rebelpeon.com

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  • Here Fishy Fishy

    Well, I’ve been thinking about getting a fishtank.  However, I don’t want just bland, no color fix.  What’s the point then?  At first I was interested in glowfish, but after I went to see them at a local pet store last weekend, I’m just not so sure.  The concept sounds great, they absorb the light, then reemit it.  However, they didn’t look at that spectacular.  It could’ve been the tank they were in.  It definitely wasn’t very well lit, and the bottom didn’t have light colored gravel (which helps according to the website).  So, instead, I’ve been looking and reading up on saltwater tanks. 

    I know what you all are thinking, “Is this guy nuts?  Saltwater tanks are a pain in the ass to take care of.”  Well, from all the reading that I’ve done so far, it’s not THAT much more of a pain.  In order to have a good freshwater tank, you need to do the exact same things as a saltwater tank.  The main difference being that you need to worry about the salinity (not that big of a deal because most fish can cope with a swing in salinity, just like in the ocean) and that salt water fish are more susceptible to pH, nitrate, etc levels.  So, in essence having a saltwater tank is exactly the same as a feshwater, only the fish cost more and you have to keep a better eye on your water chemistry.  I think I can handle that.  From everything I’ve read so far, it doesn’t seem like it would be that hard.  And even if it took 30 minutes more a day or week, the returns on having beautifully colored fish, instead of bland freshwater fish, would be well worth it.  Hopefully, if I decide to leave the apartment today, I’ll go get a book that would help me decided yay or nay more, but I think it’s going to happen.

    Well, in other news, I think Colleen is going to start up her own blog page.  Now, in reality, that means, I’m going to set it up, and she’ll juts fill in the entries.  Just another thing to use up bandwith, that we’re not currently using, and wasting.  I’m sure they’ll be others that start to use my domain for their blogging too.  I’ve got a few friends that have seemed interested in the idea.  Maybe it will be the next blogger.com! 😮

  • It Lives!

    The latest incarnation of rebelpeon.com has hit the streets.  Time to eat it up!  With this new iteration, we have searching, rss, comments, a real archive, etc.  There are just too many features to list here.  Lets just say this “little” upgrade will make me a lot more motivated to update the website.  Just being able to update it anywhere that I can access a web browser, makes me drool with anticipation.  I even have all the archives from the old (hand-done) way of doin it in the system.  Just remember kids, databases are your friend!

    Holy crap, it’s late though, and I’ve been working on this WAY to much in the last week.  I’ll post a better update on everything tomorrow (after some sleep).

    Weee…It’s done.

    ***Currently Listening To: Frank Sinatra – Duets II How can you go wrong with Sinatra?  I mean, he’s singing with other people, so that just adds to it.  Good quality listening enjoyment.

  • Did Everything Die Today?

    BLEH. Somedays I really hate being a “computer guy.” Well, actually, it wasn’t just a day, it’s been the last 4 days. As you can see, rebelpeon.com is finally back up (entirely). That’s about the first time since, what, Saturday? Let’s just say, it was going smooth until I started moving stuff back to my main server. DNS can be one of the nastiest things around. Then again, so can microsoft’s software. Between all the errors that had no solution and just crappiness all around, I stayed up way to late the last 3 nights pulling my hair out. Needless to say, it’s working now. By doing this, though, I’ve essentially started from scratch on my server without having to destroy my active directory domain. By not destroying it and starting over, I saved myself a lot more nightmares. I’ve also setup mysql and movabletype on the rebuilt server. This will allow a “real” comments section, and by having the blog database driven, I can have searching, a true archive, etc. I just need to muck around with the templates more to get everything the way I want it. Hopefully the new site will go live this weekend, but I make no promises 🙂

    This weekend was our first actually snow fall of the year. I definitely wasn’t missing the lack of snow, that’s for sure. The people driving, the plows that don’t come out till its finished snowing, the car covered in salt, the people driving (oops, did I already say that?), etc. Plus, it’s decided to go from decently chilly out, to down right cold. I’m not a fan.

