cdcstudios.com | portfolio v8.1

Yeah there’s a million articles on how to handle site migrations and dns migrations, here’s the easiest way I know how.

1. Copy your DNS rules from old host to new host (or hardware to hardware)
2. Copy your files
3. change your DNs.

See no problem whatsoever right? Well what’s the easiest way to check to see if things have resolved? Some people are big fans of adding a tiny change to their sites, an emoticon or something of that magnitude. There’s an even simpler solution (especially if you’re doing a large number of sites all at once.

Simply make a pair of readme.txt files.
The first one goes on your existing host and simply says “Current Host”
The other one goes on your new host and says “New Host”

Yeah not exactly the most groundbreaking solution in the history of ever but it’s quick, simple and most importantly, you can keep those 2 files in your main sites folder on your dev box without even thinking about them until such time that you need ‘em.

So my wife Zoe & I are buying a house, in this economy that seems like a silly idea. Actually it’s not entirely silly since property values are so low right now. However with the complexity of banking habits right now plus the fact that I started a little business called Slate Technologies I don’t have the resources or the desire to actually deal with navigating the banking waters.

So anyhow, the idea I had (yet another one of my strange social experiments) is to see if I can crowdsource buying my house. The idea is to still pay everyone back that donates but to do it without paying all of those spurious fees to banks, real estate brokers and everyone else that skims money off of the top. To be fair I love most real estate brokers, in this case however we love the property but the agent is a giant bag of suck.

I could say more and be even more flowery in my speech but in this case short, sweet and succinct seems like the best plan. Below is the donate button. All donations will be credited with name (and or twitter handle if you’d like) in list form as the experiment continues.

Easy peasy right?

I just got word that the marching program at my high school is being eliminated, the board (particularly Shar Giard) didn’t allow comment from any of the Band Parent Association that were present during the vote. The board has regularly voted to give more money to the football team (not they’re ever really contenders though) while constantly shafting the award winning (Centennial is responsible for winning hundreds of awards in the last 30 years for musical performance, including over 18 sweepstakes awards at the Grand Floral Parade).

I’m a product of that marching program. Until I joined the band I was a completely undisciplined wallflower incapable of any real interaction with anyone. Now I’m a successful small business owner, father and husband. If it wasn’t for the tutelage and experience I received being a part of something bigger than my young high school mind could perceive I’d likely have not gone on to anything notable in my life. Curtailing a long running program because a. it’s too expensive and b. the new band director doesn’t like marching activites is idiocy. Why apply for the job if you want to eliminate half of it? Moron. Too expensive? Really? Music is time and time again proven to be better for academics as well as improving future prospects for success.

Here’s the note I received about the board’s decision:

In a very sad turn of events the Centennial School district board voted to shutdown the 2009/10 fall/winter marching program. A large contingent of Band Parent Assc members were present when the board was presented with the recommendation to continue the music program but only march for the rose parade. To our amazement the board pres. Shar Giard would not allow comment from any of our group even though it was clear they were acting on mis-information about the number of students currently participating in marching band and colorguard. They did not give any consideration at all to the members of the colorguard as they are not band students. We have had several meetings with the superintendent and members of the board and have had representation at all their meetings and all along they have been telling us that they are very supportive of the marching band program, that they wanted it to continue.
In case you had not heard we were also in a transition of directors this year, spearheaded in part by the band parents assc. because we wanted to see more dicipline and control of the program. Mr. Dave Mann has served as the director since Bret Cappelluti and with great enthusiam and effort. We applaud him for his time and wish him well in the future.
The position of director was posted and a number of very qualified applications were received. In the end the position was given to Mr. Claud Garrett, the current photography teacher at CHS, who had also applied. The administration said their hands were tied because of union rules and the fact that many teachers were being laid off due to the budget crisis. It seems Mr. Garrett had the right to bump anyone the school might have hired from outside. All that said the fact is that while Mr. Garrett has the credentials to teach music he has no interest in marching band, doesn’t even pretend to like drumcorps. He came to a band parent meeting last week and stated that the decision of whether there would be fall marching was out of his control. But it was very clear that given the choice he would not want to run it.

