(By the way, this blog, although a perfectly valid blog, goes up in an effort to keep me from being a liar, since I am wearing my "I'm Blogging This" t-shirt today.)

GREAT CRIKEY MOSES!

You know, we all have them. Those moments in life that are so monumental they make us wonder about our existence here on Planet E.

Today, that would be Day Three of my vacation, I slept late, watched a movie, drank some coffee and some Orange Crapius, did a little more laundry, took a shower, got dressed, straightened my hair (it gets better, I promise), and then sat down at my computer. I realized it was time for me to try and clear up a little problem I was becoming more and more wary of facing.

That would be your whole "I don't seem to have an FTP client anymore" situation.

As you all know, the ho-hos who own and/or run Ipswitch (I'm shouting this from the mountaintops now, "They're Ipswitch!") have still not yet seen fit to reply to my second request for some help on the fact that I have all sorts of verification that I bought their product, but can't seem to reload it onto my reformatted computer. I'm to the point now where about all I use this product for is the updating of my Movie List, but my little Movie List, meager though it might be, is still important to me, and I know a few people look at it, etc etc, and I want to be able to update it.

Several days ago I'd found another version of WS_FTP. Apparently an older one. I thought maybe as it was an older version, the serial number I had for mine would cohabitate with it and all would be well. All was not well. It was so antiquated and confusing I couldn't even find a place to enter my serial number, and when I tried to connect to it, approximately 98% of the time I got an error message saying I couldn't gain access because there were "too many users." So screw that. I uninstalled it.

I uninstalled it today, after trying several times again to make it work. Then I headed to Tucows to start looking for new stuff. Tried one called Cerebrus. Impossible. Uninstalled it. Tried Coffee Cup Free FTP (hey, if it's free, it's for me), figuring, hey, I do my webpage with Coffee Cup, and though that version's quirky and won't let you use any materials other than what they give you (ie, you can't upload anything except what you've made in their program), it's easy enough that a straight FTP version might be worth my while.

Boy, I can be so dumb sometimes.

The set-up and configuration was easy enough, but the actual transferring of files was a nightmare. I don't even know where to begin, so I won't. Well, no, actually I will, but just long enough to tell you that the only accomplishment I managed under this new program was to turn my Movie List into - a completely blank webpage. That's fun! And again I'd push the "Help" button and again I'd get something telling me there was no help for me. I guess for free, they don't have people standing around waiting to help. Uninstalled it, I did.

Oh, and somewhere in between all that frivolity, probably the frivolity of the Older WS_FTP and the Coffee Cup, I started fooling around with Front Page. Now, I don't know enough about Front Page to know if you even have the ability to upload things with it, but I read tutorial after tutorial and looked that fuckin' paper clip in the eye for so long I finally just gave up. I think working in Front Page, for me, is probably a Stennie-intensive activity, and she's on a business trip this week.

So it was back to Tucows to start looking again.

And then it happened. My moment of clarity. (Ouch - when I first typed that sentence, I typed "My moment of clarinet.")

I can remember when I first got Comcast high-speed internet. I was on their user website putzing around and saw all this "how to make your own webpage" stuff. I remember looking at it, but not paying that much attention, because, well, my website was already built and was The Comfy Chair you all know and love, even though you don't read it anymore, mainly because I never update it.

So, I tapped back into that website, went to the "My Webspace" section, and lo and behold, there it was. "How to transfer files to your webspace!" It was as simple as 1) get the file; 2) push a button.

And voila! Movie List back on its page, updated, scrubbed clean, and as spiffy as ever.

Now, when I was sitting there looking at my updated Movie List, I just beamed. "I am so fucking smart," I said to myself.

Then in mid-beam, I realized something. I had this capacity the whole time! I probably had it when I spent $45 for WS_FTP in the first place! And I kind of, somewhere in the recesses of my mind, knew this!

So I may be so fucking smart, and then again, I'm not quite so fucking smart.

But at this point it doesn't matter. I don't need WS_FTP anymore, and those Ipswitch ho-hos can kiss my ample patootie, right in the middle of town.

Now. I just need to watch some movies.

Betland's Olympic Update:
* "My moment of clarinet." Mr M will enjoy that one.