Server - VPS Advanced
RAM - 4.2 GB
Disk - 100 GB
CPU cores - 4
Costs an additional +$48/mo
They also have a plan called » VPS Advanced, CPU Optimized, which comes with 6 cores.
Server - VPS Advanced CPU Optimized
RAM - 4.2 GB
Disk - 100 GB
CPU cores - 6
Costs an additional +$58/mo
My current plan comes with 2 cores and 2 gigs of memory. That used to be plenty back in the day.
Speaking of the day, I wonder what time it is right now. I'm gonna go check real quick. Be right back.
Looks like it just turned into December. Winter is right around the corner. The solstice approaches.
One of the techs who was helping me said, "We highly recommend you upgrade your server to one of these options, which gives you 4 GB of RAM and 4 CPU cores. With this upgrade, overall performance will increase and you will no longer be facing load issues."
I started having problems soon as I upgraded the server's operating system to Alma 8. This was at the beginning of November. I think the newer O/S uses more resources.
Nobody told me this, but this has been my experience. And this is the way that technology tends to go in general. Newer software requires more powerful hardware. You know.
I had been using CentOS7 as the O/S since Sept 2020. Everything was working fine. (Heck, even the hacker liked it.) So it has been 4 years with that last O/S.
»Stay with CentOS 7 Even Though It Reached End-of-Life
They did not want me to upgrade. They wanted me to stay with CentOS 7, even though it had come to its end-of-life. It still worked great. With no security issues.
This OS upgrade to Alma 8 was the first time I have done what is called an "in-place upgrade." You don't have to move the site files to a physically different server.
In order to qualify for an in-place upgrade, you need to have both WHM/cPanel and also Acronis back-up installed. They do a pre-check and go through the server carefully to make sure there will be no issues during the in-place O/S upgrade.
I been using VPS servers now for many years. Here's a post from 2012 titled » Zippy New Dual-Westmere VPS for Xmas. And I was already on a VPS when I moved to WiredTree.
I was on basic shared hosting before that. I remember them telling me, "Dude, your site is using too many server resources. We have moved your ass to a stabilization server, where we put all the bad boys. You need to either upgrade or get the fuck out." That's when I was banished from shared hosting.
So I have done these O/S upgrades a number of times. There is always shit you need to work out. Always problems that need taking care of.
Anyway, they wanted me to stay with CentOS 7. They said, "Eventually you'll need to upgrade. But for now, let's just chill with CentOS 7 for a while. It's woking fine."
I chilled for a few months. But then I stated getting antsy because WHM/cPanel would no longer update for CentOS 7 because the O/S had reached its end-of-life. So I started complaining. I wanted to upgrade a new O/S that supported WHM/cPanel updates.
They offered the upgrade options of both Alma 8 and Rocky 8. Either one would've worked fine. Rocky is made by the same folks who made CentOS, which is based on Rad Hat.
Red Hat is not a free O/S like CentOS, Rocky and Alma. You gotta pay for Red Hat. And it ain't cheap.
I threatened to leave. I threatened to move the site to a different web hosting provider. (Something I have also done a number of times over the years.)
They said, "Okay. We'll go ahead upgrade you." I am adlibbing here a bit for drama points. But this was definitely the gist of the haps.
»Things Usually Work Best When You Follow the Advice of Experts
Dude, I am normally good at listening to the advice of professionals. They know what they are doing. They are the experts. You will be in good hands. You'll be fine following their advice. I know this.
For example, when my doctors, or when my oncologists, recomended I do something, I did it.
You know, Steve Jobs, he went against the advice of his doctors when he got cancer. He thought he was smarter than them. Steve Jobs is dead now. Walter Isaacson knows what I am talking about. Listen to the experts. This is sound advice.
They are human. They can make mistakes, sure. But you and me, we will always make more. Because we don't know as much as the experts do.
This point has been impressed upon me of late. Which is probably why I am going into such detail here. I learned my lesson. (Again.)
After the upgrade to Alma 8, the forum died because the version of YaBB that I use is not compatible with the new version of Perl that comes with Alma 8.
Also, the Moveable Type weblog software no longer works. And Six Apart no longer offers a free downloadable version. Now you have to pay $500 a year for a Moveable Type license.
The web pages that have already been created are still viewable and good to go. But I can no longer edit them in the program. Nor can I create any new pages using that software. I can't use it at all. (Movable Type is also a Perl-based program.)
So I have run a into a number of glitches as you can tell. I have a number a possible options to resolve these glitches. But it will still take me some time to work out my strategy.
And I can't really do shit until I first get the server running more stably. Every time I try to do anything that stresses the server, it shits itself and reboots. No fun.
And I don't like to have to keep contacting support for help. You just want shit to be working smoothly again.
I been working with VPS servers for long anough now that I have a decent idea of how to use them. It's a very cool technology. Very powerful. But you always run into new shit that puts you back on the steeper slopes of the learning curve.
I been learning lots of shit this past month .. let me tell you, Jack.
Back when I first upgraded to VPS, I was paying $44/mo with WiredTree. They were excellent. But they sold the business to Liquid Web, who I am now with.
Zack, the guy who owned WiredTree, he originally came from Liquid Web before starting his own hosting company. So it was an understandable move.
Sometimes you would call for support, and Zach would answer. He sometimes sat in and worked as a support tech himself. The owner of the company. And sometimes he was there late at night, too.
I liked talking to him. He was very interesting. I respected him.
Dude, if I owned the company, I would not be working a shift on the support desk. You hear me.
His whole staff kicked much ass. They were wizards. And some were super-wizards. I learned a lot from them. And they were very patient with me and all my questions.
Anyway, this is the stuff I've been thinking lately. Heck, I've even had disc usage warnings. I think my current plan comes with 40 gigs of space. I never had disc usage warnings before upgrading to Alma 8.
Back when I was with Zack at WiredTree, I was paying $44/mo for the server. And they promised to never raise your rate, unless you upgraded your resources.
But now, your average entry-level VPS is double that. Sure, I have seen the attractive teaser rates that companies will publish in big, bold print. But they only last a few months. Reading the tiny fine print you find out that they all normalize at about $90 a month. (You might need to get out your magnifying glass.)
There are a handful of big-name web-hosting providers out there, based in different parts of the country. And all their prices are comparable. You get what you pay for.
I think my first VPS came with 256 KB memory. Definitely no more than 512. Ah, the good ol' days.
