Tag Archives: change

3×30: Day 8 of 30 days of change

The PolyBlog
September 8 2021

Another odd day working full out for regular work while trying to keep some momentum going at home.

Item 8.1 is still my website stuff. I thought I had it “fixed” last night. Then, this morning, I went to do something, and the problem was back. I took a break from work to go down a rabbithole for a bit, and and then kicked it to tech support. It’s fun talking to tech support about this kind of stuff. Here’s how the conversation goes…

Me: I have a problem with X.

Them: So you have a problem with your website not loading.

Me: No, I have a problem with X. The site loads just fine.

Them: Let me look into it.

Me: (Start typing out the stuff I’ve already tried…did A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. Could be I or J, but I can’t adjust those, and I’m out of options. While I’m typing, they say, “Do A and B, that will fix it”.)

Them: … pause

Them: Okay, I see you’ve done A-H. Did D not help at all? No? Hmmm…

Them: Okay, well we can try I, and J, hang on.

Them: Okay, it’s fixed. Here’s the printscreen showing it loaded just fine.

Me: That part was always working. If you click HERE and then HERE, it doesn’t load. Here’s the direct link.

Them: Hang on.

Me: (hanging)

Them: Okay. I can replicate it. I’ll have to escalate this to L2.

Of course, this is after they have had five back and forths by email where they kept telling me to use the live chat because it is more efficient and faster. Yep, faster to get to the point where L1s can’t help, and only L1s work chat. They also assure me it is normally resolved in 3h but might be faster.

Twelve hours later, no answer yet. Honestly, I’m not faulting them. I’ve exhausted all the simple things, and a few of the intermediate solutions. Something else is going on, and nobody online or in the forums seem to be able to pinpoint a likely culprit. On the positive side, the site is working fine for the public-facing stuff. I just can’t load two pages on the back-end. Might be more, I haven’t tested them all, but I’ll wait and see what they come up with…the original server is just about recovered, so they might choose to just put me back to there, which would be fine for the PolyWogg.ca site. I hadn’t updated it in a few weeks while I was on vacation, so I haven’t lost anything. And anything that I DID update, like a comment that might be missing or a book review, I can either live without or replace easy enough. Annoying, not serious yet.

Item 8.2 was an outing for dinner tonight because Jacob starts his new school tomorrow. Normally, we go out for dinner after his first day of school, a mini celebration, but we expect he’ll be pretty tired tomorrow night, so we went tonight instead as a pre-celebration and to distract him a bit. Necessary? No. Fun? Yes. Healthy? Yes.

Item 8.3 isn’t done yet, but I’m going to work on it for the next thirty minutes. I coordinate a little mini-reading club each month, and I haven’t updated badges for July and August yet. I did some preliminary work back in July, just need to close out and catch up.

Onward…

3×30: Day 7 of 30 days of change

The PolyBlog
September 8 2021

I had a busy day at work today, and didn’t accomplish the three things of “change” by myself outside of that time.

Item 7.1 is still my website stuff. So, for a quick recap:

  1. ThePolyBlog.ca i.e., this site, was unaffected by the big server crash.
  2. PolyWogg.ca was restored early on from a backup I had, all seemed fine on the front-end with something odd in the back-end, but not big.
  3. Astropontiac.ca was restored next, all good.
  4. ManagementConsultingServices.ca took a bit longer with some other config issues, but it too is up and running.

So it would seem like it was all good, right? I’ve been actively trying NOT to go down any rabbitholes on this process but tonight I found a small glitch in the back-end of my PolyWogg site. When I tried to go to the main page of the admin panel, I got a 503 error. A bit odd, but umm, okay. I could get the full menu other ways and I could generally access every other page of the back-end, but I couldn’t seem to access the main page. Weird.

It started out innocently enough. If you have a 503 error, the recommendation is to change themes and see if that corrects the problem…it didn’t. Step 2 is to disable all plugins, a small PITA, and see if that fixes it. It did. Okay, easy peasy, it’s a conflict with one plugin, add them back in until it stops working OR put them all back in and disable them again until it starts working again. Except I put them all back in and it kept working. Until I went to access it again today, and I got the 503 error again. And this is despite the fact that I have done a full re-store from backup AND overwrote any particular buggy code with a fresh install of the software. Tonight I got some extra gremlins playing in the setup — sometimes I didn’t get a 503 error code, sometimes I just got a semi-blank screen. Yep, only “semi-blank” — sometimes the side menu was there and sometimes it wasn’t. I was convinced it was a load issue, but I played with the settings for memory, etc., and it was all good. But the pages wouldn’t load right in the admin section.