For all of you alumni I am greatly saddened as I was a parent during years when the CHS Marching Band and Colorguard was at the top of its game. I’m sure as you have chosen to be a member of this group that you too have fond memories of your marching days. It is very sad that there could be no future competitive marching band at Centennial.

I would ask that if you feel moved to do so you either write or call the superintendent, Dr. Mckean and all the current district board members and remind them that this is a program that has a rich history and should be preserved. You can find their contact information at this link..

http://www.centennial.k12.or.us/contacts/contacts_board.php

this group will continue and I invite a discussion on this matter

thank you

Mark Huff
CHS Band Parent Assc Communications Director

To the members of the board: You obviously weren’t members of the band so don’t understand the bond we all share regardless of what years we attended. If you want to kill something to save money why not cut out some of the athletic programs? More kids went through the music program then the athletics programs so it’s obviously a better investment. Regardless of anything the liklihood that I’ll ever donate money to the school again is exactly zero. I experienced how it was spent then and it doesn’t surprise me in the least that once again the band gets the sharp pointy end of the stick.

Oh and Claud Garett, obviously you aren’t qualified for this job in the least no matter what degree you’ve got. The Centennial band deserves someone who will appreciate their history. If you apply for a job do the whole job not just the parts that appeal to you.

So a week and a half ago I woke up in incredible pain. It literally felt like a large truck was parking (or at least attempting to) on the right side of my jaw. Since I’m in the midst of starting my own business I have no insurance coverage (Cobra payment from my old job would have been $1600/month which coincidentally is exactly what my unemployment benefits were) I had no other option but to ask on twitter if there were any good dentists that could take payments (especially since my tax return is coming this week). I got what I thought was a good referral and called. “sure we take payments”. Only problem was: I had a full week to wait for an appointment.

3 days later I couldn’t handle the pain anymore (nothing really helped) so I went to a local dentist who could see me plus give me an xray for $35. The appointment took all of 15 minutes and I left with the knowledge that I had a cracked & impacted wisdom tooth:

Incidentally (heh pun intended) I discovered a dark side to dentistry. Apparently the dentist I originally went to is a “meth dentist”. Meth heads pay a pittance to come in and get a quick prescription for painkillers they can then use OHP/Walmart to get cheap meds to sell. Neato eh? “but they’re only trying to help people”. bah.

Anyhow, I notified the Dentist’s office that I was on unemployment, had no money to spare at all until my tax return came and was told “no problem we can work with that”. Went in for an initial appointment and was told that my top wisdom teeth needed to go as well but shouldn’t be an issue even though there was an added cost. Sadly I wouldn’t be able to get nitrous oxide since the dentist charges so much for nitrous, but no problem again right? If only that were the case.

Today arrives with much excitement as I know my horrifying wisdom tooth of agony +2 will be removed once and for all. I hopped a bus and arrived for my appointment only to be told “If you can’t pay $1500 up front then we can’t help you”. uh what? I was told the payments would be small enough to be manageable. If I had a spare $1500 laying around I’d have dealt with this weeks ago when it first became an issue.

Apparently because I didn’t have enough I’m not worthwhile of “emergency treatment” which is what the dentist told me I needed. Last I checked if it’s an emergency they’re not supposed to turn down patients without the revenue. Shows what I know.

What’s hilarious is if I’d been in Canada, the UK or anyplace with socialized medicine I’d likely have gotten in to see a dentist the day the pain started and then once antibiotics kicked in I’d have the teeth removed no harm no foul. Instead under our awesome capitalism based healthcare system I got to wait a week and a half for no treatment. Last time I checked the GOP morons always say that you wait for socialized healthcare and you never wait for medical care here. How delightfully backwards those cute little republican idiots are.

Funny how you’re only a person anymore if you have money. It’s never been a perfect egalitarian system but years ago you could count on the medical community helping people, now it appears in the day of the HMO that if you have no money you are persona non grata. I think they used to call that the fuedal system.

