Apex81

I’ve been done classes for a week now, and I officially have the burnout!  I can’t focus on anything at all, and any time I try to accomplish something my motivation fails me.  I guess it doesn’t help that I am waiting on a number of projects to get started. When I have work to do I can get back into the swing of things super-quickly, but if I have a lull it’s game over.  I seriously hope this week doesn’t go down the tubes.  I have 2 sites to get started on, but I’m waiting on clients.  I have 2 sites in the finishing up phase, and one of the clients has gone MIA, coincidental? I think not.  I also have 4 potential sites on the horizon.  I’m hoping those potentials work out because they’re for fields I’ve never worked in before.  That’s one of the things that I love about web design, it affords me the ability to learn about all kinds of stuff that I wouldn’t normally get involved in.  Fun stuff.  I’m also trying to think of creative ways to advertise on the cheap… anyone have any good ideas?  It’s not that I’m cheap, it’s that I have a hard time spending money on things that don’t guarantee results.  I plan on looking into advertising on the metro system here tomorrow, but out side of that I’m at a loss. Help a brotha out!  Drop me a comment and let me know if you have any ideas.

I thought that I should probably update you all since I’m going to be super swamped in the upcoming month.  Things have been moving really quickly over the last 2 months for me and I’ve been struggling to find the time to update all of you.  Readership for this blog has hit an all time high, but for some reason I am not completely sure that I trust my stats software that is running right now…  But, here is to hopping that it is… Cheers!

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a while since i’ve gotten up regularly at 7am… I guess that’s what happens when you work for yourself.  But, I have to say that it’s nice being on a schedule again, and I’m seriously enjoying the new found hours during my day.  Even though I’ve filled that time with more work (both school, and design), I feel like I’ve been able to accomplish a lot more.  Who knows, maybe its all in my head, but I’m starting to think that I could become a morning person!  Trust me, if you don’t know me personally, that’s a huge step forward.  Until this point, I usually need a good hour of quite time before I am ready to interact with others.  It’s all turning around!

…But, same bat time, and same bat channel!

My midterms are done… thank god!  It was a pretty brutal exam period for me.  Some how my Anthropology exam was harder than my economics exam… and in the worldof Apex81 anything math related should be, hands down, the more difficult of tasks.  Who knows, maybe the tide is turning, or maybe I should have spent more time studying for the easier exam.  Although to my defence: only one question on the entire exam was based on the unit objectives and study questions… how unfair is that.  Last time course objectives are supposed to be the most important concepts of the course… you know… the kind of concepts that find themselves on exams.

Now i just have like 13 assignments and 3 finals to do in the next three weeks! I can’t wait for this semester to be over.  It seems like everything that can go wrong has gone wrong.

I also have two websites I need to start busting my ass off on, clients are starting to get unruly! I’m starting to get in over my head.  Everything is coming to a bulk head, and I have no idea how to even start to work these things out.  Two sites almost down, and two sites to go.

Taking a quick break from my studies today to watch some playoff hockey, and catch up on some news around the web. I stumbled across a pretty cool website that demonstrates the power of todays web technologies, if you get a chance check out scrapblog.com. Every time I stumble across today websites I’m simply amazed at how far we’ve come since the days of geocities.  Unbelievable.

Anyway, I’ve been pretty busy lately. I’m pretty behind with my school work because I’ve been spending a majority of my time working on some designs and planning my upcoming wedding. Sometimes I think I was crazy to think I can handle all of this.  Other times I think its been a breeze.  Ah well… no looking back now.

I need to get back to work.

Part Two to follow.

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. I’ve been super busy. My school work is starting to catch up with me. Between school and these web pages i’ve been designing I’ve been super busy. Its starting to look like I’ll be spending some time on the road implementing a couple os OS X servers for a school board in Oshawa, ON. Sounds pretty exciting. It’s going to be a bit of a challenge, but definantly as step in the right direction businesswise. I’ve also got potential clients lined up in Maryland, and Texas. Hoping I don’t have to travel to those locations, well, Houstan could be exciting, but Maryland… we’ll I don’t know much about it, so who knows.

On the wedding front, things are starting to get put into order. Appointments and down payments are being made, reservations and decorations are well underway, so it looks like everything is on schedule. Hopefully we’ll get the invites out soon.

Anyway, I need to jet to a meeting with a photographer in Ottawa regarding a website. So, I’ll post a better update when I get back.

Oh and if you want to waste huge amounts of time check out justin.tv, talk about a cool, yet bizarre project.

It has been by far the busiest/non-productive week this year. I’ve been working non stop on a couple of websites–some new, some old–and some how I feel as if I’m not further along then I was at the end of last week. Craziness. I think I’m going to dedicate a whole week primarily to school work this week. I’ve fallen way behind and I’m starting to fear that I will be unable to catch up. It’s time to do what I do best–cut corners. Skip readings, rush through articles, barely take notes. Yup… now that I think about it. I’m right on course for the par. hah! *Sigh* Read the rest of this entry »

So, as most of you are probably aware by now I’m getting married next June. I’m pretty excited about it. But, with that excitement came a bunch of headaches! Not wedding related at all actually, but, business related. I’ve spent the better part of a month now trying to get everything in place for my move so that once I decide to move my servers I will be faced with minimal down times. Well, my search has not been very fruitful.

