Crash and Burn
Got up this morning to discover that the blogs wouldn’t come up … but that didn’t worry me. I knew they were going to move the servers to a new location.
Something wasn’t right though … one of my two blogsplot.net email addresses was working. It shouldn’t have been. If you have several lights on a power bar, and you turn off the power bar, everything without its own power source will go out. If my email and the blogs were down because the servers were still “en route” to their location, or not set back up yet, then … that one little email should not have been working.
I could feel a bit panic begin to build …
I opened a tech help ticket explaining my surmise … telling the techies we’re renting the server space from that I understood that things happen sometimes, even when we’re careful, and that if they were honest with me about what was really going on, I would be a grateful client.
In short order, I got a reply … yes, there was a problem, but they didn’t know the extent of it. My heart sank. I thought of my 5 blogs, Dr. Engel’s, Sarah’s several blogs, Eric’s blog, Wolfbaby’s blog … all of our posts … our time intensive themes …
… and then realized that this is also my first day back to school. Need to go to the hospital and interview someone in the HIT field, and need to some research, and analyze what I’ve found … besides my daily classroom postings.
Have you ever had that feeling that it was just going to be too much work?
After a few emails, the hosting company wrote back and informed me of the worst … well, the very next to the worst. The server had finally been made to come up, but when it did, it was empty. They managed to save our databases, so our posts, comments, links, etc., are all still here … but they lost everything else. All the themes, the pictures, etc..
So … some good - all the posts were still there. I could have gotten most of the posts back from Bloglines or another RSS feed, but this is nicer. But for those of you who know, the themes are where the real work comes in. Dr. Engel’s blog was practically done from scratch … and in a comment on someone’s blog a few days ago (I think it was Dr. Anon) I wrote something like: I’ve been wanting to change my theme for a long time now, but because I have so many gizmos in my sidebar, etc., every time I think about doing it I get an instant headache.
Ayuh.
Well, for now … we have “vanilla” default themes. I have to apply myself to my school work, and to another crisis which my extended family is going through right now, but the themes will be restored, a little at a time. We just won’t look so great until I can get around to making it happen.
My techno-savvy son, Dougie, and I just went through and restored all of the blogs … all 12 of them … one at a time. Poor Dr. Engel must have been beside himself, because he sounded pretty dismayed on the phone … and then when I emailed him that his was back up without a theme, he put several posts up so quickly that I think he was waiting to hear from me with his finger on the upload button! *grin* Now I’ve got to get over there to see what he wrote about!
I also noticed that Sarah has some of her themes back up …
I’m afraid I won’t be so quick - too much else is going on.
But … at least … we’re back. The blogs are basically intact … they just need to be built back up into “power blogs” again.
Please, visit us anyway … just try to ignore our dust …
(Pssst! Dr. Anon! Got anything for blog-addicts who have been forcibly deblogged? *sniff!*)
July 9th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
I’m slowly trucking along trying to get things back in order… this is going to be a big job for all of us I think.
I told Moof that this kind of project requires lots of booze and junk food in order to complete without losing our minds!!
All I’ve got is the junk food, so a week and 10 extra pounds later, I should have all my blogs up.
And be patient with Moof’s theme! (or lack thereof) She’s had a bad week (bad year…?) and she needs time to pull it all together! A little grace is in order all the way around! :-)
Hugs for Moofie —> *hugs*
July 9th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Poor moofie…
then she has dumb people like me who hasn’t got a clue how to build a blog and i don’t want her to have to redo mine all over again… that’s just wrong and tortures to her….
I’ll try and figure out mine so she dosn’t have to but I’m terrified that Ill totally sink the ship in my efforts….
they say the best way to go in to a cold pond is head first and get it over with LOL….
Many hugs to miss moof!!!
maybe i’ll practice on my old blog.. if i mess that one up it can’t do any reall damage hmmm a good thought hmmm
July 9th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
P.S.
Cause I realize i didn’t say it before and should have *smakes hand on head*
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK
AND THANK YOU TO YOUR SON DOUGIE
July 9th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Moof, your site still looks good, even if it is only part way back. It seems to have been the weekend from hell for all us blogaholics:)…I haven’t checked in at wolfbaby yet but I will soon. I did visit Dr. Engel and you’re right he must have typed like heck to get all that up. I am now going to go read some of his before I go to bed.
