So here’s the thing – right now, I have a girlfriend and I care about her very much. I enjoy my life, and I want it to last as long as I can. Not just for her, but for me. So I decided to make some life changes to improve my quality of life and take care of myself.

The first thing I did (because I’m a nerd) was to decide that I needed to get organized. I created a Google Site (because they’re easy and I don’t care how it looks or whatever – it was just for me, not a public audience) and I listed out all my major goals. Then I listed out major projects (like my bathroom renovation). I listed out my short-term to-do list (cleaning, chores, things that helped with either major goals or projects). Then I made a shopping list for groceries, household items, and miscellany. They all contribute to my household or personal goals (including getting healthier).

Next, I went grocery shopping, both because we needed some more of “the basics” and because I needed to make healthier decisions about what to eat. I bought a ton of produce for salads, fruit for snacking, and granola cereal and granola bars. It was refreshing just skipping all the nutritional labels of supposed health foods and low-fat delicacies. I decided that I am going to prepare fresher stuff and eat way better.

Day one went pretty well – I ate Kashi GoLean honey almond flax granola cereal, drank raspberry lemonade Crystal Light singles. I ate on that granola for like an hour. It was tasty and filling – the honey and flax really save it from tasting like you’re just eating tree bark. I also drank a diet green tea. I bought gum to chew to get me past the desire to drink a lot of sodas. It works for people trying to quit other things, and I think my main thing is I get thirsty a lot and I’m addicted to caffeine.

I don’t get a good night’s rest most nights, so in the morning I want a diet soda to wake me up. Problem is, after I’m awake I am still thirsty all day (diabetes) so I want another soda, and another… and I end up having too much caffeine or I get a headache. So another of my goals is to quit sodas (and maybe eventually cut most caffeine out). The thing is, there are other diet sodas (orange, Dr. Pepper, etc.), and even a Crystal Light singles flavor with caffeine, but even if it’s “not that bad for you” it’s still processed, still has caffeine, and I don’t want to trade one demon for another. First thing’s first then – a cup of coffee in the morning for the caffeine I need (for now), and then water or non-soda drinks the rest of the day.

I went 38 hours without a soda till I screwed up last night. I went to a mexican restaurant for dinner with friends (per our tradition) and I did research about what would be my healthiest options, and settled that I would either order a few chicken tacos or burritos. I ordered the burritos and what I got in essence were two overgrown chicken enchiladas. They were covered in sauce, a thin layer of some sort of cheese, and then inside the burrito was the chicken. You couldn’t pick it up with your hands, you had to eat it with a fork. This was not the healthy option with chicken, rice, and beans I was hoping for here. I ate it anyway and I didn’t feel gross after; it was satisfying. Late that night after playing dominoes, hanging out with friends smoking molasses shisha from a hookah (certainly not a healthy activity, but not a terrible one either) we decided on a Taco Bell run, and without even thinking I ordered two potato burritos and a diet Pepsi. Why? Because it’s one of two go-to combinations I always order there. I forgot about my new healthy decisions policy until after I had already ordered. Oh well – I messed up, but I ate it anyway because I had paid for it.

I’m not beating myself up, I don’t feel guilty – I am just acknowledging that it was a mistake and that I need to be more aware of my unconscious decisions and mindless eating. Today I’m keeping on where I left off – a cup of coffee, blueberry juice (for anti-oxidants, and to offset the coffee’s warmth), and I added some bananas to my Kashi granola cereal. I finished all that up with a stick of 5 gum (Solstice flavor, kind of a combination spearmint and spicy taste, sugar-free) and will need to get some water in me soon. That is my other healthy eating goal, I need to start drinking my recommended 8 glasses (is that still the recommendation?) and exercise more.

