Website Fixes, Time, and Blog Status

The remaining books in E-Read's queue will get reviewed - even if I have to put the reviews up on the store pages, they will get reviewed.

In the meantime, I am still working on getting the site back up. At this point I have no idea what happened, something went awry, and when I bring the site up it is a blank page. Most likely a theme isn't playing well with one of the updates or something like that. Fixing the site will be a longer term thing I feel, but this also highlights being able to support something like this when it goes up and when things naturally go wrong.

It is not unlike Windows or the Mac and knowing that - when you have a computer, things go wrong, and you need to develop skills in fixing things. Personally, with all the data collection going on as a part of Windows these days, my opinion of the platform is not so good. They think they have a right to pry in on my life, when they do not, and my choice is to walk away. I know this is the same thing that goes on with Chromebooks, so I am a little less enthused about them - but I do appreciate the security there so I still have one for the things I wish to share.

If I want privacy it's my Mac or one of my old computers and Ubuntu. The respect I give to your platform is the respect you give my privacy.

But work continues, and I am facing the real possibility that E-Read may not be recoverable. I have the data, but it is a challenge figuring out what went wrong and how to get things back the way they were. Wordpess, for me, is a challenge. I get this feeling if I can't figure this out I am in over my head and can't support the platform. If I can't do that, then I am done with Wordpress.

I am also facing the fact that the market has changed since I started four years ago. There is a lot to think about. I get this feeling indie review sites are really not as important, and social media channels have taken over the book-selling buzz. When I stated back then, the joke was blogs were a relic and it was all going to video. Today, the video bandwagon is showing signs of faltering (with the breakdown of ad-supported revenue) and we are likely on to something else. We are in this strange payment-processor, bank, and advertisement war for control of content - and entertainment for mature minds is getting crapped on by every side.

The byproduct of keeping the minds of adults in adolescence forever, I know. Everything is family-friendly. Comic books are 'for adults' but never show anything 'for adults.' Every conflict is solved with extreme violence and a hefty dose of computer-generated imagery. Nobody talks anymore. Nobody loves anymore. There is no subtle. There is no shame. There is no sense of right and wrong. There is no respect.

No wonder the world is the way it is. War is just a video-game we play, right? When is the next one coming out?

Right now, for my life, just updating this personal blog is enough.

Work continues.