Say not the struggle naught availeth.....

I think I must have done, today, the most complex Wordpress/Woocommerce configuration in my life. OK maybe the last 5 years, because I've only been working with these two applications for a few years, so far. Now, I have been working with HTML since 1995.

Oh and btw my younger my sister is a great-grandmother, just to put things in perspective.

Here's what happened.

1. I got my first retail order on my new Wordpress site - www.feltedfibre.com today! However my shipping system didn't recognize her address in Alberta. Got the order sorted out and now I had to get the site sorted out!

2. Did my usual Google inquiry. Got lots of suggestions - nothing worked except I did pick up what I thought were "peripheral data." You now something that could be used in a rain storm maybe.

3. Spent two hours reading rather useless - non-rainstorm data.

4. Finally saw in a forum a note from a Canadian struggling with the Canadapost template in Woo Commerce. I had been too - between taking a break from reading google useless data and trying to work "things out on the site." Her magnificent phrase was, "I finally realized, I had to download the Canada Post plug-in." Who would have thought!

No where, believe me, no where was there any information that said: First download and install the plugin!

5. The revelation, although miraculously sent, (these are the days I believe in God) did not prepare me for the even more obscure information offered by the Canadapost plugin.

6. In attempting to configure the settings, I was told I had to join Canadapost - well at least it was FREE. I already had a Canadapost acct. My usual username & password did not work in these settings, however, I clicked a link and used the same username and password to get yet another user name and password, which I wasn't told were the ones I should be using in the plugin settings.

No where does anyone say - "Use these." In fact in desperation I entered the first set of numbers. Yes, I was given 2 usernames and 2 passwords, with no instructions. You got it! The first pair didn't work. I didn't immediately use the second set, because I was convinced I was barking up the wrong tree - not exactly the right metaphor, but after 3 hours of confusion, I could have used worse analogies!

Finally, with nowhere else to go, I entered the second set of numbers - Behold!! they worked. Well, sort of. I could now order from my site, get a connection with Canadapost and ship a 1 pound box to myself for $1.00. Hmmm...more work.

7. I deleted the snail mail option. That worked. I could now ship to Ontario, sensibly! But, I couldn't ship to Alberta. However, in all the useless information I took in today, I remembered that one of the problems could be that I hadn't set up a weight for this product. I checked. Sure enough there was no weight listed. I entered .01 of a kilo and Voila! I got an updated shipping option to Alberta.

Computer programming is not about logic. It's about intuition and my ESP was working overtime today!!

It availeth-ed!!

Have an applied day!!

Art....

I haven't given up the idea of exploring Art more fully. I did take a few Art classes, as I mentioned in an earlier post and did some sketches. Here they are -

I love leaves - even dead ones have life.

A live plant on the subject of death - Crown of Thorns.

Nature is such a wonderful study......

With or without colour

Seeing through the glass

Finally a study of childhood - my son when he was 7.

Photos are great, but sketches let you get inside the subject. These are photos of sketches - what can I say.

Have a great day!

The Luck of the Draw...

Our writing word today is "draw." Again a word with so many meanings. All my life I have wanted to draw real-life pictures. I particularly like pencil drawings with shading. I like the fact that you can create 3-dimensional pictures on a flat piece of paper.

I admire people who can sit outside and draw the landscape or sketch people as they sit on a park bench. I marvel at their talent. I am so envious. Yes, I do work at getting closer to my goal of being a better artist. I have taken courses and I make time, occasionally to draw.

However, I am not driven. I don't carry a sketch book with me all the time. In quiet times, when an artist would draw, I read or do needlework. Drawing for me is not relaxing. I have to concentrate, focus, and erase too often, to consider it restful.

Maybe that is what separates an artist from a "wanna-be" artist. Drawing for an artist is an escape. It's their restorative time. Drawing is their raison d'être. They live through their Art. Whereas, I live through a list of various activities - gardening, family, knitting, needlework, reading, writing, cooking and even cleaning.

In the luck of the "draw," I did not come up with a pencil. I drew a needle or maybe several different kinds of needles...and a lens. I forgot to mention photography.

Have a creative day!

Specialty...

Our word for today is "specialty." Everyone has a specialty. You're a great speaker, a fabulous artist, a  wonderful cook....the list goes on. We seek out people and places to enjoy their specialties. We go to restaurants to savour certain dishes that are unique to them. We read authors that are particularly good a writing in certain genres. We travel to places because of a special way of life they have preserved. Again the list goes on.

What is your specialty? Ironically people spend most of their lives discounting their specialties. Yes, I'm a good cook, but I would never open a restaurant. OK, I paint really well, but I could never earn a living as an artist. I'm a great storyteller, but only family wants to listen to me, Sigh! So many specialties that rarely rise to their full potential because of other demands, other situations.

What does it take to have a specialty "flourish?" Money? Time? Desire? Stability? These are often commodities beyond our control. If we live in a politically unstable country, how do we chose between art and survival? If we have no money or little time, how do we begin something? If we don't have the desire or the belief in ourselves, where do we even start?

So many questions and so few answers. Perhaps only the very special specialties are given a chance to thrive. People with overwhelming desires push everything else aside to create. They manage to "rise to the top" with very few resources. It is a fixation, a madness, perhaps.

Does this mean that sane, pragmatic people will never glory in their specialty? Maybe we need support groups. Others to say that we can be "special" from time to time.

The pictures? Some special "stuff."

Have a special day!!