random ramblings of a crazed nerd

Man what a crazy last few days, out to X3, tonight it was subway, mervyn’s for socks (lol), and then instead of bowling we ended up at the $1 theatre for Benchwarmers (funny, but stupid) - and of course the creation of CAVE RAVE! awww yeah!

Twas fun though, had hoped others would of called and joined us, but apparently me, jake and sarah are just too cool for everyone else the curse of being us lol - but it was fun, good stuff. I of course had hoped the night would tire me out some more so I cold pass out and get back on a normal sleep schedule, but no such luck as it is now 3am, and I am still awake.

Trying to decide what to do with Sunday - at this rate I’ll be asleep by 4 most likely unless I suddenly get sleepy, then it’ll mean up no later than 10 if not 11, which rules out church - who knows! Craziness indeed - but this week a few tasks on the plate, finish up some cleaning around here - got rid of one more piece of computer goodness, iBook went to it’s new home today, next it’s relocating the linux server to the closet I think, just needs to be powered up and it works fine - then I think I may ditch LCD #2 to the rents, and take the CRT to the office as a desk monitor for test servers - who knows.

This kind of awake is the worst, I am wide awake, but my brain went to sleep about an hour ago, so most of what I have to say is rambles lol - maybe I need to put on a movie like when I was a kid, I wonder if I have star wars on DVD anywhere (movie of choice my parents used to make me zonk out) aw the strange things I remember, and apparently the amazing things I block out - like  busting out my front teeth when I was like 2 - I remember events leading up to it, but I then don’t remember much after, and something about my leg, my brain chooses some great things to block out, just wish it wasn’t so selective

Okay - enough rambling, must go put head on pillow and hope for the best.

… come to an end. Well come Friday I am making a formal note to the entire CMCentral.com community, I am stepping down from my role as technical personality “mrcbrown” - it has been quite a ride, but after talking with the ownership, and hashing out some things, it is time for me to honestly move onto other things which are in the forefront of my life right now - aka having a life

So one chapter coming to an end, and another opening up same day I got the final agreement from Sean - I was talking with a client I do spot work for, and they asked me on the spot for my services here in town mangaging servers, for a monthly wage - so God has a plan, its good stuff - but its time for lunch, I need food, then I have to reply to a few things email wise around here, and then I am gonna probably crash for a few hours, 4h of sleep is simply not enough, and my body is sad.

The good news that after 5 or so months of waiting, I got me a new keyboard and mouse, no more having to pound a few letters, but it is a challenge getting this running as it is not a traditional layout that I am used to - so I am having to press some keys twice as I get used to the layout, and for linuxy things its going to be tough too as the insert key is up top - a tad odd, but workable, just gonna take some time to get used to - but the keyboard is nice, Bluetooth 2.0 so completely wireless (mouse is charing now) but its a pretty nice thing to come home after my day of trying to catch up on sleep and trying to be patient with the internet service provider for the office.

But end of the day we have the 4.5mbps line running, it may not be staying if they can’t iron out the issues, so time will tell, but its just plain odd, as we got a 4.5mbps line and while we are getting good speeds, the moment we put stress on the line at ANY level the line goes south very quickly, packetloss, increased latency, etc. not like a traditional T1 I am used to, but it SHOULD be faster, it is afterall 3 t1’s binded together - so who knows!

A friend found out today he is expecting his 3rd child congrats Mr. F - he explained to me that I need to get some more exciting, life changing news in my life lol - so I am working on that, what to do what to do but all in all this week while busy busy busy - and lack of sleep - it has been a good run, still some things to iron out in the server testing, haven’t had a TON of time to devote to it, but its DNS is kinda wacky, so I need to see if its fixable, but it’s codename is TITUS - and so far its running smooth, updated cPanel, installed courrier imap, and have more various intro security tasks to do, but so far very secure, very simple, and very easy to manage from a server standpoint, it took 1hr 8m to install a new server from scratch this method, and that ain’t bad! So pretty excited at the possiblities of this - now just more testing, but that’ll happen on monday I’d imagine.

