Jiggyboo

Alright, so the problem with my Ponderplace.com Ponder Live! video making is that I tend to bite too big.  Which is to say, I try to create these video’s that fall beyond my video-editing-skills level.  This is both frustrating, and discouraging.  Which are probably the same thing, i maybe should only use one of those descriptive words.
Anyway, moral of the story is that tonight I finally did it.  In the span of about an hour, i both envisioned, shot, and edited a video for Ponderplace.com.  This will be Season 01 Episode 14 (S01E14), and I anticipate posting it sometime in the next few days.  I’m actually exporting it as we speak (and by, as we speak, I do mean, as I type).
I’m just not sure when i’ll have a chance to upload it to youtube, and post on Ponderplace.com.
I’m pretty sure you’ll like this one.  I say that because it made me laugh a little.  And maybe it will only be funny to those that know me.  But i’d say thats about 95% of the Ponderplace.com visitor pool; so we are good to go.

Oh, and i’m violating my no-computer-past-9:00pm rule; so feel special.
I’m out, later.

We’ve got a few people interested in writing for ponderplace.com! yeay!

Currently Makena Hawley and Brandon Dodge have shown interest (or accepted my forcing them to be interested, whatevs).

I’ve still got to figure some stuff out. As it stands, having multiple writers would be difficult, simply because I have no way of easily distributing the Ponder Line requests, etc.

I’ll be setting up BBpress on one of my sites (who knows, maybe ponderplace.com) and we’ll use that. But I’ve never done this so i’m not sure when i’ll get it off the ground.

I logged into my stats account for ponderplace.com this morning. I was surprised to find my hits/visits, while relatively low (low teens), they still seem to be healthy. Especially on Mondays (when i post content). Just yesterday I had 33 hits.

Thats good (for ponderplace.com standards).

Also I spoke with my English teacher about finding other writers who might be interested in writing for ponderplace.com. She said she knew “thousands”. Well, i only need 5ish, but i’ll take what i can get.

I know I could change the time-stamp on this post so that it is chronologically correct. The problem is that the last post I made kinda explains things, plus i’m in a hurry to get to bed, and I really shouldn’t be taking time to write all this stuff. The thing is, if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it and it’ll be lost in the abyss of my memory (the one that doesn’t work).

I spent today (Saturday, January 12th, 2008) getting the server back up. It wasn’t a hassle per se. It took me a long time, but I think that is because I was taking my time with it. Because thinking back on it; I spent a total of 30 minutes getting Ponderplace.com back up. That doesn’t include the time to figure out whether or not my latest backups were good or not et cetera. You get the point.

I’m glad things are back in place.

Things still are not all restored, and its going to take me some time to learn the basics I’ll need in Linux. All in due time.

Okay, so Wednesday morning (the 9th of January 2008) my Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition Virtual Dedicated server went kaplooey. I dont know the root cause, and godaddy didn’t offer to tell. I’m pretty sure they didn’t know what happened. Or maybe it was something they did. Who knows.

Regardless, i’ve had it on my mind to switch to a Linux server for a while now. So I chose this time to do that. The end result is that you are now reading these pages served from a Linux (CentOS 5) server.

Here is the writeup that I posted on ponderplace.com.

Alright, so sometime early Wednesday morning (probably 4:00am is my unsubstantiated guess) the server hosting ponderplace.com went down. I didn’t find out about it until about 10:30am.

I tried the server and found it unresponsive. So I called my host and they confirmed it was down (thanks guys /sarcasm). They tried rebooting the server, which didn’t help, it was still dead. At this point they informed me they needed to escalated it to the advanced hosting support or something like that.

Meanwhile everything was dead.

A day passes and still nothing from my host, and suddenly I get the bright idea to redirect ponderplace.com to another hosting account I had available to me. Shame on me, because I actually should have thought of it the moment things went south. Anyway, after doing that visitors were greeted with the following message…

1/10/2008
Sorry! The server blew up (metaphorically speaking).

Unfortunately we will have to rebuild the server and website.
This may lead to our being unavailable through the weekend.

Thank you for your patience!

