Back in action
Looks like things are as restored as they are going to get. My whole site went offline today because someone thought it was a good idea to hack the site and then use it to host a fake Paypal thing so they could get peoples Paypal usernames and passwords. I guess Paypal told my host to take it offline because people were emailing complaints. Apparently they did this yesterday at some point and it went offline today.
It's beyond me how they got in but I guess that's what you do when you are a hacker... figure out ways to... hack? Hmmm anywho well... it's all good now.
Although I lost my last post... it was just about how I feel playing live. I'll try and rewrite it tomorrow.
So I found out about this at about lunch time. Immediately I contacted my host. When I contacted my host they said they couldn't restore it and then nothing further. Whoever got in also changed info and all kinds of other stuff so I got that all fixed but then the site stayed suspended. So they said that information and then also said no restore is available at this time and that was it... nothing further. So then I was like soooo what do I do?!?!
No answer.
I sent them a few more emails and got no response.
What the?!?!?! I tried emailing again asking what the steps were that I needed to do to fix this issue and get my account unsuspended.
Nothing. No response at all.
I decided I was just going to move the site to 1 and 1 and start over as soon as I got home.
Tonight after work when I got home I tried to put in for an authorization code to go sign up to transfer my site over to 1 and 1 to host it. There was an error "60 days transfer restriction period for [account contact information changes]".
At this point I was just going to ditch things and start fresh and think of a new domain name.
Then about 15 minutes later. I got a phone call direct from my host. They said HEY what's up? I can help you right this moment. I said ok. They said... ok well we have to wipe your site to restore it.
I said yea that's ok I have a backup.
They said ok great. We'll do that now.
I said ok.
Minutes later they called back and said ok it's all wiped you can start fresh.
While I was waiting I thought that was odd... they basically ignored me until right after I tried to ask to send the authorization code to transfer the domain name. Did they know I did that? Is there some message board that lights up the minute someone is about to transfer to another hosting company???
I wonder how that works.
Anywho...
So I waited a little bit longer then I started uploading. I also created the databases for my wordpress. Then I got wordpress up and running and reconfigured it.
And here we are.
It was a pain.
I also decided to change my domain whois things to private. Dot Easy where this site is hosted charged me a couple bucks. Meanwhile 1 and 1 who has Kennywestmusic.com was free. I think I'm going to let this site ride for now as is... but in the future I'm probably going to transfer it over to 1 and 1. They seem to be slightly cheaper anyways.
So that was my major thing of my day/night.
Lost and found and xmas party
So I just sat down to have my lunch. I usually sit in a little far off place away from my work room. As I was sitting down I found some money under the seat. It wasn't a TON but it was nothing to sneeze at. It was just cash... So I picked up the folded bills and turned them into the lost and found. I don't know... I'm sure some people would say finders keepers. But it's not mine to keep. So hopefully the person who lost it will come back looking for it or they will be notified that they lost the amount of money and then they will be very happy to have it back!
I think that the best feeling in the world is thinking that something is lost and then having it turn up later. It's like a gift. I've had this happen to me many times. It's the WORST when I realize it's gone and then when it comes back I treasure it so much more.
Ok so that's my story for today. Last night I checked out that 6pm service at the church in Wayne. It was very nice. The sermon was about exactly what church is... It really filled in some gaps on my knowledge and made me think. I mean I caught the very end of the whole series but it was very informative. It was mostly what church is and what church is not. It was very defined and straight forward.
I immediately connected with a bunch of the people and every Sunday after the service they all go out to eat. Instead of going out to eat last night one of the members of the church opened up her home to everyone to come hang out. We all stopped and got food on the way but they also made cookies and had snacks out. It was very nice. Lots of convo and meeting more of the people who also attend that 6pm service.
They also invited me and my friend John to the xmas party this Thursday! So I'll get to meet even more people. Oh yea... sorry... I'll back up a minute. So when I showed up at the service my friend John who I know from open mics was also there for his very first 6pm service! So we both sat together. I thought that was sooooooo awesome. So yea we both connected up and then connected up with the rest of the group right away.
So I guess I'm going to give it another week and go to the 6pm again. I am also going to go to the xmas party. It's kinda odd how things have just clicked right away. I do want to still go back to Victory but I'm only thinking ahead about a week. So Thursday I'll attend the xmas party and on Sunday I'll do the same service again. And I'll try to figure out after that what to do.
OK, well it's back to the grind! There's lots of work to be done. After work I'm going to be going to the Gryphon open mic. Since I haven't done an open mic in a while and I made a promise to myself to try and start doing them once a week. Open mics are the best way to book shows too! So that's a priority. Ok later.
