Marvin's Place

After a few months of inactivity and being offline, Marvin’s Place is now back online.

Currently hosted at byethost.com, I am planning to keep this blog alive, possibly start writing on something interesting. Currently, there are no ads from byethost and hopefully there will be none (I am the one who placed the ads you are seeing on the right, hopefully will earn a little on through that).

Unfortunately, I lost some of the pictures that were used in some of my posts so they won’t have the photos there. Hopefully, I’d be able to retrieve them from my former host.

Got to start writing.. Cheers!

a moment of stress in which a person breaks down or a situation becomes critical

wikipedia

Though I haven’t yet reached that “exact” situation, my condition right now, for me, is unbearable.

Almost nobody knew about my current (emotional) situation (except partly my wife). And by making this post, I am making my situation known (if they will be reading this blog).

The Job

Yup, this is one of the main reasons of my “dilemma”. Ever since I moved (or forcibly moved) to sales, my urge to work diminished. I hate sales. When I was transferred, I told myself and some colleagues that my days are numbered. Fortunately, I was able to endure for more than a year (thanks to the help of my managers). However, lately, the papers came flowing. My Father-in-law died and my wife got sick and I wasn’t able to come to work for almost half a month September and October. And that totally pulled down my performance. I was given papers for attendance and performance (wherein attendance is already part of performance – double jeopardy for me).

I was able to get a perfect attendance last month (November). However, my stats still failed. I was required to get 100% attainment (meat ALL my goals). That was like from bottom you have to be the no. 1 agent (since only a VERY few reaches 100%.

And since I wasn’t able to meet the goal (but I moved from the bottom quartile up to the third quartile) I have two weeks to meet the goals we have for this month (divided for the two weeks of course). Unfortunately, I was absent since last Wednesday up till Tuesday. So there is no chance for me to meet the goals. My only hope is if they will lower the goals for last month and my stats would move up the upper 50%. Honestly, I doubt it. Unfortunately, my boss seems to have no plans on salvaging me.

So what’s causing me to break? Well, I have a high chance of losing my job. We’re currently renting a house, paying for utilities (electricity, water, phone and internet) and my wife is also studying (taking up units in education) and it’s close to Christmas.

I was thinking that if I lose my job, I’ll jumpstart the business I want, a computer shop at my home place. I already made some calculations. And based on the current trend there (only 2 shops currently existing on a large community), the business is still feasible. Of course there will be extra services like desktop publishing, computer repair, school supplies and some other perks.

I am planning this for a long time already, keeping an eye on current business flow, equipment prices. The only thing I don’t have is capital.

I tried asking someone if I could borrow/loan money from them. Unfortunately, their funds are all in their business also. I am thinking of having at least 60,000 pesos ($1500) to jump start that business. It is small. But as for my initial computations, that would be enough (no need to pay for rent, this will be in our house; no need to pay for technicians, I can do that; no need to pay for carpentry, my father’s a carpenter). So basically, all I really need to buy are the computers (including networking stuff) and tables.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the money to start. I worked in a call center (people expect us to have ‘good salaries’. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to handle our finances properly. Now, I am struck on how irresponsible’ we’ve been with our money. It is hard to admit. But that is the truth. No savings. Nothing. We were able to buy some stuff but not much (we bought a high end printer that can be used for the business; unfortunately, it is a sleeping investment as of now).

Honestly, I am daydreaming that someone would lend me that money I need (extreme daydream that someone would actually ‘give’ me the money. But reality is reality.

Currently, I don’t know what will happen. I just hope that if my superiors will kick me out of the company, they do this after Christmas.

I haven’t yet talked to my wife regarding this. We actually haven’t prayed together for a long time (and I do feel the result). I am planning to discuss the current situation to her ASAP. She already knew a bit, but not how ’severe’ the situation is.

I am asking for your prayers. We need strength. I am baffled. My mind is spinning and my heart is pounding. Sometimes, I just want to bang my head on the wall. But I know this will end. However, I am on the breaking point and I need some support.