Ironically I’m pretty sure that this is how my family ended up emigrating from Ireland over to the US originally. They were tired of being peasants that continually got the sharp pointy end of the stick. Happily I learned at a young age to not get mad, but to just get even. This is why I’m going to find a new dentist, one with ethics and more concern for patient care instead of being interested only in money like the asshat I went to this morning.Once I find this new dentist I’m going to do everything in my power to bring him more patients.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go take my goddamned tylenol 3 and hope my jaw stops hurting. Also fuck you George Nowland. I just had to call the 5 people I referred to you and tell them to find a dentist that isn’t a soul soliciting pigfucker.

Last weeks links that inspired, impressed or just seemed share worthy.

Portal Bar!

Scrollbar hosts the official weekly Fredagbar (Friday Bar) of IT University of Copenhagen. A number of us study games in the “Media, Technology, and Games” Masters program. In November, we made a Final Fantasy Night, so the next step was of course to take the famous video game franchise, which in our opinion is Valve’s Portal game. So this 28th of November we hosted a Portal Bar. We made a lot of companion cubes, took pictures around the bar, went through photoshop and printed out some nice portals to put on the walls around the bar area.

Tags: portal, glados, alcohol, drink recipes

So here we are, the first person to sign up for the Great Portland Interview Experiment. My good friend (and wife of one of my oldest friends) Angela Leach. When we first met a few years back I was immediately fast friends with her since she’s a drumcorps fan and also we have similar senses of humor. In the years since I’ve gotten to know her as one of the coolest people around and am thankful every day that my friend Jason found such a great match and that I get to be her friend too. Alrighty enough introduction from me, let’s get to the interview questions.

1. If you had one tweet to summarize yourself what would it be?

“Redheaded, polyamorous, badass, tattooed, intellectual freak of nature. Wife, mother, friend, lover, complicated, musical, passionate.”

2. You won a pretty prestigious scholarship recently. What was it and how has it affected you?

I was awarded the Ford Family Foundation ReStart scholarship.  It is an amazing scholarship given to individuals over 25 who have limited college experience and are looking to educate themselves after devoting their adult life to raising a family or serving the community.

Being awarded the ReStart scholarship has been amazing for me.  I have been able to aggressively pursue the education I want at the institution I want without fear of having to pick up a full time job to help my family survive.  The scholarship is significant enough that I will also be able to graduate with less than $20,000 in student loans, which is amazing in this day and age.

3. I see you have a blog, what inspired it?

I began my blog in November of 2004, one month after I started reviewing adult toys for Freddy and Eddy; someone mentioned that a blog would be a reasonable step for me, since I love to write.  I had been a regular contributor on different forum systems and offered advice there, so it made perfect sense to begin a blog and start sharing the twists and turns of my life.  The self discovery and amazing journey has been a side benefit, but a pretty significant one.

4. You seem proud of your celtic heritage, what made you embrace it?

I think, honestly, I’ve been pretty well reminded of my heritage since I was young.  My grandparents brought home kilts for all of us after a trip to Europe when I was around 6 or so; my sister has hers framed in a shadow box and I plan to do the same.  Both of my parents are very interested in genealogy and have helped me study my family’s roots, which in turn got me interested in researching these people that I came from.  Beyond the bloodline, I have always felt a very real connection to Celtic spirituality and think that it is an important part of how I see myself.

5. Do you consider yourself a “sex blogger”

I sure do.  While I blog about things other than sex, my primary focus still tends to revolve around sensuality and eroticism.  I feel more at home in the “sex blogger” community than any other blogging “caste”, so to speak.

