Tag Archives: Updates

Dear Diary, Updates

Hello, Bella

Oh hai, new layout.

I wish I could say I designed and coded this layout…but I didn’t. Shortly after I wrote the last post, I started surfing through the WordPress theme directory to look for themes to use as an inspiration. But I realized I have no time yet, and what harm is it to use one of the free themes?

Hence, hello Bella — the name of this theme. I like how clean and colorful it looks. :) The headers and the titles take a while to load, though. Some kind of font-flash-rendering thing. Or maybe it’s just my connection.

Anyway, I miss designing. But I know I’m so rusty with it already. Must. Flex. Designing. Muscles.

And speaking of muscles…I’m still in pain from Sunday’s work out! I can’t laugh properly without my abs complaining, and stretching always needs extra effort. I’m not exactly complaining about the pain, though. I kind of miss it whenever I don’t feel pain the day after a long work out. How gym buff does that sound? As if that isn’t enough, I’m hitting the gym tomorrow later again for another round. But seriously, the pain kind of puts things in perspective.

And speaking of perspective. I just got reminded of my mortality — God can really just take us away any minute He says so. When it’s your time, it really is your time. It’s very humbling and overwhelming…and well, like I mentioned before, early deaths can really silence most people. It certainly left me at a loss for words.

Techie Geek

iPod Update 1.2.2: Wait, where did my songs go?!

8 Comments

I stuck my iPod Triskal on Guilo (My office PC) today to play my music loud since the other night shift people on the neighboring cubicles weren’t there yet. I opened iTunes and a software update shows up. Now if it’s an iTunes update, I usually ignore it since iTunes is such a big memory hogger that any other update it adds means it hogs more memory (A habit I formed with Ginger, my old laptop. Well, now that I have Aslan, I don’t think of that anymore, hee!). But since it’s an iPod software update, I clicked OK and let the computer do its work.

Later, when people started coming in, I decided to unplug my iPod so I can listen to my music in private. I clicked on Shuffle Songs but it wasn’t working, which made me wonder if Triskal is acting up…so I decided to just go to my current favorite song (Until You by Dave Barnes) and play it from there but…

WHERE DID MY SONGS GO?!

My iPod was completely empty! :( I wondered if I unplugged it prematurely, so I tried plugging it in again. I looked at iTunes and there were all my songs! I unplugged it again…and it’s gone again! ARGH!!!

I was panicking real bad and wondering how will I get through the night shift without my songs. I decided to restore my iPod, but I have to back it up first, so I started dragging the songs out to Guilo’s desktop. Then I did some browsing and some places were no help (seriously), until I got to this entry. And I quote:

Apple has released an iPod software update, version 1.2.2. This update is supposed to have some ‘bug fixes’. How important these fixes are to the enjoyment of your iPod is still undetermined.

Many users, myself included, have experienced an issue after installing the update where all the iPod menus are now blank even though it appears to have been properly synced with iTunes. This renders the iPod completely useless and unplayable.

The problem seems to occur when Windows users with 5th generation iPods install the 1.2.2 update before installing the 7.5 update to iTunes.

To avoid this problem install the iTunes 7.5 update and restart before applying the 1.2.2 update to your iPod.

If you’ve already installed 1.2.2 and are suffering from this problem then update iTunes to the current 7.5, restart, and resynch your iPod.

Argh, what a hassle. I went off to download iTunes 7.5, and then installed it (had trouble with installing QuickTime pa, hmph!), but when it’s finally installed, I plugged Triskal in again, and it worked fine. :) Whew.

Lesson learned: Don’t take iTunes updates forgranted. I’m just happy Guilo is a relatively fast computer that I can run Lotus Notes, MS Word, Firefox, Photoshop and iTunes all at the same time. :)

Dear Diary, Entertaining Angels, Updates

A Moment I Was Made to Sing

It’s the first official Friday at my new work, since I didn’t spend my last one at work because of the break our boss gave us to fix our requirements. Can I just say? I love that we are allowed to wear jeans on Fridays. Wohoo. I missed being able to do that! Now it’s an excuse to get myself a new pair of jeans and wear my sneaks again! Wohoo!

So I haven’t been blogging as much because I wanted to blog again with a new layout (which is what you are seeing right now). So here. Oh, and I also love it that I can do some designing on the side at work especially when there are no pending work requests. I am now a web content developer by profession, but I still do designing on the side since we don’t get to design as much right now. And I love it that I have enough time to tap into this hobby because we only work for 8 hours. Yes, it’s only my second week, but I really love it there already. Thank You Lord.

Tonight was supposed to be a night of gimmicks, with Mito’s birthday party and the impromptu bonding session of our team together with our trainor, but I obviously have to miss both because my brother felt feverish this morning (which made him miss work), so I have to be around in case he needs help. Plus I need to do some grocery shopping since we’re running out of food. I feel kind of bad missing out on these parties, especially the one with my new teammates, but then again I am also broke since we won’t get paid until the 24th, so once we get paid, that’s when our team would have a “celebration.” Yes, I’ll be there, promise!

