Showing posts with label Library website. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Library website. Show all posts

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Time Scheduled For Me

I mostly got out of the paying job on time, leaving a new problem to deal with in the morning. Good news: I believe it is just a problem for one company (Thursday morning: found a second company with the same issue, damn.) and isn't indicative of another system wide issue (Thursday: it doesn't affect every company but it may necessitate the IT contractors tweaking the program again). But I'm not putting any money on that either. (Thursday: smart, I still had functioning brain power when I composed this last night).

My chiropractor realigned my back and I scheduled an hour-long massage on next Monday, which means I'll have to take off early. Oh darn, I'm so broken up and guilty about that. Especially since I spent today in so much pain and took Aleve just after lunch to make it through the afternoon. I haven't been able to write, edit, or tweak websites in three days and that is so not helping my mental state. Exercising has been hit just as hard.

So the massage, early bedtimes for the rest of the week (hasn't happened yet damn Daylight Savings Time), and squeezing in some creative writing are on my agenda to pamper myself. The weekend day of rest will probably end up being two. I'd love to slather on some suntan oil and lay out on the lawn and bake a while, but I'm keeping my options open.

In other news, I'm wading out into active website administrating after having dropped it for years. I made a stab at it before and it didn't stick. This time I decided to put 15 minutes six days a week and an hour on Saturdays to what needs doing. Procrastination has a harder time building up if I stick with that schedule.

The test sites are still the bane of my existence on the web. I created a local server on my old computer and the motherboard fried. I created one on my current computer and found I couldn't import the databases because they were too big.

So my latest bright idea: set up the development sites as subdomains with a copy of the database. And all I can get are 500 Internal error pages. My hour ran out before I could figure out what I did wrong. What I have discovered: "copy database to" works to create a new database with the same information. You can't make the database and chose it to write over it, even if you left it blank to do that. I don't know if the old database tables are what is frakking with the sandbox sites, but I haven't crashed the live sites while I'm getting this straight. When it gets too hot or rainy to sunbath Saturday, I'll be working on them again.

I'm relieved I've left the Library as static pages. Currently, my fifteen minute days are spent on it. The project list has developed into a lengthy one while I was ignoring the sites.

That wraps up everything I had wrote at supper Wednesday night. Thursday, my supervisor returned from her trip and proceeded to go handle supervisory things with the Assessment snafu (like yell at other department heads why in the new system we can't amend our assessments when the company sends us the paperwork we have always asked for). The decision was made to accept the overpayments and use the new refund system that nobody told us was going live. I warned my contact in the Fiscal division; the rest of them are on their own. Tomorrow I should be able to actually mail back payments for the companies who owe us zero second thing in the morning that I never got a chance to do today. I'm also hoping beyond hope to get a chance to write something fictional. Don't hold your breaths on that one.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, April 12, 2010

SiteGround is mad at me

Why the Library is offline: my account is suspended until I take care of (in their terms get it off our server!) my songs directory. So they finally caught up with me. And I'll deal with it, good sport that I am, but I can't do anything until I get home.

So now I get to figure out what to do with the embedded songs. I really like having that feature in my stories, but apparently the music industry doesn't.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

No more hair pulling!

I got home on time today. Who would've thunk it? I sure didn't when last I updated. Since I got home on time, I started with the website updating issues. Namely get the Reference Wiki UP!

MySQL Workbench was a total waste of time. I finally made it connect to a database and I was squeeing so hard... until I realized it had only connected to my databases on my local server and it still refused to talk to the production site. *headdesk* Briefly researched what Dreamweaver is capable of and found out the answer was not what I need it to do. So I turned to BigDump, really nervous about using it.

The nervousness was uncalled for because IT WORKED! I had to tweak the export file just a little and then it was done during a commercial break during the Good Wife. Then I had to do some FTP of some modules files that the update script found issues with. But after that Circulation Desk is up with the beginnings of the Reference Wiki!

