Sticking with the Devil I Know
Earlier this week, I got realy excited about web hosting junk. It seems that there are a lot of "deals" going around for web hosts now, most offering somewhere between 20-100GB of space for $4-7/month. Insane you say? Indeed. After doing some investigation, I was scared into staying put at my current host. They've had a problem or two recently with a failed hard drive, and a corrupted MySQL database, but for the most part, they have been good. And honestly, I'm not going to use 100GB of web space, and do I really want to risk moving to a new host again?
Here's what I found out about each one:
1and1.com: 100 GB, on sale for $3.74/month. They don't allow cron jobs, and they have their own control panel. Seems like they have been good in the past, but are "overselling" and going downhill now (a trend in the industry, as you will see).
IxWebhosting: No MySQL, I stopped reading after that.
StartLogic: Seemed like "good people" and got back to me fairly quickly on my questions. 50 GB, on a 2 year plan, it costs $4.95/month. The problem is that I have two domains, and they don't offer real support for add-on domains. You can host two, but only one of them can have email. Strange.
Dot5: same as StartLogic with email, they also don't offer IMAP, but they were $1 cheaper per month. Took them 11 hours to respond to my basic questions.
HostMonster: Affiliated with BlueHost, who has somewhat bad reviews (it's really hard to find good reviews on these places, as a lot of them are clearly shills for the sites they review). 50GB for $3.95/month, and they actually have everything I needed: IMAP, cPanel, MySQL, even SSH. The reviews tended to scare me though, and they never responded to my emails.
GoDaddy: 100GB for $6.29/month, I managed to find a coupon code that would have worked it out to $4.62/month. They were the fastest to respond to my questions, in 20 minutes! But, they have no IMAP, and there is a 10MB limit on the POP mailbox. I don't think this a huge problem, as GMail, which is what I use primarily, has the same limits. I came closest to choosing them though, just because they're a company I've actually dealt with. But again, it seems like they are overselling, and some of the reports I read said they had trouble with MySQL and such on GoDaddy.
So, I'm sticking with what I've got... For now. At least if anything else happens, I know I've got options. For the record, WebHostingBuzz charges $3/month for 5GB of space, and it's been pretty darned good aside from the two issues, which just both happened to occur in the last two months.
Also, I'm going to stick with MovableType for now too. I was contemplating a move to WordPress, but I had some trouble figuring out how I would get all the different sites (Ellie, Baby #2, etc) to work in the same way as they do now. My only complaint with MovableType isn't really with MovableType, it's with the Media Manager plugin, which will sometimes get the pictures for my book reviews, and sometimes not. I just need to figure that part out.
Geek mode over. Have a good weekend!
Dogfish Head Chateau Jiahu
Beer #20! Dogfish Head was charged with recreating a "beer" brewed in ancient China, as defined by the archaeologists who analyzed pottery shards there. It was awesome. Warning, extreme beer snobbery ahead.
Wow. This was an interesting beer. It almost reminded me of my first Saison, but that could just be me.
Cloudy light orange color with a substantial light head, which disappeared in a fashion that reminded me of the Saison.
Earthy aroma with slight fruitiness.
More earthiness in the flavor, with a sharp tartness and a fruity mouth coating. Definite honey overtones, with some slight grape flavor to balance the high alcohol taste. The grape was very subtle though, which I thought was a nice counterpoint, giving it an almost wine-like character.
Overall, a nice sweetness balanced with the tart bite and earthiness throughout. It went very well with my dinner of balsamic vinegar peach pork chops. A fine experiment that I hope they keep brewing. The bottle is a bit much for one person though, so I recommend sharing.
Overall rating: 4.35 (ties record high!)
Whale Talk
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
My review
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Whale Talk has been banned in some school libraries for "racism and offensive language." Honestly, I don't understand people sometimes. The author uses no language that your everyday junior high schooler doesn't hear 1000 times a day, and the book provides a great capsule of what high school life is really like: bullies in the hall, budding romance, etc.
I sped through the book mostly over the weekend. It's a quick read, as it's a "young adult" book, and the story moves quickly through the halls of athlete-centric Cutter High School. The protagonist is a mixed-race adoptee who shuns the recruiting efforts of the big sport coaches to form a rag-tag swim team. He and the team face challenges along the way, while also confronting their inner demons. The book even came close to bringing me to tears a couple of times. Definitely recommended. If you haven't picked out a banned book for reading, you can probably find this one at your local library and read it in the time remaining this week.
