If you want a sneak peak of what might be coming, check out this scratch pad of the next Jux Entente design.
Sep 192006
Sep 132006
There’s another new feature posted temporarily in the forum.
Sep 132006
Bloody excellent news!
Work has begun on the new Jux 3.0 backend that will fix a lot of the problems that have developed over the past months that are slowly strangling the site. Originally, as Travis posted below, we were going to move in and inhabit the corpse of Kenny’s code and try to keep it running, and reanimate it to do new things.
We’ve now eschewed that. Unlike the 2.0 transition, the first version of 3.0 should be completely transparent to you, the readers. I’m working on a bunch of visual changes and new ideas that will take place in 3.1, but the priority for the moment is getting us completely functional again.
Until then, new features are going to be posted in the forum. I think I’m going to go through a semi-biographical period for awhile.
Sep 132006
For whatever reason, “…to be loved” by Papa Roach has been stuck in my head for days.
The best part is, it makes me want to go rough people up! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH
Too bad the band really fucking sucks.
Vivian’s asleep on the couch again…she really needs to go to bed earlier.
Sep 112006
Indeed, Jux is not going anywhere; and is on the upward function of the bell curve as we both adjust to our respective “busy lives”.
Also, as an addendum to Graeme’s post below, I’ll clarify the reluctance to drag out my past: Often, my entire consciousness is one continuous pool reaching back to the foggy depths of my recollection. I live every minute of my life every minute of my life. So things are constantly changing–it’s a bit like trying to catch a drop of water in your mouth under a waterfall.
So if I were to try and drag out and put to words and sections my past, I would (in theory) effectively live through it all over again. Contrary to that, however, I think it’s a bit naive to think that the experiences and lessons I’ve learned since then will be of no help to filter through it all. Things change greatly with time and reflection, so perhaps I will make something similar soon.
And now for my words on the Kenny thing: He did an awesome job with the site, and he worked hard to give it the functionality that it has now, which I won’t forget. He always had funny insights to things, and interesting ways to look at the world. I hate that things had to turn out the way that they did, and in a way it feels like we’ve lost more than just a friend.
It’s been over 8 months now, and we’ve been through the 5 Stages as it seems, so we’ve accepted things as they are–we realize our old friend is not coming back. It’s been made clear that Kenny wants nothing to do with Jux anymore, and that’s his decision to make. I wish him well, and hope that he achieves all that he sets out to achieve in life. Thanks for showing me Visual Basic all those years ago.
Sep 102006
I am apparently unique in my obsession with not losing touch with people, and in not wanting to forget my past. Travis isn’t touching my challenge put forth in the “feature” (yep, our site backend is still broken) on the forum with any length of pole. That’s fine. I can accept that I’m weird, in that I’m a very sensitive asshole.
I have accepted the fact that I have way too much to do, now. I’ve replaced confusion and stress with abject terror. I might end up dropping the one class I have that I dislike greatly, and take the slower path (2 years to degree rather than 1.5) until I can get a GRA and survive better without having to devote so much time to work. I actually like my job at Verizon okay. It’s not all that intellectually challenging, but it’s easy, and varied. The past three weeks my boss has had me doing web design work, which actually gave me the opportunity to use some of my basic design ideas for Jux 3.0, albeit in a very basic, unattractive fashion.
Kenny thought this site would die without him. We haven’t really struggled with him leaving in that way at all. What’s happened to Jux, and what I’m fighting to prevent from completely consuming it, is the fact that Travis is a time vortex and I am completely insane.
Let me explain. On Travis’ part, he loses most of his free time to…free time. Instead of a schedule Travis as a unified pool of “time” that he pulls from whenever he feels it to be necessary. While efficient, and flexible, it does lead to deficinces in the upkeep of most ancillary things. It also makes him late a lot, but that’s not important.
On my part, I’m completely fucking nuts. I somehow think I can work 24 hours a week (down from a full 40) at Verizon, plus go to school for another 12 a week, not including all the hours I have to spend reading, writing, and researching, and have a meaningful relationship with Vivian, and keep myself mentally sane with a hobby or two and my friends. Not to mention driving up to see the puppy. Where the hell does time for Jux fall in that picture?
Honestly, it oftens falls into quick “mental breaks” at work. The same thing used to happen at the library. In a weird way, my job at Verizon has helped bring Jux back from the brink. While I can’t assure you that my old satirical writing will be back anytime soon, I can say that I plan to bring more of my academic writings to Jux, as well as more biographical stuff. Not only that, but Travis is reverse engineering the backend, so that we will finally have a working solution to site problems again.
At this point, Jux is over four years old . We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.
At the very least, I’m too lazy to remove the automatic payments for the hosting from my credit card.
Sep 082006
I am currently working on reverse-engineering the site’s back end, so far I’ve got the database down pat; next is the php, which is not writing features to html anymore, hence the broken link below. :)
Sep 082006
Fuck that link below. The feature is posted in the forum for now.
Sep 082006
The broken feature poster has been fixed!
Sep 072006
I’m house-sitting in Jasper for the rest of the week, and let me tell you, it feels weird. Part of it is probably that there’s no one else here, but for some reason, this place doesn’t feel that comfortable to me at all anymore. I wouldn’t think that after just two months being gone I’d lose the “home” feeling from here, but I have.
Stuff is in different places. All of my stuff is gone, and my old room is completely empty other than a DVR and a computer. It’s great to see and be around Sadie again, but she has a different leash.
It’s still home, but now, it’s more of a “home place” I guess. Being outside is the strangest part of it all, really. This is a change I expected to happen, having experienced it before with the house on Oakdale, but it’s not one that I expected to happen quite so quickly. Just strange overall.
I think at work tomorrow I’m going to work on a feature about the last three “epochs” of my life. It’s become clear to me now, after my earliest suspicions around April, that I am officially in a new era of my life. I think I’ll chart the last three eras (a history starting in 1998), or maybe four (a history starting in 1996).
It would be a fun, if perhaps depressing and weird at some points, diversion at the least.
