Just Came Back from Death

About an hour after lunch, I had a inkling feeling in my tummy. It wasn't bad, but uncomfortable, and also indescribable. I never felt that kind of way in my tummy before. I came home, and I felt alright. I had some food, watched a movie, and toward the end of the movie, my tummy started acting up. Then it got real bad.

I thought I should just go to the bathroom, but that wasn't it. It was weird -- a radiating pain that pulsated in the top part of the abdomen. The pain escalated faster and faster, and I decided that it was time to do something about it. When I went to get some sort of medicine, my mind went blurry, and all I could think of was the Tylenol. But before I grabbed the bottle, I collapsed onto the floor, clutching my stomach and crying out in pain. I don't think I had ever felt so much physical pain in my life. Even that time when I got acupuncture. I finally got the bottle of Tylenol, opened it, and swallowed it, but it often takes some time before pain is alleviated.

I finally managed to get to bed, and I couldn't even lie down because of the pain. I was in near fetal position, groaning and moaning, and tears started to well up in my eyes, and I could feel them soaking my eyelashes when I shut my eyes tight. My mom prepared a heating pad, and I seriously contemplated going to the nearest emergency room. The pain was so great that I may need some sort of intervention. The pain continued, but the heat from the bag of corn seeds (Not sure what this is called, but it's a cloth bag filled with some sort of hard seeds -- you microwave it for 3 minutes and it gets hot, and you can use it for heat therapy) relieved some tension. Here I am, now, nearly an hour later, and I feel like I'm back among the living. The pain is still there, but obviously, not bad enough to hinder me from blogging (although, I admit, very few things in the world would hinder me from blogging).

What was the cause of this pain? I don't know. Will it be back? Hopefully not. I feel lightheaded from the suffering, so I apologize if I haven't been coherent or very interesting.

**UPDATE: Not feeling too much better, evidently. Barfed. Twice.

Written Last Night

I was trying to post as usual, but I got this message from Blogger:

Error
We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it.

It's Saturday, December 4th, 1:12 AM. I didn't do much today, although I've been sitting at my desk almost all evening. I've moved wordpress into the correct directory, so that the blog resides now at Nightingale.fierceblogs.com, rather than /wordpress/index.blah blah blah. And I'm trying to re-do CSS and the layout so it would look nice. I can say for one thing though -- WP is MUCH easier to install than MT or EE. I looked over EE quickly before deciding that I will need more advanced skills to work it. I am struggling with MT, but it's coming along, tiny baby steps at a time. Wordpress, although I am having problems figuring out all the codes that go along with it, I have installed it and it looks good. I have even installed a plugin as suggested by Ria (who must be like webmaster goddess), Tinka's cousin. It's called Spaminator, and it is supposed to get rid of all the SPAM that comes inside the comments. (Thank you Toni, for your concern regarding the amount of SPAM that I was getting!) And I started fresh, so no SPAM remains, as well as real comments and such. Hopefully I won't have to do anymore destructive work on it!

I wanted to initially go for a sanitary look -- a layout that just screams, "HEALTH GURU!" But I couldn't find any images appealing to me that provoked images related to health or nursing, so Tigger will adorn the page until then. I need to get to bed immediately. Brain power is diminishing at a fast rate, and I may just collapse onto my keyboard. Also, I need to get some sort of cushion for my chair, which is made of wood with no cushioning whatsoever. After sitting here for hours after hours, my rear end feels like it's been flattened. And I need to stretch. And yawn. And sleep. Mmm... sleep~~~

Blog Addiction

I just can't stay off the computer, it seems. I am now at work -- I will be stuck here until 6:30PM. I wanted to fit in working with my blog stuff, but I can't. Despite the fact that I've been working almost continuously and ardently on this, I can't remember any of the passwords for anything. I can't remember passwords. It is one of my biggest flaws -- you would think that something so small would have little impact, but it's huge.

In Jr. High school (which we called middle school), we had to use a combination lock for our PE (also known as gym) lockers. We didn't use other lockers, but we had one solely for storing PE uniforms and tennis shoes. Well, that was definitely tough. But it was one combination of three numbers, so it wasn't that bad.