Oh yeah, here's an entry from 2008 where I had 384 KB (256 + 128 upgrade).
So that's what I been up to of late.
You know, there are not many sites that have been on the web for 25 years. It has been quite the journey.
» 2024.NOVEMBER.15 - The problem with the forum not loading is that the version of the script I currently have installed is not compatible with the new version of Perl that comes with the new server operating system I recently upgraded to earlier this month. (Alma 8)
» Need to Install a New Version of the Forum Script
The forum runs off a Perl script.
Everytime there is an O/S upgrade to a new full number, there are always things that need to be worked out. This upgrade was no exception.
The good news is that the latest version of YaBB is indeed compatible with the version of Perl I now have. Folks are running the latest release version of YaBB (2.6) with the same version of Perl I have.
But, instead of just installing a brand new board, I want to try to retain all the old posts and members and items from the current board. There are zillions of informative posts there.
But not being able to access the current board makes the process of "converting" a little trickier.
You get rusty at things when you haven't done them for a while. So I been dusting off the techie brain cells. I've upgraded the forum software many times. It's coming back to me.
I still have some items that I need to iron out first, and I'm in no big hurry. I'll post another message here when things are ready to go. Maybe another week or so. We'll see. I have some personal things I need to take care of, too.
And I been getting messages from old timers saying things like, "Hey. I was just visiting your site to get your puttanesca recipe when I noticed that you just posted a new message. First in 5 years."
Even though I haven't posted anything new here on the homepage, I still posted plenty of entries in the weblog during that time.
» Solved the 'Mixed Content' Issue Preventing Styles from Loading for the Weblog Pages
On a more successful note, I identified the source(s) of the problem with the 'mixed content' errors I was getting that were preventing the styles for the Moveable Type weblog pages from loading.
These mixed content errors can be identified by pressing F12 in Chrome, which brings up the console for the developer tools. All content over an insecure connection is blocked.
It's still the exact same CSS file (stylesheet). The only thing that changes is the type of connection that transfers it to your browser.
There are still some mixed content errors blocking things, but I don't care about them. I only cared about the styles not loading.
It wasn't a major issue because all the text and images were still loading fine. But the pages just didn't look pretty without their styling.
The mixed content problem is due to recent upgrades in browsers refusing to load both secure (https) and non-secure (http) content for the same page, over the same connection.
I'm glad I managed to idenify the source of the problem. But now, this means that I need to go back and manually edit all those pages.
It's a very quick process to edit a page. Only takes 10 secs to paste in a small block of code into the head section that tells the page to load the styles over a secure connection (https).
The older pages are obviousy less relevant. And I'm in no big hurry. But I been working on it here-n-there.
» What a Head-Spinning Trip Down Memory Lane This has Been
So far I've done everything from now all the way back to the beginning of 2016.
Man, what a trip this has been, seeing all those old titles. They are triggering old memories.
There have been some good memories triggered and some not-so-good ones. You know. I have been in some tough places over the years. Some nasty, challenging predicaments. I have been trick-fucked plenty of times.
» Super Vivid Realistic Dreams that Stick with You Long After You Wake
Also been having some super vivid dreams lately. Not sure if the triggering of these old memories is the reason why.
But these are the kind of dreams where you wake and can still feel and see and remember everything in great, vivid detail. Some of it wild shit, too. Lots of it wild. And there's always other people involved, too. Feels like it means something. Though I'm not sure what.
I worked with a dude at SONGS who said that every time he ate sushi (at the place in San Clemente off Pico) he had the most vivid and realistic dreams. He speculated it might be due to the burdock root they used in their handrolls.
I have started eating a sheet of roasted seaweed every day or so for its iodine content because I don't use iodized salt, and because seaweed is the best natural source of iodine. Each sheet contains about 40% of the recommended daily allowance.
These are the same sheets that they use at sushi bars. So maybe this has something to do with these super-vivid dreams I been having lately.
And everybody knows the prophet Joel said"Your old men will dream dreams," which will precede the coming of the "great and terrible day of the Lord" that Peter referenced on the day of Pentecost.
I don't have a therapist anymore. But if I did, I'd be curious about what he might think about these dreams. These ultra vivid dreams that stick with you long after you wake.
They just seem so real and life-like.
I used to date a girl who'd ask me every morning, "Tell me your dreams." Then she'd say, "You have great dreams."
Did you see the moon? Tonight is the full moon. I went for walk down to the harbor yesterday shortly before sunset. And it had already risen over the city to the east, looking like a perfectly illuminated disc, still lower than some of the taller buildings.
» 2024.NOVEMBER.8 - Hello. The server operating system has recently been updated to Alma 8, which comes with a new version of Perl that is not compatible with the current version of the forum software (YaBB) which uses a Perl script.
» Forum Not Working After Upgrading to New Server Operating System
I was talking to techs at my web hosting provider about the possibility of installing an older version of Perl, but they advise against it due to the security issues it would introduce.
But I'm not really sure exactly what is causing the problem, which is an "Internal Server Error'. Could be anything.
I am going to look into other options, into newer options for a forum. Right now I am researching what is required to get and instsall a SSL certificate and turning the site into a secure server (https, not http). Stay turned.
In other news, I am healthy, currently living downtown San Diego. Been down here 3½ years now. I've become quite the city boy, where the sound of police sirens blend seamlessly into background.
Completely off all the antidepressants. Going for brisk walks down to the harbor a few times a week.
May even join a health club and start pumping iron again, since the membership comes with the health care coverage I have. There is a participating club right around the corner. A nice one. I've already called them to see what's up.
Sometimes I walk down to the park down the street and run a few laps around it. That always makes me feel good. It's the size of a city block. Folks mainly walk their dogs there. I run slowly and take a breather between each lap.
Starting to get chilly at night. Every year I play a little game where I see how long I can go until I have to shut the bedroom window at night. My goal is to make it to Dec 1st, but I never make it that far.
Been playing this game ever since I first arrived in SoCal many years ago, where I would leave the bedroom window open about a foot at night for fresh air. But once the nights get cold enough, then I cave and shut the window before going to bed.
So far, it's still open. But it's starting to get cold at night. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to hold out.
Biggest health concern I have is probably the anemia. My red blood cell count and my hemoglobin are both low. Like, all the time.
They have been low ever since the chemo 10 years ago.
My hemoglobin is just a tad below spec. While my red blood cell count at last labs was not even close. Almost a full point below spec.
