starting over (expletives deleted)

So…. my support provider upgraded their service this month, and I thought to myself: “Self, since you’re in an upgrading mood, AND you’ve decided to take this blogging thing for real, why not upgrade your site to the newest WordPress”.

I should learn to not listen to myself, or least when I listen, approach any ideas that that guy has with extreme caution.  Since my site provider now has a handy-dandy installation option for WordPress, I figured it would be easy to just click the button and upgrade.  Unfortunately, I didn’t read the bit about clicking the button would OVERWRITE ANY DATABASE YOU HAVE.  Guess what?  Everything’s gone.

You would also think that being the database professional I am, I would believe in the almighty backup.  Well, I do believe… I just don’t practice that belief.  No backup.  I guess I’ve been working as a developer too long, trusting in my DBA’s to provide me with a backup when I need it.  On top of that, I’m stupid. 

I thought to myself: “Self, since you’re paying for support, see if they have a backup procedure”.  I thought, “Good idea, self!” (obviously, I didn’t pay attention to the earlier advice about not listening to that guy).  I contacted support, and while they DO have a backup process, I had wiped my tables in between the time that they had moved them to the new server and started backing them up.  Furthermore, the old server is now gone (apparantly taking the backup with it).

So, I’m starting over.  At least this way, I get a clean installation, and I get rid of the funky frames I had on the old site.  The bad news is that I’ve lost the one or two decent posts I’ve posted over the years.  At least I can repost them, and you, dear readers, will think they are fresh.