My friend, Haan came with 3 other Malaysians to Vietnam for traveling. Haan became my friend since we studied together at USQ, Australia.

I'm in Sapa right now and I was ... watching fog. Right, it started having heavy fog since yesterday and that was the day I arrive. Everything is covered in white. We took a lot of effort taking photos...

Today we decide not to go anywhere so we spent the time dining. At 10:30am we had breakfast. Then we had more breakfast at Bagette & Chocolat restaurant at 12pm. We had a wonderful lunch at 3pm.

Our lunch consists of over 2kg of BBQ village pork, lots of stir fried green veggie, a beer and some white rice. It's special because it's the first meal I made everyone so full... We have 5 people dining over 2kg of meat... The amount of fat intake made my head aching till now.

We had some nice trips, so I'd write about them soon.

For now, all I care is that everyone who knows, and who I know, and everyone else, have a nice Xmas.

On my side, I will be on a night train from Sapa to Hanoi, so I don't know if that's fun or not.

That's all now, see you after the holidays.

I wish everyone:

• enjoyable moments,
• happy endings,
• great holidays,
• easy jobs,
• lovely friends,
• kind relatives,
• more money,
• stronger.

Some beautiful new year wishes:

Hours of happy times with friends and family
Abundant time for relaxation
Prosperity
Plenty of love when you need it the most
Youthful excitement at lifes simple pleasures

Nights of restful slumber (you know - dont' worry be happy)
Everything you need
Wishing you love and light

Years and years of good health
Enjoyment and mirth
Angels to watch over you
Rembrances of a happy years!

Source: New year wishes from www.rosebriar.uk.com

If you are not Christian and do not celebrate Christmas and New Year, I wish you a happy holiday for whatever reason you are having. If you have some spare time, please kindly leave a comment here to let me and other readers know about what you celebrate.For myself, I did go out not really for Christmas, but on Christmas days. Those are not the happiest moments, but memorable.

Happy New Year music video

While you are here, why not watch ABBA sing the famous "Happy New Year" song?

My Wish List for 2008:

Even though the DailyBlogTips.com's Group Writing Project: 2008 Blogging Goals is over, I still will set my goals for 2008 so that everyone know. My goal by the end of 2008 is to be as popular as Johnchow and make as much money as ShoeMoney. For this particular dot name blog I want to set the goals to:

• daily unique visitors: 2,000+
• daily page views: 10,000+
• RSS subscribers: 10,000+
• number of weekly posts: 14+
• average number of comments received per post: 100+
• Alexa or Compete rank: 5,000-
• Technorati rank: don't know about Technorati
• Google Pagerank: 7+
• monthly revenues: US $10,000+
• backlinks: 10,000+
• search engine ranking positions: top 10
• popularity on social bookmarking sites: Stories featured on Digg, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Mashable and other major socia-media sites.
• popularity on online communities:
  2,000+ communities member on MyBlogLog,
  1,000+ reviews on BlogCatalog
  90+/100 rating on BlogCatalog

Sound impossible? I don't think so. It's only impossible if I drop on the way. Am I too arrogant? Maybe, but what's the matter with that, persistent is the key to success. Setting too high goal can either make me the A-list blogger, or drop me down to non-blogger. Anyway, I'm happy with the goals and might adjust it accordingly.

What's next?

My apologize I didn't complete the 10 Upcoming Posts - Set 1.

I still have too many more unwritten posts, such as:

1. How WP Super Cache Plugin Runied My Blog.
2. How .htaccess Ruin WordPress Login page.
3. How to Reset PHP Server From CPanel
4. How WordPress 302 Redirect Lower your SERP Score
5. How to loose valuable comments because of Popularity Contest.

and many many many more quality content posts to come.

I will also have to resolve the problems with photo hosting. I might open up a travel blog after that decision is made.

Once again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

How does this work?

I'm going to update this page to link to the post of bloggers who write about Christmas. Check out the links below to see a sample of how I do it.

You can help me by giving a short paragraph about your Christmas with a link to your post. If you do this by the mean of commenting, please don't forget to put your website URL so that I can properly link to it.

If you participate in discussion on BlogCatalog, please kindly leave your

1. blog name,
2. blog URL,
3. post title and
4. post URL.

Myself on Christmas 2007

I went out with my girlfriend, her mother, and 2 friends. I'm still in China and I will be here for couple of months more. I found out Chinese don't actually celebrate Christmas, they only decorate for commercial purpose.

Here in Zhuhai, shopping centers decorate with Christmas signs, but homes don't. As normal, I took a lot of photos, and it's time to start sharing even though my flickr account is still intact. Time is limited, so again I can only say, photos are on the way.

Bloggers and Christmas 2007

The links start from here.