So, hopefully I’ll start updating here a lot more now that I have some new goals. I said initially I wasn’t sure what I’d blog about here, but it will mostly be my life. I don’t know that it’ll be tech-related stuff, but since I like technology that’ll probably come up often too. And healthy stuff. And probably some recipes – the other night I made sashimi tuna steaks with stuffed mushroom caps and my girlfriend used the term “foodgasm.” I am working on a project still in the development stages called “Lazy Ass TV.” More on that as I get it going.

Re-installing didn’t fix the issue, which is problematic because navigating to post on the blog was tedious at best in this condition. I pulled up my site in Internet Explorer (IE) and found that my blog was redirecting to a malicious (malware) fake anti-virus software site…!  I freaked out because I’m just getting back in to writing; I didn’t need to lose new readers to malware.

My default install of WordPress was apparently not-so-secure out-of-the-box (hyphenated words!) The hackers had taken advantage of a WordPress security hole before it auto-updated, and injected code into the files of my blog’s theme files. I stepped back, swallowed my fear and two shots of Jack. After I re-established a fresh, manual install of WordPress and restored a clean copy of my theme, I hardened the security and used just a few new plugins. I didn’t install any of the cruft that my web host includes for their automatic install of WordPress.

I think everything’s back to normal. It took right around an hour to clean up the damage, change passwords (just to be sure, though I don’t have any evidence to support the database or my password were compromised) and finish off the flask of Jack. It was pretty simple – I’m not going to post instructions because it’s easier just to do it. If this happens to your WordPress, reach out to me via e-mail or Twitter and I can try to help you out. (You provide the Jack.)

This company, let’s call them FunPrint (a fake name, sorry if a FunPrint company exists out there). FunPrint made a few mistakes in approaching me, and I believe I handled it civilly. The following is an over-dramatic re-enactment of what happened, and some lessons to learn about courting bloggers for both bloggers and advertisers.

Lesson 1: The Introduction

 To: Raging Tech
From: FunPrint Messaging System
Subject: You have received a message from FunPrint – Blog Giveaway Opportunity

Hello, my name is Sarah Jessica Parker, social marketing director at FunPrint! Yeah! And FunPrint would like to
offer to sponsor a giveaway contest on your blog. Let us know if you’re interested and we’ll send you the details.

Thanks!

Sarah Jessica Parker
Social Marketing Director, FunPrint

So, on first glance, there’s a few glaring issues:

So while I’ve been going to meetings (virtually, I work at home) and answering support requests and setting up new team sites for people, I’ve also been knee-deep in HTML and CSS code making Sharepoint do things it shouldn’t do out-of-the-box. I’ve been learning a lot more about Sharepoint than I ever really wanted.

Speaking generally, the project began with me looking at the current site and going “No, this will not do,” and going to my personal PC and pulling up Photoshop and mocking up a really awesome version of the site. I also split the concept into two sites – a front door page that would face our entire parent company, and a back door page that we would use internally to collaborate. There’s a lot of other internal red-tape B.S. that had to be dealt with about what kinds of sites can go where and why, but that’s all boring. We dealt with it.

The stage we’re at now is taking this boring default out-of-the-box template that we aren’t technically allowed to edit or change, and using a Content Editor Webpart to inject custom CSS code to change the style of the page, and matching the site’s theme colors with the parent company’s new branding. Hell, I even designed a brand new logo for them to update the old one. My coworker (who’s also been my best friend for most of my life, incidentally) is really good with Photoshop and made some custom graphics for the home page, so the current test site looks amazing – especially compared to the old mess.

I’d honestly rather tweak code or do something creative than do boring busy business work (BBB) – but I understand those things have their place. That said – you’ll find if you work with me that I prefer to keep meetings short and to the point, brainstorm efficiently, and work with clear and defined goals. That way I can get back to the fun stuff. I can’t believe I’m an adult and this is the awesome job I get to have.

