I thought I'm done for the week... but no, God said, I'm not done... not yet.

I just got my weekend blessing: a pay out and more work. Isn't God an awesome God, blessing His children in so many ways?

There are some things in line for today:

1. Samantha's drama class
2. Children's Church in the afternoon and Schenker is very excited to be promoted to Junior Praise Church. He's now considered 7 years old, according to Malaysia education system (He just turned 6 last October), so he's now promoted to bigger kids' church.
3. A Barbie Fairytopia themed birthday party for my friend Grace's daughter, Leila, and we're attending.
4. Going to see Josiet and her family there. 

Our Saturdays are usually filled with activities. I am glad I'm done with my laundry last night.

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I just loaded my dryer with the last batch of clothes to dry. Gosh. I loaded three batches of clothes in my washing machine today.

I used to do my laundry on Saturdays. But since the kids started school, I switched it to Fridays because weekends became our family time and extra curricular times for the kids.


And so, to summarize my week,(and yes, it has been a great week), these were the things that kept me busy.

My blogging tutorials on:

1. How to truncate posts in Blogger blogs and Wordpress blogs
2. How to Back up Wordpress blogs
3. How to back up Blogger blogs

Also, I have written on the need to have a great content over a great blog template to attract advertisers. But of course, if you want to Increase your readership, there must be a balance of a cool and readable template and a great content. And if you want to be a better blogger, this is a must read: How to be a better blogger. 10 Ways of Them!

Hope you guys had a great week.

I am wishing you all a great weekend. Enjoy your family! Enjoy your friends! Enjoy your rest!

Cheers!

You've seen it in other blogs. And it's quite interesting because if you want to read further, you just click "read more." You've been really curious on how to do it in either your blogger or your wordpress blogs.

And what are the benefits of truncating posts in homepages, you may ask. Indeed, there are benefits to it. Aside from the easy way for search engine robots to crawl your posts, you get more traffic too.

Why?

Low Alexa Rating Benefits

Because if a reader reads your posts and is curious to know how you end your post, they will simply click read more. That's an additional click to your post, which is beneficial to Alexa ratings. The more people read your blog, the more the Alexa ratings go down. And you know it's more advantageous if your Alexa score is low. It simply means you have a lot of traffic to your blog.

SEO Benefits

I have read that to truncate your posts, it's easy for SEO (search engine optimization) robots to crawl your posts, thus your posts will appear more on search engine websites.

Easy Way to Truncate your Blogger Blog

There are javascripts that you can use to install in your template. But it takes technicalities to do that. And I am not so techie so I'll stick on the easy part. How do you truncate a blogger post?


Simply go to create a new post, after you have done your post, check whether you're on compose mode. If you're on compose mode, look on the bar above the box where you type in your post.

Put your cursor on the line where you want to truncate or break your post and look for "insert jump break" and click it. In your html code, it reads like this:

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I woke up very early today.

At 2:00 am.

I knew I had to finish all my assignments before 12nn today. I want to beat the cut off.

And I'm finishing soon.

Schenker is sick. I wanted to wake him up at 5 but when I touched him, he felt very hot. And so I just gave him a fever medicine and told him to go back to sleep.

Samantha's going swimming in her school today.

My friends are coming over to visit after lunch.

And I'm still playing the song : Tender Love by Force MD.

I guess if I had a dog with me listening to my music, her tongue would be hanging, saliva all dropping, just tired from hearing the same music over and over again for the past 5 hours. LOL.

Anyways, I still have 8 more to go.

Just wanting to wish everybody a good week.

(I'm still keeping away from that crab, by the way).

Good Monday morning, everyone!

Looks like it's going to be a busy weekend.

But it's all good. It's all good.

I wish everyone a happy weekend.

My quote for today:

Sometimes, it's good to just be quiet and get away from the crabs. After all, they have high cholesterols. Bad for the health. 

These days, I've been trying to sleep early, especially on the weekdays when kids have to go to school early morning.

Schenker must get up before 6:00am because his pick up is around 6:25am. As I have said before, the kids' schedules changed our daily routine so much.

If I sleep the normal times I sleep, it doesn't benefit my health. And so, these days, I try to sleep early, especially when I don't have a lot of work online to do.

But I wish on weekends I can sleep longer. It doesn't happen actually because when the kids wake up, I wake up too. I might need melatonin to get undisturbed sleep. Hehehe.

But really, my dream is to have a good break and sleep longer.

Mommy breakaway, anyone?

image: timtim.com

Since Schenker going to primary school, our lives have never been the same. But I am not complaining. In fact, I like the idea of having some kind of structure at home.

