Well headache is finally gone, and so far today things are going good - even got a call from family up in Washington State who invited our family up to Washington for Thanksgiving! Which could be fun, and I looked up rates for flying - $289 round trip! So something to set aside money for I think, of course going to see what the rest of the family is thinking, though if they aren’t, I might, be fun to spend a holiday with my dad’s family - I don’t get to see them that often.
Projects are going good - got the project me and Dan are working on setup on the server, no website just yet, but I am going to wrap up the loose ends of the database this afternoon/evening and get things online for tomorrow so they can offer pre-registration, so very excited, plus the owner of the site wants to give me more money next week, so thats a plus as well!
The kMan okay’d my price list, and I sent him a invoice of the work I’ve done thus far, no word back, but after lunch (which is beeping at me now), I am going to give him a buzz and see if I can get paid today or at the very least a good chunk of it as I need to get the ol bank account up and happy again (stupid budget!).
Well another day, another apple press conference - if there’s no iPod’s announced, then no big deal, I think I’ll still go snag a 80gb one - but then again, I may continue to wait a bit, not 100% sure, but such is my life as of late.
Had a nice chat on the phone yesterday about work, trying to nail down exactly what I am doing for the kMan, and make sure that I am not falling short of what he’s wanting but at the same time that I am not picking up more work than I should be, as there is a lot to do lately, and in the end my time as of late is very rare for free time it seems, but that in itself is a good thing.
New Billing system is going to be officially “purchased” this week, it’ll allow me to merge both billing and support into one package - I think though, I am going to keep myTT for doing 3rd party support long term, but if that isn’t really “jumping” then I am going to call that a wash and let the domain sit for a while as I think, all in all though the new billing system looks good, I want to do some more testing before I start importing folks, as well as make a universal simple theme for it aside from the built in one, something I never did with Modernbill, but the lucky billing system change is WHMCS - simple, clean, good customer access, and something I have been really wanting, customer affiliate system - I know there are add-on’s for ol MB but the move from 4.x->5.x looked to be a pain, and I just don’t want something TOO involved, while granted I am going to be doing a full audit and import folks one by one, it’s a needed thing that with any billing system I was going to need to do.
Anywhoo - writing this blog from Textmate, finally got around to playing with it’s blog feature (only owned it what 2 years now?) it’s pretty slick, granting when I hit post it posts I’ll probably post more once Apple’s press confrence is in motion or over, so we shall see what happens! Donations still welcomed!
Well going to the coast today (surprise Bro!) - my mom is spending a week or so up there, and my dad wants some more time on his project car, so he’s working on it thru the weekend, and then coming up on Monday to vacation with her - but I really wish I had my iPod *tear* - and while I might have a check coming in today which would let me splurge, run to target and get one, there of course is the lingering Apple event on the 5th, now one of the few things rumored are new iPods, which if Apple keeps with it’s track record as of late, it has a 50/50 chance with me (love the iMac keyboard, didn’t like the new iMac - long story) - so part of me wants to wait, and another part says (4 hrs in the car over the next 2 days iPod = Good) - but another part says, suck it up. LoL.
The thing that sucks is waiting for something that could be “Wow” or “oh… cool” - there have been mockups of a new Nano-ish iPod offering, not for me, my dream would be a wider screen (aka iPhone-ish size) and Flash based storage (30gb in a flash… oh yes) - so we shall see, but then again, I may just jump the gun, and get a 80gb iPod sooner than later, if the check happens today, I can do it easy, but then again, patience? LOL.
So far the week has started to mellow out a bit, some code work to do this morning, I do need to get my car over to the car-wash (needs a good deep clean/vacuuming) and a oil change as well, and I am tempted to call my insurance company and say “Haha!” as they made me go up to 10k miles, and this past year of car insurance I only did my original estimate of 8k - nerds. But I only paid a month of them as I think once the funds balance out next month I’ll switch to Progressive who was one of the few companies to give me a very nice quote.
Anywhoo - been up since 3am, a slew of things to do today, oil change is my big list item, but just got the car all cleared out, and ready to go in, not sure what time they open, but I am guessing around 10am would be more than perfect to go swing by a check - and I need to run by the bank deposit some money, and break a $100 bill into some $20’s for the trip, life - busy busy. TTFN friends.
Well my old old old old (insert additional old’s) keyboard was having some issues, just seemed to take more and more to get the thing to type, things like oh I don’t know “spacebar” decided on occasion not to work, or the E key would simply not work either - so after thinking about it and watching CompUSA (wanted to see it first) I decided to venture down and give the new Apple keyboard a demo, the feel is actually rather nice, I saw the new iMac’s and I must say - still not impressed, Apple makes nice stuff, but at the same time its the iMac, I had hoped for some innovation in the all-in-one design, but at least it had the keyboard attached for demo.
It is very nice, still haven’t done the apple keyboard update, requires me to reboot, and I have things running for a while, so I can’t really shut down just yet, but probably tomorrow - but all in all, it is a nice feel, sleek look, and things plug in really nicely. Now I just need a Mac Pro and 2 big monitors, and I am set!
