SuperSatellite ||

You know, I’m really glad my new blog is going to be ready for mass enjoyment soon.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am quickly becoming disenchanted with MySpace and its oft fuckedupedness.  Example:  my friends list says I have 142 friends.  I don’t, I have either 132 or 133 depending how and when you count.  Also, my view counter for my blog hasn’t reset the "Today" reading all week.  And let us not discuss how many times mail has been down, or I’ve been kicked to the generic error page this week.  Let’s face it, these guys suck at their job.  I’ll be glad to put my reliance on something I have more control over.

All that’s left for my new blog really is to design a layout that is actually mine.  Right now the one that’s there is a canned theme, and though nice, isn’t actually something I see reflecting any me-ness.  I have, however, been stealing MySpace’s emoticon graphics when it suits me.  Anyway, I think layout will be priority one this weekend. 

I get to go to the eye doctor Monday…scary!

So uh…I bit off more than I can chew…yeah.  I went ahead and registered my own domain (fienen.net) yesterday and set it up for DNS (Domain Name Service) with No-IP.com.  Turns out, I’ve got my work cut out for me.  I can’t just have it work, mostly because Cox is a bitch and blocks port 80 (the port the internet works over).  So I have been fighting, quite fruitlessly to make things play out how I want.  Oh yes, the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) works fine, but the address bar in the browser replaces it with the site’s IP address instead, which is tacky, and I want to use subdomains (like blog.fienen.net) which apparently results in all sorts of weird things with my settings.  Damn it all to hell.  Needless to say I wasted a lot of sleep time getting nowhere last night.  And trying to figure out which problems are Apache and which are DNS is a bitch.  I will make it work though.

On that note, I do have a plan for switching to a new blogging system once I get the technical stuff worked out, and don’t worry, my MySpace readers won’t be left cold.  I think in the end it will be a good transition.

Enough technical bullshiat.  I neglected to mention that I have started in with The Music Man rehearsals now.  Boy I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me.  But that’s okay, out of the house, with good people, too bad they don’t have wireless internet in that building, heh.  I’ve been taking picture that you’re welcome to look at.  Naturally those galleries will eventually migrate to my server once I get that DNS crap nailed down.  I think after this I am taking an extended break from theatre all together.  I don’t know what it is, but the enjoyment I lost for acting is creeping into everything else.  I can accept not acting anymore, but I don’t want to ruin it all for myself.  I keep hoping I’ll see tryouts for some play that just makes me say “Wow!  I have to be in that!”  I don’t know what it would be, or what it would take, but I’d like that feeling back.

Is everyone ready for the weekend?  1…2…3…GO!

So I am nearing a crossroads I believe.  I want to toss some stuff out, and have you all hit it back at me.  This is all about getting feedback from you, because that will ultimately shape the decision I make.

I’ve been using MySpace for what is quickly approaching a year.  It’s been an okay time.  But I’m becoming a little restless with its blogging feature.  Mostly I just get paranoid.  What happens if they crash?  If they start charging?  If some unforeseen nuclear disaster takes out my blog?  I am pretty protective of my writing, so far to the point that I have actually begun printing off hard copies “just in case.”  Plus, who hasn’t gotten fed up with the constant down times, errors, and server problems MySpace experiences?  The big draw of MySpace to me is the blogging, which I rather enjoy, and now that I am far more comfortable with it, and my readership has grown, I feel like I owe it to you and myself to produce the best product I can.

So, in answer to this problem I am considering hosting my own blog, with my own domain and all.  It would allow me to also combine some other stuff I have scattered around, like my photo gallery.  I have been trying to weigh pros and cons, look at alternatives, etc etc.  A big concern though is whether or not you, my steady readers, would follow me.  If I went off-site, would I still be able to maintain (and possibly increase) my readership.  Odds are I would step the quality of my writing up to try and offset things, but naturally MySpace provides a very nice connection to you all.  And since they lack support for subscribing to RSS feeds, you couldn’t just point to my feed to keep up to date (I think LiveJournal and Xanga does though, can anyone confirm that?) if I moved.

