But anyway ladies and gentlemen, it is my tremendous pleasure to announce – the fifth anniversary of James-Chow.com! YAY!

Yes, it’s already been 5 years!

I wouldn’t say that I didn’t expect my blog to survive this long. I have always committed myself to maintaining this website as a personal diary of the important events that I’ve gone through… but STILL – this is great milestone to be celebrated!

It all began in the first month of my first year in university – June 2006 – when I finally registered the domain name – James-Chow.com. 

It was more of a fun experiment back then. A housemate of mine and I had been doing some simple websites and hosting a forum board back in my foundation year (2005), to cater to an online game private server that was hosted on my computer.

The administration of this forum board gave me the inspiration and know-how to create a blog of my own and before I know it… it’s five years old now! *teary eyes*  

Let’s look forward to lasting another memorable five years.

OMG!!

OMG!!!

James-Chow.com is THREE YEARS OLD!!

YES!!! On June 21, 2009, James-Chow.com officially turns three!!

Isn’t it incredible?

I’ve been writing on this blog for this many years now, it feels like she will follow me my entire life! It feels like 50 years later I will be sitting on the old armchair with my long, white beard in my long-retired 70s and still blog with a laptop!

For the record, James-Chow.com was created on June 21, 2006, but my blog posts began in December, that’s because I spent the six months’ time designing the blog template and stuff!

So, which is the birth date of a baby? The day she learns how to speak, or the day she was born? Of course the day she was born! Hehe!

**********

A little about campus…

The first week in the first trimester of my fourth year in university has been really, really tiring me out.

In fact, my schedule has actually brought about a great, unprecedented change in my lifestyle:

For the first time in my entire university life, I am sleeping and waking up at ‘normal’ times (i.e. roughly 12PM – 8AM) daily, voluntarily, consistently and naturally!

No big deal? OF COURSE IT’S A BIG DEAL!!

Previously, my early-sleep-early-wakes had been either involuntary (like exam tomorrow morning), inconsistent (only maybe two days a month), or unnatural (achieved by unnatural means such as relaxants, two days before didn’t sleep etc.)

I’ve always felt that college is the final period of your life to live whatever ‘abnormal’ life you want, because right out of college, you’ll never get to do it anymore without incurring the wrath of either your boss or your wallet.

Anyway, it hasn’t been too bad sleeping and waking up early too! I get to breathe in fresh air every morning and have a proper breakfast (wow, when was the last time I did both of that? Form 5?), not having to dread 8AM classes and rush home desperately to sleep after attending them, and most of all – I get to see a lot of sunlight!

Previously, I was awake for more dark hours than bright hours, now it’s the other way round! Yay!

Sigh, I guess it is also necessary for me to start adjusting back to normal, because I have less than one year before I begin my internship and have to start working – unless I plan to work as a night-shift security guard or something…

And the greatest downside of all the adjustments and busyness is that I do not have time at all for James-Chow.com, at least for this week!

Poor blog!

That means that my scheduled completion date for the renovation works on my blog has to be delayed by three weeks, but I’ll make sure it’ll be no longer than that…

My poor blog must be so angry with me as I am typing this right now on its page. The new renovated version of James-Chow.com was supposed to be her 3rd birthday present by me! And now it has to be delayed!

OMG forgive me milady…

… to my dear friends who have chatted with me on the ‘live chat’ box on the left side of the page:

There may not be a large number of these special people like you, but thank you for chatting and sharing with me your opinions, offering advices, or simply talking about something that I have written.

… I really enjoy replying you guys!

But, lately, I found that our conversations on the chat box are not permanent – when they reach the bottom end of the box, they will be deleted forever – and there is no way to get them back…

I really want your words to be here forever – they mean a lot to me.

I want it when I look back at this blog many years from now, when we are all working adults and maybe not contacting each other anymore – I still want to see and remember every single word you guys have said to me, and have encouraged me in my life this far.

