Webspace, DNS, R3d net.. All taking shape

My DNS finally switched over to my host's DNS so now everyone is talking.

I'm in the deep process now of putting together a comprehensive website with lots of bells and whistles and pics and vids and whatnot. It's sort of been a fantasy of mine for awhile.. but the goal is simply to have 1 spot-- 1 website for everything.

1st is the design of the site.. Working out the theme prefs.. Font, banner, ect..
2nd is migrating data from here to there.
3rd testing everything
4th working on other content systems like coppermine for photos and stuff

when it's done or close to done... I'll redirect this over there and start using my website for updates.

More to come..

~J

midnight rescue

Right now I'm pulling a midnight-- balls out-- don't know if it'll work or not move.

I've given up on trying to fix some major errors that reside in my new linux machine. If it wasn't clear before... it is now. Ubuntu doesn't like you switching up the home directories on it.

So where I'm at now is that when I rebooted after an package update my home directory vanished. That's because the nice os did me a favor and unmounted my partition which my home directory resided. The device was detected in /dev, but it's mount point in /media wasn't.

What to do? Oh sure I could mess around in the command prompt trying to find it and mount it.. but it was a temp fix then and it'll be a temp fix now. So to rescue myself... I'm reinstalling from disk my base system on the other partition and mounting my /home dir on the other partition that I created. What I'm hoping is that the first partition will still remain intact with all the settings and what not and that by reinstalling the base system by disk the config files will recognize my first partition's /home directory by default...

There's a risk that won't happen and I'll have to say bonviage to all the data and settings there (which for 1 week wasn't much).

More to come as I go along.

Ubuntu 8.10 get's released this friday.. If I'm lucky my /home directory was spared.. I can gzip a backup to my external HD and install 8.10 this weekend on my /root partition hopefully bypassing some beginner's mistakes...

Funny how I've done over 8 or 9 Ubuntu installs with no problems (including this Asus Eee I'm blogging from), but when it's the mother computer- my flag ship-- my 'big bertha' I go and manage to f-it up.

Silly wabbit linux tricks are for dixs

~J out

***Update*** Wed Oct 29, 7:06

Well what happened was I installed a base system without the xserver which was exciting. So the last thing I did was to install xserver then the ubuntu desktop which took all night.

So this morning I rebooted under a new account name and it booted into the GUI login screen and accepted my new login credentials and put me into a home directory. At first I thought it created the /home into root, except there was a folder "home" next to my user folder. I clicked on it then on the user folder in it and boom.. There was my old profile with everything in it. So the next step is to basically carefully import all my settings from there to me new profile.

The final goal is to have a safe bootable & working /home dir that when I update my distro (or install another one) I can keep using my home dir with all the settings & files. Slowly by slowly I feel more confident that it's going to work out ok...

Good... yawn.. Times!

~J out

new haircut..

here's my current style that I'm rolling with.J's current snapshot

As you can see I'm rolling with a "#4" 1/2 buzzcut up top. I've put on the hoody (zipdown) nearly permanently now. Finally my theme has often been 'dark' colors... (just because-- it don't mean anything)

Ok.. that's all: Check out this great song sometime:

Benny More's Locas Por El Mambo

~J out

sunday funk

So I was playing with a partition manager and found nearly 90Gbs of unused hd space. So I decided I should format it into ext3 (linux filing format) then move my home dir from where it is to the new partition.

The reason why is simply because having the /home dir set in a separate partition allows me to perhaps install other distributions in the other partition while keeping my home dir untouched.

Well suffice to say I'm still a beginner here, but with the power of Ubuntu's forums even us beginning nerds can tackle the hardest of tasks...

Well so I thought.. I started the process going through the various lines of commands to transfer it all over.. then I got to the point where I thought I was done so I logged out and logged in.. 'cept my home dir wasn't reconized.

dang.. Luckily I self rescued by rushing into the cmd line in the gnome failsafe mode.. but I learned a lession.. A.) Make backups B.)Check all your permissions and make sure they are all set on every file. Finally C.) Make an admin account... like now.. A working account with full permissions in a working home dir for self rescue..

Anyway.. good times in linux learning ;-D

~J out

linux- taking the plunge

Lately I've been slowly migrating from Windows to Linux-- specifically Ubuntu. Yeah it'd be safe to say Ubuntu has totally changed the way we all look at linux. For me, since at work I use it constantly, the plunge has been easier. However it's still intimidating moving from one OS to the other.

Right now I've been taking small steps... Starting with Dual booting with putting linux on a separate HD. The next step I've been working through is testing Virtual Machines like VMware & Qemu. Once I can get past the need for windows.. I'll keep my VM and kill off Windows since windows now resides on an very old ATA drive.

Anyway...

Here's some stuff that I've found very useful that I would like to share:

Miro- Miro is an RSS Reader for Video Podcast/Music Podcasts. This sets up your feeds into "channels" which you can watch like a virtual tv. The best part about it is that it also does torrents-- and yes it does do RSS feeds off of certain torrent feeding sites. g00dstuff

This, I think, is the future for TV as we know it.

more to come..

As I continue the switch over from Windows to Ubuntu... Btw next week new Ubuntu 8.10 intrepid comes out!

In other random thoughts I'm on the verge of pricing out a possible new computer build.. This computer would be a cross between a laptop and a desktop... Low power useage, high processing power, great possibilities.. Also I've been investigating the solar PC ;-P ..

~J

I Found クー！

I just got back from Beaverton's Asian Supermarket: Uwajimaya. It's just a great store. Everything and more you can think of Japanese is there. Even stuff I forgotten about..

