I Know Someone Will Chew Me Out For This But….

I started a post about a subject that I figured would be touchy. I gave an example of something to lead into it and turned this entire post into the beast you find below. So I’ve now rewritten the intro to this series of sentences and will just let you fall directly into the mess below. I will address the original topic later to anyone that feels they still can return. 🙂

Healthcare: Although I like the concept of public healthcare for everyone just because they are born and live here in the United States, I cannot agree that there is a way to do it that doesn’t make things worse on the support side of that spectrum. I am a firm believer in you should earn what you get and other than gifts out of love, charity, or kindness along the way… no one should get a free ride. This isn’t a system that I decided to believe DUE to the debate of public healthcare but one that I had for all aspects of life that I apply to the debate. I don’t believe one group of persons should pay the way for everyone else. I think that when you punish success by slipping the bill to those that have busted their humps to get what they earn that eventually the Socialism cycle starts generating less and less productive people for two main reasons. “1) Why work so hard to have a larger than fair chunk taken away and given to others.” and “2) Why work so hard when there are other people that will take care of me.”. This isn’t something that happens immediately but over long periods of time and generations.

A good example of #2 is for a lot of the persons that REMAIN on Welfare. Now before you close this window and cuss my name in vain, let me finish this thought. Welfare was designed as a good program and in a lot of ways still IS a good program. There are A LOT of people that I know that either currently use the assistance or have had to at some point. I will say however that the majority of the people I have in my life, whether family or friend, are also people that use/d Welfare for EXACTLY what it was designed for: TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE not a PERMANENT supplement to their income because they don’t want to work harder, make sacrifices, or do anything in addition to improve their situation.

With that said about the people that abuse the system and drain the pocketbook that could easily help others let me go further into ticking these people off. I think there are a lot of drugs that should be legalized. I said that to say this, I don’t have a problem with most drugs and I’m not a die hard anti drug zealot that preaches to people that may smoke weed or whatever. I personally don’t do them but don’t really care if others do. I’ve been around a lot of it most of my life and in my opinion most of them are no worse than alcohol. Now, again, I said all of that to say this…. I think that in order to qualify for welfare, ALL persons above the age of 18 in the household should be drug tested. Any positive results…. results in suspension of the PRIVILEGE. It is a privilege NOT a right.

Mad at me yet? No? Well then let me continue….

There is one level of Socialized medicine that I do agree with. I think any persons under the age of 25 that is enrolled into school should still retain an assisted healthcare option. After growing up and the time comes for people to put on their big boy/girl pants, I think it is a person’s responsibility to provide for theirself.

I didn’t have anything handed to me nor did I have a free ride when it came to education or a golden job with kick ass benefits. I worked retail jobs, customer service jobs, construction jobs, etc and along the way there were times I didn’t have insurance and other times that I had some kind of insurance that at least helped. I got a job where I am now and ended up with some pretty good benefits and have busted my ass to get where I am with this company. I didn’t expect anyone to help me along the way nor did I ask for help. Not having things like insurance or money for finer things only pushed me to work harder… not whine and complain about what I didnt have. I’m afraid our society as a whole spends more time whining about what they dont get for free and how unfair it is that someone has something they dont as opposed to working harder to get where the other person is. The American Dream never was about getting all kinds of awesome things… it was about having the opportunity to work harder and to get your dreams to come true…. I don’t understand where this ideal of ‘being owed something’ came from but its growing out of control. No one in this country or world rather is owed anything… except opportunity to work for what they want in life.

Grow up America!

2011-04-30 Add Comment

How To Automate Ubuntu Linux Backups (part 2)

In this second part of HTAULB we will be visiting the topic of how to automate MySQL database backups. Although I will be the first to admit this is completely simple and a very nice way of accomplishing this task, I will also advise that it is not the most secure. I would not recommend this to anyone sharing a server or its resources with other people. You will be hard coding your SQL password into a script and although you could restrict ‘Read’ permissions from anyone else seeing it, I will advise against it on any shared machine.

