Monthly Archives: January 2021

Excuse my flaming…

There is really no way I can say this nicely. It cannot be painted with sweet niceties. It is just so grossly real. It is morbidly real. It is the new normal. The corona pandemic  is definitely not an illusion. It is reality!!! It is tragically happening and alarmingly spreading around the globe. The USA being the far most greatly affected. Their death toll is rising everyday. Their infection rate is double if not more than the total infections around the globe. AGAIN, It is for real!!! Those who really believe otherwise, think again. But, I beg you to stay healthy and not get infected.

What is so surreal is the fact that there really are people who believe otherwise. There are thousands, (i hope not more in number) who do not believe the corona pandemic is happening. I still cannot fathom that a longtime family friend is one among the thousands that I mentioned. He thinks everything about corona is a farse. A bad political propaganda. He believes that ordering the people to stay at home means taking away his freedom. He think that if he will be infected with the virus, then so be it. Fine… I get it. You can say: “it is your destiny, call it fate if you will.”

But what about the others who could get infected by you? Won’t you feel the guilt that you are responsible for their illness? That you caused them pain? What about the people in the medical field, who are working so hard to help heal those who got infected? They who have to sacrifice themselves and their families from getting infected because of your inverted belief? They work day and night for many hours and in doing so, risking their own lives… just because you don’t want to stay home. They sacrifice themselves, not being with their family, not being with their children, just because you think you want to keep your freedom. 

I know that there are thousands of people around the globe who also believe that the Corona virus is NOT real. Those who claim that the pandemic is only a political propaganda, I’d say drop d**d. Honestly, I don’t know how you would react if you get infected with the virus yourself. Those who think that the virus is just a normal influenza, try drinking tea as remedy. Try taking colds medicine, Or you think a hot footbath will be enough to cure you…go ahead and see if it works. See if it really would work. Now, promise though, that after taking the normal or usual way of curing oneself from the regular influenza and colds and you are still not virus free, that you would then stop this blabla about everything else just being a propaganda! That is of course, if you survive from the virus. 

It really is very simple. You, as a family member, a friend, a relative a colleaugue, can make a sacrifice of following the rules and take responsibility. You as a Christian, a believer in Christ, must somehow feel responsible for your co-citizen, your neighbors and co-workers. YOu can help by doing the necessary easues to break the infection chain. The sooner we start on it collectively, the faster we can get out of this pandemic. 

If it still does not convince you otherwise, then you must be sick in the head! But you can’t put the blame on the corona virus for this anymore! You can take responsibility for your own sick mentality. 

To the rest who are sane enough to comprehend what is happening, let us help each other. We can prevent getting infected or passing on the infection to our family members, relatives, friends and work colleagues by taking extra precautions. By following the rules. By maintaining distance from other people. By using the medical face mask whenever one is out in public. And by regularly washing or disinfecting the hands rigorously. And best is, if possible, to just stay at home. No unnecessary trips. No big gatherings. Only when we make these sacrifices can we help solve the problem of the virus spreading exponentially. Soon, this will be over. There is hope. There is help. There is still light at the end of the tunnel. Especially, now that the vaccine against it has been discovered. Soon, it will be easier to fight it. prevent it from spreading and eventually, we can all go back our usual routine. Before the covid times. The long-long ago times of normal living. 

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Coffee anyone?

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Does anybody know how important the expiration date for a coffee disc is? Yeah, I know.. I should just google it. To which I did.
According to uncle “Google”:
“A coffee pod will remain fine to drink for years after the ‘best before’ date, which is there to indicate a period of optimal freshness. However, if you have coffee pods where the foil has dipped or collapsed into the capsule, then air may have gotten in and the pod may not be suitable for use…”

And according to: Coffee Perfectionist
“The ‘best before’ date is usually around 1 year from the date it was created. Coffee capsules are hermetically sealed to protect the coffee from light, oxygen and moisture. A coffee pod will remain fine to drink for years after the ‘best before’ date, which is there to indicate a period of optimal freshness.”

Seems like, it is still safe to use up the discs that are still left lying around in our office coffee nook. Since the lockdown, I have been the only one visiting the office regularly. Everybody else has been ordered to stay at home. I do drink coffee but not as often as the other colleagues. I normally switch from coffee to tea every now and then. Hence, 3 extra packs of coffe discs are still waiting to be used up. Problem is: lockdown has been extended. So, those discs are just waiting to be popped. 