When Networks Break Down
Things get mega crazy when networks go down! That's for sure. We don't really realize HOW much we use things until they are unavailable. Whether it's a cell phone network or a distribution network for supply chains to deliver goods to a store or the internets... it's always disruptive!
Yesterday at work we had a pretty highly improbable event occur. It's one of those odds of this happening are almost a million to one type of deals. But it can happen. Like a lightning strike or something. But this thing brought down our whole network!
We actually had to have parts hand delivered to us and then things reconfigured in order to get it back up and running. Now it's golden (knock on wood).
It's kinda weird how things actually fail. I mean the thing we had fail was BRAND NEW and still the whole unit had to be replaced by the manufacturer because I guess it was just one of those fluke things where this one piece passed quality control but it must have been defective and they just missed it for some reason.
It's interesting because while the network was down pretty much no one could do any work. There wasn't any way for people to work on nearly anything except for maybe clean and reorganize things. So today we have a lot of shiny/neat/tidy offices I'm sure.
But wow the group thought today is now that we have it all back and working... it's kinda just like I never even realized just how important this all is and how I am completely down for the count if I don't have it working!
I often ponder how complex all the systems are in our world a lot and how much we really depend on. There are a lot of really extremely complicated things that go on behind the scenes and it just kinda blows my mind that it even works in the first place!
So I've touched on this before several times. But just wanted to say that. Yesterday was rough for us. We worked pretty hard and through the whole day and night to restore it all.
Today is just a breather day. I'm on lunch now but I'm being super productive and trying to make up for the things I couldn't get done yesterday. I also had to get car service done... so now my car is happy.
This week has been pretty hectic! Trying to buy that condo... then my mom going into the hospital... then the whole network thing yesterday with work... then getting my car serviced and the part replaced... Hopefully next week will be a little more chill!
Well I'm going to enjoy the rest of my lunch then get back to work on the rest the items I need to take care of today.
In The Loop (more on the condo business stuffs)
So I'm doing that whole bid back and forth thing with the condo price. The seller wants a price... I want a price.
That's cool. I started at 95 because well... That's what my budget is! Really 100 is my budget on purchasing a condo. I'm trying to stay at that. The condo was listed at 115. I know that they want to get a good price for it too! So both sides are trying to find a happy medium.
Well after I said 95K they said 106K. Ok cool.... still 6 over my limit. I thought about that... then I said ok... between 95k and 106K is 101K....
1k over.
I did it anyways. 101K but that's as far as I can go! So... I waited to hear back.
Well... here's where it gets sticky/tricky....
The owners of the condo are the parents... I guess an elderly lady lived there... so the elderly ladies kid and her husband I think are the ones selling it... well... they were the ones who said 106. Then right after they said that they went to europe. And they gave their daughter.... power of attorney on it... BUT they said 106 is the lowest we authorize.
So 101 is my top and 106 is their bottom. OK soooo the daughter came back to my 101 with 104... which legally and technically she can do...
So here was my response. I didn't counter.... I'm waiting at 101... because... she did the 104 on her own. Which is fine... it's fair... I would probably agree to 103... it's a little over my budget but I would do 103. So maybe I would counter the 104 with 102 and then we meet in the middle.... ya know, how the monkey does... or malcolm. Or that jimmy eat world song.
But my response was... I want to wait to see what the parents authorize. I KNOW, yes... it's JUST business... but I don't like that the parents said 106 min and the daughter is saying 104 without the parents blessing!
I know i'm not suppose to care...
After all why should I care about the dynamics of some other family of which I know nothing about...
AND I know it's just a real estate transaction. That a buyer is just a buyer and a seller is just a seller and after the deal is done both go on their merry way...
But I just don't feel right with the parents not knowing about the offer made below their limit! I guess I'm a bad business person or whatever but I want blessings from the parents on the 104 before I can act on it. It's weird... I'm weird...
So I want to just wait till the parents can be contacted in europe or are back from europe so that everyone is in the loop.
My realtor said that I might lose the 104 offer and it goes back to 106... and you know... I feel like that's ok. Because as much as I want to get a better price... I don't want to get a better price at the lack of someone's knowledge and then have them find out it was sold 2k less than they wished for without their knowledge.
Maybe I'm the only one this makes sense to... but I guess that's just how I feel... so I want to wait for the parents to know about the 101 and then have them say YES 104 is fine.... before I act on that. I don't want to say oh yes you say 104 and I say 102... let's just say 103 and we have a deal...
Then the mom and dad get home and find out to their surprise that the condo sold for 2 or 3 or whatever thousand less than they had wished for. I know it's stupid and I know that i'm probably being foolish.
Maybe the daughter knows that her parents won't go lower than 106 and she's trying to help me and will deal with her parents when they come back if she can make the sale before they get home... So I might even be shooting my self in the foot...