And speaking of more adventures in work…I suddenly found myself joining the bowling team of our account for the upcoming sportsfest. To those who know me in real life, I’m not the sporty type. Yeah, I could play decent table tennis, do some ice skating and probably run good enough for track and swim some laps but I’m not really the sports playing type. Like what our team leader said when he first asked us if we could play, I’d rather write about it than actually play. :P But for some weird reason, I got sucked into being a part of the bowling team. I know how to do the basic moves in bowling I think, much thanks to the one time I played with my YFC upper household…but play it competitively? No way.

So what made me sign up? Besides the lack of people around, and the persuasiveness of the girl who was asking us to sign up and I guess there’s this interest of doing something new. Maybe it’s also because I have more time on my hands, and I don’t mind making fun of myself as long as I meet new people and enjoy, too? Haha, I don’t know. But I’m pretty excited, and I hope I won’t get hit by laziness and want to back out. It’s just for fun, and it wouldn’t hurt to try something new. :)

Ah, I’ve never been so contented for the past year! I am truly, truly happy for this new job, and I could not thank Him enough for giving this to me after making me wait. :) The wait just made things sweeter, in my opinion.

Which brings us to this layout. One morning before my final interview at my current employer, I was at Starbucks, drinking (an expensive) morning coffee while praying. I had Triskal on shuffle with my prayer time playlist, and then this song played. I’ve had that song on my player since March 2006, so it’s not new to me but at that moment, the song spoke volumes into my heart, and I knew then that God was with me inside that coffee shop. And I knew, no matter how unsure I was of everything, that God has it in His hands and everything will be okay. :)

Thus the new layout, because every moment that I live and breathe is truly a moment made for worshipping. :) (Lyrics and streaming audio after the cut!)

So I present to you Refine Me’s 16th version, based on Steven Curtis Chapman‘s Moment Made for Worshipping from the All About Love album. :) I’m sure there are bugs (especially in IE), so if you see them, please do tell me about it by posting a comment to this entry or by emailing me so I can fix it ASAP. Pages are yet to be updated, so some of them are definitely old. :P

Off I go! Here is the song I based the layout on and the lyrics for your listening pleasure (streaming only, not for download!). Happy weekend everyone. :)

Continue reading A Moment I Was Made to Sing →

Updates

Goodbye to the Kapitbahay

Today, I sadly close one of my blogs. Goodbye to the Chismosang Kapitbahay (pbb2.refineme.org).

Why am I closing my PBB Blog down?

  • I am so late in the news about Pinoy Big Brother 2 already.
  • I hardly have time to update it anymore because of work and other things I have to do.
  • I need to do a clean-up of my space in my domain to make room for other projects.
  • To be totally honest, I am finding PBB Season 2 kind of boring. I actually don’t mind missing it anymore, because nothing interesting is really happening.

Maybe I’ll do another one next time, for the next season, when I have more time. But for now, I’d settle for watching it, reading from the site and reading some of the PBB Blogs out there.

Till then. Goodbye Chismosang Kapitbahay.

Techie Geek, Updates

Designing, and then some

Let’s continue being geeky because I’ve got some updates. No, no new themes (yet), but just some plain domain updates. Look up at the navigation menu and you’ll see that there seems to be a lot of new things there. Well, you’re right, there are a lot of new things there. Let’s list them, shall we?

  • Domain Information – I delayed adding this before because I haven’t got the screenshots of the past two layouts up, plus I wanted to do some revisions. Anyway, they’re up now, with minor revisions, mainly on the content. Oh, and I just took a look at my entire layout history — man, I’ve been through so many years and layouts, what else can I do to add variety? Hmmm.
  • WP Themes – Yes, I’m standing up to this newfound geekness I started doing so I have a separate page for my WP Themes. I’m still thinking if I need to put up a separate page for each theme, but since I’m still new at this and I only have two themes up for now, one page will suffice.
  • Contact – I can’t find a place to stick the contact form other than this page, so here. :) I need to make new link buttons.
  • Writings – Finally, I figured out how to manage my subpages! I didn’t want to put it up without proper navigation and after some short code tweaking, it works! I will put up some NaNoWriMo dedicated pages, but you may now hop over there and read old writings and maybe even comment. :P
    UPDATE 11:33PM: NaNoWriMo novel pages are up! :)
  • About Me – This is not new, but I put up some subpages there too. I still have to revise these pages just because I want to.

I also put up links to my (yet to be updated again) online portfolio and Godchicks, of course. =)

Can I just say I really enjoyed all the webdesign/programming things I’ve done since last week? Ahhh. I love it! I remember this is the main reason why I took up Computer Science in college. :-B Now if only I could really apply it in the real world, as in do this for a living. Now that would be fun. :D

Updates

New version, new layout

Because I had nothing else better to do tonight, plus I spent the entire day working on this, I decided to upload the new layout and upgrade to WordPress 2.1. Yay. Unfortunately, there are still some things I have to upgrade in this layout and change for the new WP version, which will have to wait until tomorrow because it’s late and I have two birhday greetings to do and I have to sleep.

