Well tonight sadly marked the end of the “Sleep Fest 2007″ for the last week or so, I got to bed early, woke up for maybe 5 minutes in the middle of the night, then passed out again to awaken early - tonight however, I laid down for a bit to try and stretch out after a day in the chair, and bam, out like a light, which leads me to 1:15am when I woke up and wasn’t just “awake” I was “UP! AND READY FOR DUTY SIR!” no idea why/what - just up.
So I am here working on some misc. things, one of which was upgrading Wordpress, sadly I had to ditch the k2 theme, just too many of the plugins I enjoy and hacked up to work all fancy, no longer work in this version for whatever reason, and I have no desire to poke around and find the old version that worked, so back to Wordpress basic templates again, this one isn’t my favorite, but it’ll work till I can get some time in to code some similar functionality as the last one, hopefully with the new tools ordered, I’ll get some time to give CSS another whirl and see if I can leave the world of tables and font tags behind 
A good day for bringing in the bacon so to speak, cleared $900 in incoming today, should of been $1020, but none the less, $900 is better than $000! But things are picking up around here it seems, taking on this project has me jazzed, not the most money I’ve made on a design in my time, but not the least either, really at some level above and beyond as a way to thank the photographer for the deal and fun photos she took @ my friend’s wedding, its also a way for me to get my feet wet in design again, and while some tasks today took me much longer than they would of in the past, it felt good to be working on it again.
Plans for the early AM include, checking into an expired SSL cert., flushing a site that was compromised, putting in a manual apache hack for a client to help out, refreshing the CS3 order page for a tracking # constantly, and working on the sketches for secret project #20391, may even get some work done on the FH end of things, some updates I need to do, also hacking up the old TN layout I had done about 3 yrs ago, still looks good, just want to clean it up, make it little faster on the load time, and get it ready for production.
Anywhoo - keep me in your prayers, busy busy around here - things always seem to amp up, hoping to get some spare cash in the bank, and then open up a savings account for the first time in a few years, really want to build up my savings, and get some bills paid off, so hopefully I can keep up with the load, and get things rolling up and up. Thanks for stopping by! Have a Good Tuesday!
Well some things came across my desk about a week ago with some potential on a new hosting platform which could really benefit both myself in the realm of time spent monitoring servers to the size of accounts customers could have - and needless to say I was stoked. The profit margin was nice, and would give me a little pad in the pocket to help pay off some investment bills in the company, and also have some for savings - so I wanted to get a test drive in to see how this wonderful system worked!
It didn’t.
Even with several positive reviews by companies I trust, I must say my experience has been anything but stellar, and I recall now all the reasons, that I decided to get going in hosting myself. Many functions were simply not there, things were made more complicated by not having features like PHP running in Suexec mode, and shotty FTP server which at times even prevented me from deleting files - and this new “control panel” functionality was very much lacking, and I found myself barely 9 hours in, regretting putting down the money to test the system, so I emailed the company asking for a refund, as even this morning similar issues were still around, and I am still barely 24 hours in.
So what I had hoped would be a nice benefit to myself, my customers, was indeed too good to be true, and thus I am back where I started, a few other avenues I plan to explore of course, as the world of hosting tech is always changing, and while I am very blessed with my current setup, I am always wanting something more for my customers, more stability, more enhanced infrastructure, etc. and while I would love to sink another couple 10’s of thousands of dollars into totally revamping things, I simply don’t have the money to throw that into, with the above system, it was set, it was created, you just leased the space - so much cheaper than doing it myself.
So the search continues, I really want to find a system that I can migrate customers to that will give them the greatest benefit, and I can provide them with greater resources, security, stability, and value, granted there are hosts out there now officially offering terabytes of storage space - I would at this point settle for giving customers standard sizes like 500MB and 1GB for affordable pricing, but sadly for now, that’s a ways away it seems.
