Bad english! Go to your room!

Everytime I have the chance to read my recent posts, I couldn’t help but laugh at my english. Thing is, I know the basic grammar rules but I still find it hard to converse or write in english. Like now, I was just reading my previous post and caught myself frowning at how I construct my sentences. It’s embarassing

I remember when I was in elementary, my teacher once gave us a take home exam. It was a 2-page essay about our most unforgettable experience (why do teachers always ask students to write about their most unforgettable experience?). Since, I couldn’t even fill the first page with words, I wrote my essay in Filipino and then asked my Dad to traslate it for me. But my father had a degree in Political Science and B.S. English and he was also a speech writer of a congressman (I’m so proud of my Dad!!), so I only got disappointed when he handed me the translation. Not because his grammar was a disaster, but it was too good for a 9 nine year old girl! Nobody would believe that I wrote that essay. I ended up locking myself in our room (me and my sister used to share room) for more than 4 hours just so I could accomplish that 2-page essay. My teacher had a lot of corrections in my work but at least, I was the one who wrote it. I was fine with that.

Now, I still do that. I mean, I still lock myself in my tiny room (my sister already got married) to write for my blogs. And believe me, I’ve wasted a lot of yellow papers for constantly erasing words and re-writing sentences! I can’t seem to get contented with my articles. I think I need to buy a mechanical pencil, a big eraser and nice notebook.

This is final, promise!

The problem with me is that everytime I’d stumble upon a great-looking theme, I’d immediately download the files without even thinking twice. Even if it’s not compatible with WordPress 2.6 or if its installation requirements are too complicated, it doesn’t matter. You see, I’m not scared of modifying (or ruining) any blog template mainly because I attended a short training on basic xml, html and LaTex tagging (LIAR! LIAR!). It was one of the prerequisites to become a Certified QA (JOKE! HEHE). But whatever I learned from that orientation was totally irrelevant to my blogging ambitions. It only gave me a little understanding on how to read simple equations and mathematical taggings. That is why, when I first opened a PHP file in my FTP, it didn’t look like a bunch of undecipherable characters. At least, that training familiarized me with start tag and end tag.

So, going back to changing themes, yes, I’m guilty. I simply couldn’t resist the urge. I change themes as if I’m just changing clothes. Imagine this, there are only 6 posts in Manila Street but I’ve changed its layout more than 10 times already! Instead of updating my blog during my spare time, I’ve been too busy trying different themes. Such a waste of time! I should have temporarily used the WP default theme until my blog reaches 20 posts or until the next Google Page Rank update

Anyway, I’m not really regretful about that. Regrets are nothing but a waste of time, so I say. I’ll just try to keep my current themes for a longer period of time. HOPEFULLY! Six months, perhaps? Besides, I’ve also grown tired of modifying errors like undefined call to function, missing stylesheet, etc. By the way, in case you are searching for new wordpress themes, try templatepanic dot com.

20 posts and a mountain of laundry …

My target for the month of October is to write at least 8 posts (for a total of 20). This blog is turning 6 months in a few weeks and I haven’t earned even a single cent from it yet. So, I’m getting paranoid! May 15 is coming up soon (that’s the day when I will have to renew my hosting plan). But with my unpredictable working schedule and a mountain of laundry waiting at home, I’m not so sure if I would be able to meet my goal. About that laundry, this is going to be the first time in 15 years that I’m washing my own clothes. We have a helper who does it for us but she’s temporarily gone for a vacation and won’t be back until November 5, that’s after holloween. For the meantime, I’m in charged of doing my and my mother’s dirty clothes. Sometimes, I feel like I’m spreading myself too thin. I have an 8-hour desk job to attend to, four blogs to maintain, high school/ college bestfriends to meet at least twice a month, a sweet-cute-adorable-funny-lovely-baby nephew to bond with every morning (this is the most important!), a long list of novels to read, a bag of borrowed DVDs to watch, and now a mountain of laundry to finish. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just thinking that maybe I should reconsider my priorities or re-organize myself. The books and DVDs can wait and I can always ask my bestfriends to set our dates another time. Maybe I can work in the morning, do the laundry in the afternoon (divide it in 3 batches), and update my websites later in the evening. I really really want to register my blog to PPP now!

Work first, blog later

I haven’t updated my blogs for almost a month and I want to freak out! Because of my super busy schedule and well, laziness, I’ve only written one post for each of my four blogs for the month of September Which means to say I also didn’t meet my target of 5 posts for each blog every month and it is just disappointing. If only I could spend more hours in front of the computer then 5 posts a month is chicken. But I simply can’t stay on line all the time. My job as a QA starts at 6:00 AM and ends at 2:00PM. There are even times when I need to extend working hours up to 8:00 PM to meet deadlines and turn around time. After that I still have to run errands at home. I’ve volunteered to baby sit my newly born nephew from 5:00PM to 7:00PM so that my sister can take a rest from taking care of her baby all day. I actually have 8:00 PM onwards for my blogging activities but I also need to sleep before 9:00 PM or else my mother would have a hard time waking me up the next morning. And what about 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM? That’s wasted time on traffic. And yes, my bad English is also a problem. I have a lot of ideas but I find it hard to put it into words. I don’t know when will I be able to update my blogs on a regular basis but as of now, my full time job is my top priority – joke haha! Okay, I’m going to put it this way: my job is my top priority but my blogs are my super urgent priority haha

First Blog Never Dies