The other alternative is to move to a truly hosted solution, like Blogger or Wordpress.  They host it, sorta like MySpace, but since they specialize in blogging, it’s more powerful, reliable, and feature rich.  But it doesn’t leave the data in my hands, and I like the idea of knowing that if something happened to my stuff, if would be my fault, rather than theirs.  On the other hand, I’m linked right to their community, similar to here.

Naturally I would keep my MySpace page, and probably mirror the blog content for at least a short transition phase, all the while trying to drive traffic to the new place.  It comes down to the three S’s:  selfhost, stay, or switch?  It’s a damn hard question to answer really.  I am inclined to start doing things myself.  I installed WordPress on my server at home to play with, that will probably shape my choice too depending on how much I like it.  I hate tossing around buzz words like Web 2.0, but I guess that’s what I’m reaching for.

So let me know what you think, it’s important to me!

So I watched a documentary yesterday.  This courtesy of my lovely friend Shannon.  Let me just say that I’m not really a conspiracy theorist.  Though I am a little wacky, I’m not exactly nuts.  Not like Mel Gibson nuts anyway…that fucking wacko.  But no, I like a good information spin all the same.  So I thought it neat when this film on 9/11 was pointed out to me (warning: it is long).  It reminded me of this short flash film a little (no warning: it’s just a few minutes long).  And however nutty they may sound from time to time, they bring up good points.  Naturally it’s all mostly stuff that we’ll never get answers to, but that’s why we have imaginations, right?

So good lord this was a long weekend.  I’ve not been so happy to get back into the work-week in a long while.  Of course, I start work on The Music Man this week, so free time is a commodity I won’t have to worry about having for the next month.  At least I will remain quite occupied.  Sometimes I find it to be a bad idea to leave me to my own devices.  Things end up skinned or painted.  I did buy two new guitars last week.  Awesome, huh?  One of them will replace my current one.  So…need to buy a guitar?  Hehe.  I still want to sell my Telocoustic and pick up a full dreadnought style acoustic in its place too.  Giving me disposable income is a worse idea than giving George W. a microphone.

I have learned that I have a fetish for eating my own words.  One really good example is that I said I would never start one of these bedamned MySpace pages, yet here I am, blogging, like a giddy, thirteen year old, emo schoolgirl…okay, bad example, since I’m twenty-four.  But I found myself caught in the net again with my cellphone.  When I got it, I was going to get text messages turned off.  Why use text when I can hit the “talk” button or get online?  Sadly, I shelled out the extra $4.99 a month for 200 messages.  It was a tide that I could no longer fight.  And frankly, I have discovered a certain usefullness with them.  God I hate technology.  If my phone starts looking for Sarah Conner I’m really gonna go live in a cave.

My office plant has officially been stricken with my black thumb.  It took far longer than expected, but I have prevailed.  Maybe fake plants are in order.  I should probably never have kids, because you know I’d just end up taking off for the weekend and forget to water them or something.  Besides, if I ever had kids, they’d end up with hooves.  Maybe I’ll adopt a monkey.

Why does MySpace have a “Friends” category, but not one for family?  Doesn’t it just seem intuitive that if you have one, you’d have the other?  Oh well, just an observation.  You are listening, right, Tom?  Add it or I’ll type something really mean about your mother.

So, a while back I discussed when I feel most uncomfortable.  I think I have found place number two.  Family reunions.  I just can’t seem to find a redeeming quality about them, really.  I think I get it from my Mom’s side of the family, who’s idea of a family reunion is to get in touch with each other to set a date when everyone can be as far away from each other as possible.  Much like high school, the people I care to keep in touch with, I do.  It isn’t that I’m an ass, I just don’t see any reason to pretend to be interested in people I wouldn’t even recognize if I passed them on the street.  Besides, it’s not like you can hit on the cute girls either.  It’s just a waste all the way around.  Heh.  But really, I love my immediate family (even the Republicans) and like seeing them, but outside that the interest drops quite rapidly.  The only thing worse than being in a room full of people you don’t know, is being in a room full of people that you’re made to feel you should know, and should care about.

Needless to say, I made an appearance to satisfy those that would care if I wasn’t there, and snuck away later (after food, naturally).  I had made plans to have a barbeque here with some friends before I knew about the reunion, and I didn’t want to break plans.  I think I managed to balance it all quite well.  Now I’m just sleepy.  It’s been a long few days with lots of driving…