But my doctors are not concerned. No. Long as the readings remain stable, which they do, then they see no reason for concern.
They say this is a known side-effect of chemo. That's when I started having trouble keeping up my red blood cell count.
Chemo wrecks your blood. At least, the kind I had did. I had 3 chemo sessions over the course of 6 weeks.
Anemia makes you tired. Makes you feel like your ass is dragging. You fatique more easily. And if you push it and get over-tired, then it takes longer for you to recover.
But I don't mind it much because I'm just glad to be alive. Anemia is better than death. Much better. That's what I always say.
You need iron to make hemoglobin. Hemoglobin transports oxygen. It takes your body a month to make new hemoglobin.
Whenever I supplement with Florix iron I feel significantly better, both physically and mentally. Takes about 90 mins. Then I feel more relaxed. More settled. More myself.
The stuff is not cheap, though at $27.50 for a small 250 ml bottle. So I don't get it all the time. And I only do half the recommended dose, which is 10 mls twice daily. I only do the morning shot. Then la la la all day long.
At 10 mls, a 250 ml bottle will last 25 days. They tell you to use the bottle within 4 weeks of opening because no preservatives.
Other than that, my blood looks great. The med school girl interning at my doctor's office said, "We never see labs this good."
Been having problems with hackers getting on the server. In the process of getting some powerful security software packages installed in the next few days. May even get back to doing some writing after that.
Okay, the security packages have been installed and scans run. It found/identified thousands of infected files. An order is currently in the queue to take care of the infected files. Professionals who know what they are doing.
» Styles for Moveable Type Weblog Pages Not Loading Due to 'Mixed Content' Issue
Speaking of writing, the styles for the Moveable Type weblog entries are not loading due to changes introduced to browsers recently. So the pages don't look as pretty as tney did before. But all the text and images are still there.
Of course, I have thoughts about Trump getting re-elected. But now is not the time to go there.
It will be interesting and telling to see where he takes the nation. Seems like the end of the world can't be far off. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm usually not.
Isaac Newton, perhaps the geatest mathematician ever in the history of planet Earth, predicted in 1704 that the end of the world was coming in 2060.
Buckle up and strap in for a wild ride on the fascist rollercoaster. Such rides never end well. Check your history books.
This has all the signs and indications for the end of the world, no?
Just imagine where the nation might be right now if Hillary and the evil DNC hadn't rigged the 2016 nomination process against Bernie.
»
» I should probably note that my email accounts have been hacked .. for some time now.
The child support people say that I owe them somewhere around $45K or $50K. I cannot even afford the interest (10% annual) on this amount.
They sent a "legal action process" to my bank to try and get this money that I dont have. (Which they have done many times before.) I had $65 of SSI money left in my account, but my bank charges $100 to process their legal action.
So they get nothing from me, but my bank took the last $65 of SSI money that I had.
I was saving the $65 in case I needed to buy a new Waterpik flosser .. because the drymouth from the radiation to my salivary glands tends to rot your teeth faster. And I cannot do without a Waterpik.
After my bank account was wiped out (yet again) I deposited $11 in cash .. in order to try and keep my account open ($5/month service fee) .. but they took that too.
I think they are going to take everything I have until they get their $45K. "Too bad for you if you need toothpaste or a haircut," they say.
So it has become clear that it is an exercise in futility trying to keep open my bank account .. and I only have some nickels and dimes left. (No more paper money .. I spent my last two $1 bills at Starbucks on a medium coffee last week.)
As previously mentioned, I have a number of things left over from the cancer treatment .. but I am just glad to be alive.
I am genuinely glad to be alive and I feel a genuine sense of gratitude for the simple things in life .. such as witnessing the arrival of a new season.
I am looking for a new place to live. So if you happen to know of somebody with a spare house, or a spare room .. then I am interested .. preferably in Orange county, so I can be close to my son.
If he is still there, that is .. and she has not moved away .. which she has tried to do a number of times before. So I would not be surprised if she has.
It is a total blackout.
The last time I heard from my son (18 months ago) .. was a message that he left for me saying that he would, "Try to get mom to clear off some of her messages," so I could at least leave a message for him, telling him that I love him.
That was the last I heard from him.
Ever since the judge gave her "veto power" over me, and said that I have to go along with whatever she decides whenever we cannot agree (we never agree on anything) .. it would not surprise me if she has indeed moved away.
I fought her for years, trying to stop her from moving away with him. I drained my bank account and max'ed out all my credit cards.
When the child support people send letters, they say things like, "Do what is right for your child(ren)."
What they mean by this is to » give the mom more money. But they never encourage you to spend more quality time with your child(ren). Not even one time.
They never send a letter to the mom telling her to stop asking for bullshit restraining orders that separate your child from his dad for an accumulated 3 months worth.
They never tell the mom that she should stop calling the police and child protective services and making false accusations against the dad.
They never tell the mom that is is not good to coach your son to say bad things about the dad. (As was reported in the 730 evaluation.)
They never call me up and ask me how they can help me to see my son more often.
This is because they dont care about these things. They only really care about the money .. even if the mom happens to use the money you give her to hire people in order to try and take him away from you and move away to another state.
And if you cannot pay what they say you need to pay, then they will take away your driver's license .. which they know will make it more difficult for you to see your son.
I could continue along these lines ad nauseum .. but my point is that they dont really care about the kids. They pretend to .. but they really dont.
See .. the county gets money from the federal government based on the amount of money that they extract from dads.
So the more money they can extract from you, the more money they get from the federal government.
This is why they are really about the money .. and could give two shits about the kids. It's a total scam.
They want you to do "what is right" for your child(ren) .. but they do not do what is right. Far from it, my friend.
» I have Never Seen a Child Do that for So Long Before
Speaking of the 730 evaluator .. one of the cute stories that I like to tell is when the evaluator came out to the house to conduct an evaluation.
(He is a clinical psychologist.)
They come on a day when you have visitation. My son was 3 years old at the time. (This was before he started going to daycare.)
I said to him, "A guy is coming out to the house today for a few hours to see what kind of a dad I am. Just be yourself and everything will be fine."
We began by sitting out in the rec room (« which is the detached building behind the collapsed umbrella).
I was sitting on the sliding metal loveseat there which is facing the TV. My son was sitting on my lap like he usually did. We were watching a DVD .. Finding Nemo or Happy Feet, I think.