But I just don't like secrets and I don't like when people are left out of the loop on things!
Affect, Effect, AFLAC!
Yesterday on google news they had a grammar error. They might have picked it up from the news source instead of google news actually publishing it. I don't know exactly but I thought it was interesting that a major news source could publish that kind of error. As well it wasn't just anywhere in the new story, it was in the headline. I was just kinda like whoa... how didn't anyone notice that!?
I guess errors happen all the time in news sources? It was new to me though because I've just have never discovered one before. I've always had them shown to me or pictures or video taken... especially if it's something funny then it's on youtube/whatever other funny stuff here com site is out there. This got me thinking... at first I just said "effect" and "affect" so many times that I started saying it like the Aflac duck and then started saying alfac all day.
But it also got me thinking about errors in real stuff in life. So normally there are tons of mistakes and errors around us everyday. "To err is to be human" or something like that?
This is my job! I help fix errors. Some of them are people errors... some of them are because computers can't seem to get their act together sometimes.
Well... so like I said this got me thinking about two things... thing A is that my mom is back in the hospital again because she has an infection. Her kidney functions are up a little bit and so basically it means she's slightly dehydrated from it... they are doing IV fluids and running tests and so she will be ok. But I always hear about errors in hospitals so I worry every time she goes in that they might make a grammar or spelling mistake on the chart or something! Hospitals always give me the creeps. I know the medical professionals work hard at their jobs and they do as best they can to help positively affect the lives of their patients. But I also know that adverse drug interactions can have a negative effect as well and it's always something I worry about!
Because mistakenly dropping some chinese food soy sauce on a chart at the nurses station and then making it look like 150cc instead of 50cc's of whatever drug can be bad... "Does that say 150 or 50? hmmm... I don't know, you think that smudge is a 1? or is that chinese food? Ummmm... just go with 150... what's the big deal right?"... It's kinda sorta grammatically similar to using an A instead of an E.
"Is it affect or effect? Ummmm just use effect... what's the big deal right?"
Ok maybe not exactly the same but still... I worry when I see errors like that.
OK well thing two that I worry about is this sort of thing happening in my fiances... so speaking of Aflac and insurance... I put in a bid to try and purchase a property... I'm going to wait to say anything more until everything is finished and if the deal goes through. Right now we're going back and forth.
I REALLY like the place though because I know that it's what I can truely afford. My biggest fear has been going in over my head with buying something. And this is the first place that I feel actually comfortable buying without feeling like I would lose my shirt! So I'm excited. But we started talking about all these inspections and things and I'm slightly worried what if I make a mistake and buy it and then find there's a thousand million billion mold spores all over the place. That would suck. But it's a risk that anyone takes when buying. But I still worry! I also kinda worry that maybe I might miss some wording somewhere or that the mortgage people might have goofed... Or who knows. There's a lot of places an error could occur so it's a lot of work just to keep track of it all!
I mean think about just one letter wrong in a description... this property is filled with gold in the walls! GOLD!!!
Ohhhh sorry typo... we meant mold... one letter off. Oops.
The difference between gold filled walls verses mold filled walls is a pretty huge difference! And all it took was one little wrong letter.
So those are my thoughts for today. I'll be praying for my mom to be A-OK and get better quick and have her infection go away and I'll be praying that there are no errors in the dealio with the condio and that it all goes smooth. With any luck I'll have my own little casa de kenny!
We'll seeeeee. I'm excited about possibly having my own place that I can care for. Just like I can help and care for my mama... Although I probably owe her that anyways because she changed 193938292 diapers for me back in the day.
Well it's time for me to finish eating up my lunch and get back to work!
Lunch Time Makes All The Difference
I'm doing that whole taking my lunch hour thing again. I really think I can do WAY more work when I've had a break. If I sit at my desk and work on through I just feel like my head gets all fogged up. But if I physically get up and wander away to a far corner of my building I feel refreshed and ready to go when I get back.
I think that lunch time really makes all the difference! So I'm here eating some noodle bowl thing that I cooked up on saturday. I made a beef and veggie noodle bowl. It's delicious! Usually I do chicken or sometimes shrimp or even tofu. I haven't tried out pork. I want to try that out. I really just like to make my own dishes and bring them in for lunch. Also it makes lunch super cheap!
I am really going to make it a point to take my lunch time every day no matter what I'm working on. I can come back and pick up where I left off and feel all refreshed. The other thing is I can get some "life" things done that I need to take care of. Maybe following up on car things or house things or mortgage things or whatever else... dentist or doctor.
It really reduces a lot of stress to have a good lunch break!