I am relying on the info I got that they will not go bad for another year. Hopefully this lockdown will not last that long anymore.

Yes, I wish that the pandemic is not my present, like everybody else. I live to hope that nothing much has changed. I live to hope that all those who suffered and perished from the pandemic are still with us in the present and did not feel any pain at all. I will stay hopeful and maintain that what I believe in is true, will stay true and so it shall be. Am I going insane? Can it be that, I am now a certified schizophreniac? I tell you, it may also be one of the effects of the virus.

These thoughts run around in circles in my head each and everyday for the last 9 months. I am still good… just like the expiring coffee discs, I will be okay. I will stay well and keep myself healthy… so as to keep others healthy as well. 

Ya’all…. Take care every one!! Let’s hang in there. Vaccination has rolled out in the whole wide world. The virus will be defeated soon!

Have a happy weekend 🙂 🙂 

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In the wee hours of the morn… again!

Had a long day at work…yesterday.

Okay, I’m thinking I really should’t have opened that can of beer at 2am last night because I came home from work just dragging myself like a zombie. Well, a lesson learned is a lesson learned.. even in my very young age. lol:

So, I grabbed something to eat and 10 minutes later, I was out splattered on my sofa in deep slumber. Next thing I knew, it is already past midninght and the whole place is bathed in total darkness. So, I got up, deciding to move to the bedroom… and then I realized that I still need to do some knitting and stitching… hehehe.. oh, I mean, I still need to do some twitching and quitching with my blog.

Now, again at 3:37am, am awake and thinking while getting some work done, I should get myself something to drink… and play on youtube some oldies in the background. Just to try to damper the howling wind out in the weee hours of the  morning. 

John Denver, Willie Nelson’s Always on my Mind and Jim Croche’s Time in a Bottle … with my glass of….yeahhhhh, milk! 😆 

I heard from some firefly whopping by, that a glass of milk should help bring me to dreamland again… 

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Flippin’ over to sentiments in my mind

Today, January 21,2021  is supposedly “the 21st day of the 21st year of the 21st century …” Don’t know if this is true but, well, just being myself with the howling wind outside this cold winter morn. 😆 

I’m just getting sentimental.. at 02:00 am. Yep, am enjoying a can of my fave lemon-beer mix drink while listening to Sir Elton John’s …. “the bluuuess….ahhh..ah..ahh…. “!

 

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Reality bites me, not… I hope!

I started blogging way back 2004… from then free blog platforms up to a point where hubby said, I needed to have my own. Since then, depending on time I could only do blogging intermittently. Some months more often than the rest. Why, because I did not give in to becoming a professional blogger. I got offers, but I chose to make a living by slaving myself in the coorporate world instead. Okay, stop asking why… I have asked myself the very same question for a decade. 

So, well, anyway, in my previous log I did mention that a lot of the bloggers I used to follow before, have retired or stopped blogging. For some reason, their blogites are still reachable, but they are not active anymore. Their last blogs were like posted sometime in 2010 or latest is from 2012. So what happened?

Vlogging, Podcasting and yes FB happened.

Just like that, when the trend changed, they jumped on the bandwagon and left blogging at least indefinitely. But I stayed. Okay, I got left behind. Oh moot! Okay fine. I admit, this is how I want to accept reality as well. But then you see, corona came, stayed and looks like it will not budge for a while. So, it is good that I stayed. It’s better that I got left behind. At least, now, I have something else to keep myself busy with for a while or at least when I am not working. It definitely is a good distraction from online shopping. 

Sometimes things just happen. Sometimes we need to accept, adjust and keep on moving. But, for me, it looks like I am still sticking to my blogging. I keep it not for financial reasons anyway…it is just to keep my sanity. A very good diversion to retail theraphy. 

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Just for kicks, maybe…

Okay, I’m just chilling and songs kept going through in my head… like a broken record..

“Some guys have all the luck!”. (Rod Stewart)

Luck comes to them like a breeze. Sometimes served on a silver platter. Other times, by chance. And in some cases, because of the help of media, law and assistance of the people who care for him. 

