sirshannon.com » sirshannon

Goodbye Wisdom Teeth

sirshannon — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:35:22 +0000

On 3/16 last year, I took my too (still broken) arms to get tattoos. On 3/16 this year, I am having my wisdom teeth removed. The top 2 will be pulled. The bottom 2 will be excavated, I think they’re probably going to blast them.

I doubt I’ll miss them.

The Death of Sirsha.com

sirshannon — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:52:23 +0000

At some point around 2000/2001 I finally bought my personal domain name sirshannon.com and started playing around on it. I was already working as a web developer but was mostly working locally and on other people’s domains. Sirshannon.com has been through many incarnations but I realized early on that I would need a “business” domain in order to have a site that I could direct potential clients or employers to because I had no plans on making sure sirshannon.com was “work safe”.

I eventually came up with sirsha.com as my “business” domain. I basically separated my online identity into 2 personalities: a work-safe, technology-oriented side (”Sirsha”) and the NSFW “personal” side (”sirshannon”). There was a blog on each site, among various other things that would come and go as interest and time varied. This separation worked for me because, theoretically, I could drop f-bombs all day on sirshannon.com but still have sirsha.com to show off my geek credentials to anyone who might need my professional services. It was a bit of a pain sometimes because things like music software sat firmly between both business and personal. I had to stick to the plan, however, because I was working as a freelance developer and consultant and there is no way I would direct a potential client to sirshannon.com, which contained such gems as “The Hooker With The Heart of Gold” (spoiler alert: I killed her and sold the heart for crack). Sirsha and sirsha.com were vehicles that allowed me to meet many great developers, learn a lot, and share a little knowledge. If it was an experiment, then it succeeded completely.

And then, in late 2004, I took a full-time job. This drastically cut down on the amount of tech blogging I would do on sirsha.com because my free time was reduced and because I refuse to blog about code I write at work. So my interest and investment in sirsha.com because less and less. In addition to that, my job is in an adult-oriented industry so there is no reason to refrain from dropping f-bombs these days Perhaps in the future I’ll have to try to pretend this job didn’t happen but for now, there is almost no reason to “hide” behind sirsha.com.

And then, several months ago, my web server harddrive failed. I have old backups but not a current one, so setting everything up again would be a lot of work for incomplete results. So I decided to cancel that web server contract and outsource my hosting for the most part. One day I’ll either have all my domains set back up on hosted web app services or canceled completely. Wordpress and other platforms are so easy to set up, I don’t see much of a reason to write my own platforms anymore, or use one that is too much trouble for too little benefit (like sirsha.com’s last platform, Community Server). I’m never going to write the next great blogging platform or CMS so why not use the currect greatest ones? Maybe I’m just getting old, but I think I’m getting wiser

One day I may have sirsha.com’s content available again, either on wordpress or some other platform, archived for the ages, but for now, sirsha.com will direct to this page. Consider it a tombstone. Or a plaque outside a cryogenic chamber.

For those of you that don’t mind non-tech posts and opinions, along with some f-bombs on occasion, please stick around. For those who do mind such things, thanks for reading sirsha.com in the past, I hope we learned a little from each other along the way.

I Went To Trader Joe’s Yesterday

sirshannon — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:04:25 +0000

I finally went to the new Trader Joe’s on my way home yesterday but after driving around the parking lot 1.5 times, I decided that driving up to the 2nd level of the parking deck was just silly so I continued on my way home instead.

