“Dearest reader, my absence has been long and at a great personal cost. My skills may be a slightly rusty, but it is time for me to return. I have stories to share and demons to purge. I have often found writing to be a cheaper alternative to therapy and I certainly can’t afford the shrink. So you get a front row seat to the catharsis of my soul and determine my mental stability for yourself.
Pittsburgh is a city filled with pleasant little surprises. The hills and valleys hold untold treasures that go largely un-noticed by the rest of the country. Still characterized by public perception that Pittsburgh is "dirty" and "industrial"; its residents have unparalleled pride in their community. This is a city that knows that it helped build the country.
If you too have a difficult time wrapping your head around the magnitude of our current economic woes; Daily Kos has a nice graphical representation of the current market compared to historical trending. I too have made my own graphical representation.
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It is quite apparent that we will quickly have to resort to a more primitive lifestyle. Such drastic measures as downgrading the hosting package and a cut in premium satellite channels might just be in the works.
Lesson for the day: There are advantages to not having much to begin with. You can’t lose what you don’t have.
On those days when your inbox seems crammed with nothing but white paper offers, job hunting tips and pizza delivery coupons; it is a treat to recieve correspondence from an actual person. Today I was re-united with an accquaintance I had not heard from in some time. How could I forget my old friend Mr. Song Lile? The ever improved spam filters of today mean that it is rare that I hear from such cherished friends as Mr. Lile.
While driving in Pennsylvania is often a way to exercise inventive use of explitives; there are occasions in which it can actually be pleasant. The other day was an opportunity to experience such a rarity.
I managed to grab a few minutes yesterday to try and reslove my editor issues. I have had several frustrating days recently and have taken a slash and burn approach to most of my current dilemas. This new tactic proved to be effective and I now have a visual editor again. Sometimes the best solution is to rip out what isn’t working and replace it with something new. I am pleased yet conflicted.
I got up this morning and my dashboard greeted me with the appearance of another upgrade. I upgraded again and I am still without a visual editor. The quest for a resolution continues.
I have decided to vent my frustration in the kitchen. It is a perfect day for cooking and baking. It is cold with freezing rain and snow. I have a view from my kitchen window now that I have waited for years to see and I intend to enjoy it.
My contributions to the Thanksgiving feast include green bean casserole, cheese balls, stuffed mushrooms and whatever baked goods I can whip out in a day. The editor issues will just have to wait.
After ISP problems, hosting problems, hospital visits, viral illness and all manner of annoyances, I was prepared to shower you with verbose bitching, moaning and satire on various topics. I had upgraded the wordpress install to 2.6.3 almost a fortnight ago and as I sat down to write it become apparent that things had not gone as smoothly as it first appeared.
A little history is in order here. I moved to wordpress in September for various reasons. In a former profession I worked on most major CMS’s and was the least annoyed with wordpress. It seemed more idiot proof than usual and so it seemed appealing for this project. I am typically undaunted by reworking code to get sites to work right, but this was an experiment in actually writing as opposed to scouring config files for syntax errors created by excessive caffeine consumption. It has been a relatively stress free transition until now.
Today, I intended on diving headfirst in a writing binge to purge myself of latent agression towards credit card companies and retailers before the impending holiday. This is my first Thanksgiving with my family in over a decade and I would prefer to avoid the use of phrases such as, “digital oligarchy” and “retail vampires” over dinner. I am well aware that this is a futile exercise, but hope springs eternal in this festive season. Writing is the poor mans therapy and you, faithful reader, act as my therapist, confessor and confidant. My attempts at mental catharsis were thrawrted by a an upgrade gone wrong.
My usual automatic upgrade script choked on this update and I reverted to doing a manual upgrade. All looked to be in order until today when my visual editor mocked my attempts at work. I have now scoured forums filled with angry bloggers(a fearful lot under the best of circumstances and come up empty handed. I have tried every fix out there to no avail.
So I bring you this update from my html editor as I work to correct this problem.
As an aside, who uses wordpress? Bloggers. What do bloggers do when they feel slighted technically? Bitch. In fact the prolific vitriol that spews from keyboards across the land is enough to make the most thick skinned divorce lawyer quake in his snake skin underwear. Read several blog posts about any major web host and you will get my meaning. What is the one way to silence the horde? Break the editor they use to write with. As of the now, the score stands at bloggers-0, wordpress-1.
Back to the search for a solution and the wails from my blogging brethren .
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I have yet another minor annoyance that results from relocating. This was one I had not contemplated in advance, but was annoying nonetheless. It did drive home an important point about how pervasive information gathering has become in our society.
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I’m sorry and there is no good excuse for my absence. A few days became 3 weeks much to quickly. You have probably abandoned me and run off with blogs that are actually updated. I understand the reason for your defection and you will be missed sorely.