May God’s will be done.

You might have heard it, you might have experienced it, or you might be a victim of this calamity. We are asking for your help and assistance for the victims of this flooding caused by Typhoon Ondoy.

Please send your donations via the following:

Monetary Donations

1. Bank Donations

2. Credit Card/PayPal Donations

• GMA Kapuso Foundation
• ABS-CBN Foundation
• Philippine Aid

3. SMS Donations

We also need your prayer.

I redesigned the website of the Alumni Association of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary – Philippines, the PTS-Alumni Online (http://pts-alumni.info). After talking to the original person (Ptr. Rei Eusebio)who created the site (through Liza, current secretary of the association), I was given permission to change the design.

Which is which?

The original site was a forum website. So I was thinking and experimenting with different CMS to do the job. However, I decided that this site shouldn’t only be a “forum” site but an interactive site that can host articles, announcements, and forum discussions. I tried SMF but was stumbled by the complexity (for a beginners) to create articles. Same goes for phpBB. I tried Joomla! but also faced the hindrance of back end management and looking for a forum plugin was hard (since SMF already stopped supporting the SMF-Joomla! bridge due to license issues). There is a release called Kunena but it required a good hosting that I can’t meet. And I fell to my favorite CSM, Wordpress.

Forum in Wordpress.

Since I am already familiar with Wordpress, I decided using this for the site. Setting up was no problem, but integrating a forum gave me a bit of headache (it’s not that it can’t be done, but because I was so noob I forgot some basics – php limitations). At first, I tried looking for a way to integrate different forums to wordpress. It’s either the bridge failed, not supported or I just don’t like the way it looked.

I then discovered Simple:Press. A wordpress plugin that will give you a, what else, forum. At first try, installation failed. But after asking Simple:Press support forums, I was told to adjust memory limit on my php (server), and if I can’t do it (like in my case), I can disable some plugins (which I did). Nothing much on the forum yet since the site hasn’t yet been promoted that much.

The “Theme”.

Another big puzzle in my mind was the theme of the website (design). I want to create my own theme, but I am only beginning to learn and was not successful on all of the attempts I made (still needs practice). I looked for free themes and tested it with the forums. Some are too narrow, some doesn’t support widgets, etc.. I encountered the theme that is currently used on the website (credit goes to jauhari.net). I edited the theme to suite the intent of the site (adjusted footer, column width for forum, etc.). It was my first time to dig that deep into the “codes” and I was very happy I was able to do it.

There are still a lot of tweaking to be done on the theme. But I’ll do it slowly and when I get more info from the Association.

The Webhost.

One of the biggest part of the website is the webhost (server where all the files are, etc.). Fortunately, a colleague whom I helped on her thesis (a website also) has an abandoned web space from msweb networks (a Philippine based web hosting company, where I registered my domain, marvincruz.com) that she used for her thesis. She is not using it anymore and doesn’t have a plan to use it. I asked her if I can use it and she said yes (thanks Apple Vasquez). I will renew the subscription on the hosting since I already moved one of my blog (sundayschooldirector.co.cc) there.

Lesson Learned.

I learned a lot of things on this “project”.

• Get a good hosting service (I tried it on some free hosting services but it failed). I attempted to use my space here at driphost, but I am reserving the last domain available for another blog.
• Get a good internet connection. I tried setting up the website at home (and my net is a headache), and everything just screws up. I sneaked the setup in the office (during avail time).
• Research, read, read, read, read, read,… you’ll learn lot of things through reading.
• Don’t be shy to ask for support in the forums… they are there to help..
• Be imaginative/creative… that’s where my struggle is during and currently on the design…. go to be more imaginative.
• Ask for feedback.

There are still a lot of things to do on that website. I hope people would post their feedbacks on the forum.

BTW, that website is open for all Alumni, students, former and current faculty and staff and Pastors of the Presbyterian Theological Seminary – Philippines.