From blogs I read, comments on this page, and the BlogCatalog discussion:

1. Today’s the Big Day by Simon from Yeepage Journal. He and I kept thinking about writing great posts and forget to enjoy the holiday for ourselves. Unfortunately I crashed my site and couldn't write anything.
2. Happy Holidays by Collin LaHay from Increase Website Traffic. Collin LaHay wish everyone happy holidays whether it's Christmas, New Years, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Kwanzaa, or anything.
3. Christmas Greeting from a Student by Haan from Labyrinth after receiving a Christmas e-card from her ex-student at USQ Australia. This reminded me of tutoring at USQ Sydney for Advanced Java Programming. I still keep in touch with my collage and ex-student Sayem, now he teaches Java in Sydney. We did have some small chat few days ago.
4. Christmas Eve with the cats by Gusland from Gusland.com to share the story of what he and his cats were doing on Christmas eve. This reminded me of my dogs in Vietnam. I love them so much but I couldn't bring them with me while I travel.
5. The "My Christmas Charity Lesson" Offensive by Offendedblogger from The Offended Blogger about how donating to charity this Christmas changed her life. I read her post and found she did some charity and she is very proud of it. Her blog post have a lot of illustrative photos.
6. Merry Christmas: Here's My Gift - The Santa Girls by Jmarzo from Side Bits showing many sexy Christmas babes. This make me wonder how my much more beautiful my girlfriend will look like when dress like these.
7. A Day In The Life of A Snowman In Louisiana by Sarcasticwhiteboar from The Sarcastic Whiteboard Chronicles about a fall-out with two family members and contemplating the real meaning of Christmas (in relation to the way she was treated by so-called Christians
8. Merry Christmas by fossfor from Fossforous is a christmas card for cats. There are plentiful of illustrations on Fossforous. May fossfor tell us if she drawn those pictures by herself.
9. A Christmas Message! by MeghnaK from Delve into the Mind of A Budding Blogger about the message she wants to give: "Make this a cherished Christmas for yourself and another unfortunate soul!". MeghanaK is only 12 year old and her writing skill is really impressive.
10. Merry Christmas by Tania from Whole Living Today tells why Christmas is celebrated. For those who love songs, there is a music video and a lyric for "Have I told you Lately (1989) up on her post.
11. The True Meaning of Christmas by Fortunalee from Fortuna's Favor Rites wirtten for Answering Inane Question #437. "Are you ready for Christmas?". Fortunalee said "Bah! It *is* possible to find true meaning in the season without religion or commercialism".
12. Christmas Day 2007 Peace On Earth Goodwill To Men by gbronner from Glenns Garden about his thoughts on Christmas and what it truly should be.
13. Oh, won't this be quaint? by aroomofonesown from A Room of One's Own wrote about her truly heinous and humiliating Christmas with my family as the undatable wonder... I'm sorry about your bad time on Christmas, and I hope the following ones will be wonderful for you.
14. Six More Days by maoey from The Chronicles of Maoey about what she feels and thinks about the season. I'm sorry to hear another sad story and hope Maoey will have merry Christmas times the following years.
15. Santa Claus vs. Los Reyes Magos by voicesenespanol from Voices en Español about "Santa vs los Reyes Magos: Santa meets his match in Spain". Although this post isn't about the blogger himself, but it's interesting enough for me to link to.
16. Christmas Eve In Our Corner Of The World by Stine (mumshome) from
    Mother’s Got A Dot Com about "a family Christmas, with in-laws, aunt & uncle, us and our 6 kids - 12 in all". You can read her comment for more details. I would like to thank Stine for linking back to me by writing A Christmas Post Link…
17. There is something wrong with gifts this Christmas by towr from
    The Walking Tower about his observation about the 2007 Christmas.
18. Christmas Post by lynyrdschuyler from
    PUFF MATTY: The Notorious P.I.G. about Yoko Ono singing background on "Merry Christmas (the war is over)" music.
19. And to all a good night by yhc from Your Humble Cartoonist. This post is a synopsis of YHC's comic and blog related Christmas activites, including a Secret Santa Exchange he participated in.
20. KoRn's Untitled A Pleasant Surprise by trlrtrash13 from The Axis of Stevil. This post give a quick review of a great xmas gift from his girlfriend.
21. Christmas Posts Dec 24-30 by Brix from Brix Picks. I must say Brix Picks is the most uniquely designed WordPress I ever seen. Artitistic.
22. Merry Christmas Long Beach by LaurieManny from Long Beach Real Estate. A lighthearted Merry Christmas to Laurie's hometown, with some local photos of Christmas lights on the Naples Island Canals and some fun Christmas videos from YouTube.
23. Christmas Ornaments by Cromely . The post is a reflection on the Christmas ornaments Cromely made as a kid and how comforting it is to see them on the tree today. It's also a chance to tell his favorite bad Christmas joke.

