Tom's Diary

Today’s Activities

• Shower.  DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE.

Log

08:45 AM: I’m up.

09:15 AM: Resolved an URL-not-found error on the   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site that was reported by Google.  This was a  MONTH  url that had no posts in it.  Not sure why the site map generator program was generating this URL.  I tried rebuilding the site map.  But the offending URL still appeared.  So I ended up just adding a post for that month; a place-holder more than anything, and all is well now.

09:45 AM: Facebooked.  Up to 268 friends now, and that’s in spite of a couple that DE-friended me.  Not sure why they did,  Sometimes, they just do it for apparently no reason; maybe they decided that I’m too old or that they didn’t like the general tone of my posts.  I wasn’t hostile or negative.  I’ve just been posting about what I’m doing with my days, these days. But perhaps they found this journal-style reporting boring after a while.  Who knows?  But with hundreds of millions of other people on Facebook to choose from, I’ll give these naysayers no further thought. 

09:50 AM: Now I’m off to fill Mom’s med trays.  Back later.

10:35 AM: Finished replenishing Mom’s med trays.  This will give her enough easily-accessible pills for the next three weeks.

10:35 AM: Also, I watched last night’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR as I dolled out the meds.   Hmmmm.  Looks like the DVR did not record NBC’s Meet The Press   today.  There’s a rodeo or something on that channel right now.  Darn!  I so hate the pre-empting of shows I like, with those I couldn’t care less about.  GRIPE!

01:30 PM: Got six pages of notes from audio journal episode   AJE-2010-05-31-21-52.  Should be good fodder for an upoming   Tom’s Love Quest   post.

02:05 PM: Whipped up another batch of cream cheese sugar-free Jello.  This time, I went with orange.

03:50 PM: Left [Jack] a birthday greeting on his voice mail, and talked with [Emmy] for twenty minutes.

05:00 PM: Nap time.

06:00 PM: Nap’s over.

08:00 PM: Watched tonight’s episode of   NBC’s Nightly News   on the DVR.  Strange.  The DVR failed to record   CBS’s 60 Minutes.  Well, it recorded, but an hour late for some reason.

10:30 PM: Chatted with [Emmy] on the phone.  I caught her napping when I called.  But she came fully awake quickly and we had a nice talk.

01:10 AM: iPodded and Facebooked.  Found several more work buddies and friended them, while listening to bands like Lake, Led Zepplin, and Love Unlimited Orchestra.  Music and writing generally go together real well.

01:15 AM: Bed, bed, now here I come.   So I’m out of here for this evening.  Take care, and do check back for more of this continuing story tomorrow.  Good night.

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

No mail delivered on Sundays.

Related Posts

• Today’s Diet: 2010-06-06
• Weight Loss: 2010

Today’s Activities

• Shower. DONE.
• Cat duty.  DONE
• Order any prescriptions Mom needs.  DONE.

Log

04:30 AM: I’m up. briefly, to read a little. 

08:30 AM: My weight did not change from yesterday.  It’s still 173.5 Lbs.    See   here   for a summary of the progress on this goal so far in 2010.

08:35 AM: Began the book:  The Adventures of Pinocchio   overnight.

09:30 AM: Got nephew Garrett started on the   Basement Cleanup: 2010   project.

11:00 AM: Posted the   Alumni Bulletin: 2009   piece to the   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site.  Some extensive editing was required to get it to display in a pleasing manner.  But that’s complete and appears to have been well worth the effort. 

01:30 PM: Called our local pharmacy and ordered four medicine refills for Mom.

03:40 PM: Recorded audio journal episode: AJE-2010-04-12-15-16.

04:30 PM: Skipped today’s   Dr. Phil  episode; it’s the Dr. Phil family again. 

05:20 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless on the DVR.  Turns out that Sarah is Sheila’s sister, and she’s holding Lauren to avenge Sheila’s death; Lauren shot Sheila several years back.  It appears that Sarah is also Kevin and Daisy’s mom, although Kevin said today that Sheila is not their mother.  Well, that seems true enough.  But did he mean Sarah?  Hmmmm.  Meanwhile, the police are searching the homes of all who held Adam in the Abbott cabin, looking for clues to who killed Adam. 

07:00 PM: There appears to be a brush fire in progress on the west side of Brush Mountain.  So some of us neighbors congregated in the lot just south of here to watch.  An airplane circled; repeatedly dropping flame retardant.  Some runs he would not drop the load and we figured that on these passes, he decided that he was either too high or too low, or that the wind was blowing too much. 