Topic change:

Has anyone been following this mess with WikiLeaks still? I know this is so 2010 but apparently the U.S. has had a secret sealed indictment against Julian Assange for over 12 months now. WikiLeaks just released their latest insurance file – a file that contains ALL of the big secrets they’re holding on to, and in the event of major distress/demise the password to the file is released to the general public and the apocalypse begins, supposedly – and some 5 million e-mails from Stratfor and other intelligence firms between themselves and the various government and intelligence agencies across the globe.

I posted about this on Facebook, but seriously guys – how do you write anything on paper, e-mail, chat, text, or any otherwise transmittable media and not expect to be held accountable for it later? Especially if you’re a public figure or government official? I always assumed that the best kept secrets were those no one ever writes down, records, or speaks. Perhaps they still are, and that’s what scares me. /tinfoil hat

The media obviously knows there are terrible, dark, explosive secrets lying in the shadows of our government and its constituent agencies. There have been movies and books and short “fiction” written on the subject since there have been governments, let alone the U.S. government. The government knows that we know. Still, like vampires, they keep up the masquerade because no one can prove their dark secrets, and even if revealed – their strategy seems to be to keep playing it cool. It’s not a dumb strategy; how better to instill doubt than to not say anything at all?

Working with people always has its advantages and its disadvantages, much as you’d expect. I fancy myself a misanthrope. It’s hard to run a business if you can’t deal with people. Right now, I’ve got a computer in my possession that’s past its expiration date by a long shot. I absolutely hate to admit defeat on any playing field – but sometimes a computer is just on its last legs. Sure, you can replace all the parts until you essentially have a brand new computer – possibly even in the same case.

We call this situation a “non-economical repair.” Basically the cost to repair the computer equates to or exceeds the value of a new computer. Even worse, this is a computer for a business that can’t get a new computer in quickly. I saved their data, but the computer is a wash – a fault in the cpu or motherboard somewhere.

I’ve been doing this a long time – since middle school actually. I have an Apple and a Microsoft certification under my belt. I’ve done time in hardware repair for a university and a 4-year tour on the front lines of the help desk. Honestly, I just don’t derive any pleasure out of solving the mysteries anymore. I’m waiting on the business to return my call so I can deliver the bad news. I may try them again and see what they want to do. Wish me luck.

If you ever used to read Raging Tech, you’ll know my site was full of sponsored reviews and contests and tech stuff. Then it just became a site I used to promote my local business and I put the kind of articles up (still here, by the way) my mom might like to read. I tried to exercise some of my wit so that I wouldn’t be dead inside when I wrote it. I hate being fake when I write.

So what will be the turnaround here? What is different this time around, Dave? 

Shit. Did I just presumptuously ask myself a question on your behalf? I did. Well, the answer, if I presumed correctly – is I don’t know. I am going to write about whatever’s on my mind, whatever funny thing happened to me that day, whatever rant I feel like ranting, whatever cool toy I just got, whatever feels like “me.”

Last year in May I lost my job at the computer Help Desk I worked at. That job was killing my soul, but I would have waited even longer to seriously look for a new job (especially in the current economic climate) and wouldn’t be where I am today. Oh, somewhere in there I dated and became engaged to a girl and it didn’t last; we broke up in July. Which is incidentally when I left for training for my new job, where I now work-from-home over the internet and telephone as a project manager for an insurance company. Now I’m dating a college student, she’s pretty, amazing and has been really good for me.

While I was unemployed I still had my self-run business fixing computers, friends helping me out, and a lot of personal life drama. I thought about going back to the slightly skeezy world of Social Marketing, whoring out my blog for just anyone, and putting food on the damn table. I was fairly good at it. Now with no page rank and on no one’s blogroll, no updates for almost a year, I’m down at the bottom of the food chain. So this time I am writing for ME, like Ricky Bobby in the last race of Talladega Nights.