Ok well when I took my car in for service they found that the air filter box screws were stripped and suggested I get that fixed at some point. I feel weird driving around knowing that something with my car needs to be fixed when I have the ability to fix it now and it's not exactly a super expensive fix either. I don't want to let it go and then end up having it be a thousands of dollar repair later on because I let this little thing slide. So I'm going to call the dealer and then follow up with the mortgage guy and then enjoy the rest of my lunch. I hope everyone else has a good start of their work week! And that their Monday isn't too hectic.
Sometimes simpler is better
I like to ride this little stationary bike setup that I have and watch TV in the evening. Usually I pop something on netflix to eat and then it will capture my attention and then after I'm done eating i'll ride the stationary bike and keep watching it.
Sometimes I ride and read though instead of watching TV. It all depends on my mood. It's always good to change it up and keep things fresh. Well...
Let me explain first what the stationary bike is... so it's not a normal bike. It's folding bike.... and it hooks up to a bike trainer made by this company cycle ops. or cyclops.
They say it's Cycle Ops though...
OK well... this makes it easy to fold up the bike and put it away and clear space for other things. It's functional and practical!
Although, i'll admit it looks kinda weird...
I know what you are saying... pic please.... ok ok... hang on a moment...
Again... yea it looks weird. Ok ignore all the other stuff around it... that's my music jam creative stuff corner of my apartment.
Also the rug was free... soooooooo I know it looks weird. Also my carpet is gray I don't know why it looks pink in that picture... how odd?
Ok anywho soooooo now you can visualize it up much better!
Cool, ok now that I've explained that... let me continue....
Well last year I went ALL out and bought the expensive trainer! The one that uses fluid to make the resistance. It was ok... but I don't know it never felt "right". I always was adjusting it to try and get it to feel right. I got it to the point where it was pretty good but something was off! Well then a piece inside broke.
So I sent it back to be repaired. They sent me a new unit. All their stuff has a life time warranty so all I have to do is pay for shipping to get it to them which is cool. Well even the new one felt off again.
I tinkered more and more... nothing sat right. Then recently the replacement broke again. So I have to get it back to them for another repair.
I was looking up their other models out of curiosity while getting an RMA number. I saw that the lowest end model was like HALF the price of the top end one... but really it kinda worked the same way.
Except it makes a windy sound because it uses air for resistance rather than fluid in a sealed chamber.
I decided you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to buy the wind one... send the fluid back to get fixed and then ebay the fluid one when it comes back and when it's all said and done... I'll have either broken even or actually gotten some money back! Because the fluid one is twice the price than the wind.
Well I got the box in the mail yesterday.
I decided to finally put it together today and I got the wind one all setup finally.
It feels PERFECT! WOW... I LOVE it... also the wind noise that it makes isn't all that loud AND I actually put headphones on while watching TV and can't hear it at all! My TV has a jack for headphones... and I have a little extension sound cable.
It all just works perfectly. Also the wind one apparently doesn't have the problems that the fluid one has because it's just a little fan... much fewer pieces than the sealed fluid compartment and all the other stuff inside.
I thought it was just funny how I spent soooo much more money on the higher end one thinking that it would be so much better and the cheap one ended up being the one that fit just right... the other one is more money because of it's complexity and the cheaper one just has 2 parts instead of like 10.
So sometimes simpler is better... And it can be cheaper too!
Although, sometimes when I ride my bike in my apartment. It feels almost like the people version of a hamster wheel.
Maybe I should get one of those plastic balls and run around in that instead? Hmmmm... On second thought. I'll stick with the hamster wheel folding bike cycle ops trainer setup and a watch a little bit o TV while I ride.
A pep talk to myself
I think each morning when I wake up I'm going to give myself a little pep talk and pat on the shoulder (not litterally). Just say hey you know you are doing freaking AWESOME... and then just say ok today is a gift and what good can I make with today? I have a lot of goals and ambitions laid out ahead of me and I have sooooo much that I want to accomplish. It think at times its easy to feel like wheels are just turning and things are going in a positive or productive direction. But when I look at all I've done so far I'm really doing alright.
I watched something the other night on netflix that just talked about if mistakes were never made nothing would exist as it does today. I think the key is to learn from life and mistakes and really use it going forward to not repeat those mistakes. I'm really happy with everything in my life and very thankful with all I have. I wouldn't trade my past or experiences for the world.
So I'm going to look at each new day and give a little pep talk to myself and just rock it out. Who knows what will happen and it's always an adventure. Right now I'm going to focus on just playing open mics and shows and writing and recording new songs and then posting up those songs. And pretty much just keep trying to meet new people and try to get more fans for my music... just keep doing more and more! And just kinda have fun with it all.
So here's to the future and seeing where things take me. There's always a new adventure and new experience just around the bend! Life is good...
