Mom.Dad.Chat

Sometimes, it seems we have little control over the direction of our thoughts. The following joke, emailed to me by a friend, is illustrative of that. You tend to think in one direction when in actual fact, it is not what you think at all!

One day in school, the teacher decides to play 20 questions.

So the teacher says “OK kids, I am thinking of something round, and red.”

Little Suzy pipes up, “I know, it’s a tomato.”

“No, but you’re thinking, it’s an apple,” replies the teacher.

So Little Johnny stands up, places his hand in his pocket and says, “I am holding onto something that is round, hard, and has a head on it.”

“Go to the principal’s office,” says the teacher.

“No, but you’re thinking,” says Johnny, “It’s a quarter.”

After having been blogging for about 2 years now, it is indeed tempting to want to change the look of this blog. I have had this blog template ever since I started this site and when I visit other people’s blogs and notice the nice templates, it does make me feel that maybe I too should put in some effort to instal a better-looking template here.

The only problem is I’m quite lazy to search for a new template and I don’t want to put in too much time to correct whatever problems I may end up with if I switch to a new design. For instance, I’m quite particular about the font size of the posts and I don’t like having templates that look nice but have such small fonts that make reading difficult. I have come across such templates and although it is tempting to have those designs for my blog, I just don’t like having to such small letterings.

I know these can be corrected by editing the codes but being not too techical-savvy, it’s kind of hard having to look into how this can be done. I guess when you want something to look nice, you just have to put some effort into it. But for the time being, the motivation is just not there to want to make that effort. So, I suppose I will be stuck with this template for now, until the time comes when I can’t stand it anymore and that feeling supercedes the lack of motivation mentioned!

I know it’s a bit late but I only found the time to blog today. So, Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2010 will bring all of us better luck and happiness all year round.

Time passes by real fast and another year has made its entrance. No new year resolutions for me as past experience tells me that what I resolved at the beginning of the year will be forgotten three months down the road. So, there is little point in wasting my time anymore on new year resolutions.

Time does move ahead as mentioned and we are also entering the Year of the Tiger comes mid-February. I wonder what the soothsayers have to say about the prospect for the Tiger year. I guess you can’t really believe every word they tell you but it does provide some excitement and entertainment to read their predictions in a way.

Whatever it is, Happy New Year again. If you have resolutions made, I hope you will achieve them all. If you have new year wishes, I also hope they will come true for you as the year progresses. And of course, if you are a blogger like me, happy blogging in 2010!

Can people actually make tons of money out of blogging? I have been blogging for about 3 years now and I think what I have earned in total is probably just enough to buy me a few nice dinners. That’s about it!

But sometimes, I hear of people making thousands every month by just blogging. Amazing! I wonder how hard these people actually need to put in to earn that much a month. I’m sure to them it’s must be like a full-time job. After all, if you just blog for fun just like me, the income doesn’t really come to much. Unless of course, I’m not doing things right or don’t bother to.

The thing I find so hard about blogging or making money online is the discipline. Even this blog, I have turned kind of lazy updating it. So, I don’t think I can maintain a blog until it turns profitable and attracting hordes of traffic. Furthermore, to make money with a blog, you need to attract the right kind of traffic by offering valuable content. If I’m already lazy updating a personal blog like this one, I don’t think I can be disciplined enough to update a serious blog with valuable information to offer to readers. I guess it’s just not me!

Anyway, I think blogging is fun, but only in the beginning, when things are still exciting and new. When you start a new blog, the hopes and excitement are automatically there. But once the blog starts running, I find that the boredom will set in after a while. Maybe it’s only me since I don’t know how to make much from blogging. Maybe if I earn a ton of money, I would be feeling differently. Then, I would probably tell you that blogging is the most exciting thing to do in the whole wide world!

For this blog, I have about 2,400 genuine comments for my posts. But guess how many spam comments that have found their way through? More than 27,000! Each time when I log into my blog, I will have to go through the comments and start clearing the spam ones. You know, those ones that pimp anything from viagra to porn to loans to even rosary beads.

Then, the forum that I have which is an extension of this blog, also have the same problem, which makes me think that maybe I shouldn’t have started it at all. Anyway, now that I have, it is kind of hard to close it down.

I also have another inactive blog on kids’ bed which had it even worse. It was under spam attack for days that the site couldn’t be accessed. The attack took away all the bandwidth as well as disk space. Well, I guess that’s what you will end up with when you have an avalanche of comments in the thousands all of a sudden.

And the thing with wordpress is you can only delete 20 comments at one go using the admin control dashboard. So, imagine having to go through 45,000 comments and delete 20 each time. How tiring is that?

Fed up, I had to google for an answer and found out that I can delete them by running a SQL query. Very techie stuff for an IT illiterate woman like me but what can I do when I’m sitting on over 45,000 stupid comments. Anyway, I got that done and I guess I also learned something new along the way.

Anyway, these days, I also take the liberty to delete comments that merely say “Great post!”, “I will visit again!” or simply “Thanks for the info!” from people I do not know. After blogging for quite some time, you can just sniff out a spam comment, I guess!

How much time do you spend being online everyday? For me, sometimes it can be up to hours at a stretch. It’s getting increasingly hard to break the habit of not turning on my computer every morning. Even if I don’t have the time to sit down and surf the net, I will still get online to check my mail at the very least.

OK, I just hope that I don’t end up like this one day, given the amount of time that I’m glued to the computer daily.

Picture From Very Funny Pics

Time to control my habit, I guess, before I’m covered with cobwebs sitting in front of the computer!

I found this interesting observation about what men are like here.

Men are like: 

..Placemats.
They only show up when there’s food on the table.

..Mascara.
They usually run at the first sign of emotion.

..Bike helmets.
They’re good in emergencies but usually just look silly.

..Government bonds.
They take so long to mature.

..Copiers.
You need them in reproduction but that’s about it.

..Lava lamps.
Fun to look at it but not all that bright.

..Bank accounts.
Without a lot of money they don’t generate a lot of interest.

..High heels.
They’re easy to walk on once you get the hang of it.

..Curling irons.
They’re always hot and always in your hair.

..Mini skirts.
If your not careful they’ll creep up your legs.

..Handguns.
Keep one around long enough and your gonna want to shoot it.

..Floor tiles.
Lay them right the first time and you can walk on them for a lifetime.

..Parking spots.
The good ones are taken, and the rest are too small.

..Bananas.
The older they get, the less firm they are.

Now, tell me which line isn’t true…