It is 6:09 a.m. as I type these words on an early Saturday morning after not blogging for two days. I did not intend to skip out on Thursday, but my wife arrived home unexpectedly mid-afternoon and remained home until late yesterday morning when she left us to go to work at her friend's Thai restaurant.
Thursday had been a mainly overcast day, a condition exacerbated by high-level smoke from U.S. forest fires. The three days prior to that, I had sunned for just over an hour each afternoon; and so the promise had been there on Thursday that I would most probably be blogging, since I would have that hour that would have been devoted to sunning available instead for blogging.
And then home came my dear wife.
Yesterday, we were back to another sunny day, albeit tainted with that high-level smoke that makes the blue sky more of a weak, milky blue; and the sunlight has a peculiar rosy tint. However, I am not going to have much more opportunity this year to sun, so I do not want to waste any day in which it is possible ─ each could now be the last such opportunity.
Apart from that, I have been rather occupied with other matters ─ namely, the five websites that went offline at HostGator because HostGator shut down my 'baby' account due to an overuse of resources on the shared server.
Their two options for me to get back online were to either pay for a dedicated server all to myself (enormously expensive), or study various articles at a number of links they sent to me that might enable me to figure out how to reduce the massive influx of bot or other visits my websites were receiving that were resulting in the overload of resources.
As a 70-year-old pensioner with only my pension as income, and one who is living in a heavily mortgaged home, I cannot afford a dedicated server. And since my websites were already supposed to be receiving some protection through Cloudflare and WordFence against nefarious visits by bots or related entities ─ and should not HostGator itself be safeguarding its customers from these things to some degree? ─ I only saw the tutorials as a huge waste of my time.
So I closed my HostGator account after being with them for over a decade. But this was all reported in my last two or three posts.
Since then, these past two days have seen me do some reconsideration over my initial impulse to quit having a hosted online presence and to instead just rely on free websites such as this Blogger / Blogspot blog.
Two of the five websites I spoke of were 'blessed' by Google and allowed to display AdSense ─ the other three had been essentially banned from participating in the affiliate programme.
Why not, then, just retain possession of those two specific domains that are Google-approved, and relinquish the other three? Two of the three were all set up to auto-renew for another year later in this month of October, and were on file with the registrar GoDaddy; the third was also set to auto-renew later this month, but it was on file with registrar Website Palace.
After some research, I figured out how to stop the auto-renewals, and I went ahead and did so. I also stopped the auto-renewal of one of the Google-blessed domains at GoDaddy, but the second one that is listed with Website Palace does not face renewal until August of next year.
I am going to let the three 'bad' (in Google's eyes) domains lapse when their leases expire later this month, and by doing so I will no longer 'own' them.
As for the Google-blessed domain (Thai-Iceland.com), I decided ─ after considerable research ─ that I would transfer its ownership over to Porkbun where the fee to keep the domain in my 'possession' for a year is not too much more than a third of the cost of what I would have had to pay at GoDaddy. And in successfully making that transfer, even the domain expiration date (October 24) at GoDaddy was honoured; as a result, its next expiration at Porkbun will not be until October 24, 2021.
Happily, the Thai-Iceland.com Cloudflare nameservers also transferred without any hitch, so it is still actively listed at Cloudflare and will continue to receive their enhancements and protections wihtout me having to do a thing. However, I did cancel the accounts I had at Cloudflare for the three domains that I will be abandoning when they all expire later this month.
So I am somewhat happy with myself.
My next step is going to be to put Thai-Iceland.com back online as a brand new website, for I abandoned all of its old database over at HostGator. I will be starting from scratch to develop it anew.
But who to host it with? I considered Porkbun, but I don't understand their hosting options ─ I cannot work out just what their hosting levels are, and just what exactly comes with each option. What seriously throws me off is that cPanel does not seem to automatically come with a hosting account.
After even more research, I feel myself settled upon likely going with Hostinger ─ probably their "Business Shared Hosting" plan that is incredibly inexpensive for the first year ($3.99 U.S.), but which even at full price is about two-thirds of what I had been paying at HostGator.
