CHONGLAND

I read (or at least used to) this Tumblr (an artsy type blogging platform) by Rachel Manchester, I guess I’d class her as an acquaintance…. Someone I’ve seen and know of, have communicated with, but not actually met. This was one of her last posts before going on hiatus:

LIFE DETOX: FOUR WEEKS.

things in life i need to discipline:
- computer/internet use
- compulsive iphone checking
- bedtime
- quiet times
- morning times
- school planning work
- eating well
- exercise
- money
- being outdoors

balance:
per day
- can check facebook three times per day (including phone check)
- can spend maximum one hour online (total)
- no tumblr
- must go to bed before 10:30pm unless out
- only three nights out a week
- prayer and praise on the way to school
- quiet times as soon as home from school (unless circumstantial)
- out of bed at 5:50am every morning
- eat breakfast at home
- stay back at school for at least an hour to mark and plan each afternoon
- free periods at school scheduled
- to do lists realistic and completed
- three meals a day. 2L water a day.
- at least one outdoor activity per day (no excuses)
- three instances of exercise per week
- money transferred for london trip within 24 hours of pay
- no extras bought between now and july
- read a book a week

It looks like a great plan of action to make some changes in ones life. I’m keen to take a leaf or two out of her book and work on a few disciplines as well. Here’s the disciplinary list:

• bedtime
• morning times
• quiet times
• prayer
• eating well
• screen time
• home cleanliness & service
• site maintenance, creativity
• physical wellbeing
• money

And the action/reactions:

• bed by 10:15 (unless out)
• up at 5:15am
• 1st devotional bible reading after shower
• breakfast before train
• prayer session on train
• 3rd devotional bible reading when home
• 4th devotional bible reading before bed
• exercise knee daily
• weights 3 times a week
• file things away, throw things away
• bi weekly site updates at a minimum
• minimum weekly photo shoots
• three meals a day. 2L water a day.
• budget & stick to it. Pay off loan asap

Looks like a sturdy list of things to do. Keep up on telling me if I’m dropping the ball, ask me how I’m going etc etc.
Are there any things you need to go about changing in your life?? Got a standard plan of action?? How’s that workin out for you?

I was delighted to see that visual voicemail had finally made its way down-under today as reported by Gizmodo and officially at Vodafone, a fairly big plus for purchasing the iPhone.

But this is a bittersweet discovery, at least for the moment (I hope), since prior to my iPhone purchase, I was a Vodafone user. I made a switch over to Optus when the pricing showed them as a better option in pricing at the time – bundled features etc etc. Overall the changeover wasn’t too bad. I have noticed that Optus coverage in my area ( Pennant Hills) is poor. On average I get 2 bars of reception and little to no 3G reception at all. This means that phone calls are patchy and drop out quite a bit and data transmission is very poor – 0.03 Mbps compared to 1.84Mbps when on 3G in Sydney Metro.

Come on Optus, lift your game, get this visual voicemail and improve the reception in my area!!!

A few changes afoot on CHONGLAND, most notably on the main site with a theme change. This is something that is in progress and updating per acceptable version….

I decided that I’d like (yet another) re-theme. Certain elements were a target, but as I thought about it more and more it became apparent that I wanted to change more and more… Some words of wisdom from Sam ‘Rusty’ Russell [one half of The Fountainside and the first featured guest on The Pilgrims Podcast by Mark Earngey of seeing in a mirror dimly and Stephen Gardner of All Things New] encouraged me to update in small increments rather than putting off the whole change till EVERYTHING I wanted to implement was done.

So what’s changed??

• Search function located in the top right hand corner
• Login panel in the header. Features a few easy links for logged in users
• RSS subscription link in the header as well
• Full posts now show only on the individual posts page. Front page is more of a summary
• Tidied up the meta data for posts
• Played around with the footer information. A few new widgets. More changes to come here.

Now I have the arduous task of going through old posts to re-categorise and tag them. Should be an interesting trip down memory lane….

So what do you think?? Is there anything I could do to improve these changes, or is there anything else you’d like to see?? Do you miss the comment counter or the photos?