Lazy Friday!

Just wrapping up the last bits of a very lovely lazy Friday, just a day that did seem to drag, but I made it thru, zoned out watching movies with Dad, and snagging pizza as Mom is out for the weekend @ a baby shower for Harmony, so twas just the guys.

The week has been week-like ;) Got a new customer, lost 2 sadly on the FH side, which happens now and again, especially with the lower end hosting, but I picked up a new customer that covers those lost, amazing how things sometimes appear to balance each other out.

Monday I am getting the new mailservers online, looking forward to offering the enhanced service as part of FH’s offerings, and in time the business class packages on TN - but spent some time today re-working the possiblities of TN’s logo, I really need to get some outside help as I created the original TN logo, so I am a tad close to it, but I may ask Dan and Adam both to take a peek at what I have currently and see if they can bring it up to 2008.

But this weekend brings some fun I hope, I may tag along with Scott and buy myself a Costco card, be nice to goto Costco as needed, especially for Yakitory! But I may also just sleep away the weekend and call it good, but should be a relaxing one (I hope) might even get my AC installed in my bedroom since 100F+ days are coming soon.

Anywhoo - going to go search thru NetFlix instant views, and see what I can find.. sadly missed BSG and Doctor Who - but I’ll catch em on the flip side I’m sure…. just sad BSG (which has been getting good) is going to disappear after this episode till 2009, but Stargate Atlantis is possibly around the corner, so I may live ;) for now I’ll zone out and sleep.

Posted on 13 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Insurance Galore!

So I got home roughly around 10pm tonight, quite a day, but a big chunk of it was hanging at Scott’s after work and enjoying a meal, some games, and good conversation so not much to complain about :)

I did meet with the insurance lady, it was nice, got some paper work, still going over the bulk of the details, but I didn’t know my employer covers ALL health insurance costs! Yowza! Very nice indeed, only things are optional bits which I am going to sign-up for, mainly Life Insurance ($8 a month), Vision ($8.50 a month), and Dental ($10), so not too shabby at all, going to be nice to have some steady insurance again, might even go in and have them check to make sure I have a brain, or on a serious note get a check up on my liver and see how it’s doing (previously it was over-working) - but nice to know the ability is there if I need it.

Got the bucket list on my Netflix, so I am going to wrap it up here and go zone out and watch it, nice end to a day, I enjoy Morgan Freeman, one of my favorite actors - not just his acting ability, but the man has an amazing voice! He could read the ingredients from a cereal box, and I’d be glued to his every word.

Anywhoo that’s it for me, oh and if this worked as it “should” this should cross-post to Xanga so folks who still for whatever reason follow me there will get to see what’s happening. Night folks!

Update: Looks like a no-go for Xanga… oh well, it was worth a try! Or it does, sadly looks like only if I post from the Wordpress Web End, no XML-RPC posting hrmm.. we’ll see folks.

Posted on 11 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Sleepy, Busy, Sleepy

Not a ton to say, just one of those days, things wrapping up - got a raise, get health insurance tomorrow, possibly dental & vision - almost a real grown up now… man what is this world coming to? lol.

Busy is just my middle name as of late, actually have a project I was supposed to run tonight, but I was too tired to think, all I have now is the things that always grind on my mind, life choices, emotions, projects, but no active thought to work with, just ideas - this constant flow … but it was nice to see Bones was on TNT a older episode I hadn’t seen, so I enjoyed watching it, like The Office and some other TV shows, it’s one of those shows I caught the later seasons, and now I am re-visiting the original stuff, and it’s a good show, I just like to work with a more mature character dev & story line than have the patience to see it built — and no I am not one of those read the last page of the book kind of people.

Just really sitting here tonight just taking it all in, this job, my business, my health, my projects, my emotions - it’s been a roller coaster of a year, from tight funds, to doing okay, to a raise which will help quite a bit re-build things like my savings, but also give me some extra room to play with Thrust Networks, things moving forward it seems - and heck the lady down the street even told me a relationship would happen for me soon - so I mean she has to be right - Ms. Right, come on down! But being a touch silly aside, things are going good, Matt is coming down the 21st, active in church again via the Hub, great friends, supportive family, fun jobs, just ready to let go of some things and just let it happen for once instead of finding all that could go wrong and really moving forward.

Anywhoo - that’s my random bit for the evening, going to hit the pillow, set my phone as a backup alarm as the weather is really really windy, and last thing I want is my alarm to NOT go off, so for now, farewell - sleep well, and enjoy your Fake Friday. Night.

Posted on 10 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Poison Candy - Okay not really..

Last night I got some good sleep in finally, it’s my bed. I need a new one, this one is dead and then some, but I need to figure out my bedroom first, or figure out if I am getting an apartment or waiting to see if the rents find a new house again or not - so not sure, but I slept on the couch, and got a LOT of sleep, and woke up feeling good vs. dragging to the shower then getting to work even more sleepy.

