Posts Tagged ‘if i ever feel better’

Empire State Of Hackers

February 3rd, 2010

I came into work on Monday morning, and I had an email waiting for me from my web hosting company.  It read:

Please be advised that your account, andymorales.com, is approaching one or more resource allotments. Details are provided below…In the last 30 days, your account used 73GB of 75GB. If, on 02/26/2010, your rolling 30-day bandwidth total exceeds your bandwidth allotment, you will be automatically billed $12.00 for every 1GB over your allotment.

I was caught off guard.  My website, though it is very robust, does not take up a lot of space on my server.  I also don’t have many items on my site that could be downloaded or that could cause that much traffic.  So I examined my stats, and it appeared that I was getting slammed.

I first looked up the stats from the previous day, January 31, 2010.

Mixture of stats from January 31, 2010

85 Thousand Times!

The first thing I noticed was the amount of KB’s transferred.  That is a ton!  Other stats that I found interesting were that the majority of people were using the outdated and troubled IE6 browser.  I clicked on the link in the stats for the top two referring sites, to only get blocked at work by Websense, for “mp3 file sharing.”  And then I saw what was being transferred–Jay-Z.  Now its a great song so I certainly don’t blame them, but cmon, almost 5 thousand downloads in the one day!  Why is China, chinese search engines and file sharing sites locking on to me and a song that I had on my site.

I then reviewed my stats for the past month, and not just the one day.  The Jay-Z song was downloaded 85 thousand times.

Every fews months I put on my home page 3 songs that I have been listening to often.  It is a way to share both my musical tastes with people,  but also an easy way to listen to the song when away from my ipod.  A user can go to my home page and click the play button and find out what I am currently digging.

If you go there currently, you will see that I removed the mp3 files, and that if you currently click on play, nothing will play.  I had to do this because of this traffic issue, and these sites.  Hopefully I can figure out an alternative way to post these items since this has been one of my favorite features of my site.

Im not sure what was sadder though.  The fact that I got slammed by China, or the amount of times the different songs were grabbed.  Jay-Z was grabbed almost 5 thousand times.  Phoenix only about 600.  And sadly, Belle and Sebastian only about 60 times.  Poor Belle and Sebastian.  Its a genius song however.

Welcome To The Melting Pot

December 29th, 2009

I added new songs to my home page under “Songs On Repeat.” I’ve been really digging these songs lately, and continuously hitting back on my ipod or car or itunes (too bad you can’t hit repeat on Pandora). I hope you enjoy them too.  And in case you weren’t aware, there is a little “play” button next to the song on the home page where you can listen to the song.

Phoenix UnitedIf I Ever Feel Better
United
Phoenix

Lryically this song is a sad yet redemptive song about someone that has gone through a terrible heartache.  He knows that this pain that he feels, however devastating, will some day fade away.  He is confident in that.  However, you can also feel the deep sadness that doesn’t want to believe that.    There is courage in this song.  There is perseverance and faith.

Even though this song has such heavy lyrics, the beat of the music is really catchy and always makes me happy when I hear it.  To me, its a happy song.  I cannot help myself but to dance around and sing to this song.  This song makes me happy.

Dark is the night, cold is the ground
In the circular solitude of my heart
As one who strives a hill to climb
I am sure I’ll come through I don’t know how
They say an end can be a start
Feels like I’ve been buried yet I’m still alive

The Life PursuitDress Up in You
The Life Pursuit
Belle & Sebastian

This is a beautiful, serene sounding song that takes a wallop with its lyrics.  Every verse is a power punch to the gut.  Its going along all pretty sounding and then you hear the F bomb, and have to rewind to make sure you heard it correctly.  The more you rewind it, the more it stands out as brilliant and genius.

I love it when the horn section comes in as well.  I wrote a pensée from this song not too long ago.

Blow up in the face of my rivals
I swear and I rant, I make quite an arrival
The men are surprised by the language
They act so discreet, they are hypocrites so fuck them too!

 

The Blueprint 3Empire State Of Mind
The Blueprint 3
Jay-Z (with Alicia Keys)

I recently posted two videos of this song.  Its a great song about the city of New York.  However, I truly love the lyrics that Alicia Keys sings.  Lyrics that give you hope and that pump you up to believe that anything is possible.  Jay-Z meanwhile takes you through his memory of the city and all that he has experienced there.  Looking back on his life, he is grateful for all he has seen and done.

Sometimes we have to pinch ourselves in life about how much we are blessed.  At the same time, we have to always believe that we can accomplish anything, no matter how difficult a belief that might be.

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of
Theres nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in new york
These streets will make you feel brand new
The lights will inspire you

This Week I'm Thinking About: Heather Weir