11-30-2007 it Arrives.

So tomorrow the goods from Newegg (most of them) are set to show up, sadly 3 things are not coming in this batch, 2 are coming from PA and the 3rd is coming from AZ - so probably Monday/Tuesday for everything.

I am not going to say what all I picked up, it was my last hurrah for the year -it was on Newegg’s buyer credit, so I have payments, which is nice, I want to have it paid off ASAP, which is what all this work is leading up to - I spent a few hours on TN layout as I am going to pretty much finish everything Saturday and launch Monday the new goodies, and a newsletter for at least FH to go out on Friday night after I get back from Nacho Bar Night (woot!) but I am hoping Monday I’ll be able to start getting a higher volume of monthly sales, get things back to the hay-day of hosting, granted I know it’s going to be a tough sale in some cases, but I am hopeful that the positive word of mouth from site owners will encourage others to move over.

So tomorrow is a busy busy day, I am going to try and have beta 1 of EE’s listing system, search I am going to always been fine tuning, but a beta of it too, the Admin interface and sign-up is the last hurdle really, but all in all I am hoping to hear back on the final call on the add-on, which could mean some extra money, plus some slight adjustment to what I am working on now, plus I sorted a billing issue, so another $400 coming in, good stuff going down, but I know come Monday, I am going to be exhausted.

Just a lot of fun stuff, busy stuff, work stuff, sometimes I wonder how I stay sane… oh wait. I’m not. so busy busy I am excited about the break tomorrow for Nacho Bar, should be tasty, and cheaper than the past few weeks of weekly Denny’s - which was fun, but not cheap! So hopefully everyone can make it, some hanging out, maybe a cheap movie afterwards, who knows! Lots of options, then it’s a drive home, and back to the joy of work work work.

Anywhoo - that’s my check in, I’ll post pictures tomorrow of the project I have been working on with this Newegg purchase - it’s a two fold purchase, which I’ll explain after I get it setup and pictures taken. So have a good Thursday, and if your in Bakersfield, and are interested in Friday Night Dinners with the gang, lemme know! I keep expanding it slowly, added another face last week, this week a few more, so if your game drop a comment to this post or shoot me an email. Night all!

A Good Day

A good day thus far, barely 5pm and so far so good, a large lunch (Subway FEAST), got my final mailings done for TN - included a letter about the switch to making invoices digital - worked on the books a bit to look at the move on servers come 2008, worked on code for RNKDF, basically wrote a small mail form app with some nice little features.

It was a cool day, and now I think I have my bedroom all figured out - picked out a TV for the room, and going to convert the current Linux rig into the Vista rig as planned, picking up a TV tuner so I an use Vista’s media center features, but it should be fun, plus from my couch across the way I can relax, veg out, and use the laptop.

Tonight is working on graphics for the Affiliate programs, and getting things rolling for that on the 3rd, as well as getting the new features ready for each site and ready to go for the big push thru December and into 2008.

Good stuff, looking forward to things moving forward, put the Google Ads on a few sites I sponsor and here on the blog, making about $1 a day - not a TON, but hey, every little bit helps - and all part of playing with Google AdSense on pages to really get a feel for it, as I have been toying with a website again, and have some folks still interested in interacting with it - so time will tell.

Anywhoo - back to it, more EE code to do, may have a extra leg on it to work on, extra $300 will come in handy on the budget, really need to get it up and up more, so we shall see! Have a good on folks, I am off to it.

Off to The Evergreen State (maybe…)

For a good long while now I have been wanting to take a road trip to see my grandparents and assorted other family members - as always, something holds me up and I can’t ever find the time, but this morning my mom asked me before I passed out if I wanted to tag-team the trip with my dad, as he wants to see his folks, and she knows I want to go nuts with a camera (heck the road trip alone, Washington + Snow? Oh yes).

So I am looking at my schedule, I want to get some things done, and I am thinking about ditching the T-Mobile Wireless package, as nice as it is, Sprint has their Wireless Broadband in both my local area, as well as along the travel path, if nothing else, I’ll trial it on the trip but we’ll see how it all goes, just need to get some things wrapped up here and figure out a plan with my dad to get the route all figured out.

Good stuff, so keep me in your prayers that I can get this all rolling! Donations to the travel fund are appreciated but should be a interesting trip, if we take my care it’ll be its first out of state trip (go car!) and hopefully lots of good fun! Anywhoo - back to work, lots to do.

