wordpress
I’m Done…For Now
I have been blogging since 2009, when I was living in Texas. WordPress used to be a great place blog. The format used to be really easy to use. That is not true, today. They have shoved the block editor down our throats. In order to keep the classic editor, you have to pay extra money. Even worse, if you want to tweak the settings on your (legacy) theme, you have to upgrade and pay more for that, to get the plug-in that returns your theme back to normal and not “blocks.” I’m tired of this crap. Don’t even get me started on what they have done to the Reader.
This isn’t fun, anymore. I have paid for another year, last month. My history will remain, until the money runs out. WordPress will, ultimately, delete a good portion of blog posts…unless you keep paying, in perpetuity. There is a graveyard of abandoned blogs all over WordPress. Besides my blog posts, I have a library of data from a, now, deceased psychic, Chris Thomas. I would encourage you to read his data, watch the videos and listen to the phone interviews. I also have a documentary on him. If you want to see it, I can provide a link but, it is copyrighted material and you can’t share it.
That’s about it. It’s so much easier to post pictures and talk to people on X (Twitter). WordPress has worn out its welcome with me. I have been hassled enough and I have paid enough. IF things change, I might return but…I doubt it.
I’m done. Goodbye.
~Vic
Of WordPress, Gallbladders & Twitter (X)
Hmmm…where to start… After a long absence, I am returning to my blog. WordPress Happiness Engineers have lost their freaking minds. I still operate in the “Classic” editor. I will NEVER use that nightmare of a “block” editor.
Suddenly, I have these strange, white squares and a “Plus New” symbol.
Here is a better link…
SnipBoard Image
I have also had to adjust my Admin Interface Style in General Settings. WP-Admin in the Classic style does not support the “Add New Post” drop-down I need to get to the Classic Editor. I can only get it in Default style. Can things get MORE confusing, here??? I SO miss the days when WordPress was EASY to use. Now, it is a giant PITA. I spent an hour trying to get a “Happiness Engineer” to explain to me WHY everything is so jacked-up. Has anyone noticed how screwed up the Reader is?
I have been gone so long that, I am having to re-learn how to blog. With all the changes, I am struggling to deal with this insane labyrinth. My absence has been due to my Significant Other needing assistance on a grand scale…and me, still battling my gallbladder. He is improving and I am…slowly.
In July of last year, I joined Twitter (X). Bastion of free speech, they said. Everyone has a voice, they said. Right. At the moment, I have been locked out of my account for six days. Want to know why? I apparently threatened YouTube with the word collapse. Musk stated in a post that he was building a YouTube alternative. It sounded good to me. I reposted his announcement and all I said was “@YouTube, you censor too much. I hope you collapse.” Bells went off, sirens started wailing in the distance and blood began to weep from the walls of my house. I was told that I had used violent speech. How in the AF could I possibly be a threat to YouTube??? *facepalm* I am supposed to be freed from my bird cage in a few hours. SMDH. I will continue to lurk, read & share my blog posts but, there won’t be any other engagement. It’s better than FakeBook, which I left years ago. I do still use Messenger.
Later…~Vic
Wayback Wednesday: International Webloggers Day 2004
International Weblogger’s Day, also known as InWeDay, is celebrated on June 14 every year. This unofficial holiday was created to bring together bloggers from around the world and, to promote blogging as a way to express yourself and engage in dialogue with people from different countries and backgrounds.
A blog (short for “weblog“) is an online diary consisting of discrete, often informal entries called posts. Most blogs are primarily textual but, they may include other types of content such as images, videos, music and audio.
The term “weblog” was coined [by Jorn Barger] in 1997 [December 17] and its short form, “blog“, was first used [by Peter Merholz when he playfully broke the word into “we blog“] in 1999. That same year, Pyra Labs launched Blogger, one of the first blog-publishing platforms that allow users to create and run blogs for free without any programming background.
In 2004, around 500 bloggers from over 40 countries supported the idea of creating a holiday that would unite blogging enthusiasts from around the world. The inaugural International Weblogger’s Day was held on June 14, 2004. On the occasion of the holiday, bloggers write special posts for their online diaries. In some cities, special meetings are organized where bloggers can meet “offline”.
Unfortunately, the popularity of International Weblogger’s Day has decreased considerably over the recent years.
Anyday Guide
Additional:
♦ Peter Merholz (Blog)
♦ Blogs Turn 10 ~ Who’s The Father (CNET News/Declan McCullagh/Anne Broache/March 20, 2007/ Web Archive Version)
♦ It’s The Links, Stupid (The Economist/Special Report/April 22, 2006)
♦ Robot Wisdom Weblog (Jorn Barger/Wayback Machine/August 15, 2000)
♦ Carolyn’s Diary (Early Online Diary/Carolyn Burke/April 1997)
♦ Scripting News (Longest Running Weblog/Dave Winer/September 1997)
♦ Blogger (Created By Three Friends/San Francisco Pyra Labs/August 1999)
♦ Weblog Awards (Bloggies/2001)
♦ WordPress Available Now (First Official Version/Matt Mullenweg/May 27, 2003)
♦ Steve Garfield (Early Video Blog/January 2004)
♦ AOL Snaps Up Weblogs (CNET/Dawn Kawamoto/October 7, 2005)
♦ Full Time Blogger Kottke Throws In The Towel (CNET/Graeme Wearden/February 23, 2006)
Cinco De Mayo 2023
Yes, I have been gone for a while. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with my blog. Sometimes, I love posting and other times, I get aggravated with it. WordPress function does not help the issue.
