Saturday, July 17, 2010

I Hate Change

For months now, a storm has been brewing behind the scenes of Cake Wrecks. This weekend it all came to a head.

Wait. Do those analogies even work together? Does a storm come to a head?

This may or may not be a storm head.

Anyway, it all started when I let John win an argument.

In a nutshell, it's probably really dark.

But, getting back to that argument: John has wanted for ages and ages to move the blog off of Blogger and on to, and I quote, a "real" server.

I, however, being a curmudgeonly curmudgeon who, once comfortable, will guard against change with the kind of ferocity normally associated with maternally crazed bears, did not want to move the blog.

Now, John and I don't fight much. Fact is, we're fairly similar in temperament, food preferences, and shoe-shopping tactics (clearance first, then work your way forward), so we don't really have much to fight over. But this? This was a sticking point. Every few weeks, or any time Blogger had a hiccup, John would start up again.

"Do you see any other big blogs on Blogger?" he'd ask. "No."

"We're on Blogger," I would point out.

"They just randomly deleted a bunch of our comments!"

"A glitch."

"Moderation is locked up again!"

"They're working on it."

"What about the time they locked you out of your own account for nearly a week?"

"That only happened once."


Then John pulled his trump card:

"Look, with your new redesign, some people can't see the blog anymore. Don't you want people to be able to read the blog?"

Aw, dang it.

See, in order to get the custom design template we have on CW, our designer extraordinaire Aric had to do a lot of hacks. Blogger, as some of you know, doesn't do well with hacks. Or more accurately: certain browsers (*cough cough* IE6 *cough*) don't do well reading Blogger hacks. When we started getting e-mails saying that the site wasn't loading right for some people, we had Aric go through the code line-by-line to fix any glitches, remove unnecessary Java, etc. I was sure that would fix any problems, and then we could stay on Blogger and everyone would be happy.

Instead, the code clean-up and refresh quadrupled our problems: over night we lost about 8% of our readers - we're pretty sure because they just couldn't load the site properly any more. (That, or I really ticked a lot of people off with my "master baster" crack.) We also had plenty of e-mails to confirm that formatting and/or load errors were among the culprits.

Our design wasn't the only problem, though: some of the Picasa servers which host Blogger's photos have been flagged by company firewalls as containing "inappropriate content," and are therefore blocked. When this happens, any photo stored on the offending server - about one in five in our case - won't load. And since the vast majority of our readers read at work (yay, productivity!), having a company firewall block any or all of our images meant no more readers at that company.

Unfortunately, the only fix for all of these and other issues seemed to be a move to a private server.

Which is why I finally let John win the argument.

Dang it.

This roughly translates to both John's and my reactions.
I'll let you figure out which cat is who.


Don't worry; I'll spare you most of the gory details, mostly because I don't understand them. In fact, I'm starting to suspect that all the technical jargon John and Aric are throwing around is really just an elaborate prank to see how dumb they can make me feel.

John: "So we're waiting for the name servers to propagate."

Me: "A-HA! I knew you were making up words! 'Propagate.' Puh-lease. What are they going to do, have little baby servers? Yeah. Nice try, dude."


Matters only got worse when our first attempted move from Blogger went horribly wrong: the host we'd hired went all wonky, throwing up its own firewalls and giving everyone a big ol' "Server not found" error. John and Aric back-pedaled madly, and after a long weekend of hard work, we were back where we started on Blogger again.

This weekend we're trying again - only with a different host.

Of course, for you the reader, nothing will have changed. (Well, unless you couldn't see the site before; hopefully now you can.) For me the writer, EVERYTHING has changed. And, in case you've forgotten the title of this post, I HATE change. Hate it hate it hate it. I've been cruising along for years now with Blogger, and I know every quirk and trick it has up its sleeve.

Now, I have to learn WordPress.

And don't even try and tell me how fabulous WordPress is, WordPressers. I get it: it's awesome. Whatever. Just let me relish my grumpiness for a little while; I'm sure I'll drink the Kool-Aid eventually.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm grumpy, allow me to describe my first writing experience in WP, which occurred just a few hours ago.

Me: "Ok, I'll just cut and paste this section..." [click click clickety click]

"Wait...it cut, so why isn't it pasting? [clickclick]

"WHY ISN'T IT PASTING?!? [CLICK CLICK CLICK]

"AND WHY CAN'T I 'UNDO'"?

At this point I had just deleted a photo and its corresponding text and hyperlink. Since the "undo" wouldn't work, I now had to replace them. Ok, fine. First, the photo.

I actually got the thing uploaded on the first try (woo!), but it was the size of my entire screen (whoah). I tried editing the photo to make it smaller. The edits wouldn't update. So, I deleted the photo and re-uploaded it as a smaller size. Now it was too small. So, I grabbed the corner of the photo and dragged the box to make it larger. This worked, but now it was pixelated.

