I’ve spent the last couple of days doing a little consolidation of servers in between other work. A couple of posts ago I wrote about moving everything to AWS Lightsail; well I’ve now moved them to plain old AWS EC2 instead.

Why? A number of reasons really. It was much easier to consolidate them into a single server so cost-effective. And it’s a model I’m much more used to; installing things from the ground up, compiling Nginx with the configuration I want, getting Letsencrypt SSL running etc. While this was doable on Lightsail, the default approach is fairly template-based and I’d rolled out WordPress with the Bitnami templates, which work really well for most users but as somewhat of a power user I found myself having to work AROUND all their nice user-friendly setup.

The last site to bring into the fold was this one; “Random Insanity”.

The ramblings of an overactive mind

While checking things were up and running after the transfer (and killing time waiting for a client to come online), I spent time on my last blog post about Letsencrypt and my latest little bit of coding, played around with themes, and spent a while trawling through older posts checking that everything was playing nice.

And wow, I may not post much, but some of the ones from years ago stirred up a bunch of memories about times, places and people that have come and gone from my life.

Particularly it got me thinking about friends whom I don’t necessarily see or talk to as much as I’d like it to be. And it’s not like we had a falling out or anything. Many times it’s just an evolution of life; we get busy and so wrapped up in often unimportant things. And everyone does it at some point. So while my mind was strolling down memory lane, with YouTube playing enough music to keep me awake and positive enough, I decided to plug this less-technical post in – who knows maybe with the change in my work status I’ll start putting stuff on here more regularly.

Friends come and go

I don’t know that there is a solution to the fading of people from our lives. I’m not even sure it is a problem in the first place. Sure, I wish some of those people still played as much of a role, accounted for hours of conversation on a regular basis, shared with you and allowed you to share with them, but for better or worse I don’t think many people can count in high numbers those that have stayed with them throughout huge swaths of their lives.

I’ve got some awesome friends who I am very grateful for, and who I wouldn’t want to be without. But I can’t help but wonder just how people I’ve felt that way about in the past are now little more than an occasional thought and smile about what was, and one day who of the current list are going to fall by the wayside too. It’s an interesting thought, albeit a little depressing if you dwell on it in the wrong way.

The soppy stuff

(also known as “why one shouldn’t post after midnight while sleep deprived”)

So, to friends past, present and future. Thank you for the role you have/do/will play in my life. I guess we can only trust that the coming and going is for the right reason in the grand scheme (and if someone wants to tell me it’s God’s will or some such rhetoric I’m pretty sure we can shuffle the “into the past” process along. Just saying.).

I do hope, however, that those I don’t see often, don’t talk to often beyond the occasional birthday wish or Christmas pleasantry, know they are still valued as friends and while we aren’t in constant communication, I don’t want that status to be forgotten.

Enjoy the new week everyone. Sorry to say, I have another topic in mind for another ramble so you might get bombarded with another post sometime soon. 3 in quick succession; possibly something unheard of in 10+ years!

The post The one in which we think about friends. appeared first on Random Insanity.

Basically, as some of you who know me or have read other bits of my blog will know, I subscribe to Hulu (among other services) which is a geo-restricted service locked down to the US.

Geo-restriction is pretty easy to overcome. As I mention in another article, there are a bunch of services out there to assist. I’ve used Unblock-US in the past but currently use MediaHint. It works great and has a browser plugin that helps when on the go (not at home with my permanent setup). However, Hulu requires a little more than looking like you’re accessing it from the US; it requires a US credit card also!

For around a year now I’ve been using Entropay, which gives you a virtual US credit card to run pre-pay. It also worked great for the last year (with the exception that my NZ based bank requires disabling some security to top it up as they deem it a suspicious site), however, the card has now hit its expiry date so I’ve gone to Hulu to update the card info… only to find it no longer accepts it! I’ve recently also had a go at setting up a US iTunes account with the same issue that iTunes wouldn’t accept the Entropay card as US based. I’ve no idea why, or what they use to determine such things, but it just didn’t work!

So, I’ve done some looking around to see what other services are out there. The list has certainly grown since I first looked! This time, I’m having a go at Payoneer. I decided I’d document a little of how it goes to help other people evaluating it also.

Thursday 11 – Morning

So far I’ve signed up on the Payoneer site and handed over a bunch of detail. It expects that you’re not in the US so you don’t have to fudge details for any of that, and apparently, they are now sending me a physical US issued MasterCard! They offer a service to help people receive payments from all over the world, and have a couple of options on how to make use of received funds – and this is one of them.