Now, on with the show!

If you haven’t read the first part of this series please go back and do so, I’ll wait….

Back? Took you long enough. I had you read that because we will be doing some of the same tasks in order to automate the SQL backups.

You will need to go to the location in which you are keeping your .sh scripts. (We use /bin here at IAmRoberson)

Use the editor of your choice to edit the file using the name of your choice for the script’s name:

Add the following line for each database you wish to make a sql dump from.

mysqldump -u username -h localhost -p(password) databasename | gzip -9 > /var/backups/nameoftargetfile-$(date +%Y%m%d).db.sql.gz

Exit from the editor and chmod the file to 766. (see previous post for exact syntax.)

Add an additional line in the crontab like you did for (part 1) of this exercise.

You are done! Go back up some stuff now!

– Jason

Did this article help you any? Please feel free to leave feedback.

2010-04-05 Add Comment

How To Automate Ubuntu Linux Backups (part 1)

I recently redesigned my home setup and wanted to automate my backups for my web servers and SQL server. I run Ubuntu 9.10 using a semi-typical LAMP configuration. For those of you unfamiliar with LAMP it is an acronym for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Your first step is to determine what you want backed up. For me the /var/www and /etc/apache2 directories were my primary targets. After that you need to write a Shell script to tar/gz that directory and put it into a folder where you wish for your backups to reside. I will say the smartest thing to do is to eventually copy these files to a different location than the drive/box you’re backing up so a physical drive failure won’t take your backups with them and make this entire process moot. Sounds easy right? It is, and I’ll show you just how easy it really is.

After you’ve determined what you want backed up you need to write that shell script. Here is how to accomplish that:

From a command console on your Linux box, change to the directory you wish for your .sh script to reside. For example: /bin/

Fire up your CLI editor of choice and edit a file that will become your shell script. For me this is VIM so I would type the following:

vim backup_script.sh

Add the following lines, substituting my locations and file names with your own:

cd /var/backups/
tar -czf web_backup.$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C / var/www/ -C / etc/apache2/

The first line changes the directory to where you will drop the backup file. I know you can do this several ways but this way you can see each step of what is being accomplished.

The second line creates a tar.gz named web_backup(today’s date).tar.gz from the /var/www and /etc/apache2 directories.

Exit and save your script.

You will need to change the permissions on the file in order to run it so type the following: (again subbing ‘script_name’ with your scripts name)

chmod 766 script_name.sh

You can type the script name and it should execute. Once this has been tested and you see that a tar.gz is created in the directory you’ve specified you can move to the next step, which is to automate it with Cron.

==========

Everything work? Hope so, because we’re moving on regardless.

Next you’ll want to add this script to your crontab.

Type crontab -l to get a list of all jobs listed in your crontab. Don’t worry if it says something about one not existing, You probably don’t have one set up yet.

Type crontab -e to edit the file.

There is a great write up that Kevin van Zonneveld did at : http://kevin.vanzonneveld.net that explains how the crontab scheduling works. I’ll give you a quick review but I recommend heading over there and checking his site out to learn more.

The crontab is set up very simply. The first part of the line is a series of numbers to regulate the schedule part and the second part is the execution you would like Cron to perform at those increments.

The default syntax is : * * * * * /blah/blah.sh

The 5 * each stand for something. They are (respectively) minute | hour | day of month * (every day of month) | of month * (every month)| weekday (0-6 Sunday being 0)

So in order to perform the task desired for example every Friday at 0100 (am) you would use:

30 1 * * 5 /bin/backup_script.sh

Clear as mud right? 😉 You get it, I know you do. Again, go see Kevin’s site for more explanation and tips/tricks.

You could schedule it for a few minutes ahead of the current time and wait to see if it works correctly before you start depending on it.

Next post will be how to automate SQL database backups with mysqldump and Cron.

Till next time, Peace Out Yo.

