So yes, it’s 2am. I finished the last bits of my final number crunching, and I have come to a conclusion, it is so time for accounting software and taking the time to learn it. TN has been growing slowly, nearly 10k more in this past year, and about another 1k in actual profit made, and of course, this year is going to be no different, with costs lowered on my end, and in turn also offering more to customers, I see some growth, but then also this calendar year I have a W2 coming, fun fun. In the end I paid more than last year (which I expected) the total was $282 (about $100~ more than last year), and as usual, state is no refund, nothing due. PTL.
Lots of prayer during taxes, TurboTax always scares the crap out of me every year, as it keeps a running tally of Tax owed, then after areas adds in the new deductions - so at one point I had $1,925 in taxes, and just started praying as I went over numbers again and again, (I need sleep) - only to run thru things, and finally say the classic “Your will be done” as over the last week funds have been coming in very steady, so I figured God was preparing me for taxes, well after hitting next to go into the new area, it re-calculated and it was less, then I got EIC and we arrived, lots of prayer tonight, and really a lot over the last few days, stress at work, taxes looming, and the upcoming court fun of my ticket, going to call the courts today from work and see what they say, if I can just pay it and do traffic school, so game.
Sleep is nearing, just HAD to get taxes done, and with the e-File it’s already post marked today, but again as I say every year, I want to do next year better, and I may form a LLC for ThrustNet and go from there, not 100% sure, but it may be time for an accountant as well - but with work in under 6 hours, I should probably wrap it up.
Anyhwoo - I’ll hit up the blog tomorrow from work, just been busy, tad crazy, and in this job I feel like I am re-living my first year of businesses as I am once again having hassles with what used to be Arrival, but at some level it’s not their fault, and yet they aren’t working with us either, long story, more later I am sure, but for now — thanks for all the prayers, thanks to folks who IM’d me tips on dealing with my court date if I indeed have to go, good stuff, much appreciated - but I must sleep, winds finally lived up to their purpose and brought the temp from 80F->52F lovely. Night folks. More later. Wheeeee!
So tomorrow is the dreaded bi-weekly meeting… 830am I go into a meeting that I don’t honestly know why I must attend - but I do, I of course try to stay awake, but I make no promises - but I have a lot to do, I have about 5-6 more slides for the bosses presentation to get (got them just before the end of the day), last bits of taxes, figure out my ticket, launch 2 sites, fix up some billing, tweak some configurations on the server, and something else I am sure
I will note I am trying a second outsourced email provider, so far I like the webmail, I like the speed, performance, etc. the only thing I am not too keen on is the price. Granted for the price I get quite a bit, 10GB of storage per account, IMAP/POP/SMTP access via SSL/Secured so even nicer, compatible with Apple Mail, Thunderbird, Windows Mail (Vista), Outlook, Outlook Express, etc. etc. so far it’s more compatible than the last, but not as affordable on their reseller plan, with the other it was basically something I could really just absorb at some level into the cost of hosting, here were looking at the $1-$2 per account, but again 10GB of MAIL STORAGE.
Needless to say my brain is going about 30 different directions, allergies are killing me off of course I think the meds I took earlier for them are working quite well, except it’s removing the discomfort I was having, thus sleep is rapidly approaching! So little time anymore, seems like I get home, catnap -> eat -> work -> sleep -> shower -> work -> etc. and I forgot to gas up my car, grrr.
Anywhoo - probably a good time to call it a day, maybe run get gas… really only need about a half a tank, over 300 miles on this last tank, round abouts 342 miles on a single tank, quite lovely - so for now I will say “Good Night” I hope you all have a great Tuesday.
Man anymore it seems like I am always running, tonight I took a break for Earl and Eli - aka “My Name is Earl” and “Eli Stone” - both great shows, and I love Eli Stone, just well written, good message, fun cast, etc. a nice break, a nice distraction, but even here at midnight, life goes on, work continues.
