The last month or so has been a little dicey for me web-wise, mainly because my interblogwebsite has been highly uncooperative. And if you don’t know anything else about my technical skills, you should know this one critical piece of information: I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA HOW ALL THIS STUFF WORKS.
And since I have no idea what I’m doing, I am deeply, completely dependent on the people who keep this blawg-o-mine up and running behind the scenes. I daresay that Emily has developed a pronounced twitch in her left shoulder just from seeing my email address appear so frequently in her inbox, but she has been an absolute champ in terms of keeping me afloat in these murky techy waters. The same goes for Jules, Heather and Laura. They have jumped to my troubleshooting rescue more times than I can count.
Because I’m telling you: if not for every single one of those people I just listed, my header would be half-way down the page and my posts would be trapped on a server just south of nowhere. Not to mention that there would probably be some easy-listening music playing incessantly in the background, and you’d never be able to turn it off.
Ever.
So anyway.
Last week Emily – who has been great about monitoring my traffic and bandwidth usage and blah blah I’m typing the words but they have lost all meaning blah blah – made a couple of recommendations about webhosting and servers and whatnot, and I would be more specific if I had any idea at all what I was talking about, because I am the same person who only realized a couple of months ago (thanks to Anne) that there’s a thing called a cPanel that goes along with my blog, and I can access it and set up email addresses! And look at stats! And upload files! And more!
One of Emily’s recommendations was that I move the blawg to Fused Network, and so that is exactly what I did. Except that I think we all know that I myself didn’t move one thing. I just sat on my little barstool and commenced with the hand-wringing, because while I’m not good at many things, I am an excellent hand-wringer.
Award-winning, in fact.
But as it turns out, the hand-wringing was fairly minimal. There were some hiccups as a result of me posting when I was still floating between two servers, but David at Fused and Emily at Swank could not have been more helpful. In fact, once I signed up with Fused, David actually CALLED ME ON THE TELEPHONE to touch base about the whole process, and even though we must have exchanged about 40 emails over the last day and a half as I have tried to wrap my head around the whole server-switching process, he never once replied with, “Hey! Can’t you, like, TAKE A CLASS or something?”
Because I seriously need to take a class, y’all.
However, there is one lingering issue, and I think that’s why I started writing this post to begin with, but you can never really be sure with me, and besides, I take great pride in using 500 words when only 50 are necessary, and anyway, HASN’T THIS SERVER STUFF BEEN SO FUN TO READ ABOUT?
Ahem.
The lingering issue is that for some reason Bloglines seems to have decided to quit picking up my RSS feeds. I have no idea why. I’ve sent them a couple of emails, and OH, ARE THEY EVER GOING TO GROW TO LOVE MY RAMBLING BRAND OF CRAZY, but I haven’t gotten a response yet and don’t really know if I will. So if you subscribe here via Bloglines, you probably need to unsubscribe and then subscribe again, making sure that you select the Feedburner feed and none of the others.
There. Isn’t that so delightfully, needlessly complicated?
Last thing.
I’ve decided that, after the first of next week, I’m going to take a little hiatus from giveaways for the rest of the summer. I have a fun book giveaway scheduled for tomorrow, and a cool gardening-related giveaway scheduled for the first of next week. And once those are over, I’m going to take a giveaway vacation.
Unless I run across a CD that I think you can’t live without. Because I will always make an exception for music.
I will also make an exception if someone wants to give y’all some cash money.
But the main thing is just that as much as I love doing the giveaways, the correspondence involved with a giveaway takes up a pretty good chunk of email-related time. And a break from that end of things is gonna be a mighty good thing. Our summer is shaping up to be pretty busy, and there’s a five year-old who lives here who wants to go swimming and go to the movies and play with friends and run around in the blazing hot sun while his mama wonders if it’s possible to die from sweating.
Fun times. Precious memories.
Happy Wednesday, y’all.
I was wondering where you have been. I read through bloglines and today got 6 post from you. Who knows if it will keep picking you up or not. I will keep you posted. But for today they did. miss you. H
My bloglines appear to be picking up your feed again! Let’s hope it lasts! I also had 6 posts listed so maybe they have fixed it! Have a fabulous day!
Oh, techy stuff frightens the mess out of me. I hope it is all better for you!
Well, if you’re quitting giveaways, I’m quitting YOU. After all, the only reason I stop by is hoping you’ll offer up a big pot of queso so I can meet it for the first time.