– Jason

2010-04-02 3 Comments

Notify Al Gore and The Presses; Jason has gone GREEN

I’m not sure what got me thinking about it but all of a sudden I’d gotten a wild hair to look at new bikes. Maybe it’s been a couple random great weather days or the bikes I’ve seen on those days but I’ve gotten my spring bike fever and have been itching to ride. After looking around a bit I settled on a bike that fit what I needed in power, comfort, and design as well as what I wanted in look and aesthetics. The bike I became fascinated with in my search is the 2009 Ninja 650R.

My first bike and the one I am migrating from is a Kawasaki ZR-7S. I love this bike. Kawasaki did a good job and designing the ZR with power and comfort but it was time for me to step up to something a little more modern. The 650R comes with digital display, fuel injection, a clock (you don’t understand how valuable this can be), and a little more zip to it even with a listed 100cc less between your legs.

Here are pictures of my bikes, both the 2001 ZR-7S and the 2009 Ninja 650R respectively.

Although the perspectives are a little skewed with the pictures you may be able to tell that the ZR7 is a little bigger. The dry weight on the Ninja is listed as 40lbs lighter than the ZR7 and although it feels a lot lighter than that, I’m thinking a lot of the weight difference (in how it feels) is due to a lower center of gravity as well as the fact that I’ve gotten use to wrestling with the weight and possibly have strengthened a few muscles in the couple of years I was maneuvering the ZR7.

One thing I do notice immediately is the lack of comfort. The comfort of the Ninja is not lacking however I already miss my Corbin seat. Riding a steel pony for longer than 45 minutes can leave your derrière a little or a LOT fatigued. Unfortunately the Corbin seat for the 650R is about $450.00 and is not high on my list of affordable upgrades. One upgrade that is on my list to buy soon is a set of ‘Grab Bars’ for the back. The need for grab bars isn’t so much for a passenger but for strapping things to the back. The stock Ninja does not come with the grab bars like it’s sister the ER-6n. I still have not figured this one out. Anyone from Kawasaki care to chime in?

I will need to sell the ZR7 soon, I don’t really want to continue to pay for a bike I don’t ride…. Anyone interested?

2010-03-09 Add Comment

Death and Taxes

I’d say that the title was a joke initially but in all reality it pretty much boils down to that. Insurance ([to avoid] Death) and the Obama sodomy squad looking to take as much from people as they can (Taxes). I’ve tried time and time again to give this guy the benefit of the doubt but he’s not really leaving me many options at this point. The current healthcare legislation is getting to a point to which I cannot hold my tongue any longer. Obama and his cronies, wanting to help, are trying to give everyone in America healthcare. While I can respect the notion I cannot however respect his approach. For those of you who are not paying close enough attention, here is what they are trying to push through and why it should tick you off:

I.

A Public Option: – Government run healthcare.

For those of you unfamiliar with this concept look at our current government run programs for seniors or veterans. In fact, try talking to anyone that is using either of these options more than for checkups. Some would say that the Federal government has yet to successfully run a program like this on a smaller scale much less what they are proposing now. I personally would like to add that whether they CAN do it or not… they shouldn’t. It’s not their job nor duty as a Government. It puts their paws too far into the business infrastructure of the country. This is how and why the government keeps growing to its ungodly and unnecessary size and stealing more and more power to control individuals. The federal government should do very few things. Examples of these few things are: 1) Protect our outlying borders from foreign enemies. 2) Regulate State to State interests and relationships. 3) Hrm, still trying to figure out a number 3.

II.

Taxes:

Staying with the Democrat status quo, the Obama administration is looking to take the normal approach of having the rich pay for the poor. I am all for charities but I am a firm believer in working for what you have. I understand that there are people out there that work harder than I do for next to nothing and those are the people I actually DO want to find a way to help however, there has got to be a better way. There are WAY TOO MANY people out there currently ‘mooching’ off of the system and making the current system worse than it really should be. There are people who NEED government assistance to get by yet cannot get it. These people work 40+ hours a week and only need a tiny bit of help to get over the hump while some people sit at home collecting welfare checks refusing to even LOOK for a job. There are people that keep popping out children even though they couldn’t/can’t afford the first one, two, or three that they had. I won’t even get started on DRUG TESTS for WELFARE CHECKS because GOD knows we could save A LOT of money if that were enacted.