Meanwhile my host finally go back to me on Thursday (i think, details are fuzzy at this point). They informed me that it was back up, but that the server would need to be reprovisioned. Which in layman’s terms means that everything starts at 0 and I have to build ponderplace.com from my backups.

FYI, i’m forever greatful that I make faithful backups, I’m not sure you’d ever see ponderplace again if I didn’t.

This was a problem for me. The server I was on at this point is a real wench (to put it nicely) for an uneducated fellow such as myself to figure out. And in the last month I’d been contemplating moving to a Linux server.

I decided to skip building the windows server again, and bought the Linux hosting package. I’ll spare you the details, but basically i’ve been doing that all day today (Saturday). The actual Ponderplace.com part of it was surprisingly easy to restore, it took me about 30 minutes.
The irony of it all

The funny thing is that on Tuesday night (the night before the server killed over) at about 11:30pm I realized I’d not written anything for ponderplace.com. Over the holiday’s i’ve struggled with my desire to continue posting on ponderplace.com. I was tired, and it was difficult, but I decided to bite the bullet and write something.

I spent the next three hours (thats 2:30am) not only writing the Meanderment you see HERE; but I decided to add a new feature (and thus the reason it took 3 hours).

The ironic part is that at the end of the Meanderment I wrote the following…

We may never know (however if this site suddenly disappears and you see me walking along the road in tattered clothes and mumbling to myself (not to say homeless people mumble to themselves, but I’m pretty sure I would if I were homeless) than you can just assume that I’ve discovered their secret)

Nobody had a chance to read it, but the next morning I found the server dead.

My first morning without breakfast. I’ve been doing very very well on the breakfast front. I think its been going for 4-5 months now where I eat breakfast every morning. Which may not seem like a big deal, but trust me, its a big deal for me. Previously I rarely ever ate breakfast at all, and I think that has played a large part in my lack of regular bodily functions (arms primarily).

The reason I missed my breakfast is twofold. First, I am out of my regular breakfast item Oatmeal. However, I did not realize this until just now when I began writing this entry your reading now. I failed to go to the store last night to renew my Oatmeal (and other foods).

The second and real reason I missed breakfast was because I did not get to bed until 2:30am.

Why would I stay up until 2:30am?

Well, you could call it dedication, or a lack of common sense. You be the judge.

At about 11:30pm I realized I did not have anything written for ponderplace.com. And recently I’ve had a hard time encouraging myself to write. I don’t know why, but the fun has not been there lately.

I decided to just whip something up quickly so that there would at least be something there for the fans.

Turns out I wrote a Meanderment that I was pretty darned proud of. Not only that, but I added a new “Listen as you read” feature. Which means I recorded myself reading the article. This should help the blind, and also people who don’t like reading (Mat Black).

The downside is that I this morning I am now tired, and also, I didn’t get my exercising in.

You live and you learn.

As life would have it, we frequently find ourselves pulled this way and that way. Often times this is done without consultation of the individual being pulled. And generally speaking it will not be something this individual appreciates in the moment.

I may be wrong, but this seems to be one of those times. I may have burnt myself out. Despite my care to pace myself and move slowly, it seems my energy reservoirs are shallow puddles.

I had planned to continue the scheduled posting on Ponderplace.com over the holidays. According to the plan, I would have only missed one day (Monday the 24th). But as travel time came closer, things grew more hectic, stress built. And as a result (or maybe it was bound to happen anyway) i became sick, on the same day I was headed home for the holidays. With all this happening, I decided ponderplace could wait until I got home. Luckily it did, its still there.

Meanwhile the real news is that I’ve decided to go to school (again). Which means that Ponderplace.com will see a reduced amount of postings (currently doing 3-per-week, scaling it back to 1-per-week). Schooling means that technically my writing will improve. The problem is that I don’t even have my generals done, so it may be a while before any tangible differences are noticed.

I am also planning on opening up Ponderplace.com to other writers. I hope to find people who are funny/cool/smart to post, that way ponderplace.com does not die, and we get a better variety of content to read.

I am going to relate to you a somewhat funny series of events which I was privileged enough to be involved in last night.

