It’s amazing how much I’ve spent over the years to maintain my own domain and all of the associated costs behind that choice. Web hosting, email hosting, high speed business class DSL, shared servers, dedicated servers, uninterrupted power systems, etc. You name it, I’ve probably invested in it. I couldn’t even estimate how much I’ve spent. I probably don’t want to think about that for too long.
The reality of it all is that I’ve spent so much to produce so little. My blog currently has 29 posts on it, including this one. I think I’m reaching the maximum number of posts my site has ever had. Most of it is random noise that decides to work its way out of my brain. For a while in 2007, it was my outlet when I thought my life was crumbling around me. More times than not though, my blog posts have been nothing more than exceptionally long tweets.
10+ years of domain ownership. 29 live blog posts to show for it. Another 30-40 having been retired.
Sometimes, I look at Google Analytics and wonder why I continue to maintain my blog. I know I write these blog posts to amuse myself and that’s really all that matters. It’s a bit strange to consider 400+ souls are notified when I cross post a blog entry on Facebook or Twitter that results in 15-20 unique hits on my blog for a day or two. I’ll still write and post because it’s fun for me, regardless of the readership.
For the record, I truly appreciate the comments on my blog from time to time. I like getting the emails that tell me I have comments to moderate. That make me tingly on the inside.
The only bartender I know by name is Woody..It’s true. Being a non-drinker, I don’t hang out in bars. I don’t tend to hang out where people drink. I don’t go to parties. I don’t think I’ve had a “proper” birthday party since I was in elementary school. I can’t remember having one then either. I can’t remember how I spent my 21st birthday. Not because I was incoherent, I simply can’t remember. It was uneventful I think.
I’ve mentioned on this blog recently that I tried to become a beer snob. It didn’t take. It turns out I dislike the taste of beer. Most alcohol tastes like medicine to me and I’m not sure I’d want to sip on Nyquil.
I admit, I could be wrong on this one. When I watched this with the wife, I caved and admitted I could see the “sadness” in the movie. From my perspective though? Guy doesn’t get the girl, but guy seems to enjoy life in spurts during most of the movie, learns to understand what he wants out of life and eventually good things happen for him again. To me? The journey doesn’t define the destination in this case. Ultimately, he ends up as a confident and happy human being.
To me, that’s the message of the movie. That he struggles in life isn’t sad, it’s just life. We all experience pain, frustration, happiness, sadness and every other emotion humans have been graced with. It’s part of what makes us who and what we are. It’s part of what makes each of us unique. In the movie, Tom doesn’t get permanently bogged down in his own malaise. He grows out of it.
In my personal life, I can live with friends and family struggling. I’ll offer a hand and try to help them dig their way out. As long as they’re trying. At a certain point, you have to have the awareness to choose your battles and help those who are willing to accept the help and are willing to see that life can change for the better. Tom sees that at a certain point. Tom matures. Tom moves on and gets himsefl back along a career path he loves. He opens himself to the possibility of finding love, or at least happiness, again. To me, that’s what makes the move hopeful, optimistic and positive.
My wife knows the following all too well. Sometimes, I get myself in a mood to tinker. Sometimes, it is with a game or toy. Sometimes, it is with a new version of the software my company produces. Sometimes, it is with some random side pursuit like teaching myself Objective-C. I get into a mode and just start to work. Last night, I meant fall asleep before midnight. I had a busy day with the customer planned and wanted to be well rested. As it turns out, at 10:30pm, I extracted my NetApp simulator (which is far less exciting than it sounds) and began to tinker with the NetApp administration interface. I haven’t had to administer an NetApp filer in years but I work with them quite often.
Having not seen the device in a while, telling the customer what to configure within their environment and how to configure it has been a bit of voodoo and smoke and mirrors. I remember how it worked 6 years ago but many things have changed since then. Fast forward 4 hours and I’d configured and reconfigured my simulator 15 times. Build a volume here, destroy it there. Present volumes to this host or that host. Backup the volumes and restore them. Figure out why snaps are or aren’t working.
At this point, my skills which were rusty are pretty much back where they need to be. I know the interface now. Where all the widgets to configure things are. I know exactly where a customer needs to look to see the filer status and/or summary of the configuration. Fun stuff.
I enjoy tinkering with things, taking them apart, seeing how they tick and putting them back together. Now if only I were smart enough to start my tinkering earlier in the night.
