Shelby DeNike

🔋 I own a generator

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 14:47:11 -0400

After multiple times of losing power, I finally bought a generator…

🎵 Relateable

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 06:47:20 -0400

Nine Inch Nails - Every Day Is Exactly The Same

🏝️ Mackinac Island Trip

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 21:42:57 -0400

Weekend trip to Mackinac Island

🖥️ A computer I built years ago

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 15:37:19 -0400

A computer I built for a friend decades ago ended up back in my hands to work on…

✍️ Imported all my posts to Hugo

Fri, 07 Mar 2025 21:43:59 -0500

I have completed the import of all of my posts into Hugo.

Hi Hugo!

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 14:32:33 -0500

I finally switchd to Hugo.

🦋 Unfollowing accounts

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 13:55:59 +0000

Looking for an easy way to unfollow accounts on Bluesky?

📱 iPhone 16 Pro Max Upgrade

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 20:42:36 +0000

I decided to cave and pre-order the iPhone 16 Pro Max, mainly due to the trade-in value I was given for my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I was able to cross paths with the UPS truck before they got to my house and get the delivery sooner than expected, which was a plus, I guess it pays to track your shipments when driving home from work.

The overall upgrade from my current iPhone 14 Pro Max on Visible to this one was more or less flawless. I performed a backup, and went through the restore to the new phone, which asked to upgrade to the beta. After that, it was as simple as firing up the Visible app and activating this phone with the eSim. That process took about 5 minutes to complete and maybe around 10 minutes for SMS to fully start working to the new phone.

🕷️ Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 15:39:47 +0000

Over the weekend Cole and I went to an evening showing of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the second moving in the Beetlejuice franchise.

🐧 update-initramfs is stuck

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:53:03 +0000

I was running into an issue on my Ubuntu 22.04 server where the kernel was stuck on 5.15; I never really thought much about it as a long while back ( Many upgrades ago), I remember freezing kernel updates due to some video card issues that I was having with docker.

sudo apt remove initramfs-tools
sudo apt install initramfs-tools

After running those commands, I completed the update to the server with the shiny new 6.5 kernel.

🦗 Crickets …

Tue, 27 Aug 2024 19:28:25 +0000

I have been slacking with updates here; I guess it comes with being busy and trying to enjoy the summer that is already starting to come to an end. Perhaps instead of long posts that end up as drafts for far too long, I will start using this for some short posts here and there.

Taking on the cold plunge

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 15:17:46 +0000

Lately, I have really been trying to challenge myself mentally and physically, sometimes both at once, like my recent idea to start using the cold plunge daily.

🧩 More Blue Kazoo jigsaw puzzles

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 01:25:00 +0000

We got yet another shipment of jigsaw puzzles from Blue Kazoo the other day. We have been impressed with the quality of the puzzles and even the time put into the packaging. I hate to make the comparison, but it’s what you would expect if Apple were the company behind the packaging and the product.

The new shipment of jigsaw puzzles includes some artistic ones that look like they will be a challenge but will look fantastic once completed, as well as some new Atari puzzles they were licensed to create. We ( I should say Nicole as I get too frustrated with trying to do puzzles) are looking forward to every one of these puzzles!

💾 QNAP TS-1273AU-RP Upgrade

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 18:37:54 +0000

I recently upgraded to the QNAP TS-1273AU-RP from my trusty Synolog DS1817+ that has served me well for years. I started to make the move to a rack when we moved into the house, and figured this was the next swap that needed to take place to complete that setup.

I have 12x12tb drives in this build which has given me a nice boost in diskspace from the Synology with 8x12tb drives, I am hoping I wont need to upgrade this again for some time to come.

🛻 My Chevy Silverado just hit 88,888 miles.

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 18:24:16 +0000

It seems like only yesterday that I bought this truck with only 500 miles on it ( From transportation, test drives, etc). And, of course, I had to stop and get a picture before it rolled over.

A trip to Museum of Science of Industry

Tue, 12 Mar 2024 14:51:17 +0000

Over the holidays we took a trip to Chicago to visit family and Cole and I took a trip to the Museum of Science of Industry. While I have been to Chicago a handful of times at this point, I had never made it to the museum so I was excited to go.

[envira-gallery id=‘12918’]

🧹 Format USB drive from macOS command line

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 11:39:23 +0000

If you ever need to format a USB thumb drive on macOS from the command line, this will get you going. The first command will show you the drives so you can figure out which one is the USB. You will want to swap out DRIVENAME for what you want to name the USB drive.

diskutil list
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk2
diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 DRIVENAME /dev/disk2

🚪Finally painted the trim

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 19:00:00 +0000

The weather finally started to make a change for the best, so I could get out and paint the trim around the new door. Sadly I didn’t get a picture with out the tape… ohh well you can get the idea.

You can check out the before and after with the slider below.

☕ Still no caffeine, a follow-up.

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 15:16:20 +0000

I up and stopped drinking caffeine cold turkey on January 15th. It was not out of health concerns but more to see if I could do it. As mentioned, I have been upping my caffeine consumption into astronomical proportions and needed to reel it back in.

It has now been over a month, and while I miss the taste of a good cup of coffee and various energy drinks, I no longer depend on any of them.

💻 Mounting Samba share on Ubuntu

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 15:41:12 +0000

I’m mainly noting this here for myself, but perhaps someone else will find this information handy.

Install package cifs-utils

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Create a folder to mount the share into

sudo mkdir /media/Share

Create a file with user credentials in your home directory.

touch ~/.smbcredentials

Edit the smbcredentials file

username=smb_username
password=smb_password

Edit /etc/fstab

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add the following line ( edit where necessary)

//NASIP/shares/ /mnt/nas cifs iocharset=utf8,credentials=/home/USER/.smbcredentials,vers=3.0,iocharset=utf8,rw,sec=ntlmssp,file_mode=0644,dir_mode=0755,uid=1000,gid=1000 0 0

You can now mount the samba share with the command below

🗄️ Uncompressing multiple nested folders

Tue, 13 Feb 2024 14:01:15 +0000

I tend to download many files, most of which are all placed into their own folder within my downloads directory. Instead of going into each folder to uncompress the contents, I wanted to run a single command to achieve this in a timely manner.

