Hello again.
I was doing some computer cleanup tonight, and nearly wet my pants with joy after realizing I had filled in the glaring hole in my intensive daily backup routine: my websites. See, I back up everything critical and not-reinstallable to another server every night at 3am while I sleep. The only way I will lose everything important is if my house burns down and both my laptop and server melt. And if that happens, I probably have bigger problems. My life is on my laptop, as it is the home base for my self-employment and livelihood. It’s pretty important I keep all this stuff. The thing that worried me, however, is that I couldn’t find a way to back up my websites. Yeah, I have working copies and multiple histories here on this machine, but that’s essentially useless due to the fact that most of the content on the sites is database-driven, and the databases are only updated on the live sites. So say, for example, I lose the database running this site. I’m screwed, although for you that may indeed be a blessing. So the web-backup is something I’ve been pondering on and off for a few years. I’ve asked every network admin I know, including myself. I had oldschool DOS FTP scripted perfectly: all the commands in a batch file that I had scheduled to run at 2am, which contents would then get transferred to my house-server at 3am. It was an excellent plan except for one massive flaw: DOS FTP doesn’t recurse subdirectories. [Cuecard: GASP!] Anyway, you don’t care about all that. Just know that now all my problems are solved with a little GNU app called wget, and all is right with the world. I have backups of the contents of six domains. I recounted them all again today to be sure: plinko, creamedpeas, chocolate mussolini, runaway truck, jenniripley.com, and bad2worse. (I’m a collector.) I briefly considered downloading the xml source for my lj, too, but realized there are limits, even for control freaks. Also, I love that this is a feature I can offer my clients. Me, I’m all about the bidness. The rest of this weekend, I did some things, I sure did. It feels like I spent way too long cleaning again. I made about 800 gallons of chili, because I’m the kind of person who enjoys eating the same thing every day if it’s really healthy. I saw Shaun of the Dead and laughed my ass off. I went to Blockbuster for the first time in decades and rented a terrible movie with a robot martyr, which was thankfully saved by Stephanie’s hysterical commentary. I finished Scotty’s sweater (aka the phoenix) and forgot to take a picture before I bundled it up, but he has promised to do so for me. If I open the box, packets of Tofurky Jurky will come bursting out everywhere like a fake-meat volcano. I went to the farmer’s market for the last big weekend of the season. It was mobbed. I told two of the booth-folks that their booth was my favorite ever, but I figured it was ok because it made them both happy. The girls at the buddhist-jewelry booth told me that the thing now is to wear your worry ring on your thumb, so watch for people everywhere to be nervously twisting their left hand. I told them I knew it was appropriate that I wore one when I forgot my rings the other day, and realized I was standing in Starbucks absently trying to spin the knuckle of my ring finger. The end of the farmer’s market makes me sad. It will also signal the end of sun-basking and barefoot driving. Sometimes I wonder why I live in a place where we have such a short summer, but I think it’s because it makes it that much more treasured when it’s here. This morning, I also spent a few hours pondering whether I was lazy, because I’m not as busy as I have been in the past. I’m trying to not wear myself out so much, save myself some more cash, and I’ve also been more particular about the people with whom I’m spending my time. Everyone tells me this is a very good thing, but it’s hard for me. I’ve never been good with downtime. Anyway, since I was working the whole time I was pondering, I think that lazy is probably not the case. I have, of late, occasionally found myself with nothing to do while I’m home, due to the fact that this isn’t really my house anymore. I can’t do home-improvement kinda stuff, nor can I make a mess in case we have a showing. A lot of my plans involve a time post-sale, when I get to start over in an apartment and buy all new stuff in a very picky and minimalist sort of way, and also make a lot of it myself. I’ve vowed, based on friends’ advice, to not begin these activities until the house is actually sold, because there are so many unknowns about the future. For a habitual planner, mover, and all-around girl of action such as myself, this is immensely frustrating. I’m trying to find the zen of waiting. Om.Jenni P.S. Your city has gotten too small when you’re relieved that you don’t already know, nor have you already dated, the new person your friend is seeing.