Ebay: Unprecedented levels of Uselessness

Back in the day, eBay was awesome. Remember when you got super-good deals, from average Joes selling stuff out of their home? I do...I bought an awful lot of electronics off of eBay, and sold quite a bit too. Even back in 2003, though, I saw troubling signs, signaling the direction eBay was going.
I was selling an old laptop, with the intention of purchasing a new one. Some guy offers me an extra $200 over my reserve if I end the bidding early. Being quite naive about online scams, at the time, I said, "Sure!" and did just that. I exchange the emails at work, and his final email instructs me, quite urgently, to ship it that very day. I saw the money in Paypal, so I was planning on doing just that. Thankfully, I had to stay at work a bit late that day, and didn't get to the post office in time. When I got home, I saw an email from Paypal, stating that the funds were fraudulent, and to not send the item.
I never heard from the guy again, obviously, but that was only the beginning of my troubles. A near scam later on a purchase (took 2 weeks for the person to send it), and many many buyers who didn't read the full listing concerning condition of a used item, and I was quite frustrated.
It's been well over a year since I've used ebay, but when we found ourselves with a good deal of new-looking clothes that our daughter had outgrown, we decided to list them, and see what we could get.
Nothing.
We used to make this a regular habit, with most things selling, just a couple of years ago . . . but when I looked at the listings in the little girls categories, it's mostly junk, mostly with no bids, and mostly sold by junkshop businesses with tons of other junk auction listings.
With eBay's recent changes, (including allowing major businesses to list with no fee) it really isn't the big neighborhood market it once was, and is either too pricey, or too scarey to deal with in any meaningful way. We sold the books and DVD's on Amazon.com, and are giving away the clothes. Why pay fees when there's little chance that anyone is even looking anymore? (Especially when other people don't pay those fees to begin with.)
I declare eBay a has-been website...you heard it here first. It's already turned into that old shopping mall in town...the one with dollar stores, and cheap knockoffs, that's really gone downhill since the newer and larger mall opened. . . Only in this case, the newer mall is the increasingly competitive online retail market, which is more attractive now, than ever, considering eBay's higher prices and fees.

New Headline for The Limitless

In the process of creating the new look for thelimitless.com, I've made a new header. Check it out and tell me what you think.
All things are going smoothly on the server...Ubuntu has some features that makes it truly a breeze to work through some problems. I need to install Bind9, and then I'll be moving over. All my old posts and comments ported over quite easily, so it should look simply like a site update...but it's really a whole new system!

"IT'S ALLIIIIIIIVVVEEE!!!!"

And after 8 months of working on it (I'm slow...don't judge me), my server has finally lurched to life, and is accessible from the internets.  I still have some work to do on getting the website ready for the public, and of course, I want to make sure all the security holes are patched, but it's mostly there.
Coincidentally, all the trouble I was having with getting it up and running was due to a pooched installation of WordPress.  It seems that the last 8 hours of work, over 5 days, has been mostly for nothing. 
Things are trucking along, and I even got all my old bloggers posts imported today.  It was simpler than I thought it would be, but my labels imported to categories, instead of tags...so I have a bit of a mess to clean up.  But I haven't lost anything, at least.
I wonder if my old Live Spaces blog can import easily?  That would be great.  It's a shame that all those old gems from 2004-2005 are lost forever, though.  Eh well...the better ones have ended up rewritten in the older posts here anyway.
By the way...working on a top secret Web 2.0 project for the Christian bloggin community.  I'll let you know more when there's more to know.

The Danger of Hip Seeker-Sensitive Churches

I'm not talking only about the danger of false doctrines, and getting a cake-and-ice-cream view of holiness, and living for God . . . oh no. I'm talking about actual physical and bodily danger. Apparently pastors, seeking to be young and hip, will go to ridiculous extremes to make their churches "cool." And this can make for some dangerous (and hilarious) situations.
Link.

