langgam.org

An easy-to-install contact form plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi. You can download the zip file here.

You can also see the form in action here.

I was used to associating moods with my posts. After a long, long search, I found a good mood plugin for Wordpress.

After trying out three or four plugins of the same kind, I installed Cricket Moods.

1. Download the plugin here.
2. Place cricket-moods.php into /wp-content/plugins.
3. Activate the Cricket Moods plugin from the Plugin Management panel of WordPress.

Some friendly tips:

• The mood settings in the Cricket Moods page under Settings are for the default moods for new users. It is better to add your own moods in Manage Moods panel page in http://<domain.com>/wp-admin/tools.php?page=cm-manage-moods.
• In my case, I did some changes in my cricket-moods.php file for the mood panel display in Add New Post page. In the foreach loop in cm_list_select_moods(), I added style="overflow:scroll; height: 200px" for a scrollable mood panel display for the 132 moods I added. It’s better that way.

If you’re an old Livejournal user, you can use this for your Wordpress blog.

I thought last night was the last night I’ll see you alive. I was just playing Restaurant City with you. You were giving me my Plurk updates and helping me fix this blog. But when I woke up, you were dead.

But it was easy to revive you. I organized the revival steps months ago in a text file because I know that a time like this might come. But I can’t deny the fact that I’ve been thinking that you can never be revived at all.

But you’re still here. And I promise to take better care of you (shut you down every night before I go to sleep) so that this won’t happen again.

Love, Neng

P.S. Maybe you can give me a one-day notice before going dead? You don’t always have to bring the 24 and Chuck episodes to death with you.

My domain was dead for two years and now it’s back.

I thought I’ve moved on. For several months I’ve been finalizing which free blog tool to use. I’ve been in Blogger, Livejournal and Wordpress and I was never contented. Aside from the constant changing of blogging tools, I was also constantly changing usernames too.

There was also a time when I decided not to blog anymore, but of course, I still can’t resist writing something and the whole process of switching sites and usernames will happen all over again.

But last Friday, I was in a coffee shop (taking advantage of the free wifi connection) fixing my new blog in Blogger when someone volunteered to buy back the domain for me. It was an overwhelming feeling. I can’t describe it except for the teary eyes I had after the domain has been bought. Thank you. Wee.

After registering the domain, I spent several more hours in the 24-hour coffee shop installing Wordpress. I went home at 1 or 2 in the morning and continued installing themes until 5. And for the next few days, I was looking for Wordpress plugins I can use. I hope it’s better now.

Just as I promised, I’ll keep this domain as long as I can. It was nice to be on a break. But it’s better having this, my very own online release of thoughts.

Welcome back the whiny, fickle-minded, paranoid, weird and pathetic blogger. Yay.

These are the most recent plugins I installed in my Wordpress blog:

• WP-PostViews – enables you to display how many times a post/page had been viewed. I just found out that the view counter is not updating in Google Chrome browsers.
• Disqus – comment system that allows threaded comments. I’m currently using it.
• Plurk for Wordpress – a widget that posts plurk updates in your Wordpress blog. You can check the topmost widget in the sidebar.
• Better Blogroll – a widget that posts a certain number of links in your blogroll randomly. It’s also in my sidebar
• Add To Any Subscribe – for easy reader subscription.
• All In One SEO Plugin – for search engine optimization

Happy plugin installing!

I had a hard time exporting my Livejournal entries into this blog. I can’t find an export link anywhere in Livejournal which was supposed to be here.

Then I came across ljArchive. It cannot only export my entries, but my comments as well.

To export my LJ entries, all I had to do was:

1. Download ljArchive here and install.
2. Run ljArchive.
3. Click File -> New Archive and click Next.
4. Login using my LJ username and password, click Next and click Finish.
5. After the application has synced all my LJ entries and comments, click File -> Export -> XML writer.
6. Specify values for filename, Split Export (default is Single File), Export Settings (for protected entries) and click OK.
7. XML file is generated!

