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A little catchup and the start of 2012

Shelby — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 22:14:30 +0000

Thought I would try to put together a “year in review” type of post to start off 2012. I have slacked on posting updates about life, and technology mainly because of time dedicated to work, WordCamp Las Vegas, Christmas, and New Years. Now that the event is over, and the most recent holidays are done I hope to have a little more free time to not only work on some projects, but to also post more to the site.

Life – I have traveled a bunch over the last year, and attended quite a few concerts and festivals. Had some bad times but mostly good times it was a really exciting year that allowed me to experience a lot of new things. I hope this coming year and the years after hold just as much fun and excitement as 2011 did for me.

WordCamp Las Vegas – For never organizing a WordCamp before, I must say it went pretty well. I am not just speaking on my own here as a lot of attendees have stated that it went really well and they enjoyed it a lot. I was able to get a fantastic hotel deal from the Hard Rock Hotel here in Vegas, work out a great venue space with UNLV and then setup and after party at the Freakin Frog. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be once the ball got rolling. I am debating on doing a WordCamp for 2012, if I do it should be easier now that I already have 1 under my belt.

Christmas – Nothing much to report on this front. Seems as though I am getting to that age in life where Christmas is just yet another day on the calendar…. except I don’t have to work.

New Years – 2011 went by really quick, seemed like every day that I got up it was another month in. As much fun as I had over 2011 I sure hope 2012 lasts a bit longer and doesn’t fly by so quick.

Projects – Over the past year I have been working on various projects and have a few more that I want to add to my list this year… and well hopefully finish up the ones I already started.

Performance Server Setup - I have been playing around with NGINX, Varnish, APC, and Memcached for the past year. I cant even begin to count how many installs of each I have done and different server builds to make use of the technologies. Its been a really good learning experience and I hope to actually apply it to something soon.
LED Hula Hoops – About 6 months ago Kat and I started messing around with the idea of creating LED Hula Hoops. The idea kind of sparked in my mind after going to a music festival in Colorado where I started to notice people using these LED Hula Hoops. After speaking with Kat about it and doing some research I thought it was a task I could take on and make a few bucks doing so. I hope sometime this year to start mass producing them and selling them online.
Internal Network – Since I started working from home I started to look at my internal network that I have setup. I have been trying to consolidate my systems and build in redundancy along the way. I hope soon to have my dedicated server setup with RAID and everything on a gigabit network as well. On top of that over the years I have been getting more into gathering data such as hard drive temps, and my snakes aquarium temp and logging it to MySQL and graphing out the data. I hope to continue adding more data gathering to the mix, possibly with a Twine once released or another Arduino.

Well that concludes my first post of the new year, and as always I hope to start expanding on this site more and more with more consistent updates too.

Condensed update for End of March and Start of April 2011

Shelby — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:56:13 +0000

Since I am not really keeping up with the whole posting a new post daily like I keep saying I will, thought I would do a condensed post giving a bit of a summary of what has been going on over the last week or so. Maybe I will do this more often…. then again that might just lead to a monthly post instead .. meh
Work
So this is my 2nd weekend working the Sat/Sun shift at work and while its nice to have a few days off of work, I cant say that I am very excited about this schedule. Still holding onto the fact that this is supposed to be a temporary schedule change…. guess we will see how that pans out. The one perk of working the weekend shift is that I don’t have to dress up which makes getting up in the morning that much easier.
Life
Life is really good right now, not a day goes by that I don’t wake up thankful that I have a wonderful girlfriend that puts a smile on my face. She was gone for just over a week to her home town to help her Mom pack up their house so that the new people could move in, and while she was gone it really dawned on me that she completes me in more ways than I can count. Shes is definitely my other half and with out her around I feel like something is missing and find myself walking aimlessly in circles.
Louie and his wife Emily were out here the other week and I got a chance to hang out with them and grab something to eat. Was good seeing a friend of mine that I have known for years. Not to mention the food at Hash House A Go-Go was pretty epic as well. Still trying to figure out what to do for Kats bday as we haven’t really figured if we are taking a road trip or sticking around town, I assume we will probably just kick it in Vegas since about a week after we will be heading to the Hang Out Music Festival in Florida.. but who knows, our adventures no matter how close or are always a blast so it will be fun no matter what we end up doing.
Business
This year I have really been trying to buckle down on getting 878 Studios up and running and being more self sustaining that it has been in the past. I have gotten quite a few new clients and continued to help the ones that have been with me since day one. The main issue I am finding is scoring the next account, while I am putting my best foot forward some people seem like they ask for help then never get back to you once you offer it up. Either way I keep reading up on web technology and emailing leads, hope they all get ahold of me at the same time so I can fill my calendar.

