Mike’s Rants and Raves

Two weeks ago, the decision was made to move the CLS Forums, the Clann Alba Forums and the T-Bucket Forums to a KnownHost Virtual Private Server.

Which left a hosting plan being unused at Downtown Host, as this blog and one other were still being hosted on another company’s server.  The service with that particular hosting company was lacklustre to say the least, so we decided to move the blogs onto our Downtown Host hosting plan.

The move was completely uneventful, as the database for this blog was bruised a bit and the database for the other blog was a bit of a train wreck.  But after a couple hours work to restore everything, we are now back up and running.

We’ve always had excellent service with Downtown Host, so we hope this move will prove to be a positive one.

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Today was just one of those days.  It didn’t seem it would ever end and when I got home, I really wasn’t in the mood to do much of anything.

Some people look forward to a relaxing drink to signify the end of the work day, but I find relaxation in a really good shave.  And since I wasn’t much in the mood for any problems, I decided tonight was going to be back to basics night.

I broke down my Merkur 23C and gave it a good soaking with some Scrubbing Bubbles.  After it had soaked for a couple minutes, I used an old toothbrush to give it a good cleaning, rinsed it off and loaded it with one of my trusty Derby blades.

If you’re read this blog much at all, you’ve doubtless picked up on how much I like to use Mama Bear shaving soaps.  Mama Bear offers some interesting scents and the soap never fails to make a really great lather.  But tonight, none of the tubs of Mama Bear shaving soaps were even touched.  After my Omega brush was allowed to soak in a hot lathering bowl of water, I dumped the water and laid in a dollop of Proraso Green.  I gave the brush a couple shakes to get rid of the excess water and then mixed up an amazing bowlful of warm, rich lather.

Three passes later, I had once again reached shaving perfection.  A cold water rinse followed up with a generous splash of Pinaud Clubman and life was good again.

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I’ve really been away from this for far too long.  Other aspects of this thing called Life have piled atop me and I’m just getting around to catching up with everything.

Around 3-4 weeks back, the decision was made to pull all three of our vBulletin forums together, on one host’s server.  The move was made, at least part-way, but the intended result of running all three forums from one reseller account never materialized.  As a result, approximately 10 days ago, we pulled up the tent stakes and moved all of the forum domains to a Virtual Private Server, or VPS, hosted by KnownHost.  I was a little nervous about the move, but the support team at KnownHost has banished all my fears about operating a VPS.  And the members of all three forums are now enjoying page loads that are faster than anything we’ve ever witnessed before.

Reflecting on the decision to move to a VPS, I’ve realized there are times when it is necessary to spend a bit more money.  In this case, spending a bit more each month has ended up being a good value, because our forum members are enjoying the benefits.

But it is not always necessary to spend more money to obtain quality.  So it is always important to research purchases, before blindly spending the money.

This evening’s shave is an excellent example.  I am sitting here and enjoying an absolutely BBS shave and none of the components used in this shave cost as much as some gents will spend on a single brush.

Tonight was a Treet.  No, I didn’t spell it wrong, I used a Treet blade in a late ’40’s Gillette Super Speed.  My pal Giovanni, at Barbieria Italiana, sells Treet Classic blades for as little as 13 cents each.  Yes, that’s what I said - a pack of 100 blades sells for just $13.00.

The Ylang-Ylang shaving soap was made by my favorite soap-maker, Mama Bear and sells for just $8.99.  A luxurious lather was mixed up with my Omega 33175 brush, another item available from Barbieria Italiana for only $39.00.

After an excellent shave, I splashed on a bit of Pinaud Clubman, which is one of my favorite aftershaves.  And the overall result is one of the smoothest shaves ever.

I will be the first to admit that I am not sure how well a brush like a Simpson’s Chubby #2 works, but when I can get outstanding results with the above-mentioned materials, why would I want to spend $235.00 on a brush?  My favorite razor is a Merkur 23C that cost me all of $28.00.  That razor and a Derby blade can give me about as good a shave as I can get with any other combination and without the need to invest a lot of money.

To the gents that can afford the higher-end razors and brushes, I offer you my congratulations.  And I hope you can get results comparable to what I am getting with a fraction of the outlay.  To those that can afford the various components used in ‘method shaving’, all I can say is my tub of Mama Bear shaving soap gives me outstanding results.

For any of you that are not yet bit by the wet-shaving bug (what are you waiting on?!?), don’t be fooled by people talking about how they’ve spend hundreds of dollars on razors, soaps, creams, brushes and aftershave.  You can get excellent results without spending so much money.

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Approximately eight hours ago, the new version of WordPress was released. The upgrade has just been finished on this site and we are now running on WordPress Version 2.5

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So many times we hear the term - caveat emptor (buyer beware) - but the selection of a good Web host is one of those times we need to be extra wary.