6. Since you’ve become a parent, how has that changed your sex life?

Well, that depends.  I think that my sex life has actually been more affected by my being a student than by being a parent, but both of those roles do directly affect my sexuality.  As a parent, I have responsibilities to care for my children and I expend a lot of energy doing so.  As a student, I have responsibilities to focus on my studies and do what it takes to get the most out of my schooling.  There difference between the two is that I can get help with parenting duties (can and, for the most part anymore, do get help) whereas I can’t ask someone else to do my studying for me and expect to learn anything.  Similarly, I don’t think that being a mom has adversely affected my ability to be a kinky, perverted sex goddess long term – in the beginning it took some reconciling my different roles.

7. You posted weeks ago on your blog that you “came out” about being poly to your speech class. Were you nervous?

Are you kidding?  I was pacing and ready to vomit going into that class, but I felt that if I was to be truly honest about who I am and what is important to me I had to find the courage to tell the truth about my family.

8. How did your classmates react?

Honestly, I was a little disappointed in the LACK of reaction.  No one asked any questions about polyamory afterwards, and only two of my classmates have said anything since then.  Both were positive and nonjudgmental about it, so I can’t complain there.

9. What inspires you about each of the following: parenting, education, technology, sexuality

I think, with parenting, what inspires me the most is the community of people I know and love.  My husbands and wife, my friends with children, other bloggers with children, Ian and Alicia Denchasy (of freddyandeddy.com), and realistically the entire support structure of friends and family I have surrounded myself with.  We all have different personalities and I see a great many wonderful things in each person that I can try to instill in my children.

10. What’s the most important object on the planet to you?

Object?  Oooooh, that’s hard.  I would say a computer, but that’s not entirely realistic.  I think the most important OBJECT on the planet to me is my cello.

11. Why is it so important?

All through my life, I have been a very subdued person.  Music is the only thing that brings out the passionate side of me, the personality that is always hidden behind these walls and defenses.  My cello has the strongest effect on me, and without that, without the opportunity to express my true personality, I am nothing.

12. Worst thing you’ve ever done to someone?

Heh… I had to think about this one for a LONG time.  I think the worst thing I’ve done to someone is put a rainbow sticker on a severely homophobic person’s car.

13. Did they deserve it?

Oh, she definitely deserved it.  Trust me.

14. How would you change the world to make it better?

I would magically make people tolerant to alternative lifestyles.

15. Favorite 5 bloggers?

Oh crap… this is a hard one. Besides you? The five that I’ve been following religiously the longest are:

• Twisted Monk
• Shay
• Ell
• Goose and Gander
• Bondage Blog

I have SO many more that I follow now, though, and have made a ridiculous number of blogfriends in the last several months that it’s ridiculously hard to answer that question without feeling like I’m missing a bunch of people.

If you’d like to learn more about Angela you can find her here:

@CelticFrog
SwelteringCelt.com (this is not very work safe so surf with caution)

In an amazingly awesome post made by Jane Wells (@janeforshort) over on the official WordPress.com blog she announced the release date (and time no less) of the amazingly awesome WordPress 2.7. She’s kind enough to deliver in textual form the great presentation she was uh..presenting at all of the wordcamp she’s been attending (ours was best though).

Anyhow I’m not going to rehash all of the great new features but I will point out my personal reasons for switching to 2.7 way back before beta 1 was even released (yeah I roll that dangerously on my site, but never customers though).

• QuickPress – A new admin dashboard widget that lets you type up and save or even publish a quick blog post. This has helped get me from 2 drafts waiting for finishing up to 31 post ideas that I was able to quickly summarize the idea without leaving my dashboard
• Add New Plugin – No longer do you need to have an ftp app or any other method to adding a new plugin. Simply type in the keywords or name of a plugin you want and it lets you install it right from your dashboard. This one is great since I had a plugin that was breaking my rss feed and was able to delete it and replace it with similar functionality while on Thanksgiving vacation on my iphone. Handy :D
• Quick Edit – Easily add/remove tags without having to open the entire post. This is also quite a timesaver.

Anyhow those are my 3 favorite new functions in WordPress 2.7.

Go get switched over (and if you’re in Portland we’ll be having an Upgrade release party within the next week. Food, drink and all the help you need to upgrade (or even migrate) your site to the goodness that is WordPress 2.7.