07:15 PM: [Emmy] called to say that she’s under the weather with stomach pains.  I’ll check back later to see how she’s doing. 

07:30 PM: Posted the   Cooking Under Fire  piece to the   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site for Ellen Goldfon.

07:40 PM: Posted the  Jenny Kaywood’s Broiled Bananas   piece to the   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site, also for Ellen.

07:45 PM: Posted the  Nancy Goldfon’s Super Coleslaw   piece to the   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site, again, for Ellen.

10:00 PM: Talked with [Emmy].  She’s feeling somewhat better.  But now, she’s not tired, and wonders when tonight she’ll actually be able to fall asleep. 

10:45 PM: A little blog maintenance activity over the past half hour or so.

10:50 PM: I think I’m heading off to read for a little while, and then to bed.  So enjoy your night, and I hope you’ll come back here tomorrow for further updates.   

Tom Hesley

Received Mail and Shipments

• Weekly newspaper-style coupon mailer.
• Notice of continued coverage on my renters insurance policy.
• Bill for Mom’s medical insurance premiums.  Shouldn’t get any more of these, as I’ve arranged to have these payments deducted monthly from her checking account, and opted for paperless billing as well.
• Balance transfer offer from Capital One Bank.  No thanks.
• The 2010-05 edition of Promo Only’s Urban Radio CD music series.
• The 2010-04-02 edition of Promo Only’s EA DFF CD music series.

Related Posts

• Audio Journal Information Page
• Basement Cleanup: 2010
• Book: Adventures of Pinocchio
• Diary Revisions: 2010-04-12
• Site Stats: 2010-04-12
• Today’s Diet: 2010-04-12
• Weight Loss: 2010
• WPSBC Alumni Association –> Alumni Bulletin: 2009
• WPSBC Alumni Association –> Cooking Under Fire
• WPSBC Alumni Association –> Jenny Kaywood’s Broiled Bananas
• WPSBC Alumni Association –> Nancy Goldfon’s Super Coleslaw

I’ve begun the process of converting the web site of the   WPSBC Alumni Association   into a WordPress blog, as decided in the board meeting last spring.  You will shortly be able to access the new version of the site at the following address:

• http://blogs.prosaic-expressions.com/Alumni/

1. I’ve copied all the content from the old site   here   to the new one   here.  DONE.
2. The next step is to transfer the wpsbc-alumni.org domain from the current provider to mine.  I’ve submitted the necessary forms and payments to accomplish this; this will save us $10 per year in domain retention costs.  DONE.
3. Once the transfer has been accomplished, then I’ll take the old site down for good by pointing the wpsbc-alumni.org domain at the new site.  DONE.
4. Then I’ll reconfigure the new site to reside at the same URL (http://wpsbc-alumni.org) as the old one does now. DONE.
5. I’ll verify and submit the new site to google.  DONE.
6. Finally, I’ll cancel the hosting account with the old hosting provider.  IN PROGRESS.

I’ll update this post as the work progresses.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-02
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-09
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-10
• Today’s Business: 2010-02-19

10:00 AM: When I visit the   WPSBC Alumni Association’s web site   this morning, I get the following error:

This site does not exist within the LDAP database.

Investigating.  Stand by.

12:00 PM: Resolved.  Recently, my bank card numbers changed and I forgot to notify the hosting service for this site.  So, when they couldn’t get their money, they turned off the site, and they didn’t even bother to send an email first.  I called them on this today, and they reinstated the site and gave me a free month of hosting for my trouble.  That was great of them.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Today’s Business: 2010-01-28

Today’s planned activities include:

• Cat duty.  DONE.
• Dispense Mom’s meds. DONE
• Shower. DONE.
• Check grocery and meds inventory and make list of needed items for the upcoming shopping trips this week.
• Fill out and Return all requested forms to the financial planner.

07:15 AM: I’m up.

07:20 AM: My weight dropped another pound, from  178.0  pounds yesterday to  177.0  today.  4 pounds left to lose, in order to hit goal weight for this month, and as 12 days remain before February begins, it’s quite likely that I’ll make the target weight of    173.0   or less by January 31st.  Great!

9:30 AM: Worked the   Ads Display Bug: 2010-01-19   problem.  A display issue arose after the plugin upgrades last night.

12:30 PM: Reveived mail and shipments:

• Mom’s Novolog insulin.  Still waiting on the syringes, which the druggists shipped separately.

