I’m having a bad day, and it’s not even noon yet. Early this morning, when I went to check my blog stats, I had a message that there is a new WordPress version (3.5). Before I go any further, you need to know that I’m an organization freak. Yes, I make sure that my dollar bills are all facing the same way, and that they are placed in order of denomination in my wallet.
When it comes to technology, I can’t stand to have too many tabs open on my browser. I have a tab organizer, but I never use it because I close tabs as soon as I don’t need them. If I have more than 10 emails in my inbox (read and unread), it stresses me. Of course, that means that I’m stressed often, because, considering the number of emails that I get every day, it’s really hard to have a 10-or-less email count. But I do it, which makes me either an “Email Nihilist, an “Email Neat Freak” or “Just Reasonably Organized,” according to this email inbox count personality profile.
Another expression of my organizational freakishness is that I need to have the latest version of any software program that I have installed on my computer and other devices. First, because, like a fool, I think that the latest, new and improved version will either make my life easier, make my stuff prettier, or both. Second, it bothers me to keep getting reminded that there’s an update. For example, I update my iPhone apps as soon as I’m notified. I don’t like to see an icon’s image spoiled by the red notification bubble.
So, all that to say that, when I saw that “new WordPress update” message, I clicked on it. At first, everything looked great. I was informed that I had successfully updated my WP software and I was taken to a new window that proceeded to show me why I had made the right decision to update. But when I went to the blog stats page, it was a mess. This is the text I have EVERYWHERE on the page, including in every single stat box:
Warning: Missing argument 2 for wpdb::prepare(), called in /home/…./public_html/wp-content/plugins/count-per-day/counter-core.php on line 217 and defined in /home/…/public_html/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 990
I could still see the counts, but I just couldn’t keep the stat page looking so messy. Since the stats are gathered by a software program (a plugin), I proceeded to deactivate and re-activate the plugin to see if this would get rid of the error message. Nothing happened, and then I had a brilliant idea. I decided to delete the plugin, so I could re-install it. I realized that I could lose my stats, but hoped I didn’t. When I received a warning message that I would indeed lose my stats, it didn’t stop me. I was ready to do anything so that I could get rid of that ugly, persistent message.
The result? Now, I have no past stats on the page; I can hardly figure out the current stats because I still have the error message all over the page, and I am kicking myself. Why, why did I ever update? Because I just had to have the latest version of WordPress, that’s why; so that I can click on square buttons instead of oval ones!
The worst part, however, is that having a messed up stats page has totally demotivated me from writing. I have spent about 2 hours surfing the web, reading articles, and nothing has inspired me. What’s the use of writing a post, if I won’t know how many people are reading it, or how many more visitors come to the site because of it?
But, wait, I just wrote this post! It’s not my usual political fare, but at least I managed to write something. I don’t know when I’ll be able to get rid of that horrible error message, so I better get over it. My plugin might be missing an argument, but I won’t let it keep me from making one.
Update: Yes, that word again! But this is good. The plugin has been updated to work with WordPress 3.5. Everything is neat again, but my past data is still gone. I hope I won’t need therapy to deal with it.
