Matching Tracksuits

What would you do if you suddenly realized that, due to some strange malfunction of a file management program, 15 years of online school materials disappeared? Thousands of carefully created questions for tests. Hundreds of online resources. Dozens of interactive lessons. All gone in a poof before you realized it?

What would you do if you then realized that your pet project of nearly 20 years disappeared along with it? Nearly seven thousand posts. Over 40,000 images. Almost three million words. All gone in a poof before you realized it?

Some discussion with a woman tech support with a lovely, lilting Indian accent, a bit of money (how much would have been too much), and some patience (it was supposed to take up to 72 hours), it’s all back. That’s why you’re able to read this because everything was gone — even the Word Press files themselves. Everything. All the URI produced was a 503 error. The relief was immense.

to say I’m sick and go to bed?

Some time ago, I was looking for something in the Wayback Machine, and it struck me that I might grab a few shots of what this site has looked like.

As many changes and as radically different (yet the same) as the subjects of the blog itself…

First, there was the original look:

It was running on Text Pattern, which was basic. And my design was basic. Because my skills were basic. But there was that classic header:

I still kind of like it…

Some years were unavailable in the Wayback Machine, so suddenly, we jump seven years to 2010:

By then, I’d switched to WordPress, which gave me a lot more options as far as design goes.

And with that freedom, I began to change the design regularly.

With this being day 1500 of my daily posting streak, I thought it might be good to reflect on the site itself.

I tried everything: magazine layouts,

minimalist layouts,

seasonal layouts, everything.

Then I started using the Divi theme, and for about 6 years now, I’ve stuck with it.

I’ve changed the header image,

and I messed a bit with other design elements, but since about June of 2021, I’ve found something that I like and just hang with — except for the yearly change of the header image…

Trying to fix this slow-loading site — I ended up loading an old theme from ten years ago. Basic, but a little faster loading.

That’s about all I feel like doing on this site today, so this will have to do to keep the streak going.

I’ve a moved a few times, each time different. Moving to Poland in 1996 was accomplished with the help of two suitcases and a carry-on bag. Moving back to the States was similar. Moving from one apartment in Boston to another, just north of Boston in Mauldin, lasted one long day with multiple trips in the smallest available U-Haul van because it was all that was available on that day when everyone in the greater Boston area who is moving moves. Moving back to Poland in 2001 was like 1996: two suitcases and something under the seat in front of me. Back to the States in 2005 included several mailings and the usual airline baggage. From Ashville to Greenville was easier since we had a large U-Haul and several helping hands. But in all those adventures, I moved only a few thousand things at most. And that’s counting each article of clothing and miscellany separately.

This week I moved 207,282 objects, plus several databases and a handful of email addresses. Changing hosts is a long involved process. Life goes on as usual, but one’s online presence stops. Visits to traveling museums and Halloween come and go complete with pictures, but they all sit on one’s computer until, at long last, it’s all done and everything is back to normal.

I’ve been wrestling with WordPress, the software that runs this system, all evening, on and off. I’m sick of it, aren’t you?