Job Update - things are going well enough, so well this week I got a well done from 3 of the admin team, a hug from one of the gals from OE, and a bunch of candy from gals in sales (which I think were a bribe to fix computers, but tasty none the less) - it’s going good. Even finding a fair balance between work and my business, not great still, but it’s something I am sure for a LONG time I’ll be working to find a friendly balance in, but all in due time.
Still no update on the speeding ticket, going to call on the ticket Monday if nothing has come in, see what the fee is, and decide if I want to go before a judge, or just pay it, do traffic school, and move on. I really just want it, and taxes to be done and over with, and have the finances climbing back up and up preparing for an apartment - but even that is one thing in life I an wondering about, time tables.. nothing ever seems to be the right timing with me - I try to move out, I get a ticket, I try to leave early for work, I am nearly 20 minutes late, but like being 20 minutes late, I hope there is a good side, I was held up this morning as traffic on the freeway slowed to a crawl, had I left 20 minutes earlier, I may of been part of a 6 car accident on the freeway, so I am hoping this delay in an apartment is a good thing as well.
Last thing on my list of distractions, Windows Vista, I am considering ditching it, going to MythTV and Linux, as much as I like Media Center in Vista, the index issue with windows shares are annoying! With linux I would get native NFS support, and it’d be simple, easy, and I could always SSH from work and do what I needed to do but again, a distraction and then some.
Anywhoo - busy, busy, and I just feel like talking - so I guess the blog is the next best thing, just so much on my mind right now, it get’s dulled down a little at work, as I try my best to focus on the problems at hand, but it’s like once the noise of the day-job quiet’s down, everything else comes up front and center - prayer are greatly appreciated, but for now I’ll say farewell, going to go clear a spot on the couch and try to get some things on paper, or pass out trying. Night.
Well it’s been a interesting couple of days. Some things got resolved with clients and money, and I am assured it’ll never happen again, that the last few months have been tight - so we’ll wait and see, but at the same time I am being firm, I am saying “if you say Go, it’s live” and even within 1 day of saying that, were at a spot now where the customer is upset, and I don’t blame him - but a good set of communication needs to be had, and folks need to really look at what they are buying before they just on a whim say “It’s good to go” when I said “Here’s the rough draft” - Crazy.
I am mostly alive, so tired lately, the last 2 weeks have been busy busy busy, some breaks, but I got to the point that the words out of my mouth, didn’t even sound right, like everything I said was wrong, I was a tad punchy towards friends etc. I probably need to issue out some apologies to a few people, but I finally crashed Friday after work, laid down on the couch, woke up Saturday at 5:30am - not what I had planned, but it was needed, and my brain has been doing much much better.
Some changes are on the horizon though, might be getting some cash here soon, meetings this week, also I am a ways into my taxes, thankfully TurboTax online saves last years, so most of the dialogs are filled out, just crunching the numbers now, which shouldn’t take too long, the system I have is pretty quick, but I am seriously considering getting with the program this year and trying to use a Quicken or something to manage Business funds, or get really crazy and hire an accountant - but let’s not get too carried away just yet.
Anywhoo - I should wrap up, clothes are in the washer, should be ready by morning, just need to be up long enough to switch things over then pass out on my couch here in the room, and then it’s off to the grind of the week, some powerpoint in the AM, need to tweak some DOS configurations as I think a FILES setting needs to be increased - but all in all, I hope that this week will be quick, painless, and give me plenty of time to crunch the numbers for taxes, get a check out, and get on with the year! New services coming to FH/TN - TN website is a priority this week as well, but lots to do, little time it seems, thanks for the prayers, the emails, and the occasional calls - they keep me sane. Night folks, have a GREAT week!
One of the downsides of course to going for weeks with little sleep is your health, and in my case, I know my limits on sleep, well one side effect is of course pain as the body is exhausted, another is for me a family favorite - throwing up. Thus this morning as I was getting ready for church I urp’d and urp’d good - of course I felt better afterwards, cleaned up and was only 10m late for church.