The day goes on, aside from work research, had a fun dinner with Dan last night, tonight I have a meal with Kynan, and Wed. I have a meal with some un-named people possibly (long story) - but things are going good, getting some fair personal time in too, so trying to find/keep that balance of work/play 
Anywhoo - 9am, back to it, been up since 6am… ah the joys of being me Have a Good Tuesday Folks.
59 MySpace spams/friend requests for porn sites later, the flow has slowed/stopped - sometimes I just want to remove my profile and think happy thoughts.
And I kind of liked it
I crashed out finally around 10am, a good time for a nap if I do say so myself, got a few hours in and woke up a bit ago to a phone call from again, being clever SeanVT about de-admin’ing my account on CMC - which is usually done after I complete an upgrade of software, but he didn’t want me to think he as angry/upset/against me - gave him some of my own feedback on the situation & noted a post or two - but I think the site needs to do something I suggested long ago, but I guess it seems cool to have a person with the title - oh well, life goes on, I’ve put in my two bits, what’s done is done.
Taxes are e-File’d - I thought about it, knew I’d be tired today and just hit “File” and off it went, so I am waiting for ‘confirmation’ that it was received, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be - so another thing off the todo list on the wiki, it is looking a lot clearer - actually have things in the completed sections on both sides - so pretty jazzed to have that monkey off my back, and now another one just crawls on up - namely my Uncle’s computer - it’s done, finished it around 645am and it runs smooth, AMD 2500+ with 1GB of ram and a 80GB drive with XP SP2b - probably in the next hour or so swing it by with a 17inch CRT I have lying around I don’t use anymore.
So the week has begun! One day down (more or less) onto the next one!
Some would say to keep my mouth shut on this, and not “stir things up” and that the risk of a lawsuit is a bad thing for “slander” or “defiling someone’s character” but in this instance, I can safely say:
“Suck it.” (going to love hearing that one in court!)
Over the last few days some things have transpired at a place I used to work, let’s call the place something out there so no one can figure it out, let’s call it CMCentral or CMC for short (see how clever I am) - but before one can go into that arena and say “Why do you care?” lets rewind a bit to when I worked for CMC - like several other “Christian” businesses your job was more “ministry” than “work”, when you were asked to do something more, it was for “the ministry” not the “job”, the site owner, and again being clever here - we’ll call him Sean or “Sean.v.T” for short (seems longer, but it just looks that way.) is a nice enough guy you’d want to help him, and you feel part of something, you want to see it do well, so you go above and beyond.
In my own history for CMC I helped out sometimes getting wrapped up in things and missed a wedding setting up a chat for Mercy Me, wrote software that a YEAR after the fact was nit-picked to death, and in the end due to extreme difference in opinions on the “best” way to do something, we parted ways and my time suddenly freed up greatly, allowing me to swing back into full tilt on my own business and workings - so not a bad end for me, and after a few months Sean.v.T and I worked on some projects as by the great advice of at the time senior editor let’s call him BdG (Simple, clean, its short enough), I picked up some side jobs here and there doing software updates, and server moves etc. so a good end to the story for the most part, right?
Well fastfwd back to the the happenings of late, BdG is outed as editor of CMC, to me a position that was really more of a burden to him vs. a blessing, granted CMC can open some doors to media contacts, but at what price? Some of you can say “Sean is a ________” you can say he’s wrong, and in a lot of ways you’d be right, and in some you’d be wrong - don’t get me wrong, I think here Sean has a lot of splainin to do - goes without saying, it was handled poorly, and a post not to JUST the forum, but on the main site, needs to be done - I don’t care how “un-professional” that might look, were human, companies are run by humans and humans make mistakes, and in good faith I think the new editor should make an apology as well, I don’t know her, but I highly doubt she meant this on purpose, but a simple apology is not too much to ask.
