Call Me Dorothy

Here’s the thing: I upgraded some software on a three and a half year old mac (the OS and a suite of software called iLife), and nothing has been the same. It’s been bad—real bad.

Although I have meticulously backed up my iWeb files (I publish four web sites), there’s this one file that doesn’t back up when you back up. Got that? Oh, and there’s nothing about it in the manual. It hides somewhere and no one tells you about it, but it’s like the engine of the whole car. Without this one file (Domain), you’ve got what looks and feels like a web site in your computer, but without any motor to get it anywhere. Like on the internet.

The upgrade reduced this file from nearly 800 MB, to 20 KB. That’s like taking the universe and shrink-raying it onto the head of a pin. With an engine less powerful than a windup toy, the files are useless. Useless. I feel a little like Dorothy, trying to go toe to toe with the Wicked Witch of the West. I don't think there's any way of getting back to Kansas now.

Thanks for your purchase. Enjoy your new software.

So, it’s taken a couple of on-again, off-again weeks to get what looks like web sites back up and, well, sort of functioning. Can you buy my book? No. Buttons aren’t working. How does the Home Page look? Like Homey the Clown did it. Any downloadable sermons posted? Yes, they’re there. . .but you can’t see or hear them. But they are there—I swear.

Now everyone reading this will probably flock to LifeCourse.org to see if it looks as bad as I say it does. Probably crash the server. But that’s okay, I guess. My personal crashes have just nudged ahead of my technological ones, so let’s get some balance back.

The only time I haven’t been working on it is when I was in So. Cal. for five days, taking care of my mother and father, who had heart surgery. (Yes, he’s doing well.) It was a lovely break.

Anyway, that’s my story of late. I hope to get it all back up to speed tomorrow, but I know I’m probably setting myself up for a frustrated end of the day. Oh, well. At least it’s a mac, so I don’t have any viruses.

Sympathy? Maybe not.