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!

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I’ve been super busy lately. Moving into Jaimie’s has been quite time consuming. Every single time I try to get some work done, I find my self being distracted by unpacking something, or putting something away. But, the apartment has finally been cleaned up and I’m able to get all kinds of work done the last couple of days.

Married life is great… it’s nice finally being at the place in my life where I can see Jaimie every day, and not have to travel every other weekend!

I’ve posted some photo’s from the wedding to my flickr account. You can also see them on facebook. If you want any of them left me know… I have them all on cd.

On the tech front, I’ve adopted some new software that I use on a daily basis. First, I’ve moved away from Firefox and started using a browser called Flock. It’s pretty good, and it’s built from the Firefox engine. I enjoy it. The second application is called Pownce. It’s currently invite only and in alpha, but it has become super addictive. You should check it out. If you want an invite, drop me a comment or an email. I currently have 5 left.

I’ve also been struggling with PostFix on my server. It just randomly stopped working. I’m really starting to hate it. Sadly, I need it working for a website I’m in the middle of developing.

On the web development front I’m in the middle of 5 projects. They all seem to be dragging on. Everything is in limbo. I’m starting to feeling like the businesses are not as committed to getting them done, as I am. I do however have a couple that are also on the go that are pretty cool. I’m looking forward to working on them. But, this takes me full circle to my postfix problem. I’m stuck until I find out what’s going on with it.

Hopefully I figure it out soon… I need to wrap up a couple of these websites.

Oh, and a new alpha-one.ca will be published online soon. So keep checking for that.

Today was the first time that I was glad that I make customers sign contracts.  For the first time I had to cite a couple provisions and clauses in my contract to ensure that I was paid fairly.  Man oh! Man, I’m glad I made the client sign one of those.   In my contacts I have a payment schedule that ensures that if clients decided to cancel their projects for any number of reasons they have a scale of payment that they must meet.  Essentially, if a client withdrawls from the contact within  a couple of days they get 50% of their money back, but if they withdrawl say a month later they have to pay the full amount of the contact.  This essentially protects me from clients who continually encourse their sites design and creation, and then upon deciding that they don’t like it withdrawing from the contact and cancelling the project.

Lets just say i’m glad I was protected today.

I finally got some time to do a quick update on the hockey game I went to. It started of slow as my boys were down 3-1 going into the midway mark of the third period, and holy crap what a finish. The oilers managed to climb back and tied the game up late in the third period with their goalie pulled and setting on the bench. I went absolutely nuts on that goal… well not as nuts as my little bro, but more than I did previously to that time in the evening.

Watching a live NHL game was pretty bizarre for me though. I spend every second evening glued to the television watching the oilers, cheering for them through the worst and best equally. Seeing them for the first time live was surreal. Ryan Smyth’s hockey-mullet is even more impressive in real life!

I thought I had a great appreciation for the game, but seeing those guys live, brought my appreciation to a whole new level. Television does not do justice to the game. The skate faster, and hit a lot harder than it looks on tv. Amazing.

I’d have to say the best part of the evening was booing Comrie, and out cheering the Ottawa fans along with the rest of the Oiler fans in attendance. It was also the most exciting overtime game I’ve seen to date with mulitple scoring chances for both teams. Talk about tense.

Finally, I have to say, I know Ryan Smyth is a large part of the Oilers organization, but once again I didn’t realize just how much until I saw him live. Being the last one off the ice during the pregame warmup he scooped up a couple of pucks from the net and found a couple of young oiler fans in the crowd and tossed them the pucks. Talk about a class act! He’s the epitomy of what the Oilers organization should be, and if he gets traded I have no problem hunting down lowe myself! Hah!

Also, I forgot my camera, so I snapped that shot with my cellphone

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Jaimie and I took in winterlude yesterday, and damn it was cold.  If it wasn’t for the sweet taste of beaver tails, and hot apple cider I don’t know how I would have survived.  We were so damn cold by the end of it that we couldn’t bare to stand outside and wait for the bus.  We decided to take a small shopping trip for a couple of hours, just so that our legs wouldn’t snap off in the cold.  I must say though it was probably one of the more enjoyable evenings I’ve had in the last couple of months.  Nothing like taking an uncharted stroll with the women you love!

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.