Category Archives: Site Archives

Geeking Out

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Well, it only took a few days of being obtuse, but I’ve finally got a reasonably up to date mirror of my site, functioning with a MySQL backend (unlike my actual BerkeleyDB… something I plan to remedy soon), on my local machine. I just barely finished importing all the files necessary and making sure everything works, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get an opportunity to actually start futzing with stuff a little.

I’m starting to feel drained from this trip. I haven’t been sleeping well, and have been constantly surrounded by people (even though they are my friends). This is quite the change from the hermit-like nature I’d been exhibiting in Seattle, and the change has been a bit more draining than I’d like. I also miss my wife (imagine that!), which is exacerbated because I feel like neither of us are communicating very well lately. Something to work on when I get back, I suppose — just keeping in touch when you’re 3000 miles and 3 time zones apart is tough enough, without trying to work through new stuff.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a quick post to announce that the “geek issue” that’s been absorbing my time and energy the past few days is finally done, so now I’m going to in theory try to post a bit more regularly. (No more excuse of getting absorbed into the localizing problem!)

Back in Vermont

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I’m back in Vermont for the first time since the beginning of August, and likely for the last time until April. It’s interesting to be back… the elation I felt as we touched down certainly reaffirms my firm belief that regardless of where I live or for how long, Vermont will always be Home.

During the days prior to leaving, I spent time with Mickey when I could (she’s been working) and for the rest of the time, I’ve been working on getting a local mirror of this site working on my computer. This took far more effort than I’d expected (or was really necessary), as I decided that it would also be an opportune time to update my versions of Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl on my local machine. After all said and done, I reverted Apache to what it was, MySQL got downgraded from 4 to the latest version of 3, and PHP and Perl actually managed to be updated (though not without trials and tribulations)

I’ve almost got it working, I just need to figure out why my author database isn’t working on the local machine, and how exactly I can fix that. I’m sure given a few hours to root around in the MovableType forums, I’ll find a solution. Once that’s done, I’ll be ready to really start gutting the site and making the more significant changes that I want to do. Of course, my reference books (O’Reilly’s Definitive Guides to MySQL, XHTML, CSS, and PHP, plus the PHP Cookbook) are all at home, so it may have to wait until November. We’ll see. (Well, I’ll see, since all changes will be on localhost until I have it running smoothly, at which point they’ll all get migrated to the website.)

I digress. Mickey’s father showed up the day before I left, travelling the countryside on a photo safari that I’m quite envious of. We all did some wandering, and swung by the local camera store (where Mickey thinks I should work, since I seem to be so good at evangelizing various types of equipment), and in general had a good time. Finally, Mickey dropped me off at the airport for my redeye on JetBlue to Vermont.
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Things I Miss

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I miss my family and my friends. Words cannot begin to describe how much or in what way.

I miss New England Autumn, wandering through a forest aflame with oranges and reds and yellows, on crisp, clear days.

I miss going to Squam every Columbus Day Weekend to see my extended family; to laugh and share and talk and eat good food (and laugh some more).

I miss Wednesdays, getting together with family and friends to eat lots of good chinese food at Panda House.

I miss evenings in Hanover, drinking coffee, meeting random people, having a good time with friends, writing, putting the day in order in that form of meditation that only happens in Third Spaces.
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Site Development

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This is a little overdue. First the things I’ve already done:
1) I’ve changed the link colors to make them stand out more. They continue to be fairly soft, mellow colors (intentionally), however.
2) I’ve reorganized my links list. It is now alphabetical by category (first is friend sites, then webcomics, then projects I’m affiliated with). I also moved the wedding gallery out of the external links section and into the internal links section.

The things I’ve slated for the next few days:
1) I’ve got about two dozen links that I would LIKE to add to my links list, but that would make it an unwieldy list at best. Instead, I’m planning on making an actual links page, with category headers and everything. If I get particularly ambitious, I may even add descriptions of each site.
2) I need to propagate the rest of the changes that I’ve made to the main page that haven’t yet made it into the rest of the site. Such as the wedding gallery link, and the color changes.

Check back in a few days to see if I actually did it.
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Sanity, Work, and Me.

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I did a lot of virtual running today. Money issues have been pressing over the past few days, really made manifest by the current frustrations in collecting the funds for the upcoming semester of school. There were several emails batted back and forth trying to confirm little details and to get the process under way, a process further delayed by the fact that tuition apparently went up this semester, a notice of which I have not yet received, due to the additional time it takes from mail forwarding.

Then came the calls, contacting the bursar, confirming that yes, the tuition DID in fact rise. Then getting back to the Bank to let them know that yes, it did in fact go up (they refused to do any of the running around on this, even after receiving an official bill from the school and then being confused by the information therein). I am not happy with the bank, and I’m less happy with my aunt, who acts as trustee to the account (if you’re reading this, sorry, but it’s the truth: this sort of bullshit pisses me off).