The 730 evaluator was sitting in a comfy chair just to our left. We were all watching the DVD and he was asking some questions about where we got the DVD (rented from the library), and some questions about our routine.
After about a half-hour or so, we paused the video were going to walk over to the neighbor's house (a stone's throw away) down the street and jump on the trampoline in their front yard there.
(They had two boys who were expert trampoliners and could do mad flips and whatnot. Their mom said that we could use the trampoline whenever we wanted. My son had been bouncing on the trampoline ever since he could walk.)
I forget the fine details, but after we were finished there with Nemo, or maybe even with Lightning McQueen .. my son ran off to get something, and the Evaluator stood up and turned to me and said with a somewhat surprised look on his face, "I've never seen a child do that for so long before."
And I said, "Do what?"
And he said, "Sit there on your lap like that."
And I said, "Oh." That's when my son returned and we headed over to the trampoline. The Evaluator then began an inspection of the grounds .. to look for chemicals and/or poisons not properly stored, or stowed, or locked up.
He hit me for the Round-Up out in the back shed, and few other things. Little things.
He didnt like that I slept in the same bed with him. He told me to get a roll-away that slides under the bed, or another bed entirely.
We had a full-size bed. It was plenty big for both of us. He was so small, and it seemed like I hardly got to see him at all. I wanted to be as close to him as I could while I had him.
That was why we put the crib back in the bedroom. I had already sold the other crib. He never used the crib. Whenever I tried to put him in there, he would have none of it.
So it was there as sort of a prop .. which we used as a platform from which to play games. This was not the first time we had played the "You Better Not Climb Out of that Crib, Mister" .. or else. He obviously loved to play that game.
I would always change the "Or else" part to something new every time. I would always try to go beyond the consequences that I had laid out the last time we played this game.
It surprised me to see that he enjoyed it so much. I could feel something inside of me desiring to grow as a father .. as he grew as a boy. "What would I want as a son from my father."
This question been answered many different times by many different people in many different ways .. none better than Alice Miller, in my opinion.
You know the standard answer of "Love and patience and understanding and attentiveness and playfulness and emotional support." I could continue along these lines, but you feel me.
I am talking about all the things that mother nature bestows upon the parent. These are not things that you must summon. No, sir. Rather they come with the job.
When the 730 evaluator said this to me, about being surprised at how long my son had sat there on my lap like that .. I did not say anything, but I certainly thought, "Dude, this is nothing. He has sat here for waay longer than this." (I do not know how other dads are alone with their kids. He is all I know.)
If you are simply trying to put on a show for the evaluator .. he will see right through that. This is what they do. They are literally experts at evaluating the performance of parents .. across a broad spectrum of categories.
I called him up that time she spit in my face. I left a message on his machine. Then another, "Hey! Did you get the message I left about ...?"
That was during the 730 evaluation. He did not mention this in his report. No. Probably best that way. What kind of people spit on people? Did I ever get an apology? What do you think?
The first thing that the evaluator said to me, when we first started watching the DVD was, "Did you tell him that I was coming?"
I said, "Yeah."
He said, "What did you tell him?"
I said, "I told him that a guy is coming out to the house today to see what kind of dad I am. Just be yourself and everything will be fine."
The evaluator then asked my son, "Is that what he told you?"
My son nodded and said, "Yeah."
The evaluator then scribbled some notes in his pad.
If you read his 35-page report, you will find that the 730 evaluator found evidence of coaching every time that he came out to the mom's place to do a similar evaluation with her and him .. even though she paid for the whole $6,000.00 evaluation.
The total black-out might actually be easier to deal with, emotionally speaking. Since the answer to the question, "When am I going to see you again, dad?" .. breaks my heart.
If you happen to see my son, tell him that I love him, and to remember Fly-like-a-bird .. where we always come back to each other.
There is not much that I can really do right now. I simply do not have it in me to fight her. She is very good at what she does .. as you can see. She knows how to fight dirty.
This is one of the reasons why I tried so hard to be the best dad I possibly could .. because I could see that the courts were intent on fucking me over. And you can only take so much of that .. before your ass starts to feel like you are being ground down into the pavement.
It is a place that you cannot even imagine .. until you have actually been there .. for year after year.
Sure, it sucks. But I feel like I did as good a job as I could. Considering the circumstances. And the multitude of hostile forces arrayed against me.
Someday I may take it a step further and break it down for you in capital fucking letters .. so that it will be impossible for anybody to misunderstand me.
But now is not the time for that.
» My Shrink is Proud of Me for Confronting and Doing a Difficult Thing
I simply want to say here that I did this thing recently as a response to this story that my shrink told me on Valentine's day.
And he is walking me out after our visit is over. And we are cruising the hallway after a good visit where this personal story that he told me had helped me do this difficult thing.
And he says, "I dont say this lightly, but I'm proud of you."
To which I replied "I'm proud of me, too." Because this turned out to be a surprisingly difficult thing to do.
I was sort of telling myself that this would be cake .. but it wasnt. In fact, the reason why I ended up doing it .. was because I thought, "I'm not going to see my shrink tomorrow and tell him that I pussied out."
The doing it is not the problem so much as is the idea of doing it .. and dealing with the idea. You sort of have to trick yourself, or distract yourself.
One time I save three or four shitty (administrative things that remind you of how fucked you really are) so I popped an Ativan before noon. (I usually wait to 10 PM or so. When bedtime gets close.)
And I remember thinking, "This is so cake. I dont know why I was freaking out before at the idea of doing this. This is the easiest thing I've ever done."
(That's how good Ativan is.)
I dont care how strong you are .. after being fucked over year after year .. by both the mom and the courts .. your ass is done.
Cancer it is for you, my friend. The never-ending (chronic) stress coming from a multitude of seemingly insane sources wears you down physically after a number of years.
This has been my experience. Welcome to my world .. a part of my world. The ugly part.
»When the Socioeconomic Algorithm is Designed to Bleed You Dry and Grind Your Ass into the Pavement
The system is designed to favor some types of people .. at the expense of others. This is by design. It is the design of the national socioeconomic algorithm.
»More Fragile After Treatment .. Both Physically and Emotionally
After my SSI ran out, my friends said that they need my room for somebody who can help them more than I can.
I am not able to help them like I could before cancer treatment, which has left me in a more fragile state .. both physically and emotionally.
So I can certainly understand their point .. because I struggle just trying to take care of myself.
