December 5, 2011

Top 10 Wishes For Christmas

Dominique Thoughts Monday Listicles, tuesday top ten

I have never been big on writing up a list for Christmas. I’m blessed to have received many items on my Christmas wishlist already.

#1 ) A brand new Asus Laptop

I’ve wanted one since my 4 yr old Acer laptop suddenly died on me last week. R generously sponsored me one as my Christmas present. Thank you!! *muak!!*

#2) OPI Mini nail polish.

I really love the colours in this set and managed to find this set on offer in the department store.

#3) Mother and daughter matching T-shirts.

I managed to find this cute Toy Story bear T-shirts while out doing Christmas shopping last week.

#4) Matching Father and Son’s T-shirts

The boys wearing their Buzz Lightyear T-shirt in their favourite colours.

Daddy wearing a matching Buzz Lightyear T-shirt with the boys. If you look closely there is also bear picture on it so it does “match” Tiger girl’s T-shirt too.

#5) Good health for the whole family.

It has been really tiring and energy sapping taking care of sick kids. It’s much worse when you the parent falls ill too. I’m lucky that the I haven’t fallen seriously ill this year as it would be catherstropic coping with the kids and R’s hectic flying schedule. I’m hoping that everyone would stay in the pink of health all of 2012.

#6) Get back to my ideal weight

Scale model © by Brett Jordan

I’m really wishing and hoping to get back to 55kg before Tiger girl turns 18mths old. (4 months from now to shed that 8kg). I really need more discipline and determination as my weight has been stuck at 64kg since July this year.

#7) The kids to be well behaved

I guess that this would be on every parent’s wish list. For the kids to stop bickering all the time. Shouting and yelling at each other and having to play referee when sibling rivalry acts up. If only they can play nice all the time.

#8) To have a steady source of income working from home.

I’m really hoping to be able to learn the ropes and become a WAHM by the time my NPL is up. I don’t fancy returning back to my job as a teacher as I would not be able to give my 3 kids the best care and attention that they need during their growing up years.

#9) Time to spend brushing up on my photography skills

I’m still in two minds on whether to get a Canon or Nikon DSLR camera. I do have a semi-pro Sony Cybershot which I’m still learning how to use properly. I guess when I do get to earn enough money online for a camera then I’ll decide what to purchase. Meanwhile I still need to figure out how to use the controls like Apeture, Shutter speed etc.

#10) Love and Happiness to all

All the money in the world means nothing if one does not have the love and happiness of friends and family.

What are you wishes this Christmas?

Top Ten {Tuesday}

November 14, 2011

10 ways to Back Up Your Blog

Dominique Recommendations, Thoughts Monday Listicles, tuesday top ten

I have been thinking about how to preserve the memories which I have recorded down here in this blog. It would be tragic if all the effort chronologically recording down the kids developments/achievements, my thoughts and sharing disappears into thin air due to hacking or some electronic malfunction.

Here are 10 ways which one can back up your blog.

If you are having a self hosted wordpress blog you can do the following

1. WP Instant Backup Plugin

I am using this plugin with this blog and it gives me the option of having a database plugin, file system backup or a full system backup to my server.

2. Subscribe 2 Plugin
I started using this plugin and subscribe to my own blog after realising that not all posts that have been publish gets to my e-mail via feedburner. Even though I have subscribed to my own blog via e-mail in feedburner I only get like 1 out of 4 of the post made per week in my inbox. After using this plugin whatever post I do I get an e-mail with a copy of the blog post immediately after I press the button ” Publish”

However if you are on blogger or wordpress.com you can still do the following

3. Export all Posts/Tables/Pictures/Pages

I do this and save the exported file on my PC as from experience it is the easiest way to reboot your blog with all the blog posts /pages and pictures intact if your blog does crash on you.

4. Dropbox

It is an online storage system which can be sync with your PC . You get 2 GB free with a basic account. If necessary you can upgrade to 50GB or 100GB account if needed. I use it to store a copy of the the xml files and backup of my blog.

5. External Hard Disk

A copy of my blog’s database and files are stored in my 1TD together with the photos that I have taken with my camera. This is a safeguard measure in the even the hard disk on my computer crashes due to a virus attack.
6. Blog to Book

Publish your blog as a book using Blurb or any other blog to book services. I do know of a friend who turns her blog into hardcopy annuals.

7. Blog to Photobook

If you are just keen on preserving the photos on your blog you can publish them as a photobook. I have been recently creating photobooks of the kids so that they have some hard copy memories to cherish. The photobooks also make it easier to share the milestones that the kids have achieved with friends and relatives during parties or other festive occassions.

8. Add your blog into your Google Reader

I do subscribe to this blog by adding it to my Google reader. I read most of the blogs I subscribe to this way.

9. Use Full Feed instead of partial feed

I know some of you may disagree with me on this due to scraping of content by thieves and getting people to click through on your blog itself.

10 My SQL via Cpanel

If you are running a wordpress blog you can use the 1-click SQL database back up via PHP Admin when you log into your server.

Top Ten {Tuesday}