Nevergirl's

Okay, going slightly mad here. A dotcom is a lot of work. It’s almost as – if not more – demanding than wrangling a huge toddler into a lilliputian city select stroller. One, it doesn’t run on its own. Two, you have to feed it lots of plugins, widgets, and codes and most of them, dear God, entail the use of ftp.

The only good thing out of this is that my learning curve has improved immensely. That, and the ability to perform basic computer-related functions (think typing and mouse-clicking) while lying down with buttocks propped by two fat pillows. No, no, I am not a contortionist. The pillow-propping is done for a good reason and not because I’m masochistic that way. But I digress. As I was saying, running my own dotcom has improved my learning curve by leaps and bounds. I now know that a widget is not a variant of the word midget and that plugins neither have sockets nor do they actually require physical plug-in into one. I can now download themes and upload them to filezilla, never mind that the only directory I feel brave enough to touch is wp-content, nothing else.

Still, there’s still so much to do. I haven’t figured out how to track blog stats. Iris, that tech geek who has successfully duped people into thinking she’s a bimbo, suggested I use google analytics. But goshdarned it, I cannot figure out where to embed my codes!

This is frustrating. I’ll go play Simply Smashing with the little girl now. Catching plates and getting scolded by a mustached rabbit over the ones I break beats babysitting a dotcom.

Only one thing stands between world domination and me: me. Seriously.

The basic material for greatness is genetically hotwired into each of us. And on a daily basis, we make choices that prime us for greater things or destine us for failure. This morning, for example, I woke up bright-eyed and eager to get a lot of writing and editing done. Sure, I’ve to do it in bed, with my butt propped with pillows, and using the tiniest laptop this side of the equator. But who’s nitpicking? I’m so bored with this stay-home arrangement I would leap at any chance to work, even though it’s online. I might even do it strapped to a chair with a yo yo!

The problem with having Internet connection, however, is that no matter how slow it crawls, it gets in the way. I got stuck the whole morning reading stories on entrepreneurial success. Yes, these stories are inspiring and yes, they’re a fun read; but three hours and aching eyes down the line, they did nothing for my productivity. This is my cross when it comes to writing and research. I get so engrossed with the research part it takes me forever to hunker down and actually write. Once, Iris asked me to write an article on Investment Grade Wines. It took me hours to finish even though the actual writing took less than 30 minutes. I became so fascinated with IGWs and their returns on investment I actually checked if the calculations posted online were accurate!

I need a social life. I need decent conversation. I should stop making this blog a surrogate for human contact. I may not be allowed to go out and walk about but I sure as hell could make use of that thing they call Gmail.

Must. buy. discipline. and. get. a. life plan.

The Korean bigwigs over at the think-tank often grumble about the Internet connection this side of the world. “Everything in Korea load at one go,” they would gripe each time they’re forced to wait an eternity for a page to load. “Here, everything slow. Everything time out.”

For once, I find myself in complete agreement with the Koreans. All connections here, regardless of provider and plan (yes, you can’t tell me it’s the plan because I have a 1mb plan but only get to use 200kbps), suck vacuum cleaners. Every time I try to check my mail, chat over YM, or blog, I’ve to count up to a hundred at the least, shuffle my feet fifty times, and say the alphabet backwards before I get some semblance of a connection.

It’s horrible how much money Globe is making off us. We pay PhP 1,250 monthly for service we need but seldom get to use. Thankfully, the husband’s pretty conscientious about calling the billing department’s attention. He keeps detailed logs of our actual Internet speed and then asks for their equivalent in rebates. These customer representatives being the louts that they are, they promise us rebates but don’t actually reflect these in our statements. It would take at least three more months and countless more phone calls before the rebate actually shows up on our billings. Yes, justice delayed is justice denied; but when it comes to getting rebates from Globe, the husband’s mantra has always been “better late than never.”

Not surprisingly, for a firm that provides such sloppy service, Globe’s awfully diligent about collecting payment. They always collect on time. In fact, if we so much as delay payment by a day, we get one of those automated messages that remind us our payment ‘s past due. How thoughtful! Clearly, their system can be efficient but as is becoming apparent by the many hate blogs I’ve stumbled across, they’re only efficient when it’s to their benefit.

Shame.