Revellian

Thoughts and Fiction of Bobby Revell

Posts Tagged wordpress

Blogging Burnout

Jul 29

Posted by Bobby Revell in blogging tips

Just so my readers know, I am suffering from a major case of blogging burnout. I started into the wordpress theme design tutorials by Small Potato, but I didn’t listen to his advice on taking breaks. Once I started into it, I couldn’t stop. I worked on it constantly every free minute I had. After each lesson, he said to stop and take a break to avoid burnout – he was so right!

It’s so easy to get burned out from just regular blogging. When you start into more serious things like design, it makes burnout even more difficult to avoid. Yesterday, I tried to look at my blog and maybe surf around a little but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I did learn some valuable lessons though:
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Wordpress Basics for Newbies

Jul 26

Posted by Bobby Revell in wordpress

It can be difficult for beginners to learn wordpress basics. Newbies have all the information at their disposal, but get overwhelmed. I was thinking about some things I really wish I knew when I first started using wordpress. When you’re just starting, it’s not easy to know what’s important and what isn’t, so here we go.

Most people tend to use too many unnecessary plug ins and most are redundant. Beginners are simply unaware of what’s already built in. I highly recommend you actually read the wordpress codex. While some of the information maybe hard to understand, there is an astonishing amount of useful tips even a novice can use. Any question you have is answered in the codex, if you take time to read it.
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Wordpress Backups – Importing Files Larger Than 2MB

Jul 18

Posted by Bobby Revell in wordpress

When doing wordpress backups, there are different ways to do it. You can do database backups in your hosting account c-panel or PhpMyAdmin, but that might not be enough to guarantee your safety. In the wordpress control panel, under manage, you can export an xml file which contains your posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. Now, when you try to import that file because of whatever reason, importing files larger than 2MB is not possible. Most exported back ups are larger than 2MB, so how can you do it?
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Blue Host Nightmare: How I Fixed My Blog

Jul 17

Posted by admin in wordpress

Five days ago, I began having extremely bad problems with my hosting account, which was box 350 (server). I feel sorry for the poor souls on that box. As described in my previous post, I started getting cpu quota exceeded errors 20-30 times per day. I called my host over 70 times this week, and that song they play when you’re on hold will cause me to explode in a frenetic rage of blackened anger – I heard it for hours.
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How To Clean WP Options – Slow MySQL Queries

Jul 14

Posted by Bobby Revell in blogging tips, wordpress

When your self hosted wordpress site is getting slow, or lots of cpu quota exceeded errors, how do you fix it? One place you need to look is in your main directory (using c-panel’s file manager) – find a file called tmp. Inside it, you’ll see several folders, one of them is “slow mysql queries”. I used cheap shared hosting like most people (blue host, host gator, etc.). Because of that, you will experience problems – especially if you start getting a lot of traffic. What I’m meaning is 500+ individual visitors per day.

The past 3 days, my site has been suffering from cpu exceeded errors. I know some of it’s my fault, but some is blue host’s fault. On any given day, there are 150 or more sites on the same server. You can check out who’s on your server with IP Neighborhood Reverse DNS Lookup.
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Garry Conn Helped Me Save my Blog

Jun 7

Posted by Bobby Revell in hacking, wordpress

Wow…today is an amazing day here at Revellian Dot Com – I could never express just how great a day it is! Earlier, well actually yesterday on July 07 at around 9:30 PM, my site disappeared. It was replaced with a site comprised of Indian Writing. I was shocked to say the least as I thought my site had been hacked. It is a horrible feeling to think your site has been stolen. Initially, I called my host (Bluehost), and they told me that I had been hacked and there was nothing I could do. I had a knot in my stomach that sat like a hand grenade in the deepest trenches of my bowels; the sudden realization that everything you’ve worked on for years – wiped out in seconds by some evil hacker – what a horrifying feeling.

To be absolutely straightforward and honest, I must tell you that there are only a few people I thought of whom I completely trusted to check out my situation: Garry Conn and Andy Bailey – two guys that really know what they are doing. I also thought of contacting Brown Baron, Mike Wheeler, Bush Mackel, Mark Sierra or Madhur Kapoor – five other guys whom I consider experts on the subject. I am a psychic even if you do not believe in psychics, and I just knew instantly who would be available at that very instant: Garry Conn. He was logged onto Googletalk – so I asked for help. Garry stepped in and started asking questions, like how to log into my Wordpress account.