I finally "fixed" the problem by deleting the photo again and re-uploading it again several sizes too big (because your only upload options are either around 300 wide or 1200 wide - because yeah, THAT makes sense) and then dragging the box to make it smaller.

Next I couldn't put more than one line of space between the photo and the text. I don't know why. I gave up ("Um, one space is probably fine.."), and moved on.

Then I tried to insert a hyperlink. Highlight the text, open the hyperlink box, insert the link, and...nada. Didn't work. I tried again. Nothing. And then again. Still no hyperlink. I was doing everything correctly, but it just. wouldn't. work.

At this point I was literally sobbing with frustration. Maybe it's the newness. Maybe it's the loss of control. Maybe it's that I hate feeling stupid. Maybe it's my anger at Blogger for causing so many issues that we had to leave in the first place, or at WordPress for not being exactly like Blogger. Maybe it's the fact that CW was once just MY blog: my goofy little cake blog that I knew backwards and forwards and learned how to hack into a 3-column Minima template *all by myself* and I was so proud because it was all my work and I didn't need anyone's help to do it - and now it's this big unwieldy behemoth requiring people smarter (and far more expensive) than I just to log into.

Or maybe I'm just PMS'ing.

Whatever it is, you'll note that I'm currently writing this in Blogger. (Epbot is not moving.) I decided a tactical retreat was in order. Plus some good ol' fashioned venting. John has since told me that the post I was working on had to be saved, closed, and re-opened, and so now some of those issues are fixed. So that's something. And I guess I do feel a little better now, so...

Cover me. I'm goin' in.



Oh, and if Sunday Sweets isn't up by 9:30 tomorrow morning, send chocolate.

90 comments:

  1. I had to clear my cache before www.cakewrecks.com would stop attempting to redirect to www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com (Chrome) but other than that all is well.

    Other people may not know to do that if they're having similar issues.

    And the internet should really just say a big collective NO! to IE6, but I'm glad in the meantime that it went... relatively smooth on the outward end, and that it will fix the other stuff too.

    And hopefully you can eventually tame Wordpress to serve you to your liking (maybe offer it sprinkles?)

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  2. I feel your pain! I have the *mind* for HTML, but I do not have the will! I stay as far away from it as I can.

    Unfortunately, I am one of those who was very happy that you were on Blogger. For some reason, MY work firewall lets Blogger posts through, but won't let WordPress posts through!

    Alas, I'll have to catch up at home! You can be sure that I will... just sad that CakeWrecks can't get me through those boring work moments anymore!

    Good luck!

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  3. I tried doing a WordPress blog recently. I hated it too, and I wasn't even including pictures and links. I went back to Blogger pretty fast. I know that's not encouraging....

    Also, tell John that WordPress doesn't always load properly where I work.

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  4. OMG I feel your pain. Every time they mess with my work program or my message boards it sets me back 7 years in therapy.

    Now I feel guility about stopping my reading of cakewrecks (like this blog so much better)

    You tell John that changing servers = a shopping spree at your favorit craft store. (Its cheaper thean therapy)

    Or better yet tell him the only thing that will sooth your frayed nerves is the chandaleir for the dining room.

    ((((((Jen)))))) think poo-puns and double rainbow sprinkles, you will survive this. If not can I have your curtains?

    Paja

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  5. *hug* I feel your pain, lovie. When you get used to WP, I'm pretty sure you'll like it, but it definitely takes a bit more acclimation than Blogger.

    In the meantime, gripe as much as you want, and I'll share my brownies with you (in spirit).

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  6. Good luck with the move! I am a fellow change-hater, so I feel your pain.
    Love both the blogs!

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  7. Vent away, Jen... I'm on my second day of no caffeine, so I'm right there with ya. Of course, my own issues aren't nearly as big, and are self inflicted (because I am an idiot, apparently...) but I'm totally sympathizing!!

    Have some caffeine and chocolate for me since I'm on a 7 day cabbage soup diet to "cleans my system and reduce my craving of sweets". What was I thinking????

    Much love to ya, sis! Hang in there! :)

    Tiffany (another Blogger-blogger)

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  8. I'm right there with you! I have/manage 3 blogs for work -- one on Blogger and two on WordPress. Guess which one gets updated daily and which ones languish until someone asks me to update them?

    I went to a workshop on WordPress that was offered by my employer, thinking that I would learn enough to like it. It turned out I knew more than the presenter. Sigh. I hope you have better luck than I've had!

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  9. Dude. I am thinking about moving from blogger- and I'm scared! So scared! This post did not help matters in the least.

