Now that I own a smartphone with broadband capabilities, blogging from anywhere and at anytime should be a cinch.

Shouldn’t it?

And yet, this is the second time that I’ve missed my blogging deadline for the PostAWeek challenge.

So here I am, sitting and having my favorite lunch of toast and milk tea (with fried noodles and fish cakes to go), putting my best effort to contemplate where I have gone wrong.

Toast and Tea for lunch

I can give you a million and one reasons why I can’t keep up. Work, home, kids, the Top Commentators widget, distraction, lack of focus, etc. But they are all just excuses.

One thing I clearly am with this challenge is feeling frustrated. I checked my Google Analytics recently and found that my blog readership and bounce rate did not improve; in fact, it got worse.

What?! Even after the hoopla I made about PostADay / PostAWeek, and tweeting about it and joining the Facebook PostADay community? I would think things would be a little different.

Then I remembered my post on how my lack of blog updates led to better visitor retention. And, also the fact that blogging through this WordPress app for Windows Phone is ridiculously tougher than my geek self would like to admit, is making me think twice about my strategy.

So now what? Do I focus on organic traffic by just posting sporadically, or do I post often to feed my blogging interest in the expense of worsening search engine results?

I’ll think about this later.

BTW, here are some blog posts from WebGrrrl.net readers who are taking on the PostAWeek 2011 challenge:

• My history with Unix by LaViaP The Geek

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

I’m guilty of doing vanity searches of myself on occasion, purely out of curiosity. So far none of the results returned anything dramatic.

A few other people I personally know aren’t so fortunate. One person who’s close to me had a court order information in the top 3 results for the person’s name in Google. For Sabahans, you should be wary of any news coming out of The New Sabah Times (one of the most read dailies this side of Borneo). This paper is notorious for putting people’s bankruptcy notices and home foreclosures online. Imagine your long lost friend or your former schoolmate trying to find you on the Internet and then ended up seeing those type of info about you. Embarrassing, to say the least.

So what do you do if you want to hide those incriminating evidence out of the search engines? You do SEO. The easiest way to go by this is to register yourself using your full name in as many social networking sites as possible, and the more popular those social networks are, the better. That should help bury those little secrets way into the nether regions of your search result (gosh this sounds so dirty).

But the best way, really, to keep searches about you clean, is to not do any real life mistake as you possibly can. I’m not telling you to be Jesus or anything. I’m just saying that whatever that you wish to type online, make sure that it wouldn’t haunt you back or make a fool out of yourself (unless that’s what you’re aiming for, looking like a fool).

Seriousness aside, check out my first ever smartphone, the HTC HD7. I accidentally got this, because my better half couldn’t use it to run Meta Trader (I told him to get an Android phone, like Samsung Galaxy… in case I “accidentally” inherit that if MT doesn’t work on that as well). Loving the HTC phone, hating the Windows 7 Phone OS. At least let me use a customized MP3 song of my choice for my ringtone, for crap’s sake!

I’m jailbreaking this thing.

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

I am way behind schedule on the TCW update, I know (and thanks for reminding me, Konsti!). Yes, I’m actually done with the changes – 3 of them, in fact – and I am ready to put it up into TCW WordPress.org’s Extend at latest by tomorrow.

I got to be honest here. My delays are almost always (99.99% of the time) caused by two things – one: finding the time to do some coding, and two (a more embarrassing fact): I have little to zero clue how to use Subversion.

I know, right?! How could I, after more than three years developing TCW, still not get a handle of using it? More shameful is the fact that I’m a programmer by trade. Boo me.

It was suppose to be easy, this check-out, edit, commit, check-in thing. There’s a myriad of how-to posts specifically on using TortoiseSVN for WordPress.org. And I’m a programmer, for heaven’s sake! I should know code versioning!

The truth is, I’m a solo programmer and I don’t have to share my code with anyone. So all I needed to do was to create a new folder and dump my latest codes in there. That’s my versioning. Even if I did need to use versioning, it ‘ssuppose to be as easy as using Google Code.

So why is it that every time I tried to commit using Subversion, it Just Didn’t Work ™? I didn’t see the change in trunk to the latest version number. My changelog sometimes reflected the change in WP server, then suddenly I didn’t see it anymore. Went through the steps again, from1 to 10 (or 11, or 20… I lost count of the many how-to I followed).

After nothing seemed to work, I went off the beaten path, and tinkered those options out of frustration. Then suddenly, Eureka! It’s there in WP.org, my latest version of TCW in all its glory! My heart sings Hallelujah as I typed down what I’ve done the best I could, hopeful that whatever I’ve typed would become my next blog post on my stagnant WebGrrrl blog.

