Well - the quick version - there isn’t one! Today was a weird one, got to bed late, don’t remember the time, but woke up early, and got some of the pending tickets & emails dealt with, went pretty quick, then a few hours later after working on some research on new servers, new network configuration, and a new personal server - I decided my head was hot, and I needed a haircut, thus I buzzed my head.
Car insurance is coming up, for a year I am looking at nearly $1,500 with my current company, however in doing some online shopping found it for $1,300 a year - the big issue, I didn’t start driving till i was 20, rode my bike most of the time before that, and my job wasn’t too far away, or worked with friends/family and carpooled - so between the amount of time driving, new car needing full coverage - no matter what, it’s expensive - but Progressive’s quote looks good, but I am going to call my current see if they can match/beat if not, then I’ll probably cancel and sign-up on 6 months with Progressive.
Couple busy days are past, probably some more on the way, hopefully some of these payments come in sooner or later - but one of the big purchases is the new friends server, moving it out of Bako and probably down in San Diego, just need to get some things sorted with finances and get it all setup nice and fancy, and for real this time, migrate folks off ol homestar -> friends, while friends has been active, its on a slow line (6mbps down/768kbps up) - so a nice 10mb unmetered connection will do it nicely 
But anymore, its 2:30am, I am watching a evening with Kevin Smith, funny stuff, so I am going to loaf, watch, enjoy - and say “Happy Friday!” take care all.
Today was a wonderful day. The mix of ups, downs, lefts, rights, and finished off with hunger and a desire for a movie. 
thus ending Monday, and now leading into Tuesday - where more work beckons, have a customer to patch up if I can, it’s off the “normal” beaten path of support, but another who has volunteered to be a test subject in an adjustment to his account, I am hoping it goes smoothly.
Part of me wants to just crash out and goto sleep, and I may, crash early (well early for me) and start fresh and early in the morning on getting things done, but time shall tell.
Anywhoo - have a good week folks, may be off the blog for a lil bit here, going to try and get billing caught up, and get out a bit this week away from the desk, been sitting couped up for too many weeks in a row, some wandering about will do me good.
Well its 2:30am, I am awake. Not all that uncommon a few months ago, but lately, not so much. So whats up with me? Well since I am awake, and have a bad habit of being long winded, why not lay it out.
Work (makin a livin)
Servers lately have been good, did a round of updates last night which seemed to go smoothly, test box never had any issues, so happy there - but the company my servers sit at has been doing some “re-pricing” now granted my current servers are all price protected, however - the expansion I have had brewing is not. Several “Specials” have come and gone to get things online with the next server I wanted, and a new ultra robust backup server was halted very quickly when they increase pricing for size.
So where does that leave me? Well for now it leaves me investigating 2 options, one after talking to a nice gent on live-chat named Ruben, I am optimistic about, another option talking with Will - so-so, but his operation is closer to me, so easier to get to the servers at the end of the day, not relying on 3rd party hands to get me going - but this week is some number chrunching, we will see what happens, but I think my plan is to drum up some funds offer 20 customers who have been with me over 2 years a offer on some features they may not find anywhere else, and for a price, well that may be a little hefty at first glance, but will allow them to shape the services to come.
Health
I don’t get sick too often, but when I do, it tends to be a doosy, I of course count real sickness, not me running for 4 days straight and being completely exhausted physically and just giving into the light at the end of the tunnel - my weight is once again dripping off this summer, slower than past years, could be due to the fact I am not sweating it off in my car as I have in the past, but it also means I am not wet on my way to a meeting
I am trying to eat more fresh meals instead of fast food, which isn’t cheap, and not always “fast” but it does help me to slow down in the hustle and bustle of my day and eat, and when I MUST eat out, trying to eat a meal that is filling, not just “tasty” I just really wish Jack in the Box would bring back the Chicken Ceaser, it was simple, easy, tasty - and not horrible for ya either
Finances
Budget is leveling out, a lot of the checks I have been waiting on have come in, and of course it’s mid year, so folks who are on semi-annual hosting are paying up, but this month so far no unexpected bills, however I do have 3 new accounts @ WAMU, apparently the system only needed 1 authorization on my checking account to activate all 3 accounts, so I have 2 personal accounts 2 savings, and 1 business checking, lol - to be sorted this afternoon.
