Well instead of running out a buying an iPod, or a headset, what did I do? You guessed it, I ran out and got a server. There was a promotion on bandwidth that came across my desk, and I couldn’t pass it up, so I put in an order, and now I am just waiting to get the thing online, which means some folks who are on “friend” style accounts will be moved to a new server, also has room for backups, which is nice, and will actually make backups quicker and easier to get to - so very excited, in offering backups to other clients I cover a good chunk of the monthly bill, but there is more to cover, about $150 a month, which ain’t bad for server and connection.
Going to go pickup a headset tomorrow, as much as I’d like to get the Plantronics 665, the issue is not only cost, but sadly I can’t find a steady flow of positive reviews, granted some I read reference they are using the headset with a Bluetooth 1.2 phone which could accommodate for the static/drops they were having, and the Dash is a Bluetooth 2.0 - but I want to get something sooner than later, and as much as I’d love to wait for Newegg, I think I am going to go snag the same headset again, it is comfy, and about the same price range as the on sale ones around town.
I finished up the Photography client, she’s busy uploading photos to her gallery, going to experiment and make her some drafts of a logo, this way she’ll have something hi-res for print/clothing should she need it, and it’ll make her site look even better (already looks good as is) - but I may have another job doing some design, which is nice, granted not my usual type of work, but it’ll be cool to do, really customizing a template, but some other things as we roll into August will help bring in some more money monthly, plus I want to focus on getting the TN page revived, and possibly another hosting venue, making Thrust Network the mama homepage with core service offerings and such, and a Hosting Front to offer basic hosting for things not just “A website” so offer “Blog Hosting” or “Gallery Hosting” type of setups.
Sysadmin day is coming up on the 27th, and while some know about it, they have asked me what I want lol - and I feel like a kid at Christmas, never really thought about it, and I appreciate the thought - at this point really, donations for an iPod, WoW Gift Card, A Book, or a DVD, I suppose I could freshen up the Amazon/ThinkGeek wishlists, but honestly - I am just happy that folks thought of me, some I of course hinted at it (aka the chatroom) and others knew about it, and asked me beforehand so very cool - but if ya want to send some love, PayPal tips are welcome, gift cards to food, whatever really - but the ultimate would be a iPod 80gb (no pressure) 
Anywhoo - thats things in a nutshell, a few other things I may get to discuss in the coming weeks, some deals I am trying to work out, also need to snag a post office box too, as the office building I use as a maildrop is getting completely re-modeled, which means 3 months without it, but the plans look good for afterwards and the owner made me an office - very fancy indeed… wonder if I get wood floors, always wanted wood floors…. ah good times. Thanks for stopping by folks, more later this week I’m sure.
Well, its 83F outside, overcast a bit, but still a pleasant day - got a project last night, finished it last night, a nice $300 payday in my pocket, should help the budget level out a bit more, I do have a invoice to drop off at my job from last week, $85 for an hour of time, not too shabby.
Tonight is the midnight premiere of Harry Potter - however so far, no one wants to go 
I am thinking of going my myself, but that’s never any fun, plus I can’t finish an entire tub of popcorn on my own! but we shall see how tired I am, and if I don’t have other plans popup in the day.
Anywhoo - have a good Tuesday folks.
Now and again I help out a friend or two with PHP code, today I was given a good little challenge to help on, the issue was a event calendar, one side displayed the text title/date/time of the event, the other side showed a thumbnail of the event’s flyer, the task was simple:
- When you click the TEXT link it would change the side picture template (already working)
- Data for Events/Info pulled from database (already working)
- When you click thumbnail, have it popup the full-sized image (not working)
So #3 is where I came in, to find a solution for the code bit to make it dynamically load the pop-up code instead of the one static image it was doing, so I got to thinking, and what I came up with was tweaking the existing javascript in the PHP end of things - I made a function that set one of the variables needed in the javascript popup code “imageURL” so when you clicked the link and it went to change the image thumbnail, it set a variable that was the image location the popup needed.
