so, yea, i haven't really been around, and it's likely i'll be m.i.a. for a bit longer. some numnut hacked into the server from dii's ikonboard. this barely got cleared up when the (for the server, i mean) when we went through an upgrade. the server finally stabilized a few days ago and now i'm waiting for a license installation so i can set up a new forum with the software now being offered by our lovely (and ever so kind and patient) hostess. if we're still waiting in a few weeks, i may end up moving dii to jatol. if we were ever going to move without massive upheaval (any more than there is now, that is), now would be the best time. not that i really want to move - i like the personal care we get with our hostess. but waiting for a new board isn't good for a group that relies on a forum.

in the meantime, however, i've been going through mysql files to salvage the most important of our 4500+ posts from the old board, including members crits. my initial text file, with .5 margins in courier new at a 9 point font and single-spaced, came to well over 1200 pages in ms word. thank god for word's search function. at the beginning of every post is the font color tag. i'm just searching for the words 'font color' to find the beginning of each post, i skim it, then delete or copy it to a new file as needed. of course, being as dense as i am sometimes, it took me clearing over 300 pages before i realized i could do this. *rolls eyes*

i swear, some days 'slow on the uptake' doesn't even begin to describe how slow i can be. yeesh.

once i started using the search function, the pages went much more quickly. i've gone from 970 something down to 174 in 2 days, and expect to finish all that tonight. i'll start comparing what appear to be duplicate files and posting the important stuff no later than tomorrow. i'm holding off sorting through the crits until everything else we need to save is posted at the backup forum.

after all that, i have to install pmachine and transfer all my mt powered entries into it, then kill my mt because my hostess is banning perl/cgi-bin scripts. sigh. i hate switching software once i'm comfortable with something. fortunately, the new forum software is used for the anduiuar, so i'm somewhat familiar with it. i won't be customizing the new board until the important posts are up and my mt is dealt with, but i think most the members just want a forum back online. for now we have the backup board at a free server. no crits going up, but we can interact.

in the meantime, not much writing going on - just work and recovery from the hack. even the praxis stuff has been set aside for awhile. work's been busy, so i'm usually not studying even there. heck, last week i felt perpetually late, behind, and off balance. it must be my forum fix not getting fed. i'm even behind on my journal reading.

we did finally get the rent and utilities all handled, and promptly tanked the account again. i'm kicking saxy for over buying at the grocery store and for eating out, and kicking myself for being equally undisciplined and irresponsible. not quite sure what happened to the control factor when we moved, but i'd better get it back and soon. i can't pay a month of rent ahead for this summer as i'd hoped, so we'll be living on saxy's salary alone for the two months i'm off. not that his salary is bad, but it isn't the $2200-2400 we make combined. granted, summer and early fall are the seasons for construction, so he may do that well or better, but we'll see.

i'm slowly learning not to hold my breath on much out here.

at this point, it looks like i've even gotten taz's social security back on track. they cut him off because saxy had one $1800 month last year and, when you add that to my estimated $1200 (give or take), it comes to $3000 - the exact cutoff for ssi for him in our current family makeup. of course, the minute i started working saxy's income dropped - cut almost in half (not quite in half because mcat gave him a raise about the same time). we had to give them a letter stating he was no longer a full time employee. so part of the tanked account this month was because of losing an expected $400 in ssi (thus learning not to hold my breath).

me working full time will take care of this since i'll be gross about $3100-3600 on my own, but until then we have to convince the government we aren't cheats or frauds, taz really is disabled, and we really don't make that magic $3000/month. i got to hear the penalty for perjury speech three times from taz's social worker all because my husband works for my brother, and we certainly couldn't be telling the truth about my husband's income dropping, now could we? yeesh. can they be any more distrustful of someone they've just met? okay, i can kinda understand, but, lordy, my son was on ssi in cali too. i know the drill! once i'm making full time pay, i'll gladly get off any and all public aid. (linnorm, however, feels that taz should get something no matter what. maybe he'll kick in an extra $50-100 for the kid once he's off ssi. unlikely, but it's a thought.)

anyway, time to stop delaying the inevitable and get to work on these 175 pages. after that i get to trim a few members, warn a few members, add a few new members. then i'll be comparing files and posting to the backup forum.

i'm really pissed we have to rebuild our markets section of the board, and i'm upset that this happened the week we opened said section to guests. it was something we wanted to do for the writing community as a whole and some moron as made sure we won't be doing that again.

it's just sad how stupid some people can be when trying to prove they're so clever.