The start of the night saw myself driving to Marcus Parmenters house located in Provo. From there, we went to Applebee’s, had dined on the finest Applebee’s has to offer (which was gross and i was very unsatisfied). The plan at that point was to go up to Riley Malcovich’ house (i am not sure I spelled his name correctly). There we planned to create some video footage for a Ponder Live! for Ponderplace.com.

But we decided to drop by Marcus’ house again to pick up his laptop. Just as a backup plan for boredom, and also in case I filled my camera’s memory card, we could offload the video and continue filming.

While on the way to Marcus’ house, Marcus received a telephone call. I later found out that the call came from a certain Bubba Mills (queue ominous music). Bubba had just finished an extended day of working at Zions bank, and found his cars ignition was not turning. Marcus agreed to stop by (I wasn’t asked, but if I had been asked I would have given my blessing on the matter). We get there, Marcus jumps in Bubba’s car and finds everything Bubba has been saying to be true. Is car just wouldn’t start.

Twenty minutes later it was concluded that the best course of action that that point would be to get a spare key located at Bubba’s house, which was in Springville, UT. We were in Provo, UT located around 300 N and University, so it was not a far drive.

On the way to Bubba’s house we talked about various things, none of which where significant to remain in my memory. Once we were in Springville we began making our way down the various streets leading to Bubba’s house. The final street was one which sloped down to a T, each side of the T being a Cul-de-sac. Which essentially means Bubba’s street was the only way out of this particular neighborhood.

As we approached this slope Marcus (being the driver) inquires to Bubba as to the feasibility of getting back up this slope. Which due to the recent weather had a thin (1 inch) layer of snow covering. Bubba quelled any fears stating that he frequently was able to get up the hill, and had never experienced difficulty.

Comforted by this explanation, we made our way down to Bubba’s house and park on the street. I don’t remember why, but we all went inside the house. Bubba retrieved the keys, and we left.

We were once again in the car, and turning around to go back up the hill and on our merry way. However it was quickly made apparent that this was not as simple a task as we had hoped. In the first attempt we were able to make it ten or fifteen feet up the hill.

After a few runs, Bubba and myself got out and pushed the car. The slope was surprising difficult, and we had a hard time keeping on our feet, while also pushing the car up the hill. I found that if I planted my feet and carefully alternated pushing and switching feet I could maintain a pretty decent effort toward our end goal.

We made it up about 70% of the hill when Marcus decided to make another run from the bottom. I cant say I was fully for the idea, but I also did not veto the idea entirely. In hind site, vetoing would have been the appropriate course of action.

Once we made our way back to the bottom of the hill, we had even more trouble getting even half way as far as our previous best attempt achieved. This was very frustrating, not to mention, but was balls cold. I was very lucky to have my sweatshirt, a scarf, as well as my Dad’s heavy winter coat. I still was slightly cold, but had I not had this apparel, being as sick as I was/am, my situation would definitely not be looking pretty today.

Back to the story.

We spent the next half hour making the same attempts as usual. We alternated the style of approach slightly, but there are only so many different ways you can approach going up a hill. Mainly there were 3, try driving (fail), try pushing (mostly failed), try sitting on the hood of the car, thus adding more weight to the front tires (fail).

Ironically, in the beginning of all this, while we were stuck on the hill, we had not one, but two neighbors drive up, and around us on the hill. It was weird that what we struggled so much with was somewhat easy for them to do in their beater family cars. I’d guess the fact that they had automatic transmissions and probably snow tires helped the most. We were sporting a manual transmission and low profile “street” tires.

We were pretty much done trying, and though we had failed, we didn’t see how else we could get out of there; but one of the two who had passed us earlier (and had since returned somewhere in the middle of our plight) returned with a large bag of salt and offered to help.

We then used the two-people-pushing method, with our new friend pouring the salt down in front of one of the tires. We were now able to inch our way up the hill. We made it probably 80% of the way before the salt ran out. At which point our friend came back and assisted in pushing. And yes, we did make it to the top of the hill.