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  10. @ Bethany - we'll be hosting the blog on a private server, not WordPress (we just use the WordPress software) so *hopefully* you'll still be able to see the site at work. Let me know, though!

    And as for the rest of you WP haters - not..helping... ;)

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  11. Oh Jen...~hands over the Godiva~ know that you are a far braver woman than I...I'd be in the corner by now, rocking backwards and forwards, weeping and mumbling something about "stupid men" and their need for bigger and better...oh, and the keyboard would be in lots of little, itty bitty pieces...O_O

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  12. Okay, I'm a WP blogger. When I started my blog, I chose WP because it seemed more professional.

    I thought WP was easy to learn, but then, I wasn't trying to un-learn Blogger, and pictures aren't a big part of my blog. (It did take me several months to get the pictures figured out, and even now, I'm not sure I have them completely right.)

    Um, yeah, change is always hard, but I have full confidence in you to get things figured out.

    In the mean time, I have complete confidence in John to keep you supplied with loads of high quality chocolate.

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  13. *hug* That sort of thing is so frustrating. I've never had your experience, exactly, but I've had similar. And speaking from those experiences, I'm totally with you on the "who cares how good WordPress is, I hate it" thing. People just don't seem to understand it's not about quality, it's about comfort.

    Here's to hoping you can get comfortable with WordPress sooner rather than later. Lots of love~

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  14. You have given me one more reason to never switch my blog to wordpress LOL

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  15. Jen-
    On Despair.com, the "Change" poster says, "When the winds of change blow hard enough, the most trivial of things can turn into deadly projectiles." You might wanna give John a heads-up on the potential for harm to himself with this server situation...not that someone who's PMSing would ever, ever be that irritable.
    And thank you, thank you for both Epbot and today's CW. My day brightened considerably when I got to have both on a Saturday. For you, those three little words: Te qui la. Don't worry; they'll run together quickly, and WordPress will be a mere trifle in your pleasant world.

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  16. My blog is on WordPress, it was the first one I came across when I was thinking about maybe doing a little bit of a something blog. I hate linking stuff on it so I avoid it at any cost. I do find it user friendly so hopefully you'll get used to it (in a month or 4 --- I hate change too)

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  17. i JUST switched over to a new blog using WP and yeah, it's taking some getting used to. let me know if you figure out how the eff to have more than one line of space show up between photos -- that is driving me NUTS.

    i do like the look of WP blogs a lot more, though, which is why i decided to switch, so i'm hoping it's just going to take a little time to get used to. but i am also a serious change-hater so it's not going great so far... hopefully someone will comment soon extolling the virtues of WP!

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  18. Awwww, you'll be ok! I haven't even figured out Blogger yet, but I have no doubt you'll be wowing us in Wordpress before you know it.

    On a side note, may I recommend Green & Black's organic milk chocolate with peanuts and sea salt? It solves all problems, anywhere, anytime.

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  19. So I asked my household tech guy about moving from Blogger to "something more grown up."

    He told me that a wave of tech bloggers did this about a year ago, and that they're now trending toward switching BACK to Blogger after months of spending more time tweeking settings than actually blogging.

    So I figured I'd stay ahead of the curve and just not switch.

    BTW household tech guy says your WP problems where nothing happens may have to do with your admin side not being logged in as https (even if you've logged in as https- sometimes switching around in the interface reverts to http).

    If that happens your URL will show http, so just manually add an s (https) to the address shown. His observation on this charming quirk: "It's annoying."

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  20. A few years ago, I had heard that a professor that I was going to have always required students to maintain a blog on Blogger to publish weekly assignments and comment on other students' work. So, a few weeks before class started, I dove in and tried to teach myself everything I could about Blogger. On the first day of class, he announced that every student would need to set up a blog for posting assignments, and that he had discovered that WordPress was the newly improved best option, so we'd all be using it. :-|

    Now I use WordPress and like it. I hope that helps. If it doesn't, let me just say that I big puffy heart love that cat pic!

    - DB

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  21. Maybe this'll brighten your day:
    http://www.regretsy.com/category/not-remotely-steampunk/
    Since reading EPBOT, I understand these "not remotely steampunk" posts on Regretsy a lot more.

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  22. Best of luck to you from a fellow change-hater. I redesigned my whole blog to make it more "grown up" but still couldn't bear to leave Blogger. Not because I love it so much (I have nothing else to compare it to...) but because the thought of trying to learn anything else scared the pants off me. Send John out for chocolate and ice cream (or chocolate ice cream!) and a really good chick-flick.

