Sunday, June 3, 2012

An Utterly Epic Failure Of A Bad No Hair Day

In reality, a bad no hair day is when I get a severe sunburn on the top of my head. Yesterday I had the equivalent of that kind of day. You know the kind I'm talking about. The kind where you plan to do one good deed for some friends/co-workers/complete strangers and yet you suffer a major blowback in the form of the entire day becoming a major WTF because you can't seem to complete that good deed.

Yesterday (6/2 for those who are paying attention) I came up with the novel idea of promoting my fellow writers at Solstice, by showcasing their work in the form of a slideshow. I had it all planned out, in that I would be the slideshow on the top of my blog, along with links to either their website or to Solstice in order to purchase it. I figured that since I got some vacant space to use, why not put it to good use by doing a little genuine networking.

So I created a new photo album explicitly just for that purpose and set about setting up and installing the gadget on my blog.

Not.

I spent about an hour and a half in a futile attempt in trying to get the gadget installed and in a futile attempt at finding a viable workaround to replace the failure of the gadget.

Now because I spent this hour and a half getting seriously annoyed, the rest of my night became utterly compromised.

How?

For one thing, this post was not written until minutes before hitting the publish button. For another, I wanted to get some writing done, and I didn't. Finally, I wound up semi-snapping at my daughter, who had the misfortune of innocently interrupting my computer-oriented meltdown.

However, all isn't really lost, at least not yet. I posted my problem in the Blogger help forum and I've been having a productive converation about it, so I hope to have a solid answer within a day or so. I've also spent more time trying to come up with a good workaround to this issue, so if you see some things missing from this blog, you'll know that I managed to come up with temporary fix.

And because I'm a man of my word, here is the latest from Solstice author J. L. Petty:



http://www.deathandthejournalist.com/
http://www.solsticepublishing.com/downloads.aspx?categoryid=120


9 comments:

  1. I hate you. My back muscles are in a not just reading about what you were going through. Annoying computer problems are the "...putrid slime that clings to the walls of Hell..." as H.P. Lovecraft would say.

    And another thing. Emerson said, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." He had no idea that computer software interfaces would totally invalidate his thoughts. Let him try installing a book cover slideshow.

    Obviously there are many other historical greats who could contribute to the understanding of the story you just unleashed on an unsuspecting world, but before I go to them for commentary, I'm going to need to take another Excedrin.

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  2. Rick: What can I say? I normally don't have computer problems, but when I do, they seem to be really big 'uns (Norton comes to mind).

    But as they say, there is a solution to every problem.

    I do the best I can with what I got.

    In the mean time, you can think pleasant thoughts about the book cover of my upcoming release from Solstice, which you will find in the upper left corner of this blog.

    I promise you that you'll forget about your aching back. :D

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  3. Well, as they say, "No good deed goes unpunished." I hope you're having a better day today!

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  4. Debra: It's going a little better, thanks.

    Still kind of miffed, but what am I gonna do?

    We used a modified version of that saying in the public sector (state guv'ment):

    No good worker stays clean and no bad worker gets fired.

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  5. When I get into some situation like that it usually just snowballs to the point where i'm caught in an avalanche. Very frustrating for sure.

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  6. Charles: Never experienced the avalance effect with something like this, but its definitely frustrating to say the least.

    Scary part is that sometimes I go through the same kind of aggravation at work.

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  7. Those kinds of days are the source of all evil. I have spent even overnighters attempting to heal one of our computers. Always successful (so far) it does take away the bite of the stress it took to get there. Do I really hate it or do I love it? You too shall triumph.

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  8. Sometimes Blogger issues just seem inexplicable - so frustrating. This morning I was trying to upload the photo of the mimosa tree onto my blog and I kept getting a message saying the "server rejected" it.

    I recently ditched Internet Explorer in favor of Google Chrome, thinking I wouldn't have crazy issues like that.

    It finally took closing that window and trying again. The third time was the charm. :)

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  9. Granny Annie: It really does drive me batty, especially since I make so few additions to my blog to begin with. All I'm trying to do is a little basic networking, and its an exercise in futility so far.

    I haven't had this much fun since I had Norton installed on my comptuer.

    Lynn: I feel your pain. I even tried changing the compatibility view on my blog to see if that would fix the problem, but nada for an end result.

    So for the moment, I'm stuck to adding the pics to blog posts, which doesn't really work in the long run.

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Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.

About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.

So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.

G. B. Miller

The Legal Disclaimer

All the content that you see here, except for the posting of links that refer to other off-blog stories, is (c) 2008-17 by G.B. Miller. Nothing in whole or in part may be used without the express written permission of myself. If you wish to use any part of what you see here, please contact me at georgebjr2006@gmail.com