In high school, we got regular lockers, and also PE lockers. Which meant TWO combinations to memorize. I had to resort to sharing a lockers with a pal, just in case. And during this time, e-mail and the internet started to boom, which meant I had to make e-mail and set a password for that. I had AOL then, and it was suggested that the user frequently change the password for security. And being a good follower of direction, I did. I tried. And I forgot my password frequently and had to write them down and tape it on my desk (beats the purpose of secrecy but oh well).

When I got off of AOL, I started to use Yahoo and Hotmail, and because of the amount of SPAM, I had to keep one that I used to contact people I actually knew, versus another one for signing up for things and newsletters and such, which meant that I had more than one e-mail and more than one passwords. Then I got a bank account, and the ATM card had a PIN, and I opened a savings account, and that ATM card also had a different PIN. Then I had a pager, which had a voicemail passcode, and later, cell phones which had voicemail passcodes as well. And now, I have my blogger and its password, and it's gotten pretty bad that since I can't get the same login name for every single thing I sign up for (i.e. e-mail, blogs, etc) I have to remember which login name goes with which password. And keeping track of that became especially hard. I have to login to everything frequently or else I'd forget it -- like online banking. I only use it when I need to, which is about twice a year, and I always forget the login name and pw for that!

Long story short, I have the passwords for the ftp and wordpress and etc. at home, so I'm ok. Bottom line though, is that I have gotten myself addicted to working with my blog, and I'm feeling weary and suffering from withdrawl currently because I can't get a hold of my blog. Well, at least I have this blog, but this blog is already done. Already complete. Already worked on. Already templated and laid out and written in!

Can I just say... I am beginning to miss WordPress?

Status

I have sat in my chair for about 4 hours straight. Working on all this stuff, like Wordpress etc. I took a breather from working with Wordpress, and at worked on new things! I have submitted my rather meagre portfolio to Web-Divas.com -- you can see it at web-divas.com/portfolio along with the works of the original two divas, Cherry and Rachel. They took me in and attempted to supply me with equipment that I would need, along with a very warm welcome. I am regretting not saving all the work I put into my own blog, because as you can tell from the title, this is version 10, and I only have the last 5 of them saved. I made blog layouts for my brother also, and I haven't saved those either, save for one, which I must have accidentally saved or something.

I also worked on getting my own domain and getting it hosted, courtesy of Amscray.com. As I have mentioned a few times before, I am extremely commitment phobic about certain things that are meant to last FOREVER and EVER, e.g. webpage domain, and I was debating for a looooong time! Finally, push came to shove and I had to make and executive decision (my brain being the executive branch of myself) and just do it. So I did. It's www.Bloggerina.com. Initially I thought it may be too cheezy, but then I thought, well, that's what I am -- cheezy! So Bloggerina.com it is. Don't bother going there yet though, because there's nothing there.

I am trying to work with movabletype. I will continue to work with Wordpress at the location provided to me by Tinka, and hopefully I can get a layout for that and start a fresh new blog. I intend to record all my student nursing experiences... I am hoping that starting nursing school will give me plenty to blog about! And I will ultimately move this blog over to the new domain and blog about everytime else... like I'm doing now. In exactly one week, final exams start, and in another week after that, school is out! Then I'll have plenty more time to work on stuff and and get a move on.

Work With Me WordPress

I was working on Wordpress over at nightingale.fierceblogs.com/wordpress/index all night. I finally moved some stuff around, so it kinda looks like this blog. I just wanted to get a feel for the codes before I actually start making a new layout. It's still looking funky, to say the least... the writing's small and well, you can read about rest of the problems over there.

Work was tough today (or rather yesterday -- the ends/beginnings of the month are invoicing time for me, which means I sit most of the day buried under piles of paper) and I also had something of a mini-crisis regarding The Girl Formerly Known As My Best Friend™. I was talking to her younger sister to see if there was a possible solution to the problem, but we didn't come to any conclusion. Well, regardless of everything, I need to sleep. So sleep I shall.

Houston We Have A Problem

Internet service is horrible this evening, and I can't manage to stay on-line for more than 5 minutes at a time. I will be working on Wordpress and Statistics homework most of the evening. I will be blogging as usual if router decides that it would rather behave than get beaten to death. But first, spaghetti. Mmmm... carbs...

