Mounting Frustration

For the past month I have been wrestling with My SQL in a fruitless attempt to upgrade my database to something the newest version of WordPress can actually run on. The help I have received from my provider, which for years has been spot-on, has been, in this particular matter, dubious at best. To be fair, much of it is likely my own lack of understanding, but it’s not like I’m a technical moron. I have at least a flimsy grasp of MySQL and how it works, and am able to follow directions quite well, thank you very much.

Depending upon how they respond to my most recent error-filled email, I may just switch over to wordpress.com and dump the web host altogether. It’s not like I have time to use it to its full potential anyway. I just always liked having goals associated to a more robust web presence that go beyond a simple blog.

Speaking of which, I do have  goal for the blog this year, something that is directly related to my writing that, in theory, will keep me updating on a much more regular basis. I was just waiting on the upgrade to launch it. Hopefully all this will get ironed ot this week and I’ll be able to start with my new bloject (yes, I made that up… blog+project=bloject… it’ll be in Webster’s within a year! ok maybe not.)

Update:

In spite of 5 different tech support specialists forwarding me a plethora of “how to” instructions on upgrading the SQL database from 4.0 to 5.0, it seems as though the only way to do it with my particular package is to nuke the current WordPress install and re-install into a new 5.0 database. Why they couldn’t look at my account info and figure this out back in December when I  first contacted them about it and had 6 weeks off from teaching I’ll never know. Since the new semester starts tomorrow, expect the site to go down during the football games today while I run through the installation process. Current odds of me borking the at least the layout stand at 2:1. Place your bets.