02:15 PM: Received mail and shipments today:

• 12-volt, 2-amp power adapters for the   Hard Drive Upgrades: 2010   project, as per the   Internet Shopping: 2010-01-06   order.
• A statement of claim coverage from Mom’s medical insurance company, for her wheelchair.
• The 2010-01, Week 2 edition of Promo Only’s  EADFF series.
• 10% off flyer from   Bed Bath & Beyond.
• A statement of values from one of my investment firms. 

03:45 PM: Worked the   Hard Drive Upgrades: 2010   project.  Tested the new power supplies received today.  So far, so good.

06:30 PM: Watched today’s episode of   The Young and the Restless   from the DVR. 

07:30 PM: Performed Misc. database maintenance on the blogs, including the renaming and restoration of one DB, and some work for [Emmy] to make it easier for her to log in and post comments.

11:00 PM: Created another blog in my collection of blogs, that will eventually become the official   WPSBC Alumni Association   web site.  The temporary development URL for this new site is:

• http://podcasts.prosaic-expressions.com/Alumni/

I’ll add all the information from our current site, and anything else of relevence over the next few weeks.

12:15 AM: Posted the list   here   of the added and / or revised documents today on this, the   Tom’s Diary   blog. 

01:05 AM: Busy day today, and I’m certainly feeling it.  So I’m off to bed right now. But we’ll get right back to this wakeful living saga  in less than ten hours.   Have a good night everybody, and take care.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Ads Display Bug: 2010-01-19
• Diary Revisions: 2010-01-19
• Hard Drive Upgrades: 2010
• Internet Shopping: 2010-01-06
• Mom’s Status: 2010-01-19

About a week ago, I received an email message from the web site host provider for the   WPSBC Alumni Organization web site.  It instructed me to verify my contact information.  Since my home address has changed, per the nationwide E-911 project, I must log in to their site to update the records.  But the user Id and password I’ve been using for years no longer work.  So I must call them and get it straightened out. 

This issue is further complicated by the fact that hosting for the site has recently changed companies, from Domain Direct to Web.Com.  Perhaps some data about the hosting account either did not get migrated to the new company’s servers or got distorted somehow during the migration.  I’ll look into this, and track my progress in the comments of this post.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Projects Page
• Today’s Business: 2010-01-24

[Emmy],

The alumni website you asked about for the Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children Alumni Association is:

http://www.wpsbc-alumni.org/

Enjoy.

Tom

Bill,

A couple of things: For future reference, I hold a bachelors degree in computer science and have worked in the field for close to 20 years on a full-time basis, with over ten of those years spent developing web site infrastructure. Rest assured. I know how to publish files of all types on the site, as proven by what’s out there already. This music stuff doesn’t seem all that time-sensitive to me, and so I’ve prioritized its inclusion on the site as low. I’ll get to it eventually. See below for more explanation of this point.

I mention this because you seemed to suggest to [our president] that I might not know how to put sound files up there, thus explaining the “delay”. Well, that’s not the case. I haven’t put them up because that one file you sent is very big — over 20 meg, and I believe it needs to be broken down into individual songs, and put up as smaller units. Lately, I’ve been busy with other projects, more urgent than putting 50-year old stuff up. This issue was brought up at the last board meeting earlier this month, and no one was all that eager to get access to that music. I’ve prioritized this task low because it doesn’t seem that important. I’ll do it when I have the time.

Also, no one else has, thus far, expressed interest in hearing music on the site, in spite of my mentioning this capability at the business meeting in August. If people want this, you need to have them contact _me_ (I am the webmaster after all). If they have the ability to listen to music on the site, then they should be able to go to the site’s home page and click on the webmaster link and let me know of their interest. But so far, not a soul has requested this, but you.

Tom Hesley

Hi [...]. Nice to hear from you.

Our development resources are limited on the site, so we probably won’t be making any drastic improvements. It was also suggested that we set up a listserv to allow alumnists to communicate that way. But again, this would probably take more time than I have at present. But, if there’s enough demand for it, I’ll definitely look into it. Perhaps if you attended the Saturday business meeting at the convention and mentioned this, it might generate member interest.

Thanks much, and I will see you at the convention in August.

Take care,
Tom Hesley

Dear [Tad],

I just sent email to…

xxxxxx@yyyy.zzz

This person is indicated as a contact on the school’s web site. I wanted to have a link to our alumni site placed on the school’s site somewhere, to increase our chances of net surfers finding us.

If you know this person, would you talk up the alumni to them and tell them a bit about me? I told them that I knew you. J It might increase the odds of actually getting a link added to [the school's site at]:

http://www.wpsbc.org.

Later,
Tom Hesley