Good News from Today

Did I get an official job offer from Web-Divas.com? Yes I did! Received an e-mail from Rachel at Web-Divas.com! I am so happy that I should be jumping up and down but I can't (I'm at work). I am both excited and slightly intimidated (I think slight intimidation is good -- keeps me humble) -- it would be an opportunity to learn more CSS, HTML, all those lovely acronyms, while earning extra money (money = good), and I was going to quit my current job (selling cellphone is such a drag!) anyways!

But of course, the downside is... will I be good enough? Sure I can work my own blog, but I never had to work within a restricted time frame. Also, I just barely got stared with Wordpress -- I'd feel much more comfortable after I finish the layout and make it look complete. For now I will trust their decision to hire me and go from there.

I think I'm going to go to the bathroom now and jump out and down and try my best to muffle my yelping. Such a nerd am I.

Triumph!

When I got the necessary info from Tinka, I set up the e-mail almost immediately. Then I had to eat and take care of some stuff, also while downloading an ftp thing, and downloading wordpress. I came home after school, watched Harry Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban on DVD (will review perhaps later) and afterwards, I plunged right into getting this host/domain/mysql/blog/wordpress thing hashed out. And within one hour, I am done.

I haven't created a layout for the blog yet, but I made a test run, and everything works fabulously! Here's proof! nightingale.fierceblogs.com/wordpress/index.php. The address is tentative as of now, but the link should work for the time being. The only problem I see at the moment is that "wordpress" shouldn't be included in the URL. But I have succeeded and conquered Wordpress. Now I can go to bed happy!

December 1 is World AIDS Day

Please click on the link in the left column that says "Treating 3 Million by 2005." Also click, Worldaidsday.org. It is important that, even if nothing else, we acknowledge that there is an AIDS epidemic. It is a serious problem and it is one that poses a great threat to all of us, healthy and otherwise.

A Renewed Sense for Procrastination

I lied. I¡¯m sorry. I was going to read Othello, honest. But then I got an e-mail from Tinka, and Tinka is just the most wonderful person! Not only is she a talented writer, she is also something of a humanitarian. You could say that she gave me an early Christmas gift! Long story short, I can now blog independently of Blogger! Can ya believe it? She offered to help me with the installation of the Wordpress, but I am going to try to rough it out on my own. So far, guess what I did! No, I didn¡¯t exactly install Wordpress yet, but I did download it and unzip it (correctly I hope, as Tinka instructed..). AND, I set up my very new e-mail with MS Outlook. I remember setting up Outlook at work, and it was somewhat confusing, but today, I handled it like a pro. Oh, I am just so proud! And I couldn¡¯t believe that I could set it up so quickly and smoothly, so I just had to go and test it. I wrote: title: blah blah. And content was, ¡°testing working?¡± And it was indeed working! So Yay! I know I¡¯m kind of far from taming the beast that is Wordpress, but I am excited. It¡¯s also giving me more reasons to procrastinate from doing homework. But I am so proud. Gee. But I have to say¡¦ I just know I am going to drive myself absolute nuts with this. But I¡¯m just sooooo excited! But now what am I supposed to do with Othello here, still fresh and untouched and unread¡¦?