I still need to take care of some minor maintenance issues, but I should have that done before I have to go to work tomorrow. I'm going to bed happy. :D

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Found the Culprit

Had around twenty ounces of lemonade on top of my usual drinks and no strange brain fog. Though apparently my snappy mouth is back according to my coworkers "You should watch how you talk to people" *Eyeroll* EVERYBODY gets a little snap to their voice when they are interrupted right in the middle of counting and I don't have a sugar voice. And if I was supposed to say "please" for something I consider can wait until I'm done *eyeroll again*

That'll be my self-righteous tendency baring its head. I will be on this job for 10 years come May with the same coworkers. But I have no idea how long it will take for them to decide that is a personality quirk that isn't going away and they can stop lecturing me about it.

Back to the topic I wanted to deal with: no strange brain fog last night. So keep water on the desk to sip throughout the day is back on the must do list. I slept better last night after washing dishes. So I don't know if the old tale "Never go to bed with a dirty sink" is true or if the combination of steam and dish soap makes me sleepy. *shrug* Now to figure out where I stand on the Big Rocks.

Work Big Rocks
  • Financial paperwork is planning the budget for this paycheck and March.
  • FFGarret posts: counts as website hour: need to write one and edit the other and post.
  • Challenge Fanmix: counts as website hour: need to write entry and post for after contest
  • BMFM: Turbo: counts as writing hour: email former beta readers since I fell off the radar
  • Tin Man: Kink: counts as writing hour: editing
  • Zy's Novel: counts as writing hour: add background material to wiki
  • Strix: counts as writing hour: add background material to wiki


Home Big Rocks
  • The inbox: I have divided it into financial paperwork and everything else. And the financial paperwork is the smaller pile! It's not often I get to say that. I need to buckle down and concentrate on just the inbox until I find the bottom.
  • Back bedroom: seal the leak
  • Phone: Set up the new voicemail
  • Taxes: DO THEM!
  • Tin Man: Dragons & Memories: counts as writing hour: need to link to Ref. Wiki and depends on Ref. Wiki moving online
  • Tin Man/Alice: Making Whole: counts as writing hour - make title banner and other illustrations
  • Tin Man: Pirates: counts as writing hour: editing is waiting on beta reader
  • Circulation Desk Dev.: counts as website hour: upload changes to Prod. Site (i.e. getting Ref. Wiki online) and a massive headache because of issues. Find the duplicate entry and see if I can connect MySQL Workbench to the server
  • Library Dev.: counts as website hour: upload pages once links to Ref. Wiki are fixed
  • FFGarret Dev.: counts as website hour: fix CSS--find out why the Zen-created theme doesn't show up on the local server and start it on the prod. site if need be
  • Challenge Fanmix: counts as website hour: make cover art
  • Challenge Icons: counts as website hour: make them.


That makes things much clearer. Depending on "what do i want to work on" has had me dwelling on the stuff I can only do at home, which is aggravating when I have things to do while I'm at work.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, February 22, 2010

This week will be a doozy

Positive from last week: I may not be meticulous about my inbox yet, but I haven't left dishes in the sink before going to bed.

So far, I'm not holding my breath that this week will be stellar--despite my birthday on Friday. I spent three and a half hours Sunday cleaning, putting the shelves up, getting the contents back into the back bedroom so I can use it again. Midnight a thunderstorm rolls in and I heard the unmistakable sound of water hitting the plastic bucket. After all that work Saturday and Sunday, we still managed to miss the damn leak!

It's coming from the seam where two tin sheets overlap. I think we can seal the interior along with the exterior since I uncovered it now. So that feels fixable. But the aggravation levels aren't done.

I broke apart Sunday into writing and website work with the cleanup. It's the easiest method to make sure I don't sit at the computer too long or never take a break from cleaning. So an hour before bedtime, I found myself ready to upload the changes I tested for the Circulation Desk to the production site. Hold the applause; there's a reason why the production site is still in maintenance mode.

All the modules transferred over fine, I'm happily thinking I'll have the Reference Wiki up last night and spend Monday getting links pointed to the nodes, and phpMyAdmin won't import the local copy of the database. Keeps saying it can't find it and then it times out.

