Well tonight I canceled two services cutting over $40 from the budget a month, I think I am going to do some more with the cable here at the house, go back down to the last cable package, the “Digital” cable package was neat and all, but the only real “digital” bit I watched was Heroes in HD - but I can live with the standard bit, just trying to lower the monthly bills a few hundred dollars, and try to get my budget in check for living on my own.
One of the things to take the hit tonight, Blocksbuter Online. I love the service, it’s nice, but the price has crawled up, now making things that were standard features like “In-Store Exchange” either a mid-range priced bonus with 1-5 in-store exchanges, or a high-priced bit for around $25 a month for 3 out.. so it took the cut, but I am going to continue to cut out little things, like World of Warcraft, it dies at 3:34am - so like 2 hours left to play if I want to - but little less playing for a while I guess.
Still a tad worried about the finances, they’ll eventually bounce back entirely specially with these cuts, but I still need to get revenues up, and I know specials in October, changes in Credit Card Processing, they are all going to help, but the pinch on the coinage is now 
but tomorrow that is my goal, focus on the online billing, and start doing one monster audit, and probably purchase not 1, but 2 copies of the billing software, decided I am going to simply get one for each domain, get SSL & a IP for each domain, and set them up separately, sort of wanted to get a DBA for FH and make TN and it 100% different companies, but not sure yet (at least on the DBA bit) but for sure getting them setup, and folks switched over, if I can do this before October is 100% here - I can roll out the new CC processor mid-month once my app clears, and in the middle of the night cut over, would be wonderful.
So thats my plan as-is, wether or not that stays the same over the next 24 hours, is yet to be seen, but I am hoping for the best! If I can wing it, I’d love to have finances fixed up, cash-flow up at least an additional $500-$1000 a month ($500 is the bottom of the equation) - and get out to my own place, I love my current situation, but at the same time its time, I need to stretch these wings again, and have my own place - so as I have said before, anyone wanting to sponsor me 
lol feel free, but I am going to setup a tip jar here soon for folks again, and I am still considering my options for a community website, have some ideas in mind, a staff in mind, but instead of trying the whole “online-pow-wow” again, I am going to write up my own game plan, approach folks and go from there.
Anywhoo - thats my current bit of life as it is, thanks for reading (or at least attempting to) hopefully things will continue to evolve over the next few weeks! Prayers appreciated! Take care all - have a good Thursday!
Posted on 27 September '07 by Chuck Brown, under General. No Comments.
So today has been quite the Monday, but in a good way, just busy busy. I solved a Frontpage server issue, which was nice, well by solve I mean the customer hasn’t come back saying it didn’t work, but it’s only 2:30pm so the day is still young! But there have been some nice things evolving here for me, so far very nicely:
- New Billing System Reviewed - I enjoy it, I think Customers will too!
- New Credit Card Processor - Lots of good reviews around the web, applying tomorrow - hope it helps fix up processing issues.
- New Server Setup - Been wanting to do this for a while, not 100% up thus far, but by Friday hope to move support/main websites to a new server.
- New Affiliate Application - To help encourage sales around, I am going to give an affiliate program a whirl, should be fun!
- New TN Website - Layout is simple - not going for a lot of FLASH, just going for lots of clean, simple, concise information.
But all in all, quite a day, still a lot to do on all these projects, as well as on a few others, but it’s a start, hopefully this week I’ll get more info on the other client projects in the wings right now, as well as some side work for the kMan, would be nice, a good day thus far, though I am hoping to take a short cat-nap @ 5pm and then come back to it into the evening (unless I get a invite to dinner) - but the billing stuff looks awesome! Pretty excited overall, means a full billing audit & transfer, but well worth it!
Anywhoo - back to it, few more hours to put in before a good break… okay okay, maybe a short break to play a game really quick… lol. More later.
Posted on 17 September '07 by Chuck Brown, under my day, projects, work. No Comments.
Well it’s life, budget has really bounced back some, granted wish it could be better, but it’s getting there - should level out over the next 2 months I’d imagine, and some more options coming up for money so pretty jazzed up, and I am going apartment hunting in the coming weeks as things really firm up and look at the option to get that rolling, while I have enjoyed the last few years here, rent free, really getting a chance to help my parents with their health issues, the last 2 years they have more or less gotten a lot better, and I am not as needed as I once was (or chose to make myself) - so back to a living on my own bit.
