Archive for 'prayer requests'
One of the main tools in this new anti-spam system is DSPAM and I must say I quite enjoy it, it’s filtering has been more dead-on than SA, not saying SA can’t be tuned, but just out of the box this seems (thus far) to be doing a lot better, for example…
My dad’s Spam Stats for the last 24 hours, my dad’s email has become a spam-trap (actually that’s my moms) - but all in all, this has done great, some mini-false positives here and there but the DSPAM WebUI is wonderful for managing the Quarantine of spam, and re-training the system what is good, what is bad.
So for the last 12 hours I have moved TN to this filter, and so far so good, like 2 marked as spam that were not, but now it has been trained they are good. So I am thinking if TN looks good tomorrow, FH will follow suit and get anti-spam’d long-term I want to work to really re-configure the system to work off domain, not per-user-account created, I want to make it simple as a pass-through spam proxy, so I can migrate entire servers to this anti-spam solution and give everyone a more robust solution against spam, and in the end, help take some load of SA on the server side of each server.
So this week I am hoping to really push some sales, get some finances in check, and first and foremost get some bills paid off, secondly get monthly revenues up, so I could definitely use some prayers - I want to continue to raise profits, and get things even more streamlined, but it just seems things keep holding me back, but this week my hope is some of the projects pay off, and things can continue to grow and expand and allow me to get my own place, get a stable/steady monthly budget, so hopefully this week will enter a few good things like a new Credit Card processing system including Discover and AMEX, but also expansion into the new billing system and getting folks all up-to-date in their billing, so I know where I really stand on some things - so lift a few up for me, and if you have some spare cash just lying around, feel free to send it to me 
Anywhoo - this night seems to be dragging on and on, a tad bored really, though at 10:30pm I suppose I should be sleeping… who knows maybe soon, for now though, I’ll say good night and take care!
Weekends are always… well uneventful, mainly I use them for sleep, or getting into trouble (muwhahaha) but this weekend was nice, got to hang out with some friends and have some food (which they paid for, thank you Noah & Rosie) - heck they even bought me ice cream - total score but also got to have some good times hangin with the kMan at his new temporary office which is just a hop-skip-and-a-jump from me down the freeway, which is pretty cool, even got a key!
But the new week is coming, and I am actually pretty excited about it, get some more money coming in - tomorrow I find out about some server services, which could infuse the business a bit more, which is nice, also helps me pay some bills, not to mention get one step closer to an apartment, so pretty jazzed indeed, already increased the monthly revenue about $350 a month, just need to keep it rolling and keep the side work flowing aside from hosting, I really want to try and wing it before years end for real this year, so some work this week as well on the hosting front’s finishing up a re-vamped/re-tooled TN and get a new special/touch-up the FH site which just had it’s back-end all updated to all the newer security patches, went very smoothly.
Keep me in your prayers, while I know not a TON of you read this daily (heck I don’t post daily) - I know some of you check in on this now and again, and I’d appreciate some prayers, really working hard to find a good balance in life between work / family / friends / and most importantly faith - so hopefully as things level out these next few weeks I can really make a good effort to get things taken care of in that respect, not to mention finding a nice apartment in a good area, already have 2 places picked out from online, I need to go out and see what they are like aside from what the monitor shows me already have had several friends in town offer help in moving, so very grateful for that.
Anywhoo - thanks for stopping by, thanks for taking a minute to read this ol fart’s blog of thoughts, hopefully this week will turn out as good as last week! Take care all, have a good week!
Busy busy - Today was just one of those days, wished a lot more had been done, wish some things had not taken up some of my time, but such is life I suppose - I have a lot on my mind, and with that sometimes my ability to reason and be rational about situations goes out the window, I sat down for a little over an hour to watch some recorded TV, let me relax a bit - but still just a temporary escape.
Some things happened good, server client paid today, so that’s a plus, no having to scrounge for funds or kill a server, got a check in the mail I wasn’t expecting… sure sure it’s for $15 but hey - that’s eat’n money I had hoped for another positive talk about business, but it never seemed to happen, it was one up’d by a site getting hacked that belongs to local government, and having to do some disabling of it and get it temporarily cleaned up, but even there, some more work to come.
I would ask of you all who read this to keep me in your prayers, as of late I feel like I am on the edge of a big step in life, big changes, big adjustments - some things like an apartment, job, etc. all are big parts, but I dunno, that is one thing in my mind lately I have been throwing around that whole “ah life” bit, trying to figure out what I’m here for as sometimes while I do love helping folks, I feel like a rag doll, just tossed around then left by the wayside - people who claim I am as I have said before “worth your weight in gold!” I sure sometimes that folks only say that to keep me happy and part of the team 
but its all part of this change I think, I dunno, just lately I feel different, aside from sleep deprived (that’s nothing new) I just feel like I just have to go a little further and it’ll be to a next step. I guess time will tell.
For now I will say my usual “Anywhoo…” and log off, I want to hit the bathroom, then head up the mountain, hoping to enjoy the calm, the breeze, and possibly the chance to see 2 moons in the sky during this lunar eclipse. So thanks in advance for the prayers, more later.
Well Wed. was a good day overall, granted I didn’t get as much done as I’d of liked, but in the end, I got things done 
got to have a chat about some work/business, worked on the new spam issue - the filter on server (SA) is keeping up, but it’s increasing load, so at peak times of the day load is slightly higher, but not horrible.
