Playing in the Shambles

Hooray, at last something to write about.

While my undershorts were going for a spin at the laundromat, I nosed around in the Dollar Tree next door as I like to do. That way, instead of the $2.25 a washed-and-dried load costs me, I can spend more like ten bucks (although today I realized the prices at the laundromat have gone up. Now it’s $2.75. This is cutting into my Dollar Tree budget).

I knew I needed toilet paper. It’s actually cheaper other places, but at least at Dollar Tree I know I’m just going to spend a buck. (That’s how they get you.) I’ve been getting Soft ‘n’ Gentle, because that’s what they have and because, well, it’s pretty soft and gentle. It’s a cheapo 2-ply that doesn’t last very long, but at least it doesn’t hurt me.

Today, however, I spotted some Cottonelle single-ply with Aloe and E:

And I thought “Waitaminute. Toilet paper with Vitamin E?”

Sure enough, there it is:

Naturally, I had to buy it. I asked the cashier, but she couldn’t tell me why this toilet paper contains Vitamin E, although she admitted that she had also wondered.

Can anyone tell me? I suppose I could do a Web search, but where’s the fun in that? If you think you have the answer, please let me know (markus at headwreck dot com). I mean, aloe I can kind of see, it’s gentle on the skin (I guess), but Vitamin E? Is it really going to maintain contact long enough for that to matter? Is it in case of accidental ingestion by children or puppies? Does it help prevent cancer in places where we really, really don’t want to get cancer?

I have used enough of it to be able to report that it’s very nice for blowing the nose. I promise not to post the results of any further field tests, unless the demand is overwhelming.

My first blog entry was about installing the software and how easy it was.

Shortly after I discovered how easily I could screw it up.

I first installed WordPress to a test location, not really knowing what to expect. Before I knew it I had started this blog. One consequence of just diving in was that I didn’t realize I could leave the software in one directory and have the blog be in another, so I just installed it afresh where I wanted it. No problem; the install is simple.

No problem at all, except that I left the old, barely-used “test” blog in place. This wouldn’t matter, except that later I decided to point this blog to that blog’s “software”–that is, where it was installed.

I see now that this was retarded. I got mixed up and somehow turned the fact that several blogs can share one database into the unrelated idea that I could point several blogs to one installation of the WordPress software.

(Technically, that’s not impossible. Using alternate packages, additional packages, or using a very special setup (and assuming one actually knows what one is doing), the answer is yes, it can be done. But for what I was trying to do, the answer is very plainly “no”.)

Later I would become a little more familiar with the files and the way they work, as I sought to undo what I did to myself. But I realized at once that I had done a dumb thing.

It only took a few seconds, just clicking a tab, selecting an option, typing in a path and submitting. Then I was promptly locked out of my blog. Then both blogs. Then I discovered that the password for one worked for the other, and brought me to the original test blog. I would try to log in at this blog and be whisked away to the other. I’m afraid I tried it several times. Sad, really.

In all, it was a few hours’ bumbling, full of more adventure than I can remember.

In the end, after a stretch of poking through .php files and scratching my head, I stumbled across this helpful post at the WordPress support site. The post led me here, to a Codex article, Moving WordPress, and specifically to the section Moving WordPress Within Your Site. As the referring poster explained, this would be simple:

You will need to change two values in Options/General, change the directory’s name, then update your permalinks in Options/Permalinks.

In fact, I think it all boils down to just reversing what I did in the other blog. But, well, I found another way.

I considered that I could just start fresh with it. After all, I’d only written one article, and it it hardly a masterpiece. But I decided I would rather try and fix the damage. Learning how might come in handy if things go sideways again, in case there ever is much content, or if one day I wind up helping someone.

Somehow, though, at the Codex page, instead of the Moving WordPress Within Your Site section, I now realize I worked from the Moving WordPress to a New Server section. I’d really like to say that there was a reason, maybe that I even tried the first solution. But I can’t. I can only say I took myself through a much more, erm, interesting adventure; although one, I must admit, which was ultimately successful.

I was worried that if I went into the options again I might just make things worse; but considering what I wound up doing I’m not sure why I didn’t at least try that first, unless I. Just. Didn’t. See it.

All I wound up doing was backing up the mySQL database to a .sql file, editing (a copy of)! that with a text editor, and restoring it via phpMyAdmin. Piece of cake?

It helps to know that, beyond the simple matter of setting up one database as provided by my host, to get this thing rolling, I’ve never used mySQL before, to say nothing of editing this .sql file of which it speaks. I’d never seen phpMyAdmin in my life. Even at the time, I had a feeling I was using a shotgun to kill a fly, and now I’m quite sure of it.

But the article section held my hand through backing up, restoring, and editing the file. Once I had it loaded into Elvis, I thought I had an idea of what to do. I went over it several times, grateful for vi search functions and the fact that I have the barest fumbling grasp of them. Finally saving my changes, I returned to phpMyAdmin, took a deep breath, and followed the directions for the restore process. I braced myself for disaster.

Instead, it seems to have done the trick. I had to cry “lost password” on each blog, and then they were both restored, separated, and in their proper places.

What does all this say? For my part, it’s down to a special blend of ignorance and self-inflicted tomfoolery; the usual sort of headwreck.

For WordPress, it might be an indication that it’s not completely dummy-proof. Of course, if I’m going to be a dummy that’s not WP’s fault.

