New Hosting

If you're here, the new DNS records have populated. I'd like to thank my friend Matt profusely for stepping up and allowing me to use his box to host the site. This way I save a few more bucks every month (which will go to you Matt every time we go out for drinks, first round's always on me).

3x Thursday: 02/19/y2k+4: Seasons & Climate

The new 3XThursday, compliments of Missy Williams:

1. What country do you reside in? In what part? What's the climate there?
   I reside in the northeast portion of the US. Specifically I live in New England. We have 4 seasons here: Winter (cold, snow and ice); Spring (somewhat warm, windy and rainy); Summer (hot and muggy); and Fall (cool, crisp and beautiful colors).
2. Did you grow up in one climate and then move to a different one at some point in your life? What were the differences? Do/did you like them? If you haven't experienced different climates, can you handle the climate you live in?
   I've lived in New England my entire life, so the only experience I've had with other climates has been through my travels. I enjoy the cold, but I've learned to tolerate the heat to a certain extent. I don't think I could survive a summer in the south.
3. With changing seasons comes changing weather. Do you ever notice it? Does it mean anything to you?
   Winter usually brings with it snow which tends to cause longer commutes because there are too many morons on the road that think just because their urban assault vehicle has "4-wheel drive" they can drive 60 mph in a snow storm. It also means that I can go skiing, so I do tend to look forward to winters.

Bonus: If you had to choose your perfect climate, what would it be like?
If I could find a place that was partly cloudy and 65-70 degrees all year round, I'd call this place "Heaven".

A Sneak Peak Into Microsoft Code

There's an article on Kuro5hin that details some interesting comments in some leaked Microsoft code. It's really easy to bash them for having this stuff in their code (and some of it does look like it is production code), but I'd be a hypocrite if I said I hadn't had to do the same thing. Some times deadlines don't leave any time to do a proper fix. Then often people forget there was a hack in the first place, or the hack works well enough that no one wants to change and retest it.

It's really nice to think that in an ideal world all the code that you produce will be well thought out, well designed, and well tested, but in practice it usually doesn't work that way.

Get the Ball Rolling

I've gotten the ball rolling on my plans to move. I gave a formal letter of intent to move as of March 12th. I'll probably be out of Nashua before then, but considering I have to pay for March and April anyway, it's better to leave a little leeway. On a positive note, if someone does move in before the end of April I get refunded a portion of the rent they pay upon moving in.

I've also already submitted my change of address request with the Post Office (it's nice to see you can do this on-line now) and reserved a storage unit at the U-Haul across the street. I've got the new web space account set up, so I'll work on switching the site over to the new space next week (again, hopefully this should be transparent to you folks).

I'm excited about the change. I'm really looking forward to being back in the hussle and bussle of city life again.

Time for a change

After a lot of thought on the matter, I've finally decided to move back to the Boston area. Shane and Sarah have an open bedroom in their apartment in Somerville which I'll be moving into at the beginning of the next month. It's just good timing all around. I'd been considering a move for quite some time, but cost was a big stumbling block. If I wanted to get my own place in Boston, I'd be paying much more than I am now, not to mention having to come up with a security deposit and first/last month's rent. I didn't want to just move in with someone I didn't know as I've had bad experiences with such moves. Shane and Sarah happened to have an empty room because their roommate moved out and the person who was supposed to move in had to back out.

So in the next month I have a lot of things I'll need to take care of. First and foremost will be getting more permanent hosting for the web site. As some of you may know, I host the site off of my home internet connection currently. The kind of traffic I generate is small enough that my DSL is more than adequate. When I move down to Somerville, I'll be on a cable modem which I don't believe has a static IP, so hosting the domain on that line would be problematic. So instead I'm going to use ipowerweb.com, the same provider Dave currently uses for HDTC. They have a reasonable price and offer all the things I need (CGI, PHP, MySQL). Hopefully the transfer over to new hosting should be seamless, as I'll do my best to set up the new site before changing over the DNS records.

The other big thing will be sorting through all of my stuff and deciding what to move, what to put in storage, and what should just be trashed. Most likely this will mean an end for the infamous couch that spawned HDTC in the first place. It's seen better days at this point any way, but it will be hard to part with it. It's a lot like those 10 year old T-shirts with holes you don't want to get rid of because they're so comfortable.