Basically if the current bill passes, the more money you make, the more money they take and I don’t mean on a 1 to 1 ratio. Different income brackets will pay outrageously more in taxes and for health insurance than lower income brackets… FOR THE SAME COVERAGE! No doubt those of us that choose to keep our own private insurance will still pay taxes to cover others. For example: Its currently being said that someone with the income base of 60,000 or so will pay somewhere between 20-30% of their income towards insurance. OMFG! Really? Lets see now, If I make 60k a year then I will pay 15-18k a year for insurance? And I guarantee it will be coverage only moderate in quality for what I currently pay 5k a year for now. If you make more, you will be held MORE responsible for paying for other’s insurance.

III.

Forced:

Once this is in, everyone will be FORCED by law to have health insurance. No joke. Unconstitutional anyone? I do see the reasoning behind it though as a patriot I could never justify it. If everyone is paying through the nose for insurance yet ‘Paco’ (for example) decides that he still doesn’t want to buy it because he can still get taken care of and skip out on the bill, then why not just do that? I think this part of the bill means well to protect the rest of us but is way too unconstitutional to actually do. Apparently the OSS (Obama Sodomy Squad) still thinks they can do this and is trying to with this bill. You will be forced to either have private insurance (which I believe will disappear eventually) or the government plan. Sounds to me like the ONLY reason the private insurance realm is starting to back this bill.

The OSS swears up and down that you will be able to keep your current insurance if you wish and they will not force you to take the NEW plan but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out their end game on this one either. All companies still offering privatized insurance to their employees will get taxed and penalized insanely to recover costs for their employees not taking the ObamaCare plan. As a small company or even a business savvy one which would you choose? 1) Continue to get screwed out of thousands or millions of dollars to ‘do the right thing’ by your employees and offer good insurance plans… or 2) Save money to avoid going broke and give in to the pressure. Offering the ObamaCare packages to their employees may be the only thing to do. Seems to me that slowly but surely the back alley politics behind this will eventually force everyone to the ObamaCare package whether they want it or not.

IV.

If its so good…

If the new plan is so great with so many coverage options and benefits…. If it’s going to save money yet still give you the ‘best quality treatment’…. If this is what will save so many American’s lives…. then WHY ARE SENATORS, CONGRESSMENT, THE PRESIDENT, HIS FAMILY, AND ANYONE ACTUALLY VOTING THIS THROUGH… EXEMPT FROM HAVING TO TAKE THIS OPTION? Oh think about how much these ass-hats would have to pay based on THEIR salaries.. (See Taxes:) This is for real yet no one is answering this question. I’d say let them pass the damned bill but only IF everyone in the aforementioned groups HAS to take the plan as government employees. Nah, it would never even make it through one voting session if that were the case.

I will try to shred through the 2000+ page bill to cite specifics like I usually do but as of now… chew on the ugly fat that I’ve given you. At this point I’m all for advising everyone of you to write/call your representatives and telling them that if they vote ‘yes’ then you’ll vote against them next election no matter who is running against them. These people work for us but they seem to forget that. I will go out on a limb and say that there hasn’t been an uprising against the government this large since the Vietnam war and they don’t seem to take notice. All we can do is speak out and that’s what a lot of people are doing. Maybe we just need more people to do it.

What do you think?

– Jason

2009-12-28 Add Comment

Oh for the love of Obama…

I find myself saying it more and more lately… The more I dislike all of the Socialism the current President and his administration are trying to infuse into our current Economy, the more I also realize that I like the president himself. Last night’s Letterman makes a perfect example of why… Recently former POTUS Jimmy Carter made the jackass comment that the outburst/s made against the current Administration’s Healthcare bill is due to racism. C’mon, can’t someone that once qualified as the most powerful man in the world do something better than jump on a cheesy bandwagon? Everyone that disagrees with Obama’s changes are being called racist. I would expect this from Sharpton or Jackson but Carter!?!?!?! Really? Well the POTUS himself last night debunked Carter saying… “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.” People voted for him because they liked him. Some didn’t because they didn’t. I didn’t because his policies scared me and all in all… they still do but as a person… I think he’s gotta be pretty cool to hang out with.