It also shows that help is to be found, provided by WordPress’ own sites (usually via Google, my default oracle). There seems to be a lot of documentation. And, in fact, the Asyomptomatic article that led to my choice of weblog software itself had this to say:

Answer #3: Support. This one takes the cake. If I had to choose blogware based on one thing, this would be it. WordPress simply rules in this venue.

So far I’m happy with my choice of software. I can install it, use it, and even back up the database. Now that I am beginning to use themes and customize the assorted files, those are easily backed up with my trusty FTP client. I can see where automation could come in handy with all of this, though.

Now. I’ve been fighting this article for days; it’s time to let it go. There has to be something else I can fight. Besides, a blog that is about nothing but itself seems a little weird (although, for all I know, it’s a great idea).

I started this weblog a few days ago. It was kind of sudden. I was just nosing around at blog software when I came across something that led to something else, and within a few minutes I had fully-functional (if highly-uncustomized) weblog software installed. So I wrote about that. Then I played with it, promptly broke it, and, somewhat less promptly, fixed it.

It hasn’t been broken all this time. No, really. I’ve been hung up on describing just how I fixed it, which, while it seems to have been a complete success, was some kind of triumph of retardedness in how I went about it.

It’s coming slow, maybe because I’m reluctant to admit it in detail, or maybe because some part of me recognizes a boring pile of tripe when it sees one. Whatever. A draft it stays, while I pile on the following blog-related anecdote:

Yesterday evening I made one of my almost-daily trips to Slashdot, and beheld this story about Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who is, if you don’t know, only the father of the World-Wide Web. (For anyone who might not know, this is not the same thing as the Internet. This is why all those references to the “Intarweb” are so funny.) The story is Tim Berners-Lee Enters Blogosphere. The thing is, he, this man who wrote WorldWideWeb itself (the very first web browser which was itself also an editor), has been, more or less, blogging without the name all along. As he puts it himself:

I have had the luxury of having a web site which I have write access, and I’ve used tools like Amaya and Nvu which allow direct editing of web pages. With these, I haven’t felt the urge to blog with blogging tools.

I bring all this up because I want to make clear that I’m not saying “hyuck hyuck hyuck, I started blogging three days after TimBL. Hyuck hyuck.” He’s been doing what he’s been doing since the very beginning, and innovated a huge part of the online experience.

I’m just a little amused by the irony that as I was installing blog software for the first time, little did I know that TBL was three days’ sailing with his own.

I’d been feeling way behind the times. This perks me right up.

There are other funny little parallels (and believe me, the idea that anything parallels between someone like TBL and me strikes me as extremely funny). One of the Slashdot posters pointed out that TBL’s new blog uses Drupal. A couple of posters did not find that so interesting, but I do, only because I once considered using Drupal in the old Buttlist.

Which brings up another thing: I, too, have been “blogging”, after a fashion. That’s more wrong than right, if blogging means “editing online”. It was only HTML and FTP, and there was no way to comment (there still isn’t, but I don’t plan to turn that on while I’m deep down in the bumbling stage. Check back in a few decades). There was also no traffic, but on an almost-daily basis I was putting it out there. And by `it’ I mean meaningless junk that would enrich you not at all. There aren’t even any monkeys to hit with a boxing glove or whatever. Still, it was fun for me, and an outlet, and I can’t say why since only a handful of people at most ever saw it. Maybe that’s why.

But that began only about a year ago. A few years before, in the salad days of the “personal web pages”, I fiddled around a bit, did kick together a basic understanding of HTML and some junk, but never pursued it far. In those days, I might have done a bit of journaling (or spewing), but mostly I was just learning.

And that’s where, in all seriousness, the parallel totally breaks down. Tim Berners-Lee birthed the Web and made all this possible. He has contributed enormously, and, in one sense, since before the beginning.

So, if I may be permitted, the amusing, if meaningless, fact that Sir Tim and I installed our shiny, new blog software on the same week at least gives me a chance to say, “Thank you, Tim, for making this possible.”

Now the challenge is to wring the wetware and make the most of it.

“Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!”

Those are the words you see when you visit your own WordPress blog for the first time, which, if you’re like me, will be the moment the software tells you it’s successfully installed. If you are again like me, this will be minutes after you have downloaded it and skimmed through the startup guide. The ReadMe document proclaims

Installation: Famous 5-minute install

It took me more like ten. This was because I had to go to my host’s site and find some server information. Then, I had to make an additional change to a file (on a line commented “99% chance you won’t need to change this value”. Oh well).

None of that was hard. I’m still pinching myself that it’s working, and without any real struggle.

It was only yesterday evening when I ran across this Blog Software Breakdown. It compares many different blogging software packages, and is heroic in its scope, as far as I am concerned. This was going to be a huge help in deciding what package to try, it seemed. The only thing was, it’s a mountain of data at first glance, and on my system, the huge table is over twice the width of the browser window. I looked it over for a while, moved on to something else, then wondered if the author of the page, one Owen Winkler if I am not mistaken, had not made a choice of his own. He had.

He gave his reasons for his choice, as well. I happily stood on his shoulders and made the same choice. After all, I can always try something else if I don’t like this.

But so far, I do like it. In fact I think it rocks. I’m still totally green with WordPress, though. So who knows? But I do want to say thank you to Mr. Winkler for the tip, and all his work. Thanks, Owen. May I call you Wink? Sorry, Mr. Winkler.