Temporarily hosted

I signed on to a short contract with GoDaddy last night so hopefully the sites will be relocated and updated this time next week. I'm still reading the Jatol thread at Webhostingtalk.com, hoping to see if anyone will say what actually happened. I'm nosy, and if the owner died and didn't pay his bills, I want to know. (Inquiring minds, you understand).

There has been one guy posting almost since the start, and he's not American. I don't know where he's from, but I'm guessing he's also not British. His English is remarkably good; the syntax is what gives him away. He spells better than a lot of Americans I know! I have to laugh, though, because he always ends his posts with "Greetings. OK." In my mind, those words are spoken in the cheerleader voice, and the next thing into my twisted little brain is a scene from Judging Amy. Her daughter (who was about 6) had been chosen for a cheerleading squad, which horrified Amy as much as it thrilled Lauren. The episode ends with little Lauren in her cheerleading uniform and pom poms, cheering, "Ready? OK! We got spirit, yes we do! We got spirit! How 'bout you?"

So how about this? "Greetings! OK! Jatol screwed us, yes they did! Jatol's gone, get over it!"

I'd post this at Webhostingtalk, but the IT guys wouldn't get it. :-)

Overthinking

I'm trying to decide on a new web host. I've looked at a couple that seem promising and have similar pricing. G0Daddy is the least expensive, and they're having a 15% off sale (which will save me a whopping fifteen cents) and they'll let me go month to month. The others I've looked at all want a year contract, which I'm leery of since Jatol folded.

On the other hand, in reading about the Jatol debacle, I've seen mention of buying domain names in one place and hosting in another, just in case the web host goes under. That's making me lean toward Bluehost.

I know it's not rocket science. My sites are still up but it's a matter of time before they're not. As far as pricing, we're talking about $12-$15 a year difference. I make that in tips working one party. Any thoughts?

Toes up

For anyone interested, it's going to be a while longer before I can update Dragonsroost.net. First, we have a hardware issue. Something in the computer got fried with the modem. The secondary issue is that my web host, Jatol, has also gone toes up with no notice. I didn't even know about it until I checked Holly Lisle's blog this morning. The site is still up, for now, or at least it was as of two hours ago. I'm leaning toward changing my domains to GoDaddy for the short term. I can go month to month with them, giving me time to research more permanent options.

There are a lot of people really ticked about Jatol. I doesn't affect me a whole lot. I have all my files backed up here, and I think I was at the end of my billing cycle anyway. I was annoyed with some lack of support, but not enough to research other options. Guess I don't have much choice now. Just goes to show that if you procrastinate long enough, someone else will make the choice for you!

Brain clutter

Good news: I toiled for more than an hour last night to get Vengeance of Pachacuti to publish.

Bad news: Dragonsroost.net only published chapters 1, 3, and 4. Dragons-roost.net (the alter ego) got them all except the prologue and chapter 5. I haven't the foggiest notion why some parts published and others didn't, but I finally gave up and went to bed. I'll get back to it later today.

***

As it stands now, we still have Chad and Scott coming for Thanksgiving. They both called for the address yesterday so they could print directions. Since they are bachelors, their schedules are flexible, which means they might be here at midnight tonight or noonish tomorrow. I'll just plan dinner for 3-ish; that should be safe.

Eric has planned to take the kids and Chad to Best Buy Friday for MP3 players. Chad is Very Tall, so I told Vicky to walk behind Chad, hold onto his back beltloop, and peek around him occassionally. When the crowd gets really heavy, she is to ask loudly,"Conan, what is good in life?" He does a good Conan imitation and can quote the part about sacking your enemies and hearing the lamentation of the women in his sleep. :) He can also do Fezzik from The Princess Bride. He doesn't look like Andre the Giant, but he sounds like him in the "Everybody move!" part.

I'd drag Scott along to witness the festivities, but I'm making him stay home to work. We have a book to write, darn it! Of course, it won't be all hard labor. We can hammer out the plot in the hot tub. I just need to keep one hand dry to write.

***

I have enlisted Vicky's help in designing the symbol I mentioned a couple days ago. It will figure heavily into the story, and I told her that if we go through Lulu.com to get the book into the hands of our patiently waiting readers, we may be able to use her image in the cover art. She liked the idea of getting the credit for that! Of course, in her teen mind, 'credit' is synonymous with 'money', but I clarified it quickly. Hopefully she'll get a sketch done today so we can go over it with Scott.

***

My little brain is spinning, which is the best way to get nothing done today. That's not an option. I'm off to formulate a game plan. I know there was something else I wanted to add to this, but I have no idea what it was, or what the trigger was that made me think of it. It's much harder to remember things when you forget what made you think of it, but the surest way of remembering is to hit 'Publish' so I might be back later.