Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
(good vibes and pickin'):
sedrosken
Florida Man
Yeah, we're hitting on-season where we're at -- living in a tourist economy means EVERY field has an on-season because about now's when the money comes in and everyone wants stuff done, they tend to want to coast through the fall and winter -- and I'm just ridiculously busy.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I was celebrating my first weekend of not having small human houseguests.
June - early September, yes, I probably do have some intoxicated young ladies who might be in bikinis visit a couple times a week. This is definitely a point in favor of my beach-adjacent apartment.
I actually spent mother's day visiting all the single moms I know for quick photo shoots. I'm feeling extremely thankful that I have a relatively secure life right now. $5/gallon gas is hurting everyone working in tipped occupations and I could see it in every home I visited yesterday.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Where I'm at it hasn't been much over $4/gal but we had cheap gas to begin with, and it still went up almost 100% relative to what it was. My gas budget for the month has had to eat into my "everything else" budget.
My old contacts from the truck stop have reported less traffic for trucks too, meaning the fuel surcharges have hit shipping hard as well. Not to mention, a significant chunk of our fertilizer came directly through the Strait of Hormuz before all this stuff started up -- we haven't even seen the start of the real problems and probably won't until it's harvest season.
Frankly what has me more surprised than anything is that we haven't started to see fuel shortages or rationing yet. Especially since diplomatically we're in a much more precarious spot than we were in the 1970's oil crisis.
My old contacts from the truck stop have reported less traffic for trucks too, meaning the fuel surcharges have hit shipping hard as well. Not to mention, a significant chunk of our fertilizer came directly through the Strait of Hormuz before all this stuff started up -- we haven't even seen the start of the real problems and probably won't until it's harvest season.
Frankly what has me more surprised than anything is that we haven't started to see fuel shortages or rationing yet. Especially since diplomatically we're in a much more precarious spot than we were in the 1970's oil crisis.
Some of that could be related to tapping into and loaning out some of the strategic petroleum reserve.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Just wait for the forthcoming MASSIVE FUCKING INFLATION because every single thing needs just in time delivery and Diesel is 33% higher than gas.
For the most part, once prices on something go up, they generally don't come down. We should really be out with pitchforks and torches over all this.
For the most part, once prices on something go up, they generally don't come down. We should really be out with pitchforks and torches over all this.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Vaguely related to work stuff, but my dealings with GoDaddy have convinced me to never, ever, not EVER be their customer.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
One of my co-workers had stuff on Godaddy. They were telling me all the shit they just can't do. All their stuff is on Dreamhost now.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Even the best case scenario so far I've seen is just using them as a domain registrar (we've had a couple companies that used to pay for GoDaddy to host their email -- a couple of disastrous M365 transitions have been the result) and even then they suck eggs.
Me personally, my domains are through Namecheap, but I've heard a couple less-than-stellar things about them to the point that when it's time to renew I may just kick them to the curb too.
Me personally, my domains are through Namecheap, but I've heard a couple less-than-stellar things about them to the point that when it's time to renew I may just kick them to the curb too.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm dealing with this right now, actually:
Namecheap supplies a bunch of wildcard SSL certs I have. The certs generally have between two and four years remaining.
My normal name registrar doesn't support API access for updates and it doesn't support wildcard SSL at all, so I can't just set up my own Let's Encrypt certs there.
Namecheap wants me to move my domains over to their service so they can handle the short expiration terms for SSL certificate re-issues.
Their service doesn't have any kind of bulk import tool for A records from the existing nameservers and they won't let me pre-stage A records until I transfer in domains. Their support DOES say they have API access, so in theory I could make my own update tool, but they're saying that it's not intended to handle hundreds of A records for single domains, but rather small updates to single domains.
I did a count: I have 1122 A records currently covered by five wildcard certificates. They want me to enter them one at a time on a web form.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do but I have about three weeks to figure it out right now.
Namecheap supplies a bunch of wildcard SSL certs I have. The certs generally have between two and four years remaining.
My normal name registrar doesn't support API access for updates and it doesn't support wildcard SSL at all, so I can't just set up my own Let's Encrypt certs there.
Namecheap wants me to move my domains over to their service so they can handle the short expiration terms for SSL certificate re-issues.
Their service doesn't have any kind of bulk import tool for A records from the existing nameservers and they won't let me pre-stage A records until I transfer in domains. Their support DOES say they have API access, so in theory I could make my own update tool, but they're saying that it's not intended to handle hundreds of A records for single domains, but rather small updates to single domains.
I did a count: I have 1122 A records currently covered by five wildcard certificates. They want me to enter them one at a time on a web form.
I haven't decided what I'm going to do but I have about three weeks to figure it out right now.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It always seems weird to say happy Memorial Day, but if you're in the US, at least it's a day off work for most people.
I spent my morning helping a friend move and now I'm going to proceed to the not-moving-until-someone-makes-me portion of the day.
I spent my morning helping a friend move and now I'm going to proceed to the not-moving-until-someone-makes-me portion of the day.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Also the Namecheap thing was kind of a debacle but at least it's over now.
Happy memorial day and day off to those who get it. After 40 I was no longer offering to help people move. I'd offer to contribute to them hiring actual movers though. I took off the rest of this week to try and recharge and feel better mentally. Just been doing random tasks around the house that haven't been dealt with for a while.
Yesterday I did the maintenance flush on my on-demand water heater. It involves draining it and then hooking up hoses to a pump that I submerge in food-grade vinegar. I fill about 2 gallons into the bucket and then let the pump cycle it through the heater for about an hour to descale it.