Using the simple find command below, you can uncompress multiple folders sequentially, one after another.

find downloads/ -name '*.rar' -execdir unrar e {} \;

Of course, you will need to change the directory, and if you want to use this on zip, tar, etc, you will need to adjust the unrar e aspect to fit the proper command for the file type.

💻 Mullvad error on ohmyzsh update

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 20:19:00 +0000

When I was running updates on my system, I kept getting this error about Mullvad

compinit:527: no such file or directory: /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_mullvad

It looked as though when Mullvad was removed, it never fully removed itself from my system. Thankfully, the fix was as easy as grabbing the Mullvad macOS uninstall script from GitHub and running it, which properly removed all of the symlinks and leftover files.

You can grab the script and run it from the CLI by doing the following.

⛽ It wasn't the battery…

Tue, 30 Jan 2024 16:26:35 +0000

While the main issue was not the battery, it still needed to be replaced. Over the weekend, I went to the Mac in the morning, and when trying to leave, my truck did the same thing where it would not turn over.

I ended up calling Nicole and having her pick me up and take me home, where I could call around and get it towed to Docs Automotive in Okemos, as they had done work for me in the past.

🪫 Dead Battery

Fri, 26 Jan 2024 13:02:00 +0000

Well, it finally happened; I shouldn’t say finally, as this is the second time that I have had to change the battery in a 2013 Chevy Silverado since I purchased it, but the timing sucked more this time around.

I got home from work Wednesday, pulled into the driveway like usual, put it in the park, turned off my Bluetooth aux receiver, and turned the ignition off. I know it’s quite the production…

☕ Taking a break from caffeine

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 11:30:46 +0000

I have been noticing that my caffeine intake has been through the roof; on most days, I am hovering at close to 4x the recommended FDA daily caffeine intake.

With that being said, I was planning to slow my roll and then take a break from caffeine starting on February 1st, but on the morning of January 15th, I decided to take the plunge and stopped cold turkey.

How to set up DNS on Ubuntu 22.04 without a netplan config.

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:35:05 +0000

I finally found the solution here: https://serverok.in/systemd-resolved ( Archive.org cache)

In case the link dies in the future, Create a file:

sudo mkdir /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/
sudo nano /etc/systemd/resolved.conf.d/dns_servers.conf

Add my DNS in this file:

[Resolve]
DNS=8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1

Then restart systemd-resolved

sudo systemctl restart systemd-resolved

It works even after reboot :-)

PS : No idea why my DNS configuration was lost during the upgrade from 20.04 to 22.04.

🚶How far did I walk in 2023…

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 12:13:00 +0000

While I know it’s not a huge accomplishment, I am still pretty proud that I have been keeping up my yearly tradition of posting about how much I have walked over the past year ( And it seems like each year, I am adding more stats as available.)

And just like how I did this before, once I had the CSV and imported it into Numbers, I created a totals row and used the SUM function to generate the totals for each dataset. Alas, without further ado, here are the results.

🎰 Revisiting: WordCamp Las Vegas 2011

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 20:43:46 +0000

I came across this picture taken at WordCamp Las Vegas 2011; this was the first WordCamp I have ever personally organized. It’s interesting to see some of the faces in the picture, many of which are still involved in WordPress.

📓 Switching to Joplin for notes

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 16:01:28 +0000

I switched over to Bear.app some time ago after a lengthy search for a note-taking app. At the time, Bear.app made sense since I was only using macOS and iOS daily, and it worked well for that.

After moving to a new job that required me to sit behind a Windows computer, I needed to find a replacement, and after trying out different applications and services, I ended up on Notion.

✍🏻 Can I has more blog?

Tue, 12 Dec 2023 20:11:03 +0000

So, I am not sure how far this will go, if far at all, but I have had the itch to start blogging more again… I am going to “attempt” to take a page from Chris Wiegman and try to write something every day ( Likely starting this coming year).

It will be like the 100-day blogging challenges I have done in the past, just longer ( I hope). I hope that during this attempt, it becomes a daily thing that I do without having to remind myself or, better yet, force myself to complete it.

🐻 🥊 🦈

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 21:12:10 +0000

On Saturday, December 9th, 2023, I saw Bear vs Shark with Jake, John, and Chase at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. This was the only show they were playing to celebrate 20 years since the release of Right now, you’re in the best of hands album.

This was the first time I was able to see Bear vs Shark as while they are from Michigan and played in Lansing many times before, I never took the chance to go and see them before they broke up.

🎄 Holiday gift from 123.net

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 20:05:00 +0000

While I usually get silly items like pens, notepads, or low-quality t-shirts, I was happy to get a much nicer holiday gift from one of our vendors 123.net.

While we had been customers with 123.net for a while, I had been dealing with them directly for a few months, working out pricing for our location and, if all went well, possibly getting other locations on board.

Anyway, they ended up sending me this nice blanket and mug, which have both been used multiple times since they first arrived.

🐠 Automating my aquarium. Part 2 - Adding a Camera

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:36:33 +0000

While tinkering with the Automating my aquarium 2.0 I figured it would be nice to order a new Pi camera as for the life of me I was not able to find the old camera.

I also ordered an extension cable for the camera to get a little more length also avoiding the connection being too snug based on where the Pi is located.

Previously I used webcamserver which I can no longer find, and I am sure it has been discontinued. However I came across a gist that made mention of motion which from the first look seems like this will be a good option to setup a webcam server.