I have already submitted my name to multiple listings that deal with homeless people .. but they dont get serious about helping you find a place to live until you are "already living someplace uninhabitable" .. I am simply in no kind of condition to live someplace uninhabitable.
Plus I have no cash, no car, no driver's license, no credit card, three or four broken teeth in my mouth, with one tooth having two corners broken off, and a voice-box with radiation scarring that begins to fatigue after 45 mins or an hour of talking.
Plus, I hate asking family for help. It makes me feel like a piece of krap.
I have started receiving $192 a month for food stamps .. but you cannot buy soap or shampoo or anything but food with this card that they give you.
I am down to my final bar of (Ivory) soap, and I have a quarter-bottle of (Suave) shampoo left.
Anyway .. all my stuff is already boxed up and ready to go. As soon a super-hottie shows up here with a small U-Haul truck and two strong dudes .. I can be out of here in under an hour. I am ready to go right now. (I have been ready since Christmas.)
Did I mention that I am ready to go right now? T minus 60 minutes and I am outta here.
» Long-Term Stress is Not Good for the Cancer Survivor Because It Weakens the Immune System
But the stress of the whole thing is not good for the cancer survivor. All of my doctors say that long-term stress is not good .. for anybody .. especially not for the cancer survivor .. because stress weakens your immune system. (Selena knows what I am talking about.)
And nobody wants to be somewhere where they are not wanted .. especially not the cancer survivor.
Every time I get a call from the child support people telling me that I owe them shitloads of money, or a letter telling them that they will garnish any money that I do happen to get .. this triggers my anxiety.
So I just toss their mail in the trash and delete their calls .. because I already know what they say.
I should post a copy of some of the mail that they have sent me recently. It basically says things like, "We have the legal authority to take whatever money you happen to come into .. either now or any time in the future .. until you are done paying us what we say that you owe. Have a nice day, sucker."
A number of times, I have requested a "modification" to their orders which order me to pay more than I can afford. But they always order me to pay more than I can afford. So I have learned that asking for a modification is a just a waste of time. (The last time I did this, they ordered me to pay even more.)
Every dad I know who has ever dealt with the Orange county child support services says the same thing » "They bleed you dry."
Is it any wonder that I got cancer?
» It is Not Easy to Stay Alive When They Continually Bleed You Dry Over the Course of Many Years
I am just trying my best to stay alive and I have nothing that they can take because they already took all my money and my driver's license and I sold my car to pay thousands in back child support.
You can't get blood out of a turnip. They have already put me in jail multiple times for not being able to pay what they said I need to pay.
First they ordered me to pay more than I could afford. And then, when I can't pay .. they put me in jail .. repeatedly .. which is why I say that the SYSTEM is really about the money.
» I Paid Child Support for 3 Years When I Didnt Have to
I was paying child support while I was getting SSI ($650 a month) .. which left me very little to live on.
You are not required to pay child support when you are getting SSI benefits. SSI is deemed a payment that child support services does not garnish. (For obvious reasons.)
But it makes me feel good to help out where and when I can .. because anything that benefits her is naturally going to benefit him.
So I paid child support even when I didnt have to. I did not pay the full amount every month, but I tried to pay whatever I could. And many months I did pay the full amount.
Moreover, I could have went back to court after I started receiving SSI and had the payment lowered to zero based on the SSI .. but I didnt. Because it made me feel good to help out.
(My friends told me I was crazy for not going back to court getting the monthly child support payment reset when I had the cancer and started receiving SSI disability benefits. Even the child support people told me I should do that. But I am not about the money.)
After the SSI ran out, I talked to the child support people and said, "Doesnt it matter that I paid child support for three years when I didnt have to?"
They said, "No."
They plugged in some numbers for me to see if they could lower my monthly payment.
I said, "That's more than I'm ordered to pay right now."
They said, "I know. You should just leave it as it is."
I said, "Thanks for nothing."
But, hey .. if they want to put me in jail again .. then they know where I live .. because they send me nasty mail all the time.
These letters trigger me .. because I have been getting them for so many years now.
In all the many years that I have been dealing with the OC child support people .. and they have been calling me and telling me that I need to pay more money .. and in all of these nasty letters that they have been sending me ..
.. never once have they ever asked when the last time was that I saw my son. Not even one time.
At first, it was hard for me to believe that they really didnt care if I ever saw my son or not .. and that they really only care about the money.
But now, after all these years, it has been made clear to me that this is in fact the case. They really only care about the money.
I have not seen my son since cancer treatment (more than 4 years now). I am simply not that strong yet .. to make my way to Orange county.
The mere idea of connecting after a number of years .. is emotionally charged.
I have not even talked to him in some 18 months. I could not even leave him a message telling him that I love him .. because the message box on his mom's phone was always full.
The last thing I heard from him was a message saying that he would "try to get mom to delete some of her messages."
That was the last I ever heard from him .. and I am not able to fight her. I simply dont have the strength .. either physically or emotionally.
And she is way better at fighting than me. (She knows how to fight dirty. If she is on your side, you can go lie down and take a nap, and business will have been handled and taken care of when you wake.)
And the courts always take her side in these things (.. except for the Harvard Law lady judge, who was only there a very short period). The court gave the mom veto power over me. So she makes all the decisions regarding our son.
They wrote in the court order (something like) "Parents should try to work shit out .. but if they can't agree, then, whatever the mom decides goes, and the dad has to do whatever the mom says."
While walking out of the courtroom that day, I thought about what Paul said when he wrote » "He hardens whom He hardens."
Perhaps you can see why dealing with this stuff makes me feel depressed .. because the mom and I never agree. On anything. (Ever.)
» The Judge Essentially Gave Her Full Legal Custody When He Gave Her Veto Power Over Me
The mom has said to me on a number of occasions over the years, "If you just sign over full legal custody to me .. you'll never have to pay me another nickel." (I have joint legal + visitation. Joint legal means that I am supposed to have a say in the decisions regarding our son.)
I am not about the money .. but the judge essentially gave her full legal custody when he gave her veto power over me. Full legal custody for her means that I get no say in the decisions regarding our son.
The judge did not use the phrase "veto power." He merely wrote in the court order that, if we could not agree, then I have to do whatever the mom decides.
Rather this phrase came from her lawyer. When I would call him up and ask him if her decisions sounded fair to him .. he would say things like, "Well, the judge gave her veto power over you. So if you can't agree .. then, that's just too bad for you, my friend."
