Tresler's blog

So, perhaps I overdid it on my first day back in the bicycle seat. Had to run to Gratz, another client, the bank and back home - which sounds simple.

From here in the heart of Brooklyn at Bedford and Dekalb I went north over the Pulaski bridge to get to Queens. I was feeling good and even caught a guy on the bridge, which I really wasn't expecting as I hadn't been riding since the MTA strike.

Meeting at Gratz, over the Queensboro bridge... less energy and I definitely wasn't passing anyone. Quick stop, to the bank then down 2nd ave to Delancey and over the WB bridge... my butt was dragging. I have to admit I walked the bike over some of the uphill on this one, Once I got to the little jog-left I rode up the rest of the way - needed the break. Then down through south williamsburg into bed-stuy and home. uhgh. I think I burned more calories today than I did in July.

I remember there was a time that I was in shape and I will get there again (soon!), but right now I hurt and for the first time in a long time I'm thinking about going to bed early.

Just scavenged the parts and fixed the brakes on the bike. I've been avoiding biking around the city since I was doored during the MTA strike, but now my excuses are gone and I have every reason in the world to be biking everywhere. And I think I will.

I promised long ago that I was going to boycott the MTA, and the sad truth is that it is just difficult here in the city to avoid the subway. Biking is a much better alternative and I hope I can keep the discipline (and the brakes) to keep doing it.

I just thought that this was too much fun.

Python eats sheep: This 5.5m (18ft) python ate a pregnant sheep in a Malaysian village. Afterwards, it couldn't move and had to be removed from the street it was on. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20372915-5006003,00.html

Someone else beat me to it. I think that I am going to continue my personal colection, but these are fun to look at too.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stickfiguresinperil/pool/

Life's been pretty hectic of late, hence I haven't been around. Updates perhaps you all should know about.

A) I'm moving. End of this month. Somewhere, several options, not sure which yet. Better than average chance that current roomate will move out of this apartment and I will take over on a month to month lease. Month to month cause I don't particularly want to live here, but I also have no time to find a place, but if this falls through, I will be moing into YASL (Yet another sublet), which, alas, would be the next-best solution.

B) Business is booming. Really. More work than I can keep up with, rates still going up, portfolio growing. Its good because it is a truly a snowball effect. The more sites that I do, particularly the ones designed by me, the more work I have to show, the more customers I can generate, the more work I have to do.... Now if I only wanted to be a web designer that would be great. Seriously though, Finally I feel that I'm on the track I should have been on for years as far as Getting To Where I Want To Be. Someday (not soon) I'll post a write up on the steps for Getting To Where I Want To Be for general review. Nothing throws off the enemy like clearly and publicly stating your actual goals.

C) Learning. I posted a long time ago about how I felt like I was back in school with the amount of learning I was doing to be competative in this field. Well, its still going on. Everyday new things are coming to me, and the scary part is I'm getting to a point where I'm helping other people with their problems. Spooky.

That is the true and boring reality. Less boring as things pick up speed I promise.

Approximate conversation (filtered through my memory)

Client: I liked the work you did for my other site and wanted to talk to you about some other projects.

Me: Great. What did you have in mind.

Client: Well, you're a literate guy.

Me: Uh, I guess so, you mean I can read?

Client: Yeah! I mean, most programming guys... well.. you have a vocabulary over 1000 words, lets just put it that way.

Me: I guess when you "put it that way" I do... I don't speak in If-Else statements.

Client: EXACTLY! I read your blog, you write some....stuff.

Me: Thanks.

Up side, is I'm placing a bid on the job. And I'm not illiterate. LOL.

People in Bint Jbeil are waiting for Hezbollah to help them. Let me clarify, they aren't waiting for the Lebanese government, or the U.N. peacekeeping troops to help them.

In regards to an unexploded bomb in the living room...

"I'm waiting for the resistance [Hezbollah] to take it away,"

What was left behind - non-accidental

"As he takes around his three-storey house, Mr Dabaja warns us to be careful of an anti-personnel mine fitted with a tipping device that the Israeli troops left near the front door."

And finally, my favorite:

"A joint team of engineers from Hezbollah and the municipality has sprayed a series of letters and numbers on the wall to indicate the building needs to be demolished and rebuilt, with Hezbollah footing the bill, because it is structurally unsound."

I said it before here,, and elsewhere as well. "Smoking out" terrorists begins at a grassroots level. Now we have Hezbollah rebuilding for these people.

How many new Hezbollah indutees were just made?
How many people will gladly supply, feed, clothe Hezbollah soldiers in the future?
And how much does it cost for Hezbollah to rebuild in comparison to how much money went into the Israeli offensive?

Damn, I feel like I'm writing essay questions for an 8th grade civics class.

Here is the full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5270118.stm

[Insert ex-girlfriend's name here] was over to hang out last night. Turns out she has moved on and gotten herself a new boy. This led me down the murky path of examining my own actions, minor jealousy, and I'm afraid made me double-plus bad company for the evening.