1yr Kat-iversary

Shelby — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:50:27 +0000

I am really starting to dig my post titles with use usage of Kat in the title, gives them an interesting ring. Anyways, its strange to imagine that this weekend Kat and I will have been together for a year. Seems like only yesterday I had just moved to Vegas and she invited me over to watch a New Orleans Saints football game, which is a whole story in its own. And its really only strange on the aspect of it doesn’t seem that long at all, everything else about what her and I have seems 100% natural. Over the days, weeks, and months together we have shared some pretty crazy times and had some awesome adventures together. Some of the adventures include dragging her to Michigan so she could see the crappy town I grew up in, taking me to her hometown to experience some of the most amazing southern food I have ever eaten. She is defiantly my best friend and I love her with all my heart. We fit together like a lock and key and compliment one another in more than just a few ways. I remember a while back she actually came across a quote by Dr. Seuss and it has stuck in my head since then.

“We are all a little weird and life’s a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love.”

That quote totally describes us and and how our goofiness is dead on with one another. I have really enjoyed every minute that her and I shared, and hope that we continue to share so many more. Well enough with the sappy love love, I am sure my balls are going to get busted for all of that… but I guess really I don’t care as I am truly happy.
Annnnnyways back to the weekend plans. I ended up booking a hotel at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, and have made some dinner reservations at Nobu. Besides that I think we are just going to relax around, enjoy the alleged rain and possible snow thats coming to Vegas. And everyone else, enjoy your weekend.

Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy

Shelby — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 20:25:40 +0000

кухненско обзавежданеSeems like I have some major sleep issues that I have been dealing with for sometime now. I for the most part go in spurts where I can sleep well through the night and nap through the day, its pretty amazing but it rarely happens.
Last night I attempted to goto bed at a decent time, for me atleast. I even took some Melatonin as well as made some Chamomile Tea in hopes that the combo would knock me out and help get a good nights sleep….. Twas not the case, I ended up waking up about 2hrs after I passed out and then struggled the rest of the night to fall back asleep. I have also tried over the counter sleep aids and they seem to knock me out for a few hours then I end up waking up and battle heading back to bed… Anyone have any suggestions of remedies that have worked for you?

Testing some things

Shelby — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:26:46 +0000

Just cleaned up my plugins on my WordPress install, and added a few more. Going to yet again try to be a little more active on my blogging.

Chillin with Murders

Shelby — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:34:27 +0000

So a few weeks before I moved out of the house here in Vegas and into my Apartment my old roommates current roommate from Los Angeles came out to Vegas and stayed in the house. He came with his girlfriend and were only supposed to stay for a night … that night turned into 4 days, each day with me asking/hinting at when they are going to be leaving …. anyways they finally left and I was glad that they did as they were starting to weird my girlfriend and myself out. Fast forward to last week, and that old roommate of mine gave me a text stating that the guy had been arrested. He wasn’t sure why, he got back to me later that day saying that he spoke with the other roommate of his and she stated to google “Katsutoshi Takazato”. he wasn’t able to find anything since he was boarding a flight out of town. I googled the name and found out that 3 people were arrested in Beverly Hills for stabbing some kid…. 2 of the people being the couple that stayed for 4 days at my place. I have been following the story and they seem to be on $1-3 million dollar bail and face life in prison. Awesome to know I hung out with some stone cold murders, I hope you sense the sarcasm in that statement.

No power = No fun

Shelby — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:28:08 +0000

So my roommate just moved out on Friday, when he did he canceled all the utilities since they were in his name, downfall of this is that they shut most of them off today while I was at work. Thankfully I got the internet back on in the nick of time, bad part is the power reconnect didn’t go so smoothly and well I am with out power until NV Energy makes it to my place to turn it on. They told me it will be back on tomorrow …. between 7am and 7pm, nice huge window you lazy bastards.

Moving back to Vegas

Shelby — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 21:46:31 +0000

So today marks my last day living and working in масиMarina del Rey, tomorrow morning I will be packing my car and moving back to Vegas. Hopefully this time around things work out better and are more enjoyable.

Yup

Shelby — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:26:06 +0000

wordsdescribingthepastweek

Shelby — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 05:03:40 +0000

had some drinks, played some kickball, we lost, went to brennens, had some half price food and drinks, went to the hot tub, had a bbq, it included shrimp that was rather bland, went out to eat with vanessa and a bunch of inmotion hosting people, we also drink, hit up the bar after an awesome pasta dinner, saw donna from that 70′s show waiting in line, her friends could not get in so they all left, dranks a glass, and then another, ended up buying a pitcher, we drank that and then left to the liquor store, took the long board home, had to ride back to get the jack daniels that ben left on the street corner, it was still there, we drank it when we got home, was supposed to go see bon iver in a cemetery, I over slept and missed waking up to monks singing and then an amazing show by bon iver, had one day off this weekend, now its another week of work.

Another month goes by…

Shelby — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:08:19 +0000

Like my last few entries have stated I really need to update this blog more often, just finding the time to actually write a quality post that I am pleased with is becoming harder and harder to do. So here is a brief recap of my entire month with out a post

No longer living on a couch, found a place about a block and a half from Venice beach
Attended Wordcamp here in Los Angeles, met some great people and enjoy the presentations
Ordered a Arduino, I have some ideas and plans for it but overall I just figured it would be something fun to mess with

Its sad to say that is really about all that has happened in the last month besides the surfing and hanging out at the hot tub almost every evening.