After calling him a few times regarding decisions that she was making .. I got the message and stopped calling.
This is why I would not be surprised if she has indeed moved away with him .. because the judge said I had to go along with whatever she decides.
The mom is actually not about the money either .. which is one of the reasons why I liked her. But the courts have weaponized money for her against me.
Whenever the mom would say this to me .. about me signing over full legal custody to her, I would always say, "Put it in writing," .. because I wanted to be able to show it to the court.
Since I moved to San Diego county in 2011 .. she has never once brought him here to see me. Not even one time. I always have to go there to see him. Always. Which is tricky .. because I havent had a driver's license or a car since 2009.
(Tho she has taken him to Michigan every year, twice a year, to spend both the holidays and a week during the summer with her family there.)
If I want to bring him here for a weekend, then I have to find somebody to both drive me up there to pick him up, and then again to bring him back.
The courts discriminate against dads .. because, if I did the things that she does, things would be very different for how they would treat me.
I know what I am talking about .. from firsthand experience. I have plenty of firsthand experience with justice coming out perverted.
Many years worth. Too many years worth.
» One of the Many Ways that the Courts Discriminate Against Dads
There have been many times when I have gone to pick him up at his mom's place for a court-ordered visitation and she is simply not there. She is not home. Nobody answers the door when I knock. And she doesnt answer her phone.
After several dozen such times, I started driving over to the local police station and there I would file a report on a form specifically designed for such things. The police keep the cover sheet and you get the carbon copy.
After I had a dozen or so of these forms, I filed a contempt-of-court form with the courts .. to try to get her to give him to me when the courts say that I am supposed to get him.
But when I went to court that day, the judge said to me, "These sheets of paper mean nothing to me. They are simply your word against hers. You need to call the police and have them come out to her house and show them a copy of the court order and have them knock on her door for themselves and have them verify that she is in fact not home."
Which I started doing. But the police are busy with other more important stuff. You will have to sit there and wait for them for at least an hour to show up. And most of the time, they never do come .. because they are too busy with more important things than your insignificant visitation problems.
So I realized that, if she is not there, then I am really just shit-out-of-luck.
» But then When I DO have Witnesses Present, They Dont Want to Talk to Them
So the court tells me that they want witnesses with eyeballs to testify in order to corroborate my claims and my assertions of the nasty shit that the mom is doing.
So, there was a time when two Child Protective Services workers has come out to the house to investigate claims (more lies) that mom had made against me.
While they were there at the house, I told the CPS workers that the mom had spit in my face (which is a crime of assault) .. while I was handing my son to her when she had come to pick him up after a visitation.
I did not drive over to the police station to file a report, and let them swipe her spit on my face and analyze it for her DNA .. because I didnt want her to get into criminal trouble, and I didnt want to leave her spit on my face for that long.
But I had people there at the house who witnessed her spitting in my face and who went out to her car and confronted her, saying to her face, "What kind of person spits in somebody's face?"
When these two CPS workers came out to the house that day, I asked them if they wanted to talk to my witnesses. They said, "No."
When I told my judge-friend that they didnt want to talk to them about the spitting in my face, he said, "I can't believe that they wouldnt want to talk to a percipient witness."
You will have to try to guess at why they wouldnt want to talk to witnesses who were right there, and who could vouch for my claims ..
.. but my point here is simply to say that they were only interested in finding things that corroborated the mom's (fabricated) claims against me (which they couldnt) .. but not my truthful claims against the mom .. when I had witnesses right there for them to talk to .. who could verify my claims with their own eyeballs.
This is yet another example of why I say that the system discriminates against dads.
I have a million of these types of stories.
» The Court Refused to Let Me Review (for Accuracy) the Contents of the Paternity File that I Myself had Filed
[ Remind me to tell you the story of what happened that time when I went to the courthouse and tried to check out and review (for accuracy) the contents of the Paternity case file that covered and held all these false accusations against me .. when they refused to let me see it. This was up on the 7th floor, I think. It was either the 6th or 7th floor where you file paperwork. There are a maybe 6 or 8 windows there. You take a number and go sit down and wait for your number to show up on the digital screen mounted high on the wall. You normally have to wait an hour or 90 minutes, because lawyers get head-of-the-line privileges. (Sometimes longer.) If you have been waiting there for over an hour, and a lawyer walks in, he goes ahead of you. You cannot possibly imagine the number of hours that I spent there at this courthouse over the years. ( 99% of it was wasted time.) I went to the courthouse that day specifically for this purpose, and I had to wait a long-ass time for my number to be called. It is just like talking to a bank teller, who stands behind thick, bulletproof glass. They told me that only a lawyer could check out and review the contents of this file because it dealt with a minor-child. I mean, this was MY minor-child that they were talking about. But I no longer had a lawyer, because I could no longer afford one. Because I had spent all my money and max'ed out all my credit cards trying to defend myself against an unrelenting stream of false accusations. And the court "denied" my request for lawyer's fees, which were more than I could really afford. I bet that, if the court had granted me lawyer's fees, then the mom wouldnt have felt so emboldened to keep making one false accusation after another. Ya think? This request on the 7th floor of the courthouse was for the file for the Paternity case that I myself had filed with the court .. to try to get to be able to see my son, because the mom refused to let me see him after we had separated before he was 6 months old. Now you might think that the courts would want to make it easy for dads to be able to spend time with their kids and to be a part of their life .. but you would think wrong, my friend. You would be very wrong. How many of these types of stories would you like to hear? I have miillions that I could share. Is it really any wonder that I ended up with cancer? It struck me as suspicious when the court refused to even let me look at the file for the case that I myself had filed .. because it was a little birdie who told me and suggested that I should review the contents of the file, saying, "Because there might be stuff in there that shouldnt be in there, and there might not be stuff in there that should be in there." And this was recommended to me in a strange sort of way. ]
» The Court Gladly Embraces her Repeatedly Fabricated Lies Yet they Flatly Reject My Truthful Claims
So notice how, if I go to the court, and I tell them the truth .. that she does not give him to me when the court-order says that I am supposed to get him. And I happen to show the court all these dozen-or-so forms that I have accumulated from filling them out at the local police station over the course of several months .. they simply dismiss this as an insignificant, meaningless claim.
