Deprivation..or is it?

A week ago I temporarily deactivated my FB account. I needed to stay focussed on some other important jobs and it’s too easy to lose hours on the various sites and general internetting that I do.  So I have entered a period of what I thought would be web deprivation.

However, I’m here to report that it really hasn’t been as bad as I thought – the first two days were the worst.  A FB friend sent me a text message on day 2 asking how I was coping…I told him ‘crap’.  Then after another day or so I started to notice how much I was getting done (not blogging obviously).  I caught up on some work I was behind with, I listened to some teleclasses and audiobooks while I was working and got a little bit inspired to do some other things.  It’s been good. Really it has.

I have to confess that I do pop back to Facebook every few days to tend my farm for 15 minutes, then I shut it down again.  I also had to leave it open for a day so that a friend in Egypt could add me – but I didn’t spend any time there and as soon as he’d done that I closed it down again until I’m ready to be permanently open. 

I think eventually I will be able to reactivate it and just not spend as much time there, but to begin with I had to make it a bit more definite.    

Go me.

Frustration (Alert! Boring geek post)

You know what makes me crazy? Well I'm going to tell you......computers, software, the internet, blog providers, hosting, domain names, ISPs, IIS's, PHPs and HTML.

I'm not finished....Wordpress, Blogger (sorry Blogger), Typepad, Godaddy, Squarespace and Netregistry....ah to hell with it, I'm still not finished but I can't go on because if I do I might have to smash my fist right into this computer and that would end my blogging/website building efforts. Which may be a good thing, but I'm not ready to quit just yet.

I honestly don't think my needs are outrageous. All I want is a blog provider that will allow me to host one more than one blog (well done all of you), have extra pages (thanks for nothing Blogger - hello Typepad and Wordpress), allow javascript and html stuff like sign up boxes in the sidebar (goodbye Wordpress) allow easy importation of Bridget's Flame (Typepad, you've disappointed me) and allow me to keep the blogs separate and authored under different names (get stuffed the lot of you!!!!). Not ONE of them has all of those things.

So I turn to Squarespace, they provide everything except the multiple blogs....I can live with that....it will cost a bit more, but not much.....then they change their editing to the MOST clumsy, hard to operate system I have EVER come across. Every little changes takes ages while pages load in a clunky and uncoordinated fashion. Goodbye Squarespace. Netregistry? Forget it. Not worth a mention except to say how crap they are.

Godaddy, be my knight in shining armour. I own the domain names, I can get some free basic hosting but they have very affordable hosting packages with extras so I'm prepared to pay.....and they have access to the same Wordpress blogging software and I can download it for free. By doing it this way I can have the javascript and HTML stuff I want. Huzzah!!! All my prayers are answered. Except no matter what I do I get a message telling me that my various hosting plans (I tried the free and the paid) are not compatible to downloading Wordpress.

To say I am frustrated is an understatement. I just didn't think the great big swearword I'm using is suitable for a blog title.

Is it really too much to ask to have all my blogs (Bridget's Flame and the business blog/website) in the same place, doing what I want them to do in a reasonably priced (better still FREE) fashion and providing all the appropriate tools for blogging?

Apparently it is.

Sure if I had an enormous website budget I could just pay someone to sort it all and tell me when they're finished. But I don't have that enormous website budget so it's down to me. Plus I am stubbornly independent and want to do it myself.

I have spent days....DAYS I tell you, on this stuff. It's not a lot of fun, and at the end of them I feel a lot like this cow....

But I have learned a LOT of stuff and can have a fairly competent conversation with tech support when I have to, not that it ever really solves anything. Sigh.

Ok, off I go, into the abyss once more.....wish me luck.

Now...where was I? **Updated**

It's back to business as usual now that I have dealt with numerous computer problems. I have disabled my phishing filter and everything is working well again. I can't tell you how distressing I find it when I have computer problems, which is a sad reflection on how attached I am to this object and my beloved internet.

I mentioned last week that the girls each had a part to play in a school mass on Sunday, Aislin in particular was really looking forward to it because it was the first one she'd been involved in since starting school so she was quite excited to have the special role of holding the candle for Father John. However, she was coughing all night on Saturday and woke on Sunday with a raging temperature. As did I. Tom suggested that Aislin and I stay at home and he would take Hannah to mass (she had a reading). Aislin had an apoplexy at this, she did not want to miss her opportunity to play a part, so in the end we dosed her up with children's panadol and we all went off to mass. She performed her role perfectly - here is the evidence.....looks tricky doesn't it?

This was all I could show because there were so many identifying signs and notices in the photo* and while I air all kinds of dirty laundry on this blog I draw the line at advertising my childrens' school. Not because I distrust my blog friends, just in case some crazy internet stalker type is secretly reading.

Aislin and I are still ill, she's been home from school for two days now, even though she was desperate to go today because she is supposed to be a lion in a short circus performance this afternoon. I'm not sure how it will go because half the school is down with this flu. On Sunday there were 13 members of the choir missing, yesterday 12 from Hannah's class were off sick. It's extremely unpleasant and I could happily rip my own head off to alleviate the throbbing.

So that's it for today, join me tomorrow for 'On My Desk' and on Thursday I'll tell you all about Tom's new job.

*I've now blurred out the offending lettering and cropped it to avoid other children in the photo, not having permission to plaster them all over the internet and all.

In case you're wondering...

...why my photos are now watermarked it's because of this nonsense. We all know that putting anything you own, be it words or images, on the web is a risky practice. I'm not that precious about my words, my photography sucks so I don't care much if someone nicks my cloud pictures (though why they'd want to I can't imagine). You're also welcome to any witty comment I've written (of which there are so many - ha) but I will not, ever, tolerate anyone using my children's photos to set up fake profiles on community sites or worse.

Henceforth you will see my images watermarked and if anyone out there thinks they might just lift a couple a pics of my girls anyway, I will find out and then you'd better be looking over your shoulder a lot because I will hunt you down and when I find you I will kill you - painfully.

That, my friend, is a promise.

To my beloved friends and family that read this blog, if there is a photo you'd like a watermark-free copy of, let me know I'm happy to send it to you.

Tangled web...site

Remember the 5 minute web design? Well they have it in theory. Sure you can sign up, choose your design then add all your stuff, press 'publish' and you'll have a website. I'm sure it is possible to do that. When I joined up the lady on the phone said 'you can have your website up by this afternoon'. That was last Tuesday. No, it's not up yet........alright??? There is a small problem - it's the 'choose your design' part. I am ready to kill someone. It's hard to choose, they brag about having over 800 templates. Here's a head ups people 800 templates is TOO FREAKING MANY!!!! Honestly I'm going insane with the damn things. Sure I'll admit that I'm not famous for my ability to make a choice over just about anything but geez, the most decisive, emphatic king of all choosers would struggle with this.

It's very hard. Then this morning I thought I had it. I had finally decided on one, 'Venetian' if you're interested. But somehow between the 'which one would you like' and 'yes please I'll have this one' the damn thing disappeared!! So I couldn't have it. I can tell you there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth after that little debacle. So it's back to the drawing board, but seriously, I can hardly bare it. I know I have to just get on with it, and I will. But once I've made that decision I don't want to make any more, they better not ask me how many pages I want or what colour text I'd like or where I want my pictures. They'd just better not.

I've got no hope have I? Crap.

They stole my idea

My 5 minute website idea? Someone has stolen it. Actually after a bit of research I found quite a few people have stolen my idea...not only that, they implemented it within 24 hours of reading about it on my blog!!

I bow to their greater organisational skills.

I suppose there is the remotest chance that they actually had the idea before me? Nah, ...course not....

Smarty pantses.