Because of that,

I have transferred all of the things that you guys have written (those related to a particular story that I’ve written) into the ‘comments’ section of that entry.

That way, it is much more easier for me to reply to you, because I have more control over the ‘comments’ section, compared to using the chat box!

… And what’s more – things written in the ‘comments’ section are never deleted by the system – kept there forever!

Dear friends, this is what I wish to ask of you – if it is possible, please leave the things that you wish to say (that are related to something that I have written in an entry) in the ‘comments’ section of each entry.

For the things that are not related to any of the entries, something that you simply want to chat about – you can leave them in the chat box!

I hope you guys know this – the things that YOU say about my entries, about the things that I’ve written about my life – they are very important to me.

… one of the main reasons that I created this website (as I have written in the ‘about me‘ page) is, after all, to communicate and interact with my friends!

Let me tell you a small ’secret’ – honestly, everytime someone writes something encouraging in the ‘comments’ section of any of my blog entries, I really feel very happy and warm… And I would secretly, but sincerely, thank that person in my heart… I really do!

I promise I would reply to them – every single sentence that you wrote to me on this website. If I didn’t reply to something that you’ve written, I would personally send you a message!

That’s it… Thanks to all of you!

**********

Assignment submission later… The time now (when I’m writing this) is 6.08AM and I still haven’t slept yet… Zzz….

I’ll update tomorrow after the submission…

Yup, I know it is unprofessional of me to capture my own reflection on the side window, but I only had one chance to take the photo, right? If I stood there for too long, who knows what would happen? The car might turn out to be a car bomb and explode!

Right, Al-Qaeda’s official car is a Perodua Kancil. So much for being one of the most famous international terrorist organizations…

Well, maybe it’s because Kancil’s are cheap! Then the cost for each car bombing would be less! Very cost-efficient!

Haha, spotted the car in Puchong, yesterday. Funny dude to label his car like that!

**********

*Ahem*… Now for an official James-Chow.com announcement!

Two months ago, I was contacted by MYNIC, the official company in-charged of all the website names that end with “.my“, such as ‘www.tm.net.my’ or ‘www.thestar.com.my’.

They told me that being the owner of a “.com.my” domain (in my case www.james.com.my), I was eligible to an early ‘priority’ registration for their new “.my” domains. Previously, there was no such thing as ‘www.abc.my‘ or ‘www.james.my‘, as there was only www.abc.org.my or www.james.com.my.

Don’t ask me why is was like that, it’s the government’s policy.

But now, the government has changed the policy and are opening ‘.my’ domain names to the public in March! So I was given the opportunity to register for my own ‘.my’ domain name three months before its official launching in March!

For those of you who are asking why don’t I just register after the official launch… The answer is this: When officially launched, the ‘.my’ domain name is going to be an “unrestricted” domain name – meaning any person or entity in Malaysia, and later – the world, could register for it; very unlike the ‘.com.my’ case, which is restricted to business and organizational entities only.

In the simplest terms – A common name such as “james” would be registered by someone else on the very day or even minutes after its official launch. Just like what happened to the “.com” names!

Yes, there are people or ‘investors’ who register hundreds of common names such as “alvin”, “money” or “happy” just to resell them to people who want them for more than 10 – 100 times the original price in the future! Believe it!

…

OKOK, I know you’re totally bored reading all this. So here’s the announcement!

Starting today, you can access my website using “www.james.my“! A much shorter name! YAY!

Of course, you can still access it with any of the following:

“www.james-chow.com”

“www.james.com.my”

and… “www.james.my”

I still dunno what to do with the last two domains so they all go to a welcome page that links to my main site, hehe…

HARAP MAKLUM! Thank you!

**********

A bit about myself…

Huhu… I’m very insanely busy with the new trimester this week... Loads of stuff to do including my change-of-major process… Yes, it’s still not done yet… Haha…

There’s really a lot of other great things that has happened and I really wish to write about them one by one. But, for now I really don’t have the time, just for these few days… After this week I think I’ll be much more settled-down for the new trimester.

