Again from the Ashes…
Let me start off by apologizing for the outright disregard to produce any content at all on this site in the past months! I follow hat up by saying….There’s a great reason why! Once again the Phenix will be rising from the ashes and spreading it’s new wings, this time in the form of a relocation and a change in occupation. Yes….you heard me correct, I am moving this weekend to the wonderful city of Dunwoody, GA to begin a new career as a Unix SME (Subject Matter Expert) with Global Payments, Inc. I won’t bore all of you with the details of why this move came about, but rest assured it something that myself and my career desperately needed. This move also means that sometime in the near future I will need to migrate “The WebRoot” (the server which hosts all of my wonderful sites). It will more than likely be a weekend between now and April 18th and hopefully will only be down for 48 hours max. As I do not yet have Internet Service at my new place, I will not be quite as “connected” as I have been in the past several years. I will be reachable via my cell, GV, and e-mail. I will probably be searching for a Starbucks or McDonalds with free WiFi to satiate my need for the internetz in the meantime, but access will be limited. For any of you in the Atlanta area, please give me a call and hang out, as I am sure I will be extremely lonely! That’s it for now, I’ll try to post an update once I am settled in Dunwoody!
Theatrical Limitations
Over the years I’ve seen too many movies for my own good. I started movie going at the ripe age of 3 or 4. My Mothers first job after my prents divorce was at the local theater in Moultrie. She was blessed with the ability to take me to work with her, place me in a seat in the back of the theater, and leave me be (coming in often to check on me of course!). Over the years, the “Moultrie Twin,” as it was called, became a second home to me. I watched virtually every movie that came through there (many multiple times) until I went off to college. Even now, I enjoy spending a lazy day doing nothing but watching movies. Netflix has been the bane of my productivity!
Anyways, the point of this is……I’ve seen a lot of movies! Through watching so many movies, I’ve become quite desensitized to violence, vulgarity, and outright debauchery. From rude and lude comedies, gory and gruesome horror flicks, and over the top violent action films, I’ve seen it all. I found myself in the last 4-5 years honing in on a specific niche of films that would make most folks vomit! I used the general terminology, “Fucked Up!” to describe such films. Most fall into the genre of Psychological Thrillers, but many also wiggle themselves into movies that cover other genres, sometimes feigning the appearance of a “NORMAL” movie! I’m not some ethically vacant, demoralized, sadistic, psychotic, heathen (I know that’s what you were thinking!), I enjoy these movies for one main reason. I believe the cinema of today has sold out.
Too many studios, directors, producers, etc. are trying to make movies that reach every audience form the cradle to the grave. The wider the audience, the more money can be made! Like most forms of art, when the all mighty dollar takes over, the true creativity ceases to exist. I tend to really appreciate the filmmakers that don’t care if anyone watches their movie, let alone actually enjoys it, but rather makes the movie because they want to. The people who don’t chisel away and rewrite to please “The Man” and his “little dog fluffy”! Very few of these people exist, and even fewer in America. These movies tend to affect the viewer more than a mainstream film, some even beyond the normal emotions of happiness or tears. Many of the movies I watch propose outlandish situations and inspire a realm of thought that most mortals will hopefully never have to experience. These movies penetrate one’s emotional core, their sense of being, and provoke the viewer to become completely enthralled within the surreal. Those movies that keep you up at night and inspire thoughts of the “Boogie Man!”
One filmmaker whom I’ve come to appreciate is Rob Zombie. He really pushes the limits on humanity. I really enjoy “The Devil’s Rejects.” Here’s a brief list of movies that I think fit into this category (off the top of my head, not meant to be my favorites, or anything like that):
That’s a few to start your voyage into the truly “Fucked Up” cinema. Now, just when I thought there wasn’t a movie that could really get under my skin, I took the liberty of proving myself wrong today. I decided to come home from work and watch a movie I had recently added to my Netflix Instant Watch Queue. The name of said movie: The Girl Next Door. When I came across this film, I had the idea of a twisted Cinderella tale. Then I saw it was set in the 1950’s. This movie is far from “Leave it to Beaver!” I can honestly say, that for some reason, it was extremely hard for me to make it through this movie. Many of my friends have said the same about films they’ve sat in with me on, but they never fazed me one bit. I’m not sure exactly what it was that made me cringe. Maybe it was the fact that it’s based on true events, or the fact that it was children, or maybe even just the fact that people stood by and watched it as if it were a game. Anyway, I will watch this movie one more time, only with a few others (I’d love to see how you may react!). If you’ve seen this movie already, I welcome your thoughts and comments, as well as any you may have for any other movies you would add to the “Fucked Up” list.
-Phenix
ZebluePrime Gets New Digs!!!
So ZebluePrime got new digs last night…….errr maybe he just washed them really! I helped him setup his own domain (zeblueprime.com) to get him off of a sub-domain i let him borrow (previously evan.phenixblue.com). Along with the domain setup there were a few changes to make within his wordpress install to make everything go smooth.
