Life lessons...

The blog is back, but not without some issues in between. I've learned a few lessons in the last couple months. First and foremost, ALWAYS backup your time-sensitive data, like your website. My firewall/web/ftp/etc box had a critical failure around July/August, which all but wiped out 1.5 months of work getting the site to look the way I wanted it to. I'm now using a D-link router for my firewall needs (the thought of setting up ipchains again gave me hives), and I'll be running weekly backups on the new web server.

Secondly, don't trust anyone. Thinking everything was hunky-dorey with Kate, we moved to New Hampshire to begin our new life together. Not one week after we moved, Kate dropped a bomb on me and said she thought I wasn't connecting with Laura. This lead to her leaving me a little less than a week later, leaving me an emotional mess. I later found out she hooked up with some other guy she met on-line in Ohio. I got royally pissed, broke into her e-mail account, generally rifled through her stuff, did some other not so nice things that got her real pissed with me. We've since been able to patch things up to a certain extent, though b/c of logistics, we haven't been able to talk much.

Otherwise, things are proceeding as normally as they can. At work, we're wrapping up the initial development of our next release. I wrote reporting engine for this release that is heavily based in XML/XSL technologies, which meant I had to teach everyone how it worked. Dave's visiting from LA for a week so he can tie up loose ends here in New England and become a full-time CA resident.

Mind the clutter while I once again attempt to get things in order around here.