My Life and its Soundtrack

It sure took long to get here, but I¡¯m finally here. Better late than never, I say. I am going to the orientation session for the nursing program tonight! There, I will receive all the information needed to start the program ? I¡¯m expecting to learn things like the secret nurse handshake and stuff like that. You know. Something that kind of initiates me into the status of a ¡°nursing student.¡± I know that¡¯s still a long way off from graduate nurse (a.k.a. newbie nurse) or even just a licensed registered nurse, but it sure beats pre-nursing student ? a status I¡¯ve had for the last three years. And the best part is, under normal circumstances, I will be out in two and half years, ready to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam. My school has over 95% passing rate on the first attempt, so I doubt I¡¯d fail that. So, to say that I am excited would be an extreme understatement. Blogger has been horrible lately, and my internet connection has gone haywire (more so than normal), and I have been reduced to typing my blog entry in a Word document. So you may note some differences. Writing in this white page of the Microsoft Word interface is something I only do for academic purposes ? mainly, to write papers. It can be said that I have been conditioned to write academically while I stare at such a screen as this. So it is normal, if you feel that you have either visited the wrong blog, or perhaps, that my blog was possessed by a grammatically correct demon (while I am aware of my self-made reputation as a Grammar Nazi¢â, I am also aware of the fact that I commit crimes of grammatical nature all the time). I am currently listening to Vanessa Mae. If you do not know who she is, I will sum up her story for you. She is a violinist. As you know, classical musicians have a hard time selling CD¡¯s ? boys may buy Britney¡¯s CD to drool over, and girls may buy Britney¡¯s CD so they can emulate her, but not many classical geeks are out there who want to drool over a violinist or emulate one. A few years back, there were a lot of inquiries on Vanessa Mae¡¯s album cover ? they were, in no comparison to Britney¡¯s sexually suggestive school girl outfits or bare-all midriff, but it was highly sexual; highly sexual for a classical violinist. I mean, she went from a rather androgynous girl with cropped hair, into a sleek woman with a revealed slender shoulder. Critics claimed that the revealed shoulder was to compensate for poor sales; I claim that that¡¯s all just a load of brouhaha. Mae is not only a gorgeous woman, but also one hot violinist. A song titled ¡°The Devil¡¯s Trill¡± is one I particularly like. As a former intermediate violinist, I understand the discipline and patience required to acquire the technical skills, and the artistry to make it sound effortlessly beautiful. Her music attracts all sorts of listeners; this is a characteristic that is unique to Mae, as most classical music is exclusive and foreign to many people. She mixes it up and modernizes the classics ? there is an element of fusion in her notes. Hop on over to your local music store and sample a song or two. You will find that there are more unique things about her than the shared birthday with Paganini. Now I must go. I have to get started on Othello. Out of all the assigned readings from my Shakespearean English class, this is the only play I haven¡¯t read already. It seems so odd to me that all my past English teachers assigned all the same plays to teach. Perhaps they only teach you a few plays to go with in graduate school or something! Shakespeare was not only a good writer, he was a fast writer. He wrote many many many plays during his not-too-long life. Certainly there is a more interesting and less clich?d play to teach than Romeo and Juliet? As beautiful as that play is, Shakespeare wrote so much more than just Hamlet, R&J, Taming of the Shrew, and Henry V. There is also a trend ? I don¡¯t know if this is just anecdotal evidence, but instructors acknowledge that students have a fear of reading Shakespeare because of the language barrier, and in their efforts to break down the formidable wall, they often eliminate the historical plays (or make minimal effort at them). I personally like the historical plays more. But alas, sometimes one just needs a good teacher to help point to the highs and lows of a Shakespearean play. It is often very difficult to hash it out on my own. Well, I suppose I can always rent a movie version. (Gag) Enough procrastination for now. I¡¯ve also got a set of DVDs that should be coming in today, including the third Harry Potter film. I¡¯ve already seen it in theatres, but I just love those kids¡¦ especially Hermione. Well, gotta go~ Ta, ta!

Brrrr~! Frozen!

It took me practically eons to log into Blogger and get to this screen to type. It adds to my current wanderlust -- I want to wean myself off from Blogger. I always complain about my customers, who want to pay nothing for a phone that works miracles, with great coverage. Perhaps I am not much different -- I want to blog for free (or very very close to it) and yet I want something reliable and fast and also room to host images and such. No such thing as a free lunch, I suppose.

I was talking to Christopher over at Californian Sojourn the other day, and he told me that it was practically freezing. Granted, he lives way out there (middle-o-nowhere), but I really should have taken that comment more seriously. I went to class tonight wearing the same thing I wore to work -- jeans and a medium-weight turtleneck sweater. I tend to forget that more often than not, Thanksgiving ushers in a wintery feel in the air. Walking to class at 6PM was cold enough -- walking back to the car at 9:40 PM was freakishly cold. You know, cold enough that the rims of your ears start to go numb and you can't feel them anymore. So cold that my hair felt cold.