I was the one who put the nix on that relationship, and I was never particularly clear on my own head (at the time) as to why I needed to do that. In retrospect I knew that I couldn't be devoted to a relationship and to a new career/business, and to my various other passionate pursuits all at the same time, and it wouldn't be fair to her or I if I simply used her as a support structure. Although, to an extent, that is one way your loved ones care for you, in this particular instance, I feel it would have ben nothing but selfish.

While I know I'll always care for her, I rationally know that in truth we have very different life plans, and being together one or the other would end up changing their's. On the other hand, there is a definite emotional quality to doors being closed on parts of our past, even if we claim it might only be temporary.

None of this is made better by the fact that my social life all around has done a complete nose-dive. Sacrificed to the God of New Career and Entrepreneurship.

I've often thought in recent years that I am, at heart, a Loner. I touch on many people's lives, and several are very dear to me and always will be, but I also thrive alone. Parts of me feel that I don't actually want anything like a stable long term relationship - and hence haven't made the effort required to make one work.

Part of this, of course, has to do with the horizon that I seem to be constantly chasing. I'm in love with the next project, with learning, with travelling, with creating. I make the mistake of expecting any significant other to magically realize this passion, outside of their feelings for me. If mystically they just 'got it' then, *then* I'd found the right person. Uhgh. perhaps I ask too much. Or perhaps there isn't room for my passions and another person.

Or maybe I just spent a sleepless night mulling all this over, and realy shouldn't blog about it at shortly after 7 in the morning; before I've finished my coffee.

Time to get back to work. Or back to sleep.

This one probably won't stay too long.

I've been hacking around setting up drupal sites for the past two weeks. ITs good. My resume is growing faster than I'd imagine, and I'm getting deeper and deeper into the "Drupal" way.

Unfortunately this has left *no* time for anything else. My basic day is wake up no later than 9:30-10:00 (usually more like 8am). Coffee. Work till I can't think. Realize that fod is a good thing and eat "breakfast" (circa 2:00pm). Keep working. Eat. Keep working. Stop, well, about now really. 11:49 pm.

Good News:
- Laptop back from shop. I'm hoping to get out to a internet cafe tomorrow and see the outside workd again for the first time in a while.
- Accounts pouring in. 2 definites and 2-3 potential new clients in the past 4 days.

Also, took on more volunteer work, tis will be drupal before the end of next wek (we hope). http://assembleforrightsnyc.blogspot.com/

I won't lie. I'm hoping it will be a good portfolio piece for Tresler Designs. But I still think the cause is well worth supporting.

Thats all for now. Talk to ya'll later.

There's been some talk about deploying a multi-national peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon. There's also been some talk about deploying a U.S. peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon. The later, I find highly doubtful.

For anyone who doesn't think that we are starting to wear a little thin on the troop rotations, I give you today's headliner from The Stars and Stripes

Under the changes in the SRB program for fiscal 2007 outlined in MARADMIN 334/06, the bonus for first-term Marine air traffic controllers has been increased from $24,000 to $40,000, Morgan said.

Aviation specialties and other combat arms specialties will also see a boost.

In another change, Morgan said the maximum bonus has been raised from $45,000 to $60,000 for Marines in the following five military occupational specialities: counter intelligence, intelligence specialist, reconnaissance, explosive ordnance disposal and Middle East cryptologic linguist.

While I think this is telling, I also think it is a fine thing. I'd rather have experienced troops dealing with these situation than greenies, and reservists. I also, will never complain about giving more to our troops.

Terrorism cannont exist in a society where people are generally content. It isn't possible. Don't mistake me, you'll never please everyone and there will always be madmen, but for the most part terrorism needs a demographic that feels wholly disenfranchised to operate

Courtesy of Billmon:

Ghassan Farran, a doctor and head of a local cultural organization, gazes in disbelief at the pile of smoking ruins which was once his home. Minutes earlier, an Israeli jet dropped two guided missiles into the six-story apartment block in the centre of Tyre.

"Look what America gives us, bombs and missiles," says this educated, middle-class professional. "I was never a political person and never with Hizbullah but now after this I am with Hizbullah.

Now, it doesn't matter if every other inhabitant of that building was a Hezbollah ringleader, because you just created One cultural leader who is pro-Hezbollah.

You see how this works?

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< ahref="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/28/world/middleeast/28arabs.html?hp&ex=1154145600&en=00302b87a267fb0d&ei=5094&partner=homepage">Another Article pointing out why this is just helping Hezbollah AND Al Queda together.

“It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,” he said. “Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.”

Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.

Its not ironic. It's to be expected. I think it was a Roman saying (correct me if I'm wrong). "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".

It points out rather well that the tactics being observed today have absolutely no chance of bringing about the purported goals.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5222154.stm

Tresler Designs is a reality. If you need a website, cruise on over. My prices are reasonable.

One of my pet projects, The Common Sense Rag is officially online! Its low on content so far, but hopefully it holds a decent amount of potential.

I'm hoping to get a few lively discussions going on over there. I hope it is something that resonates with people.

