Archive for the ‘Off Topic’ Category

Dec
26
2011

Sorry ’bout that

If you tried to hit the blog last night you might have noticed that it wasn’t resolving.  Things have been nice and stable here since I switched hosting providers way back when.  This time I kinda knew this was going to happen.  I’ve been using Godaddy as my domain registrar for as long as I can remember.  They were the upstart kid when register.com was the king of the realm and their service has been fine, but their CEO… is despicable.

A while back I meant to switch when it came out he was a big fan of elephant hunting.  Needless to say, that’s not my thing, but I sort of let myself forget about it because I knew it was going to be  hassle.

What finally pushed me over the edge is his self-defeating and frankly confusing support for SOPA – the bill that would kill the internet.  I’m not sure how much business they’re going to lose over this, but it’s more than none – at very least, it’s mine.  If Reddit is to be believed, it’s probably much more.  So in any case, I’m now using the services of the lovely people at name.com and if you have a domain that Godaddy still hosts, you can do the right thing and find another provider too.  Name.com is even running a promotion and has info on what it takes to make the switch.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Off Topic | No Comments »

May
01
2011

My Pictures, but in Real Life

I really appreciate everyone out there who takes the time to stare at the stuff I post here.  I do this mostly for me, but I don’t think I’d do it if it wasn’t for you.  Thanks a million and all that.

As much as I love this here blog, sometimes seeing things printed out and hung on a wall is a whole different experience.  If you’re interested in doing just that, you can come see some of my prints, in real life, at the 2011 Greenwood / Phinney Art Walk.  The Phinneywood Art Walk (aka “The Big One” to distinguish it from the little monthly art walks) takes place this year on Friday, May 13th from 6-9 PM and Saturday May 14th from 12-5 PM.  The art walk is between 60th and 87th streets, centered on Greenwood and Phinney Ave.  My work will be at Lot 49, which is located on 85th st, just west of Gordito’s.  I’ll be there Friday night and maybe Saturday as well, so stop by and say hi!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Off Topic | 1 Comment »

Aug
17
2010

Obama at the Bakery

So usually when I want to get a loaf of bread at work, I just go to Grand Central Bakery – about 100 feet away.  Today, it got a little more complicated:

It seems when the president is going to hold a meeting with local business leaders at the place where you usually get snacks and pastries, that is somehow more important.  Funny – I usually go through the door, not a security tent.

These nice gentlemen told me that after the president was gone around 1, they’d be happy to serve me coffee, but right now, I couldn’t be closer than 20 feet from the door.  They didn’t tackle me for taking pictures though, so there’s that.


Glad I didn’t drive today.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Off Topic | 1 Comment »

Nov
21
2009

Please Kill Me Before I Have To Do That Again

I might have told you a few days back that I had migrated the blog to a new host.  That was true, except for one thing.  During the migration, somehow the database that runs the show and makes everything sparkling and magical got a bit borked.  Everything seemed to work, except the plugin I use to show you all the info on each picture couldn’t find things.  I tried all sorts of configuration until I realized it just wasn’t going to happen.  My options were to attempt to edit the database (a really bad idea), manually remove and reupload all my pictures (a super time consuming bad idea), have my great friend Josh try and fix it (a very promising but ultimately unsuccessful bad idea), or figure out what happened and how to fix it.

In the end, I had to delete my whole blog, including the wordpress install and database , which scares the living crap out of me, and rebuild it.  Since the files are all in the same places, after reimporting the XML file I had saved, it mostly came back to life.  I had to rebuild all the pages, reconfigure everything, fix some CSS, blah blah blah.

Along the way, there was a little damage.  If you were subscribed to a post, that went away.  I’m sure I’m more sorry about it than you are and I heartily encourage you to resubscribe if you’d like.  If you made a comment on my last post or two, that’s gone too.  I really like comments.  I miss them already.

Long story short, although there was a bit of damage, I really think we’re back online and relatively trouble-free.  I’m not going to touch anything unless I really have to.  Please tell me if you see anything funny, otherwise, back to doing the photography thing, no more doing the “make it work” thing.

Love,

Ari

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Minutia, Off Topic | 2 Comments »

Nov
15
2009

Welcome Home

If you are reading this, odds are my blog has been migrated to a new host.  I meant to focus on this a week or two back, but I managed to mangle the translation a few times and well… I need a little me time first.

As far as I know, we’re sitting on a new host.  The masthead has been refreshed as well – nice elephant, eh?  Other than that, I know of one problem – the exif information (specifics about each photograph) that usually appear in a little table underneath the shot aren’t showing up right.  I need your help finding out what else is wrong, because I’m sure there is something.

If you could be so kind as to randomly click three links deep, wherever you want to go, and tell me if you see anything else messed up, I would be forever in your debt.  Do it for me, before google finds the problems and destroys my meager page rank.

Thanks team!
Ari

Posted in Minutia, Off Topic | 1 Comment »

Nov
09
2009

Not Gone, Not Forgotten

Hey All,

    You might have been wondering “why no new posts”?  Actually I flatter myself – you have better things to do than wonder.  In any case, there is a reason and “busy with other things” is only part of it.  In my never ending quest to be cheap thrifty, I’m moving my blog to a new host.  If I can get a couple last problems figured out, we’ll make it live and I can get back to thinking about pictures, not software.  I have to keep the inner nerd alive and make it happen – databases, .htaccess files, and wordpress installations be damned.  When I get done, maybe I’ll even spruce things up a bit.  I promise you it won’t be too much longer.  Just don’t hold me to that.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Off Topic | No Comments »

Mar
10
2009

Capitol Hill Light Rail Demolition

Today I’m breaking from the standard photography stuff.  Why?  Because the bulldozers are out across the hill from me, starting the demolition for the Light Rail station on Capitol Hill.  Finally.  Although it isn’t scheduled to start actually operating for another 6 or 8 years, I suppose it’s something.  There’s a gallery below of the work going on today.

Here It Comes

See all of the images in the gallery below.

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Off Topic | 3 Comments »

Dec
29
2008

Mikey Is Totally Awesome

Recently it was brought to my attention that I’d made a large oversight.  This blog has been in existence for almost a year now and nowhere in it’s voluminous pages did it note how awesome Mikey is.  I apologize.  Mikey is indeed awesome.

mikey-is-awesome

Tags: ,
Posted in Off Topic | 1 Comment »