Living with MCL

It’s not a simple task changing themes. There’s a lot of modifying of code, changing images, adding widgets for all the little extras in the sidebars, and just general tweaking of the theme to make it look perfect.

I’m sure for most experts at this it only takes a few hours, but since I’m still learning all the ins and outs of PHP and XHTML, it typically takes a couple of days, and depending on the complexity of the theme, as in this case, it can take several days or even weeks.

Now while I still have some more work to do, I am generally pleased with the outcome, but………..

Edie just informed me she doesn’t like the theme. After all that work, tonight she tells me she doesn’t like it.

Jeez, what’s a cat to do!

Any comments, suggestions or even criticism would be appreciated.

Not sure how much this might relate to having cancer, or in its treatment, but in every day life, and in the world of football, it’s a sure fire way to guarantee a loss.

I saw it about a month ago when Baltimore lost to New England in the final seconds of the game, and you can see it for yourself, in the body language of Hines Ward, as my beloved Steelers lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars last night.

After being down by 18 points, in the 3rd quarter, the Steelers played brilliantly, gaining the lead by one point, with just over 6 minutes remaining in the 4 quarter, using a varied attack of short passes, and the occasional run.

But with just over 3 minutes to go in the game, the Steelers resorted strictly to their running game, in an attempt to run the clock down, and ended up giving the ball back to Jacksonville with 2:38 to go.

The rest is history, but I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned.

Never second guess yourself. Your first instinct is usually the right one. And you always have to go with what you’re most comfortable with, and what’s working at the time.

Had the Steelers done that, they might have won the game.

My performance on the bike today was just pitiful. I was so embarrassed.

Normally I wouldn’t ride on Thursday, as that is one of the two days I go into work (Tuesday being the other day), but the plant is still shut down for its Christmas/New Years break, so I had the day off.

And since the rain is supposed to come in with a vengeance starting this evening, which means it’s unlikely I’ll get much riding in the next 3 days, and in spite of the fact this was my 3rd day in a row riding, and the Thursday ride is a speed workout, I decided to do the Thursday club ride.

Besides, I’m a strong rider, I was feeling good, and the weather was cooperating. There was no wind to speak of, and temps were in the high 40’s (°F). It was a nice morning for a ride.

I just don’t know what happened. Maybe it was the past two days of riding (although I didn’t think I worked that hard those days), or maybe it was the fact three or four of the strongest riders in the club were there, but there were also a number of other riders, I know I was as strong as, if not stronger than, and I’ve been able to keep up with the fast guys before, but I just didn’t have it today.

I even thought I was prepared as we entered the Bolsa Chica state beach parking lot (after a 5 mile warm up), for what was to come.

As the pace picked up, I had to bridged up to the first 4 riders, but that didn’t seem to be a big deal, and I settled in behind the last rider to recover.

But then that rider decided to pick the pace up, and went off the front. Initially nobody went, but that didn’t last long. Soon I saw myself dropping further and further back, unable to muster enough energy to hang, watching rider after rider pass me by.

It was at the point when I say the last 3 riders, all of whom I thought I was easily as strong as, if not stronger than, pass me by, and I couldn’t hang on, I knew I was in trouble.

It was so demoralizing. I kept trying though for a little while longer. I even thought there was some hope, when I saw the group slow down slightly in front of me, but alas, my attempts were futile, the group was just too far ahead.

I was toast!

So I just did another 30 miles down the coast alone, contemplating what happened, and what was to be.

And what was even more depressing, was when I got home and looked at my cyclometer, I saw my top speed was only 28.6 mph. I know I can go faster than that.

Maybe it’s good the rains are coming. I’m hoping a few days off the bike will be good for me.

They say experience is the best teacher, and changing web hosting services has easily proven just how much truth there is to that old adage.

When I decided to switch web hosting services, I thought it would be a simple task, with the new web hosting service guiding me, and essentially doing most of the heavy lifting, so to speak.

Well they certainly guided me, but they didn’t do any of the heavy lifting.

But what is so exasperating is there really isn’t much heavy lifting, and the process isn’t that difficult, provided you have all the necessary information before starting the process. It also helps to understand all the terminology involved in domain hosting.

I only wish I knew then, what I know now!

The most important thing I learned is make sure you know who your domain registrar is, and how to log on to yhe registrars website to update all your domain information, including name, address and especially what nameservers (DNS) your domain is pointed to.

Determining your registrar is easy. Simply go to Whois.Net, and type in your domain name. There you will find all sorts of information, including your registrar, your name, and most importantly the domain name servers (DNS).

The harder part is learning how to log on to your registrars site, to update any data. That can be difficult, because it is not unusual for the actual registrar to be different from the registrar referenced in the Whois database. Still all that means is you will need to make an additional call or send an additional email to get that information.

It really is that simple.

One final point, you don’t have to transfer your registrar, something I recommend you don’t do, unless you’re going to save yourself a bunch of money.

I actually knew that, but because of some terminology confusion, and my frustration getting my nameservers pointed to my new web hosting services, I inadvertently did just that.

Still, even that isn’t insurmountable, since I did save some money, but what it did do was lock my domain, so now I can’t change my name servers until the transfer is complete.

So as you might surmise, the transfer of my website to the new hosting service is still not complete, and may not be for another 5 days, until the transfer of my domain name to my new registrar is complete.

At least I finally know what is going on. so I don’t feel so helpless.

Oh well, such is life. The only consolation is I did learn quite a bit, but if I had it to do all over again, I would just stay with my original web hoster.