🔋 Disable power Save Mode on Physical Network Adapters

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 14:11:56 +0000

# Disable power save mode on network adapters
# Shelby DeNike 10/11/2023

# Get the list of network device adapters
$NetworkAdapters = Get-NetAdapter -Physical | Get-NetAdapterPowerManagement

# Loop through the array, and disable power save mode
foreach ($NetworkDevice in $NetworkAdapters) {
	$NetworkDevice.AllowComputerToTurnOffDevice = 'Disabled'
	$NetworkDevice | Set-NetAdapterPowerManagement
	Write-Host "Power save mode disabled on: $NetworkDevice"
}

❤️‍🩹 Certified for CPR

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 19:21:00 +0000

A while back I saw an email come through at work about how I could sign up and then become certified in performing CPR. I had never done something like this, so I should sign up.

The class consisted of studying online and taking a few quizzes, followed by in-person instruction about performing CPR ( Performed on a dummy) and a discussion about choking and applying bandages to major wounds.

Ele's Race 2023

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 12:17:31 +0000

Cole has been part of a school running team with some friends of his run by a couple of parents, and during this time, we have attended a few races, most recently Ele’s Race 2023, where I signed up to run the one-mile as well.

🔊 ALPINE ILX-W650... Shortlived.

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 09:32:02 +0000

So, while I was pretty excited about the upgraded stereo, it didn’t go as planned. I know it had been a decade, or sadly two, since I installed an aftermarket stereo, but I figured, “How hard could it be?”.

So began my weekend adventure of installing the car stereo, only to be met with nothing. Absolutely nothing. I went as far as going to four different stores looking for a new wiring harness as I figured the cheap one I got off Amazon was labeled incorrectly. I even searched for the pinouts from the stereo and rewired everything manually according to that, and still nothing.

🔊 ALPINE ILX-W650

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:28:20 +0000

With the new job with UTAC, I now find myself commuting a few days a week, spending a couple of hours each day in my truck, give or take. Depending on the traffic, it is 10 hours of driving. While I am not complaining ( Right now) about the time spent, I am, however, finding myself listening to a LOT more music, podcasts, and audiobooks than I have in the past decade while working from home.

🔒 Switching to Proton VPN

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 15:43:10 +0000

With recent changes that Mullvad had made to service, mainly removing their port forwarding, it was time to look for a replacement. I landed on the VPN service from Proton, which I had used their Free tier on multiple occasions in the past.

I had been a fan of Proton for a long time ( Though I never could commit fully to using them, I still liked what they were doing.) so when it came to start looking they were on the top of my list.

💉 Give me all the penicillin

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 16:11:18 +0000

About a month ago, I got strep throat from one of the kids and went to the doctor to get something for it. During my discussion with the doctor about being allergic to penicillin, I was likely not allergic to it at all/now.

When I was diagnosed with it back in the early 1980s, they used a different delivery method for the antibiotic which was what I was more than likely allergic to, and not so much the penicillin.

🪜Falling through the attic stairs

Sun, 11 Jun 2023 20:00:00 +0000

Over the weekend, Nicole and I decided to clean out the garage, and in doing so, I fell through the attic stairs.

Thankfully, I was fine for the most part; I scratched my leg on a nail, landed weirdly on my foot, and hit my back against one of the steps, but all in all, it could have been worse.

Now to add replacing the attic stairs to my ever-growing project list… it’s always something.

🎉 A New Job with UTAC.

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:00:00 +0000

The " vacation" is over! I accepted a role with UTAC as an IT System Administrator at their Northville, Michigan office. This will be a fun and exciting change from the world of Linux and Web Hosting,, which I have been immersed in for what seems like an eternity.

Not only will the responsibilities change, but I will also now report to an office outside my home for part of the week. I am looking forward to the commute as I figure it will allow me to get caught up on some reading ( audiobooks), and this also gives me a reason to dust off my Spotify account and perhaps upgrade to the premium account again to avoid some commercials. The interactions with people face to face are also going to be a change from the previously random Zoom/Google Meet meetings that I was accustomed to as well!

🖥️ Getting my desk back

Fri, 12 May 2023 11:18:58 +0000

Over the years, my desk has gone through multiple changes, from being nothing but a place for my laptop to having multiple monitors and all the other gadgets you could think of being connected.

Over the last few months, I have been using my computer from the couch, kitchen table, bleachers, etc., and I have noticed I don’t “need” all this other clutter at my desk.

I will try to wipe it clean and start with a clean slate, to some extent, mainly removing everything except the basics, such as the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I figure that while at my desk, I should have at least those items so that it makes using my desk kind of a reward to have a larger workspace.

🛠️ Migrating from Townsquare Interactive

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 19:53:52 +0000

So I should start off by saying this is in no way a direct bash towards Townsquare Interactive and the WordPress hosting that they offer, as I am sure in many ways it is a great option for many small businesses that are needing to get online and have an all in one package with SEO include, Google Ads, etc but sadly it’s not for everyone and its NOT easy to move off their platform.

🌊 Flooding in March 2023

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 18:42:41 +0000

So while these pictures are anything but epic, I figured I would snap a few as well as a video showing the flooding taking place in Tacoma Hills ( Well outside my front door and the neighbor’s yard).

The lagoon is also the highest I have ever seen, and based on how full the river is, I think it will be a few days at least after the rain stops before it returns to normal levels.

Building physical things

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 17:12:05 +0000

The other weekend the kids were out of the house, and Nicole and I did some housekeeping; along the way, a project came up to build something to hold sports medals and trophies.

Using some scrap wood that Nicole had from another project and purchasing some hooks, I could put together a shelf that would hold the trophies and allow for the hanging of the medal.

While working on this and altering the scrap wood shelf, it reminded me of the times I used to tinker in my grandpa’s garage when I was younger and how doing so really allowed me to build things. At the time, I would never have thought that taking things apart to see how they worked would give me a better understanding in the future of not only making something out of nothing but repairing things such as the time the pull start on the mower broke.