I have had some health issues but, they are largely subsiding. A change in diet has helped, greatly. I have been blogging since 2009 and abandoned my blog for four years, re-starting in June of 2018. I did a lot of blogging when I was living in Texas and my blog had a different name.
I didn’t celebrate Cinco, today but, noticed that many did. I hope everyone had a good time. At the moment, I am sipping on some wine and watching some really weird movies on Cinemax. I hope everyone has a lovely Cinco Evening/Friday Night. ~Vic
VOTD: Fancy Feet
This is screamingly cute. Unfortunately, this video is blocked from being viewed in Russia. Go figure. If you can’t see this, email me and I will provide you a link. I have this video uploaded, here, too…assuming WordPress’s “videopress” will cooperate. ~Vic
Video of the Day
Static Blog
For the near future, I won’t be posting, anymore. I upgraded to a “Pro” plan a few months back. That was a bad move. I was on “Premium” prior to that, knowing that WordPress would, eventually, corral everyone into the Gutenberg (block) editor…some kicking and screaming. I thought about coughing up more money for a “Business” plan but, never could come up with the funds. Premium is $99 a year, which translates to, roughly, $8 a month. When Pro showed up as an interim choice, I added the $80 upgrade to my Premium renewal and thought I would be good to go. I did get two very nice plug-ins…and everything else went to hell.
I have gone many, many rounds with the “happiness engineers” to no avail. One of their “explanations” for my site going nuts is that, Pro is on a different server and the “migration” didn’t work very well. Hm. Why didn’t you PHP geniuses figure that out before fucking up my site?
So, now, if I upload a video to my site, it will play in the phone app but, not the Reader (in a browser). If I embed my videos, they will play in the Reader but, not in the phone app…and they used to, even if off center from viewing.
Another piece of blowback on all of this is, my site, viewed in a browser on a phone, is whacked. It used to be a clean & polished looking mobile site. Not anymore. I was told by another loopy engineer that it was because my theme was “legacy” and it didn’t work well with AMP. My Premium account didn’t use AMP so, my site looked just fine. The suggestion was for me to find another theme. Um…why? I’ve had my theme for five years and I worked very hard to set it up the way I liked it. WordPress should step in and clean up THEIR mess, not require me…A PAYING CUSTOMER…to deal with their self-imposed shit.
My frustration level has been off the charts. During a recent chat with a WP genius, something really weird happened to my Reader in Brave. When the chat ended, I noticed that all the icons were gone. The Reader has icons next to words. They were all gone. When you looked for the “like” stars or the “comment” symbols, they were all gone. In their place were numbers, only. If there were no likes or comments, it was blank. I don’t know what the PHP genius did but, the Reader operates fine in Firefox. I was told to “clear my cache”, which I do everyday, to no avail.
This has ruined my desire to blog at all. My hell has been paid for, for the next year, so…here, it will sit. Unless something changes, I won’t renew, again. I read, recently, that Matt Mullenweg, Mr. WordPress, himself, isn’t hands on, anymore. Everything has been turned over to The WordPress Foundation. That is nearly as ominous-sounding as the World Economic Forum and we all know how well they fuck things up.
That being said, this site will not be shuttered. I maintain too much important information on my landing page:
I encourage everyone to read, watch & listen to everything I have posted on that page. I also own a documentary that is hidden because of copyright issues. If you would like to view it, send me an email.
I will be around… ~Vic
Word Wednesday: Glowering
Origin
The verb glower, “to look or stare with sullen dislike” comes from Middle English gloren [or] glouren “to shine, gleam, glow, stare, stare at fixedly.” The Middle English forms are mostly from the north (Yorkshire) and Scotland. [T]he sense “to stare at fixedly” is Scottish. The source of gloren and glouren is obscure but, possibly, Scandinavian, e.g., Icelandic [as] glóra “to glow (like a cat’s eyes)” [or] Swedish and Norwegian dialect glora “to glow, stare.” The source of gloren [and] glouren may also be from Middle Low German glūren “to be overcast” or Dutch glueren “to leer, peep.” Glower entered English in the 15th century.
This is very similar to our “glaring at someone” which has its roots in Middle English, Middle Dutch and Middle Low German.
I’ve been doing a lot of glowering and glaring, lately. The whole world has gone insane-stupid. ~Vic
Song Sunday: Desperate But Not Serious
“If you don’t stop, you will go blind…”
Rolling down the Samsung playlist for a Sunday evening submission, we come to Adam Ant or, Stuart Leslie Goddard and Desperate But Not Serious. The fourth track from the album Friend or Foe, it was co-written by Goddard and Marco Pirroni and, released November 19, 1982, the third single from his solo debut. This is the album that brought us Goody Two Shoes that went to number #1 in Australia and the UK. Desperate didn’t fare as well peaking at #33 in the UK and #66 on Billboard’s Hot 100.
I bought the album as a cassette and nearly wore it out. This is what I term as eclectic music. It’s different, it’s catchy, Goddard has a crazy voice that he plays to the hilt and the writing is very coy and, tongue-in-cheek. He will be at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, April 28, 2021. I’ve been to that venue many times. I would love to see him there. ~Vic
Cosmic-Observation 