Thanks for crushing my dreams. Thanks a lot.
;)
Sister, I can’t even figure out how to get more than one text box on my teenie little wordpress blog, so I think you’re doing pretty darn good!
LOVE your blog. It’s a welcome part of my everyday reading. Have a fabulous, hot, watermelon-drippy, chlorine-splashed summer!!
Oh BooMama,
As much as I love, adore and revere your blawg, the fact that you are picking your son over making us happy with crazy cool giveaways makes me respect and admire you all the more.
Well done.
Ha! Frazzled minds think alike. I was just thinking this morning that it was time I gave-away give-aways for a while. Might have been inspired by finding one give-away I gave-away nearly a month ago still sitting on the top of my dryer, waiting to be mailed. Clearly, my bandwidth has been reached and/or maxed out at this time. And I have that kid-thing going on, too. Which… hmmm. Where has she gotten to now?
i don’t understand it all either. it’s nice to know i’m in good company.
Oh Boo. Can I call you Boo?
I have a gal I think you might love. I would send you a CD to your physical address but then I might become a stalker and that would not be good for my family’s budget, you know, with the gas prices as ridiculous as they are.
Check her out: http://www.myspace.com/marcypriest
You may end up doing a music give away because she is snazzy.
I’m just sayin’.
Don’t worry, your subscribers will miss you and track you down.
Take a break from the giveaways by all means. But for all that is good and right with the world…..PLEASE don’t take a break from the blog. I believe I speak for everyone!
Bloglines picked you up again for me! Here’s hopin’ it continues!
Bloglines is a go. I repeat — Bloglines is a go.
At least it is for me.
By the way, I [heart] the Dave Barnes CD I won a few months back. It’s on constantly right now, soon to be christened “The CD of Summer 2008” in the Love Well household.
Let’s make a pact: you and I will never discuss the inner workings of blog-related stuff because it would be like the blind leading the blind.
However, I could use a good class on hand-wringing. That I’m not so good at. Or making fried chicken. I’ll let you teach me that one too.
I’m a little relieved to know that I wasn’t the only one having blogline issues with your blog. After I unsubscribed and then resubscribed last week, it is working just fine now.
Sorry about all the issues you’ve been having. I know that’s frustrating.
Did you read bout the plane that flew over some place in Indonesia and threw over $10,000 out the window? Do you think you could get that kind of thing going? I’d like a helicopter, though–so it could hover. And the money tied to weights. Then drop it in my back yard–all point one eight acres of it. :o)
Love and prayers being sent your way from CO!
holly
Huh?
:)
Oh two more things:
1) I could totally hear you saying everything you wrote thanks to the podcast! (Chris said he’d like y’all to video it, so he could see y’all talk.)
2) and I have never used bloglines. I just let the spirit lead…I guess I really don’t need one more thing crying out for attention around here.
That’s all :) Hey–it’s a list!
Google reader has had you covered without a teeny, tiny hiccup, and I haven’t missed a thing . . . which is good, because I don’t like to miss anything you’ve got to say. : )
You are doing better than I would. :):):):)
I always thought the humidity was bad in the Northeast near the shore, but that is NOTHING compared to the humidity in the landlocked state of TN. I’ve wondered the same thing as you (is it possible to die from sweating?). And I’ve wondered why the oppressive heat, like being wrapped in Saran Wrap and stuck in a sauna, has little to no effect on my cherubs.
Thank you for taking the art of obfuscation to it’s pinnacle (I knew I’d use that silly college degree some day – whew!) Your bloggie adventures are most illuminating and about the giveaways – ’tis cool cause you can’t bribe me to read this stuff (well you probably could but I’d have to be a little more desperate than I am currently – what with the Lord providing and so forth) ANYHOW – I read your because it brings me joy and often moments of stark clarity. I don’t subscribe – I make an effort to come and find you on the interwebby every day – honest.
I don’t just read your – I read your BLOG
seriously. what WAS all that? i honestly tried to actually SKIM your post.
i know.
my head is hung in shame.
but let’s get back to all that jargon.
oh, i need a dr. pepper. and i need to get off my feet for a minute.
Bloglines? Check!
Everything else? **white noise** blink. blink.
:)
I have just finished fixing a problem with my feed, and it was caused by a post with a really long title. Apparently that messes up some feed reader services…