Jess' world
That's the way it is

It’s not as though I’ve got all the time in the world, and this does, at first glance appear to be a complete waste of time. But sometimes time is best wasted, like spending too much on shoes or drinks or a shirt you only wear once, throwing away time makes you feel like you’ve got it to burn!

Institut Esthederm logo (GIF)

Jess wanted some pictures with the Institut Esthederm logo in them, but the only versions I could find online were very small, so resizing them made them look horrible. She had a version on a disk too, courtesy of a trip to Esthecosme, her supplier. It was the old black-on-white version of the logo, and in an EPS (Encapsulated Post Script) file. Even though it was a huge (over 300kB!) file, it still had jagged edges!

I’d recently done a few articles about Inkscape, the drawing program, for isono.my, so I thought I’d test my new-found skills on the Institut Esthederm logo. I’m not a graphic designer, so I may not have gone about it quite right. It was easy enough, with perhaps the only tricky bit the kerning (spacing between characters) of the text. It’s very easy to change the kerning of text in Inkscape, once you know how – it’s not obvious!

Reconstructed Institut Esthederm logo, large version (PNG)

Before you use this logo in any of your own work, please note that it isn’t Institut Esthederm’s logo, it’s Lolyco’s reconstruction of it. It does look like their logo (okay, so the first ‘I’ and the last ‘T’ in the curved INSTITUT at top are not quite rotated as much as the original), but if you really wanted to use Institut Esthederm’s logo in your own documents, we strongly recommend asking Institut Esthederm for a better, official version. I could have done that, but patience is not a virtue I possess.

If you want a resizable (to any size) version that you can use with Inkscape (so you can fix the rotation on the ‘I’ and the ‘T’!), Institut Esthederm logo, SVG format, zipped.

Institut Esthederm from France  starter kits for Dry Skin, Oily Skin and Sensitive Skin are now available. The kits are ideal for people who just would like to try Esthederm products. With an advanced technology, Esthederm often upgrade their products with their latest skin care patents. Their products contain 100% active ingredients unlike other products which are only 1 to 10%  ingredients.  The ingredients slow down the  skin-ageing  process, so the products are excellent for home based use because the ingredients themselves are able to work on their own.

Esthederm starter kits at lolyco.com

For beginners to use a new product, it  is very important to understand the basic of skin water protection. For instance, a plant that is too dry or doesn’t have enough water, won’t absorb minerals or nutrients. Similar with our skin without enough water, it will become tighter, wrinkles appear, there’ll be a loss of elasticity, black spots appear and etc. Esthederm Cellular Water is the first and only replica of the skin’s water. It can carry cellular water into deeper layers of the skin.

Esthederm products are easy to use. For dry skin, you use Hydra System, for oily skin you use Pure System and for Sensitive skin you use Sensi System. You can mix and match depending on your skin condition. For example acne skin, after it clears up, you can change to Sensi system and then treat as normal skin. Besides this basic skin care, there is an intensive ‘Molecular Care’ range for emergency treatment of serious skin problem such as severe dehydration, severe acne and hyper sensitivity. Use it at night time to get optimum results.

The reason why all the Esthederm starter kit products concern about water level of the skin is that water level is fundamental to the absorption of nutrients. For more details, you can browse www.esthederm.com for more expert opinion and learn more about why it stands out from other cosmetics brand.

Lolyco.com

In January 2009, Lolyco.com is giving away a free Ang Pow with every order, to mark the Chinese New Year of the Ox. Chinese New Years (CNY) are based on a lunar calendar and the northern solstice, so the festival falls usually in late January or early February. The Chinese animal zodiac consists of twelve animal signs in a cycle. Most of 2008 was the Year of the Rat, CNY in 2009 marks the start of the Year of the Ox.

Ox Year People

People born in an Ox year are said to be patient, tireless and gain prosperity through hard work. Born leaders, they are quiet, systematic thinkers who benefit from a peaceful environment in which to consider their options and make plans. Ox people are truthful and honest, and have many friends.

Ang Pow

Ang Pow, meaning ‘red envelope’, is a gift of money given to mark a special occasion. The red of the envelope is for good luck, while the money inside is usually in certain auspicious amounts. At Chinese New Year, it is traditional for married people to give Ang Pow to their unmarried relatives, and for adults to give Ang Pow to children. The amount of cash in Lolyco.com’s free Angpow won’t make you rich, but like a seed grows into a beautiful flower, maybe it will be the start of a prosperous New Year of the Ox for you.

恭喜發財 Gōngxǐ fācái / Gong hei fat choi / Kung hei fat choi

The traditional greeting for Chinese New Year can be pronounced many different ways, depending on what Chinese dialect is used. Mandarin (official Chinese) is spelt in pinyin (A-Z with pronunciation marks) Gōngxǐ fācái. The other two ways I’ve shown here are similar to Hakka (my ancestors!) and Cantonese (Hong Kong area) pronunciation. In Malaysia, you’ll see all kinds of wonderful spellings around CNY!

I was watching some YouTube videos about Barack Obama’s election success (congratulations, by the way!) and realised I’ve been saying his name completely wrong. I’ve been saying ‘Barack’ like the place that soldiers live in – like ‘barracks’. Maybe it was the time I spent in the UK. If you’re aware of the difference between the UK pronunciation of ‘garage’ and the USA pronunciation of ‘garage’, well, the A sounds in Barack are very similar to the USA pronunciation of ‘garage’.

Listen to the way Oprah Winfrey and this journalist say his name:

If you want to hear their pronunciation separately, here is Oprah:

And here’s the journalist:

I hope that helps! Maybe I should spend more time watching the news on TV instead of reading it online!