July 9th, 2006 at 11:32 pm
Whoa! What a day. At least the databases are still there and appear intact. I don’t have to tell you this, but this is the essence of the blog — its soul, as it were.
Something bad must have been going around over the weekend, because FD was having a problem with her sidebar and Cathy was having some difficulty too. Interesting.
If all else fails, I still have the Jim Beam and ginger ale from the meeting…
July 10th, 2006 at 5:26 am
Yikes!
Some “routine maintenance”!
Are these folks reliable enough to stick with?
Flea
July 10th, 2006 at 8:50 am
I was going to say Yikes!, then I realized Flea beat me to it!
July 10th, 2006 at 10:49 am
Moofie
Sorry to hear you are being mistreated by the evil PTB in blogland. Hopefully it will clear up in a day or so.
Must be a Yankee thing going on with the blog servers, I had no outages or problems here in Okla. with my blog. (Knock On Wood…….ouch that hurt) ~Wm H
July 10th, 2006 at 10:50 am
My sincere sympathies Moof. If this had happened to me, I would have given up blogging for a while.
On a lighter note, today was the first time that your blog loaded instantly - no slowly rotating gear on the top right hand corner of Firefox (on a Mac) to show that some (or most) of your sidebar gizmos are loading…..
Your blog looks so clean.
I guess we’ll get the usual mess back in due course ;)
July 10th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Sarah, you’ve got the junk food and I’ve got some booze left … (albeit not much! >;o) … we need to put the two together.
THANK YOU for letting me know that you’re going to help Wolfbaby put a theme back up. I’ll work on Dr. Engel’s and Eric’s … and then I’ll do mine.
We need to remember that we also have to go through our blogs and replace all of the photos that were lost … that will be a long process … post by post.
—
Wolfbaby, less than a year ago, I had no clue of how to work with PHP, very little experience with CSS … just a lot of outdated HTML knowledge. I learned through trial and error. I’ve never been able to figure why people get down on themselves for lacking a knowledge they haven’t had a chance to learn! How can you know something you haven’t been exposed to yet?
Cut yourself some slack, girl! You’ve been blogging for almost no time at all … and someone else set it up for you, because you had never, ever done it before! How on earth do you think you should have been able to come up to speed that way?
*POKE!*
You need to go easier on yourself!
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Cathy - thank you! You’re really sweet! To me it looks as if my poor blog is standing around in its underwear in public! :o)
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Dr. Anon! Is that where I left my Jim Beam? Geeze! The “hair tonic” I’ve been using as a substitute doesn’t go nearly as well with ginger ale! ;o)
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Dr. Flea … it was more than routine maintenance. They were moving all of their servers to a new location. Apparently, a heat sink was not properly connected, and caused a CPU to overheat … which in turn caused a server to come up and crash repeatedly. They told me it was a “cascading” problem that they were trying to get a handle on. When the server finally did come up, it was empty.
I’m sticking with these guys, because I’ve been with other companies who have been far less honest. I’d watch my web site begin to disintegrate before my eyes, and be told that they’re having a “minor” problem, which would be “fixed shortly” … and go for days unable to get any more information than that. That was a simple HTML site though, and it was easy to re-upload the entire thing to a new host. These guys were honest from the beginning, and kept me apprised of what was happening.
Yes, it was from someone’s carelessness, however they’re remedying the situation (setting up different backup systems) to prevent this sort of loss from happening again should there ever be a similar problem. I’m a lot more comfortable staying with someone who admits they’ve made a mistake, are apologetic, bend over backwards to get things working again, offer to help you get your stuff set up again … and will also make it right with me in a cost effective way - perhaps a time extension or something.
These guys were great … they answered each email in less than 1/2 an hour … even one in which I’d listed 6 complex questions.
Nope … I’m not trading. This disaster has taught me to trust their reactions to their mistakes, and their willingness to be honest and set things right.
Thanks for giving me a chance to say that, by the way. The company hosting us is: Acenet.
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DP … your “Yikes!” is appreciated anyway! Thank you! :o)
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William my friend! So good to see you!
Count on my Oklahoma buddy to call it a “Yankee thing” … *LOL* … William, you’re just too cute!