Was pretty cool, I realize that seems maybe trivial at some level, but it was a fun challenge to tackle with a hybrid of php & javascript,it was a nice stretch of the ol brain as javascript is not one of my languages of choice, but in this case my knowledge cut it 
and I made a few other tweaks to the code - came out really nice.
Well busy night tonight, Denny’s, Server Migration, Sleep - I personally after the in-and-out heat today could go for “sleep” but the migration should go pretty smooth - so on with the evening - have a good weekend folks!
How is it that with all the increased projects on the table, and money coming in, my bank account quickly found its way to $24 last night? Gone over everything - few spot expenses I didn’t expect this past month, but I guess I just need to get a better budget
Got a few gigs lined up, so pretty happy about that, nearly $450 from one client for some basic work, trying to line up a few monthly contracts to equal another $1500 into the monthly budget, but it’ll probably only end up being $500 - but hey beggars can’t be choosers, money is money, so between that, and a MASSIVE audit planned for all servers, should help level things out, going to do the audit during a migration I am doing for a guy this weekend, all in all should help make up for some of the cash I hadn’t expected to spend.
Budget is a big thing right now, actually I have sworn off credit cards, only spending money I have, the CS3 upgrade was my last big purchase for quite a while, going to try and sort out my banking bits, and get savings rolling, but also with the extra projects and finances from them, I hope to get a little bit of a surplus, and pay off some company cards used for getting the new servers up, software on the servers, etc. so hopefully get the budget all leveled out here before year’s end.
Anywhoo - been a mixed day, got some things done, but also got some things to work out, but all in all, I’m alive, so I can’t complain too much, even the 116F+ weather isn’t too much of a bother to me…. I just want a nap.
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.
For the last 2 years I have been trying to find a way to unhook myself from servers a bit, really wanting to focus on other things in life, and have someone worry about the day-in-day out a bit, but the catch is server admin work usually pays well so it has it’s perks, however sadly it can be very high-stress, low rewards, and very demanding - sounds like a job right? Well after a few years, I have begun to get tired - granted some processes are automated now in normal maintenance I would do, but at the same time, just seems like more and more folks are stepping away from hosting with me for the bargain hosts.
I know this isn’t the first time I have wrote about this, and I imagine it will probably not be the last, just a little vent session - I have been testing out managed hosting solutions, to take some of the load off me, and have another company manage server updates, security, firewalls, etc. - why? ease of operation, I’d still run my own servers - probably 2 at most, but mainly for the special cases I have, which don’t fit into the mold of standard “hosting” so to speak - but that would lower the load quite a bit.
My dream solution? Entire infrastructure rebuilt from the ground up, new batch of servers all Dual Dual Core, at least 4GB of ram per, nice raid or sans solution for storage - a better backup solution than the current setup (hate the way cPanel packages accounts, takes too long, but works great if a restore is needed.) - I’d also like 2-3 employees to help balance the load of server work, but then a 4th person to do book-keeping and billing, to take the iron out of my fire, and get the budget leveled out and dead-beats gone.
Who knows, I would love to make some changes this year, pick up some programming and design gigs again, but who knows, lots to ponder, been a busy morning thus far, already 5 hours in, and lots done, but more to do.
I am slowly starting to grab hold of CSS … I think, thus why as the subject notes - I have lowered the CSS Hate Level. I have been working on a project, and while I don’t know the level of “proper” CSS coding I am making on my HTML end, the bottom line, I have a working site layout for a project I am doing, and it looks “okay” still some fine tuning to do, but all in all, looks quite well.
In other news, I am sleepy - not sure it’ll ever go away, but with explosions last night (fireworks started selling yesterday) I thought I’d have a problem getting to sleep, instead I passed out quickly, and woke up around 6am this morning, yay? lol - but I am already into my day - going to order a server at 8am or so, see if I can’t get it online and ready to go within the next 3 days, do some dry runs with migration between cPanel 11 boxes shouldn’t be a major deal, but if so, that’ll give me 2 days to get it ironed out.
Anywhoo - onto Monday, Transformers tomorrow, lots to do lots to do. Have a Good week Folks!