I would say to those of you who are truly though wasting your breath on the forums @ CMC spend your energies elsewhere, while I wish I could say “keep up the posts, Sean will break soon!” bottom line is Sean see’s CMC as a fore front in Christian music, and I don’t deny the site has a big following, and does a lot of things, and with a presence in TN it has a closer hook up to many Christian artists compared to other websites of a similar nature - but prove that the site is powered by the people, support BdG’s site and help promote it, heck if it needs its own server due to growth, I’m happy to stand behind it and make it happen, I’m that Crazy.
Brenton is not only a client of mine, but I do consider him a friend - we have done business, worked side by side @ CMC during my final time there - but while my leaving was one of a quiet breeze (I was the man behind the curtain), BdG’s will be felt for a while, but I applaud those of you who have really put out a real sense of caring here for BdG, threads like:
- Here’s My Feedback
- Sean, Step Up Or Step Aside
- The Changes At Cmcentral
While some of those are actually deleted, I read through them before I de-admin’d myself (people started to think I worked there again), you guys are awesome - but I encourage each of you, link to TRuDatMusic on MySpace, your blogs, your websites, add it to your signature, put the word out, and help it truly become a “web power” that commands the same if not more level of respect like that of CMC.
Life goes on in the end, and I’d encourage any of you who have media contacts or know someone in a Christian group, set them setup with BdG @ GMA Week, I know some of you who read this know folks, heck I know a few, and I’ll be sending out an email or two, maybe even a phone call or two if I can be awake at a normal hour but there it is, support TRuDat - and with that, I am going to call it a night - but above and beyond anything else, keep both sides in prayer. Night!
Well as usual, I am down to the wire on taxes, 2 companies who requested W9’s filled out from me, never sent in 1099’s (yay?) so this week starts the final run down, should take 2 days tops to get things organized and setup, but hopefully - this year will be the last for doing a 1099, hopefully I can inc. and W2 myself, and the corp. books should be fairly easy to handle with something like QuickBooks mainly just some in’s and out’s.
Lately just a lot of work out and about, side projects and such to get some extra cash on hand for taxes, upcoming expenses, the usual but one can wait no longer - must get the ball rolling, going to send out 2 final notes to the companies in question, that if they have a 1099 for me it MUST be submitted to me no later than Wednesday - but this week should be interesting, we have the kid this week, granted she’ll probably head back on Friday with the rents, but should be fun, already had a fun day yesterday (Sunday) playing some Wii Bowling (kids love the bowling), so some fun, but knowing my schedule, I think I’ll be taking this weekend alone to do any last minute tax stuff.
All in all taxes this year should be fairly simple, just looking very much towards next year and hopefully ease and a refund - I am also going to try and get another company to hire me as an employee as well vs. paying me as a contractor - just really want my finances to become simple again! I remember old jobs working for the state, and working for other web jobs when I got a W2 and filled out a 1040EZ short form… ah memories.
Anywhoo - so if you don’t see a blog from me this week (I imagine you will though) just say a prayer that the math in taxes hasn’t exploded my brain!
Have a Good Monday Folks!
A good week all in all - got a lot of things done, some new orders, some side work, bandwidth shaping up, etc. things are going well - but just been a hard week in the regard of trying to help those I care about, and not feeling like I can - a few of my friends are in situations with life, that I can’t even imagine, can’t comprehend at some level - and all that seems like a good idea at this point is giving them space to sort it out.
So I go into this weekend wondering the status of one friend, worried for another - and finding all I can do is pray - life is one of those things you know up’s and down’s - and while I know one friend will see his way through this rough spot in his life, others to me just seem to be going in deeper and deeper from the life they were trying to get away from, and my advice seems to go on deaf ears - but tis their life to live.
Friday holds the possibilities of doing some shooting out and about, thinking I’ll check my tires, fill up the tank, and venture up the mountain, get a hotel for the evening, and shoot at a higher elevation, just have to do one little thing before I go, if I do, but if not, then its the usual work around the house bit, maybe help dad install the new washer/dryer him and mom got, and finish organizing my bedroom with the latest furniture positioning. Time will tell - but too everyone reading, have a good Friday and a Great Easter Weekend. Take Care!
