The Wild Beasts Tamed
collage (magazine cover, anatomical illustrations, and packing tape transfer) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches
I’m so disgusted with the whole WordPress upgrade fiasco that I spent the day as far away from the computer as possible.
Okaythen! I’m back to being frustrated. I can’t get version 2.5.1 to work (it requires a database upgrade, which causes those lovely database table errors that I couldn’t get fixed the first time around), and since version 2.0 doesn’t have an export function[1], I can’t just dump everything into the test version, then upgrade the main blog manually and re-import everything.
And, of course, I got a response back from tech support telling me that my main blog is already running version 2.3.3. Um, no. It may say so in the admin panel, but the admin panel lies. And it doesn’t even make logical sense, since I installed from a back-up copy of version 2.0.
My understanding is that one of the symptoms of the hack I suffered is that WP misidentifies itself as a newer version. You have to look at the config files to find out for certain which version you’re running. When I tried to explain the upgrade death spiral to the folks at tech support, their solution was to alter my config file manually so that it now mirrors what the admin panel says. Not helpful! I want it upgraded FOR REALS, PEOPUMS!
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1. If it were actually running version 2.3.3, like tech support says, then I’d have my damned export function, thankyouverymuch. But it isn’t, and I don’t.
It took me all damned day, but I managed to finally get a working install of WordPress v.2.3.3 on the test subdomain. I tried installing it manually, using first one installation guide and then another. Neither installs worked. Then, I stumbled across Installity. Success!
I’m so relieved that I might cry. This has been thoroughly frustrating.
Now, I need to try to upgrade the test install to v.2.5.1. If that’s successful, my plan is to import my blog to test, back everything up, then wipe the main blog entirely and re-install from scratch, using the same process as I did on the test subdomain.
It’s awkward–and time-consuming!–as hell, but since my web host isn’t being very helpful (and they only support version 2.3.3, anyway), I’m not sure what else to do.
I can think of about a million other things I’d rather be doing this weekend.
I’m going to be off filing for a few hours. The stack of papers on top of my scanner has grown hummense and is starting to contemplate world domination. Again. And then, I’m going to try to make myself attempt to (re)upgrade my blog software. God only knows how long that will take, assuming I don’t break everything in the process.
Not a very big one, mind you, but there were a couple of good things to come out of yesterday’s blogular melt-town. First, I finally got around to cleaning out the blogroll. Second, I fixed the stupid paragraph spacing. That’s been bugging me the whole time I’ve been using this template.
In other news, it looks like Mr. Upstairs really is on his way out. One of his bedroom blinds has been up for the past week (I’ve never seen any of them open before), and it occurred to me that his lights haven’t been on when I’ve left for work (also unheard of). He’s definitely been AWOL. And then, he was back again last weekend, loading more stuff into his car. Now he’s gone again.
There’s all of that, but I also talked to Across the Hall Neighbor, who works for the property management company. The woman who runs the office told her that Mr. Upstairs hasn’t turned in his lease renewal form. Now, they send those out about a month (or a few days, as I found out last summer) before your lease is up. If you want to stay, you sign it and turn it in by the deadline. If you don’t turn in the form, you lose your lease. Meaning, you don’t have to give notice; you just move out by the final date and that’s that.
One of the blogs I occasionally read is by a woman who really, really, really does not like tourists mucking up her lovely city. Having lived in a tourist town (albeit much smaller than San Francisco!), I know that it can get old, being surrounded by people who are unconnected and who don’t belong there. And in our case, people who would wander into our house, thinking it was a shop.
So, I can sympathize. Really. What I don’t understand is that she, herself, travels all the time. She’s always posting about going here or there, or about her travel plans for her next week off. Doesn’t that strike you as a bit hypocritical? I mean, she’s a tourist herself, and here she is griping about tourists. And I can guarantee you, her impact as a tourist on the small towns she visits is much greater than that of the folks who swarm San Francisco is on her.
In other news, there’s a vulnerability in the version of WordPress I’ve got installed on my blog. I’ve been reluctant to upgrade, because of all the hell I went through with having to reinstall Coppermine. I’ve noticed, though, that my blog is loading very slowly. I assumed it one of my web host’s periodic slow-downs, but apparently not. I looked, and someone hacked my blog account and loaded a bunch of code into my template. It was easy to nuke, and is running nice and fast now, but I guess this means it’s time to upgrade to a more secure version.
Fingers crossed! I’m downloading a back-up, in case things go ‘splodey. I won’t be able to reinstall from the back-up, but at least I won’t entirely lose 3 years worth of journaling, either.
And so have my blogroll and my categories. Um, yay. But at least what is here seems to be working properly. And the category section, while hosed, actually does work. I just have to come to terms with the fact that nothing I’ve written over the past three and a half years will be sortable.
I has them. Or, my blog does. I upgraded WordPress this morning, which I’ve been putting off. After the fiasco I had with Coppermine going ‘splodey and the lack of help in fixing it, I just didn’t want to invite myself to an encore performance. Ugh.
So, first, my whole blog was hosed. Nice. I reinstalled from a back-up, and it’s working, except for the obvious errors. Apparently WordPress 2.3x doesn’t have the same structure as older versions, so it handles things like post categories and links differently.
And that’s about all I know. The actual posts are there, and comments seem to be working. I haven’t checked to see if there are errors when you try to comment. I don’t need to make myself feel any more stabby than I already do.
All this, because my blog was hacked and there was a bunch of code inserted into my footer template. It was making everything load slooooowly. I removed it, then decided I’d better upgrade. Silly me!
Emily sent me a Flickr message to say she’d used one of my marginalia images in a video tutorial on social bookmarking. Very cool!
This was a “through the viewfinder” shot. You can build all sorts of contraptions for TtV photography, but I’m not that ambitious, so I just held one camera in front of the other.
My ISP recently went through a buy-out, which involved switching mail servers. I’ve been unable to send mail for awhile now, but the problem is finally fixed. If I owe you an email, I’m hoping to get caught up in the next day or so.
red paper boat 