Blogged Down in Technology

Okay, now that I’m all married and retired and all of that, it’s time to start taking some of my “golden years” goals a bit more seriously. One of those goals, playing more music, is coming along okay, although I admit that it could be a tad more productive if I was willing to extend myself somewhat. I have so many self-imposed music “rules” (no playing in night clubs, keeping my weekends free, no traveling, etc) that I have kind of cornered myself. But even so, the music is doing alright, I guess. Sheila seems to like it.

Now, the writing thing … that’s a different story …

Really, I’m just a bass player, so when I first started writing this blog I did so as a means to express myself after the loss of my deceased wife. It was a way to stay in touch with many friends (and family, too) to let them know I was okay (or, at times, NOT okay). After meeting Sheila, it was a great way to let other widowed people know that there is some possibility of life after loss. And the blog chronicled the development of our relationship right up to the last posting after we were married.

Through all of that writing I was using a site called Blogger. It was pretty easy to use, I was able to link pictures and stuff easily and it didn’t require a heavy learning curve. Yes, even though I’m old, I do have some computer experience, particularly with software geared towards writing, but I still don’t know much about the “technical” side of things. So using a fairly simplistic program suited me just fine.

Suited me just fine, that is, until I somehow had a pretty sizeable bunch of people reading my blog. All of a sudden I had to start worrying about making sure people who subscribed to the blog got the notifications, and had to be sure that the physical appearance of the blog was uniform (people like to see the same formats, makes ’em feel all warm and fuzzy), and it was time to start to link other stuff to the blog. The Blogger program is fine but very basic and limited, ideally suited to chowderheads like me that don’t really know what they’re doing.

I also have a web site, http://www.EdGoode.com that I use for my music stuff. This site is hosted by GoDaddy, another easy to use web site building program. GoDaddy assumes that anyone using their services has the IQ of a salami sandwich, so it’s pretty simple. But at the same time, it’s just a bit too simple even for a dope like me.

I had other blogging and web development people urging me to switch to a site called WordPress. “It’s easy” they said … “piece of cake” they said … “you can do it no problem” they said.

They lied.

People (the “they” in “they said”) always downplay stuff if it’s easy for them. Sheila gave a great example of this on our vacation; “they” always say the Gulf waters are “like a bathtub” and that “you can dive right in”. Well, that might be fine for many, but Sheila is taking the cowards route when diving into the ocean waters. She agonizingly goes baby step by baby step into the water, allowing a tiny portion of her body to make water contact at one time. She’ll eventually get all the way into the water, but she’s not diving in, even though the water will feel great once you have that initial breath knocked out of you.

I’m the Sheila of blogging.

So I’m determined to use this WordPress site for my blogging from now on.I’m actually writing this using WordPress, but to tell you the truth, the writing is the easy part. It’s all the rest of the process that has me messed up. The first time I tried to link the blog to my music web site (EdGoode.com) I completely lost my entire web site and only had the blog post appear. Something to do with DNS something or another and fixing the DNS thing, I don’t have any idea what they mean.

I went to Google for some explanation, but all I see there is some 25 year old techie guy telling me how “easy” it is, just follow the “easy” instructions they give, not to worry because it’s really “easy”. But, if I don’t know what to do with the DNS thing, telling me to link my DNS as one of the steps IS NOT EASY!! The last time I did the DNS “fix” I lost a complete web site … how I ever got it back is beyond me, but somehow it’s working right now.

About 4 months ago Sheila unearthed an old computer and she wanted to see what was on it, but she forgot whatever password she was using in 2004 or whenever. Between the two of us visiting Uncle Google we were eventually (like, 2 days later) able to hack her old computer and bypass the password lockout. We thought we were technology giants at that time but we do realize that some 16 year old kid could have hacked that password in about 13 seconds.

Technology is not my friend, and although I actually have some (granted, minor) computer ability, this new era is wearing me out. Don’t worry about me, I’ll get it figured out, somehow. I’ve already figured out how to get all of my Blogger junk linked to this WordPress site, so all of my blatherings are now in one location. And I can publish this post the old-fashioned way my using the WordPress DOT com (see, that’s how tech people write out .com) (at least I think that’s what they do) (I’ll have to visit Uncle Google again to be sure) link. But it looks weird, EdGoodecom.wordpress.com (that’s strange, right, with no DOT between EdGoode and com?), how would I ever tell people about that? “Well, type in EdGoodecom.wordpress.com but don’t put a dot between EdGoode and the first com”. Nobody wants to listen to all of that nonsense, so I guess I’ll have to figure out how to get this blog posted the right way.

After spending most of the day trying to get this site figured out, I think (think)(not sure though) I’m on the right track. As I write this, today is Wednesday 9/27/17 and if I’m right, the site will be officially published on 9/28/17, Thursday (tomorrow). If I’m wrong, well, you all know that I am, at best, technologically challenged.