I know it may seem like I'm blaming the weather for my lapse in judgment, but allow me to tell my tale. McDonalds has placed one of their ubiquitous shops in a strategic location near the school -- halfway between the school and the parking lot, which is about three blocks or so away. I was walking back to the car. It was as though hell froze over. It was that cold. I was hungry -- I might have eaten my cat! I had half a potato before going to class, so I was famished! I was walking past McDonalds, when I saw the people, enjoying their food in a well-lit area, their gay laughters filling the air with a toasty warmth... and that just tipped me over into the realm of insanity.

It has been about a month since I saw Supersize Me. After seeing the film, I was grossed out to no end by fast food. I knew I would eventually eat fastfood sometime or another, but I vowed to refrain from consuming fastfood as much as possible, and stay clear from them at least for a good chunk of time. I mean, that guy (in the documentary) gained a lot of weight and looked like crap at the end! Little did I know that I was about to jump back on the bandwagon.

After I got past the MickeyD's, I was practically drooling. I mean, I was cold and hungry -- how much more pathetic can one get? I jumped in the car, and as my ears and fingers thawed a bit, I decided to get food. Fast food. I knew there wasn't anything warm to eat at home -- everything edible was meant to be consumed cold, or at room temperature. There was no soup or hot, steaming rice. And I wanted something hot and tasty and delicious and greasy and fatty. By this point, I had already crossed over to insanity, so I really can't be held accountable for the crazy things I did!

I didn't want to go to McDonalds -- there was still enough of a stigma left from Supersize Me that I just could not go there. Next best thing -- Jack in the Box. Good old Jack. I zoomed off the freeway and screeched to a maddening halt at the drive-thru speaker box. I ordered myself a #4, which is Jack's Spicy Crispy Sandwich. At least I ordered diet coke.

I snatched the bag from the mustached guy (who looked strangely like Mario from the Super Mario games -- perhaps I was delirious at this point), and before I left the driveway, I already grabbed a fistful of fries and stuffed them in my mouth. My fingers were still apathetic from the cold, and I didn't feel the heat from the fries at all. It was when they hit the roof of my mouth I felt that burning sensation spreading. I quickly washed it down with the icy diet coke, and let out a sigh of relief and pleasure. Mmmmmm... hydrogenated oil....

I got home, and I inhaled the sandwich. The buttermilk sauce was heaven. Divine. After what seemed like just a few seconds, all I was left with, were the wrappers. And a sick conscience. I was having one of those Homer Simpson moment, when he is both pleased and angered -- DOH! Oooohmmmmmm... DOH! Ooooohhmmmmm... The satiety I felt in my stomach was no match for the unpleasantly sick amount of guilt that rested heavily in my mind. All the things I had learned in nutrition class... transfat, hydrogenated oils, cholesterol clogging my arteries, over-production of bile to deal with the amount of fat... about 1000 calories in a matter of minutes... Uuuuuh...

What is done is done. I can't regurgitate this toxic meal I just consumed. Better luck next time. For now, I will resort to doing half an hour of yoga before bed in hopes of compensating for my irresponsible behavior.

A Word of Thanks

With the splurge of traffic from Blogexplosion, not only did my hits go up, so did my self-esteem! I have to offer a humble word or two of gratitude for all the people who commented on my blog (mostly about design)! I am equally flattered and excited, and I'm even more motivated to keep a good update on my blog, both in layouts as well as in content.

By the way, would anyone like to share their click-rate for their BE banners? I've got two banners on now, and they have a very different rate of clicks! I wonder if it has to do with the attractive/catchiness of the banner, or perhaps it varies between the times that the banner is shown, i.e. Monday vs. Friday and etc. My banner making skills are quite inadequate -- I never made a banner before, and I really haven't found anything inspiring enough. I also found it difficult for me to work within a limited space -- 468 by 60! That's a really small area! But I think my second blog is a GREAT improvement on my first -- first one, where the words, "join my Haemisphere" rotates vertically, was quite sucky. I thought it was great at the beginning, but now that I look at it, it's quite juvenile. But it was a juvenile attempt at a banner, so it's alright.

