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Warren Shea

Archive for October, 2011

Too much work and no sleep make Warren something something.

Sunday, October 30th, 2011 at 9:43 pm

GO CRAZY? DON’T MIND IF I DO.

So on Thursday, we found out that the release of the project I was working on was a go. And that I had to work from 10pm Friday to 12pm Saturday! 14 hours! Crazy.
So I asked for (…well, more like demanded) Friday off….so Thursday, I tried my hardest to stay awake as long as possible, in preparation for the next day.

I ended up sleeping at 7am and waking up at 3pm (8 hours), and then napping from 4:30-6:30 (2 hours). Anyways, I worked hard from 10pm til 12….but I won’t lie, I was barely awake by the end. I brought and watched/listened to episode of House while I worked. It helped a LOT.

I slept from 12pm to 6pm the next day…and then took a nap later than night too. I ended up sleeping at 2am…
It’s unfortunate because I missed an annual halloween party…but there was no way I’d be able to make it in my condition. Also, I had to work today, Sunday (today)

I woke up at 10am to do more work…worked until 6pm….so sleepy/tired of work. Sadly, it’s just starting.

At least next weekend, I’ll be going to Niagara Falls…and I have Monday and Tuesday off…though I have to work Saturday. It’s going to be great to….get back to my regular work schedule and stuff. I think that’s still kinda far away…but…yeah.

It sucks, I haven’t blogged much this month….despite not being sick anymore. But still…so much work… :( I want my life to go back to normal……..

Update on…my sad, little life.

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011 at 10:42 pm

I’ve been playing League of Legends (LoL) a lot since Sunday. I’ve had the game for 2 years but only played once in those 2 years. I got an email from Riot Games saying if I don’t play, I’ll lose my summoner (handle) name. Well played Riot Games. You got me. I’ve been playing a lot ever since…..

It’s nice cuz I play DOTA…and this is like DOTA…but new, and more fun (…and less fun). It’s definitely a welcome distraction from the annoyances of life though. And by life, I mean work. It’s not as busy as I thought…now. But it’s going to be stupid busy starting Sunday. Also, because a release last weekend was delayed (a 15-45m workcall on Fri ended up taking 3 hours….and then 2 hours Saturday morning at 9AM >:( ), I also have to work Thursday and Friday night this week. So Saturday night is my only night I’m not working. For the next….like, 10 days. No jokes.

I think I’m gonna take a bit of a break with LoL. Although I want to play it…it’s getting in the way of my productivity. I don’t think I’m going to finish warrenshea.com until mid Nov….especially since, well…I haven’t worked on it (despite saying I would).

And I really wanna start my new site. I’ll admit: after trying to figure WordPress out, how it should be used, and how themes are done….I still don’t like it. The control I have on worldofwarren.com is fantastic. WordPress only handles the blogs portion. Everything else is mine. I like it that way.

So I might…do what I did for WorldofWarren.com…but on my new site. I need a blog, but moreso than that…I need…control of other stuff. I’ve really been thinking lately on how I should be handling data: mySQL or XML…or maybe there’s another datatype I should try. OO PHP or JavaScript? I don’t know. I’m leaning towards XML cuz I don’t really wanna build my own CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) system for the database….and I don’t wanna edit the DB manually (obviously). XML seems nice and easy, and I can use the dev software of my choice.

Of course, even this site isn’t the one I really want to do. I’m still eventually planning my EPIC SITE. Though I’m lost for an idea atm…still have to figure that one out :(

Anyways, just wanted to write something, haven’t written in a while.

Taking the subway the last 2 weeks…so not really thinking about anything. I have some rants I wanna do in the future…but not tonight.

Hiatus….OVER!

Friday, October 21st, 2011 at 6:35 pm

What can I say, my hiatus lasted a little over 24 hours. :/

I sent my request to my hosting company to move to new, upgraded hosting at around 11PM.
By 1AM, my new hosting had already been created/completed: Free of charge.

By 3AM, I moved the content of
horderockcafe.com
warrenshea.com
seasaltfishandchips.com
to my new hosting.

By 3AM, I was trying to restore my 21MB WordPress SQL backup file, when the Import of the new DB was at a 2MB max. WTF.
I found a PHP script that took the SQL file, and pending correct database information, would run the SQL commands though the PHP. Effectively, rather than myPHPAdmin or whatever importing the contents of the .SQL file, it was basically a PHP script running the .SQL commands, effectively restoring the database. I ran into some minor but easily remedied trouble…but I’ve only been working on the site for like, 30m-1hour, and as you can see, by 7PM I have my backups restored.

I’m currently just archiving my content, SQL databases, etc…

My goal tonight is to install WordPress onto my new PHP5 server, for my new domain. Also, to make sure everything is running okay. If this blog works…my hopes are high.

