Drama!

Oh OD, where would we be without the drama?  So the server goes kaput or something and the database is messed up and this place is down for days.  Or up and down and up and down (such is the nature of server problems).  Cue the collective freakout on Open Diary’s Facebook page.

All I had to say about I said in a note to the DM.  To wit: It would have been nice to gotten a little more communication.  At the same time, suddenly having to rebuild a server and database and doing it in five days without loss of data is pretty awesome.  Meanwhile, others have said things that I totally agree with.  Here is Serin on what the Diary Master did right and wrong and here is Nash on, amongst other more personal musings, how a Lifetime Membership is really actually a drag on OD (and how the DM probably cares way more than you think about your data and privacy, particularly in comparison to say Facebook).

I pay for my OD+ membership, mostly for the longer notes and lack of ads.  And to provide some income to the guy who provides me a comfortable and close community in which to write.  I never got a Lifetime membership mostly because I haven’t had that much spare cash at one time, though it is a huge bargain compared to paying yearly, if you intend to stick around for a while.  And with what I pay each year to a smallish, private website with a small administrative staff (1?) I am getting basically the level of customer service I expect from that paltry sum.  All in all, I think there were overreactions all over the place around here.  I would expect nothing less though, this is Open Diary after all.

I’ll probably never move to another place, not for this kind of writing.  I have a blog and I have Facebook and Twitter and all that jazz.  But this is the place I started writing more personal stuff.  It was the first place I wrote anything publicly online.  And, regardless of how I only have entries in this diary back to 2004 (thanks hacker, you asshole) I have been here since 2001 (you can see the A in my diary code up there, which means I have been here for a looong time).  And regardless of how seldom or often I write here, this will always be my home.  So long as OD and the DM will have me and keep this place running.

I was actually looking to write an entry last weekend, though at this point I have forgotten what I had intended to write about.  Busy as usual around here, but who isn’t with two grade school kids and jobs and activities and such.  

Emma had a birthday, which makes her nine now.  That number just seems impossible.  She got a mobile phone which has made her really happy.  And making her even happier is the guinea pig she got.  He is adorable.  Here he is:

And I have recently reconnected with an old friend from high school (though he didn’t go to my high school) who was pretty much the catalyst who got me into all things synth in the 80’s.  Other than the song Cars, he basically introduced me to Gary Numan.  So we have had a lot of back and forth about music and such, which has been great fun.  Looking forward to getting together with him when we are in the States next summer and exchanging lots of music.

We’ve also had snow already, the earliest snow in 37 years here.  It’s not going to last, but the kids have had fun with it and we even went out and made a snowman the other night.  I wonder if the early snow means we will have as harsh a winter this year as last year.  I hope not.

I used to be funnier.  And my entries contained more blowjobs.  Maybe I am maturing.

I’m growing a beard.  Pictures when I actually take one of myself.

That is all.

Zaphod

Oh, a video.  In the spirit of 80’s nostalgia, possibly my very favorite Gary Numan song, one which most of you have probably never heard of.  We Are Glass.