Deetsie's Heroic Dailies

My routine and recent projects are slowly drifting me away from the world of gaming.  Don’t get me wrong, I did pay a visit to Azeroth and my toons a couple of weeks ago.  And while I was there, I can still feel the same rush and excitement.  But behind my gaming seat are dishes to wash, clothes to fold, beds to fix and kids pulling my elbows for attention.  Then just an Alt+tab away are emails to reply to, documents to sort, modules to finish… the list is endless.   Priorities do change and I guess that’s true for most of us.   This simply means at this point, I can no longer blog about WOW here.  I still consider all my tasks as “Heroic Dailies” so I won’t be changing by blog title ^_^ but you might see some  changes and shifts in content focus in the next coming days.  Just thought you’d know.

In case you wonder what happened to Deetsie.com, it’s going through yet another blog revamp.  Thanks to my husband, I recently joined a network giving out free blog post.  But of course, it comes with a link to another website.  So I thought why not as long as I am able to moderate, this should be beneficial to me.  I haven’t really written any good, personal entry.  Oh the last one I made was when Ea turned 3 which was 5 months ago.  So I welcomed the free entries.  But my oh my, the posts came automatically via XML feed and it was flooding my blog to an overwhelming level and it felt like it was invading my whole house.  So I thought, that does it.  I have to stop it.  Unfortunately it left me imprints and my sites now have 668 external links and 115 internal links.  This proportion is a total set back.  And to think I’m doing a lot of premium site evaluations!  Totally embarrassing, eh?  Good thing my website does not have much visitors except for family and friends who visit this page at least once every three months maybe, LOL.  (Prove me wrong!)

So here I am, undoing a wrong doing.  I did quite a handful of linking back in the days and I haven’t thought about doing on-page linking.  Now I’ll be removing old external links and improve my pages.  Bear with my default theme until I get my “desired” blog quality back, SEO-wise.  See you at the top!

It’s my little Ea’s birthday today.  Jeedo and I didn’t plan to do anything grand, I mean, it’s more like, we’re not planning to “spend” for anything grand because we’d like to keep the expenses within our means.  And besides, Ea had a blast celebrations on her first 2 birthdays.   But being a mom, I still wanted to make this day special for her.  So I went to the mall yesterday and bought balloons, banners and food to cook.  I still spent around $150 and did some preparations She had a mini-Strawberry shortcake themed party with pink banners and balloons all over our small house.  It was lovely to see Ea’s eyes glow in awe as I told her it’s her birthday and all of the goodies are for her.

Last night, after getting the salads and marinades ready for the big day, I realized we have no guests coming because we didn’t invite anyone.  Right away, I made a soft .jpg invitation which I made for like 5 mins and posted it over facebook for our friends and family to see.  It’s lovely because a lot of people responded with warm greetings for the little one.  But none really replied to join the little party.  But it’s fine, some friends and families did come over and most have brought food home with them.

I was having problems restoring our PLDT DSL connection. I had to leave the city to visit my sickly Umpo Adok in Davao Oriental so I opted to put all the troubles aside until I return. There’s beauty in being away from the routine. I had 2 days at home with nature – birds, mountains, rivers, crickets, trees and flowers.

My online absence felt like I was totally detached from work and from the world. But I can’t stay offline for long. I know loads and loads of emails will flood my Inbox. So I bought this Globe tattoo so I can check and continue working even at home (my parents place). PLDT said they can restore our home line in 3 forever years..no way.. I wish I can afford to be gone that long. So while waiting, I’m connected 24ever. Just rambling here really. I pulled up my own site to check loading speed. and of course, this post is the first page to load up. Yun lang, bow!

A couple of weeks ago, I repaired my hacked blogs with my bare hands.  It was fun to finally discover how to untangle some ropes that comes with web management.  All I made sure was that the contents are intact.  Of course I already lost a handful of hard written posts when I gave up last June.  Anyway, so after re-running my mini-sites in WP default theme, I was preparing to get on with restoring all the contents, at least for the sites that still has it.  Using FileZilla, I just couldn’t connect the existing folders from the cpanel files.  Something is wrong and needs some more fixing.  I have a busy day job and home life so I have reasons (more like excuses, actually) not to look into it yet.  But it’s bugging me for action.  Just today.

My husband who has been supportive of my projects offered some premium themes he purchased online.  This is cool because I could not afford to buy any of these for my own at the moment.  And the moment he told me that, I was ecstatic, excited and was kicking off to get started.  But as soon as I logged in to the panel and went  over the documentation… I was like.. “Oh no, I don’t get this”.  I thought it’s going to be easy-peasy.  It’s going to need a lot of reading and at least a basic understanding of CSS and PHP in order to come up with a decent web design.  I wished I studied Computer programming instead of Industrial Engineering.

Using the Thesis theme was like meeting an alien for me alright.  And matters about hosting, SQL and ports when put together may seem like the most complex task for day… these should not stop me from learning and reaching for my goals.  So here I go, I’ll better stop ranting and move.

A number of my sites have been hacked for more than 5 times already.  It was exasperating each time because the only way I know how to solve the problem was to delete the entire WP application, re-install and start from scratch.   That means forgetting all about the content I have painstakingly written through the years.  I know it was too “newbish”.  But I married a geek who refused to do the hands-on for me all because he wanted me to learn on my own.  In fair judgment to my hub, he helped me in my first few hacking experiences and repaired my blogs.   But because I own and maintain quite a number of websites, he thought I should learn the ropes myself.

