March 2006 Archives

As if I hadn't slowed down in my posting to this blog enough, for the last couple weeks, I haven't written at all. For at least the near future, I can't say how much I'll be posting. Time is becoming more of a commodity in my life, requiring a few changes in my priorities. I'll still be posting, but I'm still trying to figure out where I'll be fitting my writing into my day.

Some of my time is being taken up by temporary things. For instance, Saturday mornings have, for the last while, gone to transferring many of my belongings from one storage area to another. Also, I've been taking part in some of the training we've offerred locally for new Amateur Radio operators.

Some of my time is being taken up by more permanent things. I've been promoted, at work, so my daily work has changed. Before, if our call volumes slowed down, I could spend some time reading, writing, browsing the web, or just chatting with my co-workers. Now that I'm in a management role, even the slow days mean plenty of work to do.

In my free time, the wife and I have been watching a lot of TV. We've taken on TV projects, spending Sunday afternoon and some evenings watching seasons of great shows. We've re-watched Battlestar Galactica a couple times. We watched the first season of Lost, since we never watched it on TV until recently, and caught up in season two. Since we threw the 24 addiction after season 1, we decided to catch up on that. We're currently over halfway through season 3. Up and coming, we're looking at seasons 4 and 5 of 24, plus Monk, Ghost in the Shell, and maybe something else. Maybe we'll watch the Sopranos for the first time.

The training class will go away soon. The move of all the stuff will be done, soon. Spanish class will go for a while longer. (Yes, I'm learning Spanish) Time will ease up a bit. We'll still be watching the TV projects for a while, and work is going to continue to be busy. I'll find time to write. Writing gnaws at you until you do it. I'll probably write in the early morning, after I wake up. Since I wake without an alarm clock, though, I'm slightly concerned about the upcoming time change.

That's the situation. I'm not going away. I'm just not writing, or indeed reading, as much as I was.

See you soon.

Some of you may have noticed, over the past week, that there has been some downtime with this blog. Now that things are finally ironing out on this front, I thought I'd pass along what happened.

I attempted to load, one morning at work, a special weather page that I have on this site (private url) that collects a few weather maps onto one page. I use this page at work, so I can track the weather at the location of the customers that I speak to. It helps during the long waits, to help keep conversation up. On loading the page, I was notified that my account had been suspended. No information had been given to me through any means to explain that our account was being suspended, or why.

I sent an email, assuming that our bill was due, and awaited an answer. Meanwhile, my wife informed me that our bill was not due until July. I opened a support ticket, and was soon informed that there was a script in one of the archive directories for this site that was allowing spam to be sent out. For this reason, the entire site was suspended.

Working with the support group, we got the bad script deleted, and the site back online. Two days later, I received an email that we had done nothing to remove or fix the suspect script, so they were cancelling our service. They informed me I should collect my data in preparation for the cancellation, and that they would refund our money for our unused time we had paid for. When I went to collect my data, I found that the entire directory devoted to this blog had been deleted from the server, rendering it inaccessible.

This had me a little agitated. The suspect script had been deleted, yet I was being cancelled because I had done nothing. I sent help desk requests and emails, attempting to get my data back and determine what script they had determined to be the problem. After more than a day, and several exchanges, I got my data back. I NEVER got an answer as to what script was the reason for their cancellation. To this day, I still have no idea what they found offensive, after the original spammer script was removed. I've since checked all my scripts against the original installation scripts, and can find no modifications. With no information from my host, I had no way to "fix" what they say is a problem, because they've REFUSED to give me any sort of answer to my questions.

Now, I've got a new host. My site is back up and running. Other sites that I operate are in the process of switching over, as it becomes possible. My wife's site is lagging behind, as my old host isn't being very quick about approving the domain name change. Soon, though, all will be as it should be.

I'm still in the dark as to what the real problem was with my site. My old host never bothered to answer any questions about this. I'm not happy.

Well, I am happy, actually. I've got a NEW hosting company. They seem to be better in every way.

My old hosting company was AvaHost. I've been with them for a few years. I've sent many customers their way, bringing them plenty of income. With this bad experience, however, I'm unable to continue to suggest them. It's their loss. One thing I will not miss is a help desk that doesn't read the actual ticket request before saying "I've tested your site and it is working" then closing the ticket. I'm gone, and I'm not looking back.

My new hosting company is BlueHost. They cost less. They give more space (almost double). They offer more throughput per month. They offer more databases. They offer more email addresses. They offer more features. They have a better interface. In every measurable way I have needs for, BlueHost is better. I'm glad to be a customer.

Now, I'll just continue to finish the move and get all the little bits ironed out that are popping up. Hopefully, on this blog, you won't notice any more of that.

