Screws In My Coffee

For the past 5 or 6 years I have run my own Linux and Windows servers. I started out with them in my house in Portland when I first got DSL. When I moved to Texas I had both servers in a data center. Then I moved them to my residence in Austin. Now I am in the process of moving my personal and client web sites to a real hosting service, Site Ground . I have learned a lot over the years about Linux and Windows by running my own servers. The trade-offs of doing this are many but there have been some benefits which I hate to part with. What got me started in running my own servers was that I got tired of my ISP in Portland telling me that I had to pay more money for disk space for my web site. I have a large archive of photos that I just like having online. I also liked being able to configure what ever I wanted on the servers. There are pit-falls in running your own servers. When something breaks and you see the famous error See Your Administrator , then that means you! Fixing my...

I have joined an online social community called Second Life . I heard about it this week as I was watching an episode of Rocketboom on my Tivo . If you would like to join Second Life click here and I will get some Linden dollars as a referral. You can join for free but if you upgrade to a premium account you can get some Linden Dollars to spend in the virtual world of Second Life.  I decided to join Second Life because I have been futzing with computers and the Internet for over 15 years and I have not been able to use them for entertainment successfully. I always rely on using a television and DVD player for my home entertainment. I love listening to music, but I usually do that when I am driving in my truck, working (with computers mostly) or working out in the gym.  So during the 2007 ice storm in central Texas I decided to join Second Life.

Some folks have said that the new year means nothing. The belief is that time is an arbitrary measurement of time. Saying that a year starts at a certain moment really means nothing. So at this time when the western civilized world sees fit to mark an ending of a chapter in time and the start of a new one I am making an attempt to just continue to be consistent in keeping my life going the way that it is. This past year I have become officially divorced. There was a time in my life that I believed that I could not live as a divorced person. It has been very hard living without being around my sona and daughter. My children live in Portland, Oregon and I reside in Austin, Texas. But my problems are nothing compared to what a lot of other people in the world are going through. Katrina  did a lot of damage in 2005 and folks are still re-building their lives and homes. I am happy for my life and I am living the live I love and loving the life that I live.