Good by Comcast/Xfinity, Hello MetroNet

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 17:12:05 +0000

I have been waiting for a couple of years for MetroNet to finally complete the construction of their all-fiber network here in Okemos, and a couple of days ago, they came out to complete the installation at my house.

While I have been a Comcast/Xfinity customer since moving back to Michigan, I can’t say I was ever happy. Whether it was issues with their upstream/downstream speeds, outages, pointing fingers at me for network issues, or simply the ridiculous cost of their service, I am glad to wipe my hands off them.

⌚ Apple Watch Ultra

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 20:38:28 +0000

While I would like to say I have been a " longtime" Apple Watch user, it has only been a few years… well, since the Series 3, which was my first dive into the world of Apple Watches.

I was never much for watches, and the last thing I wanted was another accessory I had to put on in the morning, charge, care for, etc. Still, I figured back then why not, as the analytics alone were interesting to me, enough so that eating the cost of the watch seemed worth it to me.

🛻 2013 Chevy Silverado Fender Flares

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 16:34:42 +0000

Another thing I got done over this productive weekend was installing Fender Flares onto my 2013 Chevy Silverado. While I am not the biggest fan of Fender Flares, it was the most affordable option to coverup some bodywork that I had to perform on the rear wheel wells; it was either that or replaced the entire bed of the truck, which would be quite the investment on a nine-year-old truck.

The rear mounts didn’t fit 100% as advertised, so I had to get some self-tapping metal screws to secure the rear flares to the truck’s body. Guess I won’t be removing them anytime soon.

100 days of blogging part two, that's a wrap

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 19:10:48 +0000

So today concludes the 100 days of blogging part two! While it was a struggle at times, I was able to conclude this exercise with a total of 95 posts as of today!

95

I am kind of in awe that I got that many, even with times when I thought I was way behind … until next time! Now back to your regular scheduled program.

💼 3yrs at Kinsta

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:33:04 +0000

I have been meaning to make a post about this since February 11th which was my 3-year anniversary at Kinsta, but alas time has gotten away from me.

When I started at Kinsta I came into a sales role, I was the sole salesperson for some time before others joined in and things started to take shape. I am now the Sales Engineer for Kinsta, and my days are filled with working with our Sales Representatives, answering their questions, and helping to close sales using my technical background.

Nice vacation…

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 14:45:09 +0000

Well, I wouldn’t call it a traditional vacation, more so just a break from blogging, which went against everything in the 100 days of blogging challenge, but I had an excuse… I was just being lazy!

While I am enjoying this challenge, I also don’t want to feel like I am forced to blog something, which, in most cases, has been some random nothingness just to fill a day. I plan on continuing this challenge to the end, but I might end up being a little laxer and forgiving to myself in terms of making a post every day.

🧼 Soap for life!

Sat, 29 Jan 2022 20:03:05 +0000

Ok well, maybe not for life but I do have enough hand and dish soap to last me for quite some time. Turns out there was a price error at Meijers on some hand and dish soap that was on clearance. One was .38 cents off while the other was .30 cents off, sadly someone must have entered it into the system wrong as one ran up as .30 cents while the other was .38 cents.

Sunday Funday?

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 23:21:52 +0000

I wish. These recent weekends have been anything but Sunday Fundays, as we have been in high gear working on the house. Since moving in, it seems like it has been nothing but project after project, but the end is near!

I’m hoping in the following week, likely two, everything SHOULD be wrapping up. We spent this weekend wiping down the new drywall, priming, and starting to paint. Next week the new floors will be put in the bathroom, closet, and master bathroom. After that, all that will be left is finishing up the bathroom tile, toilet, and vanity. I can’t tell you how happy I will be once everything is wrapped up so we can finally kick back with our feet up and enjoy a weekend without any major projects that need to be completed.

🍖 Meat Chopper

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:15:43 +0000

Anyone who knows me knows that I love Tacos 🌮, and while I can’t always get a nice authentic street taco, I will settle for a ground beef taco at home. And while in the past, I have not personally had any issues with how I grind/mash up the ground beef; I figured that there had to be a better way to get a finer consistency of the meat.

I searched Google and Amazon and came across the OXO Good Grips Ground Meat Chopper. While I had my doubts, I figured for the price, I would give it a try.

Setting up Lancache on Ubuntu 20.04

Wed, 29 Dec 2021 13:35:39 -0500

With the recent upgrade to Fortnite, I saw that the bandwidth at the house was being saturated with these 17GB updates going to 3 different Playstations. With that being said I started to think there had to be a way to set up a local report, or a cache to serve all the updates/installs to save not only bandwidth but also time.

A quick search landed me on Lancache which totes itself with the motto of “LAN Party game caching made easy“. Sounded like an instant win, especially when I saw that it consisted of only two Docker containers to get it up and running.

💡 A cheaper Phillips Hue LED strip

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 14:53:41 +0000

While I am a huge fan of the Phillips hue lighting system, it is expensive there is no doubt about that. Whenever I visit Home Depot or any other big box store I try to look around the clearance sections as you would be surprised at how often Phillips Hue lights are sitting there selling for a fraction of the cost.

After moving to our house I started to set up my office space and knew that I wanted to add in some wall accent lighting using a Phillips Hue LED strip, sadly at about $180 for the 5m (16ft section) it was going to add up in order to add lighting to the selected wall as it was just about 16ft in length, and that was not including the main piece with the part that actually connects to the hub.

Affiliate links

Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:38:59 +0000

While looking over Jons site during this 100 days of blogging challenge, I noticed that he had a page discussing the use of affiliate links on his site. I figured that since almost every single link on my site to a product is an affiliate link of some sort, I should shamelessly steal a page from his book and add an Affiliate Disclaimer page to my site as well.