But alas. This problem feels like a nasty cycle of procrastination and/or forgetfulness and/or carelessness. Take your pick.

You’ve read my previous post on how “active” I was these past couple of years. So tonight, I shall once again go through the process of committing my latest Top Commentators widget update, typing those steps again into a draft post, crossing my fingers and hope that this time, that post won’t disappear into thin air and I’ll not only have the latest TCW up for you, but also my next Post Of The Week ready for primetime viewing.

BTW, here are some blog posts from WebGrrrl.net readers who are taking on the PostAWeek 2011 challenge:

• Like giving up on sex! by LaViaP The Geek

As I’m typing this post, I am sitting drinking milk tea and munching on crunchy toasted bread in my favourite cheap cafe. I have learned early on that it is a hopeless endeavour to try and blog at home. My kids would jump onto (and on) my lap, expecting me to open PlayHouseDisneyChannel-Asia.com (an address which even my 2-year old could memorize), play their favourite music video (right now they’re into Korean artists, either Wonder Girls’ “Tell Me” or 2PM’s “10 Points Out Of 10″), or something else, like going to the loo, getting them a glass of water, opening the packets of their favourite crackers, dinner, lunch, snacks… you know, the whole parental duties and other things that either make you sigh or pull your hair out.

Drinking tea and eating toast in this particular cafe actually helps me focus. Within two hours, I was able to finish three 1,000-word articles. And now I’m in the middle of finishing this blog post.

When I’m focused, it takes me another 15 to 30 minutes before my creative vibes kick in. The hustle and bustle of this cafe only adds to the excitement of completing my writing assignments (did you know that JK Rowling also prefers the cafe when writing her Harry Potter books? Coincidence? I think not! SHOW OFF!)

Now, programming is another thing, for some weird reason. My environment needs to be very quiet and office-like before I can totally commit to my coding. This is why my home office has to be very de-cluttered and bare-bones; I prefer just my netbook and wireless mouse in front of me — I don’t even need a PC. My WiFI printer/scanner/copier would be another thing sitting at the corner of the office. But even when no one is at home, my home office is one very distracting place. It’s too convenient for me to get a quick snack, or to run off to do my laundry (a one minute load-into-the-washer thing often turns into a 15-minute dry-hanging and folding of clothes to top it up), or do the dishes, or quickly make dinner 6 hours in advance. Or maybe just an hour of Oprah. Then an hour to catch up on House. Add another hour of Lie To Me.

You see that?

I really don’t know whether this is the state of mind I condition myself into, or that the environment is what shaped my mindset.

Distraction and focus is the main theme here, I guess. Whichever affects either or both of these will determine whether I can blog or write or finish whatever’s in my to-do list that day.

Do you have your favourite place to blog? Does blogging at home work for you?

BTW, here are some blog posts from WebGrrrl.net readers who are taking on the PostAWeek 2011 challenge:

• 1 ring to rule them all! by LaViaP The Geek

I know that the original challenge is intended for WordPress.com users, but, hey, it doesn’t hurt to join in the fun.

I’ve done a 30-day blog challenge before, so I know how difficult it can be for some of us to keep up. It’s not so much because we’re out of ideas, but rather the fact that we’re pretty much swarmed with so many other commitments in our life that they force you to put your blogging efforts in the back burner.

WebGrrrl.net is a perfect example of that. 2010 has been almost non-existent in terms of posts in this blog. As a comparison:

• 2006: 9 posts
• 2007: 88 posts
• 2008: 114 posts
• 2009: 37 posts
• 2010: 11 posts

Pathetic, isn’t it? As a result, my blog traffic suffered.

OK, so maybe I lied, a little — the traffic wasn’t that bad up until a month or two ago (proof of my SEO prowess *snorts*).

But that’s not the point.

The point is, I need to get my behind off the ground and actually blog again, if I were to live up to my lame tagline (no offence to Asimov).

Therefore, I’m taking the WordPress PostADay challenge, albeit in a slightly modified form. You do notice in that challenge that there’s a weekly version of it called PostAWeek? That’s the one I’m taking. Instead of one post a day, I’ll do a weekly post, type each one in 250 words or more, then tag each post as “postaweek2011″.

You should join me. It’s good for your blog’s SEO, and for sharpening your writing/typing skills.

Or how about this — let me give you an incentive. If you decide to join the WordPress weekly challenge with me, do what I do (post weekly, tag it, write in 250 words or more). Then, comment in my latest weekly post, add your latest weekly post URL in the comment form, and I’ll link back to your article in my next post. Instant PR3 backlink for you!

Deal? Then start typing!

Oh, and have a great 2011!