    Today work was, well, interesting. Let’s start with last night, shall we? Well, last night I was talking to a guy that works for us (soon to be located at aaronbinford.com), and I noticed that our, the university’s, exchange server was down. No big deal, maybe they were doing patches etc. This was at 11. At around 1 when I stopped trying to fix my stupid servers, I noticed that it was still down. Oh well, didn’t really think anything of it…that is till this morning, when I arrived at the office to find that exchange was still down. Well, needless to say, we had about 4 phonecalls when I first got in. However, there’s absolutely nothing we can do, because we (at DIA) aren’t in charge of the exchange server. Well, the server stayed down the whole day (actually, it’s still down as I type this). Apparantly 3 harddrives failed last night, taking down most of the mailboxes with it. A 500GB restore from tape can take awhile. PLUS, we just implemented a new Point of Sale (POS) system at the Armory track and Atkins Tennis Center. Well, the software that was purchased had no way of differentiating between the stuff inputted in at the Armory as opposed to Atkins (or at least the users were trained on how to do that). So, the person in charge of the Armory, for whatever reason, started deleting records out of the database. Needless to say, he was on crack and started deleting everything, including the stuff from Atkins. Well, then later, after we told him what he had done, he apparantly did it again!!! Thankfully we had some of the stuff from tape backups (backups that had just started running last night). Let’s say that it didn’t surprise me what this particular user at the Armory did. *sigh*

    Off to work on the new website templates…

  • The Intraweb

    Check out how “Internet” changed our world. It’s crazy that it used to just be usenet groups, and now, well, we have this page 🙂

    In other news, the “test” server has just been made a backup domain controller. That was easy, now I just need to install exchange on it, and get the two exchange servers talking to each other. If that goes as planned, and as quick as promoting the machine to a DC was, then I may have things rolling tonight…

  • Fitness Center

    This is going to be a pretty short update because I don’t have a lot of control of my arms, and I want to start testing for what could become the new rebelpeon.com.

    Well, Colleen and I finally got our subscription to the fitness center. This is why I can’t really feel my arms. I probably did a little too much for the first time back in, oh, about a year of lifting. It felt so good though, that I just couldn’t stop. I can definitely tell that climbing has increased my upper body strength because I was actually able to lift more now than I was a year ago. I’m definitely looking forward to getting into a routine between the fitness center and climbing. So far, I’m thinking Mon & Weds I’ll climb, and I’ll workout Tues & Thurs. That leaves me with the weekend free to (hopefully soon) start climbing down south. Man, it feels good to be pumped again. Hopefully the feeling won’t wear off, and I’ll be able to keep this up for awhile.

    In website related news, I implemented a comments system on test.rebelpeon.com. It actually works fairly well, but there are a few things that bother me about it. First of all, the number of comments doesn’t update until you refresh the page. And second of all, I haven’t figured out a way to put the title (which in my case is the date) of the entry in the comments. Feel free to try and break it, or test it out as you see fit. I don’t think it’s going to last. I’m going to bring up a test server and try out MovableType instead of beating my head in with fixing those 2 problems (which I’ve been doing for the last few days). It seems to be promising. Hopefully, I can use it in place of my current blog technique, but still be able to customize it enough that it doesn’t look like all the other database driven sites. What I really want to do, is just have the database part, essentially, the text that I’m writing here, and the rest of my site (what surrounds my blog) by whatever I want. I think with the way that I’m currently doing it with iframes, may allow me to. That would be the coolest. However, MovableType needs MySQL to function. Yet another fun thing to play with. From what I heard, it’s not too bad. I mean Nick installed it for his forums, so it can’t be that bad. 😉

    Off to work on new possibilities…

  • My Aching Body

    Bleh, I don’t feel too hot. My body is tired, and I feel as if I have a lot of congestion in my sinuses. Oh yeah, plus a headache. It’s probably because I’ve been killing myself by climbing. On Saturday, a climbing friend of mine, James Fran, and I went to Upper Limits and climbed for around 5.5 hours. I was so dead. And then yesteday, Colleen and I went to Vertical Plains and climbed with James and a few other people there too. I think James wants me to go climbing tomorrow night too, but I haven’t heard from him yet. It’s fun because James is quite a bit better than I am, so he likes to do things, and I like to try and do them. Like on Saturday, I tried my hardest to keep up. I think he did 2 routes that I didn’t. However, he has way more endurance than I do, so he can go straight up a climb, where I have to stop around 2/3rds of the way up. Plus he’s lucky in that his hands don’t really sweat. Man, how I wish that mine didn’t. Zero to soaked in about 3 holds. Hell, even as I sit here typing, they are moist. It would help so much if they’d just stay dry…

    I haven’t touched the new site design since I posted it the other day. Colleen agrees with me that the background image needs to go. It’s just way to overpowering. I’ll probably do something more minimalistic (how I like my desktop wallpapers). The only thing about that, is I either need to find something (probable) or create something (not so probable). I really like the contrast of the cingular wireless commercials, so I may do something with that color scheme. However, instead of orange, I may use a lime green shade. Who knows though. I doubt I’ll be doing anything on it soon. Unless I get worse by tomorrow and decide to not venture into work.