Unfortunately, even if luck is already on their side, they still prefer to turn around and do the opposite of what is expected of them. Perhaps thinking luck would still be with them, even then. Sometimes, I feel like, okay.. one goes choses to climb up a mountain… as luck is with him, despite all the hardships, he reaches the top… and then what? Feeling that “top of the world” feeling— he then decides to take a free willy risk. With outstretched arms, facing the edge od the mountain rand… and then… do a bungee jump only without the safety belt and rope attached to his body. 😕  (duhhh!!!)

But, why choose to go this way?

Is it because they don’t get it? Is it because they need it? Is it because they are just too st****d to understand it?

Let’s say, as intelligent as he is, he does know the consequences of his actions. So in this case, he just might need the kick out of being in media.. in public .. endangering himself because he gets a high out of it. Does it not bother him how his relatives feel? How his loved ones are suffering? His wife, parents, siblings? Imagine the worry that he brings to them. Or perhaps, they also don’t care anymore? Even then, I still don’t get it.

Then again, I’d say: “hey, If he survives the 30 days, he’ll be fine. Hopefully, social media and civil watch will keep him alive. Otherwise, him, as an adrenalin seeker, will be no more, no more, no more– ” …

Next on the track: from David Bowie’s version of My Way
…”i did what i had to do… and saw it through without exemption… I did it my way!”

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php8

Cleaning up my online hub

Hmmm… finally managed to update my php version for my blog.
Not to say, without any problems encountered. Of course, I had problems. I think, even the tarsier who only looks as dumbed as it actually is, will also encounter problems with the process as well. 😉

Okay, nobody said it is easy. I get it. That’s why some bloggers don’t do the technical maintainance part of their blogs themselves. They get it fixed! Professionally! Perhaps, they only do the final click of uploading. Everything else is done by, well… somebody else.

I have to claim, that most of the works in my blog are handled by me, myself and I. If something does not seem to work well, and I can’t seem to fix it myself after spending like a hundred hours on it already, then my very own personal, private IT Helpdesk jumps in… *lol*

He jumps in, but not without a very long and repetitive lecture on the mistakes that I made. The simple, dumm error that usually accompanies my laziness to analyze properly and concentrate fully on the tasks at hand. Hence, I get stuck at some point and the rest of the time I would just end up with online shopping 🙂 🙂 🙂 up to the point where I get a headache and back pains from vegetating in front of my laptop. Then my fingers get stiff… and finally, my CC gives up! *lol*

Anyways, for the past several months, I have been neglecting the change. Why?, Well, first off, because I was still unsure of doing it myself. I have totally forgotten how I did it when I started my own blog. That was already like more than a decade ago. I just got lazy and pretended that nothing has changed. It seemed like I just wanted to live in the past. As if the world stopped turning and nothing great has changed. Well, I did notice that the turn of the century came, that everything else online is more expensive and that my last bills for the previous shopping craze was much less than at present… hmmm, there goes my limit again. Oh, I am digressing again.

Up to some point it worked, but then, some plugins were slowly giving me problems. A reminder kept popping up tells me that my version of php is waaaaaaaay too old, it needs to be updated in order for new features of the plugins to work, etc. etc.

So, I finally succumbed.

The procedure:
#Backup first! – I regularly do a back up of the whole database and files. It definitely makes everything so much more easier and faster.
#Log-in to internet host customer platform
#Go to “My Accounts”
#Click on “Expert Settings”
#Go to PHP Version Analysis – here you would find the current version you are using. Alternatively, you can upgrade your php version from this point on. However, one cannot reset it back to the old version once the change request has been made.

If all goes well, then this first part will go smoothly. From downloading the database, which would depend on how big the file is, it could go from 2-3 hours or more. The switching of the php version though will only take few minutes or with say few clicks.

Then, the next stage of the change has to be done. At some point, you go back and log in on your blog site and presto, your dashboard is full of red messages for errors. Obviously, most of your current settings, if not all, is not compatible with your brand new version of php paltform. Now, the real work begins.

You need to change themes, configure layouts. Check for the correct plug-in that works with your theme, php version, etc.etc. This took me the whole night. Well, I also needed to clean up my files. Then did some editing on my lay outs, choose another back up lay out, in case i get bored with the current one, then again perhaps two more extras. Last but not the least, just had to check every link I have on my blog if they were all still actual.