Up next is Banned Book special #2, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Zamyatin was exiled by the Communists for his disruptive views, and this book was suppressed for over 60 years in the Soviet Union before it was finally published in Russia in 1988 when glasnost took hold. George Orwell acknowledged the work as inspriation for his classic, 1984.
Victory Festbier
Every other Friday usually brings with it a trip to Norm's, and this past Friday was no exception. I'm on their email list now, so I had a checklist of brews I wanted to pick up. Since I enjoyed St. Boisterous from Victory so much with my first review, I made sure to grab this Oktoberfest beer.
Big bubbly head on this one. I had to slow the pour to get it all in the glass. Dark coppery color, with a sweet malty fragrance.
The taste was all about the sweetness of the malt to me with some caramel flavor too. There was a bit of a hoppy flavor in the finish to top it off as well.
On my recent foray to Norm's, I picked up a six-pack of this, with some singles to taste as well, and I'm thinking that the singles will have to wait, as I enjoyed this quite a bit.
Overall rating: 4.2
Let Us Speak of This No More
I think it was just a couple of weeks ago that I was proclaiming my joy that football was back. Uh, scratch that, reverse it. I can't wait for the baseball playoffs to start.
Anyone who watches Michigan State play football knows that they are "streaky," to put it mildly. They can get up big, but inevitably, they will let the other team back in the game. Last year, dominating Ohio State 17-7, about to kick a field goal to go up 20-7, but they rush the FG team out, and, unprepared, get it blocked and returned for a TD to make it 17-14 at the half, and they never recovered. Up huge on Notre Dame, they go into a shell in the second half, and give up the spread offense that got them in the lead in the first place. Instead, Notre Dame gets wide open, easy touchdowns, and easy, stupid turnovers (and kickoff kneeldowns, what the hell?!?!) to score 19 unanswered points to win.
The Giants decided not to show up till the fourth quarter. Again. Shockey can go off about the coaches all he wants, and rightfully so in some cases. But Eli's the one throwing it to the other team. The offensive line is the one holding and false starting. And Plaxico is the one dropping the ball and giving it to the other team. Hopefully that little unrequested rest he got at the end of the game teaches him his lesson. Now it's time for the coaches to go in and cut this penalty and turnover crap right out. They've got a bye week to get it figured out before facing the Redskins in Week 5.
Did I say I wanted the baseball playoffs to start? Oh yeah, the Yankees are doing their best to let Detroit get home field in the playoffs by dropping two straight (and getting blown out with their two "aces" on the mound, Randy Johnson and Mike Mussina) to the Devil Rays.
At least our baseball team won big. I started off the game well, but ended striking out the last two times up. I did have a very solid day in the field, with no bobbles or anything, playing mostly third base, with some shortstop and left field. I even avoided a Nick Johnson collision in the outfield by calling off the shortstop early on a shallow popup. Ouch, poor Nick. I watched that play over and over and still couldn't see what happened. Broken femur after nearly a whole season without injury (he's been injury-prone his prior 4-5 years). Luckily, with the injury coming so close to the end of the season, he got in enough plate appearances (610) by my count to attain all his contract bonuses. We're going to the Mets-Nats game to close the season on Sunday, and I'm thinking about wearing my uniform, with socks pulled up high (which is how I always wear them actually) in tribute to Nick. Get well soon buddy!
Oh, and it looks like my fantasy football team will finally get a win, no thanks to Shaun Alexander. The least the Seahawks could have done if they were going to whip my Giants is to let Shaun get more than the one TD. Luckily, Brian Westbrook had a huge day, and even Jon Kitna chipped in as bye week filler (though Brett Favre had a better day on my bench). Going into last night, I had a 71 point lead, which is now down to 39.5 thanks to Javon Walker. Hopefully the Saints keep Michael Vick somewhat contained. In our scoring system, it's pretty hard for a QB to get 40 points. Peyton Manning, in his shredding of the Houston D last week, only had 27. The way this weekend went though, nothing will surprise me.
The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia
The Lizard King Was Here: The Life and Times of Jim Morrison in Alexandria, Virginia by Mark Opsasnick
My review
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is definitely only for a certain niche of people. Of course, I happen to be one of those that fits the niche: Doors fan, interested in the local history of the DC area. Not everyone, OK, not very many at all, will fit this mold, so I can't really give the book a full recommendation.