They ask for some “government issued ID” – I’ve given them a drivers licence. Although they took this detail and rapidly approved my account request, after I topped up the card (basically by requesting a payment from myself for some fictional service) I got another email asking for info on my business (service or product based, refund policy, website etc.) as well as a scanned copy of my licence. If I hadn’t heard enough good stuff about this place I’d be a little dubious already, but I’m confident enough that it’s legit that I’ve provided the necessary detail and am awaiting the deposit of my “received funds” in my US account.

I requested a payment of $20USD as the “seller”, and as the “buyer”, I had the option to either pay the transaction fee myself on top of the $20 or deduct it from the seller’s payment. I chose the former as it doesn’t really matter given I’m both parties, but for reference it was $0.62 fee, which I assume is some percentage calculation of the payment amount.

That’s as far as I’ve gotten so far. Now we wait… Or I wait anyway because you probably don’t care THAT much!

The post Payoneer – An internet payment journey – Part 1 appeared first on Random Insanity.

Other than that, damn it’s been a nice sunny weekend. It’s definitely got me in the summer mood. Shorts (much to the detriment of anyone without sunnies on =P ) and the house wide open. Won’t be long before we crank up the bbq I think. Not quite warm enough for the beach yet but I doubt that will be too far away either. And well the hay-fever has started to kick in but shit you can’t have everything good I guess. =P

Time to go get some sunshine and hope I don’t burn to a crisp! Here’s a bit of music with a good beat and some good lyrics:

And here’s a random pic for the day…

There's these moments - by MiCa...

The text for those who can’t read it is…

It’s difficult to ignore what’s
Really on the outside
When the inside
Is fighting this corpse so much.

With minutes left
And the last hour gone
The beginning hasn’t even
Ended yet…

Have a good one all!

The post I just wanna free-fall for a while… appeared first on Random Insanity.

Level 2
(x)Are / Been In Love
(x)been dumped
(x) Shoplifted
( ) Been Fired
(x) Been In A Fist Fight

Level 3
(x) Had A Crush On An Older Person
(x) Skipped School
( ) Slept With A Co-worker
(x) Seen Someone / Something Die

Level 4
(x) Had / Have A Crush On One Of Your Bebo Friends
( ) Been To Paris
( ) Been To Spain
(x) Been On A Plane
(x) Thrown Up From Drinking

Level 5
(x) Eaten Sushi
( ) Been Snowboarding
( ) Met Someone BECAUSE Of Bebo
( ) Been In A Mosh Pit

Level 6
( ) Been In An Abusive Relationship
(x) Taken Pain Killers
(x) Love/loved Someone Who You Cant Have
(x) Laid On Your Back And Watched Cloud Shapes Go By
(x) Made A Snow Angel

Level 7
( ) Had A Tea Party
(x) Flown A Kite
(x) Built A Sand Castle
(?) Gone Mudding
(x Played Dress Up

Level 8
(x) Jumped Into A Pile Of Leaves
( ) Gone Sledging
( ) Cheated While Playing A Game
(x) Been Lonely
(x) Fallen Asleep At Work / School

Level 9
(x) Watched The Sun Set
(x) Felt An Earthquake
(x) Killed A Snake

Level 10
(x) Been Tickled
(x) Been Robbed / Vandalized
(x) Been Cheated On
(x) Been Misunderstood

Level 11
( ) Won A Contest
( ) Been Suspended From School
(x) Had Detention
( ) Been In A Car / Motorcycle Accident

Level 12
(x) Had / Have Braces
(x) Eaten A Whole Pint Of Ice Cream In One Night
(x) Danced In The Moonlight

Level 13
(x) Hated The Way You Look
(x) Witnessed A Crime
( ) pole danced
(x) Questioned Your Heart
( ) Been Obsessed With Post-It-Notes

Level 14
(x) Squished Barefoot Through The Mud
(x) Been Lost
( ) been To The Opposite Side Of The World
(x) Swam In The Ocean
(x) Felt Like You Were Dying

Level 15
(x) Cried Yourself To Sleep
(x) Played Cops And Robbers
(x) Recently Colored With Crayons / Colored Pencils / Markers
(x) Sang Karaoke
(x) Paid For A Meal With Only Coins

Level 16
(x) Done Something You Told Yourself You Wouldn’t
(x) Made Prank Phone Calls
(x) Laughed Until Some Kind Of Beverage Came Out Of Your Nose
(x) Kissed In The Rain

The post Stolen from Nikki on bebo :D appeared first on Random Insanity.