The overall site for “Lots of Issues” is https://lotsofissues.com. That site is available from the menu at Back to HQ
Because this is a site where I am experimenting with a lot of different methods of producing sites, a lot of the links from that main site go to subdomains of lotsofissues.com. That way they all can be easily controlled (“networked”) under the lotsofissues.com umbrella, but are actually completely different sites, such as:
- politics.lotsofissues.com
- history.lotsofissues.com
- magazines.lotsofissues.com
The advantage of using subdomains is that they can be treated as completely different sites, each with a different look (if desired), but I can still manage their their databases, browser icons (favicons), and themes in nearly the same place. But it also means that the Search function for each “site” (domains and subdomains) only will work for that one site: one particular domain or subdomain.
In fact, there are workarounds to this, so that I did not actually need to use subdomains. I am also able to install a new theme, for example, on any directory. I did this as a test at tech.lotsofissues.com/subdomain/
That’s not a pretty theme, since it’s just a test, but it proves the point.
The primary point here is to get some experience using about 5 to 7 different themes, for different types of sites. (News themes, Gallery themes, eCommerce themes, Archive themes, OneNote Notebook themes, etc.) Although this is the slightly calmer Newsup theme here, I like the Newsium theme for HQ.
It’s busy, and animated, and if I add ads, it will remind of the Latin expression: ad newsium. At least I cogito ergo it’s some Latin expression, or maybe it’s just me, I’m thinking.
They tell me not to try to be funny, and that’s why. They also tell me to quit my day job, too, because I’m not funny there, either. So, here I sit, retired. Here I lay down, retired. Here I retire, laid down.
That reminds me. Are you sitting down? I will probably die soon. I mean somewhere between now and about 20 to 30 years from now. I’m 63 today, as I write this, which is one of the reasons I can write this. I’m sitting down with no one bothering me, because that’s a birthday tradition in this house. I sit here in the corner of the living room every day since I retired. But I can be bothered to get up and do chores and things on most any other day. But not my birthday. But I digress.
When I retired –it must have been 7 or 8 years ago– I saw how easy it was to waste half a decade or more. Too many little things to do in the house. Trying to pay off hundreds of thousands in debts (literally). Just the interest on those debts means we had been “throwing away” upwards of $40,000 a year in interest alone. I won’t get into the details, even though I’m only adding those details as a kind of stream of consciousness just to fill up a page with a lot of content. But I’ll try not to offer anything too personal here, because I also want to test out how well private sites and private, password-locked pages work. So I’ll publish my finances and all my accounts and passwords on those sites and pages.
But wait (and by the way, just kidding) (maybe) on that previous sentence.
What I really wanted to say is that if I am to die by the time I’m 90, which is probable, that’s about 27 years from now, and it’s even more probable that I won’t be feeling strong and healthy enough to keep playing with site-building for at least the last 10 of those years. I think my father is about 88 now, and he is, as of late, no longer able to keep up with even reading his favorite sites, much less writing anything.
So, things could always get worse quickly, but I’ll plan for the averages and expect to keep managing this site until I am 83. By then it should be easy and I can manage changes through feeble voice commands, if necessary. But I’ll keep creating and testing changes until 78, if possible. That’s 15 years. And I’m doing it for fun and relaxation. No stress.
So, I’ll have some plans for things to continually check out and experiment with on these sites for about 15 years, let’s say.
Getting back to my demise, however, I should also plan to leave these experiments to my kids and grandkids. I’m sure they will not be the least bit interested, and that’s OK. I’m sure it’s for the best.
But just in case, they want to save some of the pictures, and some of the content, I will need a way to allow it to go on for an extra few years in case they wish to grab some of it and reorganize and re-purpose some of it.
To that end, I will need to keep backups of the content on FREE site platforms that will not die when my credit card dies. Or I, or my bill-paying memory goes, whichever goes first. Google will probably still carry my content, perhaps Flickr will keep a bunch of my photos. And perhaps I can manage a video or two without going over the FREE limits. If so, I can back up some of the data and it will outlive me.
This reminds me of a bunch of Tech to take care of in retirement, which is why there is a tech.lotsofissues.com subdomain, where I will probably keep a list. In fact, if you were wondering, the “tech” subdomain isn’t about all kinds of technical issues so much as it is a site about all the technical tools and services that are useful to someone in retirement. That’s why it’s found under the “Retirement” menu back at HQ.
It’s probably going to double as a “things to do” list related to little tech related projects. In fact, let me make a “Tech To Do” over there now, and then I’ll link to it from here.