Category: General

General

Behind the Scenes

Karen

So I’m behind the scenes working on some stuff and I’m not quite ready to talk about any of it at this point. But to give you a sneak peek (Sundays are all about sneak peeks with me lately – check back later for the Monday Morning Meme sneak peek questions) of what I’ve been up to …

1. I’m working on importing my old Reflections entries from my previous self-hosted blog. One of the biggest reasons I blog is to leave a part of me behind for my family/children/grandchildren and I have several books (Reflections from a Mother’s Heart, Between Me and You – Mom Edition, Between Me and You – Honey Edition, and The Book of Myself) that I’ve been systematically answering questions from that I would like to document and post here for anyone interested enough about me and the life I led to read later on down the road. I’m currently writing new entries and will be posting those at irregular intervals in the weeks ahead.

2. Looking up these books has gotten me in the mood for a giveaway – a little something to honor Father’s day … check back next week for details on that.

3. I’ve also been researching charities for the 2008 Blog-a-thon that I’ve decided to do unofficially. (The official Blog-a-thon organization is taking the year off but I feel pretty strongly about continuing the tradition of blogging for charity so I’m going to go ahead and participate this year on an unofficial level). And I’ve decided to blog for a cause that has always tugged at my heartstrings – Operation Homefront. I’ve started a page that will explain more about the charity and how I plan to blog about it (keep checking back as the page evolves), so I won’t go into too many details here. Suffice it to say, this is going to be an emotional blog-a-thon – have a full box of tissues close at hand.

4. And last but not least, I just found out that my blog has been nominated for two of the ten categories from Kailani’s 2008 Bloggy Hoss Awards. WHOA. I was shocked to see my name listed among so many talented bloggers. And these folks are certainly more entertaining than I’ve ever been, believe me. I’m very humbled by the honor – thank you. I’ve been nominated for the Brainiest and Most Talkative categories. I’m sure the brainiest category has to be wrong but I’m reluctant to bring it anyone’s attention because they will most likely gasp in horror and rip my name right off of there. *grin* But the most talkative ….? Yeah, I can see that one. 😉

If you have a few minutes, please visit Kailani’s blog and vote for me! And while you’re at it, click over and visit all of the wonderful people that have been nominated – talk about a stellar group of people!

As always, thank you for visiting my humble abode and I wish each and every one of you a FABULOUS Sunday! *blows a huge sloppy kiss to everyone in the room*

General

Do You Smell That?

Karen

Are you wondering what’s going on?

Yeah, me too.

It all started about a week ago. I received an email from my web host telling me that our accounts (i.e. blogs) were using too much CPU. When I questioned what exactly that meant, they said that the number of php requests were overloading my databases and slowing things down for the rest of the people on my server.

I rearranged a few things, updated a few scripts and though the CPU percentage went down, it didn’t go down far enough. My web host gave me three options:

1. Whittle my content down to the acceptable level. Considering I had whittled everything I was willing to whittle, this wasn’t an option.

2. Upgrade to a dedicated server. This sounded great, so I priced dedicated servers – it was going to run us anywhere from $40 – $100 a month – to sustain a HOBBY?! Uh no, I don’t think so.

3. Move or delete our accounts.

I opted for number three.

And I feel pretty relieved by this decision, if you want the truth. Blogging was taking way too much of my time. I wasn’t really putting a lot of thought into what I was posting, I was just posting fluff, junk really. Why was I wasting so much time on silly stuff? My writing was suffering, my business was suffering and I was spending all my time thinking about my next post.

Something had to stop. And my web host took that decision out of my hands. And I’m glad to be back among the living.

I will miss not having the control – there is very little I can do here, behind the scenes, without paying for it, but again, perhaps that’s for the best, at least for now, at least until I can get my head above water once again and catch some things up.

Sometimes it’s just better to call it quits and walk away for a while. Not saying I plan on calling it quits as far as blogging goes, but this is definitely a reality wake up call for me.

I haven’t really given up, I’ve just redirected my energies into something a bit more productive. I still plan to blog, but only in moderation. My goal is to post once a day, here at wordpress.com. I’ll keep my posts relevant to my life/observations/work/writing. And I will only post photos that I’ve taken, or someone close to me has taken. No more stock photos.

You can find my RSS information in the sidebar and if you have any questions, you can always contact me. I haven’t really gone anywhere, I’ve just relocated. 🙂

Do you smell that? It’s the smell of a new beginning.

Ahhhhhh….. I think I’m going to like it here. 😀