While most folks can’t always just drop all things and take a Friday, I am going to - this week has been a nice hit of good stuff, followed with some bad stuff (big stress) - I am right now, physically exhausted from the day, and its mainly from stress of things - servers mainly - not even mine - I dunno, just felt like I was the only person concerned about the issues happening on that server when others should of been - *shrug*.
In the background some stuff has started rolling in a project, hopefully it all pans out, caught a very fun studio 60, with a powerful ending - and I have been trying to unwind to Super Paper Mario, however I’m on the last level, so I must pace myself
Have a good Friday all. Hope you find someway to relax too.
Well after some mild planning, and some work today on my fake day off (though, I did have a BBQ which was delightful) - I setup Homebase, the new home for my company websites, thus so email is not fubar’d by out of control client scripts - which has become an issue lately, folks say they don’t get welcome emails, etc. but because of how “shared” hosting works, 1 bad egg, can ruin an entire IP - so Homebase was setup to migrate the support, billing, and homepages for my business - should help smooth things out - got it all up-to-date, patched up, and so far so good.
Also found 2 servers today getting attacked, was not fun, so some mild tweaking to get things back in the pretty range, it’s holding me over, but I really want to get rid of Frontpage - while it does offer a “friendly” publishing system for folks, the end result is not pretty when folks go to attack those “friendly” interfaces which Frontpage connects to, so considering ditching that where I can, or maybe setup a box for customers who want Frontpage, and lock everything else down.
This week has only barely started, and it feels like its already Thursday, just a mild weekend, I really need to escape somewhere, that nobody knows my name lol. I enjoy getting out with friends, but lately anymore folks seem to be super-stressed, can’t say I am not in that same boat at times, but probably be a few more months before I can really “escape” starting to get a handle on the budget again, and while I had really considered getting the 80gb iPod today (refurb @ apple.com) - bottom line is, budget needs to catch up a bit more before I can take that plunge - so iPods, Lenses, etc. all on the “wait” going to try and setup a micro site for selling Prints of my photography, which means short days out for photo exploring, but no mega trips or fancy new lenses to play with
Been apartment hunting, nothing ultra serious, but really weighing the options, as at some level as a new home buyer, and fair credit, I could probably easily get a house, which does bring in a slew of other bills, but really no less than what I’d be looking at for renting an apartment at some level - but there are some nice Town houses around, good amount of room, fair neighborhoods, decent price, but who knows - part of me really is pondering if Bakersfield is my long-term home, I enjoy the town - and I do have work here - but a majority of my business, can be done from just about anywhere, give me a secure connection, a cup of tea, and I’m good to go
The idea book has been going good, some cool stuff laid out, same with gearing up for the 365 project, have the MBP getting setup tomorrow to goto the east side starbucks and do some tunnel testing for secure browsing / chatting / etc. while @ the cafe - so who knows - if I ever get to sleep, I may get there before noon
Anywhoo - 2am is rolling around, so time to try and pack it in, though I doubt sleep will come, took a nap this afternoon, so who knows, may be up for a bit! Have a Good Tuesday All.
Well I have been trying to come up with something to do for 365 days, as a “thing” to do for fun, and not to copy (okay to copy) folks off Flickr, I really am thinking starting on June 1st, 2007 - to do a photo of myself a day - with the Dash’s camera, the e-500, or the built-in iSight’s on my iMac/MBP - I should be able to accomplish it - even if I am in my PJ’s.
I thought about a photo in general, but honestly, that’s kind of easy, for me, photos of myself are hard to come by, now there may be folks in them with me, as I am going to be crashing @ Starbucks some this summer (unlimited wifi) - and possibly Borders books (still haven’t gone) - so you may get to see a visitor or just random people sneaking around me
I figured out the plan for the Moleskine journal, I am going to use it as a thoughts journal, from random plans for business, to dreams, to anything - I am just wanting to document things a bit, and get it down there to really have ideas down so later I don’t say “oh I had this idea for _____” as my brain thinks constantly, ideas, what-if’s, etc. like tonight, thought about doing some screen printing inspired by a video on YouTube - just want to have ideas down, and also pencil out things on the docket like the new Friends server, the new home for the Chat Server - the re-building of the entire NETWORK for Thrust Networks - migration to a private rack, and add-ing in old clients to share in a combined resources, and dedicated backup options.
So I am going to make an effort on both parts, to document my brain, take a picture of my ugly mug, and try to have something that’s more personal that I am dedicated - I also want to setup a shared calendar for going to the movies which friends can put down openings etc. and we can all commit/not-commit to going, would be fun! So many ideas, so little time!
Anywhoo - tomorrow is a day off for most folks, I am going to sort of take it off, but not entirely, going to be finishing up the room a bit more, got the desk squared away, going to find a home for the printer underneath the desk tomorrow, wire in the Linux boxes (phasing out the older one) - should be a hopefully “relaxing day” Have a Good Monday!
So hit the 8pm showing of Pirates, the show started with 9 people in our group, some left in the middle due do fussy baby I am guessing, but I got to sit next to Angel who kept tickling me! (kids are silly) but it was a fun night, a mixed day, but the night totally washed away all the junk from the day and while I’d love to vent it all, part of it is just my own frustrations in things - and such is life I suppose.
The movie was good - some said “confusing” I thought it was a good flick overall, had some “made you think” spots, which my brain of course enjoyed - but by far is the dynamic duo of Jack (the monkey) and the parrot who’s the voice of the tongue-less pirate - classy indeed, but some interesting mix of mythology, action, hint of romance, and of course, Cap’n Jack Sparrow - but while leaving, I was asked what the next flick we were going to see - options were Transformers, Harry Potter, “???” - not sure what comes out next in time-tables, so I’ll hafta refresh my trailer watching
I will say this, it is WIDE open for a Pirates 4, but I have a funny feeling they may try to make it into a spin-off based upon a character who I will leave nameless - but we shall see I imagine.