The kids go to school in the morning. They come home. They play. Do homework. Have dinner. Take a bath. Prepare for bed. Family devotions.

Those are the usual and predictable things we do on weekdays.

On weekends, Samantha goes for her drama class. On Saturday afternoons, they go to Children church.

And so, my husband and I sometimes go on a quickie breakfast dates sometimes. The only thing is that, I am not a big breakfast eater. But like I said, I we don't do often. But yesterday, my husband and I had breakfast at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe. I had my favorite Brek O'day. While I was eating, I thought it's time to find out some colon cleansers because I have been eating too much lately.

Anyways, our weekends are packed.

But like I said, I like the structure we have at home. It makes it easy for me to take care of the things at home while doing my online job.

What sort of family planning method do you use to control pregnancy?

This has been an on-going discussion in the group I belong with in Facebook. One thing I like in that group is that everybody's so open with their opinion.

But what really are the methods of family planning?

1. Rhythm Method - This is the natural method used to determine the woman's fertile period through calendar counting. Usually, you count from the first day of period until 14 days. After 14 days, it is unsafe to have contact with your spouse. So it's abstinence for 7 days. Or you may use the next method even on fertile period which is
2. Condom - you can use this any time, preferably on fertile periods
3. Birth Control Pills - Birth control pills which is also called oral contraceptive pills, are a type of female hormonal birth control method, and are very effective at preventing pregnancy.
4. Contraceptive Implants - Contraceptive implants work in a similar way to contraceptive pills. They contain one of the hormones in contraceptive pills. This hormone prevents pregnancy. But instead of being in a pill, this hormone is in a small, thin flexible rod. It is 4cm long and made of plastic. It is inserted just under the skin on the inside of a woman's arm.
5. IUD or Intra Uterine Device - Small, "T-shaped" device inserted into the uterus to prevent pregnancy

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Looks like almost everybody is posting their monthly blog earning. I don't want to do that but I just want to post my first ever month of blog earning, from December 20, 2007 to January 30, 2008:

Sponsored Reviews = $187.85
Blogsvertise = $22
Smorty = $75
Webdango = $4.40 (I can't even remember which company this was).

Total = $278.45

I almost fainted upon seeing my paypal had this much. LOL.

This was back when I was still blogging under free blog platforms, but with pr4 and pr2. Yes, I started with two blogs, one was a wordpress.com and the other one was a blogspot.com.

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So you have set up a business. And it's not just a business. It's a big scale business. You have your own team. You have a variety of skilled workers. You have a great marketing strategy. Your target market is quite wide. You have all the applications you needed. All materials ready.

You even have a license of the business. You are ready to roll. But wait, there's a problem. Your great team is all over the place.And you need some kind of enterprise collaboration to make things work, to have a better communication.

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What do you want to leave as a family legacy?

Since I am married and have a family outside my country, I can't quite impose some of my cultures and traditions. I have one that I want my kids to follow, the "mano po" or "bless" tradition where the kids put the back of the hand of the parents on their  foreheads before leaving the house and arriving home. Schenker felt it was quite funny at first but he's kind of used to it now. Samantha loves doing it.

I noticed that Malays do that too. They kiss the back of the hands of the older people.

I like this kind of tradition. It's very sweet.

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Woot! I finally made my own header.

Our Family Story Header

How did I make my own blog header?

• Made a collage of the photos in Picasa  3
• Upload the collage in photobucket
• Re-size the image so it matches with the template header
• Copied the link of the image
• Changed the original template image to my own D-I-Y header
• Save

And voila! I have made my own header. I guess I owe it to you to make a more comprehensive step by step on how I did the collage from Picasa 3. I will have to do it next time. For now, I am happy with this blog's header.

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When I was just starting in blogging, I used to network myself with a lot of bloggers. I would do anything just to gain more friends online. I ended up making Filipino friends, (from the Philippines and from other parts of the world) more than other nationalities. I guess it's because it's easier to connect and relate to your own people.

For my first couple of years of blogging, I was very social, blog hopping from one blog to another.

I did all sorts of stuff just to help increase my blog traffic. I would do all things which I thought could help with the seo (search engine optimization) of my blogs. I have joined forums and communities, in fact.

That time, I was conscious of my page ranks. Oh not really it's more like my top earning through blogging company was conscious of blogs' page ranks.

And so, yes, as part of those bloggers being paid, I did everything I could to have and maintain higher pr. I would get excited when somebody tagged me in their post. It would mean one thing: I was receiving back links!

