It was a simple commitment, one I made to myself as a child. I was too young at the time to realize how important this commitment would be in adulthood, especially as I have grown older. With the promise to remain creative, I made a pact with myself to be a life-long learner. I would gladly accept the challenge to learn new things and dive head first into the unknown without reservation. After all, I could always use Youtube university as my backup and a simple video has often been my salvation in times of distress.<\/p>\n
This past weekend, I decided, to relocate my website to a new host. Historically, the site has been maintained by a family member, but in all fairness, I felt the need to release him to focus on his full-time job. He is an expert in such matters, though, and sadly, I am not. But I can learn? Right?<\/p>\n
“Do you know what a DNS is?” Mr. J. asked.<\/p>\n
“DNS? Do not resuscitate? Wait…that would be DNR.” Truthfully, after multiple hours behind a computer screen working with the new host and Mr. J, I felt more unresuscitable than not. My bottom hurt and my brain had left the room hours ago.<\/p>\n
The site transfer was supposed to be easy, a simple click on the screen icon to whisk my files from afar to my new location. The attempt came back with an error message – “This option is only available for WordPress sites.” What? Not even an, I’m sorry. Not to mention that the site IS a WordPress site. Still, the verdict was in. The site would have to be transferred manually. Unfortunately, there is no arguing with a computer. Trust me, I tried that tactic and the screen just stared at me in protest.<\/p>\n
“Can you send me the server files?” Mr. E. asked.<\/p>\n
Mr. J. was not present for that request and I really didn’t want to involve him late on a Sunday evening. I explained my dilemma to Mr. E. in the chat window. “I do have a backup file, though. Will that work?”<\/p>\n
“It should,” said Mr. E, directing me to yet another page on their host site. At that time, I already had several pages up, bouncing from one to another on command, like a ping pong ball. I brought up the page as directed and moved to yet another window, clicking through several screens to locate my backup files.<\/p>\n
“Are you still there?” Mr. E. asked. “It’s been a while.” This would be one of the multiple times Mr. E. would ask me that question.<\/p>\n
Mr. E., if only you knew.<\/p>\n
I uploaded the files and after several minutes passed, Mr. E. asked for a progress report. “Um…they are uploading,” I said, “but it is slow going. We are on number two of nine files.”<\/p>\n
“Oh, okay. Let me know when the upload is finished.”<\/p>\n
Several more minutes passed. “Are you still there?” Mr. E. asked again.<\/p>\n
“Uh-huh. Still uploading.”<\/p>\n
“Would you like to try a duplicator plug?” he asked. “That would make a backup in a single file. Might be quicker.”<\/p>\n
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I said, “We can if you want to.” I checked the upload. “Two more to go,” I said.<\/p>\n
I brought up yet another webpage and logged into the website, searched for the duplicator plug-in, and hit install about the time Mr. E. said, “I don’t think we’ll need the plug-in after all. Looks like we’re getting close.”<\/p>\n
More time passed. “You sure you don’t want to try the plug-in?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“Might as well,” Mr. E. said.<\/p>\n
“Looks like you need to purchase the pro version for this task,” I remarked. I didn’t see an option to produce the backup. It was there, but by this time my eyeballs had taken the same train as my brain.<\/p>\n
“It’s there,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Where?” I asked.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know,” he replied. “I can’t see where you are on the site.”<\/p>\n
Grrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!<\/p>\n
Finally, I located the missing duplicator button. “I think we’re good,” Mr. E. said. “The upload is complete. Won’t need the duplicator.”<\/p>\n
While Mr. E. was busy transferring the site, the phone rang, and on the other end was Mr. J. When Mr. E. returned from cyberland, Mr. J. helped me navigate a final step to change the DNS, but not until he told me that if I did it wrong, my site would disappear. It would still be there, but not visible. My response involved a very careful copy and paste.<\/p>\n
After what seemed like an eternity, the site transfer was complete…or so I thought. Everything looked great. Then, I got up this morning and the cleanup I had done before the transfer had magically reappeared and, every posted image from 2021 had disappeared. It is magic, I tell you, and I’m not the one holding the wand.<\/p>\n
Now, about that commitment to new learning. Today has been a bit frustrating. Site repair isn’t much fun. But I am wiser and I did learn something. Not bad, I think, for someone who grew up with a rotary phone. Better still, science would agree with my quest for new learning. Studies support new learning as a means of keeping the brain young. Learning helps prevent dementia and I am sure I will find that to be the case if my brain and eyeballs ever return.<\/p>\n
Keep smiling! It’s all good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Learning keeps the brain young if it doesn’t get you in trouble first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[697],"tags":[671,679,678,661,680],"class_list":["post-8271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-live-with-purpose","tag-aging","tag-computer","tag-learning","tag-reflection","tag-website"],"yoast_head":"\n