    Today at work, glofish were brought up, and I’m bound and determined to get myself some. How can you go wrong, I mean, they’re glowing fish! I was going to call around to local pet stores today to see if they have any. I’ve always wanted to have a cool tropical aquarium, but the upkeep on them is way to much, so I think this would be a good substitute.

    Speaking of buying stuff, I finally got around to purchasing a desk. Colleen was happy about that, since I’m kinda (well, ok, I am) using her desk for the time being. I purchased an Eames Desk Unit produced by Herman Miller. It looks like a very fun desk, and I know it’s quality since my parents have an Eames Lounge Chair, which is nothing but great. I made the purchase from retromodern.com, which has some really neat, and expensive, stuff. The way I see it, is I’d rather wait and save up to buy something quality, than go out and purchase something cheap that works for “right now.” Hopefully the lead time of 4 weeks listed on their website is the maximum, since I can’t wait to get it.

    **Currently Listening To: Coldplay – Rush of B-Sides to the Head. If you like Coldplay, then I’d try to find this cd/collection of songs on your favorite file sharing network. There are some new songs, and lots of their normal songs, but accoustic, etc. I personally like the laid back-ness of Coldplay, and am enjoying the accoustic stuff on this compliation.

  • Site Design

    Well, I’ve been mucking around with a new site design. I’ve been thinking of something like this, but I don’t think I’m a fan of the big image, etc. Also, the links would be images, and there would be a top rebelpeon.com image. The also (rather large) problem, is that it seems to take awhile to load the page again. The background image isn’t even that big. Stupid cable upload speeds. I think I’m going to do something in that layout though. I really like the links at the top instead of the side. It seems to give more screen real estate. It’s most noticable when you click on the music link, and none of the cd titles wrap around to the next line. Also, when I view the current site, the text box is so small, since all I run is 1600×1200 resolution. The nice thing about the new site layout, is that it easily formats it correctly to your resolution. Feel free to stretch your browser window wider and smaller, and notice the frosted image stays correct. Took some thinking to do that, but not THAT much.

    Oh well, I may work on it tomorrow, but I really have other things I need to get to. Oh yeah, and I’m heading out to Upper Limits with a climbing friend. Plus, I have another friend’s father’s computer here that needs to be worked on. Wee, thankfully it’s a 3 day weekend!

    **Currently Listening To: Nick Drake – Pink Moon. It’s not a bad CD, definitely worth a listening to.

  • Script Kiddies

    Well, I finally received enough scripting knowledge to automate the music list creation. It took me way to long to actually sit down and do, but now my music list is updated nightly. One less thing for me to think about is always a plus. I’ve really gone to town with scripts at work. It makes it WAY easier for us (mostly myself), as we don’t have to be constantly checking certain things daily, hourly, etc. The one I’m most proud of is the inventory script I wrote. Now I just need to learn how to dump the results into a SQL database and it’s all set. Currently it just writes it to a html file. It has come in handy so far, but I think the true potential will be seen when I can query fields in a database. Also, that way, I can keep a record of all the machines better, since now if the machine is off, it is just skipped. With the database, I should be able to simply overwrite fields with newer info, instead of just overwriting everytime I run the script. Also, the one that checks server harddrive space and then email’s us when it gets too low is a time saver too.

    Tonight I went climbing at the local gym, Vertical Plains, and there was a guy there that looked absolutely amazing on the wall. The way he flowed up, down, and around the wall was stunning. I think I’m making my new goal to try look as fluent on the wall as he was within a year. I think it’s possible, but I doubt he’s only been climbing for 2 years (as I would be come Nov. ‘04). It’s amazing how much I’ve progressed within the last year though. You don’t really notice it until you start thinking about it, and realize how hard the basic basic basic stuff was when you started. And now, I’m getting routes before some of the way more experienced climbers are. This year will definitely be the year I climb outdoors a lot, and learn how to do it myself. That way Colleen and I can head out, and not have to go with anyone else to setup the routes. Just need some more equipment, and I should be set.

    For those of you that have never gone climbing, do it. It’s so much fun. Yes, it’s difficult at first because you’re not used to it, but if you go a second time, you’ll be amazed at how much easier it is. It’s great exercise, and the best part is, it doesn’t feel like exercise because it’s fun (unlike going to a gym). You should try it at least once.

    **Currently Listening To: Dave Matthews – Some Devil (Limited Edition). Ummm…it’s more of Dave Matthews stuff. Sound almost the same as when he’s with the band, only there’s no good fiddle playing, etc, that accompanies the band. How can people pay > $50 to see him in concert for this? I just fail to understand it.

  • Pondering a New Site

    Being able to vent to friends that live many states away is a Good Thing

  • Happy Birthday!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

    More to come later…