I decided to go hard-core for a bit tonight, and weeded all my plugins from about 47 down to about 24 active ones. It’s a really harsh cut, and while it improves my speed, it limits a bunch of other stuff on the back-end. And it STILL didn’t solve the problem. I’ve tried everything I can think of, or almost. Even typing this, I thought of one small setup issue I could test. I don’t see how it would make a difference, but worth a shot.

The funny part is after making huge changes to the site to test stuff, three clicks later and I could reinstall from the backup again. The front-end is great, no issues at all. Just a PITA for me on the back-end. I’ve asked in some fora for some suggestions, but I had nothing at the moment. Or so I thought.

I think I just solved it. I took the time while writing this to go check out those other settings, and something clicked in my brain as I did. Two levels down in a menu, hidden from normal view, is a setting I changed long ago. ***But I changed it on the MAIN server.*** Now I’m on the backup / lifeboat server. And sure enough, it’s set to the old settings. I’m not sure that will fix everything, but fingers crossed. If not, I’ve got more work in front of me. Sigh.

Item 7.2 was getting Jacob ready for school. He needs some school supplies, and I saw it as a triple opportunity. First and foremost, I want him to think of it as some sort of “fun” outing. I used to love getting supplies for school, and he got a new lunchbag, as well as some basic things, and a new water bottle. Plus his own agenda for keeping track of all his schedule and homework. He seemed a bit more buoyant afterwards. Secondly, I wanted him to take some “control” of the outing, to feel like there is something in his control despite the level of change swirling around him. He’s already a little stressed with all the change coming at him in two days, but being able to control this aspect, and to get ready for it, might help a little with his stress levels. And third, I also wanted him to have a positive “outing” with Mom. A lot of organizer conversations have been with me in recent months, but this is more of a fun one potentially, and I didn’t want it to seem like I was leading him to water (or a water bottle). I’m more directional on this stuff than Mom is, so I played chauffeur while they went shopping.

And out of nowhere, J had a great interaction with a stranger at Staples, as one of the clerks there has Cerebral Palsy and openly talked to him about it. He babbled like the proverbial brook telling me about her, and then he informed me that THIS Staples is now his favourite Staples.

As I noted at the top, I didn’t do much for this one, it was all Andrea and Jacob, I just facilitated it.

Item 7.3 was a simple health outing for the week. Andrea wasn’t able to attend her chiro appointment today, so rather than cancel, I went in her stead. My back is feeling WAY better.

Onward…

3×30: Day 6 of 30 days of change

The PolyBlog
September 7 2021

Today was a very very very long day. So, some context.

I mentioned that on Saturday we went to the Van Gogh exhibit. Most people were sitting on the floor to watch the digital show, I decided to do so too rather than trying to stand for 30+ minutes, but tbh, I’m not that coordinated these days, if I ever was anyway. The end result was that as I tried to get down to the ground without embarrassing myself too much or landing on someone, I over-compressed a stomach muscle, and it feels more like I pulled it. So I’m in a bit of discomfort. If I try to sit up too fast, or do a crunch rather than a roll to standing, my stomach says, “Duuuuuuude, what the frak are you doing?”. It lets me know REAL quick. It’s not serious, but it’s not comfortable either and makes it hard for bending or lifting.

The second piece of context is that I have a guy coming to setup my BowFlex gym on Thursday, and the spot where it needs to go? It’s a small disaster zone. There are tons of things in the way. Some are things I’m still sorting, some go into the back part of the basement, but they’re all piled together and need to be sorted. And some of the material needs to go on the shelves I bought from IKEA last week. Except the boxes are upstairs, they’re not assembled yet, and the spot where they go is in the basement. Yeah, so that’s the setup.

Except for my knights and angels in the form of Jacob and Andrea willing to help me get them set up and going.

Item 6.1 is therefore the big plan for shelving. We opened box 1 upstairs, took the pieces down in separate runs, and Jacob and Andrea assembled unit 1. Great. I wasn’t entirely sure where to put it precisely, as there are five to be installed, and I was trying to figure out the best order to install them while moving existing desks out of the way (they go in behind). Annnnnnd I discover that somehow in all the different configurations of the order, with multiple versions not available, and taking what I could get, and feeling at the time like I got longer ones than I intended, the lovely shelving units which should have been about 6-8″ shorter than a lower part of the ceiling are actually about 1/2 cm too tall. Hello crickets my old friend. I’ve come to listen to you again.

