Blogging Paradox: Joomla & Stuff on My Mind

I've always had problems with beginnings--especially blog entries. Especially after it's been so long. Haven't died and come back, though you could say I have done just that. The absence was great in renewing myself, though I was around--busy in organisational meetings, and plenty of other meetings (and then some). Given my confusion, and it being a Friday, I thought I'd be a bit whimsical and start with a pretty face.

The pretty face is, of course, my girlfriend. She asked me to help teach her blogging the other day. I think we'd be too distracted if we started, so I'll have to re-think of a cunning strategy that will keep our hands off each other and onto the task at hand.

I exaggerate, of course.

Now that she's almost done with her exams in stenography, she's a lot happier than before, and she's doing a great deal of things she shouldn't be doing. She knows it will distract me, albeit in a welcome way. Still, I ought to give her a word about not looking at me so sexily and talking to me so sweetly. It just drives me to distraction.

Still, she's been giving me a lot of heat, too!

The other day, it was a few days of friction.

She was getting sleepless nights, getting all worried about my commitment to her. Commitment not that she does not believe I love her, but that I'm not showing the world how much she means to me.

It was great food-for-thought. It took me a few days to get the point, as I'm slow on those things. Thankfully, a work colleague who told me how great a couple we are and when the wedding bells were going to come said something that would prove to be a sweet irony: women need security and to show the world that you're not just in a relationship [for fun] but that you are serious about "protecting" them from anyone else. Ofcourse I paraphrase, but the essence is clear: I needed to show my significant other that to the world, she's mine;-)

For someone who abhors possessiveness, it was a bit of a shock, but I needed to bite the bullet. It's no marriage proposal, but just a wee something to let her know that that day will come, even if the folks have not yet seen her. It confirms to me also that I'm serious about her, and it strengthens, in turn, my resolve that I have sufficient confidence to "present" her to the folks.

Evidently, she was over-the-moon, and confessed to me that her sleepless nights are over. Still it's code-word for "don't be complacent", in my book.

The Novel
Speaking of which, I've bored everyone to death on this blog about that ever-elusive crime novel that's just almost written, but not quite. Thanks to my work with Sunday World as a columnist on Technology issues, I'm gaining the confidence to believe that I can transform what will be some 45-odd articles of around 1200 words on average into a book that can easily be published next year.

I frankly think it would be criminal not publishing next year. It would be five years since I established RegionsWatch--an initiative to look at global regional integration initiatives worldwide; and exactly a good 20 years since I started writing my journal! That means I have some -- actually, I do have some two boxes worth of journal writing. Great stuff for my future family to read I guess!;-)


Latest?
Well, remember that work colleague I have a crush on? Well, it's over! The crush is no more! I got to spend some time with her during the busier periods last two weeks at our conference. She has a great personality, but I saw some things offlate--including how very human she can be when she gets mad--which I didn't expect of her that have led me to believe that well, I was a major woos to have thought she was the epitome of quasi-perfection! Plus the fact that she seems to snub my girlfriend (as if she's jealous of her or something, donno!), which I don't take kindly to...

JOOMLA!! That's the brilliant content management system I was introduced to some four weeks ago, and for which I have used both official and private hours to build my capacity on to get a new re-design of the organisation's website that is just so inspiring to work around. I tell you I can spend hours manipulating the system, what with its complex layer of SECTIONS, CATEGORIES and MODULES that all make for a wonderful user experience once you get the hang of it!

In so many ways, my work with Joomla is like a reflection of my need, desire, and whatnot to categorise and section my own life in the sense that getting it right is tantamount to getting it right in my own life.

As long as I don't get sectioned myself, I'm a happier man, these days!