We really are close…
Yet…
When my brother Tom called to say he, along with our other brother Jeff, would be willing to help get michaelaba.com off the ground once again, I was initially hesitant. For one, I was unsure I’d be up to my end of the task. The lingering trauma from the enormous amount of website work done over five years ago has yet to dissipate. And I fear the receptive-to-new-ideas part of my brain is not nearly as strong as what it once was.
But as I wrote last month, their confidence eventually won me over.
We’re now fully in the midst of month two, and maybe, just maybe, my two brothers are beginning to feel some of the same pain. Because unexpected issues ALWAYS arise.
Before problems can be solved they must be identified, which can be a real time-consuming and intelligence-questioning ordeal. The audio book needed way more attention than I’d led everyone, including myself, to believe. A bizarre and almost nonsensical formatting error kept disrupting random paragraphs - in every book! Lyrics to all my songs needed to be individually inserted. Twice.
The music part of the website had been so amazingly reimagined by my two brothers, but they soon discovered what was to be a fatal flaw. Which in hindsight, I suppose, was more patiently viewed by them as an opportunity…
Tom and Jeff rolled with the punches and came up with a BETTER plan. One that would put the musical output from little old me in direct contact with Apple Music and Spotify. We’re in the final stages of the learning curve on this one, but I’m already starting to see how the final outcome will be far superior than the original concept. In fact, as of early this morning, my CD “Maybe it’s the Moon” can now be downloaded and/or heard from anywhere in the world!
Things do seem to be moving forward!
My brother Tom, by far, has been the main person dealing with all the never-ending road blocks, and his patience with my own inability to decipher any three steps of a four-step process is becoming, in my mind, legendary. He’s had to teach me everything. How to download the music and books. Where to store the pictures. Do the sample pages. How to change the text. He even produced a manual to help me navigate these maneuvers on my own in the future.
But - I’m happy to say - even Tom doesn’t always have a firm grasp on everything…
For example, I’m not sure he was aware how deleted items in Wix, our computer program, can end up in hidden trash folders that are capable of being restored. Because if he had known, he never would have allowed this work photo of himself to be left behind. For what would prevent me from displaying it right now, to all of you, as my way of ending this blog with a big THANK YOU!!! to him?…
Now I need to find out is whether or not he adequately taught me how to post the monthly blog. If this picture can be seen right now, you’ll know my brother Thomas somehow was able to distill in me this previously-unknown bit of expertise.
Ah - knowledge is power!
So again - thanks so much, Tom. And Jeff. Tricia and Aliyah, too.
We really are close!