📆 Handling the scheduling of Draft Posts in WordPress

Thu, 09 Dec 2021 13:59:00 +0000

The recent start of the 100 days of blogging challenge that I am participating in with a few other coworkers at Kinsta got me thinking about how I will ever manage all of these scheduled posts. The way I am attacking this challenge is simply by creating a bunch of draft posts on various subjects and then scheduling them to be auto-posted once I have completed them. While doing this for a handful of drafts might not be that big of an issue but when you start to think about managing at least 100 posts if not more ( Depending on how crazy I decide to get) this can be quite an issue given the lack of a good heads up display in the WordPress dashboard.

AirTags, and what to do with them?

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 11:48:11 +0000

I picked up some Apple AirTags a while back and put one in my laptop bag, on mine and Nicole’s keychains, in my wallet, and even one in my truck (_Figured it could help with finding my truck in a parking garage or something lol).

However, I now have 3 more sitting here gathering dust and I haven’t the slightest idea on what to do with them. I have thought about hiding them in the kid’s backpacks just in case they misplace them, also attaching them to our bikes as well but I feel they would end up getting lost somehow, and then there would be a hunt trying to find the lost AirTags.

✏️ 100 days of blogging challenge, let's give this a try again…

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 12:00:00 +0000

So the 100 days of blogging challenge is starting again, today on December 1st, 2021. Last year I did alright but this year I hope to do even better. I have already started drafting up posts that I intend to schedule in order to give myself a decent lead time when it comes to thinking up what to write about. I am also posting not only here but on my other site that deals mainly with all things WordPress.

🍳 Chilaquiles Recipe

Fri, 22 Oct 2021 21:02:00 +0000

While I hate to admit it, I saw a picture of this dish while randomly browsing Instagram one evening. That sent me down a rabbit hole, looking at various recipes until I found one that I thought had some potential based on the others I read. I went about doctoring this up to the point at which I was ready to give it a go with some changes in place. I need to revisit this and add a little more heat, but overall, I think this turned out pretty close to perfect; again, it’s a little mild for my liking.

🌐 Force all DNS traffic to Pi-hole on a USG Pro

Wed, 30 Dec 2020 17:20:00 -0500

I was looking for a way to force all DNS queries on my network to be pushed to my Pi-Hole no matter what hardcoded DNS servers were set up on the device. After a little research, I came across a couple of blog posts that pointed me in the right direction.

The main reason for this is not only that the kids are getting smarter to be able to adjust settings on their devices to bypass the Pi-Hole, but also I wanted to make sure all devices that jumped on my network were going through the same DNS servers for caching reasons. I also didn’t want to have to make sure I configured each device when added to my network.

100 Days of Blogging update

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 17:07:24 +0000

I can’t say enough about how difficult this challenge has become. I have really been trying to make some meaningful posts on a daily basis, but if you have been following along, you might have noticed some small, more or less pointless posts, even a few skipped days, such as yesterday.

💾 Adding more storage to my NAS

Tue, 26 May 2020 13:45:00 +0000

When I purchased my Synology NAS I filled it with eight 4TB drives, and did dual redundancy leaving me with 22TB of space that I never thought I would fill…

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max

Wed, 20 May 2020 20:40:16 +0000

As I mentioned in a previous post my Apple iPhone 8 Plus had a painful death. So just as any other loyal Apple fanboy would do, I went out and bought an upgrade, and went all-in with the iPhone 11 Pro Max ( 256GB model) in space gray.

Switching to Android…

Mon, 18 May 2020 17:51:07 +0000

A while back I picked up a Google Pixel 3 to test out, that test lasted all but a day then I put it back in my desk drawer and pitched it to all my friends and family to see if they wanted to buy it off me… clearly that never happened as it was up until this weekend sitting in my desk drawer.

✏️ 100 days of blogging challenge

Fri, 01 May 2020 12:00:00 +0000

This should be an interesting challenge seeing that every year I say that I am going to write more often and then it shortly fizzles out. This challenge is taking place starting on May 1st, 2020, and ending on August 9, 2020 … which just happens to be a few days after my birthday.

Git with Verified GPG commits on macOS

Fri, 21 Sep 2018 13:27:48 +0000

Setup

No need for homebrew or anything like that. Works with https://www.git-tower.com and the command line.

Install https://gpgtools.org – I’d suggest to do a customized install and deselect GPGMail. Create or import a key – see below for https://keybase.io Run gpg –list-secret-keys and look for sec, use the key ID for the next step Configure git to use GPG – replace the key with the one from gpg –list-secret-keys git config –global gpg.program /usr/local/MacGPG2/bin/gpg2 git config –global user.signingkey A6B167E1 git config –global commit.gpgsign true Optionally configure annotated tags to be GPG signed git config –global tag.forceSignAnnotated true Add this line to ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf pinentry-program /usr/local/MacGPG2/libexec/pinentry-mac.app/Contents/MacOS/pinentry-mac Add this line to ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf no-tty

📶 Ubiquiti Home Network Upgrade

Fri, 06 Jul 2018 16:00:40 +0000

{{ double-space-with-newline }}For a while now I have been thinking about upgrading my network, and since moving I have been having more and more issues with my 2TB Apple Time Capsule where I am forced to reboot it often. Besides rebooting it I have also been experiencing a poor or often times slow signal now that I live in a much larger than when I lived in Denver.

📷 Wyze IP Camera

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 20:38:08 +0000

It’s been a while since I had an IP camera setup, but recently came across the Wyze IP Camera which is only $20 …. The price was kind of a deterrent at first until I looked at all of the features packed into this small/affordable IP camera. Wyze had just released version 2 of their camera so I picked up a pre-order, it took a few weeks longer to arrive than expected due to some issues with the production due to dust on the new CMOS sensor, but the wait was ok by me as it was more of an impulse buy rather than something I really “needed” to get by on a daily basis. My first thought, once it arrived, was that it had an Apple feel to the packaging. It was very minimal, clean, and simple. The setup was also very easy and done with all via my iPhone 8 plus. You simply power it on, wait a few seconds then hold the setup button which gives you an audible prompt to continue the setup which is

Waterminder

Wed, 07 Mar 2018 17:21:29 +0000

I have always had a really hard time drinking water throughout the day, in most cases, I just " forget". Anyways I decided to see what kind of reminder apps were out there to hopefully aid in reminding me not to sit here for hours without even thinking twice about taking a drink.