Monthly is up a bit, still no-where near what I’d like it to be, but I am working on it, I had a fellow mentioned I should get hired on @ his work, but not sure how that would pan out really, but if it did, and some ground rules were set (similar industry as what I do now), I wouldn’t mind, but I just want to setup something that I get paid fairly for my time & projects.
But it seems more and more old jobs keep cropping up, one fellow even asked me in passing this past week if I was still working for one of my old clients - not at the moment, a few old clients though have looked me up, apparently they have learned the bargain that is me even though for most of my older clients my new pricing is higher than before, many have decided I am well worth it, so hopefully if this trend keeps up, I can get my budget where I am hoping.
Photography
I wish I had some time behind the camera, part of me wants to escape, but I know there is a lot to be done, but my thought is within 2 weeks make it to the coast, spend a weekend at my brother’s combing the beach, maybe do some hiking in the hills to get some good nature shots, I really need a better more compact GPS, my current I got from a client as a gift for some work, is bulky, it is meant for your car, I want one that works in the car, but works in my pocket/camera bag, so I can geotag photos better.
I do have a wedding coming up, I need to follow up with the happy couple and see what they are looking for, I may need to buy a lens of they want various shots, but I think in the end, I am going to ask them for $125 and suggest they hire a photographer, as I don’t want to mess up their happy day by my inexperience in live photography at this sort of an event.
Friends & Family
I get out now and again still, as my previous posts of recent movies I have hit, but I do want to plan a gathering for friends to get together one last time before the Fosters move away 
but hopefully even more so before that get together with folks, hang out, shoot the breeze, catch up, eat a pizza.
Family is good, went to dinner with Beth, Michael, Mom & Dad on Friday for Dad’s birthday, and if all goes as planned, I’ll see Ron, Harm, and Charity in a few weeks - I still do want to make it up to Washington to see my grandparents, just like with many things, budget, budget, budget, so hopefully if all goes as planned I can make it up that way in the fall, and avoid getting snowed in (though snow would be nice), so would a real road trip with just me and the road for a few days.
Anywhooo
Going to go try to get my pillow to tell me nice things, have a good Monday folks. Think happy thoughts, thanks for stopping by!
Posted on 16 July '07 by Chuck Brown, under The Real Me, work. 1 Comment.
Social Party. Lately thats what it feels like online, social bookmarks, social networking, social music (go Zune!), and of course the bit growing with some steam Social Notes (or so I call it) - a small site called Twitter picked up steam asking the question “What are you doing?” originally starting as a status app so to speak, you could tell folks “doing my laundry, out of fresh underwear” - people posted things, some things they shouldn’t have
So things have evolved - and folks now really just sort of Micro-blog I suppose, but really it tends to be a Note they are sending out like Post-It’s on acid, with a world wide audience, the system has grown, and a newer player has entered the arena, named Pownce which is invite only right now - but it comes to the table with features that Twitter hasn’t got, but at the same time, that doesn’t rule Twitter out.
The Client
Pownce offers a client with their system, using Adobe Air to package the app, it is available for Mac and Windows respectively:
And of course, since Twitter has a current open API, there are an assortment of clients for both Mac/Windows/Linux, I use Twitterrific:
The Victor: Twitter - with a open-api, which is forthcoming with Pownce, this may change, but as it stands now you have more variety with Twitter, and an assortment of Applications for both your desktop & website to integrate with.
The Website
By far Twitter has gone the simplistic route, with users really pushing forward with features like using the format “@username” to reply to Tweets, the site has evolved over time, but for the most part, it is simplistic in nature, as it only has one question to ask:
Pownce is the hype of “web 2.0″ and then some, but it has more beef to include, it throws in a extra features like Send Events, Send Link, Send Message and the Send File (10mb free, 100mb pro membership) - so they’ve spiced it up a notch:
The Victor: Pownce - With extra organization, they have added message groups, different styles of alerts, and a nice system of reply/communication.
The Update Methods
Having already covered the clients above, the biggest factor left is of course use of a API, Twitter has hands down got this corner covered, with companies like Woot, Dell, and various other Blogs/Events using Twitter for “live-ish” coverage of sales, events, postings on a main site, it has opened the door for content systems to really interact with another community without even trying hard.