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Dr. Scan Man! Thank you, my very busy friend. I keep hoping to catch you without your “busy” sign up! ;o)
About the blog loading fast … ayuh … naked blogs tend to load faster than the bloated baby I had. It will be a long while before I get my blog built up again, and I’ll probably leave out some things I previously had. I may use a different template - not sure at this point.
I would dearly love it if my readers would tell me when the load starts to get too long, because I’d streamline it from that point, and trade things off rather than just keep adding things. So - thanks for the “heads up,” my friend!!!
July 10th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Hope things go okay…….We out here in blog land can’t live without A MOOf’s Tale!
July 10th, 2006 at 6:08 pm
Dr. Grumet, thank you. That’s very kind of you. You know how to make someone feel better.
July 10th, 2006 at 6:40 pm
Moof, you’ve kept me so busy with your constantl and helpful advice that I could barely leave the computer! Did you ever get to sleep or eat at all? A swallow of booze seems like a therapeutic answer. Now evel me has even neglected to thank you for all your work until thisw moment!
July 10th, 2006 at 9:20 pm
I’m sooo very sorry Moof.
July 11th, 2006 at 3:25 am
Sorry to read this Moof. I can read you better now, everything’s in order. Not the IE - Firefox thing anymore?
July 11th, 2006 at 6:44 am
Moof, Although loss of your gizmos must have been frustrating to you, what matters more to us readers is the blog content. As long as THAT is safe, we are happy. :) Do keep bloggnig…you can always recreate the gizmos during your next vacation.
July 11th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Moof,
*Big Hug*
When it rains it pours…I am sorry to hear about the blog troubles. I hope it is soon remedied. It would be sad to lose all that hard work that you’ve done.
Hang in there, too….it sounds like you have an awful lot going on right now. I hope that your family crisis isn’t too serious. You are in my thoughts.
take a deep breath… it’ll all get done….*smile*
July 11th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
Ohhh honey. Well, I can honestly say been there done that…
When I moved here from Texas, my computer never made it. The whys and wherefores of this have never been discovered, though Chris insists it was never shipped at all. (I trusted the job to someone I shouldn’t have).
All my own website files were lost with the computer. Oh, they were still online…until same untrustworthy person that was HOSTING the site got angry with me and summarily DELETED the entire thing. No, it wasn’t a company, it was an individual, and that taught me a few lessons, let me tell you.
I know from firsthand experience how devastating site losses can be, especially when you’re hosting multiple sites and are responsible for several people’s content. Bless your heart!
Take a deep breath, relax, and trot on over and read about what I want Classmate X to get me for my birthday….I think you’ll get a kick out of it.
Love ya
Shel
July 13th, 2006 at 8:25 pm
Don’t you just hate when that happens, I know I do!
July 13th, 2006 at 10:50 pm
Dr. Engel … thank you for stopping in … and thank you for the “therapeutic” advice! I followed it quite liberally! >;o)
And about neglecting to thank me … you’re always thanking me, even when I don’t do anything!!! *LOL*
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TJ … you’re so sweet. Thank you. I actually felt that empathy! {{{ hugs! }}}
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Ipanema, that’s specifically an IE problem from what I understand. It doesn’t happen to those using Firefox. In fact, IE had this blog looking really strange. The few times I ever looked at it in IE, I despaired! *LOL*
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Lakshmi … thank you for your positive outlook! I really needed that! You’re right, I can put it back together again, it’s just going to take a long while.
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Pattie … wish you were nearby! Yes, there’s a lot going on, and family crisis is quite serious. Between the crisis and school, I’m barely getting into here to read the comments, and at the moment, have 392 unread posts in my Bloglines.
When I head down in your direction later on this year, maybe we could have lunch as I run through … and I can fill you in?
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Shelly … thank you, dear heart! It’s so hard to lose something like that … I can just imagine your frustration! *comfort* I’m so sorry that happened to you! :o(
I will try to “trot on over” to your site as soon as I can … not moving too fast right now, though.
Tell him that I hope it’s something NICE! :o)
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Deb … ayuh! I sure do hate it when that happens! *LOL* Short, sweet, to the point … and extremely accurate! ;o)
July 14th, 2006 at 12:05 am
Moof, please know that whatever crisis is happening with your family, I’am thinking of you daily. You have so many people that care for you and wishing you good luck. Take care of you moof!
July 15th, 2006 at 12:19 am
Just poppin in to say hi to my friend Moof.