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  23. Yeah...I think I'm partial to Blogger. Granted, I just started my blog, but I've attempted several blogs (never actually getting thru a first post) over the last couple years and always ended up on Blogger. I tried WordPress because it's currently the only one that offers a free app. for Android, but it's WAAAY too lousy of an app. and I don't like the format of the actual site.
    I actually *really* prefer Xanga because of its social aspects, but it's basically the teeny-bopper blog site anymore. I used it all thru college, LOVED it, got kinda busy with life after college, tried to go back to it, but by then FaceBook had become the popular social network so I gave it up.
    I haven't had any CakeWreck issues, but that's probably because I'm usually on Chrome or Firefox at work. It's only when I'm borrowing my sister's computer that I get stuck with IE8 and have loading issues. IE just generally has the dumb.
    Stand your ground, tho, keep Epbot on Blogger! B'sides, it's your *personal* blog now, so keep it the way *you* want.

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  24. Jen, I'm glad I read Epbot today because it explains why Cake Wrecks wouldn't load for me (I have the RSS feed on my Firefox link toolbar). I think I'll have to do the same as Anonymous. May want to post a public service announcement on CW... of course, if people are having the same thing, then they can't load it to read it. Nevermind. :)

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  25. Jen, that explains why CW wouldn't load for me today! I have the RSS feed in Firefox, and I bet I'm having the same problem as Anonymous. I'd suggest posting a public service announcement, but if people are having the same problem, then they wouldn't be able to get to the page to read it so doesn't make much sense... nevermind! :D

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  26. Ugh, I hate Internet Explorer. Good luck with everything!

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  27. Oh no! I remember HATING Wordpress when I first moved over (several blogs ago...no, none of them are big) but now I find it much easier to use than Blogger. Hopefully you will show it who's boss before long. In the meantime, your dining room is awesome!! Maybe you should type posts in there... :-)

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  28. I have an idea for you. I have a small cooking and photography blog that is also hosted on Wordpress. I, too, was not fond of Wordpress so my techy husband found a solution for me. It is called Windows LiveWriter and it is a FREE download from Microsoft. (FYI-Neither of us works for Microsoft.) This program makes writing posts, adding photos, and adding html links easy and you can use it to manage multiple blogs on different hosts including Wordpress and Blogger.

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  29. ((hugs)) I'm a tech type. I don't have any real experience with Blogger or WP, but what you're describing sounds about right for moving from a lower-powered to a higher-powered tool. It's annoying as all h-e-double-hockey-sticks, although it usually pays off in the long run. If you get too frustrated, you could always put posts together in Word, email it to your tech, and say 'here, post this!', especially if they're still working out technical bugs.

    I also agree with Paja that "changing servers = a shopping spree at your favorite craft store. (It's cheaper than therapy)!"

    Am I the only one who prefers cheap chocolate to the expensive stuff? Frango's is amazing, Dove is great, and I'll accept Hershey's in a pinch, but anything sold in little pieces in a fancy box I don't touch. (It probably doesn't help that I don't like fruit fillings of any kind, but that's not the only issue.)

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  30. Wow, John has really sharp pointy teeth. Does he moonlight as a vampire? (Get it, moonlight, HAH!) And now that I see you are actually basement cat, so much makes sense!

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  31. I need to swallow a whole jar of coffee to tackle HTML some days and coffee just makes me feel urgh so it aint happening this end, either!

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  32. I am definitely on your side of this whole Blogger thing. As much as Blogger likes to act like an over-rated, selfish, unreliable diva...its MY over-rated, selfish, unreliable diva dammit! I dread the day I too will have to make the move to WordPress.

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  33. I'm so glad I've read this post, cause I just opened up Cake Wrecks* and it came up with something called Go Daddy which features a delightfully vile shade of acidpukesnottybooger green. Stylish. I hope all goes well with the change over.

    * It's actually Sunday here Down Under. I don't know just when you upload things in your time zone, whatever it is, but I always check to see if Sunday Sweets will turn up on Sunday or not. Oh and as it's well after 9:30 Sunday morning here, I'd be happy to send you chocolates, although they probably won't reach you till the middle of next week some time. I blame time zones again :)

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  34. me too, i hate change.

    I don't know if someone already mentioned this, (i hope so), but cakewrecks.com isn't loading at all. I was going to read the comments to see, but there's like 20 million of them already.

    eh, nevermind, i just rechecked it to make sure I wasn't gonna be lying, and I was. So, i hope you get the quirks worked out soon enough!

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  35. I like WP. All my blogs are maintained within WP and I've even learned to muck around in the code. If you want a good resource book on WP, I highly Recommend Lisa Sabin-Wilson's Wordpress for Dummies. She does a good job covering the basics of using wordpress.

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  36. hm. been reading CW since WAY back when :) and I think I only had trouble loading it once but then I have always used firefox.

    sorry for your frustration but your loyal fans love you all the more for your hard work :)

    so, have some chocolate and some cheesecake (I have no idea if you like cheesecake but that's what I eat when I'm upset).

