Today I learned a lesson about impatience. I can’t say I particularly wanted to learn any lessons today – especially those of the time-consuming variety! – but my eager carelessness managed to take precedence over caution and deliberation, and learn I did.
You know the saying, “There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s always enough time to do it over”? That was me today.
So what happened?
Well, because I recently decided to blog under my real name instead of a pseudonym, I thought that in order to avoid confusion for my readers I’d go through my blog and replace any references to Dawn Storey with Laurel Regan. (Wasn’t that thoughtful of me?!) Knowing that there would be thousands of such references, primarily in my replies to the comments that readers had made on my posts, I went on a hunt for a “Search and Replace” WordPress plugin that would automate the job.
Great idea, right?
Well, it was a great idea. And it would have been an even better idea if a) I’d followed the plugin creator’s warning to back up my blog’s database before using the plugin, and b) I’d gone through each of the plugin’s search/replace options one by one instead of doing a blanket search and replace ALL.
But I was impatient, and wanted it done NOW, so I proceeded without caution. I told the plugin to find ALL references to “Dawn Storey” (not just the ones in my comment replies, as I should have done) and replace them with “Laurel Regan” – then sat back and waited for a couple of minutes while the plugin did its thing. Once the process was complete I excitedly loaded my blog to take a look… and was faced with a completely blank page. No more Alphabet Salad.
Time to panic!
I frantically went back to the plugin and ran the same operation in reverse – find all references to “Laurel Regan” and replace them with “Dawn Storey” – hoping desperately that this would undo whatever horrible programming mess I had created. Much to my relief when I went back to my blog, I saw that it had worked!
At least, I thought it had worked.
It had mostly worked, except that for some reason beyond my extremely limited – no, non-existent – programming knowledge, several of the widgets in my sidebar had completely disappeared and ALL of my footer widgets were gone… poof.
I will admit that some tears of frustration were shed, some hair-pulling ensued, and some angry words and names were spoken. I realized immediately that because I just couldn’t wait a few minutes until I’d backed up my blog, and because I couldn’t be bothered to take the time to go through the options one by one and see if I actually needed to run the plugin on every option, I would now have to spend far more time restoring everything back to the way it was supposed to be than I would have spent on the original task if I’d just been patient in the first place.
Thankfully, I was smart enough not to make the same mistake twice. Once I’d dried my tears, forgiven myself, and laboriously gone through the blog to fix everything that I’d managed to wreck, I took the time to make a backup before running the plugin once more. And this time, when I ran the plugin, I only did the search and replace on my blog’s comments.
Success! And lesson learned.
I know that sometimes being spontaneous and impetuous is actually a good thing. Life doesn’t always need to be overthought and planned and pre-programmed down to the last detail. Today I learned that what’s important is having the wisdom to know when throwing caution to the wind is OK, and when being careful is the more prudent option.
Here’s hoping I won’t have to learn this lesson again.
Twitter: TermiteWriter
October 18, 2013
Hey, good lesson! Fortunately, I’m much more computer illiterate than you are, so I never try anything that technical! I do mess around a good deal in Word, but I’ve learned a lot about that program over the years.
Lorinda J. Taylor recently posted… Reminiscences about Old Libraries from an Old Librarian, Part 1
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 18, 2013
I think sometimes that I know just enough to be dangerous, LOL!
Laurel Regan recently posted… When you’re here you’re home!
After a few catastrophic events like this I never do anything now without having a backup. And have learned that a full computer back up OFTEN is a good idea as I’ve had one horrible virus and one mother board that died on me in the past 6 months and nearly lost everything on my computer twice. I back up weekly now…
So pleased you were able to resolve everything and thanks for sharing a valuable lesson learned!
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 18, 2013
Very smart ideas! Only recently did I actually set up a plugin to do weekly backups of my blog… now I need to start backing up my computer weekly as well.
Laurel Regan recently posted… When you’re here you’re home!
Oh I hate these types of things. Just recently, I wanted to add my picture in my avatar sidebar, I got it to work and it looked great. For a few minutes. Then it disappeared! I tried to fix it but have now given up.
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 19, 2013
Ugh, how frustrating! I absolutely hate it when that happens. I hope you’re able to sort it out eventually!
Laurel Regan recently posted… Recipe for Puddle Cake
great entry. i will never learn…
Twitter: WalkerThornton
October 19, 2013
YIKES! I have little patience at times, but I’ve learned the value of ‘backups’. Got ya on the whole real name versus anonymous! Been there…..
Walker Thornton recently posted… Straight Talk About Sex for the Over 50 Woman
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 19, 2013
The real name transition has been smooth so far, so I’m thankful for that. And I have definitely learned the value of backups now… at least I hope I have!
Laurel Regan recently posted… Recipe for Puddle Cake
Whoa that was some experience. I can only imagine what it felt like to see that your blog was suddenly…nothing. Good thing that reversing mostly restored it.
It’s instances like this that remind me to s l o w down 🙂
Life Breath Present recently posted… Highs or Lows
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 19, 2013
Very true! I really hope I’ve learned my lesson and don’t have to go through that little heart attack-inducing experience again!
Laurel Regan recently posted… Recipe for Puddle Cake
I think computers can sense when we are trying to be efficient even if we are not exactly technologically fluent. They sense our good intentions and say we shall see about that.
Twitter: alphabetsalad
October 24, 2013
LOL, I think you’re right!
Laurel Regan recently posted… Syndicated on BlogHer? Yes, please!
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