Things are coming around though I think, and while I found myself @ Apple.com looking at iPod’s, I know that will have to wait till I can be sure the budget is 100% sorted, and if this work comes through as well as 2 side projects, then it’s even better, and within 2 months I’ll just save and get a 80gb if I can wing it.
Got my ING account activated entirely now, a whole whompin $15 in it I am going to try and put at least $15 a month in there if not more, and start to build up a little something for a rainy day - I think I may also cancel my checking @ WAMU for personal, and make ING it’s new home, that way if I need funds from savings, I can do a transfer online to the checking account and use the debit card - or so is my current thinking.
Anywhoo… while there is a ton of things on my mind, a lot of things I hope come to pass job wise, it’s 4am, been up since 2am, may try to get some sleep, I have to write up a server move though for a customer, and then get things ready for the LONG transfer night, as the current line the customer has is 768kb up, and he has a bit of info Keep me in your prayers though if ya can, business is not in a horrible slump but it has slowed, and a few customers have closed down their sites (granted after 4+ years) so lost some monthly revenues, and I need to work on a promotion to get that number back up a bit if I can… the joys of work have a good Thursday folks.
It is going to be a wild one, this past week was a bit of a whirlwind, and this next week, sure to be more of the same… so I am turning in early (well for me anyway) been toying with a front-end to a backup system, so far it seem’s simple enough…. just want to implement some security and a web based front-end - long story.
Anywhoo …. thats really it, just a quick blip on the radar.. keep me in your prayers, lots on the horizon, more on that later.
Welcome to Friday! Hurray! Very happy that the weekend is nearly upon me, hoping some checks come in tomorrow and I can do the happy dance on my way to the bank, pretty happy though on how this rough week has all panned out - got the new server up and running, even accomplished the task of quite possibly making Mailcleaner work under OpenVZ - which took the help of another product from Swsoft, namely Parallels, was able to migrate ‘mostly’ things over, some blips with the SNMP bit, but this should help make folks have several redundant nodes for the anti-spam service.
So Friday should be almost restful, possibly more of a Saturday day off - but tonight’s break was lovely, got to hang out with my ol pal, ol chum, ol chohart in crime, mr. poon (and Val made us cookies!), it was a nice visit, and in our classic fashion, talking up a storm about everything until midnight, just barely got home! But a awesome visit, got to chat it up, talk movies, talk work, talk life, a wonderful evening.
Picked up the “Bourne Files” from Costco, basically Bourne Identity and Supremacy in a single pack for $15! Not too shabby, so going to lean back and enjoy that a little, also started drafting the notes for the full run of the “friends” server, so far so good, also looking at a media component for Churches, Fan Sites, Photographers, sort of like the Amazon S3 storage services at some level, but a chunk of space on the server, with a sizeable amount of bandwidth, talking in the realm of say 100GB of transfer, which REALLY should be more than enough for any size site, but it’ll have sizes, just something to allow churches to still afford the $5 a month hosting, but not have their sermons take up all their space & all their bandwidth.
I am sure there is something I am missing, granting it’s SysAdmin day, I guess really I should get the day off…. right? But thats never the case usually Pray for a easy day folks! But anywhoo, I am going to sign-off, and go find a snack (pudding?) and sit here and enjoy everyone’s favorite memory missing action hero (at least mine) Have a Good One Folks!
Lately the big thing I have noticed in my life is the normal the “status quo”, or the familiar is not always the “normal” I am really wanting - for a few years now I have strived to make changes in my life, from my dealings with anxiety, a hint of anti-social behavior, traveling, and of course my favorite - meeting with clients - so definitely the normal behavior of hiding out in my cave has changed, but some things always seem to go back to what’s considered “normal”.
This week has some things in store for me, a server project, working on a website project which has taken a lot of time for code, design, and learning an entirely new development platform, namely flash - but I find myself falling back on my old habits, and going towards what is familiar and common to me, not venturing past the normal thing I know onto other ventures - but I am trying to, and I dare to quote ZeFrank - “break that cycle” - to get out of old habits, to get out of things I’ve done so long they are common place in my life, from a spiritual standpoint its a perfect description of sin, that little ol secret sin one has (you know that one…) - that silly little thing that temptation rears its head and says “Oh it won’t hurt anymore” - we all have those in our daily lives (how many coffees was that today? or why were you telling at that driver?) its not huge, in all cases, but its that little secret bit.
Lately I find myself desiring change, desiring a larger income to cover some bills, get a place, etc. you know, the little things but at the same time I have to break some common cycles I have which are saying “oh its not a problem, I can do that” and not only challenge myself, but challenge those who claim I am worth my weight in gold, and see if they are willing to help me out even with a 10th of that weight - to saying no to friends when I am simply too tired, to know my physical limits, but not also being afraid to push those limits now and again and see what these sore bones are capable of - this is the first night in a few weeks where I have been up past 9:25pm
But I’d really appreciate your prayers for me, I know there are some changes going on with me, some that I finally just let into that I have been fighting against, some I needed to have happen, and some that happened because I was just pushed beyond my limits and unable to hold back the flood gates - a lot is in the works, a lot is on my plate, and sometimes being a single man business can be tough, but hopefully, things will level out here soon, and that balance I am always looking to find, will be found.
Anywhoo - eyes are starting to close, so it must be time, go see Transformers, well worth the money - and if I don’t get a chance to blog tomorrow, happy 4th of july. I know you don’t all comment, but I know a few of you who read regularly to see what’s going on in my ol crazy world I call life, thanks for reading. Night.