But, on the other hand, if she goes to the court, by herself no less, and tells them that I am doing the most horrible things that you could ever imagine .. the court does in fact listen to her and gladly embraces her fabricated claims, and file a restraining order against me for her .. that says I can't see my son for 21 days.
Heck, they will even pay for the local sheriff to serve me with this restraining order. But they will not pay for my papers to be served when I need to serve her. I have to pay for those myself. $65 every time. (Ask me how I know.)
Now, after 3 weeks, or 6 weeks, then I can go to court and tell them that she is full of shit. But this costs me a lot of money in lawyers' fees. Money that I dont have .. because they order me to pay her more money than I can afford.
» They Always Deny Me Legal Fees Despite One False Accusation After Another
But, when I ask them if I can be reimbursed for these very expensive lawyer's fees .. they always say, "Denied."
And no matter how many times she does this, and no matter how much money it costs me to defend myself against her false allegations .. it keeps happening .. for years and years.
So they gladly embrace the repeated horrible lies that she tells them about me .. and yet they flatly reject the truth that I tell them about her.
This is but one of the many reasons why I say the courts discriminate against dads. And this is but one of the many reasons why I have lost all confidence in the Family Law court system.
And when I ask the court if I can get some make-up visitation .. because this has now been 3 months worth of Restraining Orders that have prevented me from seeing my son .. and every one of these Restraining Orders have been deemed bullshit by the investigating authority (such as detectives and whatnot) .. they always refuse to grant me any make-up visitation.
Never once have they ever given me a single day of make-up visitation. Not even a single hour. Not even a single minute .. after I have been robbed of 3 months worth of visitation.
» Judge Refuses to Review the Tape of the CAST Interview with My Son
When the Costa Mesa (lady) detective told me that I should request that the judge review the tape from the CAST interview with my son (.. which he went to on two different occasions) .. because it will clearly reveal the true nature of our relationship .. the judge flat refused to review the tape.
I forget what bullshit excuse he gave me. I think he said that he couldnt figure it out. The detective told me that the judge will often request a copy of the CAST interview to review for themself.
» Yet Another Reason Why I have Lost All Confidence in the Family Law Court System
The details are blurry, but the bottom-line was that he refused to review the recording of my son's interview with these professionals.
This is yet another reason how the courts encourage her to keep acting crazy .. which everybody agrees affects my son.
There are other recordings that this judge either would not view or said he hadnt. (I am talking about the "bathtub video" created by the mom feeding lines to my son to repeat about me, which she submitted to the court.)
Speaking of acting crazy .. the detective told me (to my face) that, when they told the mom that they had found no evidence (yet again) that my son had been abused .. that the mom totally lost her shit. She melted down. She blew a gasket.
So badly did she freak out, that they refused to release my son to her. Because her mental state at that point was not fit to responsibly care for a young child, especially not driving a car.
They went and fetched some mental health-type of people .. to try and calm her down. After an hour or so they finally agreed to release my son to her.
The first thing I said to this detective, after meeting her, was "I will gladly go take a lie detector test right now .. if it would help."
As I was walking away (the detective had walked me out to the beginning of the parking lot) .. as I was walking to my car, she called out to me. When I turned around, she said, "What kind of parent freaks out to learn that her son hasnt been abused?"
We held that eye contact for a pronounced pause .. before we each turned and went our separate ways. I recall the sympathetic look on her face.
This particular detective had been investigating such abuse cases as part of the CAST Team for 5 or 6 years.
Everybody even remotely familiar with my case could see exactly what was going on .. except for the judge.
I have a million of these types of stories.
» The Judge Repeatedly Ignores an Obvious Crime and Opts Instead to Send Me to Jail Time and Again
It is a crime to make false criminal reports (repeatedly) to the police. The judge obviously knows this .. but he did not seem to care. He opted instead to look the other way .. time and again.
Rather he opted to have me sent to jail on multiple occasions because I could not pay what he ordered me to pay .. because it cost me so much money to pay my lawyer to try and defend myself against the mom's repeated false accusations. Fuck him.
I ended up max'ing out every credit card I had .. all six of them.
» I Contacted the Orange County District Attorney for Help
After about the dozenth false report made against me by the mom, I started feeling desperate and called the Orange County DA's office, looking for any help I could find .. and told them the story of my plight.
They said, "I dont mean to belittle your situation, which I am sure must be very distressing .. but we have limited resources and we are currently pursuing cases where a parent steals a child and leaves the state, or leaves the country. The judge over your case should be handling the situation for you."
He was actually very understanding and sympathetic .. but the current judge over my case was only encouraging the mom to continue making more of these false reports.
The judge did not like when I called him out on his bullshit, and on his glaring inability or refusal to see what was so plainly obvious to everybody else.
He let me know that he did not like this. From his perch there, seated above me behind his big desk, he let me know that he did not like it one bit.
Ask me if I gave a fuck.
I did not tell him to go fuck himself .. but you can bet your ass I was thinking it.
I am not afraid to toe-up with these fuckers in positions of authority over me when they are fucking up.
» The Judge Denied My Request to Recuse Himself from My Case
After I could see that this judge was intent on fucking me over .. I submitted special paperwork to try and get him to recuse himself. But he refused. He insisted on remaining as the judge over my case. He wrote on the paperwork that I had filed, "Denied. Not timely."
I still have this paperwork somewhere here .. stashed away in one of the boxes that I have full of my court paperwork accumulated over the years.
» Family Law Court is Little More than a Glorified Collection Agency
Perhaps now you can see why my experience has been that Family Law court is little more than a glorified collection agency .. that really cares little about the kids, and is primarily designed to bleed dads dry and grind their asses into the pavement ..
.. all while intermittently draining their bank accounts of every last penny .. and repeatedly throwing their asses in jail when they can't afford to pay what the court ordered them to pay. (Ask me how I know. I dare you.)
I could certainly go into mind-numbing detail here about exactly why I feel this way, because I have had so many years of personal, firsthand experience dealing with the system that bleeds and grinds. But this would probably worsen my depression.
» Taking Away My Driver's License Makes It Much More Difficult for Me to See My Son
They obviously know that taking away my driver's license makes it more difficult for me to see my son .. but they dont care about me seeing my son. They only care about the money.
They obviously know that repeatedly draining every last penny out of my bank account adds to the stress in my life. But they do not care about the stress that they add to my life.
» My Shrink is Steering Me to Confront the Most Depressing Aspects of My life
My shrink has started dealing with me regarding this issue .. which is definitely the most troubling aspect of my life right now.