We were very grateful for this persons help, and Marcus wanted to give his car a break. The smell of burning rubber (which I was unable to detect due to my cold/runny nose) was convincing. We walked back to Bubba’s house, and on the way, a group of people in a sissy Toyota mini car made an attempt at the hill. They definitely were not making it, but we then pushed them up to the top. In exactly the same way we had pushed Marcus’ car up; a few inches at a time (actually it was not as slow this time). They got to the top, said thanks, and we once again headed for Bubba’s house.

Arriving there we found the warmth of his home welcoming. However, due to the physical exertion, we were quick to shed our winter garb. I was probably more a fan of this than they were, the scarf had built up a considerable amount of heat around my neck. However, the zipper of my Dad’s coat was stuck. I couldn’t slip out of it, because my head is kind of fat, and the coat was stuck right up near the neck.

I pulled on it, Marcus made fun of me, and then he made an attempt to unzip it. Bubba might have tried it, but I think he mainly assisted in holding the upper flaps of the coat while Marcus or I took turns trying to unzip the coat. I checked several times inside to be sure fabric was not caught in the zipping mechanism, granted it was not thorough but I felt there was no blockage there.

5 minutes later (which seemed longer because it was really really hot for me) Marcus finally got it, apparently a tiny bit of fabric was caught in the zipper.

We then spent 40 minutes watching a 25 minute episode of The Office. It was very funny, but it paused every few seconds, which made not only watching it difficult, but the rhythm of the humor was also interrupted.

That was pretty much the entertaining part of the night. We eventually went back to Bubba’s car, which started on the first try with one of the two spare keys Bubba brought. Marcus and I then went to Malco’s and spent a few hours there.

Overall it was a fun night. I’ll probably remember it more vividly now given our experience.

Well well, the new year is quickly approaching. I’ve been quite in this part of the interwebs (ie this site). Partly because i’ve been burnt out lately, and partly because I didn’t write anything and then “post” it (some could argue thats the whole issue). Whatever, what do they know.

Anyway, i’ll be leaving for Utah in two short days. I’m somewhat concerned because just tonight my throat became sore. And that is not something i want to be dealing with on vacation. It could be that I was up until 3am last night (friday night). Or it could be that i didn’t eat well today (chips and salsa for lunch/dinner). Either way, i hope its temporary.

I ran out of business cards for Pebkac Consulting. You’d think that would be good because i’m getting them out. But somehow it doesn’t feel that way. Whatever, i’m ordering more, and the new ones will feature a few tweaks. Kind of scary because these are not Whiney Jensen sanctioned changes. So who knows whether they’ll be good.

I’m really tired right now. I don’t know why I came home and sat on the computer. I was tired when i got home. Its habit.

I’m going to bed now.

Hey everyone,

Index:
Fixed the Ponder Line submittal form.
Wrapping up the story
General notes

You may have noticed that the Ponder Line feature is back online. Silly little problem can have such major consequences. Get back in line and submit some requests.

You may have noticed a story-like series of Meanderments titled “A Speculation On The Premise Of Your Demise”. This is an experiment; let me know what you think of it. I’ll probably be wrapping it up in the next post, for a total of 5 parts.

I’ve been feeling badly about ponderplace.com lately; my lack of energy and time [for writing] is showing in the not-that-great content. This is all due to my busy life, which is filled with a full time job, as well as my efforts to start a technical support business, and run ponderplace.com.

Shameless plug, but if you know someone who needs a computer built, repaired, or needs technical training; I could use the business.

Plus its a good cause, because as soon as I can afford to quit my day job, it will allow me the time I want to devote to ponderplace.com. Which means ponderplace.com will be better…er.

The website has some kinks to work out, but its www.pebkacconsulting.com. They can also call me Toll Free at 866-902-4768. And don’t think that you have to be in Arizona for my services, i focus on remote support. Which means I can fix any computer with a working internet connection.

Much love, the future is looking bright, we just need to get through this growing period. I hope to have the ponderplace.com clothing line started sometime in 2008, but it all depends on how quickly I can turn Pebkac Consulting into the beast I envision.

-Stephen
www.ponderplace.com

ps. I’ll also be posting this in my blog.