Building Moxie’s Christmas Vacation (the Magic Quotes Edition)
Discipline:
- training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline.
- activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training.
- punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.
- the rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, etc.
- behavior in accord with rules of conduct; behavior and order maintained by training and control.
- a set or system of rules and regulations.
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So . . . Sunday night and preparing for this week, I was dotting the t’s and crossing the i’s on Allison’s fantastic post – Troy Polamalu had just sacked Joe Flacco and then . . . , I realized, the settings on our site were whack. It was 12:15am.
This came after a long weekend of “humping”. . . as I sometimes call it. Sunday equaled decorating the Christmas tree; Christmas card pic – check. Later in the day, I readied the kitchen walls for the tile guy visiting us, well . . . today. Sunday had been a good day, until . . .
The cavalcade of bathroom vanities started, online and 500 or more, around 8PM — the wife on a mission. One after the other, Signature Hardware, Bathroom Vanities dot com, Vanities and Only Vanities dot com, etc. and you get the point. And . . . I had tried to pad myself against it, in advance – my wife making the call to pile the start of our master bath project onto this holiday season. (You can find my thoughts on “piling on” >> here.) Mind you — our kitchen project (and some exterior work) was already underway and, well . . . underdone.
. . . But that really isn’t the point of this post.
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And it has happened twice (OK, maybe thrice) now . . . since our release (in this format) in March. And I have always blamed these issues on Internet Explorer (paired with a slow internet connection sometimes from home). I mean — I know by now that I should NEVER, EVER make even the smallest tweak to the settings of our site while I am working in IE. But I forgot . . . this time, at 12:14 am, this past Sunday.
Now . . . I think I should mention, I’m a pretty fiery guy. Always have been. And that perhaps is both my biggest asset and my biggest deficiency. It’s true, and it feels sometimes that I am only now (at 40) learning how to properly use this power . . . harnessing it — correctly directing it at the things I need to . . . and when. And yes, I am still studying.
When this crash happened, Sunday, I’ll admit – I wasn’t ready for it, and I went with it. All the good work I had put in to this point (it felt) flew right out the window. A sense of total despair set in; me equaled nothing more than simply exhausted. Stretching myself thin at home, at work … not really doing the things I need to do for this site (like making timely manual back ups of it) . . .
. . . I made an ill-tempered and ill-fated call to our host. I am not really sure what time it was at that point. I approved a full system restore (sight unseen). And like that — the Magic Quotes (and maybe you€™ve seen them) were unleashed upon us. I have yet taken the time to figure out fully what they (the Magic Quotes) are. But I do know they were introduced by one. single. bad comment that happened to pass our usually trustworthy Spam plugin . . . .
. . . And like that, I knew . . . “Let’s Dance!” No, simply time for Christmas Vacation!
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Some Parting Words:
One style says: Etiquette, Modesty, Perseverance, Self-control, and Indomitable Spirit.
Another says: Maximum Efficiency and Good Effect.
. . .
While I guess I am a student of the second, I think I would prefer more a blending of the two.
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Happy Holidays from Barry and myself. Thank you all for reading us this year, and remember >> BMoxie BMore! jb (and b) out for a bit!
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#3 written by Amy Good 1 year ago
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footnotes:
troy polamalu sacks joe flacco: (hey Baltimore boy):
Let’s Dance (courtesy of Kevin Bacon): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUsNpfXwEy0
Etiquette, Modesty, Perseverance, Self-control, and Indomitable Spirit. = tae kwon do
Maximum Efficiency and Good Effect. = judo
oh yeah and Randy Quaid borrowed from somewhere.
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I heard a guy got so upset when Bristol Palin kept winning at DWTS that he shot his TV. Maybe you should throw a bathroom fixture at your computer. Although…that might not solve your problem long term. But you would sure feel better, if only for a fleeting moment of pure ecstasy and revenge!
I read every day so shall miss you. Maybe I’ll spend the holiday season stalking Jim Jarmusch & Tom Waits.-
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But he’s just made of air and words, so I don’t think you could crush him. He’d just get squished out through the gaps and then reconstitute himself on the other side, probably in a different form, but he’d keep talking and floating the whole time.
Oh, that was you! I saw it on the edge of the camera and then heard the scuffle while he was talking. I’ve been wondering about that for 11 years!
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it’s true I felt like breaking something. but the truth is, after I thought about it for a day, I just need to be more disciplined with things — have a clearer division between all of what I am juggling. and establish some best practices. in other words, heading into the lab hopefully to come back out with superpowers. happy holidays my friend. thank you for reading “every day.”
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Allison – truth that’s what I was changing, but of course in no way your fault. three things 1. i can’t use ie to change my settings (that may be limited to my theme) 2. there was some confusion between my host and I on how they were making backups 3.as I said, be aware there is stuff/spammers out there that can corrupt your stuff.
And I need to be better with my webmastering or I simply can not continue in this format — ie daily. gonna be doing work thru the holidays (and probably beyond) to this end.
Thanks for the great post this week Allison and have fantastic holiday.
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Hi jb and b:
Hope you guys are enjoying your respite. You know, in the old days, folks would take the entire time from Christmas Eve until the Epiphany off. No one would work. And, in fact, it all goes back to the pagan Celts, who felt the 12 days following the solstice were meant for resting and recharging.
I am of similar sentiment as the Celts. I often find myself (whether consciously or unconsciously) coasting through this time of the season. I feel that people, in fact, ought to do it. It’s only the last day or two that my writing/publishing side is beginning to get a little restless again.
So here’s to a great 2011, and looking forward to even more great Building Moxie this year! Let me know when your schedule starts getting formed a bit — I have a number of thoughts regarding upcoming contributions, etc.
Have a good one!
~John
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that is interesting John and thank you of course for sharing that tidbit and other well wishes.
On the phone with b just this morning… and think you can tell from my attitude, we are in no rush necessarily to get back.
b is happy to be focusing on operational initiatives and seems to have work lined up through the end of March. Myself – playing happy hubby and doing all I can to help a myriad of projects run smoothly.
I believe we sit down in the coming weeks and finally come up with the road map for where we’d like this thing to go. I’d be happy to have you on those conversations.
and the hope is to come back out of the gate stronger than ever.
Thanks again for the comment John. ~ jb
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And couple of searching sessions on why the strange encoding appeared on our website yields this — http://www.orthogonalthought.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/mysql-database-migration-and-special-characters/
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jb & b,
In my Mom’s words “Happy Christmas” (she’s from the other side of the pond)…I’ve thoroughly enjoyed BMoxie these past twelve months and look forward to more in 2011.
Enjoy the holidays!
mjh-out!