Today I’m distracted by the economy, for the first time. On the weekend, I read about the banks that were closed by the Fed; About all those people losing their income.; About all the business that are closing, large and small. I wonder where it will end. Will America sink into a depression?  Will there be bread lines again, like my grandfather spoke about, with deep sadness in his eyes. What has happened to our country?   But I think our new President has the mind and temperament to deal with this monumental problem. And as Winston Churchill said, “Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential. ”.

As long as I can remember, my dear friend, lets call her Sue, always knew that she would be financially alright. Even though her father, Phil, quite a wealthy man, consistently said his money would go to charity, or to his son.  He wasn’t happy with Sues’ lifestyle.  But Sue, deep down, knew her Dad would come through in the end. 

About 5 years ago, Sues Dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. He took the news quite well. You see, he was quite the vigorous guy.  His kids were grown and had their own families, he felt great, and announced he would fight it tooth and nail. He did.  Phil fought for a long time, seeing specialist after specialist, participating in drug study after study.  He wanted very much to enjoy life, and just deal with it. And he finally told his daughter that she would, in fact, get half of his assets. It was in his will.

After awhile, his symptoms got worse.  Sue and her brother decided to put him in a special care facility for people with Parkinson’s Disease. He flourished there. It was quite a beautiful place. Concierge service, activities, all kinds of fun things to do. Phil thoroughly enjoyed living there.  
Phil was an avid newspaper reader, reading the New York Times every morning, religiously, for years.  One morning, he fluffed open the paper, and saw the front page.  In big bold print, the story told of how Bernard Madoff stole 50 billion dollars from his investors in a long-running Ponzi scheme, and that all the money was lost. All 50 billion dollars was gone. Evaporated.
Phil dropped the newspaper, and let out a loud grown.  His money was gone. Madoff managed Phils portfolio valued at several million dollars. He always spoke of the genious Madoff to his son and daughter. But now, he just sat silent.  Sue heard the news, along with her brother, and rushed to the facility to see their Dad.

Realizing his money was gone, and in bad health, his will to live dwindled. He just gave up, Sue explained. “He was a broken man”.   Phil no longer read the newspaper every morning. He stopped speaking. He just sat in bed, with his head down. Sue moved him from the high-end facility that he so much enjoyed, to a nursing home. The money was gone. It wasn’t affordable.

Phil died not long after moving to the nursing home, a broken man.  Sue and her brother believe Madoff should be charged with murder.  And I wonder how many others have suffered this fate?  And where is Madoff? Living in a luxury penthouse, under house arrest. Still enjoying the highlife. 

Here’s the list of the biggest losers. There’s no mention of Phil. Only large corporations.

Part 2 of the web site checklist centers around Self-Hosting your web site.  Take a look at the check list and carefully consider each step. I’ll develop this into a parts list, as well as a task list in coming articles.

When I setup a web site, whether for business, or fun, keeping the budget low is key.  The checklist, the lead-off to self-hosting a web site article, gives you an idea of the things you’ll need to keep in mind to get your site going. 

Web Checklist – Self Hosting

0. Operating System - For client projects, I offer OS X (apple) or Linux.  In my view, if one wishes a stable, reliable web site, that stays up, and requires little operating system maintenance, choose OSX or Linux. 

1. Web Server hardware – start with an inexpensive computer – I generally buy a box from tigerdirect.com, or another low-priced seller. Keep the capital lay out low to start.


2. Web Server - Apache is the de facto standard in my view. It’s free, and quite powerful. And there are lots of tools, add-ons, and management software available.
For ease of configuration, and management, Apache GUI is a great tool.

3. Scripting Languages – PHP, Java, Javascript, ASP – my choice here is PHP, It’s free, very powerful, is object-oriented for real app building, and there are a lot of addons available.


4. Database – Mysql is everywhere. It’s free, easy to setup, easy to run, and the php library for mysql is very straightforward.


5. Web Site Design – Dreamweaver – lots of folks swear by hand-coding html. As a professional programmer with 20 years experience under my belt, using a tool like Dreamweaver reduces programming error, saves time (time=$$$), and its easy to use once you get the hang of it.


6. DNS Management (Domain Name Server) – this is always an issue if you have a dynamic IP – most do. Using a service like http://www.dyndns.com/ for your dynamic dns service works sometimes. I recommend getting a static ip address, it costs more, but its worth it. You want your site reliable. Contact your isp to get it setup.


7. Domain Name – I use cheap-domainregistration.com – It’s cheap. Bottom line.

8.  Co-Location Option – I’ve tried co-location many times. Have had mixed results. It’s costly, but frees you from dealing with all the issues of self-hosting.


9. ISP – get the company that offers the best deal for the fastest connection.

10. Server Backup / Power Backup - I usually have a 500GB or 1TB external backing up the server daily, with a battery backup unit on the server. I typically buy these items from costco.com.

Note: While my blog is typically web-design/videography focused, I felt compelled to talk about my experience with medical cannabis. 

My Story.

For about 10 years, I have been getting the occasional migraine headache. Recently, the migraine I was pained with was so severe, my doctor thought I had infected sinuses, or a bad head cold.  One night the pain was so bad, it took me to the emergency room, where the doctor identified I in fact had a migraine.  She prescribed prednisone for 3 days.

After 3 days, I started having hallucinations, a side-effect of prednisone. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t do anything. This went on for 2 days.  Finally, a friend recommended I take medical cannabis, to treat my migraine.  I took it, and I was finally able to sleep through the night, the migraine went away as did the hallucinations.

It was my first experience with Medical Cannabis. I’m impressed. So much so, I got a medical cannabis card from a physician.  I’ll use it if I have further trouble with migraines.