Anywhoo - I think its nappy time, or at the very least lean back in the computer chair and listen to some tunes and wait for the mouse to charge Have a good evenin folks.

Hard to believe it’s only Wednesday - but here at 3AM - my tired brain wants it to be Friday. Tonight’s project consists of using the office line (2.3mbps UPLOAD) to convert CMCentral’s current gallery (see link) to Flickr (another link) - reason for change? Simple, ease of management, storage, and additional features Flickr offers - this is coming at the heels of GMA Week/The Doves - so working to get it all uploaded, still won’t be cataloged as to Where the pictures were taken or really When on some of them, but over time we can add-in additional tags to accomidate.

I have already written a new interface so from CMC the photos will be able to be seen, been tweaking on it for about a month now, was originally a personal project, that sort of evolved when other clients needed a similar gallery solution, so this works - API is pretty easy to use, just started working on the tag search tonight, promising results, though I do want to look at caching results in the database so we can take some load off Flickr when folks search for common tags like “AudioA” (of which I need to re-apply to Audio’s photos) - but its going good - conversion is going smooth, other projects to finish before GMA week are underway, just waiting for some DNS changes to go into place to work on some other elements (of which I can’t speak of … yet).

Lastly Tuesday had a fun lunch with the boys from Awaken (well Mike and Matt - No Andy) - and Jake as well, twas a good lunch - then followed up with sneaking into the library with my camera taking pictures all around Some posted, can’t post all as new shirt line they are premiering on Friday @ The Gate - but after that I’ll add a few more up to my Flickr.

Anywhoo - crashing out now, can squeeze in about 6hrs of sleep (probably a little less) then must get ready for the Science Fair at the convention center Rosie’s Nephew is in @ the county level, so going to go cheer him on, take some photos etc. Need to find spare batteries for the A510 as I am going to take that as well so his Parents/Rosie can take their own choice pics above and beyond my randomness with the E-500. Sooo thats it - crashin out, thanks for all the prayers, last few weeks have been nuts, and I am sure the next few will be as well as I squeeze in taxes between projects - hours of endless fun but the server move is nearly planned, so stay tuned if your a “friend” type account, you may not have to move, praying about that - but I am shutting up now - or I’ll talk on that for hours. Sleep beckons.

Well my blog will be in-and-out for a day or so, doing some “experimenting” with it in regards to the possible hosting changes - please comment on my blog if you notice it offline or anything out of the ordinary.

Well the servers seem to remain clean, still want to do some security audits in the near future for more in-depth checks of all boxes with the number of vulnerabilties out there at the moment, just one of those seasons I suppose where everyone’s out to ruin a good thing - just always boggles my mind why folks go after great software apps to destroy, one of the many things in life which truly makes no sense to me.

The server plan has evolved, and I think (granting some calls/emails tomorrow) for a new server migration, the migration would add in services like Ruby, PHP5, MySQL 4, and various other add-on’s and enhancements with Spam filtering and Anti-Virus as well for email, so big stuff, big servers, big change - but the big part is my sanity. Had a nice chat with Roger today, and my bro, and Matt, discussed what was kind of going on, and where I’d like to go with hosting, this new options should allow for that and much much more - Very excited indeed.

But the gameplan is still in flux, this blog, and a few other of my personal sites will be making the swap to this new server setup in the next day or so, got a server lined up, accounts setup, and just need to copy data over, make some DNS tweaks, and were good to go - but its hopeful that everyone will follow weekend by weekend, and maybe, just maybe in about a month’s time - I’ll have a lot less stress, more free time, more sanity (but thats just wishful thinking as I am probably well off on my way to true insanity!)

Do keep me in your prayers, still now out of the ballpark yet, lots coming up, lots to work out with Clients in this move, and lots of things around here to get done as well, as the homestead is under rennovation in the kitchen - so im sure in a few hours I’ll be woken up to saws, hammers, and the sound of one hand clapping

But as for me, going to unwind as per instructions from a client who informed me I needed to relax, and actually suggested I get a milkshake from In and Out (that’s on my todo don’t worry) Night folks, thanks for the prayers, and the IM’s of encouragement, definately are appriciated.