Ben’s Weblog

The blog’s back in operation, so I might as well….

1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?
Baseball (especially in the postseason), football (college and pro), and basketball (college only)
2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?
Baseball – Cardinals, Football – Rams, College sports – Fighting Illini
3. Are there any sports you hate?
I can’t watch pro basketball anymore..it’s like the WWE of basketball
4. Have you ever been to a sports event?
Lots. Countless Cardinals games, a couple hockey games, lots of high school basketball, etc.
5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?
On a casual basis, basketball, football, golf. Back in high school, I ran cross-country.

If you didn’t notice, the blog’s been down for a long time. And, why, you might ask? Great question…in late August, my hosting company decided to migrate paying customers over to a new server. When they did, a few things went wrong:

• They didn’t give us too much heads-up.
• I never had control of my DNS, due to a screwup either with my host or the registrar
• It took better than 2 weeks after I got back from vacation to resolve the issue

Suffice it to say, I’m not a happy camper. But, since you’re seeing this page, it means I’m back in business.

This week’s edition:

1. How much time do you spend online each day?
A lot.
2. What is your browser homepage set to?
At work, the company’s intranet site. At home, My Yahoo!
3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?
AIM. Used to use ICQ way back (my UIN was only 7 digits).
4. Where was your first webpage located?
A now non-existent hosting company. Then, over at students.uiuc.edu, and now right here
5. How long have you had your current website?
May 2003

Haven’t done one in a while, but here goes:

1. What’s the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?
Memphis, TN last weekend to visit Marcie
2. What’s the most bizarre/unusual thing that’s ever happened to you while traveling?
I flew from New York-JFK to Paris on TWA flight 800 a couple months before the one that crashed.
3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?
A bunch of time in Europe and Australia. I’d probably do a slighty up-scale version of backpacking across Europe and stay in normal hotels, though.
4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?
Depends on the distance. Under 300 miles (ie, back home to the family), I’ll just drive – it’s not worth the hassle of going through security at the airport. Above that, generally, I prefer flying, unless the airfare’s exorbitant (like more than $250 to get to Mempis). Never really traveled by train.
5. What’s the next place on your list to visit?
For work, a few more trips out to upstate New York. For pleasure, Alaska, baby!

Ladies and gentlemen, reality has left the building:

Upload a file, go to prison

This is another example of failing to learn from history. If you think about it a little, this is really no different than Prohibition back in the 1920s – we’re turning a large portion of the American people into felons. It’s ironic enough that one of the bastions of democracy (USA) has more people in prison than the antithesis of democracy (China). Let’s turn something like 20% of the American people into felons so that the member companies of the RIAA (who really don’t care about music, just making ridiculous amounts of money while stiffing the artists) don’t lose money. We’re still in a recession, folks. Everyone is losing money. Any business model that relies on legal intimidation and criminalizing its customers deserves to go away.

Naturally, this legislation is sponsored by representatives who are already in Hollywood’s back pocket.

I noticed in my logs that I’ve been picking up a stream of visitors from the search engines about my bit on the forged check endorsement. Unfortunately, the search engines only got the index page, and the article’s moved off, so here’s the stable link to it:

Forged check endorsement? Here’s what to do…

Finally, a great day here in Chicago. Temperatures in the upper 60s, not too windy. I took full advantage of the weather and did about 2 hours of bike riding today around Evanston. Apparently, Northwestern’s commencement was this weekend too, so campus (especially around the lake) was really crowded.

I’ve lived here for better than 2 years now, and this is really the first time I’ve scoped out NU’s campus – quite a location…great views south to the city, and the lake’s just right there in front of you. I can only imagine how much that property is all worth…

Those of you who know me (and if you’ve stubmled across this blog by means other than one of those index sites, you probably do) know that I travel a lot. As a result, I get to go through airport security on a fairly regular basis. I’ve noticed a huge disconnect between how the big airports (ie, Chicago O’Hare) and the smaller airports (ie, Syracuse “International”) do it.
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Well, I’m back in Lowville again, doing some process auditing. Really important stuff…I’m sure I’m adding a whole lot of value to the company with this trip. So, I’m blogging from a fairly basic hotel room in northern New York. At least it has high-speed internet access for free, so I’m not totally cut off from civilization.

I had a very enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Drove down to Memphis to visit Marcie. Her parents came down too, and we did a few fun things. We took a rather cool cave tour at Blanchard Springs Caverns, which I’ll post pictures to once I get my pictures uploaded onto the site.

Speaking of the site, I got a rather sweet deal from DistantHost that included a free domain name registration. So, you can look for me at www.ben-johnson.org not too long from now. I’ll have lots of storage space then, so I’ll be able to get a good selection of my photos and such. Consider this a plug – if you’ve got a site you’d like to host and don’t want to shell out a lot of $$$, check them out.

My apartment sounds like it’s in a tornado right now – the Windy City is certainly living up to its reputation today. Constant 30 mph winds, gusting to 50. That’s just what’s being registered at ground level…I’m 7 stories (~80 ft) up, and I think it may be a touch stronger here. So much for that bike ride I was planning on doing this afternoon. Actually, looking at the local weather, the next few days aren’t looking too good either. Probably just hit the elliptical trainer instead.

Went to a surprise b-day party for a friend of mine at work last night – had a good time and my fair share of drink. We must all be getting old though – we finished our last round at midnight, and that was about enough for me. These 2-3am nights just aren’t working for me anymore.