I try to keep a directory structure similar to this within my webroot:
WEBROOT/
/domain1.com
/domain2.com
/domain2.com/sub1.domain.com
/domain2.com/sub2.domain.com
/*********************DISCLAIMER***********************************/
PLEASE BACKUP YOUR DATABASE AND FILES BEFORE PERFORMING ANY OF THE FOLLOWING!!!
Step 1: Migrate files from old sub-domain to new domain directory
- Create new directory
#sudo mkdir /WEBROOT/zeblueprime.com- Change to old directory
#cd /WEBROOT/phenixblue.com/evan.phenixblue.com/- Copy files from old dir to new dir
#sudo cp -R * ../../zeblueprime.com/- Change to new directory, verify your files (including .htaccess) exist, and have proper permissions and ownership
#cd ../../zeblueprime.com/
#ls -laNOTE: I also moved Zeblue to a new MySQL DB to keep up with the naming conventions I use for DB’s (Migrating to a new DB is outside of the scope of this post)
Step 2: Update url information within the Database (all DB edits performed via phpMyAdmin)
- Update Site and Blog URL
Within the “wp_options” table, change the “option_values” for the following “option_name” rows
“siteurl” - change to: http://zeblueprime.com/
“home” – change to: http://zeblueprime.com/
- Update file upload url
Within the “wp_options” table, change the following “option_value” where “option_name” is “upload_path” to
/WEBROOT/zeblue.com/wp/wp-content/uploads
- Update Post URL’s
Run the following SQL
UPDATE wp_posts SET guid = REPLACE ( guid, 'http://evan.phenixblue.com', 'http://zeblueprime.com');
- Update URL’s within your Post’s content
Run the following SQL
UPDATE wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE ( post_content, 'http://evan.phenixblue.com', 'http://zeblueprime.com');
Step 3: Verify your site works
Navigate to your site in a web browser and verify your page. post, tag, category, etc. links work (I normally test a few, and then assume they all work!). Also log into the admin interface and navigate through a few menus.
This should conclude all of the required modifications to change the domain of your WP install. This is by no means the only way to do it, just the way I chose to. You can also check out the Wordpress Codex for other options.
P.S. I typed up all of this after the fact, so some of the commands may not be perfect, and there’s the slight chance I may have skipped a step, but most will be able read between the lines!
-Phenix
Server Migration
This Friday, July 24 2009, at approximately 5:00pm will take the server that hosts this site, and all other sites (*.thephenixblue.com, *.phenixblue.com, *.jmsearcy.com, *.vsumug.com, *.vsumug.org, *.vsusinfonia.org, *.firehouseink.com, *.ceramicsdiva.com, *.thewebroot.com) will go offline. During the offline period all sites will be migrated to new server hardware, as well as additional upgrades to Apache, PHP, and MySQL. The current server is identical in hardware, but resides on Mac OS X 10.5 client alongside other applications and services. The new server uses Mac OS X 10.5 Server, and is a dedicated box that will have no console interaction other than System Administration. During the migration I will also be pruning some older directories no longer used and striving for a cleaner and leaner setup! The entire migration will hopefully only take a few hours (transfer WWWROOT & MySQL DB’s, reassign permissions, account creation, create Virtual Hosts & Directories, and update DNS). The DNS changes may take up to 24 hours to propegate (normally only 1-4 hours). That’s the ideal work flow……pending any unforseen doom! I will keep everyone up to date via twitter (@jmsearcy). Thanks in advance for your patients patience!
New Server Specs:
- 20″ Aluminum iMac
- 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
- 4GB DDR2 (667Mhz) RAM
- 250GB SATA HD
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 128 Mb ATI Radeon 2400HD Graphics
- 8Mb/s High Speed Cable Internet
- Sitting on a desk next to the kitchen!
If you don’t like the fact that I use an iMac for a web server send me money for an xserve!
If you don’t like the fact that that I hosts sites off of an 8Mb/s connection, send monet for OC3!
If you don’t like the fact that my server is on a desk next to my kitchen, send money for a Data Center!
-Phenix
New Apartment
So…..Friday was the big move-in day! Thanks to Craig’s trailer the overall process wasn’t bad at all. It really only took two trips from Linds’ Apt. We did pick up most of my computer stuff from my apt. and move that as well. I have until the end of July to finish moving the rest of myt stuff, so no rush there! I’ll admit I was originally discouraged with only a 1 bed 1 bath apt., but it’s turned out to be really cozy. Lindsay sacrificed having a dining room table so I would have a place to setup my digital workspace (currently consisteng of two 20″ Aluminum iMacs, an eMac, a custom Ubuntu Box, a custom SLES box, and 2 SunRay 270 DTU’s, gigabit wired, and 802.11 N wiFi, plus a myriad of other peripherals and what not). As tacky as that sounds, it looks alright (partially to the fact of myself and friends that are anal retentive about cable managment). We still have a couple furniture items to move from my apt. (gun case and dresser), but it looks like everything will fit quite comfortably. I’ll post some pics later,
P.S. A special thanks to all of those that helped, especially Andy, Jarrett, Steven, and Craig.
