I admit it, I’ve been a little lazy when it comes to this blog. Today I got emails from my web host letting me know what I’ve got a month to renew my domain names (leelanauphotography.com and leelanauwhippersnapper.com). No big deal, $8 each. I’ve also got to renew my subscription with Zenfolio by the end of August in order to keep the photography site alive. Again no big deal (hey mom and dad, how about that birthday gift?). I’ve added some new functionality to the blog tonight. On the right, you’ll see 12 pictures. They are random samplings from my photography site. They will be something new each time you visit the blog. Just a good way to promote the photography web site I think. I’ve also added a post calendar so you can see what days I’ve actually written something and I’ve added a search box in case you ever need to find something that I’ve written in the past. WHOO HOO! Right?
Well the apartment hunt is going pretty well. I toured a condo today that I think I’m going to take if I can get it from the Realtor who was showing it. I’ve already sent in my application and told him I’m ready to go TODAY. This was a great little 2 bedroom 2 bath condo right off of Garfield. Comes with a small fenced in yard for Gavin and a 2 car garage. It’s in a managed community with a pool and other amenities. It’s also listed for sale but apparently the owner will take whoever makes an offer first so I made an offer on it. Pretty much right within my budget and very close to work. Just crossing my fingers now waiting for a call back telling me I got it. Then I have to round up the cash to make it happen right away. I’ll have to be creative with that. Anyhow I hope I get it.
After the tour, I took Gavin out for a boat ride at the cottage. Pretty nice day today. Not crazy hot but really not unpleasant. I decided to test my shallow water skills and we took the boat through the narrows and out to the North Lake. Always a trip to do that, no problems though. Had a swan hiss at me, what evil birds they are. Tonight I’ve just been sitting around doing not much of anything. I’ve not had a day like that in a LONG while. It’s nice to just relax now and then.
So, off to bed now, I’ll be writing more about the apartment hunt again soon.
Tags: apartment, boat, condo, lazy
I’ll admit that I’m pretty much a tech-geek but in the same breath I’m nowhere close to a true nerd! Anyhow, this is an issue that is of great concern to me and it should be to you as well. When the internet was young back in the early 90’s, AOL was the primer internet service provider. They charged BY THE HOUR for internet access on their networks for speeds up to 28.8kbs. This was a great model for making HUGE profits and ripping consumers off. Since AOL was the service to have, I signed up and I recall my first bill of $250 for a MONTH of internet access and I nearly got rid of the computer all together. After that, I did all my internet browsing at GVSU using their high speed connection for free in the computer lab until AOL finally went to an “all you can eat” program for a low monthly fee. That price structure became the norm in the internet access world, until today.
Time Warner has announced that they will now be testing “metered bandwidth” pricing schemes in a few markets. They will put a cap on the bandwidth you can consume per month and you’ll be charged if you go over that amount. Bandwidth for those of you reading who don’t know is the amount of data transfered upstream and downstream (uploads and downloads) between your computer and your internet service provider. If you don’t use your internet connection for anything but email and basic web page browsing, these new caps won’t mean anything to you and they really wont’ affect you. HOWEVER, if you are geek like me and you get all your music, video, and on occasion your movies via the internet this is cause for significant concern. I installed a bandwidth meter on my computer about 3 months ago when I caught wind of the potential for providers to move in this direction. I wanted to know what my average consumption was per month so when monthly plans are eventually introduced, I could select the one that best suits my needs and so I could start to gauge how much internet access would cost me in the future. Keep in mind that becuase I’m an early adopter, I’ve paid up to $130 a month for broadband access in the past, and I would think that in some markets today, people are still paying that much a month. I do not however think that broadband should be costing ANYONE anywhere more than $50 a month. I consume about 30GB of bandwidth a month, more downloads than uploads but still, that is considerably higher than most people I know might use. That bandwidth consists of web browsing, email, streaming music, streaming TV and video, and a movie or two via my access to OneBox at Amazon.com using my TiVO set top box. According to this article, it is only 10GB short of the cap on their best plan of 40GB per month and that plan is more than I’m paying now.
