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Ashley's
boyfriend puts his hands away & returns to
the chair on the other side of the room. I
like this lighting, with a soft box suspended on
a boom arm directly over the model. But I
think things will look better with Ashley on the
floor. |
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Yes,
it is better on the floor (more distance between
the model & the light).
Okay,
back to the bad luck streak -- it's more than
just the camera failure, bad lens with the new
camera, scanner replacement, and monitor.
I also had trouble with my web host.
I
had been with my web host for several
years. Recently, there have seen a series
of acquisitions, and with each take-over,
customer service suffered. I should have
taken action as soon as they stopped allowed
customers to call with their support issues.
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Early
in 2007, I realized that I wasn't
getting e-mail messages from
visitors to this site. I
usually get a few messages a day,
so when I stopped getting message,
I noticed.
My
web host's web site was working,
so I entered a service
ticket. No
response.
I
tried the e-mail addresses
documented on the web host's web
site. The e-mails bounced.
I
tried the old e-mail addresses I
had from before the
acquisitions. These, too,
bounced.
I
tried all the phone numbers on the
site. The phone lines were
disconnected.
I
checked my credit card statements
-- they listed the name of the new
web host (the one who had acquired
my old web host). Again, all
attempts to reach them failed.
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So,
I can take a hint. I started my search for
a new web host.
Being
a creative person, I developed a test for all
the candidate hosts. I called their
technical support line & timed how long it
would take for me to talk with a live, English
speaking person. Some put me on hold for
over 30 minutes -- those got a bad mark, and I
gave them a second chance a day or two
later. The best had me talking to a real
person in 5 minutes or less.
So,
I selected a new web host. It is a large
company (i.e. not likely to be acquired) with
very good technical support. Bonus:
it is significantly less expensive than the
previous host.
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Of
course, it took several days for
the new host to divert traffic
from my old host. It's
funny: since I had no way to
contact my old web host, I had to
call my credit card company to
stop payment to them. The
person at the credit card company
suggested that we try the phone
number associated with the charge,
& I said go ahead. A few
minutes later, the woman came back
on the line & reported that
the phone number had been
disconnected. I said,
"welcome to my world".
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Moving
this web site is not easy. As of this
writing, there are...
- Roughly
1200 web pages, and
- Roughly
8300 images.
I
have DSL, and uploading the entire site takes
over six hours.
More
than that, I had to figure out a new plan to
implement security for the Out Takes and the
Secret galleries. And I had to reimplement
the few pages that e-mail information to
me. Finally, I had to rework several of
the themes I use for some pages.
All
this took a while.
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Somehow,
I don't think my recitation of my
bad luck woes has distracted you
from the lovely Ashley.
Seriously, though, I have to admit
that all these troubles have been
significantly distracting for
me. Through it all, Ashley
remained enthusiastic, patient,
pleasant, and supportive.
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Ashley has definitely been
a bright spot. She is so excited
about her pregnancy and she is
enthusiastic about working with me to
document her progress.
Thank
you for letting me vent about my
streak of bad luck. Perhaps some
of you might think that I've devoted
too much of my narrative to moaning
about the camera, the wrong lens
order, the scanner, the monitor, and
the web host. Perhaps you are
right, but that right there is my
recent life in microcosm -- I really
would have preferred to be able to
devote my full attention to Ashley,
but the real world intruded, and I had
to take care of all those
issues. Maybe that's why young
folks can be the most creative -- they
don't have these distractions, or at
least these distractions don't seem to
slow them down. Me? I hate
being a grown up some times.
Still,
Ashley was everything I could have
asked for. She was
understanding, patient, and supportive
(besides being beautiful &
energetic & enthusiastic).
I'm sure we'll see more of
Ashley.
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