Before I pulled myself bald, I went searching if this was a common issue with an established workaround and found instructions for setting up MySQL GUI--a program that acts like a FTP client for MySQL databases (and does other things too). So I clicked away to get it, only to find out it has been replaced with MySQL Workbench and then got mired into them wanting me to wait seven days for a business license to clear. I finally got the open-source version downloaded and went to bed.

Despite not being asleep until after midnight, I got up early enough to have computer time. Program installed just fine, but I could not make it connect to the production site database. All the tutorials I could find are about the other nifty features MySQL Workbench can do, because if you need this program you already know how to make connections. *head desk*

I sent in a feedback form telling my web hosting company that their tutorial is out of date. I may have to go through the trouble ticket route but figured that can wait until I'm home and can actually follow their suggestions. At worse, I can cut and paste to create the Reference Wiki by hand but the whole point of a database is not to have to!

I have to double check that I'm not using two different version of MySQL, but I did have the same issue just importing a just made copy when upgrading to Drupal 6 from 5 (so I don't think that's the culprit). Maybe import in sections, but when the error message says it can't find the file to upload, I don't think that's the solutions.

So Monday is off to a great start. :p

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Should have known it

I don't know how I managed to do it but I have managed to do it. Again. *headesk*

The local development environment works fine at home. I thought I had set everything up to be portable, but here I am at work and I can't access any of my Drupal sites. And since I am at work, I don't want to tweak the Windows host file.

There should be a way to avoid this, but it has remained elusive to my Googling.

So that laptop I can't afford is looking more and more necessary to my life. And my nice simple question of what do I do to update the database but nothing gets erased as I synchronize live and test looks simple in comparison. (But no I haven't researched that.) *headdesk*

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, January 08, 2010

Having fun with Zen

I made the theme for the Circulation Desk with the Drupal Zen package, but I couldn't get the spacing right (or some of the colors but I'm dealing with them last) before I needed to go live. So I figure I would fix that before getting lost in developing the wiki.

So I turned on the wireframes, set up Firebug for Drupal, finally got the left sidebar not overlapping the tapestry and wide enough so the words were not making funky breaks, and turned off the wireframes. And the left margin shot over much farther than I wanted as well as the width shrunk so the words do funky breaks again. *headdesk*

Now, I will readily admit that CSS is not a skill I have mastered in my website building, but Zen makes sure to cover any possible CSS change and I think all the extras are confusing the hell out of me. First step, is to re-tweak what I had tweaked before and see if it will move back. If that doesn't work, I think I'll just start the whole theme over again. :p

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Not a good week from crossing things off the list

I don't know if it's the rapidly changing weather or some residual graduation-is-over-stress-let-go thing, but I have had the hardest time concentrating on things I need to get done.

I totally missed the eye appointment I had Monday after work, but luckily rescheduled it for today. I get up too late to work, and when I get home, I'm staring at the computer screen until I remind myself to look at your list. I feel fine; just not here.

I did manage to get the modules fixed at the Circulation Desk and FanFiction Garret without breaking anything this morning. I ran out of time before I could start moving Alt. BM Site's. I divided the setting up a local development environment into nine sub-projects, so as of now, I'm two-thirds done with project one. PROGRESS!

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Did I accomplish anything?

I have 9 pages of typed instructions/notes of how I screwed up, 7 handwritten pages of notes to add to the typewritten, 10 or 11 multi-page articles printed out of instructions and how-to's cited in the typed/handwritten notes, an equally thick stack of stuff printed out to consult but didn't end up citing them.

The local multi-sites setup is finally working, but with still so much so wrong, all I want to do is delete and uninstall and start all over.

If I didn't have an empty sink, I'd swear I didn't accomplish anything this weekend. :p

Basically, why my contributed modules didn't work when I thought I had installed them correctly after getting them out of the core module folder? The folder under sites MUST match the virtual host's server name! NOBODY said that when setting up virtual hosts. In fact, I only found it mentioned under doing it online not on a local server environment. Gee, guess what keywords I was using when I searched for directions.