I’ll have more updates soon, you have my word!

P.S. Actually it’s not really a ‘new’ trimester, it’s already week 4. But thanks to our Chinese New Year sticking in week 2, so week 1 and 3 don’t really count!

it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure, that I present to you…

*drum roll*

www.James.com.my !

Woohoo! *cheers*

I’ve been looking for an alternative domain name ever since I discovered the extremely annoying JamesDashChow issue and was determined to prevent my friends from ending up in someone else’s website instead of mine!

But then, .com domain names on the internet are so grossly used up that you practically have to come up with an irritatingly long or wierd name to avoid having your registration be rejected…

By ‘long or wierd names’ I mean names like www.jameswhateverchow.com or www.blahblahjames.com or something like that. And those, are not excellent names at all!

The ideal names are short, concise, and descriptive. The best names are those that are really short and can be easily related to the contents of the site.

So you’ll never see big companies like BMW (www.bmw.com) or KFC (www.kfc.com) having websites like www.bmwgroupautomobiles.com or www.kentuckyfriedchickenitsfingerlickingood.com!

In short, the shorter your domain name, the better it is. People can remember it much more easily!

Of course, www.James.com would be the best option for me, but without the slightest doubt, it is already taken – there are just too many James(s) in this world, way tooooo many! And buying a domain name that is already owned by someone else would cost you up to tens of thousands of dollars, if not millions! Huhu…

Luckily, Malaysia controls and limits the registration of its .com.my domain names to organisations with registered presence in Malaysia only, such as companies or businesses. This greatly reduced the amount of domain names that are taken, and I’ve luckily secured my own name. Yay!

Just to clarify, www.James-Chow.com will still remain as my main website’s URL. On the other hand, www.James.com.my will serve as a portal that redirects back to www.James-Chow.com, this solved my JamesDashChow problem because www.james.com.my is (I think) unmistakably easy to remember! Hehe…

Anyway, something really annoying happened though:

My www.James.com.my domain name was registered on the 4th of Jun. And you know what? Exactly 2 days after my registration was processed (and money paid), the company that registered my domain name offered a bloody 50% discount on all .com.my domain name registrations in conjunction with our nation’s 50th independence day!

AARRGGHHHH!

That is so unfair! Why do I always get the feeling that fate is always against me?! *sob*

Have you wondered why I’m using James-Chow.com (with the dash in the middle) instead of JamesChow.com as my domain name?

Actually I REALLY wanted to register JamesChow.com as my domain name because instead of simply saying that my website is at “James Chow dot com,” I have to

“Hey, my website is www dot James DASH Chow dot com, remember the dash in the middle ya!”

Which is very long and annoying to say

But there’s nothing I could do… If you google search for “james chow” you get a movie guy James Chow, a doctor James Chow, an author James Chow and many other MEs!!!

Simply go to www.JamesChow.com (without the dash) and you’ll even wonder what the hell that page’s for… But no doubt the guy has his reasons. Sigh…

Of course some of you might say I can use other TLDs like .org, .net, .biz and so on, but guess what? Even JamesChow.net and JamesChow.org are registered to someone else leh!

So the remaining ones are .biz, .name, .info and the rest. In this case, I would rather stick to the “Hey, my website is www dot James DASH Chow dot com, remember the dash in the middle ya!” than having to say:

———

“Hey my website is at www dot James Chow dot biz.”

“Dot what ah?”

“James Chow dot biz, biz stands for business loh.”

“Huh… ? Dot bis? Got such thing meh, never heard before la!”

“Got lah, actually there is such a thing. “*swt*

“It’s not a real website hor?”

“Of course it is, I just gave you a URL, didn’t I? ”

“Eh I thought websites ends with .com 1?

“Err… Not necessarily 1, actually…”

“Ok, I will go back and see see la!”

———

… And then he/she goes back and types www.jameschow.bis… =.=” Which doesn’t exist at all!

