Exciting News!
    Well, at least for me. I have established a domain name for these journals. Unfortunately, I was not able to retrieve my former domain name, despite that its ownership by my previous hosting ISP expired as of 8/12/08. It seems that expired domains are held in a sort of domain limbo after expiration for 90 days, which I just discovered. Considering the present circumstances of my mother's and my companionship and my caregiving for her, 90 days is just too long to wait. I've already waited long enough to set up on an independent server.
    The new domain name is very similar to my old: "themomandmejournalsdotnet.net". You'll notice that I have not established a link to it. I'm in the process of experimenting to regain my ftp publishing skills and in discovery regarding Blogger's handling of former Blogspot blogs. It seems that Blogger has developed a facility whereby former Blogspot blogs keep a placeholder that allows redirection to the new blog home. This redirection isn't automatic...you have to click a "yes" (or "no") button in order to be redirected. But, at least you'll get there. I haven't yet discovered how long this redirection service lasts. If and when I find out, I'll post that information here.
    The process of transfer will be slow...it may take more than a couple of weeks, as I'd like to think that I'll be able to restore my files to my Mac, as well, within that time, and access my old reader list so I can notify everyone who left an email address with me at some time what's going on now. We'll see how that goes.
    You may wonder why I'm switching back to an independent server, considering that Blogspot space is free but independent server space isn't. Two reasons:

• My former in-site search engine, which is superior, doesn't work with Blogspot occult blog publishing commands. This is a big deal for me because I probably used the search service more than any reader. Blogspot does have a search engine attached, but it is woefully incomplete, which I've discovered many times. It doesn't even respond to "tricks".
• I want to be able to quickly and completely back up my journals onto my computer without having to go through the possibly dangerous procedure that Blogspot has devised for this.

    So, there you have it. Expect no immediate changes here on the main journal. This will be the last section that I transfer. My intention is to give at least a couple of days notice before transferring this section. However, since the archives are little accessed (weeks, sometimes, go by without any visitors except me) I'll post notice on those only after they are transferred, and, of course, keep up with changing the links.
    Speaking of which, this is part of why I am going to take my time transferring material. I want to fix as many broken links as possible immediately after transfer. I'm sure, for awhile, depending on how deep any particular reader decides to go back into posts, broken links will occur. But, eventually, everything will be fixed.
    I will also be establishing a new domain email address shortly, which I'll publish here and to which I'll link the "Email......me" area over there to the right toward the end of the links section. However, I have no problem with people continuing to use any of the addresses through which they are used to contacting me. I retain them all (except my former domain email address) and check them all.
    And, yes, I will be posting a review of Dancing With Rose soon. It seems that the process for getting permission to quote text from the publisher (which is required...author permission, alone, on this book, is unacceptable, according to the flyleaf instructions) is a bear, so I'm trying hard to write it without quotes. It's not the easiest process. As I write, I find myself accidentally quoting the book without realizing it.
    Anyway, it's getting late and I've got to get some sleep. I have an important errand to run early in the morning (oh, but it is early in the morning, already...but, not late-early enough).
    Later.
- posted by Gail Rae @ 02:58   email  this post