Month: July 2009

Crankypantsing, Meta

It Just Keeps Getting Better

Shelly

And by better, I of course mean worse. Much, much worse.

The Esther blog, which I upgraded successfully last weekend, is now broken. It’s apparently something to do with the database, which totally does not surprise me, but if that’s what it is I don’t understand why it worked for a couple of days. Very weird!

Looking at the database, and assuming I’m interpreting it correctly, there seems to be the same problem with the comments table that I had when trying to upgrade the main blog. And, of course, I can’t restore from a backup on the server, because the oldest available backup is Monday’s, and that was already corrupted. WTF?! Whatever happened happened between Saturday and Monday.

That isn’t a huge deal, I guess, since that blog just functions to let interested people know when there are new letters. I figured folks could subscribe to the RSS feed and it would make it easy for anyone interested in following along to know when there was new content. Which is a long way of saying, I can start over from scratch there without any problem. Assuming I can get WordPress to work out of the box. I didn’t have much luck with that the last time I tried it.

The crap with the main blog is even more annoying. I’m back where I started from, with what seems to be a more or less functional install of WPv2.6. I need to upgrade to WPv2.8.1. If I try to do it all over again, I’ll just recreate the mess I made on Monday morning. I have no idea how to proceed. I asked tech support if I could just upload the v2.8.1 files to my directory, then have them do the database upgrade. I’m betting they tell me “Hell, no!” Really, though, it would save them (and me, obviously) a bunch of time, trouble, and confusion.

All that said, since the upgrade of the Esther blog has now gone kerplooie, I’m at a total loss as to what to do. Even if we get the new version of WordPress up and running, will the database become corrupted after the fact?

Crankypantsing, Meta

Okaythen

Shelly

We’re back where we started from, which is way better than losing the whole shebang, but kind of annoying nonetheless.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do, because WordPress really does need to be upgraded. This version is horribly insecure. But if I try to upgrade again, I’ll be back in the same mess I was in yesterday. Grrrr. At this point, if tech support can’t help me figure it out, I’m half tempted to install a fresh copy of WordPress on another subdomain, import everything into it, then wipe this one out completely and start over from scratch. Then, import everything back into this installation. What a pain in the ass! There has to be a better way to do this, but I’ll be damned if I can figure it out.

Photography

Conch Shell

Shelly

IMG_3718

This is another photo from the house where I’m cat sitting. The shell is half buried in the ground, so in order to get a halfway decent shot of it, you either have to lie on the ground (which is crawling with little spiders, so I do not recommend it!) or you have to set your camera on auto focus and set it on the ground and hope for the best. I went with option B.

Crankypantsing, Letters to Esther, Meta

New Letters to Esther

Shelly

Three new letters. It’s been awhile since I’ve done any new letters, but I had to wait until I got a new scanner. Which I have. And which is zippy and super neato-nifty! It may, in fact, be too much scanner for me.

September 22, 1921 from Bertha
September 22, 1921 from Luella Glendening
September 24, 1921 from Mrs. Craig to Miss Hiatt

The letter from Luella is long, but there is an interesting (to me, anyway) bit toward the end about evangelical preachers and how they seem to always target women. A nice little bit of patriarchy blaming.

Also! And this is way more exciting to me than new scanners. I had to upgrade the Esther blog, onna counta some of the files were corrupted (or it was hacked?). So, I took a deep breath, bit the bullet, and upgraded. It did not take the five minutes promised by the good, delusional folks at WordPress, but at about 20 minutes, the ordeal was not so much of an ordeal. In fact, it was downright easy, with no broken databases! This means that I may (may!) soon feel up to the challenge of upgrading this blog. Not today, though. I have a headache and that might actually cause my brain to implodiate.

ETA 13 Jul 2009:

Well scratch that! It seems like the Esther blog has mysteriously gone dead (“Error establishing a database connection”). I looked at the database, and it has the same error that this one did (duplicate key in the comments_approved table). I don’t know enough about MySQL databases or about interpreting error logs to know whether or not that’s the problem, and right now, it’s not a priority, so I’m not going to waste a lot of time messing with it. But, what I am is worried about that the fact that it was working fine after upgrading, and then it became corrupted. Does this mean that, if I do succeed in upgrading the main blog, that it will then become corrupted, too? What a pain in the ass!

ETA 18 Jul 2009:

I went ahead and ditched the Esther blog, and just pointed all the “What’s New” links to the Esther category here. I don’t know why on earth I didn’t think of that in the first place!

Photography

Rainbow

Shelly

IMG_3700

I made rice last night. After putting the leftovers away and rinsing out the dishes, I noticed there was a rainbow pattern on the bottom of the stainless steel sauce pan. The large ring is from the electric burner coil. I’m not sure what, exactly, caused the design to form, though.

The dentist actually managed to make the novocain shots not hurt! That is a new experience for me. Always, always, always, they hurt like hell. It’s by far the worst part of any dental procedure, as far as I’m concerned. But not this time. My upper jaw aches though, now that the numbness has worn off. Hopefully that’ll go away soon.

Photography

Rose of Sharon

Shelly

IMG_3689

I’m cat sitting again this week (and pretty much every weekend for the next month or so), so I took my camera along with me. There are a few flowering shrubs on the property, along with all sorts of teeny-tiny wildflowers, which means there’s usually something interesting to take a picture of there. I got one photo taken, and then my camera battery died. Stupid me. I knew the battery was getting low, and I even have a fully charged spare, but did I bring it with me? Of course not! I R D-U-M-M.

Photography

White-tailed Deer

Shelly

IMG_3657

I was late leaving for work this morning, otherwise I would have missed the festivities. Henry, Polly, and Harriet all hurtled themselves at the patio door at the same time. Aieee! I went to see what the uproar was about, and was greeted with this sight. Well, almost this sight. I’ll spare you the first couple of photos, which were of the doe squatting to pee.

And now, I’m off to see if there is anything not-Michael Jackson-related on the teevee. After, that is, I see if there is anything mushy to eat. I had no idea it was possible to get sick of mashed potatoes, mac n’ cheese, and tomato soup. Who knew?! Friday’s dental appointment from hell cannot come quickly enough.