A.P.P.L.E

WordPress 2.8 has been released yesterday. This blog was running on 2.7, so there’s an “automatic upgrade” feature available. I love this feature very much as it really facilitates all the upgrading tasks. 2.7 is given the name Coltrane. And “Baker” is given to the lastest version.

So for I haven’t really go through all the new features, but some outstanding changes are:

• Interface (I like the blue theme, in the new release, the theme looks slightly dark, not as bright as before)
• Widgets navigation changes
• Theme / Plugin editor more “programming friendly”

According to WordPress official blog, there are 180 new features and changes in Baker.

Are you a WordPress user?

Have you upgraded your blog to WordPress 2.8?

Download the lastest WordPress version here.

Few days ago, I noticed that MyBlogLog members for this blog has reached 100. It has been 99 for quite some time. Sometimes, people just joined and not long later, left the community.

Although this number is nothing to be boostful about, I just wanna thank all of you who joined my community in MyBlogLog. This is very motivating and it encourages me to keep on blogging. I ever thought of giving up blogging especially when I’m getting more and more busy with my recent life.

Don’t have to be surprised. Starting a blog is easy but to maintain and keep it alive is really hard for a part time blogger who need to stay in the office for 9 hours for 6 days a week. I tried my best to blog frequently starting from January 2009. You can look back at my archives and you will notice that there’s some “improvement” for the number of posts written in a month, comparing to the previous months.

I’m also looking for guest blogger who can help to write an article or two in Blogging For Novice. That blog hasn’t been updated for 2 months already! Please let me know if you are interested in becoming a guest blogger for my blog.

By the way, I would also like to know what type of post do you, my dear readers, love to read more. I know most people enjoy my food posts. Any other genre which can catch your attention? Do let me know. ^_^

If you have some PageRank checker embedded in your Internet browser, you should have realized that A.P.P.L.E has gained back its Google PageRank, or PR in short!!! Wohooooo~ It’s the greatest thing that happen to my blog this year! My blog had been suffering from PR penalty since the first Google PR update early this year which is around January. I lost my PR after I started doing paid post from advertisers like Smorty and Blogvertise.

Some of you still may not know what is this PageRank about. You can read it here.  In simple words, it’s an art of building back links to your blog / website. It’s a ranking system or judgment from the big G about the importance of your page. When the big G dislike you, penalty will be given. The big G seems to monopolize the Internet market, so they dislike those who do paid post or involve in selling links.

Since my blog get penalized by Google and suffered a PR 0 for nearly 8 months, the previously mentioned advertisers ASSIGNED ME TASKS NO MORE. I served their ads and get paid, yet when I lost my PR, they “dumped” me (my blog). I strongly believe this blog has its quality by looking at the responses from my dear readers, yes, you. (thank you) It’s not because my blog is full of crap just that Google didn’t like those sponsored contents.

I’ve been thinking of fighting and grab back this blog’s PR. And finally on the 14th November, it got its ranking back to 3! Thanks G! Got your PR penalized? Wanna fix this prob? Continue to read how to overcome this issue. Read more…

Like the post title suggested, this is what I feel lately. I spend 9 hours a day in the office, 2 hours in Orange’s place, that left 13 hours for me. Deduct 7 hours of sleeping time, I left 6 hours. After changing my job, I go to bed around 12am and normally wake up at 7 or 8am. I don’t even have time for my blogs! I miss out so many great posts from those blogs that I’ve subscribed to. I don’t have the time to communicate with my friends from the blogosphere like I used to.

So, in order to make me feel better (with my blogs), I wake up around 6am to do something with my blogs and community. My friend asked me “Is blogging that important for you?” Yes, it’s addictive. Or perhaps I have put in so much effort in the blogosphere which makes me feel that this is the place to express myself, to be myself. And not to forget, my plan of gaining some extra income.

I used to spend a lot of time in blogging during my previous working hour, because most of the time I’d be free and I was provided with a good Internet connection and a good performance computer. Now everything changed. My office computer sucks like hell. I can hardly do anything with the “Ice Age” computer. Not to say surf net, just by doing office job with the @#$!@#$%@#$% computer already can kill my patience and makes me feel like sleeping… Read more…

Last month, I received an email about some sort of interview. I was busy adjusting myself with my working life and my blogging life. It took me quite long before I could answer the questionnaire given in my inbox. (Sorry Gabey, for the delay) Gabey is one of the staff from Malay Mail, one of the local press, who is in charge of the “Blogspot” section.

It’s really an honor to be cyber spotted by Gabey and thus I get a chance to be featured in Malay Mail, hardcopy and virtually. You can read the online version here.

Gabey is so kind to send me a copy of the printed version. Click on the image below to view the original size.

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This is my second time being interviewed by the local press via my blog. Read more…