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I have been looking far and wide for a family template but I have been having a hard time with my search. So I guess I'm settling for this one. Not that I am done with it. I still need to fix my header. I guess I will need more time to put it up.

I want to make my own header with my family photos.

So yeah, for now, this is my template. I like it because it looks neat.

I have also started writing some blogging tutorials so I thought I would need a neat and readable template. Hehehe. Like I said, I am still in the process of my blog makeover.

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My kids do love mopping the floor. If I let them, they could mop every day. But since every after they mop, it gives me more work to do to clean up the mess, I don't let them do it everyday.

Our floor is marble type. Most houses in Malaysia have marble flooring.

It is easy to clean marble floors. You don't need to use all those special floor cleaner. You just need to use water. If you use a floor cleaner, it would take away the luster of the surface. So if you want to be have a shiny marble floor, just mop it with a floor mop and water.

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If your traveling feet take you to Malaysia and you're a tech enthusiast, Low Yat Plaze would be the best place for you to visit.

I've heard that you can get the cheapest gadgets from there. No, I haven't personally gone there to buy gadgets for myself but I have heard from friends about it.

My husband even told me about how cheap Low Yat Plaza is, when in comes to techie stuff.

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The first time I heard about Mesothelioma, I didn't know anything about it. When I finally learned about it (through reading other blogs and google search), I was alarmed.

Mesothelioma, I learned, is a kind of cancer that is acquired through exposure of this substance called asbestos. It basically affects the mesothelium, a lining that covers most of the organ in the body.

It comes with other symptoms as well. So by the time it's a confirmed Mesothelioma, people who are affected will already have life expectancy and it would be too late to really do a proper diagnosis.

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Life is full of choices.

In Malaysia, only those who are doing really well can afford to have house helpers (stay in helpers). Usually, when both husband and wife go to work, they hire a maid to take care of the house and even the children.

House helpers or maids can be brought in from the neighboring countries. You have to be very rich to get Filipino maids as Filipinos have higher rates, compared to their Indonesian counterparts.

I think the Filipino maid salary starts from RM1,000...

The Indonesian have two categories: Muslim and non-Muslim. For Indonesian Muslim maids, the salary starts at 450RM while the non-Muslim ones starting salary is RM500.

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I was giving a friend a basic photography tutorial yesterday and was inspired to take photos again.

She's buying my Sony A380. Yay!

I thought I was going to reserve it for my Schenker when he turns a few years older for him to practice photography... but husband thought it would probably rust my camera as I haven't been using it for a few months now.

And so, when a friend asked if we were still selling the camera, we finally decided to give it a go.

I was a bit nostalgic upon seeing the came in other people's hands. Sony produces vibrant colors (even more vibrant than that of my Nikon). I know because I compared the shots I took of the Twin Towers and her shot. The Sony reflected a purplish cloud behind the towers, the Nikon didn't - for same settings.

But I can't have too many of the same thing, can I?

And so... bye bye, Sony. I am pretty sure Sandra is going to take care of you well... and make the most of you.

For now, I am posting a photo I took of Samantha yesterday.

For I am inspired, again.

Pertonas Twin Towers - KLCC Suria Mall

It is still Chinese New Year. Samanth's principal invited us for a jalan jalan (walk around) at KLCC.

Packed my camera gears too.

Took shots of the Petronas Twin Towers... the 2nd tallest twin towers in the world, where they also shot the movie Entrapment.

Flooded house in Baan. Photo Courtesy: Theresa Ensalada Diola

My friend was kind enough to go to Baan (that was where I used to live) to take photos of the houses there.

My mom actually called this morning and she said she and my father were safe and sound in Tubay. That's a town in the province of Agusal del Norte.

I chatted with my friend also who lives in Butuan and this morning, it was raining but now the rain has stopped already. Thank God. I've never seen Butuan centre so flooded before. It has always been in Baan that would be flooded first.

Anyways, I guess after the via duct, Baan got better. It's not so flooded anymore.

Thanks for my friend who's been keeping tract of the flood situation in Butuan.

Flood in Butuan: View of Magsaysay Bridge from the PPA; Photo courtesy: Theresa Ensalada Diola

There's flood in Butuan.

I wonder how my parents are doing now.

Will give them a call later.

I keep seeing photos of the flood in Butuan posted by my facebook friends living in Butuan City now. I really hope it stops raining.

My parents place is in Baan. We used to get flooded so much... but after they built the viaduct, there was less flood. But I am not too sure now as even the City centre is already flooding.

Flood, be gone!

Will keep looking out for the flood update in Butuan.