I think “Alas” is now back online! As you can see, it looks a bit weird around here – or, more precisely, it’s failing to look weird in the particular weird way I prefer. I’ll be fixing that gradually over the next while.
But in the meanwhile, the archives can be read, new comments can be left, and new posts can be written. After the last few days, this seems like a magnificently great status quo to me.
Huge, HUGE thanks to Podz, who stepped in and got “Alas” up and running when I was tearing my hair out in frustration. (If you enjoy “Alas” and you’d like to stop by and tell him “thanks,” this thread is probably a good place for it.)
UPDATE: I thought y’all might enjoy seeing this email from Podz (reproduced with permission) about getting “Alas” back online:
Of all the database rescues I’ve done, that was the second hardest, and by far the longest.
It’s a combination of factors – phpmyadmin / your hosts settings /file sizes and of course your incredibly verbose commenters :) Either way, yes it took some work to get it all back, but back it did go.
I hope you are running regular backups – that’s a huge site to lose !
So take note – this was partly your fault, you incredibly wordy comment-writers, you!
(Just kidding. I wuv you all).
If by any chance you’d like to thank Podz with a little cash, there’s a donation button on his page of WordPress Help files. I’ve already left a little something, but I’m sure he’d appreciate a little bit more.
Testing the comments
Hooray! It works! Now I can stop concentrating on my paid work and can instead surf comments at Barry’s blog!
Glad to be of service. :-)
Thank goodness. I think my brain was going to atrophy.
Now you just need a controversy.
Controversy? I hate this color scheme! Clearly, a patriarchal plot to force everyone into drab, corporate conformance.
(How’s that?)
This color scheme has a long history of existence. In fact, for all of the recorded history of this particular iteration of this blog, this has been the color scheme. Should we throw away the accumulated wisdom of our ancestors, in order to engage in some risky and experimental scheme? I should say not!
You can drag in “patriarchy” and “conformance” and whatever man-hating socialist communist revolutionary rhetorical code words you like, but in the end we all know what this is about: power. You want to overthrow the existing order and replace it with your own little tin gods. Well, I say it’s spinach, and I say to hell with it.
Welcome back, Amp!
Heck, let’s stir up a real controversy.
Terri Schiavo never got an MRI or a PET. Neurologists say that you have to do an MRI to make a good assessment of whether someone’s cerebral cortex is liquified or not. The doctors hired by Michael Schiavo who examined her and declared her PVS (permanently vegetative) spent 45 minutes and 30 minutes with her, respectively. The doctors hired by her parents spent 14 hours with her over a two-week period, and say she isn’t PVS.
Interesting stuff. Source: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/johansen200503160848.asp
Hooray, alas is back. And the color scheme is weird and unpleasant. On the other hand, I love the new caricature at the top of the blog. I hope that’s there to stay.
Welcome back Amp!
Mad props, Amp.
Glad to see the site is back up.
Amp, I tried to send you a couple e-mails to alas@amptoons.com; did you ever receive them or are they lost in the othernet?
Good to see the blog back! Now I’m even more apprehensive about updating mine to WordPress 1.5…
Yes, but it’s precisely neophobes such as yourself, Robert, who have stood in the way of what little progress the rest of us have been able to wreak these past few thousand years. —I, for one, welcome our somewhat more monochromatically maroon overlords, stylishly decked out in Lucida Grande.
Actually I’m a neophile. Just a neophile who thinks conservative philosophy is sound.
Or a neophobic neophile. My head explodes at the thought!
Ambiguiphobe.