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!
Busy lately, been working / watching server software upgrades which are slow going, but bring a new optimized version of cPanel which should reduce memory usage quite a bit, aI was bumped from my church’s website project, due to ASP.NET/C# programming, but such is life I suppose, if only it were 6 months down the line when I had a production Windows server online - but sadly the Church site is moving forward sooner than that, but I don’t want to rush it thus I miss out on getting to host them like I had talked with the pastor about so bummed about that - but aside from some minor sad news with that, things are going somewhat smoothly.
New hours at work, not exactly what I wished for, but 8:30-5:30 is a step in the right direction, was hoping for 9-6 so I’d have an hour free and clear to do things like drop the network offline, but now I just have 30 minutes to fiddle - but at least it’s something better than using my weekend for doing work at the office, and leaves time for things like Sleep, Family, Friends, and my own business.
OS Front at work, I ditched my failing XP install, instead of killing it entirely I virtualized it and it’s running on the backup server leaving my primary workstation to become a Linux box, which is handy and keeps folks off it when I am not here, already had someone say “What’s up with your computer?” not sure why they were on it in the first place, but none the less they are confused now, I tried Ubuntu first, it was handy, detected all my hardware without issue, but I wanted each monitor to be a separate screen, with no support from the Ubuntu Forums on my post, I tried Fedora, but it was lacking support for my laser printer, and just felt a little laggy, so I just finished re-installing the latest Ubuntu.
Anywhoo - my day is nearly done, just wanted to post an update on things, going to go check out more of the latest cPanel release, and start the server doing a scan disk and a fresh reboot, ah the joys of file servers which are oddly setup. Night folks! Happy Fake Friday!
Well it was a strangely quiet day today at the office. The entire sales team, vice president, and coo - are all at the company’s annual sales meeting this year in Sin City - but it was still busy, and yet I think maybe 2 people called/came to my office - so maybe things are finally calming down to the “2 days a week of work” idea that I was told was the norm even if not, so far I don’t mind the job, just wish I had 9-6 vs 8-5… but all in due time!
This morning I was supposed to goto court for my ticket (according to my ticket) but as of Monday they said to call back in 7 days for a new court date, so I am going on that, I mean why would the court lie? But tomorrow the plan is to try and get off work an hour early to goto Edison Middle School! My former Jr. High - as Dan’s nephew is playing Baseball, I want to go and have fun, but also take the camera to get some shooting under my belt, it has been a while since I was behind the camera, be nice to try and get some good shots of a game.
Sleep as the title of this post is what I am lacking at the moment, pain has kept me up a few nights, and the pain that was thru my neck and shoulder is finally getting enough where pain meds will put it to sleep, but part of me would love to take a day off, but I am trying to keep my sick days to a minimum, but I know sooner or later job and work will collide and I’ll need to do a half day, but I want to cross that bridge only when I come to it.
Anywhoo - going to call it a night (I hope), today was good though, first day with the iPhone as the primary phone, I am still considering the switch to AT&T, but not 100% on that yet, but for now I have my iPhone on T-Mobile, a new wallet, and a photo day! Life is good, just a tad tired, so hopefully sleep will come quickly. Night folks. Have a great Fake Friday.
Kinda, sorta, not really - okay maybe. I got home earlier, and just crashed out. Dead to the world I needed sleep, I woke up about 2 hours ago, but I am about to crash out again - just wanted to do something for lil ol me, aka upgrade the Blog.
I had read mixed thoughts/feelings about the latest upgrade to Wordpress, some liked it, some thought it was too sparse, some thought it mucked up things - honestly? I like it. Light, simple, some options aren’t exactly where I would think to find them, but such is change.
At some level I think the trade off of features/fixes should of given folks more to try, but as usual plugin conflicts for some were their un-doing - but a nice feature of the new system is live updating, which I know many groups will complain about the security of the concept, but it’s no different than that of Windows / Mac Update systems, you use / trust that product enough to do updates, why not your blog?
Anywhoo - all in all I think it’s pretty slick, it was a simple upgrade, sent my DB backup to Gmail, and uploaded the files, easy peasy - but for now, I am going to wrap up, and goto sleep, meeting @10am tomorrow, last day of “freedom” so to speak, as the boss-man comes back on Thursday, and I am sure he’s gonna have a pile for me. So I’ll say goodnight, and Happy Fake Friday!
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!
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!
So this week was great, got a lot accomplished. Work has gone good, had some mini blips in our billing software (DOS App!) - did some packing and it half worked, half took an hour longer than normal (guessing it found + repaired some bad things) - this week has been incredibly smooth though, even have the house to myself for a few days.
Heck so well, we got to hang out with Cory tonight, well last night (aka Thursday) and it all went well, got to drive Cory by his old house, show him what used to be fields and orange groves we used to play in as kids, now housing lol - then we made the trek to his hotel, dropped him off, and I got this crazy idea to swing out and pick up a check that has been waiting for me for 3 days, and when getting there and looking around, said check was no-where to be found which just compounds my desire to really start shutting stuff off - not from the hosters who host on my rigs, this is a sold unit I manage, and the fees for it have not been paid going on 2 months now, so on Tuesday it’ll be officially 2 months of payments due.
I am not honestly sure what to do, this is one of those sticky situations - where the client is a friend, but as of late I seem to be more of an distant friend, and as his employee feels about myself and dan - part of me, and at the encouragement of others, it may be time to go our separate ways on friendly terms, vs. wait for me to explode - since I have taken the 9-to-5, I keep their servers running, but then also the occasional bit of side-work, which I do my best to keep up on, but this latest side gig, seems to be more and more trouble, and I don’t know if I am getting the full story or not, so not sure what’s up, but I am leaning towards enough is enough.
But I am trying to unwind, so I am just going to lay it at the Lord’s feet in prayer, and just pray his will be done in it all, because I don’t honestly know what to do in this situation, short of fight, and that doesn’t seem like it’d work.
Anywhoo - I need sleep, tomorrow is a busy busy day, need to get some things setup for a presentation, as well as get some other assorted things rolling on software upgrades, so I bid you all a good night, and happy Friday.
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.
leaving my primary workstation to become a Linux box, which is handy and keeps folks off it when I am not here, already had someone say “What’s up with your computer?” not sure why they were on it in the first place, but none the less they are confused now, I tried Ubuntu first, it was handy, detected all my hardware without issue, but I wanted each monitor to be a separate screen, with no support from the Ubuntu Forums on my post, I tried Fedora, but it was lacking support for my laser printer, and just felt a little laggy, so I just finished re-installing the latest Ubuntu.
which just compounds my desire to really start shutting stuff off - not from the hosters who host on my rigs, this is a sold unit I manage, and the fees for it have not been paid going on 2 months now, so on Tuesday it’ll be officially 2 months of payments due.
