JR Updates. Finally Success.

The last week or so has been full of fun and new things. I can\’t explain why it feels like so much has gotten done in the last week compared to the other weeks this summer, it just feels like perhaps this has been some of the most filling time I\’ve had. I\’ll perhaps get to reasons why… For now, let\’s go topic based.

Math and Science Academy Update

We are at about 80% ready to launch next week for a new school year. We had a small problem with the image for Thielman\’s lab that will require a little work, and we have quite a few computers that need to see Dell, but I\’m not worried. We will be ready for day 1. Printers also need to be installed, but that\’s also not a huge deal.

Overall, my biggest concern is what to do with the 60 17\" monitors I have sitting in the great hall, not to mention the 15 Nobilis machines. I can use the Nob\’s pretty easily or sell them pretty quick, but 17\" CRT\’s just dont sell like they used to, and everyone seems to have plenty of monitors lying around. Perhaps I should ebay them. Perhaps I should dump them.

JR Computer Associates Update

Things seem to be flying here as well. Blarney\’s is more or less done pending training the the OK from the boss. You can check it out at oxwaf.blarneypubandgrill.com if you want a preview. There are some content issues, but they will be resolved quickly when we train the owner.

WLC\’s registration system for the first time seems to be working really well. I don\’t know if it\’s because I have new motivation or if because we made it so simple this time that it would be hard to do wrong. It includes student accounts as well as the ability to pay with a credit card. I\’m sure we\’ll have some issues with forms, but I hope to take care of that soon as well. We\’ve also added a style switcher to WLC that allows you to change from the black design to some other design that has been added to the system, currently that means a half working orange design, but still, it leaves room for lots of design freedom. If you want to submit a design, let me know and I can help get you started. Also, I hope to bring that style switcher here in the future. That way I can be like Shattered Cube and allow users to pick their own designs.

Touch of Countree has been locked in more or less. We have got their domain and will hopefully begin design in the next week.

Our vows is moving slowly, I\’m waiting on a design from Jon.

We\’ve picked up a few new bloggers that we are hosting. These include Kyle (TuneMelodic), Jonatan (we\’ve always hosted him, but now he has a site), and Brandon who at the time of writing this wasn\’t quite live. As soon as he is, I will be sure to move him into the hosted section of the links to the right.

Also in regard to this site: I\’ve taken rinsemarks out of beta because no one has told me it doesn\’t work. Go figure.

For what it\’s worth, I would again like to thank the bloggers who have paid the monthly bill, it really does help alot towards growing the services we can provide as well as keep us running. Now if only we can get to the point where it puts food on the table more than once a month ;-).

Richards also got us a client on dock, so we\’ll see what comes of that in the near future.

As for services, I installed Gollem into Horde yesterday. This means that if you have a JR email account and a JR ftp account, you should be able to gain access to your file system from the same tool that allows you to check your email. Just look into the filemanger section in the webmail and use your ftp username and password to log into it. It\’s pretty nifty, although because it\’s buried in the webmail system, I\’m not sure how often it will get used.

In other news, I\’ve been doing a lot of home repair work as well for people. A couple hundred in the last week, as if some big before school bang has hit. I think I will try to keep track of when people call me about computer problems, because it does seem to be somewhat seasonal (end of summer, winter break, etc).

Friends and Family News

Amber was sick a few days this week. She\’s all better now, but it\’s good to record that she was. This lead to her having time to read Harry Potter, and like me, she has become addicted to it. I finished the 6th book sometime in the last 2 weeks, also another big accomplishment for me. I don\’t really make time to read normally, and suddenly, I found myself reading more than I should. Hats off to J.K. for making it something that I litterally could not put down.

The other thing I\’ve picked up in the last week or so is Video Games. I don\’t normally find time to play them. In fact, the most I would ever find is the chance to pop into Ultima Online for 5 minutes and then decide I would be better playing poker or coding something. Instead, I\’ve been playing hours with Richard, Amber, John, Ashley, Sam, and anyone else who would want to of an older game called Gauntlets: Dark Legacy. It\’s a pretty simple game, as challenging as you make it, but all in all… fun. Richard and I have played enough in the last week that we have characters that are getting to the point where they are probably a couple more hours away from beating the game.

It\’s very cool to have people coming over to my house to play video games… That used to be something that happened at least once a week (of course at the time I was like 8).

Perhaps this refreshment is what is keeping me strangely motivated to do things. Perhaps I need to play more. Perhaps it has more to do with I\’ve been waking up earlier on account that I haven\’t been sleeping as well (or perhaps, I\’m sleeping better because I\’ve been getting to bed earlier.) That\’s not so true tonight, but oh well.

My first video team meeting is tomorrow afternoon. I think I might have something going on tomorrow morning, but I think it got moved, so now I\’m second guessing myself. Dumb PDA not always being in my pocket.

OK, we\’ll I think that sums up my life in an update. I sometimes wonder if I shouldn\’t try to be more topic based. Maybe I should talk about things other than myself. Maybe I should blog about computers or blog about nintendo, but then this wouldn\’t be Rinsefirst would it… It would be the SMRC or JR (well, maybe not JR). In either case, pleasure talking to you today world. Fair Winds.