Nap or Breakfast… Breakfast…

So I got more or less all of RM done last night, well some fine tuning I am sure, but the core is done, the homepage is working short of 1 loop, I started writing it, then got side tracked with dinner and new week weeklies, but it’s all looking good, maybe an hour (being very generous) before it’s done, then tomorrow my time will be split up among a few projects namely in the code realm EE, other depts are billing wrap-up - only like 4 left on the old system, final mail-out of legacy invoices for the year, next year all digital! and last but not least, the continued journey at sorting piles here in my room, I got a big section cleaned out and sorted, I am looking to start putting together a eBay / Garage Sale list soon, as I have a lot of gear I don’t use anymore.

But the week ahead looks good, sure sure, some stress areas already forefront in my mind, but I also want to push towards the release of the Affiliate Program, TN website launch, and closing out the old Credit Card processor for starters, the other canceled services will come soon, but in some cases probably not till after the first of the year, but I am hopeful that things will start to level out, I am hoping 1 customer from the TN side will get things in order this week and we can finalize their bill, it’s just dragging on now it seems, but hopefully this week will produce a final solution to the game we’ve been playing.

Anywhoo - if I am still awake at 3am, I am going to JNB for a Sausage, Egg & Cheese Biscuit Combo with some OJ and keep pushing forward on the morning, but if not I’ll get a few hours in, and get to work on this crazy week. Night All - Happy Post Turkeyday!

Just like ol times…

Ah the joys of being awake. I am sitting here sipping some hot chocolate, watching the office, pondering what I am doing for this time while I’m awake and alive at this lovely hour.

I have been pondering a XBox360 for a while, but I think I am going to continue to hold off for now, as cool as it’d be, it’s a stress on the budget I don’t need right now, and I have other financial things to focus on right now, I want to get back to building the savings, my hope is more projects are going to roll up, but with the server move push for the first of the year, I am hoping for reduced costs, higher server performance, continue the journey to branch into Windows hosting, good stuff.

I dunno, I am hoping sleep will come soon, I know I shouldn’t be sleep deprived and blog, but hey - its how I roll, so I am going to roll towards bed and hope for sleep to come. Night folks.

Is it really Saturday?

What a week, seems like it went by insanely fast, thanksgiving was quick (but tasty), had the weekly Friday meal with friends, of course now I am here on a weekend, and sadly all I can think to do… Work. All in All projects are nearly done, some will be completed on Monday (Billing Shutdowns and such) - but this weekend is some final code bits, the RM project has been done in the realm of data conversion (all I was hired to do) but I am helping out with the layout adjustments to make it easy for him to update - just a few bits left to code, going to make all sub-areas pretty much the same, just need to make a homepage where he can edit and manage the main page.

So I am slow to work, I spent some time checking out the budget, and so far so good, it’s a tight month, but if all things come thru - ahead again, nice way to close out a month, I am hoping with 12/1 coming up soon I can get the Affiliate program going on both sides of the fence can encourage some folks to invite friends over to host with me, be nice to see some new faces, got 1 today, which was nice, but everyone keeps doing the “Simple” package - but such is the hosting game, folks get what they need, or are woo’d away with large product offerings with small dollar amounts attached… it’s going good though, hoping I can continue to get more coding projects - good infusion to the budget.

Anywhoo, I am going to go try and put in at least an hour on code, then take a break for a bit. Have a good Saturday folks.

More Secure PayPal?

About a week ago I requested on of PayPal’s new “Security Key” - having done some more business via PayPal I felt some added security wasn’t a bad idea, and a randomly generated every 30 second code seemed like a simple enough way to do it, granted to me it doesn’t seem un-crackable long-term but like most things it’s only a matter of time, but for now, it’s pretty spiffy.

I got a package in the mail from PayPal today, nice little envelope containing some paper work including a reminder card for your wallet (on how it works), a how-to card on how to login and get it linked to your account, a receipt for your $5 purchase, and 10 tips on how to NOT give away your password to bad people - lastly it included a small box for the key generator, which is a grey little wonder (not the first time I’ve seen one though) - I have been at high-end data centers which used them to augment their own base security cards and such - you press the grey button and you get a new code.

So I went thru the setup which was a breeze, it asks for the serial number of the device, and then has you generate a code by pressing the grey button, then you get to do a 30 second countdown, then generate a fresh one - and ta-da your set, I personally wanted to try it out, so I logged out, and followed the instructions on how to login using the code, no issue what-so-ever.

The plastic generator is a bit cheap filling, I mean for $5 I wasn’t expecting a metal body to it, but I doubt it’s something I’ll keep on my keychain as I rarely rarely literally never access PayPal remotely, but all in all it’s something that isn’t a bad idea to leave on a desk - as most hacks to PayPal come from phishing attempts via Email/Phone - which I think should of been on their “10 Tips”, but maybe space was limited - but for $5, a little wait in the mail, it’s a nice additional security to have for your funds.