…and why you can find me on my new Instagram account.
You guys! Oh my gosh. It’s been forever. How are you?
Me, I’m good. I have so much to tell you since the last time I wrote…which was…oh boy…a reeeeally long time ago. My annual scrapbook is in progress and my 2016 collection of pictures will be here in no time.
But first – real quick – funny story that’s not really funny:
I lost my blog a few weeks ago.
It disappeared. Like, poof! Gone! The Traveling Thy blog was no more. When you typed in TravelingThy.com and hit enter, you were taken to a page of gray nothingness with these words of internet death: “This site can’t be reached.”
AHHHHH! How did this HAPPEN?!?!?!?
The ghost of an ex-boyfriend – THAT’S what happened.
See, I’d been getting email reminders to renew the hosting on my site. But I ignored the emails, thinking I had it on some sort of auto-pay. I don’t remember having EVER needed to manually renew my hosting.
Turns out I don’t remember it because I’ve NEVER! DONE IT! Yeah. Apparently it’d been auto-renewing not on MY credit card – but the credit card of a guy I dated years ago! And his credit card had finally expired. Hence the email reminders that I so foolishly ignored.
This guy had graciously set up the web hosting for TravelingThy.com when I redesigned the site a couple years ago. We broke up amicably (I think?) a few months later. But…
- Did he even notice he’d set-up auto-pay renewals?
- Did he know he was still paying for his ex-girlfriend’s website hosting?
- Even if he did know, would he mind?
- No, he probably wouldn’t.
- He was a good guy. Super generous.
- Stupid generous. Stupid generous to anyone who fed his ego.
- I should probably thank him.
- Hey thanks buddy!
Anyway, fast forward three weeks and I actually noticed for the first time that my website was gone. (Seriously, I had no idea. That’s how much time I spend on this blog, haha. Sorry guys). I then proceeded to go through all the stages of grieving at once: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
I went through the entire grieving process in about 60 seconds.
It seemed everything I’d written in the last 7 years was gone – and yet, I’d come to terms with it pretty quickly. It’s one of the greatest skills I learned from my years of traveling: complete detachment. A hole in my heart that makes me feel nothing.
Just kidding. I meant ADAPTABILITY. The greatest skill I’ve learned in my life as a wandering gypsy idiot is adaptability. I can handle just about anything and roll with the punches with ease. Some of it does come from a sense of detachment, but that’s another story for another time.
So, blog. Gone. Grieving. Done. The only thing that tugged at my heartstrings was the realization that I’d lost one particular post. And that was the post I’d written about my parents’ escape from Vietnam. That one meant something to me and it meant something to a lot of other people. It made me sad to lose it. However, I knew I had at least one backup version of it somewhere.
But turns out, I didn’t need a backup after all. I just had to give GoDaddy a bunch of money and they restored the website within 24 hours.
I’d laugh if it wasn’t so stupid – and if I hadn’t just dropped an egregious amount of money to make sure it didn’t happen again for at least another 5 years.
Anyway, moral of the story: my blog is not immortal. The stories, the pictures, the random musings…they’ll only live here as long as I’m paying for them to live here. So what happens when I’m DEAD?
Which brings me to the point of all this: I joined Instagram.
Bit of a logical leap, I know. Especially for those of you who know how much I loathe social media and the culture of vapid vanity it’s enabled and emboldened (seriously, I can’t stand it – it makes me wanna throw up).
But basically, with so many free social media platforms available out there, perhaps I can let my world travels live on one of them. Like, as a backup. For like, when I die. Because…I’ll probably never have kids and will have, like, no legacy to leave behind.
Except for, like, a collection of photos that embody some of the greatest moments of my life.
(I don’t know why I just said “like” so many times. It may have been a subconscious stream of thought that my brain went down from “Instagram” to “teenager” to “the dumbing down of society” to “ohmygodwhyiseveryonesostupid” to “ohmygodimoneofthemnow”.)
Whatever the case – I’m on Instagram, bitches.
Follow me: www.instagram.com/travelingthy.
FYI my account is more of a “Later”gram account, posting photos from my previous travels – some of which you’ve seen here, some you haven’t. I’ll dabble in a legitimate “Insta”gram every now and then when the mood strikes, in the true spirit of being “instant.” But it’s mostly intended as a collection of photos – both old and new – that remind me of how wonderful life is through the eyes of a traveler. And someday, when I’m dead and decaying – and my blog is too – maybe Instagram will still be a thing and my travels will continue to be shared for all eternity.
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For the record, here’s what happens when your hosting expires through GoDaddy. This is according to Andi, the rep I talked to on December 11, 2016:
- GoDaddy sends you email reminders for 3 weeks.
- If you don’t pay your hosting renewal fee within the 3 weeks (21 days), your website is archived into what they call a “snapshot.”
- GoDaddy keeps your “snapshot” for 4 to 30 days, based on space availability. (As luck would have it, I just happened to call them one day after my “snapshot” was archived.)
- If you pay your renewal fee while the “snapshot” exists, you get to pay your renewal fee (yay!) plus a $149.99 restoration fee (double yay!).
- Otherwise, your website is forever deleted into cyberhell and go fuck yourself.
Ok so those weren’t Andi’s exact words. But it’s the gist. In any case, I went against principle and gave a corporation too much money to give me peace of mind (oh and hosting and domain services too) for the next 5 years. I hate myself for it but at least my site will be running for awhile.
I’ma try my best to keep writing here. I paid enough money for it. But come visit me on Instagram anyway!