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January Budgeting is never fun. I always seem to go a bit overboard during Christma… The Holida… a non-descript time of celebratio… December!

Now that that month is over, we realized that our budget needs a bit more trimming than our Christmas tree.

I decided the first thing to go would have to be our cable bills.

Right now we use Comcast for everything
Comcast Internet
Comcast Telephone
Comcast Digital Cable
Comcast Diaper Service

The total for the services (before tax… or as we say in Minnesota: TAX) was $99. Well, their Christmas gift to us was a $20 rate hike. The new total was $119

Now, because I subcribed to a special package, I couldn’t just throttle one of the services back. If I cut back on one, the others go up, so the service is pretty much the same.

So, we decided to do some shopping, and make some sacrifice.

First, we moved our phone back to Qwest’s $15 basic plan.

Then we cut our cable back to the basic $9 per month. No more ESPN, No more Myth Busters, No more … I guess that’s about it.

(Our girls will be without their Disney Channel programs. You can contribute to the “Give the Girls their Disney Channel Programming Fund” by clicking on the following button.

The next step was to figure out what to do with our Internet. We went with the Qwest DSL 1.5mb service with Qwest Basic ISP. It was only about $10 cheaper than cable, but I wouldn’t mind having the dedicated bandwith into my home.

All in all, the cost cutting saved us about $40 on the new Comcast charges.

In the interest of full disclosure, I do own a little Qwest stock, but only because it is so cheap.

Up until the last few days, I have had a hard time finding good use for the wireless functionality of my PDA.

In the early days of my use, I pretty much just used it to stream radio as I worked around the house, or IM while sitting on the… Well.. Just sitting…

There were a few other cool uses, such as checking TV listings and weather, but I never really found the POP3 e-mail use practical with the Lotus server we are using, and my personal e-mail would load without my anti-spam settings.

Most of my personal e-mail, goes through my GMail anyhow.

This week, however I have discovered 2 applications that have increased my wireless PDA use.

1 – Gmail Lite

Gmail Lite is a PHP client for gmail, that can be installed on any server with PHP.
https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=116304

I was able to find a number of servers out there with it installed, but I felt a bit uncomfortable passing my login information through a strangers server. (Gmail Lite does not capture login information, but I can see how it would be easy for an individual install to set it up to do so).

I did, however, set it up on my server
http://www.cyberbliss.net/gmail

Feel free to use it.

2 – PocketPutty

Pocket Putty is a handheld version of the popular PuTTy Shell program. It allows me to to a shell login of any of my Linux accounts from my PDA. With enough knowledge (which I am still working on aquiring), I can pretty much run all of my webservers from that emulation.

I have not had enough experience with PocketPutty to give a recommendation, but the prospect is rather sweet.

O will keep you posted.

Another day back in the office during that phantom week between Christmas and the New Year.

I had, and still slightly have, the best of intentions to use this week to get caught up and re-organized, but I find it easier to spend my time surfing the web and drinking coffee. I have gotten a good deal accomplished, but it is hard to focus.

I am thinking my time may be better spend burning some Paid Time Off hours that I have coming to me.

Hmmm… If I say something work related now, can I get paid for my blog time?

It is Christmas Eve and my house is full.

My girls are going out today to brave “Camp Snoopy” with their grandmother.

I will be sitting back at 2 to watch the NFL Christmas Eve game. I just hope it is a quick one. Because, no matter the score, no matter the time left, I will be turning it off at 4:30 to head off to the Christmas Eve Service.

Some of you have seen this, but I took my first crack at Flash Animation:

http://www.cyberbliss.net/animation.html

No purpose or plot, just a chance to test a few things I learned.

I just finished the easiest Christmas shopping trip of my life.

Last weekend we completed most of the shopping, so all that was left was a little bit of stocking stuffers for the pretty one.

This morning I found myself wide awake at 3:00. Not one of those “Hmm… it is early… I should go back to sleep” awakes but the “There is no way I am going to be able to fall asleep” awakes.