It’s a really big deal to just divulge your most private of information to someone, but I know anyone of these 7 guys are trustworthy, which is really saying a lot. It’s nice to know people! Let’s get to the nitty gritty. I contacted Garry Conn, and he responded instantly. What was so awesome is that Garry has 3-way calling, so we called my host together – what a great feeling to have an expert on the line with you. The first guy we talked to from Blue Host was Darren (at least I think that was his name). Garry asked him several questions and told him he believed my site wasn’t hacked, but was instead a problem with my C-Panel (the backend of Blue Host). The guy was really unhelpful and basically told us to fix it ourselves. Garry was insistent that the problem was not a Wordpress issue, but was a server side issue on their behalf. I actually have two domains, one of which is not being used, but both were pointing at a strange site.

We finally talked to a superior, who actually helped. In the midst of telling us what the problem might be, the higher ranking Blue host employee discovered the problem which stemmed from them having multiple customers on the same server. In my case, the idea of having my blog hacked by some form of code injection really scared me – this is why I asked for help. Garry handled the entire situation with absolute professionalism. I really didn’t even know what to say, but Garry did – he basically commanded the guy and finally the problem was resolved. So, my site was not hacked.

In the process, I learned that I have too many plug ins and a bunch of database tables that are unneeded. I am currently cleaning all that junk out of my system. Garry said he doesn’t use any plug ins at all. I learned some valuable information in the process. If you use a plug in, contact the author and ask if if it changes your database or if it only adds something on the surface. Sometimes, plug ins do things to your database that cannot be undone – so be extremely careful when adding one. He showed me a page on the Wordpress codex, Wordpress Database Decription. There are only 10 tables necessary for any Wordpress blog. I am cleaning out all the ones which are not needed. Before you get into deleting any unnecessary tables, be sure to back them up beforehand. If you have any questions, contact one of us for help.

I had a fantastic conversation with Garry via the phone. We talked about everything from blogging, politics to life itself – a great conversation. I could go on forever about all this, but I just want to thank Garry Conn. He really helped me out and it means the world to me. There really are great people out there, and I consider Garry to be one of the best. My blogging spirit has been renewed. Be sure to visit Garry at Garry Conn dot com and check out his incredible make money on line ideas. He wrote a great post entitled Garry Conn dot Com is Fixed! Come Check it Out! which explains some turmoil he went through during a server crisis. Maybe I could have fixed it myself; maybe someone else could have helped me; all I know is that Garry Conn is the one who did it. When you face losing everything, and you get it back with no problems – what a great feeling. Thanks Garry!:mrgreen:

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Bobby’s Batch #14 – The Power of Blogging

Apr 27

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

What I love most about blogging is how it brings people together from all over Earth. We are all much more alike than we are different. This past week has been painful and spiritually draining, mostly because I see and understand the world’s problems – I sometimes wish I didn’t. I believe that many things like race, religion, politics, patriotism, class, nationalism and many other forms of separatist identification destroy relationships between people in many ways. All these things are as irrelevant as the brand of clothes we wear when compared to our need for each other. We are powerfully interconnected and blogging makes the world so much smaller.

I’ve often thought that the only way people will come together would be if Earth came under attack by aliens from outer space. If the people of Earth faced such a situation, we would come together as one, overlooking foolish differences. We could find that love, which seems to be missing in this world. I see blogging as the most powerful form of communication for us all. I choose to blog because I believe it does bring us all together. While our governments fight, terrorism grows and wars are waged, people in every country are becoming friends; that is powerful, beautiful and majestic.

I say rise above your beliefs and love all people. Try hard to not label others. Love is and will always be the answer to all the worlds problems – not bombs, guns and totalitarian government control (which is exactly where America is headed). The masses of normal people have absolutely no idea how powerful they are and how much impact they can personally have. Take action and do something great for someone in need or for this world:)

Peace and love,

Bobby Revell

Remember that giving is the best part of blogging! Here are this weeks links:

Zeitgeist The Movie – One of the most important films ever made. Take two hours and watch it – it’s free. I mentioned it before, but will keep reminding people to see it. It exposes the myth of 9-11 and the financial institutions of the world. It is extraordinary, powerfully riveting and extremely important to see. It may help wake you up to something you have never seen before. Please watch it, I beg you!

Vaguetarian Tea Room – My very good friend Teeni has moved from her old wordpress.com address to her brand spanking new domain! I am very excited for her because I know how great it is to own your own site and be your own webmaster. To be a real friend, I will go through my older posts where I linked to her and correct each url. Congratulations Teeni, you new blog looks fantastic!