At the start of the year, he removed my sites from his hosting services and sent me a link over email on where to get a reseller account.  To be honest, I was annoyed by this act because I view this as a refusal to help his very own wife!  All the more when he said my sites just have too many support issues and he does not have time to handle any of it anymore.  Web hosting is not his business model.  Neither tech support. Please take note, I do not get those hosting for free.  I pay for each disk space and bandwidth.  So why in the world is he not helping me??!?  In the context of me being a start-up entrepreneur, I received and treated his act as something that came from someone not related to me.  Sort of like an unsuccessful business venture.  More than anything else, I want to respect his decision and shield our home life from work related issues.  So I tucked that aside and moved on.

On one of our “high joy” moments, I asked why is he doing this to me.  Why does he enjoy seeing me scream for help and do nothing until I figure things out.  He looked at me straight to the eye and said, “I want you to be self-reliant, to learn how to survive with or without my support.  I love you so much that I do not want to impair you”.  I understood his words but I didn’t know what to say.  Back then, I was not sure if I should thank him or what.

I have never really absorbed his point until my websites were hacked (for the nth time).  It took me days to figure it out.  I had to read tutorials, forum threads and all.  He’s here by my side just watching, ready to catch if I slip and wreck the entire database (LOL).  But he left me alone to analyze and locate errors.  Tonight I finally restored Eagirl.com including the theme I customized, yay!

The web application troubles I shared above is just one of the many things he pushes me to learn.  There are other aspects from finances to sanitary plumbing that I learn a lot about, too.

The tough love my husband has for me actually made me realize that I am capable of doing things other than minding the kids and the kitchen and running a project.  It pushed me to learn and apply it.  It equipped me with survival skills that we both are now confident that we will be able to feed “our flock” no matter what the world brings.  It might have been painful at first but I realize now that I should be thankful that he constantly brings out the best in me.

For friends who may be wondering what in the world is happening to deetsie, this post is for you.

As I write, I am in Davao City, Philippines to attend my best friend’s wedding.  So happy to be the matron of honor, I came over way ahead of time to host a bridal shower party the other night.  It was fun and I think everyone, especially the bride, had a great time.

As I write, my blogs are dead from hacking.  Just before I left for this trip, I got a message from Danica that my websites were hacked again!  If only I could get these guys arrested, I would.  I figured fixing it would take so much of my time so I opted to wait until the plane lands and I get a steady Internet connection.  Alas, my mom’s internet connection was not working and it took them 2 days to fix it.  It felt like forever as I am so used to breathing with oxygen and the Internet.

As I write, am reading tutorials on how to do manual upgrades and how to avoid getting hacked again.  I am such a newb… (i know my husband would agree).  I’ve been blogging for 4 years and I still can’t get away from those darn hackers… grrrrrr..

As I write, my Ea and Jethro are down with fever.  Both are asleep now so I have a moment to spare and write.  Ea’s temp is at 38.6 C while Jet’s getting 39.7 C.  Mom books would say this should be a cue to take them to the hospital, not to mention Davao is having dengue and malaria outbreaks.  But hey, I’m not a typical clueless mom.  I don’t know about other moms but I just know when to take the kids to the hosp and when it’s best to just hold and care for them at home.  I already gave Jet a soothing massage and sponge bath to bring the fever down.  Whew.

Oops, Jet’s awake now asking for mumma.  Ta tah!

2008 Birthday cake from Ryla Lim of Nikon Cakes

For 11 years now, I have been running a Birthday contest. Whoever greets me first after MY clock strikes 12:00 midnight on every 18th of March wins a very special prize! Prizes are different each year. I started by giving little surprises to the greeter like candy bars, a bag of chips, prepaid phone credits or a dinner in a restaurant. Once there was a winner who likes to collect bells and chimes so I gave her one. Last year, the winner received a facial spa treatment. I just feel joyful inside to surprise someone who remembers my birthday with a little something.

And for this year, the award for the “annual greet me first” contest goes to… (drum rolls) Helen Tubeo- Laureano, my sister-in-law from Davao City.  She greeted me at around 4:45 am today.

Our body organs are interconnected.  When one is not functioning properly, the others parts feel its pain and every function is affected, creating a series of “I’m just not feeling well” days.  Could either be: temperature’s up, runny nose, body pains, watery eyes… minor body aches that do not seem to need any urgent attention.  Unknown to the person that the body is sending out signals in the form of symptoms that something IS going on.

I have friends and friends of friends who ignored the early signs of some life threatening diseases.  The symptoms were mistaken as a common illness, did not consult a doctor but instead took medicines on their own.  And when the real disease is detected, the situation was already out of hand.  Take this for example: an early hiv symptom includes flu-like muscle aches and swollen glands (neck, groin or underarms).  This symptom is very similar to other illnesses.  HIV, cancer and a host of other deadly diseases are symptom free.  Denial will not lead to wellness.  A conscious awareness and proper diagnosis is the way to healing.  Before rolling out of bed, listen to what your body says.  And if there is any pain, pay attention to that.

Our body is a vessel, a carrier of the soul.  The body’s state is almost always a reflection of the state of the soul or spirit.  A body could be wounded only because the soul is in pain too.

The Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) has finally released the Nursing Licensure Exam (NLE) result for November 2009.  The results were out since January 14, 2010 but the full or the complete set of the names of the board passers were not yet out.  It’s being updated every hour and will be released in a viewable page as soon as the list is completed.  The completed list may be placed here, so watch out!

—Update!—

The final list is already out January 30, 2010.  Out of 94,462 students who took the exam, 37,527 passed!  Read the rest of this entry »