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  37. Good luck - the learning curve with Wordpress is a bit steep, but once you drink the kool-aid, you'll forget (it's like an amnesiac drug).

    Blogger is simple and easy - I loved blogger until it started messing up my blog constantly.

    Oh and if you go to settings -> media (left hand side bar) you'll be able to change the auto image resizings to 500px, or whatever you use.

    But I totally get your stomping around and just wanting blogger to WORK dammit.

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  38. I tried a lot of blogs and finally settled on wordpress awhile back, over drupal, joomla, movable type, etc. I'm happy with it, given the options, but I'm also a programmer.

    One thing that has really frustrated me is a bug with the image resizing. It doesn't set file permissions correctly in the code when it makes the new, resized image. I manually fixed it myself in March, then upgraded WP in June, expecting it to be among the 100+ fixes they did. It was not.

    This might be why your image resizing didn't work. Fixing this might help your frustrations immensely.

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  39. Bless your heart!! Hang in there and it will get better. I have seen other blogs do the same and they work out ok. It is very transparent on our end, so we don't always see your frustrations, but know that we all are greatful that you do this for us, your readers.
    Thank You,
    Patti

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  40. Ok, I'll be the one to take the other side on this, I guess.

    WordPress (the software, not their site) is great, once you get to know it. I've run several sites in it and even though I've now moved most of my stuff to Joomla, I still have a spot in my heart for WordPress. You have a lot more options overall and a lot more freedom in customization. Attack that learning curve with gusto, Jen! It'll be better in the long run!

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  41. I also hate, resist, and abhor change. Unnecessary change is worse, but even necessary change tends to put me on edge for ages.

    I recently downloaded a new program to help with an art hobby of mine. It's a much better program than the one I use. Much higher quality. Better results. All that jazz.

    I opened it up, spent five minutes looking in menus, wondering WTF this button did and WTF that button was doing there, shut it down, and promptly uninstalled it.

    Change is scary.

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  42. Oh, that sounds horribly crazy! I also hate change. Makes me nuts when Dawn goes and changes the twitter background without telling me. Hopefully, it will all work out, correctly, without too much insanity. I was at the Hershey store in NYC today, and if I could I'd totally send you some of the pomegranate dark chocolate I got! Keep at it!

    Rosalind
    Girls Are Geeks

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  43. I love CakeWrecks, and I love EPBOT, and so you will always have a faithful reader in me no matter what horrors the internet throws at you. And please know that I do appreciate all the hard work for our daily entertainment (many mornings it has made a world of difference for me).

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  44. Hugs and chocolate sent virtually right....NOW!
    Sorry change isn't changing smoothly. I will wait out the changes because your blogs are worth the wait! Hang in there!! And please come to Delaware or close sometime for your world tour! Please!!!

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  45. Chocolate makes all things better! Hope your transition to another server goes more smoothly that the first attempt.

    I love reading both your blogs: Cake Wrecks for your winning commentary, and Epbot because of your personality! I keep telling my husband that your personalities (yours and John's...not insinuating that you have more than one) would fit in with our group of friends perfectly!

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  46. I don't know the first thing about computers, so I can definitely relate there. As far as the PMS comment goes, I have to share - my friend has a plaque on her bathroom wall that states, "My biggest fear is that there is no PMS and this is just my personality." There, I made you smile!

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  47. Oh man, just reading that makes me NEVER ever want to move my blog. Good luck.

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  48. I'd send you a huge CCC with sprinkles, but I still can't work out ye olde mail system (Australia Post) and export/import requirements.
    I hope it runs smoothly for you soon (like buttercream?) and that you can get the joy out of cakewrecking again. :)

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  49. I've never had any problems accessing CWrecks... but I never go there! I read it through bloglines, pics and all.

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  50. Hmm I wouldn't even begin to have a clue about all of this. But as of now I was just on cake wrecks and it works fine for me :)

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  51. Aww, Jen... :( Our family sends you a hug.
    I hope you have something comfy and familiar to cuddle up in. Don't feel bad about struggling with change there are lots of us out there who do. I hope you have a better week with lots of comforts and your favorite things.
    We'll be praying for you!

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  52. I honestly don't know what they are talking about when they say that wordpress is better and that all the big blogs are on wordpress. I had wordpress and it SUCKED. I couldn't do all the things I can do now on blogger. I couldn't find any support for the things I wanted to do for wordpress, and everybody and their brother is on blogger. I think the choice to go with wordpress is a big big big mistake.

    Good luck. you will need it.

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  53. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v36/veggiedawg/misc/gowiththeflow.jpg

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  54. HUGS....lots and lots of HUGS!