I can fix the production site modules, and then backup everything that already works to make the local development environment out of. I don't know if I can make separate installs work, but I do know what has gone wrong with the multi-site setup. At least to the point where I can get two sites up and running, and will be free to discover new issues.

If I uninstall XAMPP, I could reinstall it on the external hard drive and make it portable. Then I could do all my website edits from it without being limited to what computer I use. I think I understand where all the hiccups were for the virtual host file now. (Provided I get the paths typed in correctly so it doesn't matter if the drive's letter assignment changes.) I think I can get everything downloaded and installed fresh instead of going back and fixing another goof-up I just found I did thanks to not having the damn Drupal handbook memorized.

I don't know what to do about Windows declaring folders "read-only" when I need to write to them, but that is easy to deal with once you know why those error messages are popping up.

I'm tired of not being finished with this. I should be figuring out the changes I want to make to the site, not STILL trying to make this all work without breaking.

I'm done for the night. I'm taking a shower, and then curling up to watch Alice on the Syfy Channel.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, November 23, 2009

Getting Error 404

I took most of the weekend off from the trying to make the development environment work problem. To be honest, nothing was going to happen by the time I got home Friday night. I ignored it on Saturday. Sunday I had company and got to see Star Trek rebooted. Now I can finally catch up on my GWC podcasts.

So Sunday night and Monday morning, I finally had a clear enough head to go back to the problem. So I Googled on "getting 404 error on my local Drupal site" and found Learn By the Drop. His answer to the first comment was to check the .htaccess file.

None of my downloaded files have that one. I think the FTP program hid it. So I went through through CPanel to find it and downloaded for Circulation Desk, FFGarret, and Alt. BM Site.

Cleaned out the cache, refreshed the local copy of Circulation Desk, tried logging in, and it still didn't work. *headdesk* Damn I was so hoping that would do it! It made sense because it is a file you get with a clean install and a file computers tend to hide for user's good.

Back to the Google links. Apparently something goes wonky with clean URLs. Found a Drupal forum post on details to make sure are in the Apache code for those to work. The issue they're talking about is turning on the Clean URLs and I can't even get to the admin pages. :p Okay, down in the comments, other people describe what I have, so I changed it. *Crosses fingers* Turning Apache on and off. Great it turned back on. That always worries me because it takes forever. Back to the browser that i think has gotten tired and doesn't want to play any more. :p End program on Firefox. So tired of it doing that. Okay, got Firefox back up and try logging in the local copy of Circulation Desk.

New error - 500 - I haven't made the changes to the virtual host file yet. Made changes. Got paranoid that Apache wasn't going to come back on again. It did. Back to Firefox. Clean cache. Refreshed local copy of Circulation Desk. Try logging in. 500 Internal Server Error.

One last trick from this thread is to check the .htaccess file to see if a wrong option has been selected. Whelp, that is there but I think it is commented out. Make no changes to this file.

Another possibility is the symbolic links problem that is the first handbook page under "Multiple Drupal Sites Under Windows." Downloaded the Junction.zip fiel, which is the program that builds symbolic links for Windows. But that page also talks about using one codebase for multiple sites. *Sigh*

Figure I would find the fresh version of Drupal and follow the instructions from "Running multiple sites on a local PC from a single codebase" tells me before trying to fool with Junction program tomorrow. I can just comment off the coding I know works in the virtual host file without losing anything. I have no idea why this step has me so damn leery of doing it. I think I'm afraid I'm going to end up having the wrong things on the wrong site, probably starting with the themes.

Short version of this morning: I'm bumbled my way through the instructions, got to the Drupal installer page, figured out how to make sure the folders storing all my files is read-write enabled, ran the update script twice, before I finally got logged in and REACHED the administrations pages. God-awful ugly administration pages with my theme no where in sight and a mile-long pink box listing all the errors my database was throwing. I had to leave for work by that point so I just rebooted the computer to give it a nice rest.