While at it I would like to mention After Christmas Contest Giveaway by dudeinwrens from Poetic Money. this is not a personal Christmas experience but instead an interesting event for anyone who want to earn $50 Google Adwords credit. I myself is not ready to advertise anything because this is not a commercial website. Congrats to anyone who win the contest.

Did you notice I have a category called "Official log"? That's originally the "Uncategorized"category. I reuse it and actually abuse it to become a off topic category. I am still thinking about moving toward writing more personal blog entry. I might keep this dot name domain for my personal blog, and move my professional blog into some dot com domain. What do you think?

I've been trying to put something about Christmas up but it seem of no help. It's not because I don't have any idea, but no time to write.

My when my girlfriend came back from Australia on 4th Dec. Since then I've been extra busy with a lot of things. I wouldn't mind having boring holiday times but since I have girlfriend now I want to spice things up a bit.

I might end up spending more time to go out then to write blog. But if my girlfriend support me, I might spend more time writing about Christmas and how people celebrate it here in China.

Yesterday I spent the whole day with my girlfriend and friends. We went to Zhuhai city center for some shopping. I notice Chinese people also celebrate Christmas. Every where I go I saw sign of Christmas decorations. I don't even know if they are Christian or not, but they sure take holiday as serious business opportunities.Have you ever tried Chinese McDonald? Yesterday was the first time I had a good drink from McDonald. There hot ginger drink taste great. It's been over 8 month since I left Australia so I don't know if McDonald there also have ginger drink.

Chinese people of course take their New Year seriously. However, I was surprise didn't see any New Year decorations. Now sitting in front of my computer I realise they celebrate Chinese new year, not this Gregorian New Year.

As a normal entertainment activity, I spend few hours playing mahjong. It is getting bored because I can't concentrate on playing to win the game. I'm so much distracted because I miss my blog and miss keeping in touch with fellow bloggers.

My new hobby is watching Chinese kungfu videos. This always was my hobby, but I skipped it for few months already. This time because my girlfriend come back and started watching video that's why I re-activate the hobby.

That's it for now. I will try to write more in the morning.

• 12 Tips of Christmas
• 5 Christmas Movies For The Whole Family To Enjoy!
• 5 Most Popular Styles of Christmas Ornaments
• 5 Of The Best Remote Control Toys for Kids for Christmas
• 5 Things Your Christmas Table Should Not Be Without
• 6 Family Christmas Vacation Tips You Must Know
• 6 Tips For Surviving Christmas Stress
• A Blog Isn't Just For Christmas
• Be His Gift of Self-esteem for Christmas
• Business Christmas Cards
• Christmas Cookie Decorating 101
• Christmas Decorating Trends for 2005
• Christmas Eve Recipe Ideas
• "Christmas For One: Mental Health Over the Holidays"
• Christmas Gift Ideas: Interior Décor Presents
• Christmas Ornaments - Make Your Own with Beads and Pipe Cleaners
• Christmas Time
• Christmas Traditions in Germany
• Christmas Tree Ornament Tips
• Do You Know The Origins of Christmas traditions ?
• Fly Fishing Gift Ideas – Christmas Presents
• Fly Fishing Gifts for Christmas
• Hassle-Free Holiday Baking: 6 Easy Days to Perfect Christmas
• Have a Christmas Party-a planning guide
• Have a Multi-Cultural Christmas with Juan Oskar
• Holiday Craftts - Thanksgiving and Christmas Decoration Ideas
• Holiday Decorating Tips: Christmas Candles
• How Christmas shopping online better your Christmas!
• How to avoid Christmas debt overload
• It's Not Just About Christmas Trees and Christmas Gifts
• Kayaking Gifts for Christmas
• Real vs. Artificial Christmas Trees
• Rock Climbing – Christmas Gift Ideas
• Stress Busting Christmas Tips
• Taking Back Christmas
• The History of the Christmas Card
• The Truth About Christmas
• Time for Christmas plans
• Tips for Christmas Shopping for Babies and Infants
• Tips On Hosting a Christmas tree trimming party
• Unique Backpacking Christmas Gift Ideas for Backpackers
• Unique Camping Gift Ideas for Christmas
• Use H-O-L-L-Y to Beat Christmas Cooking Stress
• What Does the Way You Shop for Christmas Presents Say About You?
• What Flowers for Your Girlfriend this Christmas?

Am I generous? If this list help you in anyway, please kindly link to it from your blog. There will be more to come so make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed for updates.

This post was originally published at as 45 Christmas Tip Articles for a Better X-mas. However, I made a mistake in the links so I republish it here.

Recently, I got many hits from Google search for Christmas theme, so in this post I list all the Christmas themes for WordPress that you can download and use for free.

