Hello folks! For some reason, it seems that the majority of the pictures I have featured in my posts for roughly the past six months, which used to show up completely fine, have all suddenly disappeared off this blog and are no longer visible to people reading my posts over the internet for some bizarre reason. The images still show up when I view them in edit mode and I have some vague impression of what the problem may be. Unfortunately, I am probably going to have to fix each photo individually, which will be an extremely labor-intensive and time-consuming task.
It is difficult to convey how deeply frustrating I find this. I already have far less time to devote toward this blog than I used to. I started my MA program last month and I am taking a total of four courses for credit and working as a course assistant for one additional course this semester, amounting to a total of five courses or twenty credit hours that I need to keep up with. I have also been making a lot of friends with the fellow grad students in my program and I am actually starting to have something resembling a social life for really the first time since I was in middle school a decade ago. (It’s wonderful, but it feels absolutely bizarre!)
As a result of the combination of all these factors, it is becoming more difficult to keep posting on this blog as regularly as I would like. I am still trying to make a new post at least once every week. I am planning to make a post hopefully before the end of this week about how the Epic of Gilgamesh is not the oldest surviving work of literature, in which I will discuss various works of literature that are even older than it. Sadly, this whole situation with most of my pictures randomly disappearing will most likely take up even more of my time, so please don’t be disappointed if I can’t make the post until this weekend or possibly even next week.
UPDATE: I’ve figured out the problem and have fixed most of the images! It’s taken me nearly four hours and there are still probably some images I’ve missed, but most of them appear to be showing up now. I’d like to sincerely thank my commenter Rick R for pointing out a clue that helped me solve the problem. It turns out that, as the result a new update, a method I was previously using to size images no longer works and was breaking the images.
I’m sorry about the photo phiasco, glad you seem to be thriving in academia, and might you consider writing the stuff about pre-Gilgamesh lit sooner and wrassling images later? Maybe it’ll fix itself.
Unfortunately, the problem with the pictures is absolutely pervasive and extremely serious. It seems to be affecting nearly every post I have made in the past six months. There are some posts where nearly all the images have completely disappeared. These disappearances have also severely compromised the arguments of certain articles, since I regularly use pictures as evidence to support my arguments. I feel that it would be irresponsible for me to ignore this problem.
Hey Spencer, no worries…we all map out and make plans… and then life happens (or as another variant of this is that “we all make plans in life and then God laughs at us”).
Your studies should come first and everything else, including your posts, can accordingly follow. No worries if you post a week later or even the months later, we’ll all still be here to share your wonderful posts and writing style.
Keep safe, be well and stay (academically) busy!
Best regards,
Dino
*…”No worries if you post a week later or even the months later…”
Should be saying…”three months later”.
P.S. Truly sorry to hear about your pictures problem… totally understand your frustration with that… hope you resolve easily.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words.
I can see in the page source for the “missing” pictures that the width and height have been set to one pixel:
width=”1″ height=”1″
The links and pictures are all good, it’s just that the WP size settings seem to be interpreted incorrectly. Surely some sort of configuration change or upgrade must have preceded this? Sorry I don’t have a more specific suggestion.
Thank you so much! This is actually really helpful. My Dad usually takes care of the tech side of the blog and he recently told me that he ran all the latest updates. It is possible that that may have somehow messed up most of the pictures. If that’s the case, though, then it is strange that I didn’t notice any issues until just now.
I have now figured out the problem and fixed most of the images. Your clue about the image sizing set me in the right direction when I had previously been thinking that the problem was something else totally different. It apparently turns out that, as the result of a new update, a method I was previously using to size images no longer works and was breaking the images.
Awesome, I’m glad I could help, even if it was just a simple observation. Soldier on!
Sorry to hear about the tech problem, but I am glad that your social life is going well! Also it is great that you can still make posts here, from what I have heard graduate studies can be very stressful
Absolutely fine spencer, I, and I’m sure I speak for all of us that read your posts, am extremely grateful for the time you have given all of us.