It was 2pm before I hit myself upside the head. Of course all the tables for the different modules were throwing so many damn errors, the modules ARE NOT WHERE THEY NEED TO BE IN ORDER TO RUN NOW!

At this point, I'm looking forward to throwing out all the incomplete instructional printouts I have amassed once I have typed up step-by-step instructions of what I need to do for FFGarret and Alt. BM Site's local copies to work right. :p

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, November 20, 2009

Apache fixed, so a new problem!

Development Environment: I finally worked out the virtual host problem. Where I screwed up was applying the instructions for setting up one virtual host to setting up multiple ones. You can put this code for one virtual host:
< VirtualHost www.example.com >

DocumentRoot /www/example1

ServerName www.example.com


# Other directives here

< /VirtualHost >


But you cannot put each URL when you have more than one Virtual Host, that causes the overlap problem. And then my computer didn't like the asterisk wildcard and I had to put in numbers for the IP. But it works. Apache doesn't shut down and the local sites now come up in Firefox. I haven't tested that in IE yet; one headache at
a time.

Now I get the front page for the Drupal sites under local, but if I try to log in or click on any links, the browser can't find the file/content/node/whatever. *headdesk* No issues for the Library and finding its html files. So chalk one up to being done correctly, albeit accidentally. :p The second weirdness about this, last night FFGarret worked and Circulation Desk didn't. This morning they both don't work. :p But that's why I think it's a Drupal end of things issue and not Apache.

I can send emails with more info on what I did if you really want it, because I do think I goofed something else up.

In other news, it's Friday and I will update the Number Crunching posts when I get home. Next week I'm having Thanksgiving in Texas. I don't know where the piles start and end on my work desk and home desk, and would really prefer curl up somewhere where I won't spend any money. :p

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Apache fun

Last night was fun. I'm leaving Alt BM Site alone for now because I need to get a current backup of the database and the files. And I might as well figure out what the hell I'm doing wrong before doing that. I got Apache 2.2.14 running and got the virtual host set up for the Circulation Desk. It worked! On a roll now, so I set up the virtual hosts for the main pages of the Library and FFGarret.

Which went straight to Circulation Desk when I tried to access them in the browser. *headdesk*

So I comb through the code again, and thought I found the mistake. I added in a trailing "/" when the code doesn't like that. Corrected and rebooted the entire computer and went to bed.

This morning Apache won't run, but at least I get an answer out of the error log, which I didn't get last night. "All the other virtual hosts are overlapping with the first one (Circulation Desk) so it's only using Circulation Desk. You may need a NameVirtualHost directive (or something like that)."

I Googled the exact phrase, but must have found four or five possible solutions. I have printouts to compare what they did to my own code. At worst, I can run each site one at a time (I haven't actually tried FFGarret and the Library by themselves that may help me figure out what is wrong with their virtual host code), but that defeats the point of setting up virtual hosts so you can run multiple sites in the development environment. So tonight I guess I'll be trying out each of the "fixes" I've found and hoping one holds.

I have Firebug, but I haven't figured out how it tells you what is wrong. Or even if it can when the issue is in a background file. It's been a few months since I tried using it, and I see they have add some other items to work with it. Maybe one of them will help.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Not like Mom can make

I really wanted biscuits and red gravy this morning. I baked biscuits from scratch, but my red gravy doesn't taste like Mom's. *Sigh* So now I'll have to ask her what the difference is.

Fun with test sites continued all weekend and looks like it will probably continue all week. Issue #1) Taking a full twenty-four hours to think of the simple solution to the database transfer problem. "Why don't you export the tables after the one giving you a fit in the import and just import that half?" Worked in about thirty minutes. Issue #2) All these codes and background programs use different symbols to tell the computer "don't run this." None of the instructions I have said anything about deleting the # in an Apache file. At least, that's what I'm assuming the issue is now. I wasn't able to test the hypothesis before I had to leave for work.