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  55. for a very long time i used diary-x, a now defunct blog server that allowed me to construct my own page from html and to insert the necessary bits (like archives) of their coding into it. i loved it. then they had a catastrophic server failure that took my blog (and tons of other people's) to the great blog heaven in the great beyond. the guy who ran it hadn't run a back up and the backup he did run was on the server that died.

    from there i moved to livejournal, but that didn't allow me any flexibility at all. then i moved to blogger. i liked it there for a long time. i didn't like that i couldn't put up my own html blog (i still had it on my computer), but that was ok, it was adaptable enough to suit my purposes.

    then a friend bought seismictwitch.com for me and set me up on a server. i've been using wordpress ever since. for the most part it's ok. unlike you i don't have vast numbers of people coming by and i can use a free template. running updates are an adventure for me, but i usually manage to get it done eventually.

    so, i sympathize with your dislike of change, especially when changing from something you know well.

    i don't use wordpress's photo upload often, but instead insert flickr html. i also write in html for links. it's just easier.

    i don't think you would have lost any viewers because of issues you were having on the change over. people who read cake wrecks will come back because they like your site. people who are new will come back because they heard about it and are curious. the only way i'd give up on the site is if you said you were ending the site. even then i'd check after it's gone, just in case you changed your mind. :)

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  56. Listen to Tammi.

    Many years ago, I downloaded the first, beta version of Microsoft's Windows LiveWriter to write my blog (on Blogger). Then I got my own domain, and WordPress, and migrated my blog over, and still used LiveWriter.

    Many, many versions of LiveWriter since, I still use it and love it. I do all my text and photos on my local machine, it displays it like I was typing it right on the blog, and the only thing I have an issue with is YouTube videos, which I have to "view source" on and plop in that way.

    Try LiveWriter. You'll like it.

    (BTW--My captcha is "le squall"; this is just "le squall" before the storm. ;-) )

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  57. Aha! That's why my Google Reader feed showed 10 entries for Cake Wrecks today! I'm glad to have that little mystery cleared up.

    I've never had a problem reading CW, but I use Google Chrome. IE sucks--a lot of companies are refusing to accommodate IE6 anymore.

    Good luck with your change over--I know it's hard, but it'll become second nature at some point.

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  58. erm... in terms of geek, i am not. but in terms of switching to new-er software s*** and all that goop, yeah, i'm hopeless. i totally recognise your frustration in the cutting/pasting/deleting/editing/resizing issues.

    love, klutzy me.

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  59. Jen,
    By order of my husband, I am no longer allowed to read EPBOT. I am only allowed to read cakewrecks.
    Because of EPBOT, I literally spent 4 days reading about River Country and other abandoned Disney and non-Disney parks. (But I saw some COOL STUFF!)

    http://www.nileguide.com/blog/2010/05/26/8-abandoned-american-theme-parks-open-for-exploration/

    Today, I spent 3 hours reading on regretsy.com. I am about to order the book; it will go on my coffee table next to my Stuff on My Cat book and my Cakewrecks book.

    EPBOT is bad for my productivity...
    But I LOVE it. And he loves the steampunk curtains...

    --K8

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  60. I have been a computer geek, programmer, hacker, etc., for many years now. I have to disagree with John. I choose Blogger because of the benefits it brings me. If your designer/programmer can't design a blogger template that works on all browsers, I would recommend finding someone else. He may be a great designer, but his programming skills appear to possibly be lacking.

    My guess is you will go back to blogger once your SEO ratings start decreasing. But again, that is only a guess.

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  61. Sunday Sweets looked awesome this morning, and for the record, I have no problems viewing CW throughout this insane transition. Hurtin' for ya, babe. I hope you adapt quickly...and meanwhile I think I'll keep my blog on Blogger. WHY OH WHY MUST THE INTERWEBS BE SO CHALLENGING?

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  62. Good luck!! My husband bought me a wordpress blog for my business a year or so ago. I have used blogger for our family blog for years, and the switch was (is) painful. I have no idea what I'm doing!! Ahh! I'm sure you'll figure it out much faster than me. :) (That doesn't sound very encouraging ... um, GO TEAM!)

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  63. I was interested to read your explanation of the issues with blogger pictures. I had a problem with my blogger blog - when I used my work PC some photos would not appear. However my colleagues could see them fine. In the end I switched from Firefox to Chrome and have had no issues since. I think there is more going on than firewall filtering but I don't know what it is!

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  64. I recently moved from Tumblr to Blogger. The deciding factor? Cakewrecks is/was on Blogger.

    I feel betrayed.

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  65. I'm crying today because the ants are crawling in through my front window ans I don't want to bother the landlord on a Sunday.

    Maybe, it's universal PMS!!

    The ants are staying outside (mostly) cause i plugged up the holes with salt and Windex soaked paper towels.

