Level Orange

I’ve read so many “Best of 2004″ lists by now that I’m sick of ‘em. So instead of dwelling on the past, I’ve decided to work on the future. With final minutes of 2004 having passed, I’ve come up with five things I’d personally like to achieve this year. Call them resolutions, if you will, but that’s such an official sounding name. That also assumes that these are meant only for me, which they most certainly are not. If you’re having trouble in one of these areas, please consider these my personal pep talks to you. You’re welcome.

Be creative

First off, I started thinking about what I had the most trouble with in 2004. Maybe not something that I stumbled with, but something that should have just come naturally and I had to end up forcing my way through it. That one thing, more than anything else, was my creativity.

Somehow, I ended up running into more blank canvas this year than ever before. Coming up with ideas or concepts is never easy, but for some reason it just became downright difficult. Maybe I could attribute that to my attention being focused in other places, but that’s never going to go away. Family never goes away, financial responsibilities never go away, maintaining your sanity through it all never goes away.

These are the kinds of things that can eventually break most people and/or their relationships. An easy way to deal with these issues is to focus solely on them, putting only the minimal effort required to keep your work in order. I’m sure for those of you who really don’t care about what you do to make a living, that doesn’t sound all that bad. But I love doing the kind of work I do, and it worries me whenever I have an unusually hard time getting it done.

So what happens when you take yourself for granted? Maybe one day you’ll go to work and you’ll feel like you never really wanted to do this in the first place. Or maybe you’ll all of a sudden feel like you’re just not cut out for it. That, my friends, is called a rut.

How does one get out of that rut, out into open territory, even with greater pressures and responsibilities laid upon them?

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Yeah, here’s something you don’t see very often in Houston. SNOW!

Here you can see it’s coming down pretty fast, and covering the Babymobile quite nicely. Just standing out in the street and watching it was exciting.

Really, I’m not kidding, this is one for the record books. The last significant snowfall on record for this area is dated back to 1989. I remember making a snowman back then, and maybe I’ll be making one this time too. We’ll see just how much accumulates during the night.

To everyone out there, have a great holiday weekend. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, take the time and spend it with those you love and make the most of it. And of course, be safe.

In my recent search for a new hosting service, I also made another big decision that’ll bring about more changes. I decided that it was time to go by another name. Another domain name, that is.

The original thought behind attack22.com was to commemorate my life-changing “heart attack” episode that occurred when I was at the tender age of 22. I was a closed-mouthed guy who didn’t say much or have much to say, and this was my way of facing it head-on and getting myself to open up about it. It was traumatic, overwhelming and revealing all at once…and I made my way through it all.

Something that I didn’t anticipate at the time is where I would end up years later. Never did I imagine just how much things would change. I’m completely flipped upside down nowadays, but in a good, no GREAT, way. I never thought life could be this good to me, giving and showing me things that I never thought I’d get to see or experience.

Of course, it’s not all gravy every second of the day. It never will be. There are still the everyday stresses of life, work and family, but overall, I’m at such a better place and in such better company. I’m truly content.

So where am I going with this, you ask?

I’ve become increasingly uncomfortable with this domain name and what it represents. I’ve played the cards life has dealt me, but now I’ve got a new hand. No time to dwell on bad fortune, but rise to hopes of good fortune. I’m never going to forget my past (and don’t want to), but my past doesn’t define me anymore. I’ve got to live as I am now, not as I was. It’s a simple case of “that was then, this is now.”

No matter gay or grim;
it’s those tiny little sparks
daily life that makes me
forget my wounded heart.

From the lyrics of one of my favorite songs ever, Royksopp’s “Sparks”, I think this sums up most accurately what I want to express and share with the world, and how that in turn reflects back onto me and my life.

Soon, you’ll be able to find me at tinylittlesparks.com

For the first time in over five years, I’m seriously considering finding a new hosting service. I finally realized that the measly storage offering from my current provider just doesn’t compare to some of the other deals out there. Back in 1999, cost was a major factor, as were features and control, but in the time since then, all of those elements have become sorely outdated.

If you have a site, and are happy with your hosting service, I’d like to hear about it.
The “helper page” also known as “the poor man’s control panel but without the control part” is soo poorly designed and implemented that I don’t know where to begin. Isn’t it possible for me to update my credit card info instantly? Can’t I order any upgrades or add-ons and just have them billed on my next billing cycle? Why would it take 24 hours for some of these things to get done? I have a feeling that it’s all a series of forms that I fill out, an e-mail gets sent to someone, wait…then they have to contact me, wait… then I have to respond, wait…then they have to fulfill the request. It seems to me that someone hasn’t been keeping up with the times. If Network Solutions (who I used to absolutely DREAD approaching with changes to my account) can get it in gear with their new account manager, why can’t everyone else?

But that’s not all…

Consider a site that’s been ongoing for five years. You’d think there’d be tons of pages and associated media to store and maintain, right? Well, not this one. In the past, there’ve been all sorts of files hosted and mirrored here, but not lately. I’ve been battling the storage limit for a few years now, taking down whole sections of the site to keep from running over.

You’ll notice that this site has become nothing more than a weblog now, with only a few spots of unrelated content. Forget any video or audio files. Forget any photo galleries. Forget any space for my own offsite storage needs.

Add to that the fact that I’ve got artwork, photos and home videos that I’d like to share with family and friends, but just don’t have space to host it. So I’ve been holding back. And I just went out and picked up a giant hard drive so that I could create more.

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