Today was fun - got another foot in the door to virtualizing desktops, so we’ll see what happens there - but one funny thing is I handed out some Peppermint Patties I had from my snack drawer, and one person more or less questioned me if they were poisoned lol. She’s not always friendly to me, so I think she wondered if I was trying to get even lol - but in the end she ate it and said thanks.

Anywhoo - 10m left, the Windows Virtual is still chugging away at 7zip’n the MLS backup, my Linux workstation finished it a bit ago, and it’s already off-site, but it’s 100% scripted, but once that’s finished, I am off to home, possibly to see a kid and his Wii - but for now I’ll say “Have a Good Thursday!” and maybe a blog to follow tomorrow… more to talk about I’m sure…. lots going on, and after tomorrow’s meetings more stuff to talk about. Good times. ttfn!

Posted on 5 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Cameras, Money, Time, Health, Sleep… aka Monday!

So here we are at the start of a new week - busy, lots of planning ahead, I have appointments tomorrow afternoon as well as Friday, so I imagine the rest of the week will fill in soon - or at least it usually tends to - but I have a meeting on Friday about basically virtualizing all of the desktops which has me torn really, as I love the concept, but the single point of failure could mean a LOT of downtime in “theory” but if the sever is built properly, there should be no issue at all…. but I’ll find out more solid details Friday what these guys have in mind.

The billing issue seems to be getting there, I had hoped it’d resolve today, and I got the apologetic call, some explanation, but I think the payment idea I suggested is going to work, half in the first of the month, other half in the middle - so more or less the same as my work pay system, so not too shabby in the least, going to swing by there after work and pick up a check, and discuss some other things quickly, but hopefully it’s all good - and we can get a game plan going.

Lastly, I feel drained today, just really really tired, which is making me wonder should I go and rest, or goto pancakes & games @ Scott’s here after the meeting, but I am down for bringing OJ, but at the same time I think they’d understand …. if not I know they’ll come for me in the night and I’ll never be seen again…. all due to OJ…. sweet, tasty Florida Orange Juice.

Anywhoo - I am off, getting backups packed up, VM is lagging a bit, not unusual, I think that copy of XP has a leak in it somewhere - but going to get it offsite, shutdown, and off to downtown - so take care all, more later I’m sure!

Posted on 2 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Pre-Week Blog….

So busy busy as of late, of course really, when is it not with me? I had a good weekend though, got to hit a party, watch a flick with friends, goto church and eat pizza & wedges, I mean really - that’s a good weekend for me ;) There was a hint of work this evening… of which should result in hopefully a large check no later than Friday… but more on that in a second.

FH/TN news - this week the new mail servers should go online, going to be shelling out some cash to get some dedicated mail servers online and operational - the plan is to really help take some of the load from spam and email from the webservers and really let them do their job when it comes to serving sites & applications, load should drop a TON, so I can fit a few more folks per server vs. buying lots of new servers - does add a minor layer of complexity to configuration, but if I can wing some API magic, who knows - I may be able to write a simple interface from cPanel -> API to deploy accounts in a more native setting.

The check bit above is of course about the never end saga of clients and lack of payment, one is over $1000 overdue - no calls, no nothing, just never sends in a check, or has given me a working card, another one is 1 day late, and they used to be the one I worried about the most, but they’ll have the card fixed by end of the work day tomorrow (or at least that’s how they have been doing it lately when their card messes up) but it just is becoming a normal occurrence in this case, usually 1 month behind, now 2…. and I am out the cash as I am paying for hardware for this “ol friend” but sadly with my own expansion and such I can’t start floating an entire hosting business for 2 months… so boundaries must be set.

Anywhoo - not going to let that ruin my entire weekend, if I don’t hear from him tomorrow, I’ll figure something out - but for now bed time is here, earlier than usual, but I want to get some time to unwind and fully zonk out no later than 1am, and if I start now… I might make it ;) so have a great week this week folks!

Posted on 1 June '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.

Big Jumps, and Little Jumps

Well it’s nearly Friday, this week has flown by, one minute were starting Tuesday, and BAM! Hello Friday. I am going to keep this brief as my brain is sleepy, and my hands keep forgetting to hit keys in the proper order, so this post is taking more work than it should!

Things, Friday night is the official posting of the FH newsletter it will unveil some things in testing, some things coming online this next week, and explain some upcoming options for hosting customers - rather exciting, I am looking forward to some exciting changes, and hopefully… prayerfully… restfully… they will all come about and really help to enhance services and give a good summer drive in new accounts.

Coming up rapidly on the 90 day mark for work, at which point I get health insurance again for the first time in a long time, also vision which means YAY! new glasses as these are bent and nearly broken, I want new frames… something mildly hip… but not too hip, but not the same as I have now, that’s for sure (as they have never fit my head right) - plus I want them to be transition lenses so I don’t have to carry several pairs of glasses.

Anywhoo - more news on things soon, some things not even being made public to my closest friends, but things are in motion, expansion, growth, new territory etc. should be fun, good crazy etc. For now I will say “Good Night!” - Happy Friday Folks!

Posted on 29 May '08 by Chuck Brown, under General. Comments.