Guess what I'll be doing when I get home. :)

I'm fairly certain what stopped me when I first downloaded everything the instructions told me I needed was that the direction stopped making sense. *Sigh* I've been adding notes on my printouts in the hopes that I'll understand said notes when I have to do this again. :p

Repeat after me: this will all be worth it when I can play with Drupal modules without fear of breaking the whole damn site people are using.

Yeah, primary goal for this is to see if I can build a wiki for the Library. Secondary goal will be fixing the fanart process for Alt. BM Site since the module it uses now will not be maintained going forward. :p

Goal for today: Get the bloody announcement card finished so all I will need to do is print and mail. Everything else is bonus.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Websites are back

The budget is squeaking like a mouse in a trap, but I managed to get the hosting bills paid. Next step is to get the updates finished and set up the Project Wonderful ads. Then I can go back to the creating content and crossing my fingers so nothing breaks while I'm concentrating on other things.

Yeah, I think I can check in on things again in December. After I turn in the Faulkner paper and get a new diploma.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

This Doesn't Bode Well For the Rest of the Year

I don't think a single month has started well this entire year. July is no exception. There's no money to renew the BookWorm's Library or Alt. BM Site's hosting. I'm hoping I don't lose everything in the server while waiting on money to become available. Yes, I made backups but I'm not a hundred percent sure the database backup worked for Alt. BM Site.

HOPEFULLY, the budget will work out with the next paycheck and I can pay the bill. Meanwhile, if there was something available for download on my blogs that now doesn't work, send me a message and I'll see if it's not too big to email.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, June 07, 2009

The O.Z. Map Project

Otherwise known as that thing that drove me crazy for a whole month.

DUF: Tin Man: Pirates Notes 06

Yeah, it's done. Yes, it will be getting its own webpage now that I can work on the update again. :p I hope it's appreciated, but I'm not holding my breath on it getting noticed until I'm ready to start posting Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, May 22, 2009

Once It Looks Pretty, It'll All Be Worth It

I understand how HTML coding works. I understand How CSS stylesheets work. I understand how content management works under Drupal to the point where I can set it up in less than an hour not counting downloading and searching for the modules I want.

What I don't understand is how to make the theme look like I want it to. Or more specifically, I don't know where the conflict is to make it go away.

I don't understand how PHP works. I bought books, read websites, asked questions, but there is something about it that does not connect in my head. Drupal's theme engine (from what I understand out of the Zen's theme building project) works by using the *.info page plus PHP pages to take what has been listed in the CSS stylesheet, and bam! make the Drupal site look customized pretty.

Remembering the pain in the ass time I had hacking into whatever theme I had hacked into while setting up Alt. BM Site, I was sold on this idea. Those hacks have been one of the brakes on updating Alt. BM Site, and anything that could help me build a theme I could just turn off and on or easily correct if I got something ugly on it sounds like a perfect no brainer. Circulation Desk would match the rest of the Library once set up correctly. I could fix things like poll sizes on a CSS stylesheet and watch them take effect site wide for Alt. BM Site without deleting something that allows stories to show up (for example, can you tell I don't trust myself in PHP?) And this is a great example of why theory is always more fun than fact.

So I follow their directions and set up the library desk theme. Then I cracked open the CSS stylesheet and transferred code from the BookWorm's Library. Upload and turned it on, and was greeted by brown as far as the eye can see. Okay, brown is the background color I have lurking under the background image, so that part worked. Where's the image? Dug out the CSS coding tags from HTML Goodies. Oops, I deleted a pair of parenthesis thinking I didn't need them on a style sheet. Added back, saved, uploaded, and refreshed. And still brown as far as the eye can see.

Now I didn't clean out the cache; something I didn't remember until typing this up. SCORE! I just checked it on the work computer and I got the background working. So that's probably the problem at the home computer. Maybe I can get this thing working after all without needing to find someone to do it for me.

