This evening I have been living in the realm of Linux, DNS, Apache, PHP, SSH, and FTP. I'm bringing up a new virtual dedicated server so I'll be able to provide online access to all of my present and past work archives, personal mementos and photos, and scrapbook-style pictures and notes pertaining to the book.

I've always been a programmer, and I've run several web sites over the past ten years or so. The startup of the systems is the hard part for me; after that I'm in my element. I love building sites with PHP (Open Salon is built with PHP), it's a very flexible, powerful and enjoyable way to express creativity and productivity.

I've been dreading doing this setup work because it requires using an entirely different part of the brain from the parts I use for writing—and the parts used for normal life, for that matter. But I made headway tonight. I think I figured out the DNS problem on the rickmccollister.com domain, but we'll have to wait overnight for propagation to be certain.

I hope to be able to include occasional links to pictures, music, and video, and serving them from my own site is the best way to do that. I also want to be able to incorporate some other features in my blog that might make it a bit more interesting. I think you'll notice them when they happen. I hope so.

I had a nice visit on the phone tonight with my best friend. She told me about some messages she had received that she thought I might find interesting. I did. I realized after we talked that the possibility of people I've been close to in one way or another reading my writing is holding me back. It's a block I wish to bust. I think I'm going to have to write directly to a couple people (through this portal, of course) and say what I have to say directly. Nothing bad or angry; more like making amends.

I did not get as far as I would have liked with my paperwork search today. I spent several hours at my little storage unit going through boxes looking for a particular set of papers, with no luck. I also brought back to the cave with me two of my old SL-2000 Betamaxes, which I will need in order to video and digital audio transfers from tape to disk. Neither of the units worked very well (they've been idle for a very long time). I have another SL-2ooo and an SL-2300 which I will retrieve and test tomorrow. I hope at least one of them will work, but I'm seeing a trip to the VCR repair store in my future.

For all the pictures I've taken, I'm going to have to get at least one 2TB External hard drive. These base files used to be spread across five 250GB internal drives, but those drives are wearing out, and take up too much space inside a machine. I'll probably wait a few weeks before I get that external drive though—I want Firewire interface, not just USB, so it will be a little pricier than I would like. All of this optimization and compression and transfer is worth doing, though. These are the archives of my life.

I still haven't set up my Roland RD-150 digital piano in the cave yet, nor have I taken out and played my Fender fretless Jazz bass. It was good to get some music established yesterday, though. Today I brought back the little mixer which I will use to integrate sound from the computer, the DVD player, the transfer processors and the musical instruments. I have three MIDI control surfaces I'd like to get integrated too. Maybe I can record something of my own soon. That would feel good.

Apologies for not keeping up very well with reading and commenting on my OS colleagues' posts the last couple days. Just going through a little nesting and organizational phase, but looking forward to settling back in to writing and reading as primary daytime activities.