I’ve been contemplating graduate work after getting my Bachelors. Really, the thing that has been holding me back the most is that I’m not sure if I want to have to deal with fighting for every penny out of a fund explicitly created for my education. I do not feel that the intentions of my grandmother when she created the trust are being upheld. Unfortunately, I am unsure what, if anything, I can do to correct that.
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A Panoply of Links

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It’s been a few days since I last posted, and I am in fact planning to remedy that in a fuller fashion than just links. That will be later, however. For now, some links worth noting:

My old English teacher/theatrical director, Alan Haehnel, has a website up at www.alanhaehnel.com. It’s primarily about the various shows he’s had published, serving as a contact point for people who are interested in producing them. His plays are invariably delightful, so I’d highly recommend checking it out.

My friend Adam has a website up and running. www.adamhadlock.com will get you to the primary site. He’s also got a weblog running, and is (as of his post a few hours ago) debating whether he wants to make it the main page or not, so until he decides that here is a link direct to the weblog.

Uri is finally up and running from his move, and has begun posting on his website again, with a vengeance (four new posts in the past two days). I enjoyed his “Create!” post in particular (www.mellowafternoon.com, in case you forgot).

In the realm of photography, I highly recommend checking www.terragalleria.com. Mickey’s father sent her the link, which she in turn passed on to me. It’s the website for QT Luong, who is a rather respected photographer. His National Parks collection is really impressive, and one of the most complete I’ve seen.

And to round out the links, a geek-worthy item from a company called Crumpler. Jason O’Grady raved about this new backpack company. They have some truly remarkable new designs that will hopefully revolutionize the computer bag industry. You can check out their (funky/bizarre/cool) website at: www.crumplernyc.com.

More of a real post later!

New Chapters Up

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I’ve posted chapters 3 and 4 of my essay. You can find them here. Chapters 5 and 6 should be up in a day or two. (It was no accident that I left the topics that largely amount to me rambling for the end… after the past 30-40 pages, my brain is tapioca.)

Please comment on them in this post, if you wish to comment.

More later!

Identity

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I’ve been thinking about the concept of identity a lot lately (with my essay due in two weeks, this isn’t too surprising). I’ve noticed that I’ve been pretty strung out the past few days, frustrated by pretty much everything. (It’s been a viscious cycle: I have to psyche myself up to progress with the convention and make contacts out here… I manage to do it and finally feel comfortable and happy with the process, email in what I’ve done… after reading the responses, I’m back to being frustrated as hell.)

I’ve been spending time on IRC (I leave it open in another window while I write and occasionally glance at it to see if anything interesting is being talked about), and have found myself getting more and more pissed off by it. I’ve kept coming back to IRC intermittently ever since I originally started being online, and invariably I end up getting frustrated and leave. Looks like this will be another one of these occasions. I just can’t seem to help but get irritated when I frequent a channel for more than a week: the mishmash of young teens (and the angst and stupidity that goes with it), college-age elitists, and a thin layer of talented, intelligent, caring people that are generally silent for about 95% of their time online… it’s just frustrating.
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Zombies

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I think I’m going a little stir crazy. This is being exhibited not in me running around or getting particularly irritable (at least, I don’t THINK I’ve been getting irritable), but by me zoning out for no reason whatsoever. Just staring off into space for extended periods of time, becoming more and more distant and non-communicative.

I’m not really communicating with anybody: Mickey is off at work each day, which leaves me without a car, and without anyone to talk to. I think it’s started to affect me in a way similar to a zombie. In modern mythological definitions, zombies eat brains. They NEED brains. It’s not that they’re necessarily bad creatures, so much as that they are overwhelmed with an insatiable hunger for the grey matter. I’m finding myself identifying with this hunger for brains. Each day, I feel like mine is atrophying, not for lack of study so much as the lack of interaction with other people in a third place.
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Ramble, Light

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Just a quick ramble, not more of the rambling I’ve been doing the past few days.

I’ve been spending most of the day finding things to do other than write my essay. This is partially because a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, but mostly it’s just avoidance. Our last set of shelves arrived this morning while I was out getting our car serviced, so when I got back I set them up (Mickey had to go to work). After building the shelves and setting them in place came the fun task of getting all the devices onto the shelf and plugging them in appropriately. This involved much craning around and contorting myself into a pretzel to get behind the tv, a place which at this point is fairly inaccessible.

I finally gave up being a contortionist and did what I should have done in the first place: moved the TV away from the wall and hooked everything up, then moved it back into place (I also moved it a few inches to the right, per Mickey’s suggestion/request).
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