Helping to persuade me to take on that specific plan is this June 24, 2020 YouTube video: Hostinger Review - New Tech, Easier To Use, NO SUPPORT?? [2020]
I might even get a 10% discount if I use the video host's link when I sign up. However, I haven't yet done that. I'm just saying that I likely will.
As for my other Google-blessed domain (MyRetirementDream.com) that is held at Website Palace and does not expire until next August, the plan is also to transfer it to Porkbun, but there is no immediate rush. I will wait until after I get Thai-Iceland.com online once more.
I might even take advantage of the free domain being offered at Hostinger and end up with three websites online. We'll see. I won't have to pay extra to have the second two websites online if I just make them add-on domains as was the case with my HostGator arrangement. I had the five websites online through the one account that I was paying for.
Anyway, it is now 7:50 a.m., and I think that I shall make a return to bed. I sat up until into the midnight hour last night, operating our Android TV Box and watching shows with my younger brother, for he arrived home at something like 8:10 or 8:15 p.m.
That was actually a little unexpected, for he had left here afoot in the very early afternoon. When he does not drive, it signifies that he is going to bus because he expects that he will be doing some serious drinking. And to be back home when he is using bus transit, it is almost guaranteed that he will not show up until after mid-evening.
He was verging on passing out during the first series episode that I tuned in, but he was okay and attentively committed thereafter.
Over last evening I drank two cans of the strong (8% alcohol) beer that I try to keep in stock ─ the first alcohol that I have consumed in about two weeks. I have something of a hangover, so that return to bed is not without importance, for I have something in mind that will require me to have considerable drive.
It is now approaching 8 p.m. ─ I want to publish this post before that hour.
I needed that latter morning return to bed, plus another afternoon nap that was very difficult to call an end to.
My ultimate goal and challenge of the day was to make the four-mile round trip government liquor store hike for a flat of another two dozen cans of the strong beer that I like to have on hand. After last evening, I only had three cans remaining in my supply.
But it is never easy for me to make that hike in the afternoon ─ I hate the busy part of a day.
I could have gotten the enterprise out of the way in the morning if my brother was not here ─ I don't like anyone being privy to my shopping expeditions. I do not drive ─ I am the only member in this household of five people who does not drive. And this makes me feel 'second class'.
Thus, once he was out of his bedroom in the morning, I was constrained. It would be different if the liquor store opened at 8:30 a.m. rather than 9:30 a.m., for my brother is not commonly out of his bedroom as early as 8 a.m. ─ I could be on my way by the advent of that hour.
It was in fact either 3:54 or 3:56 a.m. when I finally did leave, avoiding notice by either of my two stepsons who were home at the time. My brother had long before left for the afternoon to ultimately end up resuming his daily drinking somewhere.
I got the job done, and was back home possibly by 5:30 p.m. (at very earliest). It's always a decent workout toting home a dozen cans of beer in each hand for two miles, each half dozen within a tote bag or pack.
My sole regret about the day was that it was sunny ─ I could have gotten in an hour of afternoon sunning. An online weather check revealed that tomorrow sounds most unlikely, for clouds are in store; and in a couple or so days, perhaps some rain.
So today may have been my last opportunity of the year to have stripped right down to just a pair of cutoffs and sunbathed.
Oh, well ─ I needed the beer. Tomorrow morning I want to grocery-shop, so that day is out. And I can't bear going anywhere during the horrendously busy workweek ─ especially that far. Therefore, it had to be done today, for the three cans of beer mightn't have been sufficient. After all, my wife actually drank two cans one evening this past week.
I have been further deeply pondering what web host to choose for Thai-Iceland.com ─ no longer am I necessarily leaning toward Hostinger. DreamHost and even Bluehost are also in the running as a result of further research I have devoted lots of time toward today.
The truth is that I am stymied ─ I can't make a choice. I am deeply in debt, so charging the cost of a subscription for a year or longer is absolutely daunting, and thus I am indecisive on it.
Truly, I don't know what to do.
And that's where I presently stand as I put this post to rest for today and get it published.
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