Today I spent time figuring out how locate the internal filter to my washing machine. After opening it, there was quite the joy of things clogging it and I assume it's been 7+ years since it's been cleaned because I've never done it since living here until now.
Other than that I spent the morning going through the upgrade process for home lab system running Proxmox VE to get me from 8.4 > 9.2.2. There was a small process but nothing too painful thankfully.
Yesterday I did the maintenance flush on my on-demand water heater. It involves draining it and then hooking up hoses to a pump that I submerge in food-grade vinegar. I fill about 2 gallons into the bucket and then let the pump cycle it through the heater for about an hour to descale it.
Today I spent time figuring out how locate the internal filter to my washing machine. After opening it, there was quite the joy of things clogging it and I assume it's been 7+ years since it's been cleaned because I've never done it since living here until now.
Other than that I spent the morning going through the upgrade process for home lab system running Proxmox VE to get me from 8.4 > 9.2.2. There was a small process but nothing too painful thankfully.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It definitely helps that most of the people I know have pickup truck/small U-Haul quantities of belongings rather than moving van amounts. But there's always a sofa or extra-firm mattress or something to make sure I know I'm not 25 any more. I will definitely say moving day is the moment I appreciate that we don't have tube-style TVs and GenZs aren't taking "antique" furniture from their GenX and Millennial parents the way Xers had to.
I regularly have conversations with my mother like this: "Yes, mom, I'm sure I don't need grandma's buffet table. Yes, I can see that it's 84" long and made of solid oak and that an elephant had to die for the door pulls. How often do you think I'm hosting dinner for 12 in my apartment that doesn't have a dining room?"
I'm with ya on no longer having all those super heavy items from years past. Few years back my dad ended up moving away to Missouri and either sold off a bunch of those bulk items you mentioned or just donated or trashed them which helps. That said, he's created interesting new bulk item concerns that my sister and I will have to figure out some day when he passes. He has spent his retirement time investing in classic pinball machines and hot wheels collectables. Not only are the pinball machines super heavy and bulky but also fragile and expensive to move. If you so much as look at one the wrong way you need someone able to calibrate it to work correctly.
Aside from that I don't have any of those buffet tables or fancy China to worry about. I'm barely nostalgic on objects so the things I'd feel sentimental about aren't going to be anything like that.
Aside from that I don't have any of those buffet tables or fancy China to worry about. I'm barely nostalgic on objects so the things I'd feel sentimental about aren't going to be anything like that.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I have two sets of China now, because my mom somehow wound up with six. They're all still in the boxes I got them in, but the main reason I have them is because my mother didn't want her sister to get them. I agree that my aunt is multiple forms of evil, but I have no earthly idea what to do with a bunch of 100+ year old plates and tea cups and as far as I can tell, no one else wants them either.
It is interesting our boomer parents collect this stuff and have the expectations that we will be excited to one day inherit their ancient collections. There is a real psychology in there with how some view their worth to their children by the way they pass down things.
In some ways I feel bad because, hey it is a privilege that I get to stay in touch with my last remaining parent and we're on good terms. But also, I don't place the same value on the things they want me to accept.
My dad has made playful comments throughout the years about burning through my inheritance and I've always just told him to use whatever money he's saved to retire to make him happy, I don't care what I get to inherit.
I don't know if you're in a similar situation to me, but since I have no kids, there's not many places for my things to go.
In some ways I feel bad because, hey it is a privilege that I get to stay in touch with my last remaining parent and we're on good terms. But also, I don't place the same value on the things they want me to accept.
My dad has made playful comments throughout the years about burning through my inheritance and I've always just told him to use whatever money he's saved to retire to make him happy, I don't care what I get to inherit.
I don't know if you're in a similar situation to me, but since I have no kids, there's not many places for my things to go.
sedrosken
Florida Man
How did that shake out? Did you end up moving registrars? I'm STILL fighting with GoDaddy for that one client.
My AC's drain line clogged last week and it was a fight to get it fixed and the water up from my carpet around it. The HVAC guy ended up putting a couple CO2 cartridges down one end to break the clog loose. The outside end is apparently buried and due to when it was installed, they got away with using too-small of piping. Apparently you're supposed to use 3/4 inch and they used half.
I'm still dragging my feet on that myself, because I need to hook it up to a real display and I just don't feel up to it lately. It's more important to me that the OSes in my VMs get updated, but I'll eventually have to get around to it.
I mostly just find it sad. I don't mind inheriting small things that my grandparents and parents actually used to keep their memory alive, but I have no desire for their furniture, really. I don't have the space.
My dad at one point seemed to express some kind of consternation that he wouldn't be able to leave me anything of note, being on disability. On the one hand, I get it, but on the other, I don't care either. I'd rather have them at the end of the day.
I think I'd leave most of my stuff (computers, etc) to friends who'd actually like to have it, but I have a lot of stuff that no one's going to want.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
My sites were down for about 14 hours between when I approved the transfer out and when Namecheap TOLD me they got whatever approval they need on their side, the whole time insisting that transfers can take up to a week. This is about 13.5 hours longer than I've seen any other name transfer take and I'm assuming that the strange timing is because somebody had to manually do something on their end. They randomly collected maybe 1 in 50 A records from the old domains. There's no technical reason they couldn't have grabbed all of them if they did a query to grab any. And they charge for the ability to set TTL on DNS records or use more than 150 host records on a single domain, which is absolute bullshit, even if the cost is negligible.
I should've just switched everything to Cloudflare.