The Construct

Just last week, I decided to click on that link on my WordPress dashboard that tells me there’s a new version out and I can upgrade it if I want to.

Upgrading WordPress has been seamless ever since they integrated that auto-updater function so I just decided to click it and upgrade my installation to WP 2.9.

After a few days, I realized that I was not receiving any of the automated backups that I configured to be sent to my e-mail everyday.

First, I thought it was a conflict with one of the plug-ins. Noticed that my XML-Sitemap plug-in was in perpertual re-build mode. Rebuilt my sitemap and still the cron job wasn’t working. Then I eventually reverted to the modern day Ernie Baron – Google – for some answers. Found out it was really a bug with 2.9 among others.

Here’s how to fix them.

I really don’t schedule posts but if you happen to use the scheduler, and running on 2.9, you better apply the bug fix or your post won’t get posted as they should.

I hear 2.9.1′s already in beta so I think we can all expect that upgrade to come out.

Oh boy. When I do get into a spending streak, I tend to get on a roll. I’m proud though that my number-crunching has kept my spending still below my monthly earnings. There’s probably only a few people who could beat my compulsion when it comes to monitoring finances. My savings per month aren’t just as high as in previous months though.

It only sucks since I am really liable to GAS. I’m not a real techie but when I buy tech, I want to get the best buck per bang machine that fits my purposes. With the configuration of technology today, it’s pretty hard to get a gadget that hits all of those.

I’ve been really wracking my brain on my next important purchase – my next rig. I’m now playing the semantic game calling the purchase “important” rather than “big.” At least that way, I . I’m really compelled to get a development PC but I’m still split between a new laptop or a desktop.

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The span of April to June mark the biggest spending months that I’ve had for the past couple of years. A couple of years ago, I emptied my accounts for our mom’s funeral. Last year, it was that short beach vacation. This year, it’s the house and the furniture.

When I look back at my major expenses, nothing among them come out as sound profitable investments. Funerals are ritualistic. I had a blast at the beach with Team Sugoi, upping my morale just before another academic year. This house is more of a geographical Prozac so the reward’s more psychological than financial. That means that nothing among my biggest expenses actually helped get the money I spent back. And this year, I need the money.

Perhaps this is a wake up call that I really need to stop spending. Not that I spend on a whim since I hate spending. I do need to rebuild my emergency fund after spending most of it on the advance rent and deposit on this place. However, looking again at my short term and medium term goals, there are still a few things that might need me to shell out just a few more bucks.

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This morning has got to be one of the better days of this year. Some aspects of my ego. Team Sugoi got invited to the MSI-ECS Product Demo day at their Libis office and by jeebus, it was fun! The demo day was organized by a friend and I got invited as a blogger (for Sugoi Stuff and Bloggy Network). It’s basically a day of freely testing new products from brands that they manage. Sure, they might not let you take them home, but who passes on a chance to toy with new tech?

[Shamless plug: For the detailed reviews of the products, just wait for them over at Sugoi Stuff. We're just sorting out a few things with our web host so that might take around five days or so for us to get to post our takes on several of the products.]

Quite exciting to get a hands-on preview of what’s hitting the market. I’m particularly eying the new Lenovo Y430 as my new laptop. Unfortunately, it might take me six months to be able to scrounge enough cash to even consider buying one. Seeing the new Genius and Ozaki speakers had me GASing as well. I particularly like the Ozaki WoW 2.2 channel speaker. And the new Samsung LCD monitors! Oooh… GAS!!!

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Finally, after three months, my laptop is fixed and fully functional. It was around February when I noticed that my laptop’s hinges were shot. The ASUS service center was happy to assist me then but I had to wait for parts. So they just got my details and ordered the parts for me from Taiwan. My laptop is still under warranty so all I had to do was wait for the parts and for them to replace them.

The whole process should have just taken 1 month but ASUS Taiwan was uber slow in shipping parts here. And since mine was a factory defect common to all A8 models, there were a bunch of us waiting for the same damn parts. I can’t blame the service center since they’ve been awfully nice in calling me up to update me on the status of the shipment.

Last week, they called me up to inform me that the parts have arrived. Unfortunately, their Megamall space was under renovation and I had to wait for this week before I could drop by. I didn’t want to go to their Shaw office or their Makati service center since both are practically out of the way.

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