BROKEN BLOG REPORTER

Who’s got a broken blog?

Who breaks their blog and gets more traffic as a result.

It’s a sad yet funny story.

Beginning with the name change from BoomerPdx.

If you haven’t heard, any association with the celebrated baby boomer generation is off putting.

Yes, off putting. How many times do you get to say that?

I’ve heard it for a while now, maybe you have too, about the out of touch old people who have no clue about the difficulties of life and how to live it the right way.

Am I going to write about young people and avocado toast and expensive cups of craft-brewed coffee?

Or take Mike Rowe’s lead and trash millennials?

This isn’t that kind of blog and I’m not that kind of blogger, the kind who chases more traffic to validate the time and money spent on maintaining any blog for self-esteem purposes.

Oh wait, that’s exactly what I do.

How To Break A Blog

My consulting team advised me I needed a name change from boomerpdx to anything else.

I’ve been at it here for ten years and over 3000 posts on a variety of topics.

I used to separate posts into a set of categories for easier navigation.

Not any more, not when traffic is so low it’s a downer to think of any navigation.

But I’ve never been hung up on traffic. I write posts on things that interest me, but when it doesn’t interest anyone else?

Call it a personal problem. I know stuff worth knowing and write it out. My audience either isn’t interested, or can’t find me.

I know they’re interested in what I’m interested in because I’m a listener, an observer, an eavesdropper. And too many people seem pretty lost.

Notice I don’t say too many people are too stupid to pour piss out of a boot with the directions on the heel?

This isn’t that blog, but I heard the saying growing up.

If my low traffic and non-engagement is the result of a boomer associated name, I needed a name change.

I followed directions.

Change WordPress site URL in the admin dashboard.To do this, navigate to “Settings” > “General” in the admin area. There you will find the input fields where you can change the WordPress site URL or the website URL. In the WordPress dashboard, you can change the WordPress URL under “Settings” > “General.”

The results I got was a broken blog with the pop-up “Safari cannot find the server.”

And a dramatic increase in traffic for three days of not posting.

So what?

Hosting Company To The Rescue

I called customer service and got a tech in the comms-room with lots of background chatter.

He restored this blog from a recent backup.

So far, so good.

I took the poll at the end of the call and gave him five out of five in four categories.

This is before I saw the restored URL was wwww.boomerpdx instead of www.boomerpdx.

One click later and I got the same pop-up about Safari and the server.

What to do? I logged into the hosting website instead of another phone call.

We chatted, texting back and forth.

And so what? I’m back, that’s what.

I gave this tech five out of five for his work and wanted to go back and re-do my first poll. But that’s not how it works.

I didn’t change the name from boomerpdx to anything because I’d rather write a low-traffic vanity blog to an imaginary audience than not.

But why, David?

Are you really asking?

Here’s one reason.

Take This Broken Blog And Learn To Fly

The message my blog imparts is about suffering.

Jimmy Buffet and Mark Twain know all about it:

On his social media posts Thursday the 76-year-old Coral Reefer turned the mic over to another famous writer to set up his announcement: “These few words from Mark Twain about life changes, seemed perfect to pass on at this time.

‘Challenges,’ he said, ‘make life interesting, however overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.’”

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s was a challenge.

Coming of age in the 70’s and 80’s was a challenge.

Raising a family in the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s was a challenge.

Was it more challenging than boomer grandparents raising families during the Great Depression?

More challenging than raising a family when Dad was off to battle in WWII?

Too many elderly whiners and complainers will point to their experience as baby boomers and talk about navigating new social mores, elevated expectations of higher education, the draft, being better people than their parents were.

I don’t set the bar that high, and neither should you.

Instead, identify what you’re good at and what you actually like to do and find the sweet spot that includes both. That’s the boomerpdx bar to slink under you limbo masters.

That’s my challenge to myself: Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk.

I can’t overcome challenges on a broken blog, or a quit blog, or not getting organized enough to write anything.

So what?

So thank you for reading. That’s what.

Now copy the link and forward it to everyone you know.