Tomorrow is the final stage of sprinkler day I think, so I should probably head to bed here shortly - but knowing me, I’ll probably be up for a few hours thinking about sleeping as I work on a project or two thats hanging around in the back of my mind - one project is coming along nicely, and if I can get it done by Monday - I hope to reward myself with an iPod or Camera Lens (leaning towards lens really).
So I have been asking around for folks to goto Pirates today, but no one wanted to go, and some folks I kept missing (ie. Jake) but today Jake caught me before he logged off to go home and said “Same group as Spidey 3, you game?” (or something to that affect) - and of course, I 100% am.
The cool thing about now having “mega plexes” here in bako, is that the one near our larger mall does big openings on ALL SCREENS - so tonight at 8pm - I will be going to the theater at the little mall, which isn’t huge, isn’t fancy seating, but:
I have a gift card there.
Closer to Home.
Empty when the other theater does ALL screens.
So at 8pm tonight, I’ll be seeing what happens to witty jack, I missed pirates 1 in theaters but I saw 2 and now am definitely going to see 3, so pretty excited to say the least, just hope I can get everything I want to get done today done before 8pm, which I don’t think will be a major problem, but I do hope to swing out early (3pm or so) snag my ticket, so I can just go right in and find the crew, hopefully we don’t bother anyone too much this time and I think I am going to snag some snacks and find someone with a purse to smuggle them in, and just get the essentials (ie. popcorn + drink).
Today was an okay day, taste buds are all out of wack, so ate some food, and went “ACK!” spit it out, just didn’t taste right, so I then of course went back to working, and forgot to find something else to eat, which led to woozy chuck, not too fun, but I found some cheese, so I made some quesadilla’s in the pan - has held me over and heck its 2am!
I am also working on some pricing for my services, I have some folks I help out, but more and more I feel like I am becoming a full-time employee - or at the best “on-call” where when I get a call, it’s priority sounds like “DROP EVERYTHING AND DO THIS!” - granted in most cases, I know the person does not mean literally drop everything, but at the same time they are nervous and anxious, but still had one call (of 3) in which the person wanted me to “get to a terminal and fix this” - of course I had my hands full, keyboard was covered with papers - so really irritating, but the thing is, while I love to help these folks, my time anymore is becoming scarce and in the end I have nothing to show for it, not a step closer to the lenses I’d like for my camera, that 80gb iPod, or that 52inch LCD TV I want for my wall… (okay so not really 52, but a TV would be nice in general here in my room) - so I am going to write up some support plans, 2 by ticket, 2 by phone, 3 by the hour - just lay it out, various support levels, and see if I can’t get myself a few extra hundred a month in being on-call during business hours.
Have some stuff to pick up at the ol office #2 today, a chair, a filing cabinet, and a server - other things I need to get too - but all in due time - today should be mild at best, so I hope to either get the stuff before noon, or shortly after 2 (at the latest), and I may actually at this rate have a place to put it the chair I actually “need” as both my chairs here are old, and have literally fell apart, for instance no back on this chair, and the other has no arms or back - so a new chair will be handy, also going to pick up a AC unit for my window I think, and then re-arrange my wires/power/network a bit, to be better positioned.
Lastly on the docket today, is the re-tasking of 2 servers - I have 2 servers, they handle backups (one for servers, one for local) however the one for servers is old, clunky, and needs to be retired - so I am going to take the new 200GB drive and drop it in the BfP linux box, mount it in fstab and have myself a big beefy server - might re-task the older machine as a windows workstation for a family member, not sure yet.
But thats the status of things - so I say, have a good Thursday!
Today was a good day - can’t really complain. A few tasks off the ever growing to-do list, got to wander town a bit after my morning of work, even snagged my first highly recommended Moleskine notebook, got the larger one, but now I really want a pocket one for on the go, just need a good pen.
Got some DVD’s for the evening, turning in my Blockbuster online rentals, and have sat here really just unwinding and relaxing - something I really need to do more often as of late, but none the less, I did it - I just drove around today seeing people looking sad/angry/frustrated, and just kept finding myself wanting them to be happy - but occasionally saying a little prayer for them - it was a wonderful 80F outside - didn’t even need AC in the car really, just enjoy the open air.
Only “eh” to the entire day was in the ’stuff I do for my friends’ category, one of my friend’s customers emailed me about an issue that he created, granted he blamed it on my buddy and then followed up with me, and even told his boss that we screwed everything up - part of me just wanted to hit “Terminate” on all his accounts, as this is the 3rd time where it ends up being his fault, and it’s just stupid, but life goes on, I fixed his glitch, he really just needs his own server.
I really want to get out there and get a photo day in, I really want to pick up a 35mm lens or the 50-200mm lens for the camera, but at the same time I’d like to get a 80GB iPod to replace my ever-aging 40GB HP+iPod - but who knows - all of the above would be nice, but I am looking to revamp some various bits here and there, but we shall see I guess - I imagine if a few of these projects all level out, I’ll be good to go on something, but I am really leaning towards the 35mm lens - its around $200, iPod (refurb from Apple + $50 gift card I have) comes to about $249 - but if only money was pouring from my pockets
Anywhoo - A night awaits me, going to work on some little server plans, have some ideas I want to really expand upon and layout a bit more - so thus where the new notebook comes into play - really excited about expanding things - but we’ll see how it plays out here soon! Have a Good Wednesday folks, I am off to jot notes!