Now, I can go back to posting.

This entry is just s test. The Lair has moved to a new hosting company. Story to come later. This post is just to verify that things are working properly.

Last week, I posted my letter to Applebees corporate concerning my negative experience on a night out with the wife.

Friday, I received a letter from Applebees corporate concerning the issue. They were quite apologetic, explaining that there had been kitchen issues (which I mentioned in my letter) and asking me to please return. included were two coupons for $15 each toward future visits.

Last night, I received a phone call from the manager of the local Applebees, who had received my letter and who was also quite apologetic. He also explained the issues that the restaurant had that night, also pointing out that they should have handled my situation and others that night better. He also asked me to return, and informed me that I should expect to receive coupons toward a future visit in the mail soon.

No excuses were given. Explanations were given. The difference between them is that management accepted that they fault was with them, and that they needed to make up for it to a dissatisfied customer. This is how business should be done, and I hope that my next visit to our local Applebees (which will be soon) will be a positive one.

Thanks, Applebees. You've handled a bad situation well, and turned an unhappy customer into at least an apprehensively happy one. Well done.

This is the best Simpsons intro I've seen yet. Small bits of the intro change each week, with occasional MAJORLY changed intros. Count this as one of the latter. If you've ever seen the intro to the Simpsons, you need to see this one.

Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, took part in a peaceful practice of his faith on Friday by driving across the UNC campus in his SUV, running people over. The FBI has become involved in the case, as the suspect allegedly made statements concerning the United States' treatment of muslims around the world. Presumably, he wasn't talking about how we've come to the rescue of muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Indionesia, Iran, Turkey, and elsewhere.

This latest incident is yet another example of a muslim acting in the name of "peaceful islam" which calls for global islamic control under sharia law. This is the same "peaceful islam" which allows women in France who are seen in muslim areas without a male escort to be raped. This is the same "peaceful islam" which does not allow the free will or freedom for a person to choose their own faith, promising subjugation to non-muslims who agree to live as a second-class citizen and death to those who don't, and death to any muslim who sees the light and becomes a non-muslim. This is the same "peaceful islam" that teaches that the jews are descendants of monkeys and pigs, and tells the lie that jews put muslim blood into pastries that are sold across Israel. This is the same "peaceful islam" that regularly murders people across the world, so regularly in fact that very few of the deaths actually make news in the United States anymore. This is the same "peaceful islam" that has proven itself more capable of killing muslims than any other group, nation, or faith that has ever existed.

This post marks the 300th post on this iteration of my blog. There have, undoubtedly, been over 1000 posts in the course of my blogging career, but many have been lost in upgrades. Each time I changed my blog software or location, I selected a number of posts to bring into the new system, and left the rest out altogether. To commemorate my 300th post, I thought it would be a good idea to state my basic beliefs. To make things simpler, I'll break this up into sections.

Faith

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; he descended into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost; the holy catholic (ie. universal) Church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

To quote from the song "Creed" as performed by Third Day, I believe what I believe. It's what makes me what I am. I did not make it, though it is making me. It is the very truth of God and not the invention of any man.

Politics

I believe in the sovreignty of the individual. I believe that each person should be left to his own choices and the results of those choices. Each person's actions should be considered his own, only answerable to others insofar as they affect the life, liberty, and property of others. To create a false construct called government in order to impede upon the sovreignty of the individual is an evil act.

The government which governs least, governs best. Government should exist to protect the populace and property within its borders from outside nations and powers. Government should protect the basic rights of its citizens from infringement by others. Government should levy taxes only when necessary to do these basic jobs.

As we are a constitutional republic, I believe that our federal and state governments should act within the limitations of the constitutions which define government at both levels. The interpretations of these documents should be based upon the intentions of those who crafted it, and not upon modern re-interpretations that are designed to change its meaning. The Constitution of the United States of America is not a living document, except insofar as there are means available through it to make changes to it.

When powers are needed beyond what is allowed in the constitution of the nation or state, these powers should be exercised by local government, the people as individuals, or not at all.

Education, health care, community growth, personal finances, employment and many other issues are made worse, not better, through government involvement.

Taxation does not cause growth, economic benefit, or a better society. As such, it should be used as a last resort for government to perform only constitutional duties, and not a means for politicians to buy votes.

All men and women are not created equal. Government, however, should be blind to differences of race, sex, religion, national origin or many other factors. Government should protect the basic rights of the individual from infringement without concern for what external group that person defines themself by.

Political parties should be abolished as a concept.

Money spent to aquire an ability to speak should not change the right to free speech.

There is no peace without justice.

Personal

Be a good neighbor. Be a good friend. Choose your friends carefully. Be slow to anger, and hard to annoy.

Smile.