So something a client requested was the ability to self host a WordPress site on his local computer. Initially, this sounded like a great challenge to tackle. In theory, no monthly, annual, or cycle costs and renewal costs. Plus you get to be in total control of your server. But after researching it a bit, I learned that it is alot more dangerous than what what it is. I truly can’t imagine wanting to do this unless you need physical access to the drives in the event of a police raid or something…but then, bruh. What do you need to hide? UH?!

Let’s explore the different scenarios:

1. You’re legally responsible for all security issues/ attacks etc..
2. You’ll be investing the time to maintain whatever stack you end up on, and then when you don’t patch it and it gets exploited, who KNOWS what’s on your machine at that point
3. Long term maintenance costs and liability issues
4. It’s almost definitely gonna be way slower than even mid-range shared hosting
5. Your electricity cost / effort costs / annoyance
6. What happens if there’s a power cut? Internet goes down?
7. No redundancy in a basic setup! Once you add that you’ve more than blown away any potential cost savings
8. A cat could ruin the whole set-up with an errant cup of coffee
9. Everything could be highly flammable … which is why we have server rooms that prohibit food and beverages and remain at a set temperature constantly
10. You would need a really good UPS which ends up costing as much as it would to host in a dedicated company for a few years.

I think there’s good reasons to self-host things, especially if outages are expected and built into the architecture. There’s some decentralized networking apps that would be great to self-host easily on their own hardware, but nothing where there’s an expectation of connectivity should be running off somebody else’s personal computer.

Power outages and cats aside, running a server that is connected to the internet is really not something you should do unless you really know what you are doing. WordPress is a HUGE target for hackers. Unless you keep the server up-to-date and have some general awareness of security best practices and keep an eye out for new vulnerabilities, it is going to get hacked.

If money is the problem there’s really great hosting companies out there with great rates that will give you a bang for your buck. Fast Commet has been one I’ve really enjoyed. Their introduction rate stays the same even when you renew, unlike Hostgator (also my favorite and possibly one of the best one I have used ) which do have a low intro rate when you sign up but at the renewal they charge you double the price.

To all the hard of hearing folks out there. Listen up! THIS device is a life changer. One of the most amazing gadgets that I’ve come across this year is the wireless ear buds.

I actually came across this late 2017 while rummaging through the clearance pile at this random liquidation store. It was one of those cheap knock offs of the Apple Airpods because your gal is living the bougie on a budget life. I bought 4 pairs, I can’t exactly remember what I did with all of them, (probably gave them to family). I looked online, and found alot of them for the price that I paid for to come with just one ear bud in a set, so you can imagine how I lucky I was getting the both pairs for one set. I also scored one pair with the full kit which included the dock, and this is what I’ll use to measure my review for this awesome device. I paid 5 bucks for this, and because I was apprehensive of this , I gave it about 2 weeks before it would stop working. I based this off a past Groupon purchase of a wireless earphones, and they lasted…. no more than 2 weeks.

This special baby lasted me… you wouldn’t believe…. a measly 9 months. The funny part was that it’s been dropped and stepped on so many times, yet it still went on. I’ve accidentally left it in my pocket and threw it in the laundry numerous times. When I thought all hope was lost, I’d leave out to dry, and then would leave it charged all night until the indicator light turned on, and things were back up and running. Eventually it’s the battery would run out alot faster. for about 8 months or so, It would give me 3-4 hours of charge. Eventually it would only give me at most 1 hour, and then one day it stopped taking the charge.

To the white faux airpod. I raise my glass to you, and celebrate your longetivity.

You can imagine how impressed I was, I’ve decided to start exploring the big guns, the authentic stuff. I went through a few bad apples you can say.

I needed them to match the specifications of fitting in and accommodating my small ears, not look bulky, look as invisibile as possible. They were impossible to find! I even looked through IndieGoGo to see if maybe if they existed.

I found something close while researching and it pointed me to a brand in Best Buy. Purchased it, tried it for a whopping 79 bucks. It was actually great, but I realized that an important feature to me was the ability to not sync the earbuds to work at the same time. I wanted the ability to use one earbud and have the other one charging, so that if what I was using’s battery died, I would swap out with the other. Get it? An infinite amount of use.

So during my trip to return it I stumbled on the Rowkin brand which seemed too good to be true. They were the smallest I’ve seen in the store, 20 dollars more than what I had paid for the previous one, and worked for most of my devices, except for my Microsoft phone, and we all know how we feel about the Microsoft phone.

Excellent product!

First let’s go over the pros: both pairs work independent of each other. When I take one out of the case, it immediately turns on and syncs automatically to my device.

I have a nice sounding lady alerting me that the battery is about to die, which gives me enough time to pop it out of my ear, into the dock, swap it out with the other one. I don’t have to do a single button clicking. Everything turns off and on automatically based off your movement.

The cons: The dock-case has an odd design and when I pop the earbuds in, I’m scared that they’ll stay stuck in there if I just popped them out aggressively. I felt that I needed to be delicate in how I pulled them out. My fears were justified when 3 months later, my right side earbud top came out exposing the wires inside. It was still stuck inside. I was able to put it back, and of course it was still working, but at this point, it felt like any sudden movement I made would permanently damage the device.

The beauty of living in America is that you can return stuff when they go bad if it falls under the warranty guideline. So that’s what I did. The folks at Rowkin were very nice and helpful in my process of replacing my device. It should arrive in the mail in a few days or so.

Overall, I would give this a 7/10. The earbuds themselves a 9/10. 1 point off, even thought they are the smallest I’ve seen, they felt bulky .