The last few weeks have been extremely hectic for me. Of course with the holidays I was either out of town, visiting relatives, or having relatives come to visit me. And on top of that, my site goes down for several days, only to come back completely empty. And let's not forget the fact that my latest site backup was over a month old, and I've had close to zero face-time with my computer to fix anything.

What happened with the site?

Good question. Apparently, something happened with the server that my site was on, and my host had to reload the operation system. Shit happens. I'm not upset about that. What I am upset about is the fact that it took my host over four days to get the server back up and running. Meanwhile, I get to watch as my search engine rankings go down, and several advertisers drop me.

Once the server was back up and running, my site was no where to be found. In fact, my whole account was no where to be found. My host lost everything from me, including any backups. This includes all my site files (including my custom CMS), database data, and e-mail accounts/settings. All gone. My host just shrugs their shoulders and tells me to upload my latest backup.

This is fine except that my latest backup is over a month old. Several huge changes that I've made to my site, including a new site design, are gone forever. Knocked on my ass, I upload everything from my latest backup and start working on my CMS to get it operational again.

And here I am. The site is mostly back up, with a new design, and I just fixed my admin panel so I can finally start posting again. Now I just need to continue to make weekly site backups. Also, thanks to Paul I was able to get back my lost site articles from December.

What about X-mas?

Christmas this year was pretty good. Got to go see family and get out of work for a week or two. I also got a lot of work done around the house, which I'm afraid to say, is a never ending project (keep thinking investment, investment, investment). But I'm glad the holidays are now over. I finally got time to fix my site and play with some of my new toys. Plus, with Christmas past, I can start buying myself things again, and don't have to wait for someone else to buy them for me.

Some things I got for Christmas include:

• New free-standing toolbox
• All Futurama DVDs (Seasons 1-4)
• New Futurama move, Bender's Big Score
• Crysis PC game
• Money/Gift Cards

Some of those items, like Crysis or Bender's Big Score, I would have picked up right when they came out, but with Christmas coming up, I was told I wasn't allowed to. But now that I have them, expect to read their reviews in the coming days.