All LJ entries and comments are imported through Wordpress’ import tool (under Tools). Yay for ljArchive!

The Feed Reading Blogroll by Jan Weinschenker improves your blogroll by displaying the freshness and the latest post-title of your bookmarks.

What you need:

• Get a Google API Key for free here.
• Download the latest version of the plugin here.

To install:

1. Upload the archive and the files to the plugin-directory of your blog. This should be /wp-content/plugins/feed-reading-blogroll/. After that, all files should be located at that directory.
2. Go to the plugins-section of your dashboard, look for the entry called Feed Reading Blogroll and press activate.
3. Set Wordpress content-directory /wp-content/ to chmod 777, e.g. by using your ftp-client.
4. Go to the plugin’s option-page. This will let the plugin create the JavaScript-file.
5. Go back to your ftp-client and go to /wp-content/. You should find a file called feedreading_blogroll.js in it.
6. Set the directory /wp-content/ back to chmod 755, while letting the rights of feedreading_blogroll.js remain chmod 777.
7. Finally, save your own Google API Key at the plugin’s option-panel.

A job! My second, technically.

I had my taste of rejection with one company I’ve applied to. I’ve always wanted a company with a three-day application processing, but after receiving THE rejection email, I thought the process was too fast and left my head spinning. I’ve really worked hard on scribbling Java codes on the whiteboard to impress the interviewer, but I guess it’s not enough. I’ve been irate the whole day after knowing the news. I didn’t even get a reply after asking in which interview I failed (HR or the technical interview). I don’t deal with rejections too well.

But a harsh reality is much better than waiting and guessing if the result is harsh at all. I’ve been in the hardest technical interview (ever!) and I never heard anything from them after that. I felt that I’ve been too desperate for the result after realizing that I’ve been texting the recruiter several times asking what the result is. That was everyday for almost two weeks. No answer. I guess it’s a sign.

So now, this company. They’ve been patient with me from the very beginning. My application was processed after two weeks. I’m excited to work. I was hesitant to accept it at first, but I was attracted to several things:

1. The office location. It’s in a street in Ortigas with lotsa establishments! And most importantly, Starbucks!
2. The workplace. Modern motifs never fail to be attracting.
3. The receptionist. From day one, the company’s receptionist was friendly not only to me, but to all other applicants, I think. She has a very contagious jolly mood.
4. The general manager. In my final interview, the GM was so down to earth and very interested with my career development. He’s thrilled with me working for them. He’s open and honest with everything about the company.
5. The dress code. The company doesn’t require employees to be in business attire. Woot! I’m gonna miss my old wardrobe though.
6. The work itself. I’m still aligned with Java development work, so yay for me.

Naive as it may seem, I’m liking the company mostly because they’ve been nothing but friendly and patient with me. Work environment and co-workers are big chunks of my work motivation formula.

I’m onto processing pre-employment requirements which I think is the most stressing part of being employed by a new company. I still have 18 more days to enjoy what’s left of my unemployed life.

Vertigo’s a bitch. I don’t know what I have exactly (because people said vertigo is just a symptom of something else) but I hate it when it happens.

After the second worst drinking experience I had (see previous entry), the dizziness somehow lessened. But still.

o.0

I woke up yesterday. I was already in bed and I don’t remember how I got there. I noticed I was wearing a different shirt. I had bruises on my left knee, left shoulder and left side. And a bump on the left part of my head. I can’t find my shoes.

San Mig Light beer + Jose Cuervo tequila + Bailey’s = BLACKOUT.

While I was unconscious, people were panicking. They were thinking of getting me to a hospital because when they were checking me, I had my eyes rolled back in my head. At that time, I fell on the bathroom floor after trying to pee, thus, the bruises and the bump.

Thank God for giving me ex-co-workers for friends. I love them to bits.

As for me, never again. No drinking for a very long time. I’ll try to be sober for now.