I am living the dream – I wake up everyday and (sometimes) get out of bed, and I’m at work. As soon as I log on to the company laptop, I am at the office. I take breaks to play video games, go to the fridge for a snack (it’s not as bad as it sounds), play with my dog or cat, watch tv shows or movies on Netflix or Hulu+, or chat with coworkers. My best friend is my team captain. I wear PJs or whatever I feel like wearing.

The only catch so far: they found out I know Sharepoint, and so they made me lead of the “Sharepoint Project” as one of my Project Management duties. I do a lot of other things and my job is technically completely non-IT related. But realistically, I am the Sharepoint part-time help desk. It’s not a big deal, it’s an easy thing to handle – but boy, it’d be nice to be done with IT responsibilities. Always do what you’re good at for a job, unless you love it.

I don’t expect my return to this blog to be anything monumental for anyone, especially me. I don’t know if I’m going the full 9 yards  and putting my blogger experience to work for me. I don’t know if I have anything worth writing about that would make money, but I really just want to get back to writing again.

If you’re trying to do the same thing, you probably already know about Hulu (and Hulu+), Netflix, and then some shadier sites like TVShack or Project Free TV (not linked for their safety). That’ll get you archival episodes (ones that have already aired), and sometimes you can get them as soon as the day after they’ve aired, depending on content licensing negotiation. I’ve been watching Spartacus: Gods of the Arena on Netflix – the episodes have appeared shortly after they aired on Showtime. Even if you decide to pirate your TV shows through peer-to-peer or other techniques, you’re looking at a few hours while they edit out commercials, do any encoding that might be necessary, and then upload it to the internet.

But if you’re craving live television, you will need to find a streaming source. If you just google “live streaming television” you will find a plethora of alleged solutions offering “thousands of television channels,” but to be frank you’re likely going to find thousands of foreign channels, internet-only channels, and independent channels with content you don’t necessarily care for that much. At any rate, certainly don’t pay for such services without thoroughly trying them out first. Also beware of the high chances of getting infected with viruses and spyware.

I’ve tried a few of the free options, and one pay option that worked well for a while, but the most reliable AND free one I’ve found so far is called US TV Now. This service provides free local channels CBS, PBS, NBC, FOX, and the CW if you sign up for a free account. They even have a channel on the Roku and support streaming to Android and other mobile devices that support flash. The only catch is, you have to live outside the US to use it. It’s supposed to be directed at Americans living overseas that miss American TV. Houston, we have a solution.

For accessing this website as though we were in another country, we need to fool it by temporarily routing all of our web browsing traffic through what’s called a proxy server that is physically outside the U.S. borders. In Firefox, you can do this with a plugin called FoxyProxy – that will let you switch easily to your proxy server or back to a normal connection. In Chrome, I recommend something like Proxy Switchy. For either of these, you’ll need to get an address for a proxy server outside the U.S. to use. I can almost always find one to use temporarily here. Any non-US proxy should work for our purposes.

Supply the plugin for your browser with the address to your browser’s proxy plugin. Then go to the USTVNow website, and sign up for a free account. If you can wait for about an hour and do it again using your personal referral link and a different email address, USTNow runs specials from time to time for a free 4-hour “DVR” that lets you record shows to watch later when you “refer a friend.” At this point you can uninstall your proxy plugin, you don’t have to be on the proxy server to use the service; you only need it for the sign-up process.

Don’t Panic

Freaking out, throwing the computer out the window, or hitting or kicking your computer when it won’t turn on will mostly all make this situation worse. Take some calm, deep breaths, and understand that in this particular situation a number of things could be wrong – from the very simple to the very serious. Until you know what it is for sure, assume that your data will be OK. All is not lost, usually.

Power Issues

If no lights on the computer come on, no fans make any noises, and there is generally no sign of life from the tower part of your desktop (or if you have a laptop, it’ll be just one whole piece) – you likely have a power issue.