Server Headaches

Over the last... oh... 8 months or so, I've been casually putting together a LAMP server to host my blog and personal website on, and give myself access to files from work, etc.  Last week, I believed I had it reasonably prepared for entrance into the World Wide Web.  My CPU then jumped up, slapped me in the face, called me a B!%^#, and attempted to destroy my server.
I forwarded my ports, and nothing worked.  So I decided to go editing config files for Apache.  That was all well and good, until I really screwed something up . . . not sure what.  This led me to uninstall my server programs: Apache, MySQL, PHP, and supporting modules.  I attempted to reinstall, but the computer flipped out everytime.
Several reboots, and some manual file cleaning later, I just wiped the hard drive and resinstalled Ubuntu.  Their sudo tasksel command, which I learned during this process, made the reinstallation of the LAMP server super easy and quick.  I had a little trouble using phpMyAdmin, until I linked it to my /var/www folder, reinstalled WordPress, et voila!  Back where I started.  With ports forwarded, I was still unable to access the server from the web.  I noticed later that I was connected to the IP for my modem, not the USABLE IP assigned to me by my ISP.  I must be honest:  I have no idea what that means.  Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to call tech support and have them walk me through what to do with those IP addresses. 
Anyone know if Apache should be configured past its initial installtion?  Is the server ready to go as soon as the IP address route properly, or do I need to configure apache for my domain?
All of this has led me down a very interesting chain of ideas.  In the coming months, I have a new website that should be launching, and I'm pretty excited about the idea.  It will hopefully be different from other things you've been seeing.

All Grown Up: Installing Wordpress

Back in years gone by, when I had a respectable amount of traffic, and instigated more than a few squabbles in the blogosphere, (Before InTheAgora ruined 3 separately good blogs), I had a big-boy web server, with for-reals blogging software installed.  A marriage, 2 children, and a lapsed contract later . . . I moved to blogger to get started blogging again.  It was easy, and free . . . and ugly.  But I've never been a huge fan.

As a do-it-yourselfer, I like to try new things just for the experience, so several months ago, I undertook the laborious task of setting up my own LAMP server, using Ubuntu.  For the tales of this undertaking, my old temporary blog (pre-blogger, post webhost...confusing I know) tells more about that.  It was easier than I expected, but I really enjoyed learning about the setup and configuration of servers.

With that setup, I've never taken the next leap to actually getting a blog setup.  So, last night, I finally bit the bullet, revived my home-grown server, and installed WordPress.  This, unlike the original setup of the server, was actually a bit more difficult than I expected.  Nevertheless, it went quickly.

First of all, WordPress has great documentation.  This helped tremendously, as the instructions for setting up your databases and DB users was outlined in detail for whatever tool you used (phpmyadmin, cpanel, terminal, etc).  It was geared toward people paying for hosting, obviously, as only masochistic crack-tards like me actually attempt to setup their own server.  Right off the bat, I ran into a few problems.

First, by default, Ubuntu has root disabled.  While in the process of trying to find a quick and easy way to move my wordpress files into my web folder, I discovered a new command: gksudo.  During my test of the server, and playing with some php editing, I would create my page in bluefish, then open the terminal, and sudo mv the file to /var/www.  That was fine for single files, but moving every file in wordpress was not something I wanted to do.  Enter gksudo:  Simply hit Alt-F2, type "gksudo nautilus" (in the standard gnome installation, you KDE people would probably use gksudo konqueror), and hit enter.  Up pops the nautilus file explorer, but with root privileges!  Next step...copy and paste, just like any other folder.

After copying the contents of Wordpress (I don't want my blog in a subfolder) to the /var/www directory, it was time to initiate the installation...BUT WAIT!  We have to setup a database for Wordpress, and a user!

I had long ago forgotten how to access MySQL via the terminal.  This was something I did just to learn about the commands, which come in handy when coding php to access your database, but I couldn't even remember how to get into MySQL, and couldn't seem to make it work (mysql -u root -p ***** gave me a database not found error).  Luckily, I installed phpmyadmin.  This made it relatively simple, however I apparently have an older version installed, so the process was slightly different from the instructions.  It was straightforward enough: create database named "blog."  Create user named "wordpress" then give wordpress all permissions on "blog."