Actually this may really happen because I know a few friends who really think that websites only end with .com!

But maybe I should be happy with my www.James-Chow.com ler, cuz it’s quite easy to remember and identifies myself accurately! Not bad also mah… Just that next time…

Remember the DASH in the middle ya!”

James-Chow.com was SILENT for more than 1 month!! What really happened??

It’s a long long story, but I guess I should explain a bit about what actually happened.

At the end of February, one of my other websites had an error. That was due to an accidental PHP script misconfiguration , or simply put, I accidentally screwed up part of that website. Woops…

I, not being an IT student nor a person with any specialized IT education before, tried to fix it myself. And the problem became more and more severe… (Hey, I tried to fix some codes before, and they worked… Those times!)

AARRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

The error was so serious that in the end I had to rebuild the whole website and reinstall the programs that were in it. (But thank God the database was not seriously affected and was recoverable). I know you experienced webmasters out there will be saying that I should have just restored the site using the backup, but guess what? I screwed up the backup copy as well!

What? Cannot meh? =p

After most components of my websites were restored (although some of them are still under construction today), my friend was telling me that my website was so damn slow, saying stuff like loading pictures take years la, how our University’s website is 100 times faster than mine la, and basically browsing through my site makes him old la, or something…

I tried to explain that my hosting server was in the U.S., so of course accessing it might be a bit slower compared to locally hosted sites that are mostly housed in MSC Cyberjaya, which is like less than 3KM away from my University, but he countered me with stuff like “Yahoo also US company la, Google also, why they so fast 1″?

So after that incident, I decided that I should once-and-for-all upgrade my websites to a better, faster, and more reliable host, to hell with the economy factor, I guess it’s always worth to trade cash for connection speed! After all, that’s what Streamyx is all about, right? Everybody is willing to pay MORE just to move FASTER!

So the rest of the month was wasted on finding and comparing new webhosting companies, signing up and settling payments, transfering files and exporting databases, configuring and personalizing the new server account, resetting-up all the websites and components within, testing and fixing bugs, and all the while trying to cope with the never-ending sea of assignments, tests, reports, and stuff from my course. =( *huh huh*

I didn’t dare to post anything up before I was sure that the website is completely stable because I didn’t want to risk posting anything and get deleted anymore! Had a really bad experience already, don’t wanna repeat it!

So now you have it, 2 days after April Fool’s day, my newly improved website! And it is surely as hell worth the money and effort! At least now the connection speed is (I think) almost as fast as Yahoo and Google, and with less downtime too! Yay!

So that’s what really happened during the last month. Really sad. A lot of things happened last month but I couldn’t blog about them because of this problem. Our University even got ourselves another name on the Malaysian Book of Records AND Guinness World Records for making the World’s longest Kebab! The Kebab was 2.016 Kilometres long! Wow!

Anyway, I will try to keep this website updated from this day onwards. It’s going to be a long month ahead of me, because this is the final trimester of this academic year and next month I’m gonna have my final exams! I need your support, visit this site often and it’ll be really encouraging to me! =)=)

But anyway… Here you have it lah!

I’m not a professional web designer nor a professional blogger, so I guess what you’ll see in my website now and onwards would be just plain and ordinary stuff, just like those in any other blog or personal website you can find on the internet, or probably a lot worse! But yeah, sure… I will improve myself and hopefully in the future this site will become a better, or even better than better, site! =)

So, emm, basically this site is just a place for me to record my experiences, as well as to communicate with my friends, typical!. Well of course it’s also for my own entertainment; because to be able to write, post, upload, spam, vandalize, or do whatever I like with something that is my very own property is quite entertaining, or at least that’s what I find to be…

So, whether or not I know you personally as a friend, do check out this site time to time. And emm, if you happen to know how to type using a keyboard, do leave some comments, okay?=) Come on! That’ll be one of the greatest support and motivation you can give me on this site. Thanks!