F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Technology

Transitions – Evil Plan II

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As I’d previously mentioned in my last Evil Plan™ post, I am transitioning over to a self-hosted site on WordPress.org. The intent of this move was to consolidate my blog posts with my website so it would be easier to manage both.

Weeell, things have not turned out so gracefully.

As things currently stand certain things promised don’t seem to be able to be delivered quite as easily as presented. #ThatsHowTheyGetcha

I really hate to complain—I really do—but the way the whole “move over to us–it’s easy” is anything but and it looks like I may well lose all my blog posts from this site, Runnin Off At The Mouth (ROATM). Unless I keep this account active. Which I did NOT want to do. I wanted to export my posts from ROATM and Reality Check (RC) and terminate my WordPress.COM account, and just have my new account, fpdorchak.com, on the WordPress.ORG location. The long and the short of it is that after a brutal setup experience that involved me getting redirected all across God’s green Earth and many, many e-mail problem tickets, IMs, and even phone calls, I finally got my new fpdorchak.com site up and running. then I tried to import my blog posts. The RC posts all came over easily. Yea, I was happy! Then I tried ROATM: nope. Instead of one file to import, they had to split my data up into two files. Then, just like the scarecrow in that classic Wizard of Oz scene, WordPress kept directing me to Blue Host (BH; my server for my new site) and BH kept directing me BACK to WP. WP says all you have to do is ask BH to expand your memory settings to allow you to import the larger files. I’m here to tell that does NOT work. And I have spent two weeks trying to get it to work. So WP does NOT know what they’re talking about. BH doesn’t even what that means. They copied all my stuff over onto their BH server…but guess what? Through the miracle of technology I cannot access that data.

Then I found there’s a WP service (for $129) where they tell you “let US do the heavy lifting and move all your stuff over.” What they don’t tell you until you read the fine print is that it’s a mirror of your WP.COM site and will totally OVERWRITE any work you did on your new WP.ORG site. That means you’ll have to totally reconfigure the theme you created. And after just spending two weeks of frustrated HELL being redirected all over God’s green Earth and countless e-mail tickets to figure out how to do what I finally got, not only no but HELL NO am I going to go through all that again. And, BTW, the Happiness Engineer I’d be working with on this? He doesn’t know much about the Studio Press themes I used for fpdorchak.com.

So, I’m here to tell you that I might be losing all these posts and your kind patronage—unless WP.com can figure out a way to export ONLY MY BLOG POSTS and your links to my new location. I do not want to transfer everything there (theme, posts, menus, etc)—I don’t want that. Just the posts. Why should that be so danged difficult? Well, apparently, through the world of high technology…it is.

So. I have not yet heard back from them, but writing this post has been extremely difficult…like it’s being “accessed” in some way…because it’s severely delaying my typing, I don’t always see the cursor “I-bar,” and the words I type keep pausing, so MAYBE they (being them) have found a way to do this. Don’t know. But in case it all falls flat, I humble ask that all my kind readers go over to my new location and and please sign up for my blogs at www.fpdorchak.com/blog/ and scroll to the very bottom of the page and subscribe by e-mail there.

I am a very patient man, but this has truly tested my limits. I realize Studio Press is brand new, but they simply went to market too quickly before created a sold, consolidated set of procedures that clearly state what one has to do with WP.com, WP.org, Studio Press (SP), and whatever hosting platform you take on. And, be aware, that whatever you do with these folks, PLEASE, for the love of Bogey, port over your existing WP.com site BEFORE adding your new SP themes. You WILL have to redo all you work. I’m told there is no way around it, though when I imported my RC blog posts, it did NOT mess up my new SP Author Pro theme, so I really have NO IDEA what these Happiness Engineers are talking about or if they truly understand what happens with whatever the hell it is they think they’re doing.

My God, I’m in hell!

Again, pardon my ranting. I hope things can work themselves out, but I am very, very frustrated right now. I don’t know if I’ll keep this account open or not yet. I need to allow my frustration levels to bubble the hell off so I can see clearly—and who knows, maybe my Happiness Engineers WILL find a solution.

In any event, please sign up for my blogs at www.fpdorchak.com/blog/ and scroll to the very bottom of the page and subscribe by e-mail there.

Thank you..and thank for your kind patronage and support over the years. And pardon my ire, my frustration. It’s been three weeks of utter insanity.

BREATHE, Frank, BREEEATHE….

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Unplugged

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Internet
(Photo credit: hdzimmermann)

Came across an interesting article yesterday, and it doesn’t surprise me. Read this quote;  “For years, the idea of a digital sabbatical has appealed to the hyper-connected set.”

Why would something like this–need–emerge?

I’ve often mentioned to some that I feel that all this “connectedness” will eventually lead full circle to…the unplugged.

That to have a hardcopy of a book will be all the rage, fashionable, in vogue…the “thing to do” with the proliferation of e-everything.

Everyone has Smartphones?

The “Coming Thing” will be to go Dumb…or, perhaps (perish the thought!), altogether cellless.

Why?

Cause it’ll be counter. And there are always those who want to be different. If everyone’s jacked in, to be different will be to go opposite. There is also the very real issue of damaged relationships and stress from all this connectedness.

Ever been in a conversation with someone and their cell rang? Ever had said person reach for that thing like a gunfighter and answer it without so much as an “Excuse me” thrown your way…and suddenly you might as well be on the moon?

People have become more rude, attention deprived, and they don’t rest any more. Don’t allow their minds to wander. As I’ve also mentioned, how many out there really have an original thought in their head? How far off do you really think I am? If there are only so many seconds in one’s life, and most of those seconds revolve around sampling and surfing other people’s thoughts…what happens to your own?

I’m not advocating a return to the so-called “Stone Ages,” not at all.  There’s a lot of good coming from the Internet and its spinoffs. We just need to use these things wisely. Not get addicted to technology because our own lives aren’t (perhaps) as exciting as we’d like them. We need to take the control of our lives back where it belongs–us.  And just because we create something new, does not mean the death of all that came before. There’s a certain lure to some for what came before…a growing nostalgia for things past.

Time to ourselves.

Time to just look out a window….

Simpler times.

How funny that sounds, n’est-ce pas?

Well, I believe this will happen. As the article showed, it’s already happening to some, for whatever reason. And what do you think happened when our blogger unjacked?

He interacted on a much more personal level with people.

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