Unfortunately, I found out that some bloggers have stopped blogging since 10 years ago. I guess, right about the time when FB boomed from then on, a lot of bloggers retired. Or maybe switched to FB, which is way easier and most economical. So, a lot of my links has been removed. I should propbably start blog hopping again and see who is still doing the same. 😉

But for now, I need to go to sleep. I have another online event in a few hours and I do not want to like like dracula on video cam. *lol*

So, I would have to say, log-out and lights off for now.

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Looking back…

What a year 2020 has been! Honestly, I wanted to start with an excerp of the song:  “…so now i’m leaving yesterday behind….” But is it really posible? To just leave yesterday behind? To forget everything that happened and just start with the new norms?

January 2020 started with natural calamities in some parts of the world. Typhoons, floods, and volcanic eruptions are just some. We should also not forget the political problems in some countries that also caused pain, suffering, and hunger for normal citizens. Then COVID.

Of course, I’m sure the radicals that do not seem to believe and do not want to accept that these horrible stories are going around are rolling their eyes, hmmm.

By March 2020, the economy in 5 Continents has partly gone down. Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania. Companies closed down together with the lockdown that most governments had to implement in their almost futile effort to try and stop the pandemic spread.

Alas! Too late. But then again, better than not to have acted at all, right?

The lockdown for the whole world came. Country ports were closed, no entrry allowed, except for their own citizens who wanted to be home with their families.  International and some local travels were also prohibited. Tourism and Business travels were banned. Each one was encouraged to stay in or stay out. Children stayed at home and had to do homeschooling, digital or per module. Parents had to work from home as well as were forced to teach their own child/children. Front liners who are working in the medical field and homecare for the elderly were overworked. Hospitals and clinics were had to take necessary measures as to avoid the infection chain. Unfortunately, some hospitals even had to deny admittance for lack of hospital beds and amenities. Special COVID-19 infection rooms were set up. Testing centers were designated.

Summer season came and went, and another fear came in. Winter season was coming. Studies found that the virus thrives more in the cold season than in the heat. Illogically, some citizens in the tropical region thought they were at a better position. But of course, they were once again proven wrong. People were still divided. Some believed and followed the new rules. Others went out and complained about losing their freedom and that it was all just political propaganda. 

Realization: It seemed like time stopped and all we could hear every day are reports about how bad the pandemic has spread. About how pain, suffering, hunger, and sadness roamed in the whole world. Hundreds of thousands if not millions, lost their jobs, lost their houses, and lost a loved one, a friend, or a colleague because of the virus. The corona super-virus has already spread like a wildfire. 

The people suffered and endured, crawled through the hard times until the end of the year. New HOPE came when the news about the invention of the vaccine was announced. Suddenly, it was almost the only thing that everyone was looking forward to. It gave a newfound strength to fight. It made us look forward more eagerly towards the year change with a better more breathable and workable  and improved environment. 

By December of 2020, the first vaccination against the corona virus started. First off  the government of the UK announced that they would start with the vaccination per category before Christmas 2020.  Then US followed and few days after Christmas, vaccination in Europe carefully was also implemented. In all  the countries, a protocol was followed. Vaccination started in categories. The sick, the front liners, the seniors, and so on… Children were exempted as through the months of studies, it was found out that children have a stronger immune system and did not easily get infected with the virus. Although, in some parts of the world, there were still reports of some minimal cases of covid-19 infection in children. 

The new year slowly and quietly crept through…with it the hope of a new healthy world. But then a stronger mutation of the virus was announced. It seemed like Covid-19 did not want to give up its power over the world. 

Up until now (as of writing), as per the Johns Hopkins University statistics, global infections have reached almost 85 million. The total deaths hiked up to 1,8 million around the globe. Some countries suffered more but not one was spared. In every continent, the infection was rampant. 

On a positive note, I think my new motto for the year 2021 is being more aware of Hygiene, wearing masks, and social distancing. Even with the vaccine and perhaps someday the medication, I hope that the people will still be more observant and proactive in keeping themselves safe and healthy. 

Fast forward to 2021, Happy new Year everyone!!!

Stay safe, stay healthy and stay positive. This will all come to end.

Soon, everything will be back to the usual… or we start with the new normal. 

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