Rubeina, my very first friend from Mauritius! She has a fairly new blog with some great articles – be sure to pay her a visit. She is very intelligent, friendly and an aspiring young guitarist…yay! I found two fine articles from her I wanted to mention here:

  1. 5 Firefox Add-ons to make Directory Submissions faster – A very cool breakdown of useful Firefox addons, check em out!
  2. Defensive Mode – A wonderful post explaining how she feels about working in the corporate world as opposed to really going for your dreams. I really feel connected to her sentiment because I think similarly. I got a lot of bad advice while in high school and made many mistakes. I list a related post below:

Jobs and Careers: My Journey to Happiness – This is one of my favorite posts written by me. It explains what happened to me when I went to work for a huge corporation as a guitar designer/builder. No matter how hard I worked, I was nobody and would have remained nobody as long as I worked there. It’s a heartbreaking post about how my life was almost destroyed because of corporate politics.

I made another new friend, Catatonic Kid from Australia. She is a brilliant and philosophical writer with much insight into life’s dilemmas. I found two posts I wanted to link to here that are important to read:

  1. The Walls We Build: Fighting terrorism or fighting fear? – A well stated and eloquent piece about our perception of terrorism. She mentions something many of us have forgotten: other wars have been started against unseen or unidentifiable enemies even before 9-11. This is a great article.
  2. Roadkill Kippers and Karmic Reward: How to say ‘takecare’ and mean it. – I have suffered from severe depression for years but finally have a handle on it. This post is powerful, meaningful and has a great message about reaching out to others.

Create Your Own Graffiti – I thought someone had kidnapped my good friend the Brown Baron, but he has been putting up a few posts, and this one is very cool. This is one blogger I have missed like crazy. I hope all is well Baron:)

My Purrfect Phoebe! – My friend Marzie has put up the cutest pictures of her Persian kitty yet! If you are looking for a smile and some uplifting cheer, take a look at Phoebe – she is unbelievably precious. The popularity of Marzie’s blog has exploded and is almost intimidating, but she is so friendly and caring it is truly astonishing – something very special and magical indeed!

Blogspot Template – Looking for a cool new template for your blogspot blog? These are some of the best I’ve seen. They have everything including 2 and 3 column and fresh wordpress like themes. They look great!

I wanted to give a special shout out to a few friends I don’t mention enough but deserve some very special limelight:

Bobo – Thanks for talking to me so much when I have been down, it means so much to me:)

Jamilla – I am so proud to win your contest, you are a true friend and lift my spirits so much:)

Zubli – Thanks so much for being a great friend. You’ve been through some extremely difficult hurdles, but you know your real friends are behind you always:)

I have so many people to thank, it will require an extensive post I am already working on – I hope to have it up soon:)

The awesome picture is from LI Biz Blog – Fix it: Energy

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Bobby’s Batch #12 – My Date With a Deceptive Lying Witch

Apr 6

Posted by Bobby Revell in Bobby's Batch, social networking

There are only two things I know for sure:

1. I have dated many bizarre women with ulterior motives; some so strange, it seems like an impossibility of purely abstract fiction. I hope to meet one normal woman who doesn’t lie, cheat, steal, do drugs, have unprotected sex with numerous partners, hide extra children in the back room or have other boyfriends. Is that too much to ask for?

2. I will eventually die.

After my previous post of heartbreaking sadness, I felt I should explain a little. I am not sad or depressed in any way. I am however frustrated. Hey, you would cry too if you dated these people. I have dated the most mentally unstable women on Earth – just by chance. It’s like I won the deceptive lying witch lottery…read on:

Deceptive Lying Witch

Deceptive Lying Witch

One need look no further than the last woman I dated. Last month, I met a very nice woman who works as a bank teller. It started with a little flirtatious conversation and one of her coworkers telling me how single she was. I thought there was no way for her to be as bad as the last date I had – that really would be impossible.

We went out to dinner a few times, having much fun and some great conversation. When going on a date, I am like a boxer with a powerful defense. I test her intentions, looking for common signs of one who lies and so forth. I’ve been through hell, thus I do not allow myself to fall for someone very easily. I am completely honest and will lie under no circumstance. I used to lie a little (ok, maybe a lot), but learned from my mistakes. Nothing is worse than to be called out on a big fat lie.

She asked me over to her house for dinner. I was extremely apprehensive; however, I accepted. I had faith that she might really be nice and honest. She made it clear that she was truly interested in me. She tended to agree with everything I said. Every opinion I had about life, politics, relationships – she seemed to be in complete agreement with. That bothered me a little. I like people who will disagree with me and stand up for their own beliefs. It remained on my mind but I chose to let it slide, thinking I was over-analyzing her.

I arrived at her home around 7:00 pm. She answered the door in spandex, aerobic exercise apparel, covered in sweat stains. She smelled quite aromatic. She told me that because dinner was almost ready, she would not take a shower beforehand. I told myself, “It’s no big deal.” Then, I met her seven year old daughter, who she failed to tell me about. That was also fine with me – I didn’t mind at all. I don’t care if she has kids, I just prefer her to tell me about them. She had told me that she didn’t.

