It’s time for me to think about website maintenance. There are some issues with this website and another website I have that I have been aware of, or at least suspected since I changed my hosting. And as a result of a test I was able to run I have identified an issue with the SusanG Productions website. Now it’s time to do something about, at least some of it.
I’ve been putting off doing this website maintenance because I expect it to take a significant amount of time. It’s a major squirrel chase. Some of the things I’m looking at are trying to optimize the two WordPress sites, this is one of them, so that they load faster. When I changed my hosting type I chose the Cpanel hosting not the dedicated WordPress hosting. I knew it was a risk but there are a few things about the WordPress hosting that I wasn’t sure about and I wanted a little more control. Of course, I may be seeing the results of that decision now. I usually post a lot of pictures in my articles and they impact the load time of the site, as does the WordPress theme.
Some of the things I need and want to look at for the two existing WordPress sites are new themes that might be a bit more light weight and will load faster. I will also double check any plug-ins I have installed and make sure I’m using them. If not I think I will delete them. As a last resort, I could load up a test copy of another CMS (content management system), to see if it loads better. I’m not expecting that to be the solution I go with, for a few reasons. The first being the increase in my workload just for maintenance. WordPress is at least pretty automated, or automatable with it’s installation of application updates as well as theme and plug-in updates. The other CMS that I know about weren’t nearly as user friendly the last time I tried them. Another reason is the work involved in moving from one CMS platform to another. I did that once and it was time consuming and somewhat painful. I’m not sure I want to go through that again if I don’t have to. I would rather do what I have to do to move the sites to dedicated WordPress hosting and pay more for it. It’s a better use of my time.
Wouldn’t you rather see pictures and animation videos here than read about my trying to figure out how to make something work on the website? I would think so. They are much more fun. Not any less challenging or frustrating mind you. Still, more fun.
Speaking of challenging. So you saw the animation I posted last week. I shared it with several people and a few of them mentioned that Sticks looks like he’s reverse moon-walking. Ok. I gotta fix that. A very observant young woman, with whom I take Taekwondo, pointed out that I forgot to have him lift his leg before moving it forward. I have noted that as something I need to fix. Or, figure out how to fix. It might be a while before I have a correction and something more to post of the animation. So stay tuned.
I’m mostly working on modeling some additional characters. I want a few for my business cards and as that is the next thing due after I test for my black belt, I think that’s a bit more pressing and important than making Sticks play with the Snowman.
I still haven’t decided what I want to do about the beak for the Penguin and I need to address the eyes as well. Since I was still thinking on that when I decided to work on modeling I went back to the Worm_Guy. The Maya version of him. I like the overall look of the body better so I’ll work from it. I pulled up a picture of it and found that the eye sockets didn’t really have the open and happy and devilish look I want them too have. They looked a bit mean. So that’s what I worked on. In these pictures you can see the right side is the one I worked on and made more open and big. Compared to the left it’s much more inviting. Once I finish with that and some other refining I was working on, I will delete the left half and mirror it over and connect it all back together again.
The Worm_Guy was the only modeling progress for this week. But the nice thing was, with the new method of prioritizing or scheduling work, I didn’t feel bad about going to bed early a couple of nights last week. And that’s a good thing.
I’ll try to keep you updated, on the website progress so you can see if you notice any difference. Of course, I will have to work it in with the modeling and since that is so much more fun, it may take some time before I have website news for you.