphilia [dot] com

Threaded Comment Replies for Custom Templates

If you keep up with Blogger Buzz, you'll know that FINALLY they have threaded comment replies enabled for Blogger (similar to Disqus, how you can reply directly to comments on your posts and have it appear indented like a thread)! You can read the original article. Before, I had inserted a reply button script that allowed me to reply but it wouldn't be attached to the original comment, so that was annoying.

Now you can have threaded comment replies with the touch of a button. Simply go to Blogger Dashboard -> Settings -> Other:  set allow blog feed to "full," then Settings -> Posts and Comments: comment location to "embedded" and voila - everything's set. BUT if you have customized templates like me, things get hairy. I found this very helpful site that's unfortunately in Malay, but with the help of Google Translate, you basically need the first two lines. I'll translate briefly here (code credit: www.themasdoyok.com )

0. Go to Blogger Dashboard -> Template. SAVE YOUR TEMPLATE FIRST ("backup/restore" in upper right corner)
1. Edit html -> Proceed -> check the box that says Expand Widget Templates
2. Control+F and search for this line

<b:include data='post' name='comments'/>

3. Everywhere you see this line above, replace it with this (it appeared 3 times in my code):

<b:if cond='data:post.showThreadedComments'>
<b:include data='post' name='threaded_comments'/>
<b:else/>
<b:include data='post' name='comments'/>
</b:if>

4. Easy, right? It should look something like this:

Lemme know how this works for everyone and happy replying! If only Blogger came up with a better way to notify commenters of replies like Disqus thus and then everything would be peachy.

Readers - what commenting system do you use?

Don't forget to enter my Poshlocket jewelry giveaway!

Elektra

Old Navy royal blue sequin tank (XS) // H&M fuchsia zipper pocket suede mini skirt (Euro 4) //
Fioni for Payless zip up cutout heels (5) // `twentythree Pinked Out Yule Ball earrings // 

Claires mosaic ring (5) // Urban Outfitters double face watch // Estee Lauder nail polish in Autumn //

Photography: JJ

ELECTRIC BLUE + FUCHSIA = HEAD-TURNER. Remember that list of fall colorblocking ideas? Today (9/29) was super sunny, in the mid 80s, hot and windy. Wearing a body-hugging skirt helped keep cool and prevented inappropriate flashing. This colour combination really POPS - I got all sorts of stares and eyes glued to my crazy bold skirt as I walked past. I hope to recycle this bold pairing with more fall-appropriate pieces once the temperature drops again.

These earrings are from twentythree handmade. I purchased them along with two headbands and Hedwig's Ballad from the Wunderkinblitz collection earlier in the summer but never got around to posting (will do soon). They are really light despite their cute chunkiness and the pink complements my skirt. I love that each earring has a different design too! Asymmetry love.

You guys know my obsession with having utilitarian pockets on my skirts and dresses. I was super happy to find out that this ultra-bright mini from H&M had functional zipper pockets! I love the gold against the fuchsia. Sneaking away snacks and keeping my jewelry safe = gusta. My nails are all ready for fall but this outfit is missing summer. Yesterday post-Immunology all I did was watch a campy Jackie Chan film (Wheels on Meals), ogle at the beautiful documentary Human Planet, and catch up on ANTM and Glee. Life has been a breathable allegretto versus the recent break-neck prestissimo pace. This is the calm before the next cytokine storm.

Cool new Blogger tip: Now there are 7 different Dynamic Views (+ Classic and Magazine in addition to the 5 they released back then) that you can apply as a default view for your blog. You can use these in Dashboard ---> Template. However, SAVE YOUR TEMPLATE FIRST. It will change your layout semi-permanently when you click "Apply to Blog." Preview first with the magnifying glass icon (hover). They're pretty cool! I'm sticking with my custom layout though.

Congrats TORI (2/47) for winning the High Gloss Fashion giveaway! Please email me your final choice piece of jewelry.

The graph of temperature versus public body odor exponentially increases at about 80 degrees. 

Readers - would you dare to wear something this bright?

Cool Trick: Blogger Lightbox

If you don't follow Blogger Buzz, let me introduce you to a cool new trick Blogger has in store for us: the Lightbox. Things just look better against a black background sometimes, especially if you use vignetting in your photo edits. So now, your photos can look extra amazing without any additional effort from you. 

For UNLINKED photos, if you click on the photo (like the one below), it will show up in the Lightbox automatically with all other photos in the post in small thumbnails on the bottom. Just click again to exit Lightbox view. That way, instead of scrolling through a ton of photos, you can flip through for maximized photography ogling. Again, this doesn't work for photos that are hyperlinked to something, including default Blogger/Picasa and Flickr images. I wonder if bloggers will start unlinking their photos for this option ... will you?  

