So if you missed an earlier blog post, I’m giving up some food & drink items during February and I welcome you to join in. Give up what you want and how you want.

For instance:

My girlfriend & I: Giving up coffee, tea, cheese, brown & tomato sauce, vegan mayo and booze.

Richard: Caffeine and chocolate.

Tom: No coffee after noon.

Update: 31st Jan – Cate & Rachael are also joining in the challenge.

Update: 1st Feb – Adele & Amber have also joined the challenge.

So why join in? You might need to go ‘cold turkey’ to give something up. You might be curious how you can cope and see if there are benefits such as better sleep, weight loss and more. Who knows and it doesn’t have to be permanent. I’m only giving up certain items on my list for just February.

So why not join us and leave a comment on what your giving up for February.

One of the biggest impacts of the last eighty odd years is the television. Taking centre stage in the living room, with furniture setup to maximize viewing angles and a smorgasbord of channels awaiting your viewing pleasure….. How often though have you channel surfed for what seems like an eternity, but not being able to find something you wanted to watch? A problem quickly being resolved by tivo, catch up on demand and cheap rentals. Even worse televisions being placed in the bedroom and kitchen. That’s a blog post in it’s own right!

Family entertainment such as watching other people in a lounge (big brother), chatting about trivial issues and then the next day, the water cooler talk being the gossip from those shows. Minor celebs to boot, who you wouldn’t give the time of day normally. Yet we all seem interested in their social dynamics, whilst we sit there like zombies (and they earn money for drinking tea). Plus we get to bed late, because we were up late, watching other people stay up late, talking about a failed career.

The hours of listening to out of tune people competing for a chance to win a record contract, to be loved, live the life. All the while being humiliated in front of millions, singing old songs, when the original studio recorded version, often digital remastered is and always will sound better and won’t include adverts.

Then you reconsider, okay enough of reality television, I will watch a drama / scifi series. Only to discover that even the writers often don’t know the end of a season often until half way, as they adapt it based on mid season viewing statistics and often the aim is to flow into the next season. Naturally to milk a ‘winning’ fomula, develop a brand, increase ad revenue…… whilst we wait eager to find out what happens. Then the series gets canceled and often a story arc unfinished.

Okay, sod it then. Enough of the reality shows and some of the drama / scifi series. Some good old factual shows. I like history and there’s whole television stations devoted. Back to back history facts, clips, voice overs. Gaining a better understanding of the past, perhaps a new analysis of an event. Blimey! Exciting and informative.

Wait a minute…. I’m sat there watching, not experiencing, not engaging with others. Okay I know lets play console games! Yeah this is it, hook it up to the television. I can play tennis, do a work out… yes I am surely a guitar hero (please imagine bill and ted guitar music at this stage) !! …. tennis via console? playing a fictional guitar, when I used to play (rather badly) real guitars.

So I’ve written a very long blog entry and you’ve already worked out most of the conclusion by now. I’m ashamed to say it took us years and a piece of hardware dying. Almost two years ago our freeview box died, it was a slow death and by sitting it upside down (I know, I shouldn’t of done that), it struggled a bit longer, only to eventually go to freeview heaven.

So our solution and thankfully the conclusion to this article?

We didn’t buy a replacement freeview box.  We have a dvd player linked to a small flat screen, so again Friday evening to Sunday evening we can watch a dvd, sat on our sofa (if we chose to, which is less and less). We own at least a couple of hundred DVDs and when not watching that often, you realise you own something you want to watch and the urge to watch newer content fades. It’s stopped us from renting dvd’s from the library.

So what does this all mean to our ‘reality’?

We are more picky with what we watch. We don’t feel inclined to watch something because everyone else is. We feel less pressure and talk more, engage more with others, go out, instead of sitting like zombies. We spend time doing hobbies, have music on and are developing new interests and hobbies. We read more and are discovering the radio again (we still pay the TV license). Evenings feel longer, more relaxed and we don’t feel like Mon-Fri is constant work.

We get things done that we were leaving for the weekend. This frees up our weekend to get larger jobs done. Instead of watching celebs doing famous walks, we go out for a walk (no need for wii fit or whatever nonsense). Instead of watching properties being renovated, we are working on our property. We are taking a closer look at the history around us and visiting it and plan trips. Such as a recent trip to museums in London. We read more than ever, stories planned often with conclusions that don’t require a second book (unlike tv series endings). Plus with written language often a pure joy to read, something being lost I fear over time.

We do still play computer games, but ones on the actual computer. I’ve been rediscovering the fun of old strategy games such as red alert 2, generals, starcraft and company of heroes. Games that I save and walk away from for weeks, months at a time. Luckily we’ve never seen the logic in games like guitar hero, a cheap thrill (actually expensive thrill) in my opinion and wish people would take the long term view and patience to learn the guitar. I fear I am missing the point and am glad I am to be honest.

The writers being lost, the accomplishments we are denying ourselves, the journeys not taken. The relationships not explored. The opportunities missed.

