Blogs & Bugs

Imagine spending 12 years working on your blog, only to have it suddenly attacked by a virus, resulting in the corruption of all your hard work. This is what happened to this site. While I was able to retrieve all posts, photos are now unable to display. Most likely, corrupted? I honestly don’t know the technical terms. Photos just won’t show anymore. (You can skip this post if you are not interested in blogs. This post includes a long post about the technical side of blogging which may bore you.)

This happened in either 2019 or 2020, around the time of the pandemic. This became very challenging for me considering the nature of my posts, which heavily relied on photos. Each story being linked to a corresponding photo. Without the photo, to post would actually be useless. Thousands of posts have become difficult to comprehend, as the texts serve as descriptions of the missing photos. Headache, headache, headache, and to dare to even edit them one by one requires time, effort, and time and effort, and time and effort. I’m tired just by typing it.

When I saw what happened

I just wanted to delete the whole site. To start from scratch again. “I could fill up this whole site with posts in months.” I thought to myself, but thinking about all the posts made me just take a pause. As the world was taking time to pause during the pandemic, so was this blog.

So I let it be

From 2019-2022, I rarely posted. I stopped writing for quite some time. I posted Sitting Beside the Master, From I Hate Math To I Love Math, Battle Scars, and others just to post something, of course they are important posts, but also because I pay for this site yearly (yes, an expensive hobby, this blogging this is), so I might as well write something to make the most of the site. The posts however, became heavier on texts than on photos. I was stretched to be descriptive in a way. In my head this echoed, “If it gets hacked again, the post should and will survive without photos.”

I tried writing, but I was still in the middle of all the transitions happening in my life; healing from COVID, moving back to the Philippines, assimilating to the culture of the new place I am in. Emotionally, I just wasn’t ready to write again. Writing, though it may look effortless for writers, actually take ALL of them. When you write, your mind, your whole being goes with it.

Another incident occurred that contributed to the need for me to take a pause. My desktop computer refused to turn on. All my essential files and photos are there. I have experienced similar situations before, as I have been working with laptops for many years. I have developed a habit of detaching myself emotionally from these devices, allowing me to move on quickly if they unexpectedly crash. Although, work-wise,  this was harder than I thought.

Last reason would be the Gutenberg project of WordPress and all the other back-end plugins happening in WordPress (this is the website where I blog). I couldn’t keep up. Writers just want to write. All the other layout and technical things slow us down. The simpler the better for us. That’s why I’m still using the classic editor of WordPress instead of the block editor.

Now, I’m fixing the site one post at a time

Published to Draft

I switched the status of all the 2010-2018 posts to draft instead of published. This was the easiest way for me because, again, no one would understand the most of the posts without the photo. Most of my posts were stories and narratives with photos.

Highest traffic

Second, I filtered the posts and checked which posts get the highest traffic according to the stats. Well, nothing beats the Amazing Benefits of Taho & Tofu post which still ranks as number one, but I honestly don’t know why.

Photos and links

 

Before putting it back to published status:

• I added new pictures.
• Removed the corrupted featured image, replaced it with a new one.
• Re-wrote some of the lines.
• Checked the grammar.
• Tried the outbound links if they are still working.
• Checked the categories and tags, and more…meticulous?
• SEO

  Yes. Now you see why I was just planning to delete everything because I know how meticulous I am when it comes to the details of each posts. Some of the posts are just really worth posting again, so I continued editing.

Posts that are just text

Next, I searched for all the Journal Pages posts because I remember that most of the posts that fall under this category don’t have photos so they are easier to fix. Recipes where I added step-by-step photos are probably far in the list right now.

One from each year or month

To make sure there’s at least a post from each year, I tried to pick one post to edit from time to time from each year or each month. How many months will it take for me to finish it? Maybe a year? I’m not really sure. I think I have just fixed one fourth of the blog posts.

At the end of the day

This morning, I saw a beige Gucci shoe being restored to its original condition after being torn by a pet. The way it was being restored was meticulous, layer after layer, paint after paint, slowly, but surely. Just like how old paintings and artifacts are being restored as well. It takes a long patience for precious things to be back in their original look, not exactly, but at least to a nearly-restored state.

Restoration

If you have reached this part of the post, you are probably interested in blogs, in how things are restored, or you probably have nothing to do why you finished this. Who knows maybe you are just really interested in reading and knowing things. I don’t really think readers will read until this last part because it is really long and maybe nonsense to some.

As I was closing this, I was actually reminded of my restoration, our restoration. We may have experience brokenness, heartbreak, broken lives, torn relationships? Well, no matter how damaged, or messy it can be, I was reminded of how God patiently worked out our salvation through Jesus and how He continually works in us and through us through the Spirit of God living in every believer. We don’t transform quickly, the process maybe long, but this verse says it all:

31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:30-31