Category: Daily

I spent some time this afternoon converting my Facebook profile into a page so I can automatically post to it from my website. Then I jumped in the shower and, (because hot showers are excellent places for ideas), a few things occurred to me, in no particular order. First, my websites have feeds for post kinds and categories. Why this is or how this works doesn’t matter though. What does matter is that I can automatically post to any particular Facebook page with one or all of the feeds, which means I can also create a page for each category on Facebook. This means people on Facebook can consume whatever content of mine they want, and not consume the stuff they don’t want, sort of like newsletters except for Facebook, and I get to automatically post to these pages, which means I don’t have to do the work of manually copying and pasting to Facebook whenever I create content. I still haven’t figured out how I’m going to handle Twitter yet, except that I can send technical content to my business account and all the boring personal stuff to my personal account. I’ll figure out something for the stuff that may be controversial or start arguments later. I’ve sent invites to the new page to the friends on Facebook who I think are probably more interested in my personal goings on than my opinions on whatever, but just in case I’ve missed anyone I’ll also share this to my profile so that anyone who didn’t get the invite can follow it.

Damn it! This year’s first thunderstorm, (for Pennsylvania at least), just started, and I was going to leave the windows open so I could listen to it because thunderstorms are cool, but the rain was blowing in and soaking everything so I had to close them. I’ll open them again before bed since the heat is still on and this apartment is heated by boilers plus radiators and it gets hotter than hell in here unless the windows are open. Oh well, there will be other thunderstorms.

I’ve finally found a social reader that’s reasonably accessible and which I like, so now I’m in the midst of transferring all my RSS feeds over to Aperture in earnest. Organizing them is proving a bit of a challenge, but this is also an opportunity to clean things up a bit and decide what I want to continue reading and what I’m happy to discard. For me, RSS as opposed to social media is a much more digestable approach, or at least an approach that assists me in stopping to think about and ponder the things I read, when they require thinking and pondering. Organizing feeds into categories is a great way, for me, to put things like news or politics or whatever into a separate place where I can visit when I want to and then jump out again when it starts to feel like too many people are peeing in the pool.

I got an incredibly late start this morning, which is no surprise because I didn’t fall asleep until close th 3AM. I blew through the fourth Virgil Flowers book last night, and holy hell that was some twisted shit. I won’t give the book away for anyone who wants to read the series, but let’s just say I was very, very satisfied when all the villains were gotten rid of or otherwise taken care of. I spent the better part of Saturday sitting on a deck drinking, listening to music, and enjoying the company of friends. I’ve spent the rest of the intervening time between then and today working and reading Virgil Flowers books. At this rate I’ll be done with the series by the beginning of May, if it takes that long. After finishing what’s there I’ll start the Prey Series by the same author I think, because I’ll need to wait until the next book in the Foowers series comes out, and that won’t be until October. The Hockey play-offs start tonight, and my teams are (I think) all playing, so I’ll spend the evening listening to the games. I’ve taken a break from Apple Watch challenges for the moment. I was really, really tired after the last round, so I’ve taken the last week off, and will get things rolling again with regard to exercising starting on Sunday I think.

The advantage to documenting evereything I’m reading on my own websites is that I can find things later. I suppose that’s the same advantage to bookmarking things. Oh, and also the sharing with others. I started rereading the first Virgil Flowers book and this time, I’m paying attention. I didn’t want to put it down last night but eventually I had to go to sleep so I could get up this morning. I can’t wait to pick it up again though. I still need to pull my data out of Goodreads and into my website, and I still need to import my Facebook archive and finish documenting some other processes as tutorials.

Dear Nginx, at least this particular installation. I really fucking hate you right now. I suppose it’s not your fault, because if I had a bunch of time to dig through your conf files with a fine-toothed comb to determine all your particular configurations, I wouldn’t be dealing with this shit. But I don’t, and so I am manually checking and then resetting permissions for a fuckton of directories and files. Dear sysadmins: Please, for the love of God, if you aren’t going to be managing a server forever, or if you know you’re going to hand it off to someone else, leave an easily-findable file somewhere with a map of the server setup, so that the web developers who come after you who also end up having to manage the server while on a time crunch can quickly get up and running.

I am well-fed and I achieved all my exercise goals and earned my six hundred points in my competitions. Today is a good day. Now, bedtime for developers. Tomorrow begins another work week, and I am sure that it will be a busy one. Good night all.

I managed to get in 30 minutes on the bike today. It looks like I will actually make my 600 points, and will be on track for my challenges this week. I am definitely looking forward to my planned break from challenges though. Also, the Minnesota Twins apparently think they are playing a football game instead of a baseball game, because they are beating the ever living crap out of Indians like it’s going out of style. Oh well, better luck next time, Indians.

Yesterday I really struggled to both achieve my exercise goals and earn the six hundred points for my Apple Watch competitions. Today I am struggling with these as well. I have been under the weather this weekend plus going balls to the wall for the last sixteen days at least so after these competitions are over on Wednesday I am going to work just hard enough to close all the rings on my watch and that’s it for at least a week. It was 69 degrees here yesterday and I had all the windows open and it was great. Today it’s 39F and it’s supposed to drop from there so for today only the kitchen window is open.

I’ve achieved my maximum six hundred points for today, which means I’m tied in one Apple Watch challenge and kicking ass in the other. All my rings were closed by 1600, and I’ve just finished work for the week. Consequently it is time to do some serious resting and relaxing. I’ve been invited to socialize over the weekend and there is going to be good food and alcohol involved. I am looking forward to this. Shabbat shalom (a peaceful Sabbath) everyone, and I’ll see you on the other side.

Dear people of the internets: I would just like to announce that I put a serious dent in a huge veggie tray because veggie trays rule. Also, everyone should take the opportunity to go outside or hug the ones you love or do something to take care of yourselves because these things rule too.

OK everybody, it’s close to 5:30 on a Friday afternoon of what has been an incredibly long week. This means it’s beer:30 and I quit. see you on the other side of the weekend.

That time you start your chosen work playlist, which is one you didn’t create, sit down away from the device to start working, and a song that you hate even when it doesn’t involve Kenny G. comes on, and then it’s the version with Kenny G. which makes it worse. Thank god it’s relatively short. I need a way to block artists on Spotify. When I become Supreme Ruler of the universe, adding Kenny G. to a jazz playlist is going to become a finable offense.

Today will be an incredibly light work day I think. I’m getting a very late start this morning and I’m still getting used to the drastic weather and elevation changes. I went to bed at around 10:30 last night and didn’t wake up for the day until close to 8 this morning. I’ll need to have my ass more in gear tomorrow but I’m not worried about today.

It’s a couple of hours before I have to leave for the airport, so it’s time to disassemble the electronics and double and tripple check that all chargers are where they need to be. The suitcase is strategically packed, which I have no idea why I bother about since TSA is just going to mess it all up anyway. Anyway, this will be a long day but totally worth it.

Current status: Waiting on the last bit of the laundry to finish in the washer so I can switch it over to the drier, packing, and of course anxious about my flight tomorrow. Also, testing geolocation service.

Today has been very busy so far. I couldn’t sleep and ended up waking up at 4AM. I was at the Department of Driver Services, (DMV in most other states), by 8AM and out again by 8:30 with ID in hand. Well, at least the paper copy. The hard copy is being sent to my address. I’ve finished doing my roommate’s laundry so I could free up the washer and drier to use for myself, started a load of laundry of my own, gotten in some exercise, inventoried travel odds and ends. I have a meeting at 2PM today and then I need to pick up some of the things I don’t have around here for travel, and then I can start packing. The day before travel is always so hectic for me.