There is somewhat of a war going on right now in the tech world. On the one side you have the big monopolies (Time Warner, Comcast, Charter, RIAA), on the other side you have the open access activists (of which I am one). I strongly believe that access to the internet should be treated as a utility with the same quality, speed, and unrestricted access offered to EVERYONE regardless of location (like electricity). I am a very strong opponent of censorship campaigns pertaining to content on the internet, and I have real problems with forced advertising although I support some advertising methods as legitimate ways to reduce the end cost to consumers. I DO in fact understand that it costs money to provide internet access. I’m not an idiot. In most cases however I’ll pay more for something to get rid of advertising. On the flip side are these big companies who want to control how we access information on the internet and how we acquire digital media. They loose money when I watch TV online becuase I am subjected to different advertisers who may or may not be subsidizing my viewing to my particular service provider. It’s ALL about the money (Again, I’m in sales so I know what that means however, there are other models out there for making money).
So, to conclude this chapter, it’s generally in your best interest to use service providers that do not put restrictions on bandwidth and if it’s introduced if you have the option, you should switch providers. Increasingly your media will come from the internet in various forms and that media will consume bandwidth at higher and higher levels as everything moves into the HD world. Cable companies want you to watch movies on THEIR cable services, they don’t want you to download them becuase when you do that they miss out on a critical revenue stream. Too bad. I don’t like monopolies and while I generally don’t like government intervention either, this is one area where our government must act to retain low cost access to information and media via the internet.
Tags: bandwidth, internet access, monopolies, Time Warner
The vacuum is going downstairs right now. I guess there is a first time for everything. Or my roommate read some of my older blog entries. One or the other. Good to finally hear it on down there, perhaps I’ll clean a common area tomorrow…perhaps not. I quit cleaning when my efforts became secondary to MAKING A FUCKING MESS!
I’ve been a little quite lately on the blog front. I’ve been pretty tired out both mentally and physically. Things are going to come to a head at work on Tuesday and people are going to realize that I’m just not going to put up with shit this summer from them. If they want to work for me, they all need to get it together and start working otherwise I’ll replace them all. I’m the boss, I’m sick of being so fucking accommodating to everyone else. I’ve been dealing with the Jirar split up one day at a time. While I’m still going to remain hopeful that this is not a final thing, I have to be able to accept it if it is. Everyone moves on…eventually.
I’ve got to start looking at where the housing options are in Traverse City. I think maybe on my next weekend off, I might take a drive into town and try to find some of these places that are for rent out there. I want to get into a managed property, I’d really rather not rent from joe blow landlord again. I see way too many dipshit land lords at work….I know how they operate in this area. They don’t give a fuck about their properties, they just want the residual incomes. There are a LOT of lazy fucks up here.
OK, off for tonight. I’ll try to get back into a daily entry again soon. The weather is getting nicer, it’s going to be much harder to sit in front of the computer when my garden is calling me outside!
Sarah see pic below - NAME THAT MOVIE!
Tags: apartments, Blogging, cleaning, housing, mess, roommate, vacuum
OK, I think I have settled on a new theme at least for the time being. For you regular readers, this one is a little more complicated than the previous ones you have seen and so you’ll need to explore it a little. Hopefully I can keep the formatting correct so it doesn’t look crazy. First, notice above the solid black line on the right side of the page it says open/close. Click on it. WOW huh? Anytime you don’t know where you are, click on that and you can get back to where you started. Inside also shows a “Tag Cloud”, random links and administrative features that you, the reader, won’t use. The header has also been customized. I told you I would find a use for that great panoramic photo of Pyramid Point. It works great as a header to this blog!
Anyhow, I’m going to stick with this theme for a while now and see how it works. If you have any comments I’d love to hear them and as always, I do appreciate comments on my posts!
Tags: comments, english, theme
Well Folks, you’ll notice that there are absolutely NO previous posts on this blog now! What a fucking night. In my rather weak attempt to be tech savvy, I tried to fix the media problem that I had been experiencing earlier and in the process I managed to delete my entire blog. SO, I guess since I’m having to start my life over again, so then I shall do with my blog. Everything works now in it’s default state, we’ll see what happens once I start to do the customizations again. Hopefully it won’t fuck them all up. Those of you who have posted here before may need to register again. I don’t know. Don’t take it personally. Anyhow, now I’m off to customize again. Enjoy looking here at nothing in the mean time!
Tags: blog problem, erased, Fucked Up, upgrade
