…and we’re back. After a few harrowing hours last night, thanks to the blackouts in Los Angeles, everything at the HaveYouMetTony.com family of sites seems to be running normally. What I realized is that I’m glad I’m only running a silly, smartassy personal website, and not a money-making professional site here, but what I also realized (or at least had pointed out to me) is that if people are going to take advantage of the great hosting plans Dreamhost offers, they could lower their expectations a little. Some folks (personal and business site owners alike) were going apeshit over the amount of downtime thanks to the blackout, and, as witnessed in the comments to the above posting to Dreamhost’s blog, were all-too-happy to start pointing fingers and remarking how things should have been handled.

Look, it was a freak accident that caused the blackout (and far less funny that it was caused by a dumbass worker now that it affected me), and considering the terror threats that went down over the weekend for L.A., I can’t say as I blame them that their first thought when the power went out was to run like hell. I don’t know how those big server rooms work, power-wise, but I do know that if you think the bombs are coming, you just might overlook properly shutting down a computer. The other fun argument was about a company that didn’t lose a second of downtime due to the recent hurricane in New Orleans (heard about it?). While this is an impressive feat, it probably had a whole procedure of hurricane preparedness behind it, not to mention the 2-4 days to make sure everything was buckled down and/or hosted off-site.

It might not be terribly professional, but I wouldn’t mind if Dreamhost changed their front page for a couple days with a big ol’ sign that says, “SHIT HAPPENS”. I’ve hosted two sites through them over the past two years, and I think this is the second time I’ve had a problem. And this one wasn’t even their fault.

Of course, since my site was seemingly one of the last to go back online, I’m currently looking for a way to get Kanye West to give a speech about how “Dreamhost hates thirty-something white guys.” Keep your eyes peeled for that one.

*****
On to the tasteless humor, as six members of the Frostburg State women’s field hockey team were suspended for their part in a hazing ritual. What jumped out at me was this line:

The freshmen also were pelted with flour, ice and eggs,

Yes, the issue of battered women in this country is a tragic one, indeed…