And the website troubles continue

So I tempted today to fix some of the problems with the new website for Bast Temple. (My regular readers will remember that we were forced to switch website hosts.) And it was one of those days that I feel that the service that the old host is trying to make us switch to is just too much trouble. (Actually, they are owned by the same company...so one could argue that it is just the same host with the just a higher price.) The current problem is that one has to log in through several forms to get to the actual dashboard for the website...and if you forget a password (and they all have to be different), then you have to wait hours for the reset to occur.

Makes me glad that I set up an official blog for Bast Temple because it looks like it is what we are going to be using for awhile...because I am thinking that we need to use a better web hosting service...or at least one that does not make me want to beat it with a stick.

[If you are in Denver Colorado, or thereabouts, and want to apply for membership in Bast Temple, remember that you can apply through the official blog or by sending an email to basttemple at msn dot com. Just because the web hosting service is causing me grief does not mean that the lodge has disappeared--we are still doing initiations and rituals, as well as holding meetings and lectures.]

Ongoing Bast Temple website problems

As some of you know, Bast Temple has been experiencing some major website issues.

The issues started during the worst part of semester...and considering that this turned out to be the worst semester ever for me, well, I could have just plotzed. Now that the semester is over, and I have two seconds to try to fix the problems, I realize that the problems are going to take some time to fix.

Therefore, for awhile, Bast Temple is not going to have a regular website. Well, we have one, it is just that the problems prevent anyone from actually getting to it...even if they know the exact address of it.

So my temporary solution is to put up a blog for Bast Temple. I figure that way people (eventually after the search engines find it) will still be able to find information about the lodge and be able to contact us if they are interested in Denver membership.

It is time like these that I wish that I belonged to one of the Big Name Orders who could throw money at problems like these.

So if anyone is interested, the new Bast Temple blog is located here (click).

Website moving to a new hosting service

Awhile back, I was informed by Microsoft that they were ending their Small Business Live web hosting and replacing it with another web hosting service. Basically, they want to charge more money and quit tracking traffic and keyword information and the easiest way to accomplish this is to kill one web hosting service and create another instead.

So today, I am starting the process of tranferring the Bast Temple website to the new hosting service. It is going to take several days. Of course, this forced move has to take place during my busiest semester ever.

By busy, I mean that I have been spending at least one day (typically two or three) at the library doing historical research. And falling ever further behind on the homework for my other classes.

Initially, I was hoping that no one would be able to spot the difference between the sites once I transfered the domain to the new hosting service. That is not going to happen---I am having all types of formatting issues as I copy pages. Even stripping out the previous formatting does not seem to help. There will also be slight navigation and color changes in the new site.

And the editing of the pages is going to have to wait until after my semester is over...because once I get the basic pages moved, I have to get back to work on my Honors Thesis for Literature and my Senior Seminar in History pages---both are supposed to be thirty pages when they are done.

Wish me luck to finish all my projects by the time they are due.

Working on the Bast Temple website

I have been doing some work on the Bast Temple website this month. It is a part of the annual Open Full Moon ritual drive that happens every year at this time. Today's big accomplishment was that I added a couple of pictures to the website, both of which can be seen on the page detailing the 25 June 2010 Open Full Moon ritual.

Ok, it may not sound like much; but I am still proud of myself. After all, I am a self-taught webmaster. I actually caught the fact that I did not have the pictures titled right, and corrected the problem within five minutes of doing it wrong in the first place (a picture for the web should not be labeled "edited img 807" or anything along those lines). I am also a self-taught artist (I do not consider the art classes I took in school even remotely being trained in art---for goddess' sake, I did not even know what a color wheel was until I was a ZAM in Golden Dawn).

Joyous day of Webmastering

One of the joys of being Chief Officer is the duty of being the webmaster for the Bast Temple website. It is a ugly job and someone has to do it, therefore it is my job. Some days it is easier than others. Today was one of the hard days---during the midst of trying to modify the Suggested Reading Page, Microsoft Office Live decided to wig out on me. Internal Server Error--as I said, joy.

So now, I have a crummy looking page up and I can not finish it until Office Live fixes their own problem. One of the things I wanted to do today was to update the description of the Revised Three Officer Version of the Neophyte Ritual that I have a link to on that page. I am in the process of proofing a copy of it before I set it up for a distribution package on Lulu.

(I now realize that part of Steve Nichols' high prices are the result of the distribution package he brought though Lulu. The price of the ritual book went up the instant I accepted a distribution package. I am not happy about the price increase, but it does allow for it to have a wider audience.)

There were a few other things that I wanted to add to the suggested reading page, such as links to my reviews of certain books and links to their respective publisher's sites. But it is all going to have to wait now because some place in the world, there is a server that does not like me.

Not much going on

So far this year, I have not accomplished much. I have put up some articles (book reviews actually) up on Helium. I have done some scrying of some of the Enochian squares. I have continued my THAM coursework (Theroricus Adept Minor). Basic things, and barely worth noticing.

The two big projects that need to be done this year, the redesign of the lodge's website and the fleshing out of the correspondence course, have generally been going slow. If you look at the actuall progress made, you could say that progress has been nonexistent. I won't go that far, I know how I work--things get done in their own time.

For instance, at the moment I am brushing up on my HTML. Or more rightfully, learning the important bits for the very first time. That has placed the redesign of the website on the backburner. My freelance writing has not helped there either (I didn't expect something to occur that did--it may or may not result in some actual income for me).

And the whole membership drive needs to be revived sometime in the future. But I am not worried--yet--things look normal in my universe; and while things may be moving slow, it is to be remembered that a journey of a thousand miles occurs one step at a time.