Some screen shot of the website:

The website can be accessed at: http://pts-alumni.info

PTS-Alumni - Front Page

PTS-Alumni Online - Forums

PTS-Alumni Online - Forums

After not making a blog after a month, I finally was able to post (lol). There are reasons I wasn’t able to blog the last month.

• Blogger’s block
• Bad net connection at home.
• Wordpress corrupted when I upgraded from 2.7 to 2.8

I have already fixed the third reason. I saved my posts (via dashboard>tools>export) and wiped out the wordpress install on my server and made a clean install of wordpress 2.8.

Internet connection at home is still bad. But I will be applying for a DSL connection tomorrow (I am currently using a fixed wireless, HSDPA, but only works in GPRS).

The first reason is my biggest stumbling block. But I am currently making a blog plan. I will also revive my Sunday School Director Blog that was also corrupted when I upgraded to 2.8.

I have a lot of things to catch up on (including our church website), and I hope my net at home will be fixed ASAP.

My title is a bit exagerated. But somehow there is a truth on it. This is an experience of Nhatz, a Linux user and an instructor in AMA CLC in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan when he faced robbers and was stabbed 3 times. But let’s see how Linux saved (somehow) his life.

This is a rephrase of his story as posted at the Ubuntu Forums Philippine LoCo (here).

May 9, 2009 evening, Nhatz was walking on way to home (his motorcycle was borrowed by his brother), he crossed with 3 men who, without warning, stabbed him before declaring a “hold up” (Filipino slang for declaring robbery). He was able to catch one of the fatal strike by his hand. He was stabbed at his side (mild cut) but he went down. When he was trying to get up, he was stabbed by one of the robbers at the back. This is the part where he was thankful for Linux. He was wearing a bag and inside it is his book “Linux Administration for Beginners”. The knife hit that book and the knife didn’t wounded him that much. He was robbed but he survived and is currently recovering from his wounds.

I remember movies that has the same scenario. Being shot but the bullet will hit a medallion or something and it will save his life. Well. as for Nhatz’ case, he was saved (,,, somehow) by that book.

Times are getting tough.

I have successfully transferred my blog to a new host. After a long time staying on my previous host. I decided to move to a different webhost provider. It’s not that my previous host is “horrible”, they actually has good service and fast response for trouble tickets, but there are some reasons I am forced to leave them:

• can’t use .htaccess – I am not an expert on this but I I have set some security settings on my blog using .htaccess
• connection to external servers are not allowed – which hinders me from automatically updating wordpress core, plugins, and connection to akismet (which resulted me to moderate all comments, that contains hundreds of spam).
• some restriction on server settings that is crucial on protecting wordpress (specially from spams)

My new home for this blog is DripHost. They offer good hosting for a good price (though I won’t elaborate on that). I am just happy that I was able to find a good hosting provider that has most of my needs. Now, I can let akismet do the job for the spams.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Last April 24 to 25, our church held an overnight children’s camp in our church. I was one of the coordinators (since I am the head of Christian Education). Most of the time I was standing up. I felt a lot of stress on my leg and feet, but it didn’t bother me (no pain).

Second day of the camp, we had a morning run, and I wasn’t able to catch up with them. I was with no run for so many years, that a short jog made me catch my breath. At the church the same morning, I played skip rope with the kids. I was able to make a lot of skips. But that’s the time I felt my right knee and right foot a bit sore. I stopped and everything went on.

Evening, still at the church, finishing some materials that will be used in tomorrows awarding ceremony (kids already left for home, it was Saturday), I felt pain on my right knee and right ankle. But I was so tired I didn’t mind it. Sunday morning came and we did the awarding during the church service. Afternoon,me and my wife took a nap. Upon waking up, that’s the time I felt more pain, not on my right side, but on my left foot. I thought It was just because of the skip rope. Monday, around 3 am, I was awaken by a tremendous pain on my left foot. It was so painful that I am actually growling (that woke up my wife). The last time I felt that pain, also on the same foot, was when I worked (just for one day) on a chiken meat processing plant (I was assigned to the freezer, pushing stacks of cart filled with chicken meat). It took me almost an hour before I was able to sleep again (my lack of sleep due to my work might have overcome that pain). At around 7 am, I woke up again, growling in pain. I tried to stand but I can’t stand the pain on my left foot once I press it on the floor. I walk skipping and using only the toe on my left foot.

