I am never going to get caught up on my email and blog/journal comments. OK, I will eventually get caught up, but it’s going to take some time. If you emailed me or commented somewhere to something I said, I’ll respond (hopefully before Monday). I was already behind when I left for Mom’s and now I am really, really behind!

Just thought I’d let everyone know I heard you, and I’m not ignoring you. I swear I got more email in the last five days than I do when I am at home checking it every day!

The post I made a mere few hours ago looked odd when I checked that the new post I just wrote had posted to my blog and formatted correctly. I went into the editor, thinking I had perhaps been not quite awake and made an awful typo without noticing (it happens sometimes, when I haven’t had my coffee yet). No, a spammy link had been injected into the post … the post I just posted this morning. I simply cannot find how this happens or how to stop it. There appear to just be inherent weaknesses in this version of Wordpress that have been terribly exploited.

I swear I am going to update my Wordpress and fix this problem once and for all (hopefully). I was hoping to widgetize my current theme and get used to the new back-end before I switched, but I can’t have this crap going on at Just Orb (and beyond, since it cross-posts all over the place). I promise to get this done ASAP, which means sometime before Monday. Since all my archives have been cross posted to Livejournal since the last time I will likely be dumping the archives over here and starting out fresh. Nuking the whole thing from orbit is the only way to be sure.

But I do have to make certain a few of my crucial plugins work with the new version or that suitable replacements can be found before I go all crazy on my web site. If something I use a lot doesn’t work with the new version, I will just have to live with it, but I at least want to test stuff first so there are no ugly surprises.

So I apologize now for any spamminess or weirdness you may encounter on my web site and elsewhere my stuff gets posted. I’m working on fixing it. I’ve put off upgrading long enough out of a reluctance to switch to a new way of doing things. I do tend to fall in love with a particular version of software and not want to change. Sorry. I also apologize in advance for any weirdness that may come in the next few days as I get everything updated and repaired. It’s always a little rough, but it always eventually has to be done. The time has come to move forward, no matter whether I want to or not.

Looks like it’s going to be another wet and nasty day today. The garden may be loving it, but I’m not. I’d really like to take my bright and nifty cushion and go lounge in my lounge chair while sipping a cold beer one of these days.

But, since it’s already been a wet and nasty morning, I updated my sandbox to the latest version of Wordpress. They seem to have fixed the things that drove me crazy with the last latest version, so once I am accustomed to where everything is on the back-end, have either switched my current site design to the new version or created a new design, and made certain my completely essential plugins work with the new version, I guess I’ll be upgrading the main site (or wiping it all and starting fresh). If the weather stays icky, may get done this week. If I drink enough coffee, may even get done today. Don’t hold your breath though. I don’t enjoy working on my web site as much as I used to enjoy it, so I am easily distracted by cats, art supplies, books, or sitting and staring at walls mindlessly.

For example, I am now feeling a strong urge to hover over my garden, even though it’s drizzling out there, and so I think I shall. With all this rain, things have really been growing … including the weeds!

Have I really only made one post today? Eh, it was a rainy Monday, and Lin was home all day. Sort of both busy and lazy … and not much time spent at the computer.

Someone emailed me to say that his virus checker said my site was infected with something. I found an odd bit of code, and there was some weirdness with Twitter recently which may have crossed over (or who knows what the hell happened), so let me know if anyone else has a problem or if it continues! I’m about to upgrade and redesign the whole site anyway. I may just bump that project up a bit … like start on it ASAP.

But not tonight. I’m tired. Too much rain and laziness. A whole lot of nothing to say. Maybe I’ve got some pictures to post on the camera. I’ve taken quite a few the last few days.

I rescind my earlier comment about the new server my site was moved to being zippy. Oh yes, it was completely zippy, right up until it stopped doing anything at all, and they had to reboot it. It had previously been rebooted a mere day before. This does not bode well for my continued business dealings with A Small Orange, and while I have had some good (even great) years with them, I do have to rescind my recommendation of them for hosting any web site you expect to be online reliably. And by reliably, I don’t even mean 99.99% of the time. I mean it’s there when you visit it more often than not.

Aaron server has been up for a whole 16 minutes now. Let’s see if it makes it through the rest of the day. Meanwhile, I’m going to back up all my files, learn how to point my domains at my Livejournal account, and start looking for a new host. I want to be able to move everything at the drop of a hat … or the failing of a server. If my site goes down again in the next 24 hours, I am gone. It’s as simple as that. I was merely aggravated. Now, I am fully pissed off about it all.

I don’t know when exactly it’s going to happen, and there may be a bit of time for the DNS to catch up to my site, but I’m about to tell them to go ahead and move my web site whenever they are ready to do so. Don’t worry! I’ll be back eventually!

In the meantime, any babbling I feel the need to do will be found over at my Livejournal. See you on the other side!

I’m backing up my web site, which is taking a while. Why am I backing up my web site? Well, aside from it being a good thing to do from time to time, I thought I should do a backup before I emailed tech support back and agreed that moving my site to a different server would be a jolly good idea. I”m sure nothing will go wrong and none of my data will be lost or corrupted, but let’s just say confidence is low right now. Better to be safe than sorry.

Anyway, my web site will be moving to a different server. I have no idea if that means it will be down a while, or the DNS will have to catch up to it, or what manner of issues this may cause. I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see.

I hope things improve and my web site stops having the problems it’s been having the last few weeks. I hate to change web hosts, but that is always an option. It’s just an option I would rather not have to choose.

You may or may not have noticed my web site has been mostly down today. All I am going to say about it for now is that I may or may not be looking for a new web host.

Oh yes … color me aggravated. Aggravated enough to finally sit down and write an actual email to my web host complaining about the situation.

