Taking a different view

The next thing that occurred to me for troubleshooting was to go sit at another computer and see just what it looked like from there.  In a matter of minutes I've seen the works in progress shows appear absolutely correct with photos displayed as expected, blurs of photos that don't display completely and fade immediately, and also plain white where the photos should be.  And this was with all no intervention at all from me other than viewing, clicking somewhere else and then returning to look again.

This feels far too much like having my brother and sister simultaneously trying to teach me to drive a stick-shift.  And by that I mean all of us in the car at the same time.  They're both younger, but have a tendency to gang up on me, always have.  That's a particularly vivid memory of unresolved confusion.  They both tell me what to do, they correct me and the result is sometimes the car moves forward and sometimes it dies.  The whole process is mysterious; I can't tell what was different at all between the times it worked and the times it failed.  At least here I have a more powerful reassurance that it's not me.  Since no changes were attempted and the result varied based on nothing more than a few more seconds time passing, I'm in an area outside of the sphere of cause and effect.  Feels a bit too familiar, in a very infuriating sort of way.  Random can be very uncomfortable.  Randomness is not usually my friend.

Photos still blank

Or are they?
At times there really is nothing to say besides the obvious.  Hopefully that statement soon won't make sense because this blip will have been resolved.  The whole episode will be no more than a vaguely recalled speed bump in a bigger adventure.

I've done everything I can think of and the works in progress show is still a blank white space where the photos go.  I guess it's just going to be malfunctioning until I can figure it out or just give up and delete it.  In the meantime I'll keep rearranging and poking around at it and trying to get answers and results.

Hmmmmm.  Just as I clicked preview the window displayed with both the new and old (code should match, though) WIP slideshows along with both FO shows that are currently there.  However, as I saw at times last night the timing of the WIP versions is off.  If it isn't completely blank, it's doing what I just saw: flashing a blur, just a brief fuzzy gray rectangle that never materializes into an image and fades out as soon as it appears.  So maybe the issue is timing???

Added above paragraph and clicked preview and now I see 2 working shows each of FOs and WIPs.  I know it isn't me, lol.  I guess I'm just going to have to live with this for a while...  Fortunately, since I'm pretty much the only one here, the oddness of it will likely go unnoticed.

Just for fun, I'm seriously considering how to go about changing the size of those items anyway.  Surely it's not the time to do anything extra when just the basics aren't 100%, but why would I leave well enough alone?  I've been sucked into the underlying gobbledegook of the working parts.  That's a clear invitation for tinkering!  I've always been the kind of person who knows just enough to be really dangerous that way.  I can embrace this aspect, especially when I'm being provoked by items changing and functioning by their own whims.  That's how I've managed to get a lot of skill and understanding in a range of areas.  I'm not the least bit afraid of replacing sinks, faucets, light fixtures, and even had the old washing machine and dryer set in pieces and then working again several times.  I am fearless this way.  I will prevail.

Sidebar Slideshow Hell

I sure wish I could understand what's going one with my Works in progress slideshow.  Earlier this evening I popped in to write a little and change some things around.  Spent some time finding and uploading some photos that go with a Halloween themed post that I started several days ago and still hadn't finished with the relevant images.  Made a few small changes in the design of the blog that seemed inconsequential, like adding a google search in the sidebar.  Suddenly I noticed that while my finished objects are displaying the works in progress right next door is completely blank!  The arrows and buttons are on the bottom, but there's nothing being shown.

Went back to Ravelry, searched the forums a bit.  Opened up the saved file of the code that was running these.  That was saved after copying and pasting via a link from Ravelry and then following the instructions to get my key and change everything the right places to my user info.  Scrutinized what I copied and pasted from the non-working gadget right next to the original text.  What a chore!

At different times and in different places of playing around with this I found sometimes "amp;" would appear after an ampersand (that's what this symbol: & is called; And I promise not to explain why/how it came to be called that - at this time, anyway).  So I started trying to edit those out those four characters, a through semi-colon.  Tried copying the code from the blog gadget for the finished objects, the working one, and changing the text to read "in-progress" instead of finished at the appropriate points.  It just seems every time I look at it something different has happened.   And none of my fixes are producing results that last.