Time to install...right?  That's what I thought...I pointed my browser to http://localhost/wp-admin/install.php and ... aaaaaannnddd ... error.  Wonderful.  In WordPress's instructions, they direct you further down the page to find specific instructions for your database tool, but fail to instruct you to go back up the page to find the next step.  It was a frustrating few minutes as I read "Troubleshooting" until it said, "If none of these solutions work, go back up to step 2 and 3 and repeat them."  WHAT?!  There's a step 3?!

Dangit.

Back to Step 3:  Change the wp-config-sample file to wp-config.  Then edit it with your database name, username, and password.  There are some other fancy options you can configure, but I left those alone, and it seemd to go fine.

Now...back to install.  It works this time, and I name my blog (The Limitless...I need a new name...but then I'd have to get a new domain...and that's just too much to think about), it gives me the admin password, which is a confusing string of random characters which I promptly change to something more memorable.  I create a new account for me, and then call myself done!

Over the weekend, I hope to forward my ip to that computer (a task that I've been quite confused about) and see if I can access my site over the interwebs!

 . . . I am such a geek.

Which comes first . . . time with family, or time with God?

Back in my single days, I typically had all the time in the world to pray, and study the bible.  I participated in churchy things a few nights a week, and was generally an "involved" person, when it came to ministry and service.  Marriage and children changes a lot of things though, not the least of which is the amount of "free time" you have.
I'm not suggesting that God's time should only fit in when you have some "free time" to spare.  I'm simply saying that my day is already full . . . and it's difficult to spend 15 - 30 minutes in devotion with God, much less go out and follow my own advice of serving others, visiting the sick, and checking on people who've been missing church.
In general, my excuse is that my day is so hectic because I have small children, and by the time they're in school, things will be back to a much more normal routine (and I will have a full night's sleep as well), so I'll have the time and energy to serve God more.  But while that comforts my guilt, it does little to dismiss the nagging truth in my mind:  I am too selfish of my time to serve God.  I have a 4 year old and an 8 month old.  The evenings are crazy.  I get home, play with kids until dinner time, then the baths and bed-time rituals start.  By the time both children are asleep, I'm exhausted, and so is my wife.  Looking at a typical evening, I just don't see how to insert the availability to witness to someone, or minister to someone in need.  And I apparently don't care enough to find a way to make it happen.  This concerns me.  How hard has my heart become if I don't show care and love for others?  I'm choosing time with my family . . . time with my wife.  But how do you balance those?  I obviously cannot neglect my service to God, and outreach to people, but it's wrong to neglect my family as well.
 . . . if only I were independently wealthy.  Any rich people out there want to donate to my cause? :)

We Love Jesus . . . but not You

As a followup to yesterday's ranting and raving on churches, I've stumbled across a great article on Beliefnet called, "Why Christians Suck." Basically, we're all a bunch of arrogant, self-absorbed, uncaring dweebs.  Great stuff...and it follows right along with what I've been going on about. Christians suck...the non sucky Christians (apparently less than 5% of Church-goers, who I personally differentiate from "Christians") need to help the sucky Christians be less-sucky. If this fails...we should run them from our churches with pitchforks and torches...just like an old-fashioned lynching.
Or we could pray for them...either way.

The Christian Bloggers Network

Andrew Jackson (of SmartChristian.com, not the founding father) launched the Christian Bloggers Network on Facebook awhile back. To date, I believe that I am the only Arkansas Blogger. If you're a Christian, and a blogger, I recommend wandering on over and linking up. I've gotten at least one visit from it, from Liturgy, and probably several more that didn't comment to me about it. It's kind of cool to see where everyone is from.
Visit here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13679025366

Churches: Havens for Weary Souls or Spiritual Dr. Kevorkians?

