It is only November and already I am starting to think about what I am going to do for Spring Break. I have been contemplating going to one of the coasts and just seeing the sights.

I have wanted to visit New York or Washington D.C. for a while now so I may just go to one of those cities and spend the week. Since Washington is so close to Baltimore I thought I might catch the Metro (I think that is what they call it) and head up there to catch an Orioles game, but I was just looking at their schedule and their season does not start until April.

Philadelphia is also pretty close to D.C. so I could head up there and check it out.

There are just so many options, I don’t know what to do. But, knowing my luck I’ll stay in Lubbock soaking up some of that West Texas dust.

I was just browsing radio station sites to see if I could find a good stream to listen to and I came across Houston’s Rock 101 KLOL site and it looks as though they are turning it into a Tejano station!

That means that I will have to listen to 94.5 – The Buzz from now on whenever I go home…

I have been trying to tackle this issue for a while now and I still have not come up with a good solution.

My requirements are to backup MySQL databases that reside on multiple servers and then download the backup files (*.sql) to a local machine so that they can be burned to a CD.

The two solutions that I have come up with are:

1. A Python script that runs the commands from a local machine.
2. A Shell script that runs on the remote machines to backup the databases and a script that runs on the local machine to download the backups

My problem is deciding which way is more efficient and easier to use. Since we are usually adding sites at a rate of about 2 a month I need to be able to edit a config file with all of the new database’s information so that it can be backed up as well.

Anyone dealt with this before? Ideas? (e-mail me: s [AT] badice [DOT] com

After learning about Holiday Spice Pepsi I had to pick some up. The plan was to get a 12 pack of it and try it out but the local grocery store only had it being sold as a single in a bottle. I picked one up and gave it a try…

My first impression was that it was “different”. It was not bad, it just had a different flavor that I was not used to. As I continued drinking it I realized that it reminded me of the smell of Pine-Sol. Other than that I thought it was pretty good. You can taste the cinnamon and ginger, which I know does not sound good to most people but I thought it was.

So if you are in the mood for something different try it out. It will only be around till New Years.

Rain will be around the rest of the week. It is not pouring rain or anything like that, it is a steady, depressing drizzle. I walked home from school in it and by the time I got to my block I was soaked. I enjoyed it but I do not think I can take 4 more days of it. I feel like I am back in Houston except it is cold…

My week will consist of me studying as much as possible so that I can enjoy Thanksgiving weekend with my family. I am meeting with a professor tomorrow to discuss taking an independent studies class that would allow me to free up a spot in my schedule for lunch because as it stands right now I go for about 6 hrs. straight a day with no lunch break.

I’ve made some time over the last few days to play America’s Army. My connection at home sucks so I usually go to a friend’s house to play. It is weird to play again, but it is nice.

Yes, sucks.

We were supposed to get snow yesterday and today but the temperature has hovered around 36 all day, leaving us with a slight but annoying drizzle. Now they are predicting that this will continue through the rest of the week. I just want to see the sun again!

I was browsing iTunes this morning and came upon a pre-release track for the new Nirvana album With the Lights Out. The track is an acoustic version of Lithium which appeared on the Nevermind album as well as Unplugged in New York.

I have been thinking about moving this site to a different host so that I could get SSH access to my account and its databases. Along with that, I have been working on a new database structure that is somewhat different to what is considered normal for a “blog”. I’ll explain more when it and its corresponding PHP is complete.

That’s right, Gmail now has POP3 access available for its users. You can read more about it here.

My database management class had an interesting discussion today on privacy. The first issue was whether we as Americans have privacy. The fairly unanimous outcry from the people in the class was there is no privacy for the most part. Pretty much everything you do has some sort of tracking attached to it. Buy groceries, get a credit check, go to the doctor, it all gets recorded somewhere.

The discussion then moved to what should be private and who need privacy. It turned into one of those recursive discussions that ended in, “If you have nothing to hide then why do you need privacy? But if no one has anything to hide there is no reason to invade their privacy”.

I see the privacy issue as a very touchy subject. Who defines privacy and at what point does our society turn into “1984” or “Brave New World“?

I honestly have no idea where I stand on the issue because I feel like I do not have anything to hide, but at the same time I think that the 4th Amendment needs to be upheld.