Besides that hair pulling, I've been hit with the 'tween-projects-slump also. It's not exactly true, but it still feels weird not to breathing the story in and out all day long. More than once I've had a what should I be doing now moment during the day. It really hit me last night eating supper at a restaurant that was starting to know me as the writing customer. Sure, I could pull out the notebook and start on a new idea, but I have two stories in editing stage plus the website updating. The writing muse can put her feet up for a rest. And that just makes her feel weird.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, May 11, 2009

Making Plans

I have no idea how I managed to do it, but my back feels like it has been tied up in one giant knot. Or as my massage therapist friend put it, “You’ve got a lot of tension there.” My monthly chiropractic appointment is Thursday, but I may see if I can move it up if it doesn’t improve. The only thing I can think of is that I haven’t been moving enough, with the sit-and-study, sit-and-write, sit-and-manipulate-the-images routine I’ve had lately.

And it took almost all weekend to review projects and plans and try to figure out what will be going on in the next eight months. There’s something really satisfying about being able to make a hole in my Weekly To Do List template. Not that the other things already scheduled on the list won’t fill up that time without me adding anything, but I allowed myself a Zen moment of accomplishment.

I would like to avoid the insane layering of projects if at all possible. Which is why I took so long studying everything. Let’s start by looking at the really backlogged:
  • Housework – shouldn’t count as a project but it got out of hand and needs to be wrestled into submission before I make myself sick.
  • The BookWorm’s Library – updating is a year past due
  • Alt. BM Site – ditto
  • FFGarret – time to unveil this and see if I can make it work
  • BMFM: Turbo – finish
  • BMFM: For Worse – finish
  • Tin Man: Dragons and Ninjas – finish
  • Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic – finish
  • Strix – start and eventually finish
  • Zy’s Novel – start and eventually finish
  • Faulkner paper – finish on the deadline
  • Office remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
  • Kitchen remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
  • Bathroom remodel – have plans so I’m ready when I have money
  • Sewing circle – toying with this idea as a way to be social and get things off the project list
And this is just how easily the plans overwhelm me, damn it. It’s all well and good to say “update the website” but that doesn’t cover all the mini-projects that must be done fore I can sign off that it is finished. *Deep breath.* Prioritize. Admittedly, not my strongest affinity.

The BookWorm’s Library – what needs to be finished for me to feel like it’s a real update?
  1. Newsletter set up with a new story ready to go including Author’s Notes and soundtrack
  2. Edited Author’s Notes with soundtracks uploaded
  3. Story mistakes fixed
    • missing flash players added
    • fix McGilla to Magilla in crossover
    • Make sure all the edited Evil Jack stories are uploaded
  4. Take down old Writing Tutorials and put up link to FFGarret
  5. Forum for feedback
  6. Project Wonderful ads


Okay, I think these six things (and believe the idea list is much longer) are doable by the end of the month. Some of them may be already done and I forgot I did them. But let’s not get ahead of myself here; break everything down into Action Steps.
  1. New story ready to post: BMFM For Worse is done
  2. New story’s Author’s Notes is ready to post: done
  3. Soundtrack for new story: already uploaded
  4. Newsletter delivery system: need one
  5. Newsletter announcement: rough draft written
  6. Author’s Notes had soundtracks added to them: done
  7. Author’s Notes have been uploaded: no
  8. Missing flash players have been added: no
  9. Crossover fix has been uploaded: no
  10. Edited Evil Jack stories have been uploaded: no
  11. Removed old Writing Tutorial section: no
  12. Add links to FFGarret: no
  13. FFGarret ready to go live: no
  14. Forum delivery system: need one
  15. Project Wonderful ads created: no
  16. Project Wonderful ads have been positioned on pages: no
Lot more listed as “no” than “finished.”

FFGarret: Needs before going live
  1. Create ads for Project Wonderful
  2. Write first article
  3. Write second article
  4. Write third article
  5. Write fourth article
  6. Write fifth article
  7. Write and publish an article a week—see if setting up future posts is possible with Drupal
Like dominoes falling into place, sadly almost. There’s a lot to do here, but I think it’s totally doable to make two of these items two Big Rocks for the week. So I’m going to have these projects finished by June 1st before moving to the next one.

That’s the plan as it stands right now. Let’s see how the week turns out.