Saturday, April 28, 2012

How to play iso files easily

If you borrow movie discs from your friend, he or she might want them back as soon as possible. I have a way to help you return him or her the discs yet you can take your time to watch the movies. Here are the steps to accomplish this.

First, copy the discs one by one using any iso maker such as Xilosoft Isomaker to your hard disc.
Next go to this site to get your free VLC Media Player: http://vlc-media-player.en.softonic.com/download
Return the discs to your friend.

Whenever you feel like watching any of the movies you have copied to your hard disc as iso files, use the VLC Media Player to play it.

It is as simple as that.

Happy copying movie discs to your hard disc as iso files and playing them with VLC Media Player.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

How to use 'most of' correctly

In today’s post, I will deal with ‘most of’ used in sentences. Let us look at the following sentences. Tell me which one is wrong.

1 Most of the boys are interested in football.

2 Most of the cake was eaten by my brother.

Actually both sentences are correct. Let me explain.

When ‘most of’ is followed by a countable noun, it takes a plural verb. For instance, you can write a sentence such as the one below.

Most of the apples sold here are fresh. [As apples are plural, the verb that follows it is plural, that is ‘are’]

On the other hand, if ‘most of’ is followed by an uncountable noun, then a singular verb is used. Look at the following example.

Most of the palm oil in Malaysia is exported to China. [ As palm oil which follows ‘most of’ is uncountable, it is considered singular and hence a singular verb ‘is’ is used]

These are other examples when ‘most of’ is used in tenses.

1 Most of the girls in the school play netball.

2 Most of the activities here require skills and patience.

3 Most of the work was done by my mother.

4 Most of the fun comes from knowing that one has achieved something.

5 Most of the rubbish is not disposed of properly.

I hope readers of this blog are able to use ‘most of’ in sentences properly after reading my post.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Today is Qing Ming or Chinese All Souls Day

Today the Chinese will go to the graves of their relatives who had passed away to show respect to them as well as remember their good deeds. Usually, food will be offered when they pray in front of the grave.

As a regular practice, the Chinese will clean up the graves before doing the praying. This can be done 10 days before or 10 days after Qing Ming. If the inscriptions on the grave have become blur, the words will be repainted with red or gold powder.

I went to my late father's grave with my sister last Saturday to do the cleaning-up and resurfacing of soil on the grave. We had to buy RM60 for 6 bags of soil for the job. The man skilfully carried 6 bags of the stuff on his Honda C70 bike from somewhere to where my late father's grave was and helped do the topping up of soil. Then we put the yellow paper on the surface and use pebbles to press them down in case the wind blew them away, at least for the period when we pray. Then it is time to place food and fruits in front of the grave before we start to pray. The burning of paper money, paper shoes and clothes were done after tossing two coins to get consent. If head and tail shows up, we can start the burning job.

Although burning such paper items will not benefit anyone, it is the custom of the Chinese and a way to show their respect to the dead.

What we did in front of my late father's grave will be almost the same for the other visitors to the same graveyard.

Relatives of new graves have to come to clean up and do the pray on Qing Ming Day. On the fourth year, they can come 10 days before or after Qing Ming to do the task.

That's all for Qing Ming for today's post.