Unsolicited free advice: don’t change servers and try to consolidate your blogs at the same time. Because it isn’t one step. It’s 7,500. And even then, once you think you are done, something comes up that is entirely not your fault and entirely the fault of the internet. The whole internet.
The host for Blurbomat upgraded their servers with nifty, fun software. In order for me to take advantage of this nifty fun, I had to “upgrade” my account. Which meant an IP address change for the server. I figured that until Movable Type has a staging feature, I’d never get a chance like this to consolidate the photos and the whores into the main blog and finally use category designations. It was always easier to just start a new blog rather than deal with the crazy categories and the gymnastics required to get the site to look like the board wanted. It was getting harder to coax the kids into coding like we all know they can.
The avoidance of said consolidation stems from the way categories are handled in Movable Type. It leaves something to be desired. It’s not that the database can’t handle it. It’s how the templates and the tags for structure handle categories. It’s just not quite where I’d like it to be. I’m not dissing the Movable Type as much as I’m wishing it handled categories in the same, easy and fun way it handles normal templates. I have to bend in entirely uncomfortable and unnatural ways to make Movable Type do something relatively straightforward.
The point? Here: You’ll note that every page now has the EXACT same sidebar. I suppose that is super for the usability and consistency and the whatnot. But it means that if I want to show my photos, the sidebar will reach down to somewhere near Antarctica. It’s already a bit unwieldy even without the photos. I’m not sure making everything drop downs would be better, either. You’ll also notice that I’ve pulled down the photos.
The other maddening thing, which was alluded to in our opening paragraph about the whole internet: I tell my registrar of choice that I’ve changed server IP addresses. Super. I wait 33 hours. I feel the burning desire within to make a post to share the pain and frustration. If you omit the www. from blurbomat, you’ll get this post. If you use the time-honored www prefix, you’ll see what appears to be a bastard version of the site. I can’t decide if it’s a router issue or a host issue. Either way, angry phone calls are being added to my To Do list at the rate of 18 per second. That’s going to mean a very busy Monday.
Add to that the frustration of trying to actually use Movable Type. I log in without the www and it works super. Except when I save. I have to take off the www from the auto-generated lovliness and refresh the browser.
I’m just torn, people. That’s all. Torn. The. Pain. Is. Wracking. Me. Head.