In spite of some quirky writing, and a whole lot of seemingly filler items (it seemed that only half of the book directly addressed the time that Jim Morrison spent in Alexandria), and while it wasn't a page-turner, I did find it interesting enough to hold my attention. I particularly like the closing few chapters, which I thought could have been the whole book. Really, the book would have been better as a TV documentary, as a lot of it was material the author gathered from interviews with Morrison's old high school friends. At any rate, it is a pretty decent book if you like the Doors and are interested in DC history. Otherwise, you'll probably want to skip it.
Next up is the Banned Books Week special, Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher.
The Evils of the Snooze Button
I've been doing really well waking up early the past few days. I'm getting things ready the night before, rather than trying to remember them and trying to function at 5:30am. I've even started getting to bed earlier at night. But last night threw me for a loop.
At midnight, the alarm went off. Apparently the power had gone out briefly yesterday, and I only flipped the switch to turn the alarm on, and hadn't checked what time it was set for, which was of course, midnight.
So 5:20am rolls around, and I hit the snooze. Only once, which is better than I was doing when getting up at 6:30 or 7am, but it slowed down the rest of my morning. I was slow taking a shower, slow eating breakfast, slow doing everything. Even so, I still made it in to work just after 6:30am. Apparently, there are a lot of other like-minded people in my office. Some have been coming in early for years, and some, like me, are coming in early to avoid the parking situation. Either way, it means that there are fewer people here at night. Evenings used to be a busy time. People got in late and stayed until 7 or 8pm. But on Monday, only one guy was left at 6:30pm. Crazy what a little parking trouble will do to people.
So the Yankees clinched the division by backing into it last night. They now join the Mets as the only teams to have clinched, and the networks are already dreading another ratings-killing Subway Series. The Giants head west for a tough game against the Seahawks. And I am going to work now.
No Elmos please!
I swear, I will hunt down and kill anyone who attempts to get the 10th Anniversary Tickle Me Elmo for Ellie. Then I will sell it for $100 on eBay.
That is all.
Day 2: Dark and Tired
Seriously, it is freakin dark at 5:30am. And it ain't getting any better any time soon. I truly understand why some of the military guys I work with refer to any early hour as "oh-dark-thirty." Even poor Max looks at me when I rouse him to go out for a walk: "What are you, nuts? Can't you see it's dark out there? I'm trying to sleep over here!"
So it was probably a mistake not getting to bed until almost 11pm last night. I'm going to have to change that or else I won't make it. This morning may require an extra cup of coffee to get through. Hopefully Ellie will take a nap this afternoon so that we can both get some rest.
And that's the bright side of the whole thing: I got home at 3:30pm yesterday, took Max and Ellie for a walk, played some games with Ellie, and just got to spend more time with her. And of course, the primary goal of avoiding the parking hassles was totally worth it. Another bonus: since Lisa has a midwife appointment early this afternoon, I have to leave around noon, and I'll almost have 6 hours in by then, meaning less time I have to make up for later in the week. Good stuff all around, except for the lack of sleep thing. I'm working on that.
You’re Damn Right
Yes, that time stamp is correct. It's not even 7am, and here I am. The sun is barely getting up. The good news is that I got here early enough to avoid what is sure to become a parking debacle. I feel sorry for those suckers getting in at 10am.
Ah, glorious football. This was a rare weekend. I was rooting for Michigan (over Notre Dame in a blowout) and the Dallas Cowboys (over the Redskins in another blowout). And both won, as well as both my teams, MSU (who gets Notre Dame next, I'm not sure whether to be excited or scared about that) over Pitt and the Giants in a comeback for the ages over Philly. Eli Manning still makes some stupid throws (that play on the last drive of the 4th quarter where he was getting tackled and still threw it up to Tim Carter for 22 yards could have been deadly), but you gotta give him credit for getting the job done. My vote is for no-huddle 100% of the time from now on.
It could have been a better baseball weekend though. The Yankees didn't do much against the Red Sox, luckily they have a huge lead in the division. The bullpen is struggling without Mariano, and basically blew both games yesterday. My baseball team lost as well, despite a valiant last inning comeback. I struggled at the plate, but led the two-out comeback in the last inning with a double that brought the tying run to the plate. Unfortunately, that runner only made it to second base as our rally fizzled.
It's really weird being at work already. Ellie and Lisa won't be awake for another hour at least, and the office has quite a few people here, though it is still quiet. Just something I'll have to get used to I guess.
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