Things were a bit uncomfortable. I could sense something strange about to happen…lol. I kept telling myself, “It’s all in your head…stop freaking out.” The back door opened and in walked a strange man covered in automotive grease. He scowled at me and gave me a very sarcastic half-smile.

My date said, “Bobby, this is my boyfriend, Jake (not his real name). Jake, meet my new friend Bobby.”

Yay! She has a boyfriend – just as I had hoped…NOT. Jake rolled his eyes and then washed up for dinner. She whispered in my ear, “Don’t worry. Jake goes to work at midnight. Then we’ll be alone.”

How great was this situation? I get to spend five grueling hours with her and Jake – my idea of a fantastic date. I was really looking forward to getting to know Jake. I wanted to ask him, “So…does it bother you that your girlfriend brings dates home to meet you? How often do you have sex with her? Can I watch? Are you insane? Do you have herpes? Have you two been on the Jerry Springer show?”

I said, “Wow…my contact lens is really hurting my eye. Let me run out to my car and get my lens case so I can take this thing out.”

I ran to my car, hopped in and drove off…BYE-BYE. I immediately turned my cell phone off so she (or Jake) couldn’t call me. Whew…I felt like I just survived a war. Though this date was bizarre and extremely unusual, it’s the second time the exact same thing happened. That’s right! It has happened before. The last time, it was also with a woman who worked in a bank. The only difference is that she had a husband and a boyfriend – both of whom were at her house (I live in the twilight zone)! This is why I am so careful about who I date.

Next time, I will have my friend Vladamir (the KGB operative pictured above) administer my date a polygraph examination along with an entire array of tests, such as one for sexually transmitted diseases. I will also do a criminal background test. All of this must be completed before we go out…hahahahaha.

Enough is enough…get to the f*cking links already!

  • Whiteboy Style – My friend Ed Philly has his handmade site rolling again after a short hiatus. If you’re in the mood for some “Offensive Humor at it’s best”, be sure to pay him a visit. Ed wrote his site from scratch using HTML – WOW…what a rare thing these days!
  • At Goes To Salem: Emila’s beautiful artwork of a cat named At. She actually gave it to someone for free. Emila is a wonderful person and spectacular artist.
  • Expelled: Setu’s very weird tale. It defies categorization – falling between nightmare, hallucination and bizarre reality. If you enjoy cool short stories, this one is a must read.
  • Story Game – The Adventures of Marie Cambridge – Marie and Her Ex: Teeni’s multi-authored short story with a sarcastic and wicked ending. I really enjoyed it.
  • I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Creme: also from Teeni. She shows you how to make ice-creme without using milk. She says it came out quite delicious. It must be good because all women know good ice-creme when they get it (especially chocolate)…hehe.
  • Our Love Story: Marzie’s heartwarming story of true love. She and her husband prove that it is possible to find the right person and live happily ever after. It is this kind of story that gives hope to those of us who haven’t…yet (like me)!
  • “Save” yourself first!: Yasmine’s must read article about religious hypocrisy and how all of us can rise above it. Very thought provoking.
  • The Most Compelling Blockbuster: Sean Rasmussen’s inspiring article that all of us should read…it’s fantastic. While you’re there, be sure to download his free e-book, Mindset Mastery. He put a lot of work into it and it is well worth reading.
  • Lies At the Top: American, Iraqi & Afghan Casualties Not Counted: Euroyank reveals some extremely disturbing truths in how casualties are actually counted in the current war. You must read this.
  • 5 Tips to optimize your site for Search Engines: Madhur Kapoor presents 5 basic tips to help you optimize your site.
  • How to repair MySQL Tables: Also from Madhur. I found this gem looking through his archives. A solid, step by step guide for repairing your wordpress MySQL tables.
  • How to extract names and email addresses from your WP database: Andy Bailey’s very useful article about how to derive names and email addresses from your Wordpress database. It’s complete in detail and easy to understand.
  • Why don’t they understand?: Also from Andy. This features some hilarious problems he ran into repairing computers. While you’re there, enter his new contest.
  • Striking the Right Balance Between Family and Business: Todd Morris wrote this positive article about striking that right balance.
  • What’s Wrong With “The Secret”: Todd Morris pointed me to this article that I found interesting. It’s about the movie “The Secret”. Check it out.
  • The Secret – Exposing The Truth and How it was Conceived: This is an article I wrote (that’s right, I’m promoting myself) about “The Secret”. Don’t get me wrong, there is some useful information in the movie. It was however, designed to make millions for the author – never forget that.
  • Computer Humor: My new friend Dunn compiled some very funny computer humor in this post. Go get yourself some comic relief.

*The witch is Pamela Kempthorne.

*The polygraph picture is from Polygraph Training.

* I love both of these pictures.

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