Photo by Modern Concept Photography, taken in Taiwan this January as part of my glamour shots. This is my favourite and most "me" one. I put it on my About Me page too :)

Enter my Highglossfashion jewelry giveaway

Troubleshooting Feedburner and Blog Tips

Feedburner has been giving me a headache for the past few days, along with some other issues on my blog. Hopefully these fixes also work for you, and I'll update with links if you have trouble finding some of these hidden tabs (just ask).

1) Problem: Feedburner "0" subscribers fiasco.

I had the smart idea to follow my own blog finally to see what everyone else sees. Lo and behold, no pictures ever show up when Dashboard updates with my posts. I Googled help and somewhere a page told me to clear the redirect feed url under Settings. I did so and the pictures appeared on Dashboard (yay) but the next day, my Feedburner subscribers dropped from "387" to "204" ... then "33" (not yay). That upset me so I just deleted the PonderingsofaShoot (or whatever it was named) feed altogether and created a "pandaphilia" one and the next day I get "0" subscribers. I pinged away and pasted this new feed URL into the redirect box in Settings and Dashboard/Google Reader seemed to notice but it stayed "0" for a very long time. 

Solution: Click the RESYNC button under Feedburner Troubleshootize. Be very patient, make sure you have the correct redirect feed URL in Blogger Feed Settings. Within a few days, you should have your original number back again.

2) Problem: Blog not updating immediately with scheduled posts.

I scheduled the black and white work outfit post for 7:56 AM CST but even at 11:15 AM CST, it wasn't showing up in Dashboard nor Google Reader. I pinged Feedburner and it didn't respond.

Solution: After some forum hunting, I found that in order for it to post, I had to change the post setting from "schedule" to "automatic," so now the post reads that it was published at 11:18 AM CST. Oh well. This is annoying for people who are away traveling or prefer to post the outfit post in the morning for the outfit I wore the previous day and the post I wrote at night.

3) Problem: Share buttons not showing up in custom template (OurBlogTemplates Sunshine/Minima Stretch).

There's something funky about the code I use and since I'm no techie, Google is my best friend for this kind of thing. To save you from similar headaches of searching and researching using different keywords, I found a good site that fixes this problem without you having to read through 500 pages of html.

Solution: Tech bloggers. This post. The default share buttons and Google +1 should show at the bottom of your posts now.

4) Blog Tip: Want to add a little icon in the web address bar or tab but Chrome or other browsers are funny? 

Solution: In Blogger Draft Dashboard, a lot of cool stuff has been happening. I'm a little lost as to where everything is now located, but there's a much easier way to add a favicon for your blog now. Just use this article and a few clicks within the new Draft Dashboard gets you your logo! I added my panda with a lot of help of articles and code but now it's easy peasy Japanesey, as my 6th grade Reading teacher  used to say.

Bloglovin | Twitter | Facebook | Chictopia

Blogger Dynamic View

I just realized that Blogger came up with a cool gadget of sorts and I enabled this feature a long time ago but never tried it out. Blogger Dynamic View shows your blog and all your posts and photos in different views. To see your blog using Dynamic View, just add "/view" to the end of your URL. I think you have to enable this first and here's the article that will get you set up. 

I like these because you don't have to tamper with html code or frustrating layouts, everything's neat and consolidated. [Click] on a photo below to see the enlarged. Please excuse my messy desktop xD

1) Flipcard (http://www.pandaphilia.com/view/flipcard)

Flipcard is pretty cool because it neatly organizes all your posts by your first photo according to recent, date, author, label. If you don't have lots of pictures in your posts, it'll show up as your blog title. It's for all us OCD folks out there that need everything aligned and the same size. When you hover, it flips just like a card and gives you the post title with date and number of comments. Search bar top right. (Btw Michelle oops I was reading your post while I took this snapshot. Shoutout woohoo)

2) Mosaic (http://www.pandaphilia.com/view/mosaic)

Mosaic is way cool, much more artsy and like a photo collage of your first photos. I think this one is my preference. What can I say? I love asymmetry as much as I have trouble spelling that word (I always want to put 2 s's and one m). When you hover, it shows the title of the post and brings that photo slightly forward against the rest of the photos. If you don't have photos, it'll be the title with a snippet in the mosaic space. No search bar.

3) Sidebar (http://www.pandaphilia.com/view/sidebar)

If you're into lists, this is the view for you. The left-aligned sidebar shows the number of comments you've had as well and the actual post shows up like something you'd see in Google Reader. Search bar top right.

