Virtual Moving

I’ve been getting word from a few people recently that my website is responding unusually slowly as of late. I generally don’t notice this much myself (as when I’m at home everything goes over the local network), but I have been noticing that the traffic indicator light on my DSL modem has been very active lately.

There’s a few things that could account for that amount of activity and the speed issues, but my guess is that it’s simply that while my DSL line and aging webserver were fine for my needs a while ago, I’m outgrowing them.

Right now, I’ve got a 1.5 Mb/sec incoming, 768 kbps/sec outgoing DSL line, and an old 350Mhz G3 as webserver. I’ve set my server up to host two domains for myself (djwudi.com, which is currently essentially unused, and michaelhanscom.com), one for my dad (hanscomfamily.com), two for friends (Kirsten at geekmuffin.com and Phil at interalia.org), and I found out a while ago that Phil has set someone else up on my server as well (patreesha.com).

A few months ago, none of those site were getting enough traffic for that to be a major issue. As the sites grow, though, and as Google finds more and more pages to send people to, I’ve simply run out of server horsepower and bandwidth.

So, I think it’s time for me to pare things down a little bit and look into external hosting options. Mike‘s given his hosting provider, LivingDot, a good recommendation, and their packages look better than both Laughing Squid (BoingBoing‘s host) and Logjamming (Wil Wheaton‘s host), but I’m open to suggestions if anyone else might have any.

This won’t be an “overnight” thing, so there’s no danger of me suddenly pulling the plug on any of the sites I host. I already knew that I’d have to be disconnecting my server for an as yet unspecified amount of time when I move in with Prairie in a few months, so the end of August is something of a “drop dead” date for me to get all of this taken care of. My sites may move over before then, depending on affordability and how much of a PROJECT the transition becomes, but I’m not about to just drop my friends’ sites into the great bit bucket in the sky. :)

It’s a bit of a bummer, as I’ve enjoyed having the ability to host things on my own, without having to worry about storage space (I’ve got around 100Gb of drive space on my server) or bandwidth caps (as long as I pay my bills, Speakeasy doesn’t care how much data I pump in or out over my DSL line, or limit what I can or cannot do with my server)…but after a while, even I have to succumb to the reality of the situation.

iTunesUnder the Milky Way” by Church, The from the album Never Mind the Mainstream (1988, 5:00).

Blade: Trinity

I just got finished watching Blade: Trinity. While I’m certainly not going to make any claims about it being a good movie, it ended up being far more entertaining than I expected it to be (and probably more than it had any real right to be).

I can chalk this up to two simple things:

  1. Parker Posey as a vampire. Parker’s long been one of my favorite actresses, inevitably taking oddball roles in quirky movies and absolutely going to town with them. She’s always a joy to watch, and this was certainly no exception.

    Parker Posey

  2. ‘Pac-Man’, the vampire pomeranian. Hands-down, one of the most bizarrely funny things I’d seen in a long time.

    Vampire Pomeranian

From here on out, I think every movie should have a vampire pom in it. I don’t really care if it makes sense, or fits into the film at all. I just want more vampire pomeranians in my movies.

Catch up? You’re kidding, right?

3528 Unread ItemsSee this?

This is what happens when I spend an entire weekend out running around and having fun, stopping by the computer just long enough to import, prepare, and upload photos.

Three thousand, five hundred, and twenty-eight unread items in my newsreader.

I’ve got a hunch I’m going to be doing a lot of skimming over the next few days.

Given that there’s more coming in every four hours when NetNewsWire refreshes, I figure I’ll get it knocked back down to zero just in time to go out and find something else to do that keeps me away for a few days…and it’ll all start over again.

iTunesStories” by Big Hat from the album Inamorata (1992, 3:38).

Folklife 2005

As anyone who’s been watching my Flickr photostream is (painfully?) aware of by now, this entire weekend was spent primarily wandering around this year’s Northwest Folklife Festival. Prairie and I both had a lot of fun people watching and picture taking (well, I did the picture taking, we both did the people watching bit), we got to hang out with Laura for a while on Saturday and Sunday, and a good time was had by all.

As always, the full avalanche of pictures are in a Flickr photoset. Here’s one of my favorites…

Folklife 2005, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA

iTunesCalling All Angels” by Lang, K.D./Siberry, Jane from the album Until the End of the World (1991, 5:11).

Little Fluffy Clouds

Wispy clouds, Seattle, WAWhat an incredibly gorgeous day today was. Blue skies with light, wispy clouds high in the sky, with temperatures pushing up into the mid-80’s. As soon as I got off from work I made a quick swing through home to drop off my bag, then spent the next two hours wandering around, people watching and taking photos.

Summer is such a wonderful time in Seattle. Gorgeous weather…and gorgeous eye candy! ;) I’m half convinced that Seattle’s reputation as being constantly grey and drizzly is so firmly embedded into the popular consciousness that any time the sun even hints at appearing, everyone is so determined to take as much advantage of it as possible that hemlines raise, necklines drop, and as much flesh is bared to the sun as is legally allowed.

Then, of course, we end up getting day after day after day after day of weather like this.

It’s a good thing. Especially for those of us who have a predilection for wandering around town admiring the scenery.

iTunesEarth Orbit One: Little Fluffy Clouds” by Orb, The from the album Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, The (1991, 4:27).

Mom Visits!

Me and mom, Seattle, WA

I got to spend a nice few hours yesterday with Mom as she passed through Seattle on the tail end of a quick trip to see some family and friends scattered around the lower 48. She showed up at my work just in time for me to head off on my lunch break, took advantage of the empty apartment to nap for a few hours through the latter half of my workday, then we grabbed a quick dinner before getting her on a bus to head back out to the airport for her flight home.

We hit Moby’s, a restaurant in the Convention Center for dinner. The food wasn’t bad, but it seemed a bit pricey (I had a $9 cheeseburger, which was a little overcooked and not as big as a $4 double quarter-pounder with cheese from McDonald’s), and while their ketchup came in Heinz bottles, it definitely wasn’t Heinz — or if it was, it was seriously watered down. Can’t say I give high recommendations to this place.

iTunesBack on a Mission (DJ Dan)” by Cirrus from the album Back on a Mission (1998, 8:14).

Record warm temperatures today through Friday…

…according to Weather Underground.

Mid-80’s today, predicted high of 89 tomorrow. Uff-da! Me? I love it. Summer’s back!

The only potential downside is that it looks to be cooling off as the weekend starts, dropping back down into the 60’s with a chance of rain. Still…I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

iTunesSuccess” by Duran Duran from the album Thank You (1995, 4:05).