But in the meantime, enjoy this very…pink layout. This might stay a while, as long as I don’t get sick of it. :P Some things are still kind of confusing me (like where did my next and previous links go??? never mind, I found it), and I hope I could fix them all by tomorrow. If not, I’ll try to get them all done this week. :D

Anyway, it’s bed time. I have to say that WP 2.1 looks spiffy. :P But like I said, it’s bed time. Good night everyone!

P.S. I know! Go drop by Godchicks while I fix this! :) Go on, click!

Updates

Testing, testing, hello? Check, 1, 2…

Hello, hello? Is this new layout all ready and all?

I think? HAHA, YES! I finally made a new layout! :) Isn’t it spiffy? All colorful and cheerful and all? Because of my current unemployment status, I’ve decided to get on and make a new layout for my website because I was getting sick at looking at all the greens. Now it’s all rainbow-y and colorful and I love it! It’s been two years since I made a rainbow-y layout and I like this one better than the first one. :P

Anyway, this is my first time to really make a WordPress theme from scratch (the previous layout was based on Kubrick), and if you see some bugs, please don’t hesitate to tell me all about it. I still have to update some content to match the new layout, so if you see some traces of the past, wait a bit and I’ll have it renewed later. :) Hopefully I’ll be able to update everything tonight. :) I updated the content already and I think they all look spiffy. If I happen to miss anything, please tell me. :) And I’d have to note the update I did at the domain section, I added a longer and more detailed description of this layout. Go see. :D

So…tell me what you think! :) I’ll try to churn out some new layouts faster this time and OH YEAH! I have some more sites up my sleeve this time, so hold on tight and watch for changes and additions to refineme.org! :)

Have a rainbow-y day, everyone! :)

Updates

Writer's Block

Oh yeah, update! I updated some of the content of the RefineMe.org. :) Look up there at the menu under the header graphic. :) I’m not yet done writing the About section, but the Faith and Writings are already done. I still have some more additions in the Writings sections that I have yet to add, plus I need to figure out a hack that would let excerpts show in the link. Haha. Anyway, I’d really appreciate comments any of the stories I posted. :)

I believe in the power of positive prophecy. And because of that, I will write it down here for anyone who cares enough to read this to know: Sometime in the near future, I will write and publish a book.

Amen.

Sweet Valley Kids (image courtesy of readingwell.com)The first writer I got introduced to is Elizabeth Wakefield. Yes, Elizabeth Wakefield of Sweet Valley fame. I know she’s not a real writer, but reading so much about her during my childhood years influenced me to want to be a writer. I loved their stories so much and I was so amused that Elizabeth could already write stories when she was seven that I thought, I could do that too.

And I tried to do it. I think I started writing stories when I was in Grade 3. I can’t remember what my first story was about exactly, but most of my stories then were about a group of friends who got into different adventures and mis-adventures — I thank Francine Pascal and Sweet Valley for that. :p The first real series I made was about a group of friends named Sarah Springfield, Carmella Churnichan, Jericho Villa, Patrick Grange, Veronica and Ericka, I think. I can’t remember the names of the rest. They were a group of friends who all live in Ireland and formed some kind of club and whatnot. They have this awesome clubhouse that my friends and I can only dream about, as well as love teams: Jericho and Sarah (my favorite) and Carmella and Patrick. I knew that their group got bigger and there were even French twins where one of them was psychic and the last solid story I remembered about them was that they were investigating in a haunted house (against the warnings of their group’s resident psychic) in their town where a vampire was supposed to live. Sarah got hypnotized by the vampire and eventually became one, and Jericho had to do something about it or else Sarah would be gone from him forever. He ends up killing Sarah the vampire and then he wakes up, realizing it was only a dream.

Boring huh.

Continue reading Writer's Block →

Updates

Hello world!

Testing, testing? Is this working already? All systems go?

Welcome to the brand new RefineMe.org! As you can see, I have put up a new layout (and my very first WordPress theme), and I started with a brand new (and empty) database. Why is that so? Besides the fact that I don’t think people read my archives (haha, bitter much?), I just want to start anew. :) Start fresh, start from scratch. I’m here to write more meaningful posts because I’m supposed to be mature like that. :P But one of the reasons lie along that line too.

Anyway, so this layout is obviously themed after my college graduation (YES, that’s me on the picture and not my nonexistent sister). The words on the header image are from Joy Williams‘ song entitled Say Goodbye from the album Genesis. I thought it was just appropriate for this current stage in my life, plus I really like the song, so there you go. The layout is mostly green because I’ll be graduating from this university and I thought it would be just proper to honor my alma mater by using the school colors. :)

Anyway, for now only the blog will be available since I am still in the process of re-writing the contents of the site. They will be available in the next few days so hang tight. :)

In the meantime, I’d really appreciate comments about the new layout and perhaps with the content as well, if you want say something about it too. If there are any weird things you see in the layout, then feel free to post a comment so I may fix it immediately.

There you go. Thank you for visiting the site and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you until I get tired of doing so. Haha. God bless everyone! :)