Playing a Game of Patience with WordPress Multisite

Last week, I finally got around to upgrading my WordPress framework to version 3.6. I dutifully disabled my plug-ins, backed up my main site and all seven blogs and then clicked on the "Upgrade Now" link. That's when ALL sites broke. For a while, I couldn't even get in to the administrative panel. All I got was a 500 internal server error message. The support team at Tera-Byte (my webhost provider) finagled it so I could get back in. They also informed me that my WordPress theme was broken. Great.

I thought I had kept up with updating all my WP themes. I thought it would be as simple as all the previous WP framework upgrades. I thought that I was doing all right with managing all my sites on WordPress Multisite.

How wrong I was.

My first instinct was to drop everything that I was doing to rectify this - pull an all-nighter or two if need be. Rewind to a few years ago, and I would have.

However, one look at the calendar that fateful day (September 5), told me that I only had three days remaining to prepare for the teaching year. Writing, designing and printing handouts, shopping, planning and cleaning took precedence.

I had to put ALL sites into Maintenance Mode for one week. In a world where articles are shared, reviews are searched and tweets are sent by the second, every minute that you're offline is costly. Google kept sending me messages to say that the Googlebots couldn't access my site. Page rank probably dropped a bit. Unless you had my affiliate links bookmarked, you couldn't shop for sheet music or geeky cool items.

Maintenance Mode was necessary though. I needed the time to research and troubleshoot. Believe me, I needed that time. I couldn't dedicate the time to repairing my websites until I was done teaching for the night.  However, because of all the research and digging I had to do - on an already fatigued brain - I could only do so much each night.

I had to exercise patience. I had to continually remind myself that so long as the social networks were all working, Musespeak™ was still busy online through my YouTube, Soundcloud, LinkedIn, Flickr, Google+ and FB business Pages.

There were some design issues I wanted to improve upon on the main site. That meant playing around with those hex colour codes. Then, I had to research a calendar plugin use. That's been on my To Do List for months.

That went fairly well. Then, WordPress told me that it was time to upgrade to version 3.6.1. That went smoothly, until I realized that my media files on all blogs contained broken links after the upgrade. It wasn't until last last night (or early this morning), that I found the solution (if in doubt, replace the .htaccess file).

I also wanted to explore other premium WordPress themes and plug-ins that would perhaps be more compatible with WP MU. All of that takes time. As a result, I was lurking on ThemeForest and WordPress.org's Support Forums quite a bit.

In the end, I went back to my original themes - after upgrading the primary one - Pendulum. I will get around to tweaking each of my sites in turn. However, the important task is done: everything is functional. Everything is searchable. I can leave things be for now and focus on what I should be doing now: teaching, writing and practicing my music instruments.

Pet Selector Quizzes

So you've made a decision to get a pet. Congratulations! Now, before you race off to the pet store or certified pet breeder, try out some of these pet selector quizzes to help you decide which is the best pet for you and your family:

Dog Breed Info Center® Search

Dog Breed Selector

Is Your Child Ready for a Pet?

Pet Selector Quiz

What's Your Ideal Pet?

Which Pet is Right For You?

It's not cool to return a pet after a couple of weeks because you don't have the time or money to care for the little guy. Or because your dog's breed is too high energy for you. That's why it is important to choose a pet that is a good fit for your lifestyle and your commitment level.

A Look at the Piano Brands and Finding the Best Piano for You

A short post today. Robert Estrin of Living Piano TV talks about the major piano brands and how to find the best piano for you: Robert Estrin on Piano Brands:

Robert Estrin on Finding the Best Piano for You:

Robert Estrin is a musician, blogger and instrument collector. His website and Youtube Channel, Living Piano is full of helpful posts and tutorial videos.

Omatsuri J-Pop and Anime Talent Show Highlights

I'm going a little out of sequence from the Calgary Omatsuri programming schedule, simply because I feel the need to stir things up a little. A new addition to the Calgary Japanese Festival programming was the addition of a J-pop and Anime Talent Show. This part of the show featured young singers from across Alberta. They each had a chance to sing one number earlier in the day. The talent show itself was the second last event on the programme. Here is a video compilation of some of the performers:

The performers featured are: Sierra, Rachelle, Bryan, Colton, Yan (YT: Blue Reminiscence) and Kathleen (YT: Irulanne). They performed "Tsukiakari no Dearest"  - Camus and Mikaze Ai, "Hikari" (AKA "Simple and Clean") from Kingdom Hearts and "Sora wa Takaku Kaze wa Utau" from Luna Haruna and Fate/Zero.

I also had the opportunity to interview Bryan and Colton, two of the performers. I'll upload that one once I'm done editing it.

Interested in checking out the featured songs? Here they are:

Uta no Prince-Sama Duet CD Reiji & Ranmaru / Ai & Camus

Game Music

COLORS

Hikaru Utada

Sora wa Takaky Kaze wa Utau [w/ DVD, Limited Edition]

Runa Haruna

Renshikan Karate Demonstration at the 2013 Calgary Omatsuri

At the 2013 Calgary Japanese Festival, members of the CJCA Renshikan Karate Club and Fish Creek Renshikan Karate Club perform at karate demonstration. In this clip, they perform basic blocks and kicks:

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch up to Sey Yamashiro-sensei or Frank Prystupa-sensei for an interview. At least, I can share with you some information and point you in the right direction if you'd like more information.

Perhaps, karate is the Japanese martial art that most people are familiar with. My generation grew up with the original Karate Kid and Miyagi-sensei ("Wax on, Wax off.")

"Karate" means "empty hand". It is a form of self-defense, as Frank Prystupa-sensei described in the demonstration.

They learn a variety of blocks and kicks in the form of kata (forms). In addition to grading, practitioners can participate in tournaments.

Here's where things get interesting. There are so many different schools of karate. The style that is shown here is called Renshikan-Ryu. It is a relatively young style, founded by Japanese-Canadian David Akutagawa (1927 - 2008). It is a combination of two older schools: Shito-ryu karate and Chito-ryu karate. Akutagawa sensei was an eighth dan in Shito-ryu, a sixth dan Shihan and renshi in Chito-ryu.

For more information on karate, or to find a dojo near you, check out the following:

Japanese Martial Arts (book)

Karate Alberta Association

Karate Canada

Karate USA

The Karate Dojo: Traditions and Tales of a Martial Art (book)

In the Dojo: A Guide to the Rituals and Etiquette of the Japanese Martial Arts (book)

About the Featured Photo: Members of the CJCA and Fish Creek  Renshikan Karate Clubs demonstrate a kick at the Calgary Omatsuri. Photo by Christine Kohl. Publisher: Kathleen "Irulanne" Boucher.