scott

From Unlimited to 900 Minutes a Month

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Back in August I wrote about how I was saving by using Skype instaed of my mobile phone when at home.

I also finally canceled my Broadvoice account over the summer. It wasn’t because I was unhappy with the service. I was, in fact they were always great. I would recomend them to friends looking for a VOIP phone. I just didn’t use the service that much so it wasn’t worth spending the $8 or so a month that it cost to have the cheapest plan. I also was using Skype more and Skype was cheaper and provided more options for me. It wasn’t an easy choice but eventually Skype won out and I dropped Broadvoice.

Up until August I had switched to an unlimited Mobile phone plan so I could use my Mobile as my only phone and not have to worry about number of minutes used. This was nice and easy but also about $40 more expensive per month than I was previously paying for Mobile voice service.

Now I am using Skype out for my calls when I am at home, and I am routing most of my work calls through GrandCentral so I can select what phone I want them to ring at. This has decreased my Mobile minutes used by allot. I probably could get by with only 450 minutes a month but I have yet taken the plunge and switched to that cheap of a plan. I am sticking with the 900 minutes I have had but I use less and less each month. It is weird since I have relied on my mobile as basically my only phone for years. I have been thinking about going back to the unlimited mobile service because it is just easier to deal with, but for now I am enjoying cheaper service with Skype!

South Street Seaport

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Went out tonight to the South Street Seaport for dinner with a friend. It was nice. There was a fantastic view of the bridges in the snow. Really cool. The walk to the Seaport was really cold though! It was a good end to a really fun weekend. Now I need to unwind a bit before work tomorrow. No snow photos since it was really cold and I didn’t think to break out the camera phone!

For a change of pace I will work from home tomorrow and then go into the office on Wednesday and Thursday. Well it isn’t really a change of pace, since my schedule changes week to week.

The Day Off

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I have today off for Martin Luther King day! In the past I have worked at companies that didn’t give this as a day off so I am happy to have an extra day to relax. This is especially good since next Saturday I have to be at work in New Jersey for probably 18+ hours for some disaster recovery drills. Not fun but it doesn’t happen that often so it should hopefully go ok.

I am not sure what I am going to do today. I hopefully with think of something!

Live With WordPress

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My site is now live with WordPress. They typepad version of the site still exists for now at http://powerz.typepad.com/. I am still tweaking some of the plugin’s for my WordPress install, but so far things are working ok. The hardest problem is getting my Feedburner RSS feeds to be the default feed for my blog when you click on the RSS icon.

I am still trying to find a better theme than the one I have, but for now it will do. More updates as I tweak the site.

The WordPress Plunge

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I have talked about it a ton of times over several years but I am finally taking the leap and moving my blog to WordPress. I have been very happy with Typepad over the years but the flexibility of WordPress is bringing me over. I tried to build an instance of Moveable Type to port my blog into but I had issues with it on two different hosting providers. WordPress was easy to setup, almost too easy since I started and stopped working on a site at least a half a dozen times. I finally found and configured all of the widgets I wanted that I have with Typepad. I also found decent themes that make the site look good.

As I write this my hosting provider Lunar Pages is making some minor DNS changes so I they can host the DNS for my powerz.org domain yet I can continue to host my mail elsewhere. That will enable the URL I currently point to Typepad to point to my hosting account with all my other domain names. Actually since I am writing this entry on my WordPress site, by the time you read this I will already be running on the new site.

The good news for me is if I change my mind or end up not being happy with my choice to move to WordPress, I can always move back to Typepad. I paid for the service through the beginning of November. I know bad timing on my part, but I will wait till the Fall to cancel just in case I get cold feet.

One noticeable downside of my new setup is I see a bit of sluggishness with my site loading. I am not sure if it is the server my account is on, or if it is just wordpress being slow?

Battlestar Galactica

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I just finished watching the latest episode of Battlestar Galactica. All I can say is wow, some deep stuff. I know it is a Science Fiction show but it is also probably one of the best drama’s on TV. I can’t wait to see how everything plays out before the series ends. Some stuff that happened tonight I kinda guessed at. The hinted at Ellen being a cylon since we first meet her, but all the backstory that looks like it comes with that revelation was unexpected.

I am not going to recap the show. I am just glad the wait for new episodes was worth it. Lets see how the last 9 go!

Monday Again?

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And I blink and it is Monday again. I didn't worry since I took a deep breath and the day was over, just like that. I had meetings scheduled for almost the entire day (again). Thankfully some stuff got cut short (slightly) and I was able to pass off one meeting so I didn't have to go. That gave me time to get a small portion of the work I have done today. At least the most pressing stuff was done, right?

I used my new Targus rolling laptop bag for the 2nd time today, first time to my office. I miss my nice Tumi messenger bag, but with the amount of stuff I am lugging to work now a days it has been suggested by medical pro's not to carry that much so I am trying out the wheeled option. I have mixed thoughts on it, so I am not sure if the messenger bag will collect too much dust. I will try the roller out for a few more weeks before I pass judgement.

For dinner tonight I bought some Maco Shark to grill up on the George Forman. The verdict, I will pass on it in the future. It didn't settle well in my stomach and the Swordfish I have been having has tasted allot better to me. I am going to try to steam up some king crab legs as my first attempt at steaming sometime later in the week. I am liking the sea food recently. I know crab legs are expensive but they are cheaper to make on my own than goto a restaurant!

Nothing else major happening today. I am trying to do a bit of online shopping while finishing up some stuff for work and then off to bed.

Playing With WordPress, Again

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I decided to play around with my WordPress configuration again today. I am still a customer of Typepad, but since I already have a hosted web account on Lunarpages I have had an instance of WordPress sitting around for a few months. For the longest time I have toyed with using WordPress or hosting my own Moveable Type install vs Typead. I always keep going back to Typepad because it has most of the features I want and it is just simple to use and manage. Recently I have been contenplating cutting costs and things like two hosting accounts (Typepad & Lunarpages) seems like it might be excessive. So today I decided to search through the assortment of WordPress plugin’s and see if I could get my WordPress site to look as good or better than my Typepad site. So far I think it is dam close. Is it better than my Typepad site, I don’t know. Is it good enough to save $89 a year, maybe.

I loaded up the WordPress site with the latest backup of my blog. I will continue to tweak the site and see if it is worth it to point my URL to it. The big dilemma is that all the archive links will break when moving between Typepad and WordPress. That means all the google links won’t work. For that reason I am still pondering what I want to do.

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