When the Clan Lamont / Scottish Forums were first opened, the decision was made to go with one of those ‘too good to be true’ hosts. And the lesson was quickly learned - if it sounds too good to be true, there is a reason.

After about 12 months of really poor service, the decision was made to move to a host that offered an attractive hosting plan, but the price was more in accord with what was being offered. After being with this second host for about a year, we felt they had earned a fairly high mark for their service. They had a few shortcomings, but overall, the service was acceptable.

At about this time, the second host offered me one of those ‘too good to be true’ packages. And I had managed to forget the lessons learned with the first host. How’s the old saying go? ‘Fool me once, shame on you…’ Well, the shame is all mine, because I rose to the baited offer the second host made. I was gut-hooked and they jerked me cross-eyed when they set the hook. I spent a bunch of money on what was presented as a V.I.P. package. It was my mistake for wrongfully thinking V.I.P. meant something it quite obviously did not. But hey, they did ‘give’ me a second hosting plan for free and they even registered a new domain for me at no charge. I purchased a second vBulletin license and the T-Bucket Forums were brought into existence.

Service went down the drain, within a couple short weeks. And server performance was even worse. It was at about this time I discovered this host had indeed registered my new domain. In their name! It only took a few terse exchanges to get the domain properly registered in my own name.

After 5 or 6 months of really shabby service, the hunt was on to locate a new Web host. And after some patient shopping, I managed to locate the host every webmaster and forum admin dreams of finding. I was nervous about putting all my eggs in one basket, so I purchased a small plan from Downtown Host and we moved the Clan Lamont / Scottish Forums to one of their servers. Server loads have always been low and in the few times when a trouble ticket was necessary, DTH’s customer service has been outstanding.

After suffering all the lousy service I can bear with the second host, the decision was made to move the T-Bucket Forums over to Downtown Host, as well. Except the second host had locked the domain registration. Once again, it took a few terse exchanges to get the authorization codes to initiate the transfer of this domain into my domain portfolio with GoDaddy. The domain transfer has finally taken place and I’m hoping we will be moving into a new hosting package within the next few hours. I’m purchasing a large enough package to allow the Clan Lamont / Scottish Forums, the Clann Alba Forums and the T-Bucket Forums to all reside in one place, each with their own control panel.

For the time being, I’m planning to leave a couple of blogs residing on the second host’s servers, with an eye toward moving them to greener pastures, at the first hint of problems.

For those of you looking to establish a Web site, we highly recommend Downtown Host as your best bet in hosting. If you prefer to find your own company, just remember the line - buyer beware. When a host is offering 5 terabytes of disk space and 25 terabytes of transfer for only $2.99, I hope you’ll not be tempted to sign on the dotted line. When you’re paying a little bit of nothing for your hosting, that is the same amount of service you will be able to anticipate when problems arise. Don’t be shy about asking around about hosts and their plans. The Web Hosting Talk forums are a good source of hosting reviews. Spend a few days educating yourself before pulling the trigger with any host. It might take you a few days more to get your Web site up and running, but you’ll be thankful for that after the first few months.

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Several weeks back, I received an order from Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana. Giovanni had also enclosed six or eight razor blades from various manufacturers. I was really experiencing great shaves with Derby Extra Super blades, so I tossed the package in a drawer and pretty much forgot about it.

After reading the Leisureguy blog and seeing the results he was getting with some different blades, I decided to dig the package back out and give them a try. I’ve documented some of the results I’ve experienced with a Zorrick blade and a Sputnik blade.

A couple evenings ago, I pulled a Polsilver blade out and loaded it into a Gilette Super Speed. My first impression was the blade was definitely demanding when it came to angle. If the angle wasn’t just so, the shave wasn’t very good and the angle variation was a very narrow window.

Last evening, I lathered up with a Mama Bear Bonzai soap and then settled in for a very careful and exacting shave. I was focused on maintaining the blade angle, throughout my regular, three-pass shave. And the results were spectacular. The shave was smooth as glass, with no nicks or burning.

I checked the Barbieria Italiana site and Giovanni states the Polsilver is a stainless blade, made in Poland by Gilette. The Polsilver blades are a bit more money than the Derby and Sputnik blades, but the marginal price difference might be money well-spent.

I’m really happy that Leisureguy continued to encourage me to experiment with blades, as I’ve definitely found two blades that are giving me results as good as the Derby.

I barely mentioned the Bonzai shaving soap, from Mama Bear. A really nice scent and it also has that excellent lather that Mama Bear’s soaps are known to produce. If you’re looking for a wide selection of excellent shaving soaps, be sure to visit Mama Bear for some great products. I’m sold on her bath soaps, her shaving soaps and her aftershaves. And when you see her prices, you’re going to wish you had found her site earlier!