Tomorrow flags a new day, some things on the todo include - some CSS, working to make a little “Client Preview” app to replace the ol static HTML, everything will run off a txt file and let me do updates a LOT faster vs. by hand editing some HTML code, all formatting will just work, once it’s done, its easy to update and then some - also the more pressing project is to finish the first run of the sign-up app, still fiddling with AJAX to do dynamic username lookups, but I may ditch that and do a secondary screen after failure that says “Your name was taken” and have them choose another, or simply pick the username first before they re-enter passwords and such 30 times.
So! I am going to wrap it up and call it a night, as much as I’d love to stay up I want to try and keep a semi-regular sleep schedule, granted it’ll be ruined tomorrow with the eclipse, and mars, but hey such is life but tomorrow I have a lot to get done, and more fun playing with the new billing system which I think will become the new backend for billing/support on FH - and soon will do the same for TN - joy joy
Anywhoo - have a good week folks, thanks for the prayers, im’s and kind donations - who hopefully this week will go well, and who knows, in time that ol iPod may be mine again. Night!
Oh how I loathe and love technology sometimes I miss my iPod for my car, it was nice to have my collection on hand in the car, easy to access, not to mention easy to put on headphones at night and pull up a playlist and rock out while coding ah only in due time, I almost bought one at Target the other day, but I held myself back… a while longer still… if only I had $350 on hand for the 80gb model…. ah a boy can dream can’t he?
Tonight it was one wild time after another, got to hang out with friends, it was a good time, a really nice Saturday night, granted more sleep might of been a good idea, but all in all, fun fun - played a little poker, still suck lol - but I want to get some rules down for blackjack, I think it’d be fun - and I’m not bad at it but hopefully if I can wing it, more fun to come as the summer ends and we all settle into patterns again.
Work front.. some things brewing I think… a weird Friday, good/bad - but things could be moving forward, found out some odd stuff about some folks, about how they think of me apparently, and the level of respect they have for others I know - sad really, but I suppose folks aren’t always what they seem, such is life, and life goes on, but in my own life, some things could be in the works which could make some good changes.
Anywhoo, its almost 4am, I am watching Eureka, drinking water, and pondering sleep after this episode … so I wish you all a happy Sunday, take care!
Odd title, its what I aim for most of the time, so what’s gone down since yesterday? Well I know I need to get my last bits done, considering calling the cable company in the AM, just been busy busy - but the bank bit got finalized, took in my $2 and got the account squared away, $3 overage, $1 in the account, $2 in hand, and the gal closed it up nicely. Big stress off, then I said “It would of almost been easier to sign up at ING” - she replied “I would. I love ING” lol - I think that’s the plan - I may just end up canceling my personal account with WAMU, and just keep only my business banking there, and get the Orange Checking/Savings setup, and call it good - but I already have the savings underway, put in $15 for starters, going to try and put in at least $15 each month if not more.
Coding! Got me some HTML from mr. dan-o, going to fiddle with some code concepts for our meeting with this client, want to show him some roughs of what I have in my head, and let him see how it can flow - but thats pretty fun, I like concepts lately, I can lay some ground work, and the client can have some base functionality and I don’t have to code 3 days for a COMPLEX demo, I can give a workable bit, and then fill in the blanks later.
Murder close to home… this morning when I woke up I knew I had heard police sirens, but when I looked out the living room window, there was nothing, no cars, no trucks, quiet morning, went to work, thought nothing of it - then my neighbor called and said there were police near her house, though she lives across the street from me, I saw nothing still, so I put on sandals walked out, saw one, walked further, saw the entire top half of the street shut down, packed with police cars, police tape, etc. crazy crazy.
Okay - so it wasn’t that bad, just some things towards the afternoon, just feel bad for my friend’s business, he has lost hope, and with a small business it’s not hard to do, clients are slow to pay, or choose “not” to pay, budget is tight, things come, things go - and while I can safely say I don’t run a perfect business, I do my best, and when I get down, and bummed about things, I take a step back.
Life is perspective - this week looking back has been some things which really helped re-focus me a bit, things got done that needed to be done, and I saw things put into motion which could give things a nice spin and make lives better, not just my own, but a lot of people I know, but when your nose to nose with life, you only see two eyes staring back at you - take a step back, get the bigger picture, see the whole issue, not just that which is 3in away from your face.
I have been told a few times over the last 3 weeks that I work things out in my mind differently than most, and while some think that is a blessing, sometimes it is a curse from over-thinking, to over-doing, to setting aside what some would consider “logical” thought, and doing what my heart tells me is right - like businesses I have helped over the last 6 years, when I should of setup a job, I continued to help - so its not always the best “outcome” as I would say it’s the curse of being nice, but in the end, life goes on - and a friend of mine see’s recent changes in his life as a similar curse of being nice.
Life goes on, life changes, goals/dreams/desires change - life is progressive, it’s adaptive, its growing and changing - finding hope where there is none, sometimes you have to let go that things will work out way ABC, and see that XYZ is already waiting for you
So that’s my ramble, that sums up a lot going on in my head, and I know all the little things ,the changes in companies, the changes in business, it’ll all work out in the end, just takes time! For now, I am going to go play with CakePHP a bit more, printed the 150 page manual, slowly thumbing threw it to get some of the constructs down…. fun reading for a Friday Have a Good One Folks!
I’ll probably post more once Apple’s press confrence is in motion or over, so we shall see what happens! Donations still welcomed!
TTFN friends.