There had to be something out there that would track my daily intake as well as remind me every X hours to take a drink. The main thing I was looking for was an app that was not only minimal in design but tied in with my glorified notification center aka the iWatch.

New Ink Cover-up

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 20:00:30 +0000

A few months ago I started to get work done on my sleeve, mainly filling in some of the bare sections and some touch-ups.

Lastly, I have been working towards a coverup of the Koi I had on my upper arm, my artist, and I decided to cover it up with a dragon.

This is only the 2nd session I have had with him on the Dragon, but so far, it’s turning out great. I am really looking forward to it being completed, There will only be a couple more sessions until then.

🦘 Visiting Envato in Melbourne, Australia

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 18:14:14 +0000

[envira-gallery id=‘6841’]

Ohh wait I have a blog

Thu, 12 Oct 2017 03:20:23 +0000

I should probably start making use of it again.

Backyard Rollercoaster made of PVC! With a 12 ft drop - YouTube

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:56:42 +0000

A day in "court"...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:30:08 +0000

Yesterday, I finally had my “court” date for the traffic violations back in March. I got pulled over on the way back to work from lunch and got a ticket for Expired Registration and an incorrect address on my License.

APC on a WHM/CPanel Server

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:17:29 +0000

One of my clients needed APC installed for their application, so I initially tried to install it via WHM module installer …. this failed. Here are the steps that I took to get it working via CLI{{ double-space-with-newline }}First download the newest stable release of APC and then run the following commands.

wget http://pecl.php.net/get/APC-3.1.6.tgz{{ double-space-with-newline }}tar -xzf APC-3.1.6.tgz{{ double-space-with-newline }}cd APC-3.1.6{{ double-space-with-newline }}which php{{ double-space-with-newline }}phpize If you do not have pcre installed the make install will fail. So make sure to run the following yum command to install it with the development packages for safe measure.

📈 Adding users from a CSV file to a MySQL database

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:48:08 +0000

I recently encountered an issue requiring me to import about 500 employees into a database and add each one to multiple departments.

Using an array, I wrote some pretty simple code to import a CSV file that simply contained “username, real name” into the database.

I wanted to post it in case anyone ever needed to do something along these lines.

<?php
include('../config.php');
$departments = array("department1", "department2", "department3", "department4");
mysql_connect("$dbhost", "$dbuser", "$dbpass") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db("$dbase") or die(mysql_error());
$handle = fopen("employees.csv", "r");
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 5000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    foreach ($departments as &$value) {
        $query = "INSERT INTO employees (`id`, `name`, `realname`, `tickets`, `dept`) VALUES (NULL, '$data[0]', '$data[1]', '0', '$value')";
        $result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
        echo $data[1] . ' successfully added to ' . $value . ' department<br>';
    }
}
unset($value);
?>

Raid Solution

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:22:33 +0000

I am in search of a raid solution. I have been pretty interested in the Drobo but due to the cost of what you get I am not sure its the best method, though the idea is cool. I am thinking instead of maybe getting a few 1tb+ drives and a cheap RAID card and tossing it all into my Linux box as it would provide a lot more than just a storage device, not to mention the cost would be much less.

Yup

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:26:06 +0000

1yr in Vegas

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 01:23:29 +0000

The date had almost slipped me by. I have now been living in Vegas for 1yr, 6 months longer than I really would have cared for. I moved to Vegas to get out of computers for a bit and attempt to work at one of the many clubs or casinos… And if you know where I stand now, and you know that didn’t happen. Instead, I ended up working for a company that provides support for all of the casinos and bars.

🚬 5 Smokes and counting ...So

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:21:21 +0000

with the recent price hike of cigarettes, I have decided my time to quit is now. I have 5 more left in my pack, which I can only assume I will finish before I go to bed tonight. That being the case, I am no longer going to purchase packs; I mean, who can afford to buy them at $6 something a pack? Not to mention the money I will save over the course of a year. Depending on the day, I smoke about half a pack, which leads me to buy a pack a day so that I always have some.

👟 New Onitsuka Tigers

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 17:11:14 +0000

So, over the last two weeks, I have been searching for a new pair of shoes as my Adidas have reached the end of their lifespan. I have hit up DSW multiple times and have not had any luck. I then decided to hit up the outlet malls since they have a few shoe stores… and still turned up with nothing. Then I checked out Journeys and found some Onitsuka Tigers Ultimate 81’s. I didn’t really know much about these shoes, found out they are made by Asics or at least owned by them. I tried them on, and I must say they are some of the most comfortable shoes I have worn. I am interested to see how long they hold up.

👴 And now I am really old

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:00:14 +0000

So today is my birthday, and I don’t feel any different, but I know I am old.

Jon Henderson - R.I.P - 2.28.2008

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:23:32 +0000

You will be missed brother. You were a good friend, and a great roommate. I will miss you always my friend.

AccuWeather.pl Cacti Fix

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 03:41:11 +0000

I got bored today and decided that I wanted to monitor weather in different locations with my Cacti setup. I obtained a copy of the AccuWeather perl script and also the XML file for Cacti, loaded it up and what do you know… It wasn’t graphing the Temp or the RealFeel®. With a little help from my friend Wezzul I was able to get it graphing correctly. I present to you the fixed perl script.

A bum called me Larry

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 18:51:50 +0000

So last night was fueling up the blue beast at the gas station. When I parked by the pump I knew the bum sitting on the curb had his eye on me. I started pumping gas and then out of no where hes like “Hey Larry!”, at first I didn’t respond… then he called again. I turned around and he said that I looked like a Larry, and that I had some resemblance to Larry bird, from there he started asking me about baseball and basketball etc… Then as I figured he hit me up for change.