Which is better than listening to my cursing at the realization. Now, I do, in fact, have an alternate option. At the opposite end of the room are three other units that would fit just nicely. Except there is a ton of stuff already ON them, and lots of stuff in front of them, and the stuff that is on them will all have to come off before they move, etc. Domino after domino. Anyway, I decided I would install two of the new ones on a different wall, plus one of the ones from the far wall (after taking everything off it and putting into bins), realigning everything, putting the desks back close to the spot and then calling it a day.

After supper, well, almost 10 o’clock tonight in fact, I decided that I would just rearrange my computers so they were set up for the morning (I had to disconnect everything earlier). But then I got possessed. A second wind came to me and I decided that I would move EVERYTHING out of the way and put everything that belongs in the basement’s backroom away on the shelving in there. And then move some other stuff around. Essentially completely clearing out the space for the guy coming on Thursday.

Then I rearranged all the desks, put a whole bunch of stuff on shelves, reconnected all the computer stuff, adjusted a few other areas, and now my office area is big and open too. I’ve tested my work computers and my home computer, everything seems back to normal. Three hours of fun and games late at night wasn’t in my original plan, but it felt good to blast through, and the stuff didn’t really affect my stomach muscles, surprisingly. Plus when it did, I rested right afterwards. All good.

For Item 6.2, I mentioned yesterday that I was setting up Scrivener for all my works-in-progress. I also wanted to set up a blank template that would implement the Save the Cat layout, as well as introduce some other elements that I’ve been designing for my “plotting” tools. Character charts, etc. Nothing too elaborate yet, but I’ve drawn from other sources, and merged it all into a single “novel” template. It seems to be working, and it was fun working on the new laptop the way I intend to for the future.

Item 6.3 is following up on the websites. I mentioned that three are up, just waiting for one more to return. I’ve played with it today a few times, and it isn’t quite there yet. Soon, I hope, and I poked the company again tonight.

Onward…

3×30: Day 5 of 30 days of change

The PolyBlog
September 6 2021

Okay, now we’re cooking with gas.

Item 5.1 is still following up on the websites being down. PolyWogg.ca is back up, AstroPontiac.ca is now back up, and ManagementConsultingServices.ca should be back up tomorrow. And I’m still not turning into a squirrel about it.

Item 5.2 takes me into the realm of my desired end state for writing. I bought a new laptop last month to get me going, and in a more mobile state, so I’ve moved all my current works-in-progress over to the laptop with auto backup to the cloud. The files are all organized, and so I have, generally speaking, five current WIPs:

  • An HR Guide, with the update started for 2021 but not progressed anywhere near as far as I had hoped this year.
  • An Astronomy Guide, although “work-in-progress” is probably understating the situation since this is going to take me several years to complete.
  • A first novel about a law student solving a murder just as he’s about to graduate.
  • A “second” novel about the same student several years hence from graduation, but this one is likely to go more on the backburner. I will write it, but I think it is more of “book 5 or 6”, not book 2 in the series. I started writing it and found that I was having to try and do way too much exposition in my setup as I felt that I needed to share their backstory. Sue Grafton’s novels are awesome at this in subsequent novels, keeping the backstory to a minimum for her main character, Kinsey. Attempting to write the intro for this book convinced me I needed to start earlier for my main character, and to do so now rather than as a prequel for later. I knew the backstory, but I couldn’t let it go. Hence restarting that backstory as my first novel.
  • A collection of short stories, although I am not entirely sure what this will look like or what I’m going to do with it. The stories are all very different, so not sure they fit together as a collection. I could just publish them on my website as “free fiction” so to speak. We’ll see.

Anyway, they’re all collected and organized at least.

Item 5.3 is more about actually being organized for writing, as I want to be able to switch back and forth between outlining as I go and a bit more seat-of-the-pants writing. I make lists out the wazoo in my work and personal life, lots of efforts over the years to perfect the ideal todo list format for me in different situations, and I’m very comfortable with that. In addition, for work, I generally work from an outline for most of our productions. And, more or less, I have an outline that I’m working with for my HR Guide. But here’s the strange part.