For the love of God I hope his Healthcare bill gets blown apart or changed drastically. I disagree with his solutions for several other issues but I would still love to have the invite to a ‘Beer Summit’ with him. The man has a sense of humor and that’s what I appreciate most in people. In today’s society everyone gets too whiny and ‘sue happy’ if someone doesn’t agree with them or isn’t PC enough. I’ve watched Obama deflect a lot of criticism with much style instead of getting his presidential boxers in a bunch. Hooray to you President Obama.

I have been formulating my public approach to this healthcare bill and proposal and will be posting that very soon… I just thought I would put up these Kudos…

– Jason

2009-09-22 Add Comment

The Last Will and Testament of ‘Juliet Whiskey Tango’

What I’ve done is created a monster. A hateful resenting beast that forgives only itself. What I’ve allowed is my mind to slip to the recesses of where it has made a home in my far past.

A comfort zone is where I lay, paralyzed by hurt and instability. 3’s they come in 3’s, and what would life be like for everyone else if I laid down mine?

I wonder what everyone’s eulogy for me would consist of… I lay awake at night thinking hurtful thoughts… thoughts that only hurt me. Thoughts that may or may not be or have been but my mind finds comfort in my self inflicted pain. Things transpiring before my eyes as if I were there. Why? How? When? Who?

This monster laughs at my pain. If you could see me at any given moment right now you would see me smiling. I am not happy but I am smiling. If you intentionally hurt me right now you would see me smirk then a chilling grin and then a smile. It is my demon not me, for I am gone right now…

Leave a message and I may call you when I return.

– Jason Roberson

2009-07-07 3 Comments

Pipe Dreams & Vanity

2009-07-02 Add Comment

Beemoflauge….

Jason

2009-06-09 Add Comment

Overflowing Bathtub of Red Water

There is a song on the Rehab CD that caught my attention the very first time I heard it. It catches you off guard because the tune of the song does not lead you into what the concept and original ploy is. I hate to ruin it for you by giving you the chorus without the rhythm or music but for the sake of this post… I have to. But first, I’ll lead you up to the chorus with an abbreviated version of the story line.

The entire song is based on the point of view of a 12 year old boy. It kind of reminds you of what you thought about and/or said to yourself or friends when you were that age. It begins with this young boy admiring the house and yard of the neighbor. He goes on to talk about how beautiful this man’s house is, how green and well manicured his lawn is, his cars, etc. He mentions how beautiful the man’s wife is and mentions a crush on her. All of this is leading you into thinking how wonderful this man’s life must be with all of his surroundings and possessions. Then the chorus kicks in. It mentions his wife and son getting home and his son staying outside to play with the storyteller only to leave the wife to find the husband…

“And he was layin’
In an overflowing bathtub of red water
the first and the last time he ever relaxed
And they said he had a smile on his face, his final offer
The steam on the mirror said ‘one more thing to say’”

I guess you see where one could ‘insert knee jerk reaction here’, right?

Let me tell you about my first thoughts. My first thoughts were not: “OMG, that poor guy!” or “What an ungrateful ……” or anything else one may think would be a normal reaction.

My first thoughts were… “I understand.” Yeah, don’t freak out, it was just my first thought.

Have you ever been so exhausted and sleep depraved that all you can do is wonder when and how you are going to get some rest? Have you ever felt like you’ve given everything you’ve got at a job or anything else only to be overlooked or feel it’s getting you nowhere? Ever felt unhappy no matter how much you own or buy? I think a lot of us have and thus my first thought was… “I understand.”

No worries, I’m still around. But it is a good song though.

– Jason

And in an appropriate moment of Zen…

2009-06-09 Add Comment