But the big revelation was that Uwaji's now has Qoo, a soft drink in Japan that I became very attached too. Sometimes to the despair of my host family ;P

It's only big news because in times past Uwaji's didn't have qoo, but now they do.. So Zip down there and grab a bottle before I go back and get more :D

~J out

late night jam!

Let me set the stage since I think it's quite funny in a way..

It's just past midnight right now and I have Ella Fitzgerald queue'd in my winamp playlist..

I have word up and I'm trying to type out my JET Application's "Statement of Purpose" essay while keeping it within the format (2 pgs, double space, 12pt, 1" marg, etc.).

next to my keyboard I have a short glass with two ice cubes and filled halfway with Peppermint Schnapps that I've been nursing for the past hour..

The irony is that I'm listening to feel good drinking music while working on my second hit of Schnapps and I'm writing an essay for an English teacher position that'll probably get looked over a dozen times for grammar, spelling, content, etc.

$5 says that they'll read it and know I'm a classic 40's Jazz Type that spends his nights drinking for writer's inspiration....

Knowing Japan as well as I do... it just might be exactly what they want in their Gaijin teachers ;P

Yeah... he'll fit in well with our school teachers XD

~J out

R3d's RSS Feeds

New Widget I'm adding to the blog.. All the RSS news feeds I read daily are in this little widget. To view all the blogs I read click on the menu box in the upper left corner

~J


Get this widget!

Visit the Widget Gallery

Solace De Carniceria

If Politics were religion, and America was my denomination, it's more likely then not that I would be agnostic by now. The bottom line is no one is happy or can become happy by the recent surge of bad news, unless of course you are happy in which case-- You don't count.

You see-- With regard to News: (now called the proverbial "media") News used to actually be news when journalists acknowledged that they were no Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Cary Grant, or Elizabeth Taylor... Rather they knew they were simply talking heads repeating lines of banter in order to keep the populous occupied until such aforementioned actors came on the tube.

However today is vastly different from literally an age ago. Today represents the pinnacle of the great EGO. Here the wonder and amazement of just being on the tube has reinvigorated a group of, otherwise forgotten, journalists & politico researchers into stars... starts with opinions I might add.

The flop of the final act however comes when we've voted and we're back to the boring humdrum of stuff no one really knows much about. I.e. Macro Economics, Global famine, and Social Welfare.

Yet-- All is not bad, in fact we're at the height of awareness! Lip service is being paid out more frivolously by smart candidates, their army of pundits and commentators, and (of course) a media sold out to the biggest buck.

Lip Service, unfortunately, doesn't equate to answers. Nor should they, necessarily. To be frank-- What American's really want is a 4 to 8 year forcast to see what all *could happen* so that we can "stump-the-candidate" on things we, in our darkest fears, would dread till doomsday of being asked ourselves.

Let's be real for a chance... Let's snap back to a reality we understand... If Joe Shmoe the mechanic says he can fix all my car problems on the cheap-- alarm bells would sound off... If a lawyer approaches you in the hospital and says he's got all the answers you need (for a small price) you'd probably tell him to bug off.. Likewise.. Presidents only show up in your neighborhood for one reason-- Your neighbor hood has been wiped off of earth by a terrible something.

So what am *I* really saying here?

What I'm saying is its smoke and mirrors with a tad of gullible-ness to believe anyone that tells you they can fix your problems if only you check your brain at the door.

The Economy will be fixed on it's terms, Welfare is often taken care of at the state level, National Security is always determined based on current events and recent developments, AARP will continue badger congress and the next president on Old People rights, so the rest comes down to leadership...

The only hopeless thing then, in this country, is whether or not you realize that you are being played my masters of deception...

Never leave home without your brain

~J out

Struggling to re-learn Nihongo

First you made it to October! It might not sound like much, but it's enough. Sometimes I wonder with each weather change.. if one season will treat me as fair as the other... But. Enough about that....

Lately I've had a number of waves hit me.. These waves are often mental escapes that allow me to day dream all the what if's, except the recent set of waves have hit harder then usual. The subject is "1 year in Japan as a worker, instead of as a student" The premise being "teach for a year until I either feel confident to move on to something better or go home." All of this, of course, is within the spectrum of "JET" accepting applications this month and next month. Of course I had plans to go into the Navy, that suffice to say, were delayed at best. Now I'm seriously thinking of applying full heartedly to JET, because a strange thing happened while I lived in Japan... I felt an unusual sense of belonging. Something about the society ultimately made so much sense to me at some points that I felt that I needed.. one day to return.. My return would only be to know for sure whether or not I actually had this strange feeling or whether it was a feeling in passing..

All of this is contained in twisted thoughts amongst others such as relearning a language such as Japanese when I know that all of my current struggles are simply due to not being around the language and people-- That's to say, if I were to visit for 1 week or 2 I'd pick up all the lost pieces of Japanese I've given away over two years.

Within the same vein, let me say that trying an attempt to relearn something your psyche says you know is tough... Simple things such as often used kanji I read on websites and in books-- I'm struggling to pronounce even if I know their meaning..

It's a struggle, I think, due to lack of motivation to return to basics.. Natural I suppose, but challenging regardless when I find myself struggling with a set of Kanji or sentence that I know, but can't dictate in spoken Japanese...

Ok.. but first things first.. I need to fully fillout my JET application and get it in the works just to see how far this "Wave Action" goes and to also figure out just where my passion (sorta) falls..

~J out