I'm awfully excited about the whole endeavor. I've missed the city so much this past year and a half. I'll be going back a very different person than I was when I first moved there freshman year. Who knows how long I'll stay this time, but I'm going to enjoy every minute of it.

3x Thursday: 02/05/y2k+4: The Winds of Change

After a long hiatus, it's time again for me to do 3XThursday. Thanks to Missy for getting these up early

1. How do you deal with having to make complete lifestyle changes? (This can be a breakup, quitting smoking, trying to live better, etc)
   In the past, I had been very bad about actually following through on changes I planned to make. I would talk about doing something for a long time then never follow through. It wasn't until late 2002 that I finally followed through on some things. I finally got help for my depression, I started a "diet" (I hate calling it that because I don't limit the kind of food I eat), and started an exercise regiment. These days if want to do something, I just set a date and follow through.
2. When you have real changes to make concerning yourself, how do you go about making those changes? Is it hard for you?
   I always try to weigh the positives and negatives of making a change. With my weight loss, it was a no brainer. Recently I've been considering moving back to Boston, and this has been extremely difficult. I've been laying out what I would have to do to move (car registration/insurance, mail forwarding, etc), what I would gain (be closer to my friends, closer to places I like to go, etc), and pit against what I might lose (further away from family and Jen). I then decide which looks better and just do it.
3. At what point do you ask someone for help concerning changes to yourself? Have you had to do this lately? Did it help?
   I usually only ask for help as a last resort. I'll often just ask someone to listen to me talk, because I think better out loud. The last time I got help was when I started therapy. Kate had just left, and I was about as low as I could get. I finally got around to seeing a therapist like I had said I would for months. It was the best decision I ever made.

Bonus: Did you ever wait until it was too late to do something?
Well had I gone to therapy before Kate left, we might still be together, but I'm not entirely sure that would have been a good thing. Kate had her own problems to deal with, and we needed to deal with our issues separately. And it's bad to think you "waited too long", it's never too late to improve yourself.

Champions Again

The New England Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVIII last night, much to my delight. I've followed the Patriots since as long as I knew what a football was. I followed the team during it's first Super Bowl run in '86, when they met up with the Bears and their dominating defense. I followed the team through those extremely lean years (I attended games during the 1-15 seasons). When Bill Parcells came to town, I jumped for joy. I was ecstatic when my team again reached the title game in '97, only to meet up with Brett Favre and Desmond Howard.

It seemed like I would never be able to enjoy my team finally winning the big one, until two years ago. A team led by Tom Brady, a kid (well in football terms, he's actually a year older than I am) who took over for the franchise QB, Drew Bledsoe and led them to a surprising AFC east championship. Then in the playoffs, in the snow and with the help of the NFL rule book (incomplete pass!), beat the Oakland Raiders. They then marched into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers on some stellar special teams play. However, I feared history would repeat itself in SBXXXVI. The Pats were 14 point underdogs to the Saint Louis Rams. But then it happened. Through great game planning, a suspect coach on the opposing side line, and the most amazing kick off the leg of Adam Vinatieri, my team won the Super Bowl! We celebrated for what seemed like forever. It seemed as though it might be just a fluke when they followed up the next year with an 8-8 season.

Then the magical ride that was the '03 season started. A horrible loss to Buffalo combined with the loss of a key defensive starter looked to spell the end of any chance for a productive season. Injuries upon injuries left the team decimated. But then they started to win games. The sneaked out a win in Miami in OT after blocking a FG that would have won it for the Dolphins. They stopped the Colts on the 1 yard line on 4th down to preserve a win. They just kept winning in every way possible. They won their final 12 games of the season and went into the playoffs as the #1 seed in the AFC. The then proceeded to beat both the co-MVPs to make their way to SBXXXVIII, where they were 7 point favorites over the Panthers. Then last night, in arguably one of the best games I've ever watched, Adam Vinatieri once again kicked a FG that clinched the title for my home town team. 2 titles in 3 years. Unreal.

Tomorrow, I'm taking the day off to go down to Boston for the parade in their honor. The scariest thing, this team has the potential to get better... It's a great time to be a fan.