Church was fun, and I am glad I didn’t just wimp out and go back to sleep (Faith is Done now, all accounts over) - got to sit next to Scott and His Dad, got to see Dan and Val, and a good portion of the Poon family, the nephews were there and I scared members of the church as I gave Gavin a big hug, and then I proceeded to share the secret of shirt.woot.com as he enjoyed my sugar rush t-shirt.
So a fun morning, and more things this afternoon, but for now, I can get at least 3 hours of sleep in before the Foster’s shin-dig, so going to try and nap a bit, then load up, and head towards the ice-creamery, I am thinking of a shake with Chocolate, Malt, and maybe Carmel, or PB - not sure so many choices, so little time - anywhoo, thanks to everyone for the prayers, don’t worry, tonight’s move is really just 3 sites, it’s a low-profile smaller server, all the BIG stuff for this weekend is done, next weekend is the move of 2 other smaller systems, but by no means the collective GB’s of data this one had this weekend, so sleep is coming, promise.
Anywhoo - I am off, one more day of the house to myself, tonight aside from sleep I hope to get some headway on my bedroom. Okay, processing a ‘break;’ on random rambling, more later I am sure. Good Sunday to All!
Sooo… it’s Sunday, and been in prayer this morning a lot, basically tonight is the deadline for getting in on my servers deal, and as it stands - I am going with it. I have been looking at the facts, and so far nothing seems bad. Staff has been friendly, nerdy, and willing to help/look into things to be a help, and that seems to be the common response in reviews - the hardware itself is performing nicely, no slowdowns, memory is stable, and even some of the upcoming “bonuses” I am throwing at customers here soon are working very nicely.
3 more servers will be ordered to handle the bulk of the big servers, Trogdor will devour friends and 2 other servers I do for folks on the cheap, as well as eat up all the friend sites from each server, into this next week I’ll snag probably 2-3 more smaller boxes to finish up the remainder of the servers out there, so it’s looking good.
Lots to do though, and not just with the business, lot on my plate that I want to fix up in the personal life as well, and who knows this week may bring me some more direction as to a job - so I am hopeful, and prayerful going into this as it’s a big leap with the servers, but it ties into the personal side trusting other’s with my business, not to say I will be relaxing my grip a ton, but this company has been great thus far and reviews show (as does the interaction I’ve had this far) they care about their customers, hardware, and aren’t afraid to help - which is how I like to run my business as well.
Good stuff ahead, I can feel it. Now the big choice before deployment, do I keep MySQL4… or move everyone to MySQL5 when I migrate them over… so many choices… so little time Keep me in your prayers, and keep posted here for more updates coming down the line!
So here I am - alive after another day - another day of no word from kMan on money, no checks in, so another day running very tight funds - I admit, it’s getting very old, but as always I like to try to find solutions, and so I ran some numbers on things, trying to tweak configurations for servers, look at various providers, see where I could cut some costs - and my plan was to do that before dinner.
I came up with a savings of $250, while actually improving services, and even some room for giving customers some extra love for their patience in the move! I still have to check on 2 things with one customer, but it may line up just peachy with their idea to upgrade their website’s resources so all in all, if all things are agreed upon like it is currently, then I could be looking at $250 less towards servers, and I can start to really pay off bills, and push forward to an Apartment, even if the job at the coast doesn’t happen.
The blog got some touch ups today, really just needed to focus on a web project that wasn’t customer related for a bit, and it was fun, threw in some random code tweaks, changed out the background on the theme I found, and I think it looks good - granted there are no edit buttons per article when I am logged in, but I can probably get em added without issue, just some simple bits of code, and I’ll be good to go.
All in all, not the best week I’ve had to start off a new year, but none the less I am still breathing, and I am pushing forward, hoping for the best, and looking forward to some changes in my personal and business lives very soon.
Anywhoo - I am hungry! Had lunch at 11 with Dan, and now I am hungry here at what is now 6pm, so going to go find something tasty to eat, and sit down and enjoy some random TV! Night folks, keep me in your prayers!