Have we got the right solution? Undoubtedly no and for many reasons. Yes we still watch DVDs and yes we still play computer games. However we feel more relaxed, accomplish more, experience more and have clawed back hours of just sitting on a sofa. Is it a step in the right direction, yes.

Take Control of the Remote Control

Let me know in the comments your feelings about television. Plus let me how you’ve changed your viewing habits.

How often do you have a glass of wine at night after a busy day? How many mugs of strong tea or coffee do you drink in the morning to get you going? Do you like brown / tomato sauce or a favourite jam with your breakfast everyday, perhaps some sugar coated cereal instead. Do you have mayo in your sandwich at lunch?

I’m a vegetarian who is slowly adapting his lifestyle, along with and the help of his wonderful girlfriend. Last year I lost three stone and the weight lose is still ongoing, as is the lifestyle changes. In the bigger picture the lifestyle changes are part of my journey of life, as obviously with everyone. I’m keen to make choices and decisions today that will impact tomorrow in a more positive way, as well as the impact some of those decisions have on today. So challenging myself to continue to make changes, working as a team to accomplish and yes motivating myself solely to stick to a goal is part of the February challenge.

So what is the February challenge…

I have not drunk any alcohol this year or drunk a coffee. So I mentioned to my better half I was thinking of giving up tea during February. Not a big thing you might say. Now those who know me, will realise I drink a lot of tea. Not that much in the afternoon, but in the morning and yes I am a tea snob. No not brands that others deem snobby, but I know what I like and…. don’t like and what I like, I drink strong.

Anyhow the conversation expanded from not just giving up tea for February, but also brown sauce, cheese (which has crept back in slightly into our diet) and vegan mayo. So the full list is: No tea, coffee, brown sauce, vegan mayo, booze and cheese. Not counting the items we already don’t have such as pizza’s and other unhealthy items (which you can read about in an earlier post). Now my girlfriend has joined in the February challenge, which will make a huge difference.

So why am I doing this? I’m curious and determined to push myself, to experiment in lifestyle changes. You don’t see energetic five year olds running around saying… ‘i can’t live without my morning mug of tea’. No they run around with endless energy and yes I realise outlook on life is a part of this, along with other factors. Drink and Food  can become a ‘fix’. Something people don’t like to tackle, because of the ‘larger’ issues in their lifes, but the reality is they are connected.

Will I start drinking tea and having other items in March? Probably, I don’t know. Some items are fine in moderation and even beneficial. This is the February challenge, March I will think about closer to the time. I’m looking forward to it. Withdrawl, tolerance, motivation, team work, understanding, solutions and more.

So you are welcome to join me in the February challenge and list in the comments the items you are going to give up.  It could just be one item, like a morning coffee. If you think February is not the right time and can list reasons why, it probably is more suitable now more than ever. Whatever the case, it’s going to be interesting.

Yesterday afternoon a self hosted wordpress blog I maintain died. It just wouldn’t load and then the site would timeout. The database had decided to pack it’s bags and vanish, not even a dear john letter, a note telling me why. A quick communication with support and the quickest option was for me to restore from a backup. Here is the why, where and how rough guide, not too detailed, like a birds and the bees conversation really.

First of all the precaution bit. You could go through phpmyadmin to make backups or….. install the wunderbar wordpress plugin that is called ‘WordPress Database Backup’ over at: http://ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/ . You unzip and  upload the directory to the ‘plugin’ directory in the  ‘wp-content’ directory via wordpress. Then login to your wordpress installation and via the ‘plugins’ option activate.

Next you need to select ‘Backup’ from under the ‘Tools’ menu. It will probably mention a directory needs to be writable. Fair enough it creates a random directory name, so again via ftp you can make it writable. My favourite ftp application by the way is filezilla and you right click on a directory to change write permissions.

Okay that’s the configuration done and via the very same ‘backup’ page make a backup. Now you can sit there satisfied that you’ve made a backup. Well done you. Wait there is more to it than this! There are different ways and one option is for scheduled backups, sent to you via email. Excellent as automation is usually best when it comes down to backups.

The Restoration

Unfortunately unless you plan on migrating your database, you will need this backup for…. restoring. Yes the moment where something corrupts, gone horribly wrong and you need to restore it pronto. Sweating, pondering the idea you’ve lost all the work, the time and effort…okay I’m being over dramatic here.

Now what I do is create a new database, add a new user and then access it via phpmyadmin. Phpmyadmin usually can be found via your web hosts control panel. Then there is a nifty import option. Just select the backup file you made with the wordpress backup plugin and import. Hopefully et voila!

Now you need to download via ftp your wp-config.php file from the root of your blog directory. i.e. same place the index.php file is found. Open it up (my preferred windows app is notepad++) and then edit it. Simple replace the database name, location, username and password with the new details and reupload the file.

Hopefully your wordpress blog is up and running again. Obviously you follow these instructions at your own risk. There could be further recommendations for different scenario’s, other than the one I went through. So don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I hope this rough guide helped someone, maybe not today, but for a beautiful tomorrow…. over dramatic again? Yes, but not for me, not today after a restoration saved a years worth of work.