Random Ramblings
Well, like usual, it has been some time since my last post to the blog. I many times say I need to write something in it, but I seldom do. Kellie and I are taking an extended break between classes, and I’ve been loving it. The reason for this break is this coming weekend. We did not want to be stuck with school issues while taking part in our planned activities. On Saturday morning, Kellie and I will be travelling with Kellie’s parents (Phil and Donna), as well as Katie & her boyfriend. Leslie (Kellie’s sister) and her boyfriend will also be travelling with us in a rental van, down to the Santa Cruz area. Kellie’s cousin Amelia is getting married Sunday afternoon. Following the wedding, Kellie, her parents, Katie and I are headed to the San Jose Airport to catch a flight to Las Vegas. We see relatives in Las Vegas before returning Tuesday evening. This busy weekend would come at a very poor time if we needed to turn in a major project, as we usually do every Sunday or Monday in school.
My car was accidently struck by an ambulance in the parking lot at work a couple weeks ago. It is currently in the body shop being repaired. Despite it being only cosmetic damage, it still is costing over $2,500 to repair. The biggest single cost, apart from labor is a headlight. It is listed for $541, but apparently, the price went up $40 as I learned this morning. Thankfully, I am not the one having to pay this, as it was not my fault. I currently have a rental vehicle. When I went to pick up the rental, I found out that the rental reserved for me was quite a bit smaller than my 2005 Nissan Altima 3.5SE. The claims people authorized a “standard” vehicle for $25/day. My car should be classified as a “premium”, but I was told that in order to get a premium, I’d have to pay the difference, $3/day. The car they had for a “premium” was a 2007 Toyota Camry. Back when I bought my Altima, I had checked out a Camry, but it did not fit me… it was too small and I felt cramped. I was kind of prejudiced against the Camry when it was offered as a rental. I begrudgingly gave in and decided to take it. Thankfully, Toyota made some HUGE changes from 2005 to 2007. I actually don’t have the seat in the all the way back position. I have never had this situation since I’ve had a driver’s license (nearly 20 years). I will be happy to get my car back tomorrow though. Both the rental and my car have an odor. I’m more accustomed to my own.
One of the reasons I was thinking about writing in the blog today is the fact that I have upgraded the blog software again. It seems that every time I update the software, it is silly that I don’t write anything, at least to test to make sure something wasn’t screwed up in the process. I have just upgraded to WordPress 2.3. I would really like to have the PHP and MySQL servers upgraded for hosting this, but my service provider has not made the upgrade yet. For PHP, the latest version is 5.2.4, whereas my service provider is running 4.4.1. PHP processes scripts, queries the database and creates the web pages you are looking at right now. The actual text of this and all the other “stories” are stored in a MySQL database. I believe this is running on MySQL 4.0 while 5.0 is the latest. The process of upgrading WordPress has become easier for me each time. Part of the process is downloading the entire website and database as a backup. I then disable all my plugins. This is followed by deleting a handful of files and directories. I then upload the new software. This process used to take several minutes, as it is several megabytes of data to send. It is now less than a minute with my 20Mbps upload speed. After loading a particular web page, I re-enable all my plugins and the job is finished. I can now do the entire process in less than 5 minutes. I hope when my service provider upgrades their servers, it will either be no process for me or at least very minimal.
I guess that is all I really have to say. I started this message on Thursday the 27th, but finishing it today, the 28th. I’ll be getting off work early today to go exchange my rental car for my own car. I hope it looks new again.