When I go to write fiction, I have very little attraction to the plotter method of writing to an outline. I am much more attracted and in line with the “pantser” model. I know, it surprises me too. But the first four chapters of my novel and even the first two of the other WIP all flow way better in “pantser mode” than they do in outline mode. I feel, umm, more creative? More liberated? Not sure the right word. But I do know a different word that is the determining factor. Pantser mode is way more fun. I have no idea what my characters are going to say before they say it. I have some general ideas of where I’m going, but the actual interactions? Nada. And as many writers have noted in their experiences, if you go to write something, and one of your characters refuses to do what you thought he / she was going to do? That’s the zone you’re aiming to get to and stay in.

I’m not writing the great Canadian novel by any stretch, but I’m having fun. Maybe when I’m done it will be worth publishing, maybe it won’t. But I’m already learning as I go, so I’ll stay with it. But what does this have to do with my item?

I want a tool that lets me do basic outlining in bulletin board / index card / pushpin mode. I can do most things in multiple tools, and I already wrote about it today (Playing with Scrivener). But I want a single tool, and thought I would give Scrivener a try. I also want to give it a FULL try so I set it up on my laptop and did the full tutorial for it. I’m far from an expert, but I know enough to get my various WIPs going with a decent setup.

Onward…

3×30: Day 3-4 of 30 days of change

The PolyBlog
September 4 2021

My updates are giving me a bit of a challenge running a full day behind…I don’t always remember what it was I was thinking of as my “change” items some 18h later. So I’m going to do Friday and Saturday together.

Friday

Item 3.1 was simple, just running Andrea over for a massage. Her back has been bothering her a LOT this week, way more than would be usual, and home massage and biofreeze isn’t getting the job done. So she went for a massage, and I drove her over. We’ve been doing pretty well of late to make sure we do regular chiro and massage for Andrea and I, and massage for Jacob too. We’re not as active as we were pre-Covid, so anything we can do helps.

Item 3.2 was follow-up on my website. I have been actively trying NOT to go down a rabbithole trying to obsess about the recovery. It did make it up, and was mostly visible, but there were still some niggling details to test. I made the quick update, and then left it.

Item 3.3 is more of a look-ahead item. Jacob needs some new masks for his return to school, and maybe some that are simpler, solid colours, rather than the space theme ones he has now. So I did a small rabbithole dive on the internet last night and ordered a bunch. A small upgrade to his setup as he goes back to school.

Saturday

Item 4.1 was a surprise of sorts, and not really by me per se. Andrea’s back was still hurting, and she now had a significant-looking rash on her side. So she needed to go to a doctor to get checked today. We planned on it being a simple Appletree, but then they all seemed to be appointment-only, or telemedicine. By happenstance, I remembered a clinic near us that opened awhile ago, drop-in plus appointments, but when I asked if they were taking new patients some time ago, they weren’t. I hadn’t tried them for drop-in yet, but Andrea needed somewhere, and we gave it a go. It doesn’t sound like much, but it may be the first step in removing me from my current family doctor that I’m not too thrilled with at times. I’d love a new one. On the downside, Andrea’s problem was not a simple rash, so now she’s dealing with a viral thing, meds, pain, etc. Should be right as rain in a week, but well, still a week.

Item 4.2 was an outing as a family. The digital Van Gogh exhibit was still on at Lansdowne Park and we had bought tickets some time ago. We pushed the date past our holidays and before school, hoping there was less risk of shutdown or lockdown, and as it turned out, we were overly cautious. People have been going in Ottawa since early August. The basic premise is a digital tribute to Van Gogh with lots of big signage on the way in and then a big digital presentation in a giant hall, where the various prints are overlaid and projected on the ceiling, walls, posts, floor, etc. It’s like you are INSIDE the painting. The show wasn’t quite what we were expecting, and I wouldn’t call it a roaring success. Jacob found the display a bit nauseating and boring. I was expecting to walk through multiple smaller rooms, not stand around in one big one, and I also managed to pop a rib out when I decided to sit down on the floor. I’m not sure if it’s a rib out, or I just pulled something, but it ain’t fun, kind of painful. And of course Andrea was also in pain, as well as likely dealing with the disappointment of having two gloomy Guses as her travelling companions for the afternoon.

Item 4.3 is, regrettably, another foray into the website world. I really really really didn’t want to spend anytime trouble-shooting my website, but there was something that was a bit off with my PolyWogg.ca site. Almost everything worked, except for two little pages/links. I spent a bit more time on it today than I would have liked, and it is resolved, although I’m not entirely sure how. I’ll take the win, the site is back up, and I didn’t turn myself into a squirrel with it.

Onward…