Into 2016
Posted: Fri 1 January, 2016 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 1 Comment »So here we are, another new year.
As usual, I’m not making any real resolutions – although I do have some plans and ideas, which I’ve been writing down and putting into lists over the last week or so, in order to get it all sorted in my head.
The main thing for me for this year is to continue with the progress that got made in 2015. That’s the main goal – to leave 2016 in a better state than I’ve come into it, and to keep building.
D4D Performance
Posted: Fri 25 December, 2015 Filed under: D4D™, Geeky, Getting Organised, Technology 1 Comment »This year, D4D’s performance as a site hasn’t been that great. I’d noticed a lot of times when pages timed out, or seemed to get lost along the way, but couldn’t find what was causing it, despite looking hard on several occasions.
Last week, I finally found what the problem was – and it wasn’t in something I’d done, which was nice. More importantly, it also wasn’t something that was showing up in code or settings – because it was a plugin that wasn’t doing what it had been told to, for whatever reason.
I’ve got a security plugin on D4D that’s supposed to take automatic backups, to add some safety and recovery to the site. That was set to take a backup every week, and to only store three backups, then overwriting the oldest.
Except that wasn’t what was happening. Somewhere along the line, something had gone wrong, and it turned out that it was taking a full database backup (with a different filename each time, so no over-writing etc.) every fifteen minutes. Then storing them in a folder that was hidden away in a non-obvious location, with a non-helpful filename.
Even on a server that says it’s got unlimited space, that was taking the piss. It was making the server work extra-hard for no good reason, and causing a whole load of problems.
I finally found it all, and ended up both deleting the old files, as well as killing off the backup task completely. (I’ve written my own automated job now which is working fine, and not causing any problems. The moral of the story? Don’t trust other people’s code.)
Since doing that, I haven’t seen the site crash. I’m hoping that the problems are now fixed, the stability will improve, and that 2016 will be a much better year for D4D™
Fingers crossed.
Lists
Posted: Mon 21 December, 2015 Filed under: 2015/16, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Introspective Leave a comment »As we come to the end of 2015, I’m spending some time making notes, lists, and plans for what I want to get done in 2016. It’s not resolutions or anything similar, but I’ve found over the last couple of years that having lists for things helps me to keep it all straight in my head over the year.
The lists aren’t hard-and-fast structures, more like reminders and ‘this is the stuff you wanted to do’ – but it’s a method that I’ve found to be working pretty well for me. I never used to think it would, that I’m not that organised and so on, but it’s been a surprise.
I don’t know if it’s usual, but I have two formats for the lists – my day-to-day ones sit on the mobile, but the bigger plans for the year tend to sit in my Notebook Of Doom.
A lot of the difference is in how things get crossed off, if I’m honest. Day-to-day “what I’m doing this week” works with just a tick gesture on the phone list, and that’s fine. But there’s more of an emotional and mental ‘achievement’ when it comes to physically crossing things off on a piece of paper, in a notebook, it’s a gesture of finality, of “done that”, which I really like.
Even though I don’t necessarily write about everything on here any more (and there’s some thoughts about that, which I’ll probably write and update over the Festering Season) and I certainly won’t list everything here, there’s a lot of stuff on the lists for 2016, which needs some thought and prioritising a bit.
I tend to over-load the lists too, give myself more on the plans than I’m likely to actually manage. But I’d rather have items as a backup for if I get everything done, or when a planned thing turns out to be unattainable and it’s time for Plan B/C/D.
Regardless, I’m looking forward to crossing off a lot of those items.
Confirmation
Posted: Thu 17 December, 2015 Filed under: Bankruptcy, D4D™, Domestic, Finances 2 Comments »As I wrote earlier this month, I’ve made my final payment to the Insolvency Service, following on from my bankruptcy in 2012.
Last night, I came home to a letter confirming that it’s all been received and that I’m paid up and done with that process.
That’s been a real boost. There’s still nearly three years – two and two-thirds years, to be exact – to go before it comes off my record completely, but this is the final hurdle on the way.
Looking Forward
Posted: Thu 26 November, 2015 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season Leave a comment »
This is almost a part of the tradition of the Festering Season round here now, but I still feel it’s quite fitting anyway.
Just think, in one month’s time, we’ll be done with Festering Season stuff for another nine months. And we’ll have Easter Eggs on the shop shelves tomorrow. After all, it’s only three months away (March 27th 2016 is Easter Sunday)
2015/16 – Writing
Posted: Thu 12 November, 2015 Filed under: 2015/16, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts, Write More Leave a comment »This post has been nagging me – I’d written the title and post-dated it for publication, but been stuck on what to actually, you know, write. And then I did it again.
It’s somewhat ironic that the post about my plans for the coming year’s writing has been published blank/empty not once, but twice.
So – third time lucky.
I’m not honestly sure what will happen with my writing plans over the next twelve months. There’s a couple of options (as well as the fallback point, of “do nowt” or “fail”) which is never a good start, as it leaves me in a quandary from the beginning.
The thing is, I’ve got lots of ideas. Loads. I just haven’t yet clicked on how they could stick together. Or even if they could adhere at all. I’m missing that bigger picture, the whole that all these parts could/should/might fit into. Or maybe each one is a different tale, and I need to focus on one or two of the better concepts, and just develop those. Maybe that will allow the others to rest, or maybe to develop along in their own timelines. Maybe.
I’ve definitely got two concepts which are kind-of similar, but separate. They fit into different moulds, different methods, so I could do both at the same time. Or I could focus on one and then the other. Or. Or. Or.
And that’s what’s sticking me up at the moment. Too many ideas, not enough drive.
I’d love to be ironic (or meta) enough to be able to write about a writer that is stuck on the writing, so that it’s turtles all the way down. But that’s beyond me.
I think the plan for the coming year will be to do just one project, focus on it, see if it works. If it doesn’t there are others waiting in the wings. If it does, there are others waiting in the wings.
Between now and 2016, some of it is just going to be brain-dumping stuff onto paper/keyboard as a record – perhaps that’ll help too.
So yes, I think that’s the plan. But now, which to choose as the first one. Which to choose…