Which leads me to projects, projects galore, one I think is officially dead - took over 1 month for one of the folks involved to reply back on a staff board we had setup, I am not blaming anyone, if anyone is to blame I’d go for me as I am essentially the lead coder, designer, hosting guy - but at the same time each of these guys have other things going on as well (just like me) and thus I am not sure if it’ll happen - so I am going to take a lot of the code I have written and look at making a little tech blog sort of a Q&A bit for folks to ask me random questions on tech, and sort of do that, granted if the group gets together and says “Let’s go!” and we can make a REAL plan, I’ll definitely poke back at it for a while - just time lately I want to really hop into something fun, something that makes a little bit of revenue ($10 a month at least) and help others in the process.
Personal life - I dunno, I think I still have one sometimes lol - all the stuff lately with getting worked leveled out has taken a good chunk of my time up, which in itself isn’t a HUGE deal, but really it’s time consuming, nailing down a strong monthly budget with at least $150 above and beyond the set budget, which includes fun money already so $150 pad isn’t too shabby, but I am looking to do a REAL audit of all my hosting services, and I am feeling strongly about this new billing system, saves me some monthly money, as well as makes it easier to build an affiliate system - so going to peruse that for sure, but the apartment will help, having my own space, my own crazy habbits/hours/etc. and easier to have folks over to party like it’s 1999 so I am looking forward to that, and hoping that all the stuff that’s pending really pans out.
But there it is, things right now are mildly crazy, but I am enjoying some of the projects before me, some good fun, I am getting to really lay things out, learn new web functionality like AJAX and such at a more complete level vs. just recycling other scripts, which is making for more streamlined scripts, heck this last little bit deploying ajax and building a custom filter to scan the database for usernames already in-use, wonderful! So pretty excited, some fun things I can deploy using it, and really spice up some older apps I think, so we shall see.
Anywhoo - it’s 1am already, amazing how this evening has really gone by, only a few minutes it seems like it was 7pm - but such is my great grasp of time as of late but life goes forward, still looking to get an iPod, leaning towards the 80gb 6th gen, while the 160GB would be nice, all in all 80gb is MORE than I need, and I can use the difference to get the new iPod cable for the iPod to hook it up to my TV on occasion and watch flicks I have purchased on the TV - so we shall see what this week brings! Take care all, have a wonderful week.
Posted on 10 September '07 by Chuck Brown, under basic goodness, work. No Comments.
Well so far a good day, well aside from the massive mess of streets near Oswell St. but hey - even that wasn’t THAT bad I had a good day, some good prayer time, and I am still fighting thru some things, but all in all, I am alive and breathing, so its all good.
Got the first payment from the kMan, just got off the phone with him in fact and really had a nice chat, got some very awesome compliments from him (nice to get a pat on the back now and again) - we discussed plans for next week sitting down and re-arranging his servers and getting things all fancy - possibly save him a couple hundred a month in hosting bills, letting him de-commission on of his servers and get him setup in a VPS, which for 2/3 of his smaller sites would work PERFECTLY - so pretty jazzed it’s all coming together, and the idea that I may have a good steady work flow from him is a promising bit, but still, I have to really get some things rolling with FH and TN here soon, probably more so with FH, but none the less, pretty excited!
Made it to the bank with 30m to spare, got money in, and processed a payment a day early just so it’s one thing off my mind, and have funds in there to cover my insurance payment now, like 4 things appeared overnight and drained the account, and the insurance had not show up yet! So this was a nice day to get that money in, and not have to worry too much, plus I have another $425 coming this next week it looks like from odd jobs, so it’ll be nice to have a bit of a pad again, granting I don’t go too wild and buy an iPod (donations welcome!) - but time will tell on the iPod.
Website projects are going good though, going to make a bite to eat, then basically hit the code for about 2 hours, going to launch a pre-registration page for a website tomorrow, and I just have a few tiny adjustments to make to ensure the database tracks, and the AJAX bit for checking the username availability works it is a very cool feature to have in it, so I am very excited.
Anywhoo - thanks to everyone who has been keeping me in their prayers, I really do appreciate it.
Posted on 6 September '07 by Chuck Brown, under basic goodness, my day. No Comments.
Well headache is finally gone, and so far today things are going good - even got a call from family up in Washington State who invited our family up to Washington for Thanksgiving! Which could be fun, and I looked up rates for flying - $289 round trip! So something to set aside money for I think, of course going to see what the rest of the family is thinking, though if they aren’t, I might, be fun to spend a holiday with my dad’s family - I don’t get to see them that often.
Projects are going good - got the project me and Dan are working on setup on the server, no website just yet, but I am going to wrap up the loose ends of the database this afternoon/evening and get things online for tomorrow so they can offer pre-registration, so very excited, plus the owner of the site wants to give me more money next week, so thats a plus as well!
The kMan okay’d my price list, and I sent him a invoice of the work I’ve done thus far, no word back, but after lunch (which is beeping at me now), I am going to give him a buzz and see if I can get paid today or at the very least a good chunk of it as I need to get the ol bank account up and happy again (stupid budget!).
