I’ve had this site, this domain, and this layout design since October of 2009. That’s when I bought the domain, got a great design, and lucked into finding Desperately Seeking WordPress for hosting and site management (they’re awesome, and Cathy is really good at holding my hand through problems). In internet time, three years is a very long time, and for the most part, the site has held up well.
However, like a certain middle-aged blogger who really needs to be more active (ahem), it’s starting to show a few wrinkles. Creaks in its joints. Grey in its hair. While I’ve stayed on top of updates and such, it’s getting harder to keep things running as the theme itself needs to be updated, kinda like an operating system. This blog’s operating system is starting to age out, and as such, some widgets and plugins and thingamabobbers aren’t exactly…working.
For example, Google Analytics apparently got poked in the eye by a stray piece of code and ran home crying. I can’t figure out how to convince it to return, so my stats are non-existent wonky. Feedburner is slowly disappearing, taking those who subscribed to the RSS with it (and I’m going with this theory for why comments here have hit record lows…just sayin’). I want to set up “subscribe by email” for those who want it (have had at least one request), but am having a helluva time sorting that out. This doesn’t even include improvements I want to make and am afraid to try, as they would likely break the entire internet and I really don’t want that on my conscience.
When I wasn’t looking the internet marched forward, improving itself and getting all hawt in the process. My wee little site here has been left in the dust and doesn’t know where to start. Well, it starts with the owner of said little site finding gainful employment so improvements can be made (and Illinois, seriously ticked with you, ’cause I can’t be an Amazon affiliate because of your stupid attitude regarding online shopping laws). But beyond that, I’ll be patching up the bits with scotch tape and chewing gum as best I can and hope nothing else goes off the rails.
But if you do see a stray grey hair, please be gentle when you tell me.