4) Snapshot (http://www.pandaphilia.com/view/snapshot)

Snapshot reminds me of a Picasa collage and shows all your photos in a post slightly skewed with number of comments to the right side. When you hover, you get the first few lines of text you wrote. Search bar top right.

5) Timeslide (http://www.pandaphilia.com/view/timeslide)

Timeslide has 3 columns and has confusing logic. The first shows shows 3 random posts from different months, since it shows May 22, Feb 26, Dec 7. First photo is shown with a snippet of text. The second column shows 3 posts and snippets that also pertain to the month shown per post in the first column. When you hover these first two columns, it shows the number of comments on the right side. Third column shows lists of titles of all of your posts chronologically and when you hover over a post, it slides down to reveal a snippet and comment number. Search bar on top right.

I hope this helps! Enjoy your blog's new look and tell me which is your favourite view.

Bloglovin | Twitter | Facebook | Chictopia

DOMAIN: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

Fu fu fu :3 Welcome to pandaphilia.com! Hehe I became infatuated with the concept of having my own website without the .blogspot (that I frequently mis-type into .blogpost haha) a few months ago, but hesitated at purchasing a domain because there are all sorts of ways a tech-deficient ditz like me can mess things up. Funny how I think $10 can be a little much to toss to Google for 365 days of hosting when I consider that a good deal on a piece of clothing that I will maybe wear 5 times the entire year. However, the perfect opportunity came knocking on my door that I could not refuse!

My sweet boyfriend called me today to tell me that GoDaddy.com was offering 1-year domain hosting for only 99 cents. That is a crazy deal! I thought ... McDonald's cheeseburger or blog hosting, McDonald's cheeseburger or blog hosting? Haha just kidding xD  (McD's makes me pretty sick every time and is the epitome of American obesity problem causers). Turns out, with all the fees and some fancy footwork avoiding all the unnecessary offers and ads, I gladly parted with $1.17 USD and now am the proud owner of my own .com! Of course I am exactly the same Angie as always with my crazy outfit posts and picspam reviews and ramblings. This was a good dollar spent.

In case you're wondering, the coupon code is SCHOOL99 (good til 8/31 or first 7500 registrations)

I had to use countless tutorials and ask my boyfriend every 5 seconds what to do - the main confusers were DNS settings (couldn't get pandaphilia.com to be the same as www.pandaphilia.com), domain forwarding, and simply the maze of a registration process at GoDaddy. If I didn't have this awesome coupon deal, I think I would have simply given up and registered through Google.

All in all, I'm ready to blog with this sparkly new .com! I want to revamp the layout a bit sometime and reorganize the left sidebar. I took outfit pictures earlier today outside in the blazing heat but haven't edited them yet. I was racing the setting sun again but most pictures turned out pretty well. I can't wait to show you later! ; ) Please tell me if there are weird things happening (subscriptions, bookmarks, dashboard, etc) because of this switch from .blogspot to .com. Have a brilliant Tuesday, lovelies!

Formspring + Spring Break Anticipation

Apparently Formspring is the next big thing, so I made one : ) You can ask me absolutely anything and it's 100% anonymous. It almost reminds me of Honesty Box on Facebook, but you're doing the asking and I'm giving you all the answers. Less shady, in my opinion xD

Go ahead! Questionbombs away!



Meanwhile, I just finished the LONGEST PAPER EVER for my Modern Chinese Lit class. It's a 5 essay question midterm, 4 pages per question = 20 pages. I feel like my brain has turned to mush after thinking thinking reading the stories over and over again, poring over my notes, typing for hours at the library. Pretty much a 2-day accomplishment. I'm pretty proud of myself.

Unfortunately I have an Organic Chemistry exam (on my 20th birthday D:) Wednesday and 9 pages worth of essays to write for Chinese Civilization by Friday.

T_____T

Luckily Spring Break starts next Saturday! I am making my list eagerly NOW. I want to eat Korean BBQ, go to art museums, watch Chuck and read books, restock up on necessities (like laundry detergent and toothpaste haha) and SLEEP. I was originally going to go to Disney World with my boyfriend because I have never been my whole life (D: !) but we figured planning in this last hectic week for bus/plane rides, finding a place to live, and purchasing tickets would be a crazy hassle. I also read a paper for my Cultural Anthropology class that described in gory detail all the control mechanisms they use in Disney World to maintain social order. I hate being told what to do gahhh xD Oh well! Mickey Mouse and the castle of my dreams for another time ~

PS: WATCH THIS VIDEO. Your heart will explode from how ridiculously cute this is!!! When I'm 90, I want to be just like them fu fu fu :3

Is Spring Break coming up for you guys too? Tell me all about your plans!

