Finally completed the arduous process of backing up and upgrading my server. For you Linux nerds that meant shuffling from Debian “Wheezy” to “Jessie”, giving me a couple more years of security updates until I have to do it all over again. Considering I did this without using the recommended fresh install method (instead I updated my repositories and hoped for no breakages), we were lucky to get the site back with minimal downtime. Just a few fixes to my apache2, php, and wordpress config files and things were back online. It was a learning process – mysqldump, tar, and a variety of Linux commands I needed a refresher on were implemented. (If none of that makes any sense, don’t worry, it was jibberish to me until a few years ago.)

The hard work done, I then set out to revamp my theme. The decode theme I have employed for several years doesn’t allow for background color changes, so I took that as a challenge to dig deep into the CSS code and do it manually. I love the retro green on black, plus it’s better on the eyes.

Hopefully this year I’ll be able to write more frequently. No topic is off limits, whatever strikes my fancy, so be prepared!