All together, the migration seems pretty damn painless.
Now seems to be a good time to promote my hosting: IX Web Hosting. I’ve been with them since March 2007…so almost 5 years. They’ve been fantastic….no problems on my end. This was another example of a simply fantastic job.

So I’m back. Already.

Off to continue working on stuff….see you soon! :D

Hiatus

Thursday, October 20th, 2011 at 5:44 pm

I’ve decided to go on an undetermined blog hiatus. The reasoning is actually really simple though…it’s not due to content but more of a technical restriction.

When I signed up for hosting on this account, a few years, my hosting company had just started supporting ASP.NET 3.5 and hadn’t reached PHP 5 (I don’t think it was even out yet). Years later, and WordPress now requires PHP 5. And ASP.NET has moved to 4.0….but I’m still on a server that doesn’t support these things.

I haven’t been updating my WordPress on worldofwarren.com for a while now, because of this. It hasn’t been a big problem, with the exception of being unable to use a PHP 5 function here and there.

But as I have a new domain now, and I’ve decided to put WordPress on it….(and use WordPress properly this time), I gave the install a try last night and it failed. Rather than put an old WordPress on, I figure now is a good time for an upgrade.

I’ve been avoiding an upgrade for a while for many reasons:

1. I don’t want to back up my stuff, and find out that (for some reason), I cannot restore it properly.
2. It’s quite possible I go on a shared server cluster [not sure if that’s correct terminology] that sucks. Like, it’s not dedicated, it’s shared hosting. What if I go on a server cluster that uses crazy resources? What if the only reason my stuff is so stable is because no one is on this legacy hardware anymore? One bad apple can ruin it for everyone. One bad developer, infinite looping and sh!t can ruin it. I know when some of my friends went on my hosting provider, they had completely different experiences than I. Just the same, when I tried different hosting, they weren’t any good [despite recommendations for my friends]. Anyways, I’ve decided to take the chance. In worst case scenario, maybe I can just ask to get transferred somewhere else.

So anyways, I’ve decided abruptly that I’ll take a blogging break, backup all my databases and code, and do a migration. Now is a good time as my day job is getting busy and having one less distraction or priority will be a nice break. I figure I’ll back everything up…and slowly work on warrenshea.com offline if I get the itch to do something. I don’t know how long it will take….but I’ll blog again once it’s finished. Hopefully I’ll be on an equally stable server :)

This may be a good chance to get my local environments working correctly….hmmm. Anyways.

I’ll talk to you all on the other side. Don’t miss me too much. :)

Random Update

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011 at 11:14 pm

Despite wanting to give up on the Kirby game, I’ve taken another approach: Finish 1, 2 or 3 levels in a sitting, rather than try to force myself to continue to play (cuz that makes me really sleepy). Better to play this game in moderation. I’ll eventually hit 100%…I’m at world 3 now, 46% complete…with all Gold Coins for each level. So far, I’m on my way to 100% completion rate :)

Almost everywhere I go now, I keep thinking about Zombie Apocalypse Survival. For example, I went to Table 17 for dinner today, using a Groupon that expired today. While there, Z and I had a window seat…and I was thinking how…unsafe that place would be in the zombie apocalypse. Honestly, almost everywhere I go, I’m thinking about zombie apocalypse survival. I had no idea The Walking Dead would have this kind of lasting effect on me. It’s quite entertaining.

I read somewhere that when women enter a room, they look at faces…and [other things women notice]. When men look into a room, the immediately, unconsciously, begin to study escape routes, safety issues, etc. Like survival is so innately important to them.

I have a new website project. Domain purchased. It’s related to my interests…but also something I might not be able to share with everyone. That is, I might build it, but not tell people that I run it. While a Japanese otaku might understand it’s awesomeness, I fear the close-minded co-workers of mine may not be so forgiving. Anyways, will write more.

My plan is to finish warrenshea.com before Oct 31…but I might not hit that date due to work. I don’t know why I set that date out…I was just motivated to work on projects and be productive but I find that with deadlines, and productivity, come stress. And with stress, come sickness. I’m avoiding sickness like the plague right now. Everyone around me is sick… :/ It’s a hard battle to win. Like surviving the zombie apocalypse. Anyways….I want to start the new website project. I’m not sure whether to use WordPress on it temporarily, while I build an ASP.NET site….or to just start building an ASP.NET site now, and…not have a website for a while. The problem is that the website topic is peaking in interest as we speak….well, it may continue to peak….but I don’t want to complete the site during the fall of interest.

Also, I want to develop this ASP.NET site:
1. Correctly – code in the proper places…no inline code hacks like I’ve done in the past. Correct layers…Presentation, Business, Code….[insert other words that are releveant]
2. Locally

I’m always about trying to do something different….with code (not irl lol). The more approaches you take, and continue with, the more you learn. Rather than do the same thing, or method over and over again.

It’s difficult: Lots of work, lots of personal projects, and avoiding stress and sickness. But this is currently what I’m trying to balance.