Finally it seemed I had gotten both of the sidebar slideshows - sideshows! - working and then I opened a different tab or window and then went back to the blog and the WIPs was blank again.

Truly I don't need any additional aggravation or anything that would tend to make me feel like I'm losing my mind.  I have lost far more than anyone should have to lose in the first place.  Have been fighting fiercely to keep what's left of my brain ever since.

I suppose my best hope now is that tomorrow things will be normal... Or rather later this morning things will be normal.  I've been fussing with this so very long that it is after 3 AM for me.  I am so beat!

I am not the least bit discouraged...yet

Although I have only just gotten started and have not so much as invited family and friends to view my latest indulgence, I was surprisingly dismayed to find that the page views component does not accurately track information.  It is clear that while I have the appropriate cookie settings and have selected the radio dial for not counting my own page views (and saved this setting which remains selected), when I edit and then view a post or rearrange gadgets there is invariably and additional page view recorded at the same time.

Beyond this, the malfunction is even clearer when noting that of all the page views recorded 100% of them were from a Mac OS using Safari.  Were I actively involved with an online graphic design group I might be persuaded to believe that statistic accurate.  I am convinced, however, that fellow Ravelers are largely Windows users.

I am writing for myself anyway.  I can own that.  I just don't understand why the blog has built in "vanity counting."

Better or worse than talking to myself??

I mean accidentally following my own blog, lol.  Well I don't know.  I talk to myself all the time AND answer myself.  I remind anyone who criticizes that habit that if I'm not listening to and answering me, who will?  That was just a button I clicked because I don't have things figured out yet and wondered what it would do.

Who starts a blog when they are battling tendonitis and tennis elbow in both arms anyway? Typing is what  causes me the most pain fastest, except for setting up my dad's IV antibiotic.  Hopefully there's only about ten days of that left.  We're in week three now and on day eight I suddenly had intense pain at the base of my thumb several hours after twanging the bubbles out of the tubing.  Until then I was doing pretty well.

And then six days later I tripped over my dog and fell onto my left wrist, the one that was worse off to start with.  Also fell onto my knees, which didn't even seem to notice - fortunately.  Surprisingly I did not actually impact my dog.  Am still a bit puzzled by it.  She knew I was falling on her and looked up at me with a wide-eyed 'you're going to squash me' deer in headlights sort of expression.  In a reflex that's kind of like a driver extending their arm in front of a passenger when stopping suddenly I slid my right arm under her chest.  I still have no idea why that happened.  Certainly wasn't planning on it and I didn't want to pin her in place to squash her.  I don't know if that makes it more like tackling her or what.  Of course it happened in an instant; I just found myself on the floor hugging her with my right arm.  I suppose the distinction is that she was not supporting my weight at all.  I have a feeling if I'd just fell on both wrists the left one wouldn't have taken quite as much of a beating, lol.

Went out and got fitted for wrist splints with thumb spicas and they are mostly comfortable. I'm supposed to wear them as much as possible and sleep in them, too.  My fingers are free to move and they keep me from turning my hands into positions that put pressure on my wrists and thumbs.  At times pinching or holding things between my thumb and index finger is pretty painful.  Still have to do that every day to hold the stem on the IV bag to spike it, connecting the tubing.  And pinching with my left hand is better than using it to push and twist, which is what my right hand has to do.  Have had a hard time opening the microwave with my left hand because pushing the button with my thumb hurts.  I feel like the splints are keeping me from hurting myself more and allowing the injured parts to mend. The only problem I haven't solved yet is that they get sweaty.  So when my arms feel hot and I'm inside and doing little I take them off, undo the velcro completely, and let them air out.

I suppose until someone else is following me, I might as well follow me.  Little chance of that any time soon and I'm not sure just how I feel about it anyway.  I don't mind sharing my ideas; heck it's hard to stop me!  But I don't have any real plans behind what's going to be here other than I'd like a place to put those thoughts that don't really belong in my rav notes.  Guess that for now I'm just dipping in my toes and going to take my time.  A good idea since typing isn't my friend right now.