Congrats on your new social life mate, you deserve it and more for all your labours and in sharing with us your knowledge and thoughts, I always look forward to reading your content.
And I think you’d be a blast to hang with.
Older than Gilgamesh eh, I think I know where your going with this and I’m excited to see what you give us.
Many many thanks and glad to see the tech issues are sorted.
You’re welcome! Thank you so much for the kind words!
Glad you could find a solution! It’s nice that you are making friends in grad school, too. Something about leaving home for a university just makes it easier to have a social life, ya know?
I think it also immensely helps that I’m in a program with a whole bunch of other people who are just as obsessed with ancient stuff as I am. Thus, my obsession with ancient stuff, which, in virtually every other context, is something of a social impediment, since most people outside of academia can only handle so much of the subject, has become a way to connect with people. So far at least, I also think that I made an extremely good choice with the program I’m in. I’m really enjoying all my courses and liking all my professors so far and the graduate student community here at Brandeis, at least in the Ancient Greek and Roman Studies program, is phenomenal.
That sounds great! Really happy for ya. It’s very important you made the right choice in program. I myself would’ve been happier if I had chosen history as a major.
I think you should maybe once a month write a post. It would be best if you had more time for your courses and social life. Go for it. As for disappearing pictures, you should keep a folder of everything you put on the blog. Suppose you don’t have Snagit, https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html. I suggest you get that app to snag your photos or any photos into a folder.
Congratulations for the beginning of the MA, the rejuvenated socialization and the image fix. Nice strike!
It’s absolutely fine, Spencer, you’ve already put out tons of really good-quality content. It’s amazing how much you know about history at such a young age, this blog is awesome. I learned a lot from you for which I thank you. It’s also great that you’ve made so many friends – you really deserve it.
Really looking forward to your article about the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words and support! It always means a lot to me to hear that my posts matter to someone. I am also very much looking forward to posting my article about surviving pre-Epic of Gilgamesh works of literature myself.
Glad you have the issue sorted out, can’t imagine what it was like when you noticed the pictures you were using weren’t showing up in your posts. Also glad you’re getting a social life outside the internet, God knows we all need a break from it once in awhile. Can’t wait to see your post on the Epic of Gilgamesh, take your time with it of course, there are clearly more important things going on in your life. From my understanding most translations of Gilgamesh are just Frankenstein versions of the Standard Babylonian version of Sîn-lēqi-unninni and the older Old Babylonian version (and a few others), the YouTuber The Histocrat has a great video that details the textual development of the poem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBvr7SJ4VE4. Needless to say, calling Gilgamesh the “oldest work of literature” is indeed questionable.
Spenser,
I am happy to be one of your supporters, but I want to be clear that I do so because I enjoy your writing, not because I consider that to be a subscription. Your articles inform and enrich my life—you illuminate the human condition, teasing out strands like someone unknotting a tangled necklace with a needle— in accessible language. If the insatiable maw of the internet starts to overwhelm you, please take a break: you obviously love writing here as much as we do reading, but your studies and life have to take priority.
All work and no play makes Spencer a dull being: please, please, do not feel guilty about having a social life!
Thank you so much! This is extremely kind of you and I will definitely be following your advice.
I certainly don’t feel guilty about having a social life, but I do like to post new articles frequently, in part because I want to keep pushing out new content for my regular readers and also in part because there are so many different topics I want to write about that I become somewhat annoyed when I get stuck working on a single post for a long period of time and it prevents me from working on other posts that I have ideas for.
I find that WordPress consistently make changes (“updates”) that cause problems with those on their platform. Most of the issues I’ve encountered in the past pertain to images, as well. Personally I don’t know why they keep fiddling with something that’s clearly not broken…
Hey Spence, just out of curiosity, when do you think the angels article will be ready?
It’s been about four fifths of the way finished for months now, but I still have to finish it. I really ought to finish that one soon, since I’ve had it on the backburner for ages.
Okay cool! I can’t wait for it! Keep up the good work Spence!