What Simply Works!

It is a lot easier to modify Wordpress templates when it is done offline or when Wordpress is installed locally on your computer.  I thought I wouldn’t need to resort to a locally installed WP but the last time I was tinkering with a theme, it took ages for the updates to load on my test site!

Installation is easy, in fact, there are tons of guidelines you can Google out there.  But this is what I have used along with setting up ‘xampp’ on a Mac.  Try it out!

http://www.lifespy.com/2007/how-to-install-wordpress-offline/

http://www.keitr.com/tutorials/xampp

Too bad that we can no longer plan weekend activities like we used to.  With the current back pain I’m dealing with, the husband decided that it’s best to minimize activities that entail long walks or long drives.  Sob.

I wanted to bring my daughter to the zoo but we never managed to because of the errands that occupied our past weekends.  She’s learning animals from books and DVDs and it would be nice if she’d see them all in person.  She knows a fair bit of zoo animals and for sure she’ll squeal in delight if she sees a real life giraffe, zebra, turtle or horse (complete with horse supplies).  Aah, maybe someday.

This coming July and August, my mother, mother-in-law and husband will be celebrating their birthdays.  Because of that, I’ve been practicing my little girl to sing the Happy Birthday song for each of them.  What amuses me though is the part where she will pretend to blow candles, too.  Right at the end of the song, she’ll say “Okay, blow. 1, 2, 3″.  So cute!

It’s another exciting time for Wordpress users.  Release 2.8 is out and some users out there (like me) has an interesting story to share about our upgrade experience.

I have a total of six blogs.  Five of them were successfully upgraded to the new version using the one-click install (or upgrade) function.  But for some reason, the function didn’t work on my personal blog (yep, my main blog of all blogs).  As soon as I refreshed my browser, my blog went kaput!  I waited for a couple of minutes but nothing happened.

Then I tried to log in to the admin panel but even the URL doesn’t work!  Caramba!  After a few minutes of panic, I remember my back-ups.  And thank God for them! He he.  I reloaded my latest back-up and got the blog running again.

Sigh.  Now I need to figure out how to upgrade it minus the glitch.

As soon as I have recovered from my delivery, I would like to engage in an exercise regimen.  I know it will be difficult to add exercise in an otherwise busy schedule, looking after a toddler and a newborn.  But I know I need to keep fit in order for me to do my duties, pain free.  Right now, I feel like my body will give up on me anytime.  My back feels so heavy regardless if I get a good night sleep or not, although my chiropractor says it is pregnancy-related.  Also, aside from keeping fit, I may also need to shed off the pregnancy poundage I am gaining right now.  There is no way that I will resort to the best diet pills around.  It is still exercise and a healthy diet that will do for me.

I was shocked one morning to see our TV screen with swipes of crayola on it.  Yes, that was our little girl’s cue for us to get her her own easel board.  I’m glad that the crayola marks didn’t leave scratches and that they were easily removed with a moist cloth.  If not, we will for sure regret not getting the plasma TV mount that was offered at a cheap price when we bought the TV in Singapore.

As much as we are trying to avoid crowding our little apartment with tons of furniture and what-nots, having a child/children will totally change that.  Just today we got our little girl her very own chalk & white board that is now sitting in our living room area.  Well, much as it is called living room, the husband and I call it “play area”.  Apart from the sofa and TV set, everything else in there pretty much belongs to our kid.  So, imagine 2-3 years from now, with our new baby coming this year, the whole apartment might turn into a playhouse instead!

One of our immediate concerns when we moved from the apartment unit we rented last year to the landed property we are renting now is lack of security system.  We got used to the good home security system that was built in the apartment building that the absence of it became almost a show stopper when we were scouting for a house to rent.

But our need for bigger space and our desire to experience living in a landed property were greater than our security concern that we are now planning to buy a landed property when the right time comes.  It will also be easier to install an ADT if we own the property.

I know some people who love collecting stuff.  They have shelves upon shelves of mugs, albums of stamps or gold coins or even boxes of stationery pads.  But for some reason, I don’t have an inkling of interest in collecting any of those.  Save for the travel magnets on our fridge door, which (I defend) serve a purpose (because they hold important notes/receipts in the interim), I don’t want to have additional things around the house to dust, clean or maintain.  That’s the OCD tendency in me talking.

But if ever I become interested in collecting things, I would probably buy gold jewelry or gold bullion (I wish! Ha ha), which for sure have increasing value as time pass by.  Then I will sell them someday and make tons of money. Yey!

I noticed how my (blog) posting/writing has turned from bad to worse.  I remember how diligent I was when I started blogging, always using MS Word and its Thesaurus and spell check functions.  But as years went by and especially now that I seldom sit in front of my computer for more than 20 minutes straight, I felt more and more impatient and careless about what I publish on the Internet.

I was so conscious with my grammar, spelling and tenses before but lately, I just don’t care anymore.  But the guilt is still there.  Like I think, what if my little girl reads all the ‘garbage’ I’ve been posting on the net?  What if she turns to me and say, “Mum, you can’t correct my English because yours is just as wrong?” Sigh.

Constructing my blog entries straight on Wordpress is just too convenient for me to go back to MS Word.  And the circumstances I’m in now don’t make it encouraging for me to sit long hours just to write an entry with 3-4 sentences! Sad.