A lot of people are saying this is the start of WWIII and I'm not sure I disagree. This in from Al Jazeera via the BBC

Al-Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has said in a video the militant network will respond to attacks on Muslims in Lebanon and Gaza.

The video was broadcast by Arabic television station al-Jazeera.

Al-Qaeda could not remain silent in the face of a "Crusader war" and now saw "all the world as a battlefield open in front of us", he said.

Events in Lebanon and Gaza showed the importance of the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq, he added.

"The war with Israel is not about a treaty, a ceasefire agreement... It is rather a jihad for the sake of God until the religion of God is established. It is jihad for the liberation of Palestine, all of Palestine, as well as every land that was a home for Islam, from Andalusia to Iraq," he said.

"As they attack us everywhere, we will attack them everywhere. As they have joined forces to fight us, our nation will unite to fight them.

"The shells and rockets which are tearing the bodies of Muslims in Gaza and Lebanon are not purely Israeli. They are produced and financed by all the countries of the Crusader alliance.

With the server change I decided to try out Drupal's multi-site functionality. It rocks. Right now the code that is runing this site is also running five other sites of mine. This remarkably streamlines workflow.

I have to admit I've never wanted to look too closely at Mid-East polotics, but in the light of recent events I've been making a concerted effort to realy site down and figure some of this stuff out. What is the nature of the various conflicts, and how is the US involved in them?

This morning I came across this line:

Israel is one of the largest customers for US armaments.

It [Israel] also receives several billion dollars a year in direct and indirect aid from Washington.

That isn't taken out of context and those two sentences actually followed one another. here. A few days ago I found an article regarding us "rushing" the next shipment of precision bombs to Israel.

Now, two points, firstly, as I mentioned I'm an amateur at this, it seems to me that a lot of people want this bombing to stop. Kofi Annan has called for an immediate ceasefire. Experts worldwide generally accept that this tactic can't possibly stop Hezbollah and will most likely strengthen grassroots support for them.

Also seems to me that you need to have the precision bombs in order to be dropping them. So, why are we giving arms to anyone in the Middle East - especially the ones who are bombing the hell out of another country? How can this possibly lead to the bombing ending sooner.

We be moving on over to the new server sometime in the night tonight. Should be seamless, but let me know if you post something and it mysteriously disappears.

UPDATE: Wow! that took about half an hour. Faster thant I thought. Comment away...I mean, if you feel like it.

For some bizarre reason I woke up this morning with a song from the musical South Pacific in my head. It has since left me (thank god), but it occurred to me; Ever notice how we don't make wacky musicals and sitcoms about war anymore?

I mean, South Pacific was in the WWII era, M*A*S*H was in Korea, The Great Escape was a classic, as was Kernal Clink and that whole gang... and yet no one's ever come up with a really good laughable VietNam story.

I mean, surely something funny must have happened. OK. How 'bout Iraq 1 - I mean that was a cakewalk, right? Don't we have a good sitcom about some crazy privates out in the desert from that?

No slapstick musical about goofy GI's on long range patrol in the jungle's and rice paddy's?

Geesh, you'd think something had changed in the nature of warfare or our perception of it... or perhaps a collective social unconcious morality questioning?

So my new shiny Alienware Sentia is en route back to Alienware to get a screen replacement as about a month into havin it, said screen went out - through no fault of my own.

I've re-re-located back to the old machine, but going back hurts sooo much.

Current machine: Pentium 3 600Mhz, 256 meg of RAM, 18 gig hard drive
New Laptop: Centrino 2Ghz, 1 gig of RAM, 80 gig harddrive

I'm gonna try to overclock a little but I don't have high hopes. The next two weeks are gonna be brutal.

Just this week I got the word that my dear friend Cindy is engaged and the ceremony will be in early September, Frank and Laura's ceremony is coming up in Oct., John and Noreen recently got hitched, Matt and Erica before that. My high school friend Julie delivered via C-section in May, and I'm going to my friend Lauren's baby shower tomorrow

Now, I can be fairly obtuse in many things, but, methinks I see a trend developing here. Meanwhile, I'm squirrelling away, learning more about how to code, and perfecting my anti-social party lines (one liners that can make people leave you alone).

It's interesting that I can be so overwhelmingly ecstatic that so many good things are happening to these friends of mine and at the same time realize that these are not my goals. While I am glad that they have found their own path I also realize that it isn't for me. And I am sure that is why it has been on my mind so much of late.

My entire life I was fairly well indoctrinated with the idea that a man's life goal was to find a suitable wife and raise a family. Don't get me wrong, this was never the espoused party line of any role model; more what I picked up as being the goal of every significant role model and ergo should also be mine.

There might not be a whole lot worse than being 950 pages into an 1152 page book with three stroy lines and needing to put it down for a while. Cryptonomicon is an excellent book and might occasion me to dust off the old book review section of this site and run with it.

Its a little past one and I need to be up at seven-thirty, but I want to keep reading (in a small way I'm writing this to not think about continuing to read that book.)