Ying and Niq’s Niche

I am proud to announce that Ying and Niq’s Niche is now self-hosted at Free Hostia running on WordPress 2.6.1. Since moving from Blogspot to Wordpress, I found that there are functions that I missed. Blogs at WordPress.com have several limitations – customizing themes, adding plug-ins and monetizing. All these are made available by self-hosting using the latest version. The development process was rather difficult without a step-by-step guide. The WordPress guides had many complicated steps. After successfully self-hosting our blog, it is in actual fact quite easy. One has to proceed systematically:

1. Create account with Free Hostia
2. Download WordPress zip file to your local drive
3. Upload WordPress zip file to Free Hostia (select unpack archive option)
4. Rename wp-config-sample.php to wp-config.php
5. Edit wp-config.php with your preferred database name, user name and password
6. Open install.php in wp-admin folder to install WordPress
7. Export your WordPress.com blog as .xml
8. Import your WordPress.com blog to your self-hosted blog.

Refer to http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress for more details (except for download and extract section). My main problem was uploading files. In the beginning I unzipped to local drive, then upload to web-host using FTP. FTP did not work well, with many files not successfully uploaded. There are many files involved, so it is difficult to trace which files have been uploaded and which ones have not. I gave up on FTP. Then there is the Elefante Scripts installer in Free Hostia with WordPress 2.5 available for installation. However this limits you to an older version of WordPress. Then I tried to upload the zip file and to extract within Free Hostia – it worked! I would have saved many days trying to upload files. Use the same way to upload themes and plug-ins. Free Hostia is not always reliable. Their server may be down sometimes but I can’t complain much about something that is free.

I bought myself a Spyder2express monitor calibrator on 9-Aug-08 from BH Photo, Nagore Road, Penang. It cost me RM350. Hope this will take away my worries of not getting the right color and exposure from prints.

Spyder2express Monitor Calibrator Kit

Spyder2express - what's in the box

We went to attend St. Anne’s Feast at Bukit Mertajam on 27-Jul-08. We attended Mass on Sunday 10:30am. On entering the church compound, I was shocked to see rubbish everywhere. I met a colleague with his wife and was surprised to know that he was Catholic too. I guess we seldom get to talk or get to know each other better. I also met a few friends from hometown Batu Gajah. The church was packed. Mom, Dad, Gor, Angie and Julian reached earlier and had seats. The Cry Room had been turned into a store room. So much for being baby-friendly. After Mass we had lunch at the canteen. Gabriel enjoyed playing at the fountain and got minor scalding for touching the corn steamer.

St Anne's Statue

I bought a hand-held pressure gauge from Jusco on 20-Jul-08. It costs less than RM5.00. All 4 tyres were having 42psi (290kPa). The recommended pressure for the 185 / 65 R 15 tyres is 35psi (240kPa). Since Ying had complained that the ride was bumpy, I adjusted the pressure to 36psi (250kPa). Driving below 80km/h was comfortable with no harsh bumps. We made a trip back to Ipoh on 2-Aug-08. Ying had no complaints, but I felt dizzy driving on the highway at 110km/h as the car felt like swaying and I had to use extra effort to control the steering. Before the return journey to Penang, I adjusted the pressure to 39psi (270kPa). The car did not sway and it was not very bumpy. On full capacity it is recommended to use 300kPa for the rear tyres. So I guess it is OK to use 270kPa in terms of safety.

Hand-held Pressure Gauge - It's like a pen that clips on your shirt pocket

Scale in 2psi increments

We managed to catch ‘The Dark Knight’ on 19-Jul-08 with my wife and Gabriel at Gurney Plaza, Penang. The movie was rated U in Malaysia. U for ‘umum’ i.e. for general viewing. On the other hand it’s rated PG-13 in the United States. I did a quick search on the cinema listings but did not check the US rating. Had I known, I would have thought twice to take my 2½-year-old son along. Anyway it’s Gabriel’s first movie on the big screen and we wanted him to experience it with a bang!

The action scenes were explosive and the sound was really solid. The Joker was a clear winner. He was successful in his tricks. He is more like the devil’s advocate. Heath Ledger gets my vote for a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker. Batman and the police were quite pathetic. But in the end the good guys win, as usual.

The movie played for 2hrs 30min. It was not surprising that Gabriel went for 3 toilet breaks. I was actually quite thankful for the breaks! Otherwise I will get numb bums. Haha!

Gabriel remembers the characters quite well especially the Joker. We have fun with role-play at home. Papa is usually the Joker.