Secondly Twitter has their SMS gateway as well as Mobile page to get your Tweet on while on the go.
The Victor: Twitter.
Overall Winner
Twitter is the more robust in overall features, mainly due to their API and existing community including Musicians, Actors/Actresses, famous nerds,etc. but Pownce has some features which if smoothed out a bit, and other functionality + API was added, would quickly surpass the functionality of Twitter.
For me, my day-to-day short of the occasional banter with Jake, is Twitter, but I say keep your eyes on Pownce, one that API opens up, I imagine you’ll see a few black-out days on their site as they have to adjust to new load from visitors, buy them pro memberships now
My Twitter [link]
My Pownce [link]
To milk duds. My local Blockbuster has a deal 2 boxes for $2 (plus tax) and every other time I goto exchange my onlines for in-stores I snag two boxes, and now only a few hours after, both boxes are gone.
Today was one of those days which hit the middle row - a good balance of high and lows, I enjoyed it, well minus throwing up lol - woke up about 2 hrs after going to bed and just had to rush off to the bathroom, however after that as the ol Mark Lowry bit goes “Don’t you feel better?” honestly I did, passed out and was asleep till 11:45am.
Did some running around, checked mail, stretched my legs, and I swung by the the ol office, and hung out for a while, looked at a few project issues they were having, got the flash one fixed up, another customer had server issues which I think I remedied, but they said their customer was having issues still - oddness indeed.
But anywhoo - just got a call to go hang out at Denny’s, so I am going pack up and move some cars around and head out. Have a Good Friday folks, think happy thoughts for me
Who knows what the heck is going on in my life anymore lol - not even I do! One day it’s major up up up - then the next it’s mellow, then it’s low - for a while there it was a nice middle of the road patch ah how I miss those days
I have started to re-think my AUP/TOS when it comes to sites getting hacked, some clients are awesome, they understand that their site is offline, they didn’t keep the software up, so it’s their fault - I love those clients. Then you have the other batch, who feel their hacked version of phpBB 0.1alpha was my bad, I should of somehow provided protection for that - I had one customer recently get on me a little upset because their software was broke after a hack, and they wanted the database, well for me to re-install the DB meant I needed to go over it a bit, search for rouge usernames in their forum, check access - basically security test a database. Not my job - I have been hired to do it, but this is just general support I have done it on, for some customers I am happy to do it, heck one even said thank you and kicked me down $25 via PayPal - now that client is my buddy
I dunno, just one of those days today I guess, things started out good, then just some of the same ol bunk waiting on my doorstep, but, here it is coming up on a new day, a fresh start, and hopefully a nice warm shower here shortly to take the layer of the day and wash it down the drain - of course since its still a little warm/humid, I’ll finish off the shower in freezing cold water to drop my core temp a bit
Lot’s to do, but I can’t seem to get ahead on it at all, design job looks like it fell thru, trying to salvage the hosting bit, few projects are wrapped up now, and working on a project off and on, just deployed it’s flash highlight widget which will scroll thru highlighted articles, pretty nice, some more CSS/Image work needed to spruce up the look and make a stand-alone article page so things can start rolling soon - and the usual billing backlog, server upgrades, and new server hardware, anyone want to come work for a hosting company for free?
Anywhoo - that’s my bit, 2m till Thursday - have a good one folks. Take Care.
Well tonight I am heading off to the mall to catch the magical world of Harry Potter - convinced Jake to come with so I didn’t venture out alone (apparently everyone does this thing called “sleeping” each night - apparently its common so you can wake up and goto this other thing “a job” the following day - I am not down with that
So Jake is off to take a powernap now, I am heading to his place @ 10:30pm to wake him up and drag him to first get twizlers and then to the show, I need to find more crazy movie friends, or just stop going to mid-week premieres and go with everyone else on the weekend, but the last couple of days, I needed a nice fun thing to do - so this is it, even got $300 today, as well as turned in a invoice for $85, and have another $300 coming for the server gig I did this weekend, budget is recuperating! So that’s definately good.
Anywhoo I am going to go find a lite bite to eat, and relax for a bit, then its load-up, load-out and off to a magical world of hogwarts