I better hit post now, because I have the feeling my site won’t be responsive again shortly, and I have things to do today other than sit here trying (and failing) to post to my web site and dealing with tech support.

Just a reminder, while my web site seems to be working at this very moment, that I have a Livejournal where I post when my web site is not working (and cross-post all my blog posts as well) … and my web site has not been working much of today. I have no reason to expect that it will continue working for the rest of the day, because the server it is on has been hosed just about all morning. My confidence in my web host is currently not very high.

So, you may want to bookmark my Livejournal, just in case my web site takes a nose-dive again. I’m hoping it won’t, but it’s not been a good day for Just Orb.

And why do these horrible problems always happen right after I brag about my host to a bunch of people? I don’t take back the good words yet, but this goes on much longer, and I may have to do so.

I just noticed I never changed the stupid time stamp on my web site to compensate for the stupid Daylight Saving Time change. So … for the last week, everything you have been reading and I have been saying has been time-shifted one hour too early. Duh. There has got to be a way to automate Wordpress to do this for me. It happens every time we make a time change, and it always makes me feel like a total idiot.

Well, it’s not just my web site that gets thrown off my the completely ignorant time changes. I just set the clock in the truck today too, and I still feel like my entire life is running one hour off. I hate, hate, hate time changes!

The thought crossed my mind, about two minutes ago, that I had some domain names coming up for renewal soon. I searched my email for the reminders. The last one I remembered seeing was the 30 day one, and as it turns out, I missed the latest one. Eek!

I hadn’t really put any thought at all into whether or not I was going to keep the orbitweaver.com domain name. I have had it for a few years now, and aside from the odd temporary project, I haven’t really used it at all. It was a gift from someone though, and I didn’t really want to let it go … even though I don’t use it. Silly waste of money I suppose.

All the same, when I realized today was the last day to renew it, I made a panic purchase and bought it for another year. Yes, one more year to agonize over whether or not to keep it or to actually come up with something to use it for. Maybe I need to pass it on to someone else?

And next month I will be renewing orbizart.com, because that one I do have to keep, seeing as it is sort of my business name … you know, if I ever do have a business.

Two of my domains are coming up for renewal again. Oh, the annual anguish about whether or not to keep them! I think this year I will let Orbitweaver go. It was a gift, so I do hate to let it go, but I haven’t used it for much. Seems silly to keep paying for it. I have to keep Orbizart, no matter what. It was also a gift, which isn’t the reason I have to keep it. No, someday it’s going to be used for something. I swear, it will! It actually might be used for something as early as January. I have a project idea, and rather than try to come up with a new domain name (all the ones I have thought of so far are taken), might as well use it. The project is an artsy-fartsy one, so maybe that’s what I have been waiting to use it for all along!

And what is this project idea? You’ll just have to wait and see! I promise, it will be fun. Well, it’ll be fun for me, but I hope other people find it fun too.

In other non-news, the cats have been out of their minds all night and are even more feisty and frisky this morning. I’m going to blame it on the cold weather and the full moon. I can find no other reason for all the running around and being noisy.

I wish the craft store opened earlier. I’d love to go get my shopping done right now, while I still feel like going. I think I’ll blow off the craft store until next week and just go to the grocery store as soon as the sun comes up. It’s not like this house isn’t full to overflowing with craft and art supplies. I’ll just have to make do with what I have.

After 24 hours of being drugged on cold medicine, I am feeling better, but I am far from feeling great. It’s too cold to be spending too much time fussing around out in the world while having a cold. I have a ton of stuff to get done around the house anyway. I want the house somewhat neat and clean for the weekend, since I plan to do some crafty stuff and won’t want to do any housework.

And so ends another completely useless post…

I should be sleeping, but I have been sitting at the computer, mostly poking around under the hood of my web site. I moved some things around in the sidebar, and that took an hour. Not that any of it looks any different (other than the addition of the Utterli widget) but the code is completely rewritten. What a headache.

Then I added a plugin (two actually) that add a short list of potentially similar posts at the end of every post on the single post pages. I’m surprised by how accurate it is. It misses the mark sometimes, but it’s cool enough to keep around a while. There are settings I can tweak, so maybe I can get rid of the occasional not-at-all similar posts that show up.

I also tested out some teleprompter software. I think I found one I like. Why a teleprompter? I hate looking down at notes while making video posts, and without notes, I sound like an idiot. I should never, ever be allowed to babble in front of a video camera without notes or a written script. Well, not all the time anyway. I know some of you like the random babbling. I would like to create a recurring podcast though that appeals to a wider audience than the subgroup of people who really do care what I had for dinner last night and the latest neighborhood gossip. I’ve decided I will likely not become rich in this lifetime^†, so I might as well shoot for famous!

That’s what I have been doing tonight instead of sleeping. I feel like I accomplished something. Always a good feeling. Now let’s see if I can find something to talk about tomorrow other than dinner and gossip … and then force myself to make a video post.

1. † Monetarily rich. My life is actually very, very rich in other ways. [↩]

I think I’m going to get serious about this blogging thing. Not that I am not serious about it, but I have so many applications and ways to make audio and video posts and whatnot that I just don’t use. It’s caused entirely by the fear of my own recorded voice. I cannot stand how I sound in recordings. I sound like a silly little girl and not the full-grown woman I am! I have tried to change the way I sound, but there’s no use. It’s never going to happen.

So, going forward, I am going to force myself to make one Utterli post a day, no matter what, and one Stickam video post a week, no matter what. Even if I look like hell, sound like hell, and don’t have a damn thing to say. Sort of like I do every day in text, except you’ll get to see and hear me! Won’t that be fun.

Maybe I can overcome my fear of microphones and video recorders. Silly fears anyway. I have no problem running my mouth off in front of real people, seems silly not to be able to do it in front of machinery, right?