What Simply Works!

Not the kind of spam I want for breakfast. (This is a screen cap of my sql database when Akismet was deactivated.)

If my memory serves me right, it was just a year ago when my former blog hostees raised an issue about Akismet “eating up” many of their valid comments. They had to fish each of them out, which of course is time consuming to do.

So, the solution we came up with is to replace it with a different anti-spam plugin. A plugin that allows the commenter to fill-in a key word in the hopes of driving away the spam robots that automatically inserts nasty comments and trackbacks.

Unfortunately, I recently discovered that the new plugin is not completely eradicating the spam from our blogs. When I moved web hosts, I was surprised to see my sql file with tons of spam comments! I was in the middle of migrating the last of the 6 blogs I am hosting when I opened up the file and saw a lot of spam keywords that refer to gambling or drugs! I had to change the DNS midway and clean the sql file from my old host before importing them to the new host.

It was then that I decided to put back Akismet on my plugin list and let it do its work and that is to protect my database from further mess caused by these spammers!

More blogging tips here.

Appetizer

If you could live on another continent for 1 year, which one would you choose?

We just moved to Australia this year coming from Singapore, I guess if given a chance, I would like to try living in Europe, If only for the sights and food!

Soup

Which browser do you use to surf the Internet?

I love Firefox and Safari!

Salad

On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how much do you know about the history of your country?

Eeek! I’d give myself a 7.

Main Course

Finish this sentence: Love is…

Love is seeing my daughter’s beautiful smile each morning.

Dessert

Have you ever been in or near a tornado?

No and I hope I will never experience that.

Law like medicine is multi-faceted. It has so many areas of specialization that you will be surprised to know that there exists truck accident lawyers. Yes, they are not something I made up, they do exist.

Come to think of it, when major truck accidents happen, who will represent the victim during legal proceedings? There are criminal, civil and corporate lawyers but they will not know first hand about truck accident lawsuits.

I’m glad I stumbled upon truckinjuries.com and learned about this interesting piece of information.

It is disheartening to hear this news about a mother and her daughter who connived in shoplifting. This happened in a retail shop in Sydney a few months’ back. The shop’s owner happens to have a hidden spy camera that captured the actual moment when the mother slipped a piece of summer dress into her daughter’s shopping bag.

I got goose bumps while watching the actual footage. I mean, aren’t we supposed to be teaching our kids about honesty and not stealing? Unless of course both mother and daughter are kleptomaniacs, then they need psychiatric help.

I tried to look for news articles about this on the internet but didn’t manage to find one. I wonder what happened to them now.

We have been blessed with good weather these past few days. It is sunny but cool and at night, it is so nice to cozy up under the thick sheets to warm up. What I don’t miss though during the summer season is our dependence to ceiling fans or any fan for that matter.

I remember during the hottest day in January, my daughter and I stayed in front of our box fan because we were just sweating all over! And we were only watching TV then. Ha ha.

I’m sure that modern ceiling fans or craftmade fans companies are in their off-peak season now, at least for the next four more months or so. It still gets a bit chilly during Spring.

Maintaining three active blogs is no joke. Aside from filling them up with new ideas for contents, I need to be conscious of SEO and readership. It doesn’t help that a simple thing such as ‘dressing’ up a blog can be a tedious thing to do (this blog is a good example in itself– i still haven’t found the ‘right’ template!). There are hundreds upon hundreds of wordpress templates that are both free and premium but the question is often, which design fits my overall theme?

In my attempt to help fellow bloggers in this long and winding search for free wordpress themes, I have listed some links that I have come across in my own hunt for a suitable theme.

Compilations:

1. 21 Fresh, Usable and Elegant WordPress Themes
2. 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes
3. WP Theme Spot
4. BG Themes
5. Best WP Themes
6. CSS Juice
7. WP Theme Viewer (of course!)
8. New WordPress Themes
9. WordPress Start
10. WP Snap

Straight from the Author

1. Fahlstad Design
2. Poxline
3. Shattered Pixie
4. Ericulous
5. Brian Gardner
6. Solo Stream – mostly premium
7. Magnus Jepson

If you have other links in mind and would like to share them here, please leave me a note and I will add them on the list. Thanks!

More blogging tips here.

Taken at a Pewter factory in KL, Malaysia, 2005

(Father’s Hands.

These hands do not only work to support the family.

They also cradle their babies to sleep.

They also feed. They embrace.

They love.)

~~@~~

Ang kamay ng mga ama.

Hindi lamang naghahanap-buhay para sa pamilya.

Nagpapatulog rin ng mga anak.

Nagpapakain. Yumayakap.

Nagmamahal.

May isa pa akong lahok dito, sana ay makapasyal kayo.

I shared in my personal blog how much I wanted to start potty training my daughter. We bought this cute Royal Stepstool potty from Fisher Price for her just so we can help ease her transition from disposable diapers to potty.

I am so thankful that a blogger friend came to the rescue by sharing a guide on how to potty train. It was a very thoughtful gesture on her part to send me that knowing how difficult this phase is for both the parent and child.

It was suggested that I start the training on the 22nd month and I have less than 4 months to prepare for it. May the potty fairies help me!

One of the things on my wish list is a camera tripod. What I have right now served its purpose when I was still practicing with my point and shoot. With my heavier dslr, I find that it’s not safe to use my existing tripod.

What I need is something sturdy, sets up fast and offers flexibility for low height (for macro shots) and enough height for standard use. A professional photographer and friend recommended that I go for Slik tripods. He said that its line of tripods is highly recommended for both amateurs (like me) and professionals.

When I searched for the Slik tripods, I saw Slik Pro 700 DX (photo above) and was surprised to know that the price is reasonable. Although it is an older model, the features suit my needs well.

Now, what I need to do is get more quotes to compare the price. I can’t wait to get my hands on this.

My feet are itching to travel. Apart from our vacation trips back home in the Philippines, we haven’t had a family trip to somewhere far and new. Since we are here in Sydney and ticket prices are ever soaring especially if we target the US or its neighboring country Canada, I must be realistic in our travel goals.

I would love for us to see and experience New Zealand and Hawaii. For local trips, I hope we can visit Melbourne (especially during Australian Open season), Gold Coast (this time with our daughter) and Brisbane someday.

I can’t wait for our daughter to grow a bit more so we can bring her anywhere we please. Our passports are raring to be stamped!