I did not want to talk about this aspect .. but he steered me in this direction. I was simply avoiding the whole situation .. because I did not feel strong enough to deal with it.
I bet that GIRLI here knows what I am talking about. She is pretty sure that I can't deal with it.
» "How Old is Your Son?" (A Valentine's Day Story)
I was talking about something completely different, and, out of the blue, he interrupted me mid-sentence and said, "How old is your son?"
I immediately felt depressed. I gathered my shit together as best I could and told him how old he was, and said, "This is the most difficult thing I deal with. I dont feel ready to go there yet."
When I told my shrink how old my son is, he said, "Oof."
» Forced to Confront Things that We Dont Feel Ready or Strong Enough to Confront
He did not care that I wasnt ready to go there.
When he asked those two questions .. that's when I thought, "This is going to be bad. I can tell already. I am so not ready for this."
He asked:
"When was the last time you saw your son?"
"When was the last time you talked to him?"
A part of me felt like it would rather be anywhere else .. than sitting on that couch.
That's when he said, "Let me tell you a story."
He told me a story about his own dad, and his mom, and his situation growing up .. which bore obvious similarities to my own.
Except he is sharing and relating the story of his experiences growing up .. he is telling me his story from a son's perspective.
I am not going to tell you his story because it is personal. He told me about his experiences growing up .. and how he felt about them, both then and now, and why he felt that way. Especially why.
He was plain. You couldnt misunderstand him even if you tried.
After a number of visits with your shrink .. you start to become comfortable with them, and you are able to share life-stories and experiences that are more personal and private.
It made me feel like hammered dog shit when he shared his story with me .. but I appreciated him sharing it. I got the message.
I felt numb walking out of his office that day. I was definitely tweaked. Dazed and confused. Disoriented.
I remember thinking, "This is my worst Valentine's day ever." And I have had some shitty Valentine's days.
I told my shrink, "I have thought about it .. and if I made an appointment to take the train up to Orange county to see him .. and she trick-fucks me, and she is not there when I arrive .. which she has done countless times before .. I do not know that I am strong enough to handle that. I am still pretty fragile from the treatment. Whenever I see him, I need to be prepared to deal with her. And I am not there yet. She is unstable and knows how to be nasty. It was like I had somehow tapped into a vast reservoir of unprocessed anger and resentment."
The night of the very same day that he started dealing with me about confronting this uncomfortable aspect of my life .. I got sick as shit. It was like you snapped your fingers .. and I immediately felt sick (about 10PM) .. with the lung crud.
I was feeling very depressed. (I was just telling Rita about this.)
The last time that something like this happened .. where I got sick as shit after feeling very depressed .. was when I heard the news about Julie Allen.
With Julie Allen, I got sick twice in a row .. like it really bothered me. Like it really affected me .. in a surprisingly strong way. I dont think I have ever gotten sick twice in a row like that before.
That was a long, cold dark winter .. full of many sub-low points where I wasnt sure that I would be able to make it .. fending off the relentless attacks.
I do not want to reminisce about my darkest of dark days .. but that winter .. that would definitely be in the final mix .. for the absolute low-point in my life .. when you add everything all together.
It was a different kind of soul-fucking low-point than the cancer treatment.
There are certainly ways of looking at this thing .. at this long, cold, dark winter of elite-level soul-fucking .. where you feel like hammered dog-shit for what feels like a very long time ..
.. there are ways of looking at it .. where this experience was more difficult to deal with .. than the cancer treatment.
»Forced to Confront and Deal with Some of Life's Most Difficult Threats
With cancer, you immediately have the existential threat to confront and deal with .. that you might not be here this time next year.
There is also the threat that you might leave your son fatherless .. to fend for himself. And how can he not resent you not being there?
Of course, I had other things on my plate to deal with at the time. But the news about Julie Allen seemed to be the straw that broke the camel's back .. so to speak.
I remember trying to figure it out .. because I would like to be able to avoid such things in the future .. if possible. Maybe there was something I needed to learn?
I knew that I could not handle many more winters like that .. so I was desperate to figure shit out.
Long-term stress weakens the immune system .. all of my doctors say. I mean, how can it not?
DeepRest .. I have heard it called. That is a good way to describe how it feels. You do not feel like doing much of anything .. except resting.
The Two Bunch Palms resort, out there in Desert Hot Springs .. is very much about deepRest.
Quiet. Restful. Rejuvenating. You do some reading. Some sunning. Lots of soaking in their world-class hotsprings. More soaking. Daily massages.
The mind-altering intense desert heat during the day .. puts you a yogi-like trance .. where the meaning of life becomes clear, and your purpose-in-life appears before you. There is definitely a spiritual aspect to wandering about in life-threatening heat.
Many-a-time I have come away from a 3- or 4-day stay at Two Bunch thinking, "Wow .. you dont realize how wound-up you actually were .. until you unwind."
Eventually you are done resting. But, if you have pushed yourself too hard for too long .. or if you suffer large, emotional life-traumas .. this means that you will need more and deeper deepRest .. because your ass will be dragging harder for longer.
You need to take time to process the effects of the soul-fucking emotional traumas in life .. and deal with them in a responsible and deliberate and honest and respectful manner ..
.. where you can eventually say to yourself that you did not simply pretend like these soul-fucking emotional traumas didnt really fuck your soul all that badly.
What you are looking for here is the place where, the perspective where, you can now look down on this thing .. because it is now smaller than you. And where you can speak about it with honesty and insightful reflection .. without getting overwhelmed by the reverberations that might emanate from the memory of it.
[ This is where some of these hypnosis videos can really put you in a super-relaxed state .. which has been described as » a blissful state of deep rest and relaxation called trance. ]
You would gladly go to your happy place .. if you could find it. But you do not have the energy right now to go find anything.
The problem comes because exercise is the last thing you want to do. But after day 4, I need to get out and get going again.
Your mood is very much affected by your physical condition and fitness.
Some of these sessions (1-hour) with my shrink can trigger uncomfortable things that affect you emotionally.
My shrink is so good that I feel lucky to have him.
It's like school academic classes .. sometimes you get lucky and get a cool, kick-ass teacher, and sometimes you get the miserable, frustrated Nazi-lady.
2024.DECEMBER.1 - I am going to upgrade the server resources to the next highest level, which they call » VPS Advanced. It comes with the following.