So I got up, showered and left the house at 3:45. The only place in the valley that has any life at 3:45 is Wal-mart.

I had the store to myself, if you don’t include the pallet movers, floor buffers and the guy in electronics who spent the entire time playing Nintendo.

After a half-hour of visiting every aisle, I checked out and got into work by 5am.

I can now stand tall and proclaim that, at 4:18 am on December 21, 2004, I FINISHED MY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!

In the beginning, there were people with no social grace

Then their were cell phones

Then the blame for social ineptitude was shifted from the people to their telephones.

“People can’t drive when talking on the phone”
“Don’t allow cell phones on airplanes… people will just talk too loud”
“Don’t answer your phone in a resturant… you will bother the dining room”
“The cell phone is a ball and chain that keeps you overly connected”

OK. Here is where I feel obliged to weigh in.

Cell phones are not the problem. Cell phone use is an avenue for symptoms of deeper issues to make themselves known.

Regarding those who talk to loud; they have no courtesy to those around them. It’s not the phone’s fault… It can transmit quiet conversation.

Regarding those who get in accidents. There are already laws about distracted/reckless driving that can be enforced. If any driver crosses the center line, it is illegal (with our without the cell phone).If it didn’t happen with a cell phone, it could happen with make-up, a dime-novel or an 89 cent chili-cheese burritto from Taco Bell!

Regarding those who may be overly connected. Again, you cannot blame the medium. It is the person who feels obliged or addicted to the communication they maintain, not the phone. Again, were it not the cell phone, they would find another to nurse that need.

Please! Don’t blame the phone. There are plenty of us who know how to pay attention when driving.

There are plenty of us who know how to behave in public.

Don’t let the socially inept fuel your disdain for cell phones, or any media.

Let their poor use of cell phones fuel your disdain for the socially inept.

Once again proof that anyone can aspire to greatness for only $8.95, this blog now has a new address.

Visit me online at
www.carlbliss.com

This is it once again!

Christmas and the New Year are here. I am planning on working all but the sanctioned holiday’s this week and next, but I am also looking forward to the family trickling in over the next few days.

We have a full house with my parents, my mother-in-law and one of my brothers all taking their rooms, but I REALLY enjoy having family around. It is funny to think of how the festivities of Christmas have changed for me over the years.

Now that I am a parent, I am more excited to watch my kids open their gifts, than I am to open mine. Additionally, I am more excited to spend Christmas Day, not playing with my gifts, but playing with my family. I love the endless supply of Cookies, Coffee and Board games that make up Christmas Day around our house.

I KNOW! That is not what Christmas is all about. I will certainly mention the purpose behind the celebration as we get closer to Christmas, but for now I am looking forward to time well spent with family

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As for work? I am enjoying a day where there are not many people on site. This week and next are expected to be pretty busy around here as people take time off and burn vacation time before the end of the year.

I love being in the office when it is empty. I am really able to catch up on some things. If I meet my goals, I will enter the new year with a completely reorganized office.

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Sports

Only one thing to say… NFL.. NFC North… NO ONE deserves to see the post season.

Merry Christmas!

I have been having a blast with a web project this past year, and it is almost ready to launch.

A few years ago, I put a rather simple site together for church, and it met their needs. Their needs, however, have grown. Additionally, the amount of time I can commit to keeping their site up to date has decreased.

This week, we launch a brand new site with a more robust navigation structure. In addition, I am running the site out of a MySql database, with a PHP written Content Management System (CMS). That will allow the church staff to keep the site up to date, and create and edit content, without having to call me and wait 3 weeks for me to get to it!

The CMS I am using is a rather well put together one available at http://scripts.dbmasters.net/

Eliminating the “flat-file” system also allows us to propogate content in multiple locations on the site, without having to rewrite it every time.

It launches October 4th, but (as a special offer for my blog visitors), you can see it early at: http://www.hopechurchoakdale.com/index.php