As is my habit, I will test it here for a few days before going on and updating the other sites. Which of course would be a completely useless test if I don't write on it, so here I am. Writing. Ok, let's do some highlights as to what's going on, bullet point style (my favorite):

• Super sick but ok again. - Actually I've been worse, but Thu to Sat last week I felt like I was in outer space from a super head cold that completely knocked me out. I've figured out I got it from playing Tekken on the PS2 with my sick nephew. Trading game consoles with a sick kid transferred the virus. Coupled with low energy from sleeping late all the time I was out cold for two days with difficulty of breath, constant dry cough and the worst - pain from seemingly every joint in my body. I'm completely ok now - don't worry my legions of fans, and am actually quite raring to go.

• It's KE's 2nd Bday today. Wrote a longish piece re how I felt about it, which was like a status report of how things are. Hope people get excited about KE 2.0, coming soon, but MomEx first.
• PLUG is going to join it's first IT event after, I dunno, half a decade? Longer maybe? I organized it, which is to say, I said yes to the organizer's ex-deal proposal, and announced it on the mailing list. I have high hopes for PLUG, and am hoping the event will serve as a rallying point, a step towards bigger things. I have already indicated however, the limited involvement I can provide, which looks like its even more limited granted the increasing number of activities I will be undertaking for Kikay as December approaches. I imagine however, that the same is the case for most of us eager to help, and I'm convinced if we all do our little parts good things will happen. As is applicable to most anything, actually.
• MomEx will be working on a joint project with another website plus a sponsor for a series of events, and the schedule's gonna be tight. There's a web project in there as well that I wanna take on because, well, I want it done right - and frankly, just sourcing it out to some webdev kid, talented or otherwise, but sans a stake into whether what we'll do will be a success or not is most likely not gonna cut it, really. I should know, I understand that process a lot. I'm gonna be upbeat about that and see to it things'll work out nicely for all of us.
• There are soooo many things that are gonna happen for KE. I really dunno where to start. No, I mean, seriously. I need to get a list going and try to get a grasp of priorities. A lot of people want a piece of the site and the fact that it's the last quarter push for 2008 means I'm being asked to send proposals and discuss this or that. I'm raring to go but really, I gotta be prepared before I even open my mouth or go to a meeting. I have to make sure we don't miss out on anything and respond to anyone who's shown even mild interest. The last thing I want is for the period to pass without closing down at least one or two deals and start kicking myself later for forgetting to respond to a query. I hear my ex-boss's voice in my head when these things happen, sarcastically asking me if I tell myself I've 'too much money already, thank you!', and hence would not act on new opportunities. The man, as I said in a previous post, chases opportunities down like a ravenous wolf with its eye on a rabbit, pursuing each like its last meal. Well if there's anything I've learned running my own biz, that analogy isn't too far from the truth. Each deal may very well be your last. It's entirely up to you to figure out if you're eating well tonight, or hugging your pillow tight to drown out your empty stomach's growl. That's the way of the world and frankly, it's the way I like it. There really isn't two ways about it. Knowing that the world isn't kind to lazy asses, and conversely, merits the sedulous cuts the bullcrap and puts things in the right perspective, as well as challenges me.

Hmm what else. That's it for now I guess. Mostly I'm just glad I'm not sick anymore. This happens maybe once a year or every two years, and while it sucked I knew I'd had worse, so I pretty much just babied myself and slept it out my system.

Today was a nice day, bright and sunny, and I got a bit of work done as well. Writing about KE's 2nd Bday helped focus me on what I needed to work on plus why I was doing what I was doing in the first place. Again, reminiscing about another old boss helps. When I told him my decision to leave to do what I do, he said, without being a downer (proper Englishman that he was), about the challenges that I faced in the highly competitive field I was going into.

To which I said, that after all that was said and done, I cannot not do it.

He looked at me and asked me to repeat what I said, and I was glad because I wanted it to be clear. I said:

I cannot NOT do it.

Of course he got it. He nodded his head vigorously, I presume to be at comprehension of what I was trying to say, and comprehension of why, regardless of challenges, that I needed to do what I do. I cannot see myself not doing it. It is just something that needs be done.

He then grunted his appreciation and shook my hand, thanked me for helping him out. Right now I feel like the way I did when I left his business, ready to work on my own.

Except this time, I'm smarter.

Here's a screenshot of Aug. 30's mysql issues. WordPress serves that up when it can't connect to the db. I emailed Rimuhosting about it and they figured out I was having issues with one of my favorite WordPress plugins called Counterize, which allowed me to produce those interesting stats at the footer of KikayEx which says 'x number of visitors visited today, xx number the past 7 days. xxx number total since forever, and so on...'. We activated an option on mysql to produce a 'mysql-slow.log' which lists down all the mysql queries that take more than 2 seconds to complete. The results were stunning, as Counterize apparently had queries that take as long as 20 seconds, and at a given morning (not even a whole day), there were 40 queries already. Here's how it looked:

/usr/sbin/mysqld, Version: 5.0.22-Debian_0ubuntu6.06.3-log. started with:
Tcp port: 3306 Unix socket: /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Time Id Command Argument
# Time: 070904 6:30:17
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 12 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57768 Rows_examined: 690442
use kikaydb;
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:30:20
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57768 Rows_examined: 690444
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:30:23
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57768 Rows_examined: 690445
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:09
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 19 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690450
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:16
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 20 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690452
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:22
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 28 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690451
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:23
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 33 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690450
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:25
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 21 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690453
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 6:32:28
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 14 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57769 Rows_examined: 690454
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:41:52
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 16 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57775 Rows_examined: 690535
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:41:55
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 22 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57775 Rows_examined: 690535
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:41:56
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 25 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57775 Rows_examined: 690533
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:41:58
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 21 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57775 Rows_examined: 690535
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:42:01
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 28 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57775 Rows_examined: 690535
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 7:42:06
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 1 Rows_examined: 632760
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM wp_Counterize WHERE timestamp >= '2007-09-04' AND IP = '58.71.15.98';
# Time: 070904 7:57:52
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 13 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690554
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:09:36
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690563
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:10:29
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690565
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:10:32
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 13 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690565
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:12:59
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 19 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690569
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:13:02
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 17 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690570
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:13:05
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 23 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690570
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:19:28
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 11 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690579
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:19:35
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 17 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690579
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;
# Time: 070904 8:19:36
# User@Host: kikay[kikay] @ localhost []
# Query_time: 15 Lock_time: 0 Rows_sent: 57776 Rows_examined: 690580
SELECT DISTINCT referer FROM wp_Counterize;

At any rate, I got rid of the inefficient Counterize and replaced it with Firestats, which still provided me an interesting footer (you can check it out at the bottom area of KE), but certainly not as entertaining. I still haven't done the same with BallEx and MomEx as of today, so if you wanna see how it originally looked you can check the sidebar of each and compare it.

Firestats was a great improvement and didn't take as much of a mysql hit, so I basically got my cake and ate it too. Well, at least for another two weeks till today. This is because the site speeded up so much better that hits exponentially increased, bringing Kikay to an almost 50% increase in readership, almost 600 unique hits a day. While that's big, BallEx regularly hits 800 unique hits a day, but has less pageviews than Kikay. Kikay's unique hits + pageviews means that people go to it and 'leaf' through its pages, meaning they hang around a lot to read everything.

So as soon as the mysql inefficiency was fixed, I was now running out of RAM just from serving up pages. I had only 3 services running, namely Apache, Mysql and Named, which we quickly turned off since it was useless. I have a total of 4 WordPress sites plus 2 phpbb installations, and didn't even have email so I could save from installing spamassasin which I knew was a mysql hog. 484mb was apparently not enough. Here's a screenshot of it at 9am, which again happens at approximately 5pm later in the day.

Keep in mind the fact that I probably should do things like remove Counterize from the rest of the sites and find other inefficiences, but doing so requires a lot of time and effort which I'd rather spend on, say, more profitable ventures like trying to get Kikay Shop to earn more. Besides while I'm sure the WordPress Plugins are the ones that are giving me pain, I like the sites the way they are and really dont wanna remove any of them. For example, I really liked Counterize, and if I hadn't found Firestats I figured I'd rather take a mysql hit than remove it.

Rimu has replied with three things I could do. First, install a php caching app called eaccelerator. As of today, this has already been done. Another is to tweak mysql. I really don't have time to do that I think. I'll read through it a bit and if its something I can finish in an hour maybe I will, but I doubt it. The last thing is to move to a different webserver, and they recommended lighttpd or nginx, of which I think lighttpd seems to have a better user base. Lighttpd also happens to be the one used by Youtube, so that's definitely a good word for it as well.

Of course, I understand changing one's webserver midstream is like changing your house's foundation while still living in it. But at the same time I need to act like the boss here and insist it get done no matter how hard it is. Rimu has, like all good geeks will do, implemented the changes piecemeal, starting with eaccelerator. But I've already told them I want lighttpd as well, and am asking how much for them to do it. I don't wanna meddle in the details anymore, a big difference from what I'd have done in the past. A year ago I'd probably be all geeky and installing these on a spare server already just to get a feel of it, and maybe attempt to do it myself. But I'm over that now. I NEED KIKAY EXCHANGE TO GO FASTER. There is nothing more important than my sites loading properly like they should. At the moment, 600 kikays aren't happy, and so therefore I am unhappy as well.

At any rate, these changes, I assume, will probably be good enough to improve the site to handle approximately 500 more unique hits. Any more than that, and I dunno what else to do because I really dont wanna spend any more money on RAM. At that point, I probably need to start looking into managed hosting, or, like Migs said, shared hosting, but I'm assuming the costs to be astronomical. That's fine really, as long as there's business to back it up.

Sigh. Need to get things done fast.

Please catch her talk about her projects Next9.org, Babywearing, natural parenting, the diapers she sells and maternity wear. Oh and about Mom Exchange too, if she manages to fit that in.

Break A Leg JEN!!!

Justclickphotos.com (aka Click) make great photobooks at a very affordable prices. You can give these precious items as gifts from your children to their grandparents! They also make calendars, cards, gift certificates, photo bags and posters.

In time for Mother’s Day March 13, 2007, Click in cooperation with Mom.Exchange.Ph is giving away THREE PhP100 gift certificates to those who can send in their BEST - est Mom’s Day photos! Send the pictures by email to jencctan@gmail.com and put “MomEx CLICK PROMO” as your email’s subject. Please also include your name and contact number.

Sure that may not be a lot, but considering blogposts can range from only a few words to 500+ words max (preferably with non-copyrighted or permission granted pics), that's easy money right there. I am looking to fill up at least 2 to 3 new posts this way every week.

However a word to the wise : If you are looking to make a lot of dough, or intend this to be your main source of income, I'm afraid we may not have the same expectations and risk ending up disappointed. But if you love sharing your mom or mom - related stories and issues, make a few friends along the way, plus make some cash, then we are on the same page, so let's do this.

If not, please help spread this around to those who apply. Many, many thanks.