I forgot I had a blog

Shelby — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:01:28 +0000

With the popularity of twitter and the lack of time to write a long drawn out post I kind of forgot about my site. I am hoping to take some time away from the beach, pool and hot tub this weekend and actually work on my site to bring it in a direction that it may actually look updated more than once a month. That is all. Ohh yeah I moved, thats coming in another post though.

Christmas is just around the corner

Shelby — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:24:13 +0000

And I still need to do like 98% of my christmas shopping still. So needless to say my weekend will not be full of relaxing but rather driving around and order stuff online until I am broke… Yay for the holidays.

Car Accident

Shelby — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:47:05 +0000

Yeah I need to pay more attention to driving. Almost died this morning on the way to work thanks to not looking both ways.

And now I am really old

Shelby — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:00:14 +0000

So today is my birthday, and I dont feel any different but I do know that I am old.

Whole lot of nothing…

Shelby — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:44:23 +0000

I have really been slacking on site updates, mainly because I have been avoiding my computer in all ways possible besides my daily visits to Craigslist. Even with that I have yet to land a job, but it has still been a blast in Vegas non the less.
My days have been occupied with applying for jobs, interviews and countless rounds of disc golf. I have been working on some site designs for a few clients to bid the time as well.
As for this site I am have had a few design ideas in mind, yet I have not really wanted to take the time to work on it and push through the ideas I have in mind.
This weekend a friend from Michigan is coming to Vegas and then taking a drive to California, I might hitch a ride so I can work on my tan at the beach… If I do I hope to add some photos since I have been slacking on that.
Anyways there is an update to occupy your time for a few until I get around to a full update. Good day.

Well here we go…

Shelby — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:46:41 +0000

I have been meaning to write something up about the last couple of weeks in my new home. The move went well, seemed like it was never going to happen but then finally the day came. Had a nice going away party over at Chads, had a few drinks, and then a few more. I will hopefully post the pictures on my flickr when I decide to stop being lazy. The morning after the party we packed up and did the final run through of the place. Then we hit the road, a few hours later than I had planned but whatever. After getting into Vegas we unloaded the truck and then I unloaded the rest of my car. I have now realized that I have a few too many clothes… I should downgrade.
Other than the move I have just been hanging out, enjoying this like a mini vacation. I am liking Vegas more and more everyday, I mean there is a Jimmy Johns and a BW3′s nearby what more can you ask for? I have also discovered a love for Disc Golfing, kind of wish I had picked up on it sooner… but better now then never I guess. I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss the ocean, but its only a few hours away. I am still looking for a dive bar near by, one that is less about the video poker and more about the cheap drinks and good atmosphere.
The only downfall I have found thus far with this place is the fact that you can drink 24/7 … That could end up being a bad thing. On the job front, well thats another story. I had an interview the 2nd week I was here, but still have not gotten the job. Its somewhat depressing when I start to look at bills and rent and know that I dont have the funds… But ohh well I figure everything else fell into place with moving here so maybe a job will land on my lap soon enough.

Big Update…

Shelby — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:40:43 +0000

Soon. I have been trying to live a computer free life since I moved, But I still have a large update around the corner to fill in everyone on what has been going on. Check back shortly for this.

Here we go…

Shelby — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:13:02 +0000

So I thought I would give another post much like the one I wrote a long while back about the Detroit Trip. After work Friday, Darin and I went back to my place and predrank some of Jakes Vodka. Attempted to head to Fathers office in Santa Monica…. The line was too long so we went to Q’s. Ended up meeting some people there, Got really wasted there and met up with this girl I went to High school with. She ended up being just a cool as I remember her, and then some. Ended up conversing with Clark Kents brother, I still dont think he recalls who we were. Closed out the bar, went and grabbed more beer and we all drank at my place until like 6am. Woke up at like 10am and went to get some food, then made our way to a bar and I drank a couple of beers at like noon while schooling people at Darts. After that went to Paradise cove near Malibu and drank a lot more and ate way too too much deep fried calamari … Went back to the girls brothers place and helped with polishing off a bottle of wine. Then ended up at this bar in Santa Monica. Drank until close. Woke up in the morning not knowing where my car was and being super sore from sleeping two deep on a couch and later migrating to a tiled floor. Found my car on 11th st, had to walk all the way from 4th… drove home and ended up cracking a few beers open at 10am on Sunday … now I am at work.

Belkin

Shelby — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 23:52:59 +0000

I was looking over my logs and noticed that someone from Belkin has been viewing my site quite a bit this month. I wish I could say it was someone in their upper management that found my blog interesting enough that they were willing to give me thousands of dollars to work for the…. sadly I doubt this is the case. Instead I can only assume it to one worthless individual that feels the need to check up on me in their spare time. Really some people need to get on with their lives.