Fitting in

Just when you think you have adapted, the world moves one step ahead.

Travelling 9000 miles around the globe, brought me to this place where I could seemingly be myself. A free country, they say. You see a great spectrum of people - faces, personalities, tenets, mindsets, colors. A diversity running from one end of the world to the other. Surely, I thought, I must fit in this continuum somewhere.

A stranger in a foreign land this time, is not going to make me a tourist. The unfortunate fact is that I am still being judged constantly. So, I did fit in - like a kink in the seams. Or a chip off a side of a piece in the jigsaw puzzle. In this world filled with stereotypes, extroverts and normal people, I am a controversy that stands to challenge them all.

I was taught from young, if you don't fit, you conform. But that's why I wanted this opportunity to come here. In the land where individuality counts.

But sometimes, fitting in is just so exhausting... It's like constantly fighting to wade upstream of a river. *argh*

Cersei Lannister

http://www.artofvfx.com/GOT/GOT_CONCEPT_A52_02.jpg

Reading is one thing. But watching all the characters come to life, another. It makes all my favorite characters more enchanting.

And then there are those I would love to slap right across the face. Even in the books.

Second episode, and already I feel like punching her. Gosh.... How in the world do these creatures come into existence.

Alas, they do walk the earth, like all of us.

Accessing the clusters using Private/Public Key pair in Ultraedit instead of password

1) Set up 'FTP Account Settings' and 'General' info as per normal: Account name, SFTP, Port, Username...

2) Go to tab 'SSH/SSL'

   - choose 'Public Key/SSL Certificate Only'

   - include the PRIVATE KEY path

3) Note that the Private and Public Keypair is generated exclusively. So for each public key present in the VM/server you provided for the administrator, you have to provide the unique private key.

4) Be sure the Private Key follows the PEM format.

ALL SET!!

Arthoscopy 15 days later

Last week

Today

There is a vast improvement, so hopefully this trend continues. The PT sessions work wonders really... So I must keep conscientious on my PT exercises. 

The only trouble I have this week is still walking up and down the stairs.

Health Insurance

This is my first time using services from US medical insurance. I have no idea that you have to call to authorize a referral before it can be approved.

*Cross my fingers... I hope I don't get charged more than I am supposed to ... Aaaargh.

Reading this, just exacerbated my worries.... I don't have that amount of money...
http://www.articlesbase.com/diseases-and-conditions-articles/my-meniscectomy-cost-a-lot-711385.html

Haze Hype!

Singapore PSI breached the 400 mark!

Gosh... It's as if the climate is not warm enough. Now there are tons of particles up in the air containing even more of that heat and humidity. Plus, there is the respiratory problems that the particulates and irritants can cause.

I do my friends and family are drinking lots of water and taking measures to take care of themselves as best as they can.

I read that the respirators can be kept for about 3 years, so I intend to buy some to bring back for my folks and my gf+her folks for the next 3 years at least. In case, things get depleted next year again, they still have some.

Anyway, found this site showing some of the uses of the different kinds of respirators:
http://www.luvmedical.com/3m_respirator.htm

It seems that they are ordered by their increasing capabilities.

Hopefully, people in Singapore are seeing clear skies and breathing better soon. Hang in there people!

Setting up the Apache server on Linux

A malfunction of the website of a tool that we developed inspired me to write this post to whomever may need to do this. This entry is not meant to be exhaustive but it's more of a practical guide to setting up the Apache when I was making the webpage.

1) set up the VM with the system admin. If you have VirtualBox before, this works somewhat like it.
-- be sure to ask for root access.

2) all website content is presented in /var/www/html/
-- put soft links into this folder to direct to other folders if required

3) to make content public on the WWW, we need the switch on the Apache HTTP server. Imagine the Apache as a middle man between your console and the WWW, it 'advertises' your content on the WWW.

Use the following command:
$sudo \/sbin\/service httpd start

Replace 'start' with 'restart' to reboot and 'stop' to switch off.
We should see something like that to know that it is working (or not):
Starting httpd: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using server.name.123 for ServerName
                                     [  OK  ]


[sudo] password for user123: 
Reloading httpd:                     [  OK  ]

4) Check on the WWW to see if the website is up. If it's not, debug using the Apache log file.
$less /var/log/httpd/error_log

This log file will tell you what is wrong and the IP of the client that was trying to access the site.

5) When you add files from your home directory, sometimes it doesn't appear on the website and the log file says that it couldn't access it. 

First, make sure you have cleared your cache to see for sure you are looking at a refreshed page.
Second, go to your VM and check the permission of the file that you are looking at:

$ ls -alZ
-- this will help you check the permission and ownership of the files. (1) Apache should be able to read all of them; (2) configuration/permission should be: unconfined_u:object_r:httpd_sys_content_t:s0 not unconfined_u:object_r:user_home_t:s0

$ sudo chown apache:apache file.txt
-- solves (1)
$ sudo restorecon -r file.txt
-- solves (2)

6) Add this line to ensure that the HTTP server reboots together if the VM restarts
$ chkconfig httpd on

Things should be in order now.