Christmas Themes for WordPress

This is my collection of WordPress themes, click on the link to open the download page.

1. Christmas Days

This theme is what I'm using right now. I wrote earlier: WordPress Theme for Christmas

From the author:

This theme is a season theme for WordPress created by Design Disease. The theme was created because most of us celebrate Christmas, and I wanted to make a gift to all bloggers around the world. The theme has been tested on WordPress 2.3.1 with Firefox , Opera, Safari and IE6/7. It validates as XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

Source: http://wp-themes.designdisease.com/2007/11/12/christmas-days-wordpress-theme-release/

2.Christmas Gifts (2 colums)

From the author:

Christmas Gifts is a widget-ready theme designed for WordPress 2.0.

This simple yet attractive holiday theme is designed to be versatile, easy to customize and SE-friendly. It's an ideal template for niche Christmas sites built with WordPress, affiliate bloggers or anyone that just wants to celebrate the Season of Giving.

Christmas Gifts uses valid XHTML & CSS and has been tested in multiple browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Source: http://wpthemes.amazing-christmas-ideas.com/cg/

3. Vermilion Christmas Theme

From the author:

Vermilion Christmas is a widget-ready theme designed for WordPress 2.0.

With it's attractive Christmas design and SE-friendly structure, it's an excellent solution for bloggers and webmasters in need of a Christmas WordPress theme.

Vermilion Christmas uses valid XHTML & CSS and has been tested in multiple browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera.

Source: http://wpthemes.amazing-christmas-ideas.com/vc/

4. Merry Christmas WordPress Theme

From the author:

Please welcome the all new WordPress theme designed specially for the eve of Christmas! I am launching this theme at this time so that all you bloggers can tweak it according to your blog by the time Christmas arrives… It has some nifty cool effects for you to check out .. and don’t forget to check the upcoming New Year Theme!!

Source: http://www.blogohblog.com/wordpress-theme-merry-christmas/

5. Cosmin's WordPress Theme for Christmas

From the author: This wp theme has 3 columns, based on three colors red, green and white and of course, AdSense blends well in those two ad spaces." Source: http://www.acosmin.com/new-wordpress-theme-for-christmas/

6. Christmas Bells

Nice 2 columns Christmas bells WordPress theme which will warm your heart in this time of year.

7. Christmas Gift (3-Column)

Give Christmas look on your website, well designed unique yet elegant Christmas WordPress theme. Impress your readers with Christmas celebration on your weblog.

Why did I write this post?

Note: Skip this section if you are not a blogger.

To date, my blog post WordPress Theme for Christmas got from Google:

Unfortunately the bounce rate was somewhere near 100%, so I guess the post was not relevant. I should have included a download links.

Update 23 Dec 2007:

This page continuously have very stable stream of incoming traffic from Google, and here are the latest keyword counts:

What's next?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Please spare sometimes to give me feedback via the Comment form.
Update 23 Dec 2007:

Do you have a Christmas theme to share? You can link to this article to get a trackback link, or leave a comment here with a link to your theme and I will add it.

Finally I finish the 8 hour overnight work on modifying my blog layout using the Christmas Days theme. Last night I when I logged in to the WordPress control panel I did I quick check on the latest news about WordPress. Out of which was the 20 Nov releases of WordPress theme and plugins.

The New Themes

I found nothing special about the new plugins but found very interesting new themes.

After spending 1 hour testing the demo and on my own blog, I left a comment on that page like this:

• Christmas Days theme is fitting it at absolutely the right time. Cheers everyone. Merry Christmas and see it run on my blog.
• Curved 3-Columns content too small for a 468×60 banner ad.
• FluidFlower is not bad either, unfortunately I’m not a girl
• Genesis is too dark for the eyes.
• Paperback is too simple for a blog.
• PortraitPress is worth a try.
• Skyscraper should not be called a theme.
• WPDesigner is neat and nice.

Agree with me, not? You are always welcomed to leave a comment on my blog

Improvements

So, I really did make the promise come true, I spent the last 8 hours editing this theme to suit my needs. You can notice the following difference than the original theme:

1. The content pane padding has been reduced, allowing the content to span 480px, which can fit a 468x60 banner ad.
2. There is a square 180x150 AdSense block on the sidebar, which look really attractive.
3. There is a 468x60 AdSense text-only banner ad at the bottom of each page, except homepage.
4. The post title has been re-leveled from h2 to h1 (SEO reason)
5. Unnecessary words are removed from the title of archive page (SEO reason).
6. The copyright notice has been fixed to dynamically display the actual blog name from the database, not "BlogName"
7. Many more small fixes but I can't list all here.

What's next?

I thought about making my edition available for downloading right here, but I feel too lame if no one bother taking it. So if you like it, drop a message here request for a download package and I will post it up a.s.a.p.