Rue Plumet

Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this week. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this week).

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I’ve been listening to Les Miserables lately during my commute to work. I’ve been playing the Complete Symphonic Recording, which is basically every line in the entire musical, so it takes me about three days to get through it all. I have no idea how many times I’ve listened to Les Miserables, but it’s probably well over 250 times, and there are three sections that still really get to me pretty much every single time. The first is the scene near the beginning when the Bishop gives the silver to Valjean instead of turning him in to the police. The second is near the end of the first act with “In My Life” and “A Heart Full of Love” back to back. I used to think those songs were one of the weaker passages in the musical, but now I love them. I think it partially depends on how much I like the person playing Cosette. :-) Anyway, the third part is the finale where Marius and Cosette find Valjean on his deathbed. I usually get a lump in my throat during those three scenes, and occassionaly a tear down my cheek during the finale.

I love these stamps. When they were first released a few months ago I went to post offices all over town trying to find them, but they were all sold out. I eventually had to order them online, and now I have a large stockpile of them. I just think they’re a lot of fun, and Joy and I both like “matching” the stamps to the person we’re sending our mail to. Some stamps just seem right for certain people, you know?

“Once a thief, forever a thief. What you want you always steal!
You would trade your life for mine? Yes, Valjean, you want a deal!
Shoot me now for all I care! If you let me go, beware, you’ll still answer to Javert!”
- Javert

“You are wrong, and always have been wrong.
I’m a man, no worse than any man.
You are free, and there are no conditions, no bargains or petitions.
There’s nothing that I blame you for. You’ve done your duty, nothing more.”
- Jean Valjean

(from “Les Miserables”)

I found out today that the skimmer for the new aquarium is in the mail and on its way to me. The estimated arrival date is next Monday, so I’ll post pictures next week for those who are interested. I also think I’m getting very close to finishing my plans for the sump, so hopefully I can get that ordered soon, too.

Click “more” to see a list of all of the interesting web sites I found this week. I keep track of my favorite sites using del.icio.us, a free web site where you can access your favorite links from any computer and share them with friends. You can also see all of my favorite links (not just the ones from this week).

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I’ve been meaing to read “Blue Like Jazz” by Donald Miller for quite some time, and I finally got around to it on our vacation a few weeks ago. I guess it’s a bit harder to find time to read with Charis around, but I had plenty of time at the beach, which was great. Anyway, for a book subtitled “Non-Religious Thoughts On Christian Spirituality”, I guess it was more “religious” than I would have expected, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. Miller has a unique style that I found very engaging, and I think that’s primarily due to his willingness to just be flat out honest and tell it like it is. Unlike some other sometimes fairly predictable books on seeking Christ, you never really know quite where Miller is going to go next. He definitely provides a lot of material to think about regarding what in the world we’re actually doing with our lives, and more importantly, what it is exactly that we’re supposed to be doing with our lives (not that he has an answer on that one, but he certainly has a lot of good questions and thoughts). I’d love to read it together with other people in a small group or discussion group some time, just to be able to further bounce ideas around and process through them.

In addition to Settlers of Catan, which I wrote about a few days ago, Joy and I also got another new game recently: Carcassonne. It’s a tile laying game where you’re basically trying to build roads, cities, or farms. It’s really not too complicated, but there are lots of sneaky ways to play your tiles. Joy and I have played four games over the past three days. She grudgingly played the first game just so I would stop pestering her to try out my new game, but ever since then she has been the one asking to play. And if Joy’s asking to play a board game, you know it has to be good.

Just to warn you, this is kind of a geeky story, because only certain kinds of people get obsessed with obtaining particular domain names. You’ll understand what I mean by the end of this. :-)

When I first started this website, I knew that I wanted to call my blog “Rue Plumet”, and I really wanted the domain name rueplumet.com. I had been trying to get rueplumet.com since I was in college, but it had never been available. So I ended up settling for 55rueplumet.com instead. Click here to find out why I wanted these domains in the first place.

Rueplumet.com used to be a Les Miserables fan site many years ago, and then the original owner let the name go and it was picked up by one of those people that takes domain names that previously had a reasonable amount of traffic and then just puts up a single page plastered with links and ads. I tried to get the domain name at the time it changed hands way back then, but I wasn’t fast enough because I tried to register it by hand, but the guy used one of the automated services that tries to register expiring domains for you. After that experience, I kept the domain name on “order” at all four major automated services on the off chance that it would ever become available again. Anyway, that’s the state the domain was in when I first set up my site. I emailed the owner several times offering to purchase the domain from him, but they didn’t really seem interested.

About a year and a half ago, I did my periodic check of the rueplumet.com domain name just to see what it’s status was, and I noticed that it was about to expire. I waited patiently for the expiration date to come around, and the domain still had not been renewed. Once it actually expired, I was pretty excited. It went into the “redemption period”, which is the standard 30-45 window where the owner has a last chance to renew the domain before it goes back out to the pool of available names. I checked on the domain every week or so during the redemption period, and towards the very end, the owner renewed the domain. I was pretty disappointed because I thought I was really going to have a chance to get it.

Several months ago the domain was nearing its expiration date again (domain registrations are done on a yearly basis). Since the owner had paid an extra penalty fee to get the domain out of redemption only one year earlier, I expected the domain to be renewed. But it wasn’t and once again it went into redemption. I didn’t really get my hopes up this time because a year ago it had gone into redemption and ended up getting renewed again anyway. But I still kept an eye on it, and as the end of the redemption period neared, I would give Joy frequent updates regarding the status of my “dream” domain name, to the point where I think she was getting a little tired of it. The redemption period finally ended and the domain went into the registry holding period. I double-checked all of my “orders” with the automated systems and everything looked good to go. On the day when the domain was released back to the registry, I must have checked my email a thousand times hoping to get a message from one of the automated systems that they had secured the domain for me. And the message finally came! After all these years, I had the domain name. I was super excited to say the least.

The automated system ended up getting the registration for me through some crazy site in Europe that didn’t really have a web page, and didn’t really offer much tech support in English, so things were sketchy there for a little bit. Once you register a domain name, you have to wait 60 days before you can transfer it to another registrar. So I patiently waited the 60 days so that I could transfer the domain from the crazy European guys to my “normal” registrar where I could actually configure things in English to get the domain going. Well, this past weekend, the transfer finally went through, so now the domain is mine and it is also registered with my normal place where I can actually use the administration functions in English. So you can now get to this blog using both rueplumet.com and 55rueplumet.com - either of them should work correctly.

As of right now, 55rueplumet.com is still the main address and rueplumet.com forwards to it. I’m still trying to decide which I want to be the “main” domain going forward. It’s a tough choice because I’ve built up some reasonably high rankings on google for 55rueplumet.com, which I will lose if I switch to rueplumet.com as the main one. I think that stinks, but that’s the way the google system works. So I still have that choice to make, but at least I have the domain name I’ve been waiting for all these years.

“I gave you everything you ever wanted,
it wasn’t what you wanted…”

(from the song “So Cruel” by U2)

Sometimes I think my life is kind of like that. There will be something that I think I want, and then when I finally get it, I realize it’s not what I really wanted because I wasn’t seeking after the right things in the first place.