For Desktops, try the following:

1. Unplug the power to the computer from both the wall or surge protector and the back of the computer.
2. Without plugging it back in, press the power button on the front of the computer for about 10 seconds, then let it go.
3. Plug the power cord back into the computer and the other end back into your outlet.
4. Press the power button. If nothing happens, try plugging your computer directly into the wall instead of a surge protector.
5. If this still doesn’t help, you may – at the simplest – have a dead power supply that needs replacing by a professional if you are not comfortable working inside your computer.

For Laptops, try this method:

1. First, check the power cable and the transformer (the brick part) for power. Make sure that if it has a light on it that it is on and receiving power from your outlet.
2. Remove the power plug from the computer. Depending on the model of laptop you have, there might be a power charge meter on the battery itself or on the side of your laptop (like the Macbook and Macbook Pro newer models where the battery cannot be removed). Check the battery to see if it has a charge.
3. If your battery does not have a charge but it’s been plugged in a while, you may need to have your cord replaced or your battery serviced. At best, you have a faulty cord or battery. At worst, the connector on your computer’s system board might be broken or damaged and cannot connect to any power cord properly. If your computer is under warranty, take it in for service. If not, you may have to try replacing the cord first, then the battery to see if this resolves your issue. Usually a system board issue will be considered a “non-economical repair” for out of warranty laptops.
4. If all the above is fine and the battery has a charge, remove the battery if possible (these instructions vary for different computers, check your manual or Google if these directions do not work for you) and make sure the cord has been unplugged. Press the power button for 15 seconds, then put the battery back and plug the machine in and try to turn it on.

Memory or Video Issues

Most laptops and desktops that are able to power on but not boot will have other issues that could prevent you from seeing a normal boot up. If you are seeing nothing on the screen (or “No Video” / “No Signal”) but the computer fans make noise or the computer beeps or has lights on, then you likely do not have a power issue.

A generalized technique is to listen for beeps the system makes on start-up. Older computers usually beep once as they are loading, newer computers do not necessarily beep at all. However, three quick beeps usually means something is wrong with the memory (RAM) – do not worry yet, this should not be confused with your hard drive, where your files are actually stored. If you are comfortable, on Desktops you can open up your computer’s case and look for anywhere from one to four sticks of memory (see the picture for comparison). Ground yourself by touching metal anywhere on the computer’s case, then reach inside with your other hand and push on each stick to make sure it is firmly seated. You may also wish to try removing each one and seating them back in place. On a laptop, there’s usually an easy-access removable plastic piece on the bottom that has been labeled either with an “M” for memory or a small picture of a memory stick.

If you do not hear beeps, but your fans, lights, etc. on your computer all behave as normal – make sure your speakers are on and listen for the Windows / Mac start-up sounds. If you hear this but still have nothing on the screen – your computer has booted properly but your video has gone bad. You can usually get this serviced under warranty, or find a new one fairly cheaply. There are many types of video cards, but you can usually Google your computer model on another computer or if you don’t have access to one, write it down and take it with you to the store you’re going to try to find a new video card at.

Worst Case Scenario

The absolute worst case scenario is a bad power supply that goes bad over time instead of immediately failing, and as a result has taken out the rest of the system components. If your computer is not under warranty and your professional is working on your computer, have patience. Replacing a bad power supply may cause the system to work for a while until the other damaged components start to fail. You can’t blame your technician for this, it’s nearly an impossible situation to detect early. In any case, start backing up your files to an external hard drive or on CD or DVD, or invest in a subscription to an online back-up service like Mozy or Dropbox. If your computer is more than 3 years old, at this point you will probably also want to budget and plan on replacing your computer soon if the warranty has expired.

Just replace the artist and song name with your choice. If you want an album instead of a song, just replace the song name with the name of the album instead. Look for files with larger sizes if you want higher quality songs or albums.

No comment on the ethics behind this – you feel how you want about not paying anyone for the music you enjoy. If you feel bad about it, you can always get your music from a creative content license site like Jamendo where the music is free and you can pay the artist if you want to do so.