1hr to go

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:52:38 +0000

And I am really tired. I almost want to make some coffee… but then I will be up forever unless I start drinking when I get home …. hmm ideas. Anyway, this is a temporary theme until I get around to creating a new one myself.

859-212-1501

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:28:29 +0000

I am getting sick of this number. I get random calls from these folks every month, a couple of times, etc. I swear it needs to stop. For those of you who have not gotten these calls, when you get this call, it’s just a Spanish recording … well, I don’t speak Spanish, so I have no idea what they are saying.

Upgrade worked

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:15:33 +0000

Well looks like the upgrade worked … well there does seem to be an issue with the rich text editor… I guess I will fix that at some point. I also plan on doing daily updates again, we will see how that goes.

Bags under my Eyes

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 20:36:16 +0000

I need to find out how much it costs to fix them. They seem to be getting worse and worse, even when I eat well or get lots of sleep, etc.

Sushi for Everyone.

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:25:20 +0000

With my new found love of raw fish and seaweed I thought I would change the theme of the site to reflect that. Who knows how long it will stay but for now its better than the default theme thats for damn sure.

New Digg v3 Launched

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:58:20 +0000

Digg v3 has launched and seems to be pretty slick. I missed the opening music that they had up.

According to AOL

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:55:54 +0000

“Linux is only a browser to let you view the internet”, and with their security center that runs on Windows it will keep me safe when using Linux… First class support right there, I tell ya.

Adsense

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 17:42:07 +0000

Well, after a long rest, the Adsense is back in full effect on the site. I am making use of a WordPress plugin to make better use of the Adsense blocks. Lets see how it all ends up working out.

Bad Gojo

Fri, 12 Aug 2005 18:39:29 +0000

Since I work in a factory, we have this hand soap in the bathrooms called Gojo Pumice hand soap. Besides its orange smell, it has the texture of gravel. I think that it is created locally from dirt and the local orange fields. I just had to share this.

1300 Miles and still going...

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 05:06:01 +0000

So I am in Colorado now… I am heading to Vegas for a few days in the morning…. Once I get there I will prob post a larger update of the shitty drive.

Airport Update 4.2

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 14:39:39 +0000

AirPort 4.2 fixes connection problems and resolves security issues with WPA2 wireless networks.

🚗 Add an auxiliary jack to your car

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 16:48:31 +0000

I think I might have to do this to my car…. once I get it all up and running.

Many of us still use an old-school tape deck and cassette adaptor to hook our iPods to our cars. However, with some modding, a few bucks, and a car, you can make a permanent auxiliary jack for your car.

read more

🖥️ A couple of things.

Fri, 27 May 2005 05:55:02 +0000

I thought after all these random Life posts, I would post some tech junk. I just got dual displays working on my box @ work… Granted, the second display is next to worthless as its runs on a shitty 8meg S3 Trio card; it lets me do 1024x768 15bit. Anything higher than that will either

Not display anything
Locks up the computer to the point where I have to unplug the box.

All in all, it sucks and is slow as shit, but hell, it’s nice having my IM’s all on one monitor. Now, to get my FM/TV Tuner working, I might be able to make use of the second display.

🖥️ Building a system for a friend.

Tue, 31 Aug 2004 02:12:36 +0000

A friend of mine is looking to get a new machine. He was going to get an all-in-one Sony Vaio, but for $1600, I could build him a way better machine…

Here is what I came up with so far, none of which I have checked for the best prices online yet.

ATI All-In-Wonder® 9800 Pro 128MB AGP Video Card (link) - $250-400
Not sure of which case I like the Antec, he likes the Lanboy.
Antec PlusView 1080AMG PC Tower Case (link) - $159
Super Lanboy Aluminum Super Mini Tower Case ( link) - $89
Athlon XP 3200 (400mhz FSB) - $111
Asus A7V600 Motherboard ( link) - $55
1GB PC3200 DDR - ( link) - $113 or maybe 2 gig for about $348
Western Digital 160GB Caviar® 7200 Hard Drive - (link) - $99

I drank and drank and drank, and I finally fell asleep.

Thu, 04 Dec 2003 23:37:26 +0000

and I awoke to this I got the loan.. and ordered the laptop, should be here by Dec 15th Latest.

I like to burn things

Wed, 12 Nov 2003 02:02:53 +0000

Well, the new, slightly better site design is up… at least on the main page; I’m working on the gallery and then the how-to section. I will leave an update as soon as that’s complete…

Also, work sucks, just like it always does. Also, if you are using Netscape or Mozilla, then you might notice that the weblog doesn’t display quite right.

I am always drunk at work so much so that when I show up sober people ask me if I'm o-kay.

Mon, 03 Nov 2003 19:19:05 +0000

This weekend… wow words cant explain. My days bled together like no other, here is a little recap. Friday I woke up @ 10am to get ready to be at work by 1pm… worked until 9pm then drove home got my costume and a change of clothes for sat. Went over to Ryan’s house for a predrinking party. Drank a beer then walked with everyone to another house party… I only stayed there for a few mins then drove to The Temple to watch Adrenachrome play, stayed there until like 1:30am then drove to get some more drinkage… Ended up back at Ryan’s house and continued to drink. It was now like 3am or so, so we decided to head to Denny’s and there was hella people there, so we drove to the gas station that my sister works at and got some bagels. We then trucked back to Ryans and then Sean came over and Amanda, Nicole, Sean, and I headed to the courts to Tail gate… Fast forward a few hours and we were really wasted and hanging out @ Ryan’s then we went to eat, yadda yadda… Sat night still hadn’t slep maybe only for like 20mins. We then ended up at Gunson drinking till I think around 4am… Sleep was good. All in all though I was up for around 42hrs and out of those 42hrs I was drinking about 31hrs… christ I will never do that again. Also the pictures can be viewed here and here.

I smoke too many cigarettes, and I don't think I've been sober for 3 years.

