The story behind today

I am so proud of myself for figuring out some of the basic features of WordPress that it’s actually embarrassing.

Honestly, the story behind today’s post starts out and ultimately ends on a boring note: after researching size reduction and media file plugins, I accidentally deleted every single image I have (had) on my website. For some reason I didn’t shed the tears over this like I should have; probably because I suspected, between all the hours of research into shortcutting this process, that I was going to have to delete and re-upload everything anyways. This just forced the issue.

So while I’m plugging away on my media storage back behind the curtain (I’ll be cleaning up files and re-uploading in short bursts; if there are still some images missing into November, they’ll be back before the new year), here’s my slightly more thrilling news: I’ve finally put an email subscription button on my site.

*Cue cheers*

My update schedule has gotten absurdly sporadic, and I don’t plan on hammering my self-control into a calendar-shaped rectangle anytime soon. While I still stick by my one-post-a-week guarantee, some weeks I do more as the spirit moves me and other times I just barely make a single update by Saturday night. So! That was the very long way to say: if you’re tired of manually checking the website (or don’t have an RSS feed), you can now sign up to receive an email every time I update the blog.

*Nero gives the gladiatorial contender the thumbs up; cheering increases*

The second half of my search yielded the amazing news that I can actually enable comments on specific pages – a WordPress component, as it turns out. Despite the fact that this took me nearly two years to figure it, it thrills me to my core. Now all of my stories and poems have a comment section at the bottom of their page. Only having comments on blog posts bugged me because it automatically disconnected people’s reactions from the thing they were reacting to, and inadvertently discouraged people other than my friendly neighborhood IT guy from commenting on the story and/or poem itself. Who in the world is going to bother when commenting is a multi-step process (again, besides my brother; thanks, bro!)?

Next up we have the beginnings of my re-design for the mobile experience. I’m working on switching around how the header menu looks on a smaller screen and blah blah blah nobody cares. Short version: it won’t do what I think I’m telling it to do, but I’ll save the sweet talk for another day.

Finally, we have more behind-the-scenes chicanery. I have 117 blog posts (including this one), and every single one of them needs to be bagged and tagged. Right now my search function is fabulously useless. If anyone wants to re-read a specific post, they’re better off going to Google and typing the name of my website plus whatever topic they’re looking for into the search bar.

Ugh, it’s officially Monday in this time zone. So, uh, ta-da. My weekly post.

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8 Responses to The story behind today

  1. Your Local Friendly IT Guy says:

    Hey, at least you’re ahead of the curve for the week. And don’t worry, you know you got me here to post inane things on most of your posts.

    Now where’s that short story you keep half-mentioning? 😛

    • A.L. Schultz says:

      Ha! That was supposed to be yesterday’s job. And then I spent 5 hours researching WordPress plugins and discovering really obvious features on my admin dashboard.

  2. The Sister says:

    Hooray for e-mail subscriptions. 🙂 I just checked for updates today and realized I had missed three posts… yikes!

    • Your Local Friendly IT Guy says:

      Heh, you need to get on my level. I once posted a comment right after it was posted and before an edit dropped. Which actually lined right up with my comment, so it ended up being perfectly seamless. 😛

      Also, good to hear you back on here again. 😉

      • A.L. Schultz says:

        Ha! That Lord of the Rings reference – I felt kind of bad for ruining your post almost immediately haha.

        (Yes, I’ve missed her too.)

        😛

    • A.L. Schultz says:

      Dear sister, I was thinking of you when I put that subscription option up.

  3. Andrea–I am Dolores Waddell. Your Grandpa Clifford was my brother. Your Dad greatly resembles Cliff. I read all of your “postings” regularly and enjoy them. I’m the person who sent you my Mom’s ruby and opal engagement ring. Do hope you enjoyed your Christmas in Bozeman after a horrible trip. My e-mail address is dwaddell22@yahoo.com

    Do you have regrets about moving so far from family? Blessings to you–Aunt Dolores

    • A.L. Schultz says:

      Hello, Aunt Dolores! Of course I know who you are — and it’s wonderful to hear from you, and to find out that you’ve been enjoying my postings! I know you always liked my Christmas letters (you usually said something about them in your card to my parents). I count my great grandmother’s ring as one of my treasured possessions. I love to be connected to the past through it.

      While I don’t regret moving, I do miss my family terribly. So far I’ve been using the holidays and much of my vacation time to go back and visit, so that makes the distance easier. I’ve had nearly two weeks off for Christmas, which has been wonderful. How have your holidays been? I hope you had a good Christmas and New Year!
      Love–Andrea

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