Anywhoo - lunch beeps, I must go and eat it!
Well my old old old old (insert additional old’s) keyboard was having some issues, just seemed to take more and more to get the thing to type, things like oh I don’t know “spacebar” decided on occasion not to work, or the E key would simply not work either - so after thinking about it and watching CompUSA (wanted to see it first) I decided to venture down and give the new Apple keyboard a demo, the feel is actually rather nice, I saw the new iMac’s and I must say - still not impressed, Apple makes nice stuff, but at the same time its the iMac, I had hoped for some innovation in the all-in-one design, but at least it had the keyboard attached for demo.
It is very nice, still haven’t done the apple keyboard update, requires me to reboot, and I have things running for a while, so I can’t really shut down just yet, but probably tomorrow - but all in all, it is a nice feel, sleek look, and things plug in really nicely. Now I just need a Mac Pro and 2 big monitors, and I am set!
Tomorrow flags a new day, some things on the todo include - some CSS, working to make a little “Client Preview” app to replace the ol static HTML, everything will run off a txt file and let me do updates a LOT faster vs. by hand editing some HTML code, all formatting will just work, once it’s done, its easy to update and then some - also the more pressing project is to finish the first run of the sign-up app, still fiddling with AJAX to do dynamic username lookups, but I may ditch that and do a secondary screen after failure that says “Your name was taken” and have them choose another, or simply pick the username first before they re-enter passwords and such 30 times.
So! I am going to wrap it up and call it a night, as much as I’d love to stay up I want to try and keep a semi-regular sleep schedule, granted it’ll be ruined tomorrow with the eclipse, and mars, but hey such is life but tomorrow I have a lot to get done, and more fun playing with the new billing system which I think will become the new backend for billing/support on FH - and soon will do the same for TN - joy joy
Anywhoo - have a good week folks, thanks for the prayers, im’s and kind donations - who hopefully this week will go well, and who knows, in time that ol iPod may be mine again. Night!
So what a month July was, now into August things should get, well more crazy but some things will actually normalize for me. You know how when your a kid your excited, you get summer break, now I dread it - the roads fill up, lunch is a wait, basically highschoolers and college folk invade what was once my quiet lunch hour already a friendly battle with other business folk but as August draws on, college and k-12 start back up, and the roads will thin, movies mid-week will be quietly open, and that guy in front of me at deltaco won’t order 400 things.
So I am going to pitch a old friend on a deal, a service contract meets employment, complicated I suppose, but I want to avoid the 1099 bleh I get every year from as many sources as I can until I can get the funds together to get my LLC and avoid some of that, funds have been tight getting the new backup server, as well as the usual year round bills poping up (Car Lic. and Car Ins.) as well as the usual bills that seem to hop up to say hello, made this last month not really “thin” on the wallet, but more bad timing, as I had extra funds coming in from big projects, but sadly the timing of those seem a little off - so I want to pitch an idea for employment which is really nothing too different from things as-is, just getting a kickback for services.
In about 30 minutes (depending on transfer speed) I should have a full image uploaded to the server to deploy the new friends server, going to get things rolling on migrating the cPanel lic. then if I don’t take my mom to the beach this weekend (thinking I am not, but you never know) - I plan to get folks migrated from other servers who are on a “friend” deal, and set them up on there - now please don’t think just because its a “friend” bit, your getting skimp’d on, this server has its perks, less crowded site wise, going to have a few more “toys” long-term, as it is also going to serve as a test bed for things like Ruby on Rails, Apache2, etc. so feel loved…. or else.
Been considering a new mp3 device, while the iPod would be my prefered device since most of my music from the iTunes store isn’t mp3′d as of yet, its the easiest way to go from point a (the iMac) to point b (new 80gb iPod) but as per the previous bit above, funds are tight, and well, doesnt appeare to be happening any time soon, but I’ve heard good things about the Sansa from SanDisk, and it sounds good, does video, so like a iPod Nano with a little more beef? Who knows, but for now it’s simply blasting iTunes really loud
Anywhoo, I could ramble on for a bit more, last 48 hours have been weird, felt kind of sick, but probably just the combined fun of this week and weeks past (ie. no sleep) so I crashed most of Thursday - but it’s all coming together, I think. Need an oil-change in my car (it’s first one! tee-hee) but hoping for a productive friday, granted, I’d love a day off, but I must push on, wrap up loose ends, and hope to get a nap this weekend, who knows, may even be on a beach with a cute blond who I lovingly call my goofball niece, but sadly more than likely, it’ll be here, but things can change in 12 hours, who knows have a good Friday folks.
Posted on 3 August '07 by Chuck Brown, under projects. No Comments.