The whole day passed with the same pain. I took some pain reliever (that relieved “some” of the pain) but its effect was short. I wasn’t able to go to work that night due to the pain and the fact that I can’t walk. The pain was persistent for two days. By tuesday morning, the pain subsides but I can’t still walk. I was absent for three days at work.

I went to the doctor and the suspect was (mild) gouty arthritis. I am overweight by almost 30 kls. My blood pressure was high (140 / 100). My uric acid is almost above normal. I was told to go on diet.

Gouty arthritis refers to a form of arthritis caused by deposits of needle-like crystals of uric acid.

I am only 25 years old and I already feel a lot of pain in my body. I should have taken care of my health before it was already hard to control.

The pain on my foot had already subsided, but there are still stings on both of them, maybe due to the gout.

http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc

After a long time of inactivity, I was able to rebuild our Church’s website. I first made interest on making a website for our Church due to possible contacts from foreign sponsors. Also, some of our members are abroad, and our main denomination, Presbyterian Church of the Philippines, is scattered all over the country. Having a website, we will be able to bring them news, latest events, projects, prayer concerns, etc., and communication will be easier.

What’s new:

• First, new domain name. Previously, we are using a long subdomain under freehostia. In search for a free domain, I was able to find co.cc. They offer free domain (depending on the actual domain). You can manage name server settings and others. And it is not just a subdomain, cause it is actually recognized by search engines. After testing a few domains, I came up with lpcgumaoc (the only one that was free). lpcgumaoc stands for Liberty Presbyterian Church Gumaoc (the barangay of village). Other combination gave me a yearly price. And since we’re (I am) on a tight budget (there is actually no budget for this), I chose the free domain. So the new domain is http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc. Someone commented that it is hard to remember, but I don’t think so. Well, maybe in the future, I would switch to a .com or .org domain (if money permits). For now, we’ll stay with the .co.cc.

• Second is a new webhosting. My previous webhost is great. They have fast response, good speed and goo plan (free of course). But since it is free, there are a lot of restrictions on the hosting. I can’t connect to external servers. Meaning automatic upgrades (for wordpress and its plugins) are disabled, and this is very critical. I can’t connect to the Akismet server (which helps a lot with spam protection). I was able to find a new host at http://driphost.com. They’re offers are great. And there are very little restrictions even on free accounts. Though they told me that free accounts will have, in the future, banners (unlike on my previous host which is bannerless), I was offered a free upgrade for no additional cost. Maybe in the future, once the site has already built up, I might take advantage of the offer, maybe just request to remove the banner. I really hope that they’ll be stable. Ever since I used their servers, I only experienced one downtime that lasted for around 1 minute

• Third is a new look. On the previous site, it is blog style. Now I am using a simple, clean, magazine style template from theme hybrid. My initial plan was to create my own theme. But due to my status as wordpress user (noob), I opted to search for a free (of course) good theme. I was able to find the hybrid news theme. I set it up. Found it hard to configure at the beginning. But once I was able to get a hang of it, I was able to set it up properly.

Some of the stuffs that I haven’t yet placed are:

• Articles for the past activities in our church.
• Informative about page (beliefs, history, etc.).
• Church staff info page.
• Change the colors (if I would be able to learn how).
• Move to a .com or .org domain (I pray someone will donate, cheers! but might stick with this)
• Some other stuff that might come to my mind.

Me and my pastor is hoping that it will serve as a communication between members afar, members of the denomination, and potential sponsors (specially for Children’s Ministry).

So please do visit the Liberty Presbyterian Church Website at http://lpcgumaoc.co.cc

I consider this website as my first project (production website). There are still a lot of things that I have to learn. The good thing is, I am learning.

On with the learning.

Soli Deo Gloria.