The Vineyards

It is fair, now that I have introduced this new home, that I thank the one responsible for it from the beginning. But I will do so without the cute fantasy setting. And I had it planned from the start, too, even if some dare question it.

I do not remember if I asked or was offered, but sometime in 2002 Justin told me he would give me a Live Journal code if I wanted. To make it clear, back then Live Journal required one to have a code to start a free account. A number of codes were given to owners of paid accounts; free accounts got one every now and then. So, Justin, who had lots and lots of money at the time, had his paid Live Journal account, and offered me a code. I declined.

On January 1st, 2003, I changed my mind, and asked for the code. What Justin was doing online on January 1st is beyond me, but he always seems to be around when I need something. So he gave me the code, gave me some instructions on how to start the journal, and left to go party with friends. He always seems to be around, but he always seems to go out with friends afterwise, too.

There are some posts in the archives about things Justin helped me with. And I even mock him for one occasion where his directions led nowhere (although I admit it was partially my fault).

Having lots and lots of money at the time, Justin had one of his Dream Machines "sent to Newark, NJ, for colocation" (he said that a dozen times; I always wondered what was so important about it being in Newark, and why it had to be specified that Newark is in NJ). That Dream Machine is Eris, where the Vineyards now reside. Before I could complain, he had given me some webspace in it, under the discordians.net domain. He told me to keep my portion of the now abandoned Dark Ages Manual there. Once that was left behind, I used the space to store little things, like images for my sister's blog, my writings for Dark Ages (which will be here eventually), and some other random things.

Then I had this odd idea of having my own domain. Primarily because it was cheap to have, really, and I was tired of Live Journal's complete lack of everything (except cats).

If you were so tired of it, why did you make an exact copy of it here?
Good question. I did an exact copy of it, yes, because I wanted to do it this way - not because this was the only layout among the seven that did not clasp horribly with my personality. See the difference? Now I have complete control over how to make things look, I have the absolutely important choice of keeping it this way - I am no longer forced to.

So I mentioned the idea around. ruby, always very practical and helpful, found me a number of possible hosts, most very affordable (in our currency, even). But I wanted something less impersonal, and where I had very little to worry about (because I do not like to bother with php, javascript and cgi not working, or only the hosts' scripts being allowed - I want my things to work) - and once again Justin was online precisely when I needed it. We arranged to have the new Vineyards hosted on Eris. I insisted I wanted to pay for it; he kept saying there was no need. Maybe I will make use of that "no need" in months to come, but for now I am managing.

Justin's blog, deadmemes.net, works on his very own blogging system, if I am not wrong, completely written by himself. That naturally makes it very complicated for mortals like me who have not yet attained Unixhood, so I bugged him until he installed Movable Type for me. After many days of intense fight against the 500 Internal Server Error(s), he did it. It took me quite some time to get up to speed and set up the Vineyards here, and the process again involved Justin's help, when I needed to convert and import all the Live Journal entries.

Now here we have it, the Vineyards hosted on Eris. It is a bit expensive for one who lives in the Uncivilized Lands (where capitalism crawls), and I cannot upload any saucy or juicy files because Justin has access to everything, but it works better than I imagined, and it has role-model tech support that always seems to be around when necessary.

Here it is, then, my thanks to Justin, who is responsible for the foundations of the Vineyards since their beginning.

Anyone else not from New Zealand I need to thank..?

Posted by Etienne at April 8, 2004 06:20 PM