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Yesterday’s post and political and historical events inspired me so much so that between the span of McCain and Obama’s speeches, I had:

0. Identified the model, theme and purpose for a political storytelling tool.
1. Registered the domain name: myelectionday.com.
2. Repointed the domain’s A record to my solar server.
3. Configured hosting of the domain on my solar server.
4. Selected, downloaded and installed a blog theme for the site.
5. Established its Twitter and Google accounts.
6. Wrote the welcome post and about page.
7. Invited a long list of friends and relatives to join the site and tell their stories.
8. Posted a slew of breaking news articles on the election, candidates and national/global reactions.

I was just so caught up in a fervor of creation that it seemed like a killer concept at the time, though now I’m not sure how it will carry forward. But maybe it will catch on, or maybe it could come to serve to some function in future elections. I don’t know what will happen but I know thoroughly enjoyed the creation process and felt it was my part to play. Just as some marched on our Capitol and others gathered in Grant Park, I expressed myself nearly instantly, virally and globally.

Seems everyone’s discussing the morality rate of (startup) business and employment these days…

So lately I’ve been reading a lot about the startup industry and how its effected in tough, economical times. Some of what I’ve been reading discusses the basic need for preparation, like this upcoming event in NY, hosted by nextNYdigital, called: Going to the Mattresses: Weathering Uncertain Times at a Startup and Jason Calacanis’ “Startup Depression“. While others, like Paul Graham, suggest this: Why To Start A Startup In A Bad Economy. Others still suggest this as a prime time to develop your own personal brand and blog, through something Max Gladwell calls “Resume 2.0″.

And that’s exactly what I’m working on, with a green hosting and data storage company (or companies, still haven’t decided if the two services should run separately). Some of my efforts began initially, last spring but have gotten side-tracked several times since working on other people’s startups. All this talk though and an unseen need that’s been driving me to finally produce my own, seems to be aligning with the times.

I’m hopeful but not delusional about my efforts for success, but with so many of my old friends and partners succeeding around me, I feel just a wee bit inspired.

If nothing less, I can get some great tips along the way from these upperclassmen.

It’s been a busy past few weeks as I had my pilot solar powered web server configured.

It’s been a wee bit of an undertaking since quite candidly, I’d never really bothered to learn Unix and its use through the command line shell. So I’ve been scouring through several books, forums and picking several friend’s brains to get past this learning curve.

After an initial failed attempt to get Plesk installed on Debian, I switched to CentOS and then branched off into researching DNS configurations, settings, etc.

Simultaneously, I started a web hosting plan comparison (while waiting for my unlimited domain Plesk license to arrive) to start zeroing in on the services and pricing that Green Gurus would be offering.

I didn’t find many clear tutorials online or in my books (everyone always assumes you already have some foundation that I apparently still don’t :), so I called upon another one of those friends/contacts, this time Zak Brown (an Orangekid contact) and sat down with him for two hours downtown at my shared warehouse (with The Do LaB).

Thankfully, he gave me a pretty detailed overview of DNS configurations and then some help buttoning up the solar server.

Now I’m noodling around with some test domains, trying to solidify the tutorial…unfortunately it takes awhile for most things to sink into my dense, Capricorn head.

Thankfully, I’m diving back in manana with another, long-time OK friend…Steven Dalton, so it should all finally start sticking.

One of my Sugar Shack roomies and partners in multiple business endeavors, Dr. Ryan Wartena, recently whipped out a bad-ass, personal photovoltaic electricity system.

His brother, an equally talented artist/designer/photographer type posted a blog about it recently here.

Be on the look out for Ryan’s “Sol Blossom” at an event, website or maybe even retail store some time in the near future.

I’ve finally made the move from Doteasy.com’s (awful) free hosting to a much more reliable and professional one, with Network Solutions.

This however, is only a temporary move as I will be setting up my own server with AISO.net, who is the only hosting company powered by 100% Solar Power, not credits like most others. So for now, there won’t be much to see around here, but I should be posting here quite regularly.

You can contact me at jedi [ at ] jediwright [ dot ] com or you can view my professional profile for more info.