Jason H. Davis

Two interesting happenings:

1) My Chances of Contracting Swine Flu got a number of hits from Google and continues to do so. I’ve updated it to be relevant and more informative for those who find it.

2) I contracted Swine Flu this last weekend. Probably not. I got very sick with an upper respiratory infection that spread to my lungs. It spread very quickly and has now all but gone away now.

This is two days in a row. Hopefully the blogging habit will continue. This will be quick, though.

I posted one of the first episodes on the new podcasting system today. It’s a Live in the Lobby of the Athens “Electric Bluegrass” band Splinterbelly.

Settling into the role as Webmaster at the radio station has gone well. I’ve started backing up the current site and will be working on organizing it more soon. The podcasting system took a big jump to 100% completion today. This was more of a back-end upgrade to make it easier for the people (including me) doing the podcasts.

That’s it for now. Just an FYI, I’m taking down most of the site for now and leaving just the blog. When the rest of my site comes back up, it will have the same structure/layout, but it will have a different design.

End Transmission.

I’m out of my old appartment and couldn’t be happier. My birthday was yesterday, which was nice. I was happy to get a lot of happy birthdays. I have a vistor in town, so I’m showing her around Athens.

School starts on the 18th, so I hope to have time to work on this site before the start of the new semester. There have been a lot of bumps. I might be moving in the right direction now.

-Jason

Moving is terrible. Especially when it’s super hot outside. We got the entire downstairs cleaned out today. A couch, recliner, a couple of tables, and a large tv. We’ve vacumed and cleaned most of the floor as well.

I’ve hardly even touched getting the stuff out of my room. I think I’m going to disassemble some things that won’t fit in the room and simply store them under my bed or in a closet.

There’s a post about the New Facebook coming up in the next day or so. It’s written, I just want to get it right before it gets posted.

-Jason

My birthday is fast approaching and for it I ordered a new hard drive for my computer. $120 buys you 750gb. Once installed and removing the hard drive it replaces, I’ll have a terabyte of storage. This is enough capacity to hold the entire sequence of DNA for 1,250 people. Although, mine will mostly be filled with music, high resolution photos, and videos.

This also represents a 220% increase in overall capacity. It seems unthinkable that I will ever need so much space, however, that’s what I said when I bought my last hard drive.

Getting a new hard drive gives you the opportunity to reevaluate your computing needs. I am currently using Windows XP on my computer, and have become increasingly dissatisfied with it. While I do not think I will abandon it completely, I will certainly install Ubuntu Linux and start making the transition. It could be a beast to get to the confidence level I have with Windows and Mac OS X, but I think it’s a smart long term decision.

To test it out, because I am mostly impatient, I installed it on my Mac using Virtual BoxI like it so far, but my mac can’t handle running two operating systems at once.

Also in the works is an updated blog. Serendipity has served me well, but after using WordPress, I realize it is a much more robust platform for my blog. The problem is importing the information from the my current blog to the new WordPress blog. It looks like I’m going to lose all the comments left. Not that there were a ton, it’s still sad. Also, it will be hard keeping this blog running while moving WordPress to the same address. I’ll try my best, though. The next couple days will be spent on this transition. The first step is to get the new blog to look like the rest of the site.

I guess that’s it for tonight.

-Jason

While in Italy, the battery on my Macbook died. It would no longer charge. At the same time, the headphones on my iPod broke. I went to the Apple store today and they replaced both of them (very generously given the circumstances).

I also did some work on the WUOG Digital Media staff plan for next semester. I really need to start working on it. There needs to be a working system by August. I’m quite excited about it, though. I think the group will be able to go in a meaningful direction.

There’s not too much else to report.
Jason

I’ve already organized my room today and hung up laundry on the line. I need to scavenge up some lunch (the supermarket is closed, which is sad). I’ve spent far too much money in the short time I’ve been here. I think Cortona will bring a slower pace and a focus on work.

My desk overlooks the Cortona hillside and has no Internet. I think it will be the perfect place to write. I’ll be talking more about that soon. =)

Kyle sent me a message asking about Italy, this is part of what I responded with:

“Italy is amazing. Rome was so big, the people in the program new, the lifestyle so different. Florence brought familiarity with the group, a smaller setting with beautiful architecture and a slower pace. Cortona was like coming home to a place I’d never been before. The group closer to family, the town beautiful and welcoming and the dorm exciting.”

I will hopefully be posting more here tonight.
With Love,
Jason