The MySQL / Perl / UNIX / blog software tinker project has officially been abandoned. You may have noticed that the site was down one day last week… an unanticipated byproduct of my life shortening battle with my own inadequacies. Upholding the fine tradition of manhood the world over – after two weeks of futility I decided to go back and read the directions to the blog software update I was attempting to install – whereby I discovered that my makeshift server did not meet the minimum requirements.

No doubt you are sitting in the comfort of your own home, saying one of two things to yourself or your loved ones:

“Oh that’s gotta hurt!”

“Jeez what an idiot.”

Don’t worry – you won’t hurt my feelings. I’ve thought the same… and worse… all by myself. The real victim in this is Adam. The poor boy has me as a role model… he’s surely doomed to repeat the folly of his father.

So I’ve abandoned that whole catastrophe, in favor of a similarly doomed project… a recon mission for cost savings around the house. I’ve downloaded Skype, a free alternative for the phone, with visions of using my computers as speakerphones. A Skype bonus, the possibility of video conference calls with my non-Mac family members (you know who you are), is intriguing. I’ve done hours of research looking into tools to help abandon the landline phone service to our home… in favor of our wireless service. I’ve installed a filter on our water supply to help reduce our grocery bill (no more bottled water for these Kauffmans!). I’ve studied our itemized cable bill and our provider’s advertised package deals for possible savings. After two days of work I’ve come up with almost fifty dollars in monthly savings.

Maybe this second project wasn’t such a bad idea after all. We’ll just have to see how the landline termination project goes. Stay on the lookout for a phone number update in the near future.