Time Warner Drops HDNet, sirshannon Drops His HD Tier

sirshannon — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:20:31 +0000

When I signed up for cable in my current home, I ordered an HD tier (not sure which one) by requesting “the one that includes HDNet”. I just received a letter from Time Warner yesterday stating that, as of tomorrow, I will no longer have HDNet because they will no longer offer it. I’m a big Mark Cuban fan and a huge MMA fan so HDNet was probably my favorite HD Channel Time Warner offered (other than Showtime). I mean, as much as I need to see American Chopper or that damn car auction show every time I turn on my TV, I can probably live with watching both of those shows in SD. HDNet and HDNet Movies both had great HD content that made the HD tier worth having. Discovery HD used to, but then it became HDTheater and might as well be called “HD American Chopper and Friends”.
>Here is a link to more info about Time Warner Cable dropping HDNet

Chester – Week 7(ish)

sirshannon — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 22:02:18 +0000

My New Sobriety : Day 365

sirshannon — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:06:11 +0000

Tomorrow (2009-03-16) marks my 1-year sober date, aka the first day of my second year of sobriety. I should probably write a big long post here, getting all deep and spiritual and philosophical but then I would end up having to promote the book on Oprah when she finally picks a true memoir to peddle on her show. But I will say this: life costs less when you’re sober. The time and money spent on illicit and ill-advised habits and pursuits may or may not go towards better things, but the potential is there, potential that was continuously sucked away in years past. I am sober now, proof in and of itself that anything is possible.

So now that ever-present barrier of intoxication is gone and everything is easier, cheaper, and more pleasant… even the hard things.

Especially the hard things.

Broken Arms Suck

sirshannon — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:40:22 +0000

Last Saturday I went out on my first bicycle ride of the year and came oh-so-close to surviving it. I covered over 10 miles in under an hour and then ended up getting dumped hard onto the street.
Fearing I had broken something, the first thing I did was sign up on my healty insurance provider’s website (which would have been easier if the link in their welcome letter was a working URL). I was sure that my right arm was broken near the elbow when the pain made it impossible to use a mouse.
After registering on the site (and being given a “how did this site work for you” survey on the 2nd page I visited, before the site had done anything other than tell me that Blue Cross Blue Shield sent me a broken link in my welcome letter), I tried in vain to find some helpful information before giving up and calling the “get answers to your health questions” number. That wasn’t really any help. I had 2 questions (”why is the link wrong in the welcome letter” and “should I go to urgent care or ER”) and her answer to both was “I think that is a Customer Service issue.” I would have called Customer Service but she didn’t have a number for them so I caught a ride to the closest Urgent Care right after buying and setting up the recording of the UFC PPV that was starting in 2 1/2 hours, just in case I wasn’t back in time.
The woman working the desk at the urgent care center told me they could X-Ray my arm but not put a cast on it and sent me to a different urgent care a couple blocks away. After walking several blocks to get there, they were closed (they close at 2 on Saturdays, completely redefining the word “urgent”). From there, I walked to the ER, still sporting the ghetto shirt-sling that made the trek possible.
2 hours later, I left the ER after being X-Rayed but not given a cast. I was given a referral for a doctor on Monday for a cast. I should have just stayed at the urgent care. And I should have just kept my shirt-sling. The ER was out of human-sized slings and gave me one that was too large to be of any use to me.
Luckily for me, the break is one that needs movement so I didn’t get a cast Monday. Which means I can still type and I won’t have to cancel my tattoo appointment next Monday (right after my first physical therapy session). But, maybe best of all, no cast means a lot fewer people make me explain to them what happened.

Cliche Number 13

sirshannon — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 19:25:34 +0000

(with apologies to Terry Richardson)

Steve.Korn posted his list of 20 photography cliches on this Flickr thread and I realized that I had only successfully completely 5 of them at the time so I considered the remaining 15 to be an assignment.

Here is my attempt at number 13: “photographer taking a picture of himself/herself taking a picture of himself/herself in the mirror.”

Strobist info: Vivitar 285HV handheld below camera, triggered wirelessly via CTR-301 (I’m very impressed with these triggers. Apparently the receiver has an auto-off because I had it set in optical ["L"] mode for a few weeks and the batter doesn’t appear to be dead.)

Every Color Brings Out My Eyes

sirshannon — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 14:15:34 +0000

Or so I hear.

Taurus

sirshannon — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:01:49 +0000

Taurus, originally uploaded by sirshannon.