I have a good friend, who, if you have read his blog, doesn't exactly hold modern churches in high regard. I've criticized him, perhaps wrongly, because he chooses to have a service with his family, instead of going to a real church. I've defended churches of all types, under the premise that it's better to go and be a part of a community of believers, to help others, and to occasionally be supported when you go through your own hard times. I, myself, belong to an amazing non-denominational church. While no church is perfect, I feel that mine gets it right on all the major points, and if they're wrong in an area, they try their hardest to be right. I've always made the assumption that most churches were similar...that in their own way, they all just wanted to be right. They may go about it in wrong, or different ways, but that mostly they were trying to help people. Boy, was I wrong.

Recently, a good friend of mine, a youth pastor, discovered his wife was in adultery. They had recently had their first child, and as you can imagine, he was devastated. They separated, and my friend was intent on working things out (a good deal more than I would've done, personally). When he told his senior pastor, he was FIRED! Can you imagine? He has a baby, has just lost his wife, now his job, and his church! Apparently his church was concerned that it would make them look bad.

First of all, my friend did nothing wrong... at least to my knowledge. This would've been a time for the church, and the ministers of the church, to surround him with support and prayer. Take some time off...sure. This could've even been an example to the members of how a Godly person works through horrible situations with help from God. But instead, in his time of greatest need, the people that he had worked for, given his life to, and prayed over brushed him to the side when he was no longer immediately useful for praying for headaches, warts, or meaningless relationship problems. When it came to to repay all that he had given, they threw him out and brought in someone new to use and abuse until there was nothing left in him also.

Is this biblical? I think not. But it happens everyday throughout the country...when self-righteous, arrogant, Pharisaical, self-glorifying, religious dingbats run churches like medieval extremist witch hunters, on the prowl for the weakest Christians to crucify in their times of need. I see it constantly in my wife's family (her grandmother pastors our church). The church has used up every bit of life in her until her health has failed...and is trying to do the same to her daughter while she fills in for her in the pulpit. I am sick and tired of willfully and woefully idiotic church-goers expecting their pastors to be nothing more than religious slaves, waiting on their beckon call, for whatever ridiculous thing they need that day... "Pastor...my son is running with a bad crowd...can you come witness to him?" How about living saved in front of your son, and not allowing him to participate in things you don't agree with...cracktard?

We are all called to be ministers. Making our churches the healing centers that God means them to be is a responsibility we share in equal parts with our pastors. It's our responsibility to go out and bring in sinners...it's our responsibility to see about other Christians who need help, or who are sick, as much, if not more, than our pastors. STOP USING PASTORS TO BE SPIRITUALLY LAZY! STOP KILLING OFF THE LIFE IN OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN NEED! TAKE CARE OF YOUR PASTORS, INSTEAD OF USING THEM!!!!

How long were my friends in need of someone to turn to, to talk about their problems in their relationship? But no...as youth pastors, they weren't able to say they needed help...they had to be Superman to their church's Metropolis. Pastors and Ministers are people too...they go through things, feel the same hurt and heartache we all do. Their families are just like our families...they miss their husbands and fathers when they come out to see about your broken arm at 2am, because you just had to have your pastor there. After he spends all day praying over and tending to the needs of his flock, he is seldom able to devote that same care and concern to his family, because members call all night long. Of course in a true emergency, a pastor would want to come. But I'm not talking about rare occasions, I'm talking about a habitual systemic abuse of clergy, that is not the exception, but the norm, through our country.

Christians...I encourage you to grow up. Take on your biblical responsibility of caring for your brothers and sisters, and set your pastors free to seek God and pray for you and your family, as well as your church and town. Organize hospitality groups in your church for members to visit the sick, elderly, and back-slidden. Build your pastor up with prayer and encouraging words...because he prays and encourages you. Even if you don't like or agree with your pastor...it is who God has given you today...and that makes them worthy of your respect, prayer, and help, in every way you can give it. Make your church a safe haven for weary souls...not a executioner's table for the down-trodden.

Dropbox Online Storage and Syncing

I've fallen in love with DropBox's online storage solution.  Totally seamless integration with your desktop...files in your DropBox folder are uploaded to their servers, and even auto-magically appear on other linked computers, and their website.  Great for backups, and accessing files in multiple locations, and while away from one of your main computers.
It's currently invitation only, but I have 10 invitations...comment for an invitation to the private beta.