Forever 21 Craves + Polyvore

For those of you who don't know, Polyvore is a cool site which lets you save images of clothes, jewelry, magazine scans you like and create a fashion collage. It's great for organizing outfits, seeing how different pieces would fit together, and creating artistic compilations of all the stuff you want to buy (but possibly can't afford - like me).

I've organized some Forever21 items I've liked recently, and I'll share them with you here : )
I've made up some of these names because Polyvore unfortunately saves the name given to the product by the first person to save that item to the site. It's frustrating, I know.
[click images to enlarge]

Blue Group:

Craves 2.11.10 Blue by pandaphilia featuring Forever21

Items in this set:
Velvet Dot Dress, $7.99 today
Blue Polka Dot Skirt, $20
Lindsay Sequin Flat, $15
Berry Platform Pumps, $20
Blue Feather Earrings $6.80
Jewel Drop Earrings $3.80
Fab Satin Bow Bobby Pins $1.50

These are more formal clothes, very pretty and elegant:

Craves 2.11.10 Formal by pandaphilia featuring Forever21

Items in this set:
Angelic White Tiered Dress, $30
Assymmetric Black and White Dress, $25
Faux Pearl Sweater Top, $11
Pink Ruched Shoulder Top, $6.80
Studded Velvet Pump, $26
Majestic Peacock Earrings $5.80
Cameo Locket Bow Necklace $7.80

Last but not least, the Brights and Colour-coded:

Craves 2.11.10 by pandaphilia featuring Forever21

Items in this set:
Cosmopolitan Sweetheart Dress, $25
Cropped Sweater Top in Purple $5.99 today in Black
Asymmetric Colorblock Tunic, $16
Empire Embroidered Top in Peach/Cream $25
Plaid Ruffle Skirt, $16
Polka Dot Bobby Pins $1.50
Flushed Nail Lacquer in Coral $0.99 today

Enjoy and create your own collages :D

A Refreshing New Layout!

Okay, so I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I just spent about 4-5 hours picking the perfect blog template and ironically I picked none. I based this one off my roommate's old blog's layout, but changed the header picture (I'll find a way to overwrite the words or maybe I will simply remove them later) and made it my own. The old green blogger default font was too dark and gloomy, but I still loved the layout of it. However, I really like this new two side column setup with plenty of room for personalization.

Here is the original template design:
Sunshine by www.ourblogtemplates.com



After I entered the premade code, my layout did not look like that picture. You still have to add a header picture (they provide one on that template's information page) to make it pretty!

Edit: After a while I ran into comment problems. The comment box was gone and comments were disabled! After a lot of hunting and tweaking (with the help of my boyfriend :3), I found the solution:

1) Change comments from embedded post to popup (under Settings > Comments) or
2) Ctrl+F this line in Layout > Edit Html
b:include data='post' name='comments'/
(with <> on either side)

Then enter this line right after that:
b:include data='post' name='comment-form'/
(again with <>)

That should solve your nonexistent comment box woes!
More information can be found on the troubleshooting page from the original website.
I also found the help page for adding the quick edit pencil button.
(End edit)

If you are looking for a new blog template, www.blogskins.com has a million templates, but they can look awfully Xanga-ish or Myspacey if you know what I mean. The designs can be wild and the text small, which turned me off, but of course you can modify that. Here are some neat ones I marked as candidates:

My World, My Life by eggiines



I really like the three pictures, but they're too sad! The captions say "What is love?" "Tired, so tired" and "Are you happy?" Sure you may have difficulty describing love in words but there's no need to hide your face! However, I do like the anonymity. The middle frame is my least favourite, though it can be pretty accurate during exam season :D

Things That Make Life So Wonderful by Vintage.Veggie



I really like the 6 picture slots that are very customizable with pictures of the same size. Those are frequently found pasted all over people's Xangas and Myspaces so you can sing "My Favorite Things" as you pick your set. The nice green background is also soothing but there were no side columns D: I'm terrible at coding and that kind of thing, so I'll leave it at that xD

Saving the Environment by tengwan




















This layout was just very unique and green! However, Vital knowledge to saving the environment? Fobby-ness can be cute, but not as the header of your blog.

Finally, I found the picture on another one of Vintage.Veggie's layouts. It didn't seem like there was much to it aside from the picture and a few links underneath it, so that screamed "more html work" for me. I did a few edits on sizing and slapped it onto my header and voila! However, because it's a pretty big picture, it lags a bit while loading. Blahhh.

The side columns' customization took a while to figure out and tinker with, but I think everything's in place for now. Blogger's user-friendly (or at least technology idiot-proof) layout editor made my life so much easier.

This new layout is light-hearted and bright, with lots of subtle elements. It's ready for some intense blogging!