Everything Under The Tropical Sun

After one seamless wordpress upgrade (version 2.7)… the curse was bound to strike again. And without a hitch, wordpress upgrade to version 2.8 was it. I was praying hard that I had already possessed a magical talisman to deter the WP upgrade curse from ever hitting me again.

So what happened? After upgrading to version 2.8, it seemed that everything was working. My dashboard looked pretty much the same. It didn’t look like anything was out of place. I worked on a blog entry I drafted earlier and as soon as I hit the publish button, it’s when it hit me: my visual editor was out of whack. The buttons weren’t there.

“OMGoodness, does this mean I have to get used to writing my blog entry with html?”

It’s the curse of the WP upgrade. It attacked me once again! *sigh* But I guess it wasn’t as bad anymore because after upgrading some of the plugins, it became alright again. The buttons are back and I’m back to happily posting. So all’s well that ends well… until the curse strikes again, that is.

Who ever invented this contraption must not own a dog. If you know who he/she is… please, for the love of God, don’t even think of getting him/her a dog. He/She doesn’t deserve it. A “dog washing machine”?! PBFFT. Really?! Are you clinically insane?!

If you own a dog, you’d know that giving your pet a bath is one of the many times you bond with him/her. Sure, my dogs are big and frisky but the constant touching done when giving them a bath makes me feel that we’ve connected all the more. They tend to lick our faces and play with the water whenever we’re giving them a bath. It’s fun. Why on earth would anyone want to take that experience away?

*sigh*

Here’s the video. It’s not really that cruel… maybe it is useful for the busy pet owner. But if you’re too busy to give your pet a “manual” bath, do you really think you deserve a dog?

I hate it…
Just when I finally started following Teach’s advice, something goes wrong… or more like something was wrong and I just found out about it.

My very considerate husband woke me up… I finally got to fall asleep on my own accord before 11PM (a VERY rare occurrence) and he had to tell me that one of our best friends, Jung, is going to pass by and borrow our book on Small Homes. Answer me this: Did I really have to get up for that?

Now I’m up. To help me fall asleep, I decided to take Teach’s advice and add a twitter plugin to this precious blog of mine. I’ve always liked the “analog” feel of my blog and unfortunately, it IS analog in today’s standards. Can you imagine? I installed plugin after plugin and nothing worked? The only thing I could think of that’s stopping it from working is the theme. The programming isn’t updated enough to accommodate the newer plugins and social networking stuff. I don’t think Twitter was invented since my theme was programmed.

Goes to show that I really have to change my theme. I think I should really go and hire someone to fix it. First thing’s first… I have to have my ideas listed down. *sigh* It might take a while… so I guess I’ll just have to settle with the knowledge that there’s nothing much I can do in terms of plugins with this current theme. Expect a blog look change some time in the future. Maybe in about 3 months or so. Not happy about it but will be as soon as the new theme is installed.

If you’ve been following my blog for some time now, you’d know that I’ve recently quit smoking with my husband. We WERE smokers (feels good to say it). The only time I wrote about it was when I was a week into it and that I was suffering.

Diane Varner (one of my all time favorite photographers… please visit her at www.dianevarner.com — the site may be under construction now so check back often because her photographs are worth it!) even commented and offered very encouraging words along with Barefoot nurse (you can find the link under my blogroll on the left sidebar).

I guess people feel moved by the sheer determination it takes to quit smoking. Breaking a bad habit usually does require amazing feats of self discipline. So…

I’m patting myself on the back. I’m telling myself I’m proud of myself. I’m the queen of self discipline! I’m the greatest for having survived one whole month without smoking. HAPPY 1ST MONTHSARY TO ME!!! (and one month and one week to my husband.)

It’s still difficult but not as difficult as it was during the first week. I was one cranky woman and remembering those first few days is helping me refrain from smoking . I guess the only “bad” thing that came out of quitting was that I had to eat something every so often. I haven’t stepped on a scale but I know that I gained weight. I told myself what the heck… I guess I know what my next goal is going to be, right? Hahaha! Another thing which would demand for my will of steel… or rather another thing to test it. Exercise. Just the mere mention of the word makes me want to crawl into our bed and stay there for the rest of the week.

I’ve been reading up on the benefits of quitting and most of it are “invisible” benefits. What I do know and have noticed is that my skin looks so much better now… my lips are starting to go pink again… my gums too. I can walk up two flights of stairs and walk about 10 meters without wheezing like there wasn’t any air left in the world… and it doesn’t cease to amaze me. I don’t smell like cigarettes anymore and I don’t get that “gotta-get-a-fix” look. I’m no longer a slave to nicotine though the temptation’s still there.

The bottom line is I can feel and testify that I’m a much happier person now that I’ve quit smoking compared to when I was smoking. I thought I’d be miserable for having quit but it’s a very liberating experience. Now I feel that I can do anything and everything I set my mind to. Nothing’s holding me back… not even myself.

What a realization… and I don’t think it’s a good one either…

“Hi, I’m underthetropicsun.com and I’m a Facebook addict.”

Darn. First step to recovery. There you have it. I’m no longer ashamed to admit it. When in fact I first rejected the idea of opening yet another online social networking account. I just opened one because I was curious why everyone was getting in on it and why one of my favorite organizations (Brighter Planet) had a facebook page. Little did I know that my curiousity would lead to my eventual addiction.

At first, I would have weekly doses. I forgot to turn my email notification off so from time to time I’d be reminded of facebook through my inbox. One by one, friends started to add me… I added some more friends and before I knew it, I was playing games like Fashion Wars (which I don’t play anymore), Mafia Wars (I still play this from time to time), Fish Wrangler (I still play), and Restaurant City (this is the most addicting game ever).

It was because of these applications that I kept returning to FB. Then I found myself refreshing (it wasn’t updated in real time before… unlike now, new posts are announced) my update page every 10 minutes. Just to see what people have been up to. Facebook turned me into a pervert, a gossip, and an addict all at the same time. Amazing.

For some reason, the ads weren’t as obtrusive on their site. It was like, I’m in a happy trance whenever I have my FB open… that I end up clicking ads I wouldn’t normally do on other sites. I’m not alone either. My husband’s just as addicted as I am. Whenever he doesn’t answer me on IM, I send him a message on FB and sure enough he answers quickly.

*sigh*

I’m an FB addict. Are you?

P.S.
I also made a page for this blog so please feel free to view and maybe add yourself: FACEBOOK PAGE
I hardly update it but don’t worry, I’ll be taking on a more proactive approach to this page.