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  66. I am giving you a hearty "Amen" on your rant. I hate change when it comes to technology!
    I love CW and Epbot, but I rarely post any comments because I have the worst time just logging in with my Blogger account! Seriously, it takes me 5-6 tries before it takes my comment.
    PS I've never had trouble reading any of your blogs on either server.
    Post PS This was a record ten times, so I've gone back and resent my password. Keep your fingers crossed. If this doesn't work I'm hitting my stash of dark chocolate!

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  67. @ gigi - sprinkle cinnamon in front of the spot where they are coming in (if it is sheltered from wind and rain you can sprinkle it on the outside but if not, it is best to do it on the inside) this will keep the ants out.

    Jen - I'm very, very late to the blogging scene (reason=I'm boring ;-) but so far I've only used WP and while I have some issues, basically I just figure that I'll figure it eventually. I mean, the first time I used a computer after my old Apple IIc (yep, older than dirt I am) I was freakishly stupid. But, after a bit of playing and tweaking and just futzing around I can do most things without any issues.

    You'll get there. In the meantime, some crafting, some cake, a bit more chocolate - all will be well.

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  68. I'm not gonna lie...this post made me wicked nervous because I just, literally JUST, created a WordPress blog. Eeks! Good luck, friend!

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  69. Best of luck, I'm a .ning refugee that recently learned Wordpress for our local Tango community site. I feel your pain. It was a little lumpy at first, just because it's different, but does get easier. Might be the sticky notes with HTML code all over my monitor. :)

    CW loaded fine on Safari 5.0 this evening, and has always loaded fine at work (IE6-Pa'tooey!).
    Hugs to you Jen, love both blogs.

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  70. I know the feeling. I have been writing on Wordpress for 2 years now and it was so frustrating in the beginning. Once you figure out all the random weird shit it will get better :) I still get confused sometimes, but I usually figure it out in the end. Good luck and yes change sucks

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  71. X3 It's all good to vent, that's what bloggins is for! <3

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  72. Aww, I'm sorry you had to change, Jen. Though since I am a WP'er, I offer my hints (I haven't read all the comments, so forgive me if I'm repeating.

    1) There isn't an Undo button, but if you scroll to the bottom of the page you should see a list of "previous versions" that you can click on. Anything that has been saved or auto-saved can serve as your "undo" button.

    2) Try to use the photo editor's scale buttons rather than dragging the photos to change sizes.

    3) (You probably already know this, but...) Always set the editor window to HTML instead of Visual before you save. It solves a lot of problems.

    Hope it goes better!

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  73. Oh!! I forgot! Get "Thesis" for wordpress! It makes your life sooo much easier!

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  74. I'm a Blogger user and my brother is a WordPress user. To be honest I prob would have used WordPress (given that my brother uses it), but its the fact that you have to download the software for it.

    I like to type up some blog stuff during my lunchbreaks at work, but I can't download any software on my computer... so I went for blogger instead.

    Currently, I have to admit that I am enjoying blogger.

    my blog: http://diaryofascoutleader.blogspot.com

    my brothers blog:
    http://dougiec.wordpress.com/

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  75. Aw, I feel your pain. If I lived in Florida I would totally look you up and take you to the nearest Godiva boutique store and let you pick whatever chocolate suited your fancy to make you feel better. Chocolate just makes ANY day better. PMS? Don't create excuses. Grumpy days are allowed any time of the month. In fact, my advice is to sporadically have "off" days just to throw John off his game to see if he pays attention. (I sometimes do that and Jason will bring home some velvety chocolate or a silky coffe concoction.) <>

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  76. Ha ha! This is hilarious! Yes, Wordpress is awesome. Any coder in your life worth their salt will tell you that, so don't be too disappointed, little black cat (that picture is so dangerously, illegally cute!!). You'll be up and celebrating with the little orange guy soon enough. And hey, I see Sunday Sweets is up! :) Change isn't so bad, after all.

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  77. Jen, just remember that this too will pass. Sorry I had to insert an overused cliche. The great thing is that you'll learn and become comfortable with Wordpress. But until then, you have my sympathy.

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  78. Ah, so is that why our blog feeder suddenly told us there were 27 (or so) 'new' posts from Cakewrecks yesterday? That we could have sworn we already read?

    Try to utter the phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" to IT guys and they put their hands over their ears and say "la-la-la-la-la I can't hear you." Then they go out and create problems (I am firmly convinced of this) so they can say "Ha! It's broken! Now I must change absolutely everything instead of just fixing what I broke!"