Wed, 29 Oct 2003 09:34:06 +0000

Sorry about the lack of updates… been busy. I did post some pictures from the weekend in the gallery, but nothing too exciting. I am working on a new site design to make it look well… I am a little more custom instead of this damn MovableType default setup. In other news, I gained access to Digitalpimpz.com anyways defaced it a little bit, and now the webmaster Steve is pretty pissed and hates me and the world… God I wish I could go back to the days when I cared that much about something… such as my site ;)

Kill Bill, and The Cube

Tue, 14 Oct 2003 23:09:56 +0000

I got my hands on a Work-print copy of Kill Bill. Now I need to go see it at the movies. It’s a sweet movie, like old-school Anime with lots of blood. I really want to see Kill Bill Volume 2 when that comes out.

That will be a good sequel. After I was done watching that movie, I ended up losing about an hour or so of my life that I will never ever see again watching The Cube. imdb.com states that this " Low-Budget Canadian sci-fi film worth viewing". All of that statement is true except the “worth viewing”. Don’t watch it run away.

Weekend

Mon, 13 Oct 2003 19:28:23 +0000

This weekend was pretty cool… not like the normal but still, a great time, Ended up @ Harpers Downtown for some 80’s band, got drunk, and woke up on a fold-out couch hating life itself.

Walk out to my car and it’s parked in the yard with a parking ticket on the windshield… Fuck East Lansing. Then I headed home and met up with Nicole, we went to Franks Pressbox and watched the game and got a little more blitzed then we planned.

T-Bags where are you!?

Tue, 24 Jun 2003 02:33:30 +0000

Well, I ended up going to Flint, well, near Flint, with Shane on Saturday. Anyway, I got wasted with T-bags, Shane, and some other people that I don’t really know all that well. Anyway, when I woke up in the morning, T-bags was gone. We called him, and he didn’t answer, and I guess his mom can’t find him either. Hmm.

Shizzle

Fri, 20 Jun 2003 03:56:35 +0000

I don’t know if I can handle 7 pounds outings anymore. Last Tuesday, I went out to get wings with Louie and Chase. The next thing I knew, it was 1:30 a.m., and I had to be at work at 10 a.m. Other than that, the outing was alright.

Last night, I went to Mac’s Bar in Lansing to see a few bands play; my ears were still ringing. I did, however, like the Punk band The Fallopian Dudes; I still need to find some of their MP3s… If they have any. Afterward, I went over to Marta’s house and bleached the tips of my hair; why, I don’t know. Work has been a blast today. Got here @ 3 and then had training for CS Atlantic for 4 hours… Man, it sucked… Anyways back to slaving on the phone.

Brief Update

Wed, 18 Jun 2003 00:05:15 +0000

Well, not much new in life, same boring shit day after day. I haven’t had much time to work on the site… not that anyone comes here anyways. I did get the Petosky Images uploaded to the gallery.

Work was pretty fun yesterday and a little bit fun today, we found that a co-worker here has made a site where we can add text to the LED marquee… the joy of a job in a cubicle… 😛 ok, well, I don’t feel like typing, so here is a picture.

Harpers Half off!

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 19:17:27 +0000

Well, last night, I went to Harpers. Needless to say, I got drunk, and for very, very cheap. You can’t beat half off everything, but a word of advice: never buy their hummus.

The hummus there is like mashed fucking potatoes with loads of garlic in it. Anyways yeah went up there expecting to only have A drink, but the next thing I knew, I was drunk as fuck and puking… Ohh, well, what to do.

Welcome to the Site.

Thu, 12 Jun 2003 02:03:04 +0000

Welcome to shelbydenike.com, You may have come here from other sites such as 7pounds.net, DeviantProductions.net or some of the other random sites.

Anyways yeah, this site will pretty much be a place where you will hear me bitch about everyday life and the cubicle job that I live for.

Site News

Fri, 23 Mar 2001 20:38:18 +0000

Well, I put up a new article today, and well, it is kind of a funny one once you get past the whole beginning of it. I will keep you updated on it. Also still no real word on Whiteplanet at this time, but keep checking back

About Shelby DeNike

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

… A brief rundown of my life

Let’s see, I was born Thursday, August 7th, 1980, at 2:17 pm in good old Lansing, Michigan. Over the years, I grew up doing this and did that; somewhere along the way, I took a liking to computers and excelled at it, from the BBS days on a 1200 baud modem to working in multiple data centers with multiple provider connections coming in.

After spending 24 winters in that cold, gloomy state, I decided it was time for a change to experience what lies outside of Michigan, so in July of 2005; I decided to move to sunny California to see what it could bring me in life. I worked for an outdoor lighting company as their Director of Media Technology (Pretty much a fancy title for saying I edited photos, managed a blog, and helped the owner send emails). I moved from that to working at another Web Hosting company.

My Setup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

An ever updated list of the hardware and software that I make use of in my homelab and daily use.

Inspired by Paul Stamatiou‘s post about the stuff he uses daily, I thought I would do the same. Not only to let people get an idea of what I use daily but also so I can keep track of the hardware/software that I have installed.

Desktop

My Setup as of July 22nd, 2025 (Picture needs updated still.)

Readme

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

More or less my user manual.

👋🏻 Hey, I am Shelby!

This might be the first time seeing someone create a readme about themselves, but you are likely not alone! When I was introduced to it for the first time, I was curious and puzzled about the idea. I thought I was not a piece of software on GitHub that needed a manual, but I can attest that it is helpful and something I will continue to update and improve.

Resume

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Profile

I am a seasoned WordPress support expert coming from a hosting background with system administration experience. I have worked for multiple hosting companies and have been part of the IT industry for 18+ years. I have helped with the building out of data centers as well as migrating from metal hardware to cloud-based platforms.

I believe in automation being implemented where it can with the use of bash scripts and advanced PHP scripts to get the job done in an efficient manner.