I’ve been trying to get a business connection run to my residence so that I can host my servers from home, without having to worry about finding an office right now. We’re doing great, but not that great! I can’t really afford to be paying rent and service fees in a place I will not be living in. So, i’ve been canvasing the local internet service providers all week, and i’ve been getting the same answers from all of them. “You’re not in a commercial zone, so we can’t give you the package you are requesting. But, we can offer you this shitty package instead! Frankly, these packages are quite excellent for a home business” So being polite I ask them some questions like… what kind of bandwidth speeds will i get, and can I get a static ip with this service? The anwers are always a bit jumbled, but I get a reply of “oh about 768kb/s upload, and no we can’t give you a static ip address”. Well then… this package clearly is not that great for MY home businesses now is it! Sometimes I wish I lived in Japan, where they easily get 24mb/s to their homes, and about the same upload speeds (This isn’t a typo… is should read twenty-four). Hell. They can even get 100mb/s fibre to their damn door step.

So i’m in a bit of a conundrum! Do I try to run these services of a crappy as personal connection, or do I leave my servers in Cornwall! Uggh. I think I just threw up a little in my mouth!  Its kind of Ironic that in a medium sized town they’re more willing to bend the rules and provide me with a business line to my door, and in bigger cities where these types of breaks will likely go unnoticed I get stuck companies who are being real sticklers.  The Irony is that one of these companies will be living right across the street from me.  A freaking Internet Service Provider 2 seconds from my door, and for some reason they can’t provide me with a business account, but they are able to provide the entire city with Internet services.  How messed up is that.

I’ve been keeping a nice little mental note to compare the news stories I’m seeing  on Digg.com and other tech related news sites and I’ve noticed a two to three day disceptancy between the rates that news is being posted on traditional sites such as slashdot.org, or hardocp.com compared to digg. I save a ton of time when I rely on Digg to get my news. But, on the flip side it seems to have been cutting down my surf time! This is both a good and bad thing. The good is obviously the less amount of time it requires me to stay informed on a lot of news, but the bad news is that I spend less time on the internet when I want to kill some time. Usually in these time-wasting moments I tend to visit sites like slashdot to view some interesting stories, but lately every time I do I’ve been bombarded with “Old News”.

Part of me wonders if the digg philosophy is actually beneficial to the community or detremental. The more readers rely on digg, the greater the likelyhood that the the news world will quickly become monolithic and one-sided. We run the risk of elemenating the differing view points and opinions of those writing the news. Can company’s like slashdot survive much longer? Sure the audience, and readership is servrely different from the Digg demographic, but ultimately the news articles are the same. It’s in the comments that we notice the differences. Quite Frankly, I don’t go to a news site for the comments… just to get the news.

Maybe I’m just a news junkie who feels an obsessive need to be up to date all the time, but, I would guess that a majority of the people who want news would spend their valuable time at the sites that are being most frequently updated. Not, those which are based on an almost archiac form of editing, and moderation. In the fast paced world in which we live the quicker users get results the more satisfied they will feel with each visit. Sure digg has its downfalls, but I believe they pale in comparision to their closest competitors. Afterall, they’ve created a new model from scratch. A model that puts the publishing/editorial power into the hands of the users. Something that had never before been accomplished, or quite possibly never before been thought of. To steal a terribly over used quote that was uttered back in 1546, and was made popular by Kurt Vonnegut in his novel Cat’s Cradle. “Rome ne fut pas faite toute en un jour.”, or “ Rome was not made in one day…”. Imagine the possibilities in other forms of media. Man! I would no longer have to watch Leaf (Toronto’s hockey team) updates every single day on Sportscenter. I believe all of Canada is with me on that…except for of course those living in centre of the universe (Toronto, for those international readers)! I can’t wait until I can select what types of news I want to watch instead of the types of news the media (read 80 year old men) is forcing down my throat.

It’s official, digg is my number one source of information! And, until something comes along that gives me more flexibility in what I’m viewing, and how quickly I can get updates, I don’t see any changes in the forseeable future.

I love it that I can sit down on my weekends and enjoy the quite solitude that I rarely get during the week. Oh wait! That doesn’t happen. My weekends are filled with endless readings as well as sending endless emails to potential customers, and trying to meet unrealistic client deadlines. Man, I can’t wait until I finish school completely, and land an office. No matter how much I put off school work on my weekends I still have this nagging feeling that I should be devoting more of that time to my studies. I can’t wait until that is over with. As for the office, it sure will be nice being able to “go to” work and “leave” work at the office.

But first thing first! Finishing this degree!

/end of pity party!

On a more positive note I managed to give the new shins album some quality play time over the last week. I’ve had a difficult time managing to come up with some sort of comparision to previous albums outside of this “a mishmash of the 70’s progress rock group Alan Parsons Project’s Vulture Culture album meets Pink Floyd’s Animal album”. It took me a couple of listens to get into the “spirit” of the album, but I must say that it is completly enjoyable, and lyrically engaging. James Mercer sings in the song titled Austrailia,

“Faced with a dodo’s conundrum
Ah, I felt like I could just fly
But nothing’ll happen every time I try.”

Now! There is another reference that sums up my week! This album seemed to come along at a perfect time for me. Being stuck with one foot proceeding into the realities of life, and one planted firmly in the student lifestyle. Let just say i’m not going to take another step until I absolutely have too. But I highly recommend the album to anyone interested, but make sure you give it a couple of listens first. It’s worth it.