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  79. I chose Wordpress when I first started blogging, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it's not difficult at all once you figure a few things out. I always "size" my pictures in my photo editing program before I upload them; I know how many pixels wide will fit on the screen and make them no bigger than that. Granted, that means people can't click and get to a humongous version of the photo, but OTOH, I've been blogging for over two years, heavy on photos, and still haven't used more than 5% of my allotted "free" space.

    I don't know if anyone likes change, especially when it involves figuring out new stuff, but think about it - you could still be talking on a land-based rotary phone!

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  80. Hang in there! And just think of all your little wrecky addicts (like me) who so appreciate all the effort of writing hilarious posts and posting them in the first place, let alone all the extra work of moving! You guys are the best, and I'm sure that once you've gotten used to it, the new home for CW won't be so bad.

    And here's some extra praise for you - none of the tinkering that you mention broke my RSS feed - and usually any sort of tinkering with a blog breaks my feed, so well done!

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  81. Ah! And just noticed: "In a nutshell, it's probably really dark."

    Best line of the day! LOL :)

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  82. I know little to nothing about the creation part of blogging (happy to just read the writing of 70 billion others every day). But, that paragraph that started with 'At this point I was literally sobbing with frustration'? Every single word of that could have come out of my own mouth at some point - whether it was homework, a knitting project, reorganizing, etc, etc. For better or worse, apparently you and I approach defeat the same way. And I had to let you know that I sat here shaking my head going 'how did she read my mind?' Good luck with WordPress and remember that despite all apparent evidence, you really ARE smarter than stupid computer software. :o)

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  83. I hate change, too. But gotta say, I was delighted to see much wrecky goodness when I went to look at the site this morning.

    I use Wordpress but I don't include photos or any tricky formatting so it's pretty plain sailing. I tend to code by hand because I'm used to it from Live Journal.

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  84. This gives me a sad. I'm sorry blogging is kicking your butt. I am grateful you are making such heroic efforts to keep us all entertained. I feel your pain though.

    I tried running WP on my work's web host and missed a security update... Merry Christmas Eve, the site got spoofed and hence taken offline by the host... I spent that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day desperately trying to get it all back online, from home with no bookmarks, passwords, proof I was the webmaster LOL

    VPN is now my friend, and WP is still on restriction. There may come a day when I risk opening my geeky little heart to the SOB but for now I am still pouting (yes, even though it was my own fault and not the fault of WP... they had of course fixed the problem, had I only paid attn. Deflection is a great method of keeping the ol' self-esteem out of the trenches)

    (my fave web dev has decided to never again include ie6 in guaranteed browsers. just say no)

    I will follow you loyally through thick and thin and blogger and WP and promise to try a different browser if things don't look right.

    And yes, you deserve the chandelier, like Paja said.

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  85. I work for a website, which we just spent 6 months overhauling. After the overhaul, we had a lot of folks with problems, and they all seemed to have IE6. We've decided that since IE8 is out now, we'd no longer support IE6. Until we looked at our google analytics and realized that fully HALF of our clients still use IE6. Why why why why why.

    Of course, we spent 3 weeks fixing all the issues, and now we just get a call or two a month from Chrome users (.2% of our 400,000 users) for whom the site does not work right. Yeah, we're supporting that.

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  86. Hi Jen, not sure if I've commented here before, but have been following for a while. Just wanted to say you made me laugh aloud twice in this one post. Your pictures and captioning are perfect. Those cats make me snigger each time I look at them.

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  87. Just to let you know, Jen. You are not the only big blog on blogger. Check out Post Secret. I'm sure Frank and you would have a time of it discussing the bad side of Blogger.

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  88. (note - this comment is a bit long and rambly - feel free to ignore it - lol)
    wow ... and thanks - this post of yours has answered a question I have been curious about for the last 6 months, and could not find the answer for in the blogger help files ... when I look at my blog (or any other blogger blogs) at work - there are always a few photos missing (came up as grey squares) ... I had an idea it was something to do with one particular server, and I know we have stupid filters and stuff on our network at work, but I had not made the connection - lol - and I am not at all surprised at the reason those photos don't show up ... I was thinking it would be nice to have a way of telling blogger not to put my photos on that particular server (that I can't access at work) - but I guess someone else, working somewhere else, might be having problems seeing images on a different one, so that would not help them (and maybe make things worse for them).
    ... I guess if my blog had more than about 5 people who ever read the thing, then I might be a bit more worried - LOL
    and yes - I like using blogger, and I don't really like the idea of changing ... but I guess I don't actually HAVE to ... LOL

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  89. Hah! I too am a hate change kind of girl.

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  90. Jen,
    my boyfriend Peter thinks both EPBOT and CW are amazing. I am also a big fan. For some paranormal reason he disagrees about the cange bit. He LOVES change. I am a person who absolutely hates change. But mostly for one reason. I am and I quote:
    frickin lazy.

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