Not posted for over a week so I reckon I should do a bit of catch-up.
Distro Stuff
I’d installed CrunchBang Linux on the aging Laptop and I was really getting to like it. The only problem that I encountered was wireless networking. For some reason I simply could not get WPA2 Personal encryption working between the Laptop and my AP. Unencrypted, no problem, but any hint of security and it didn’t want to play ball. I Googled and asked on forums but nothing. Damn!
Wireless salvation came in the form of Arch Linux. I’ve run Arch briefly before on a spare desktop but I ended up turning that machine into a headless server so I re-installed something else. However, this latest Arch installation on the Laptop went really well and I now have a lovely XFCE4 Desktop with a fully working oh-my-god-it-was-so-easy wireless connection. I like Arch so much I’m considering using it on my main desktop machine. Next install round maybe.
Oh yeah and just for shits and giggles I installed Puppy Linux on a really old machine with a mere 64mb RAM. It’s amazing but I can run SeaMonkey and a load of other stuff on a not bad looking Desktop. In 64mb RAM. Sheeeesh!
PayPal
One of my daily roles is to administrate a subscription based website and for my sins I act as the banker. The payments are made via PayPal and over the past weekend Paypal and I fell out. I had to bite my tongue a lot because they were holding onto a not insignificant amount of money and I didn’t want to see that go west. The problem was a sudden surge of payments resulted in my account being locked down because of anti-money laundering policies. I have had to jump through numerous hoops, upload quite a few scanned documents and even my Mum had to nip into town to fax something for me!
The good news is that things are back on stream. Wow was I stressed about it on Friday.
Becca’s Holiday
My daughter Rebecca is due to go on holiday at the end of May and she’s really looking forward to it. She’s off with her mate Alyssa to Ibiza together with Alyssa’s parents. Anyway, we discovered that the holiday clashes with Rebecca’s History AS Level Exam. Not good.
Rebecca and I have had a week where she was undecided whether to do the exam or not and have to resit the thing in January. I’ve been beating the drum that that’s the last thing she should do since she’s been recognised as having definite academic potential. Eventually we’ve come to a compromise where she’s getting a flight home alone a day early and will therefore be able to sit the exam.
I’m having to cop for paying for the flight but it’s worth it. I half imagined Rebecca’s Mum would find some of the money but I’m just being silly to myself. She contributes fuck all towards Rebecca anyway so I’m not going to waste my time asking her.
Designers Block
I’ve been trying my best to set some time aside to develop my own WordPress Theme either more or less from scratch or by using one of the frameworks such as Thematic. Much staring at the screen and hmmming and I’ve got nowhere. I keep swinging one way and then the other and wasting a lot of time due to indecision. Once I get rolling I’ll be OK but it’s just making myself pull my finger out and do it that’s the problem.
I will make a start this week. Honest.
Leeds Country Way
Lastly, I’ve been planning to walk the Leeds Country Way and now that Summer is almost here we decided to walk the first section yesterday, Sunday May 3rd. Very enjoyable it was too so I’ll dedicate an entire blog post to it later. Actually I’ll make a dedicated category for it too.
And that’s that…