I am excited by the visibility of my blog. I am still not seeing a lot of people returning to my blog -- it seems that the number of my regular readers have been holding steady. But nevertheless, I am glad that I came across BE.

It has been an extremely busy Monday. But I remembered to bring coffee (we ran out on Saturday!) so life is bearable. Monday is my looooong day, which means I have night class until close to 10PM-ish. Went to bed quite late last night, so I'll be fighting sleep during lecture. It's an exciting class though, but I've gotten a little agressive in the arguments section -- I think I nearly shut down the "Should the 10 commandments be allowed in public buildins" thread. Oh well. I think most of the class is medium-strength Christian (is there such a thing? They're like a medium rare steak kind of Christian), while a select few, including myself, are adament heathens. I mean, I've already been condemned to hell, so that says a lot! I don't really mind though. I know religion is a big topic to get into, and I can't get into that today (it's Mad Mad Monday!), but I'll just say that I'm frequently condemned/banished to hell and given all sorts of yummy cursings. Ok, not frequently -- it's not like I'm the antichrist, but evidently, being a heathen is close enough. Ok, enough Christianity bashing -- the basic rule of thumb is, you don't try to knock down my choice in religion or a my choice to refrain from religion, and I will tolerate yours, whatever it may be. Unless you're some sort of Satan worshipper, because that's just plain bad.

Working the Plug

One of my blog entries was spotlighted (sort of) at Lablogs.com! It probably isn't my favorite entry, but it seems to be related to the topic, about blogs as histories. I didn't even know! I mean, I suppose I should do more statistical work regarding my blog, but sometimes, it's just too much! But I thank LA Blogs for the additional traffic, and hope that I continue to generate interesting (or semi-interesting at the least) content.

Thank you.

Also, a photo was updated on my Blogger Profile.

Beautiful Sunday Morning .. Er... Noonish

Yesterday morning, I went to pick up the paper, and found that the Newspaper Bandit™ had been at it again! So this morning, despite the fact that it is my only day off from work, and despite the fact that I really needed to catch up on sleep, I had my alarm on at 7AM. This morning, the alarm went off, and I got up to get the paper before the Bandit could have a swipe at it. And I brought the paper back, and crawled back into bed with my cat, and snoozed. Totally snoozed. Until 10:30 AM.

Then I felt so embarrassed, because Tinka sent me an e-mail this morning shortly after 7AM, about my recent Fiercewomen.com submission (by the way, please click to read!). Some people get up at the crack of dawn and do productive things, while I snooze. Wasn't there some sort of corny saying, "you snooze, you lose?"

Anyway, It is the most sunshiny morning ever (well, it is just tad past noon)! My cat is taking advantage of the flood of sunlight on my bed by sunbathing while licking her paws! I'm going to do likewise (sit in the sun, not lick my paws/hands) and absorb some sunshine (get those vitamin D's!) and read my Sunday paper. I've already got my tumbler full of piping hot coffee, all ready to go! I've already broken my fast with leftover turkey that felt like jerkey more than turkey, but oh well (it also didn't help that there was no cranberries to go along with the dry turkey -- I had to resort to drenching it in strawberry jam).

I know I got up late in the morning, but I did go to bed a bit late -- just about 1 AM-ish, finishing up my brother's blog -- a holiday look. I just felt as though I haven't utilized my html skills in a while, and they were probably deteriorating quickly, so as a practice, I made him a Christmas Simpsons themed blog! It's not too pretty, but it's alright. I'm still brainstorming for my own blog re-design -- deadline is end of January 2005, so I've got little over two months. I think just getting the ideas together is the hardest part. Time will tell how it goes. I don't know about moving my blog over to a separate host and domain -- I would need to learn how to use wordpress or MT or EE, and find out how in the world I am going to use FTP. Shieldhost's service sounds adequate the price does seem low enough for me to afford it. I'm guessing about $35 a year, which isn't bad at all. Just the details of things -- I am actually very afraid of acronyms like FTP, MySQL, Perl, XML, stuff like that. I don't even know what half those things are. Ignorance isn't bliss -- it's frightening. But enough ranting for now -- I've got news to read and coupons to clip and sunshine to absorb!