For those of you that know me in real life, it may not come as a surprise that I haven’t been attached to more than a handful of folks romantically. My bubbly personality and soft cuddly exterior make getting to know me as a friend nearly impossible. So, it follows that finding people i’m romantically attracted to and compatible with is nigh impossible. Over the years, clearly I’ve figured out how to find love but I give all of the credit there to the internet giving me time to interact at my pace behind the anonymity of the internet.
This isn’t a blog post about about my marriages (yes, plural), so I won’t dive deeply into that. Suffice it to say, Before the age of 19, I’d never had a girlfriend. By the time I was 25, I’d had 3. When I was younger I didn’t have a place for romance or love in my life. I was too busy being a good friend. Eventually, I figured out I liked having someone around that I was involved with but life eventually showed me that I wasn’t ready to understand love. I was more interested in having a friend. Eventually, I figured out how to be myself and how to be in a relationship. I’m very happy where my life has led me and very happy with my love life. Now, I need to work on my friend making skills.
For all I’ve heard about BioShock, I should love the game. People tell me it’s a great sci-fi shooter with an excellent story. I feel like being contrarian I suppose. The story didn’t hook me early on, the atmosphere bothered me and the gameplay didn’t live up to the hype for me. The game has some interesting play mechanics but none that grabbed my attention.
The hacking mini game is essentially the casual water pipe game I’ve played for years. The aiming seemed a bit off regardless which platform I was playing. The graphics were amazing, but I need more than that. I own the PC and Xbox360 versions of the game and I’ve made it a few hours into each version before I can’t stand it anymore.
On a side note, I haven’t even bothered with BioShock 2. Keep it.
I alluded to this randomFact in my Life of the Virtual Party blog post a week or so ago. I don’t play MMOs with other people generally. I see MMOs as large open world single player games. I don’t interact with other players. I don’t interact in the virtual economy. I don’t join guilds. I haven’t done a raid or large group event in years. It’s just not my thing.
This anti-social behavior doesn’t stop at MMOs. I have had an Xbox Live account for years and I rarely if every play games with “friends” online. I’ve played Call of Duty online with strangers but it never goes beyond that. I play with completely randomized strangers online. It’s convenient that way.
In addition to the socialization of gaming online in the past few years, audio chat has crept into the gaming experience. Bilzzard included a voice client in World of Warcraft a few years ago. Xbox Live and PSN both include chat capabilities. I’ve used them a grand total of zero times. It’s not my cup of tea.
Like my skiing randomFact, I didn’t grow up around ice and snow. I didn’t roller skate and I was never comfortable on roller blades. (Does anyone still use roller blades?) Hockey teams didn’t move into warm weather climates until after I’d graduated high school. The opportunity to ice skate as an adult hasn’t really presented itself often until recently.
I was dragged on the ice a few years ago by my ex-wife and my niece. I was beyond skittish on the ice and clung to the boards for my life. I didn’t feel comfortable and hadn’t yet gotten the balancing act down to keep my butt off the ice. This should have been my last attempt.
In 2007, I met the future Mrs Grover. She figure skated competitively while growing up and loved to skate. Our first official date was ice skating in Elgin at their outdoor rink. I didn’t hug the wall the entire time and I think I held my own pretty well on the horrible scratched ice. I might have fallen once.. maybe twice. Much better than my first trip.
I’d do it again, I suppose. Considering caitlin is taking lessons and we end up at a rink every week or so, it shouldn’t be difficult for me to find time to actually start ice skating if I’d like to.
I grew up in mostly warm weather places. We didn’t have snow or mountains for the most part. Puerto Rico, Florida and southeastern Virginia were about as far from snow covered hills as they could be. I’m not sure I’ve even touched a ski. Never been on a lift. Don’t know what people are talking about when the wax their skis and the only snow bunnies I’ve seen have been in movies.
Now that I’m old and breaking down, I don’t think skiing is in my future. My knees and my back probably wouldn’t appreciate being strapped to a pair of fiberglass skis and thrown off the side of a mountain. This is a sport that I know isn’t for me.
Heard the following on the radio last night heading to the airport. Let’s say someone wasn’t a christian (they don’t believe) but were raised christian and feel their moral/ethical center was shaped by their upbringing. They’re now a parent and they begin taking their children to church to give them the same opportunity.
For the purposes of this discussion: Consider that this person is considerate and respectful at church. Despite their non-belief, they’re not going to walk around telling people their beliefs are misguided.
Two questions:
- Should this kind of person be welcome in the church despite not being a believer?
- Should this kind of person be allowed to participate in the works of the church? (I’m not asking whether they should lead the congregation or plan a ministry to the Serengeti. The question is whether they should be allowed to participate in handing out food to the homeless, building homes for the needy and so on.)