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I received a package from Mama Bear yesterday afternoon. Inside was a bar of the new Bay Rum-scented bath soap and a bar of the new Dragon’s Blood-scented bath soap.

I was torn as to which bar to try for this morning’s shower, but the Dragon’s Blood won out.

Rich, thick, cleansing lather that smells so good is probably illegal in at least three or four states.  Another two thumbs up for a great product.

Get thee to the Mama Bear Web site and order yourself some goodness of your own.

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As i mentioned a few days back, I was down with the flu for a few days and I’ve been pretty busy, playing catch up with all the lost time.

I got some more of the fine Mama Bear shaving soaps on Monday afternoon, so I broke open the package and selected Crème Brûlée for the evening.  Wow, this one is a nice scent!  I grabbed the Super Speed with a well-used Sputnik blade and had a fine shave, followed up with Pinaud Clubman aftershave.  I checked back and this was shave number eight on the Sputnik blade, but it was still producing a very close shave.

Last evening, I looked through the new Mama Bear offerings and decided on Toasted Coconut, which is another really nice scent.  I decided to use my Merkur 23C, loaded with a Derby Extra Super.  Another really enjoyable shave, followed by a bit of Mama Bear’s bay rum-scented Winter aftershave.

This evening, I grabbed my tube of Proraso Green.  I have really become a bog fan of the Mama Bear shaving soaps, but I’m still a Proraso fan.  I decided to go back to the Sputnik blade and my Super Speed and I finally noticed the blade was not feeling quite so smooth as it had.  Then again, the Proraso did its job, so there the shave was minus any burn or nicks.  Tonight’s aftershave was the Clubman Virgin Island Bay Rum.

I think it is safe to say the Sputnik blade has out-lived its usefulness.  It’s pretty hard to argue with a blade that was still producing great shaves after eight uses, however.  The next order I place with Barbieria Italiana will include some more Sputniks, that much is certain.

I believe I’ve mentioned this before, but it bears repeating.  I had e-mailed Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana about an Omega brush that would do well with both soaps and creams.  Giovanni suggested a 33175 Omega and his advice was spot-on.  The brush produces mountains of lather with soaps and I believe it works a bit better with creams.  If you’re looking for a nice badger brush with a really attractive price, you’re not going to go wrong with this brush.

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After a few years of putzing around with the operation of AZTech Consulting as a sole proprietorship, I finally made the decision to form an LLC.

The company was originally established to do minor bits of Web development work, but we’re now concentrating our efforts more on performing vBulletin forum and WordPress blog installations, configurations and modifications.

I am now in the process of developing the AZTech Consulting Web site, so potential customers will be able to see the services we offer.

In addition to offering professional installations of both vBulletin and WordPress, we also configure the scripts for our customers, install add-ons and plugins, optimize these sites for better operation and also do work in the area of search engine optimization.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in setting up their own blog or forum, but lacks the necessary technical skills, please visit the AZTech Consulting site. We are currently offering a free WordPress installation for first-time bloggers.

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As I mentioned in another entry, I have been a bit under the weather.  But today, when I got back into work, there was a care package from Giovanni at Barbieria Italiana.

I actually wish I had snagged some Sputnik blades on this order :???:, but I still had some nice surprises to unpack.

Since I am a bit of a push-over when it comes to bay rum, I ordered a bottle of Superior 70 bay rum.  I tried some this evening and it was a very nice exclamation point on a very nice shave.

I also received a bottle of Constanza bay rum, which really has a pretty stout scent to it.  I imagine I’ll give it a go tomorrow evening.

I also received a bottle of Murray & Lanman Florida Water cologne.  Very alluring scent, one I am anxious to try.

On a lark, I had Giovanni send me a cube of the Savon de Marseille Palm Oil soap.  I’ve noticed a lot of gents are using a technique known as ‘method shaving’, where a cube of olive oil soap provides the base for a very rich ’super’ lather, supplemented with a cream and an activating product.  I thought I would try a cube of the palm oil soap, just as an experiment.  The Barbieria Italiana Web site indicates this soap can be used as a shaving soap and Giovanni is certainly not fibbing on that count!  A couple of swirls of the Omega brush on the cube loaded up the badger bristles nicely.  Not wanting to be wasteful, I lathered up my face with it.  All I can say is, "Wow!"

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again - if you’re looking for a nice source of shaving supplies, you really need to visit the Barbieria Italiana Web site.  Giovanni is a friendly gent, with excellent customer service.  You may find some of his product lines are not the same, run-of-the-mill products that everyone else sells, but Giovanni provides those of us in North America an excellent opportunity to discover some outstanding European shaving products.  I give Giovanni two thumbs up.

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