GoDaddy: How to Solve 500 Internal Server Error

Let’s face it: Murphy’s Law is always waiting to rear its ugly head. In more blunt terms, shit happens.  And in blogging, the sight of a 500 Internal Server Error is one those dreaded errors capable of inducing cold sweat.  Take it from me because just this weekend, I came face to face with this depressing error once again, this time is for another reason but stupid rookie mistake nonetheless – I accidentally deleted the host database.

Was I able to recover from it? Yes and no. Yes, I was able to get my page back online. No, I lost all my blog posts.

So what did I do to resolve the problem?

1. Accepted fate. Two days after trying my luck by installing, de-installing, and re-installing WordPress 3.4.2 using Filezilla, I accepted the fact that this isn’t the solution. Time wasted but sanity recovered.
2. Gathered composure. After accepting the fact that I just wiped out years of blog posts, I gathered my composure and sought online help. While my search led me to a WordPress.Org help forum where the answers weren’t direct, it gave me a hint on what to check.
3. Created new database. From the emotional part comes the technical aspect of recovering from a 500 Internal Server Error. Based on experience, wherein I encountered compatibility issues between GoDaddy’s Domain and Hosting settings, I created another database with MySQL version 5. This one took only around 10 minutes to do.
4. Modified the file wp-config.php. Assuming that your GoDaddy FTP File Manager is set up properly, this step is surprisingly easy.  From the newly created database, I took note of three (3) items:  (1) DB Name (this is the usually the same as DB User), (2) DB Password, and (3) DB Host, and then placed these on the wp-config.php file. Here are the lines that need to be changed (underlined):

// ** MySQL settings – You can get this info from your web host ** //

/** The name of the database for WordPress */

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘IAmACarelessBlogger‘);

/** MySQL database username */

define(‘DB_USER’, ‘IAmACarelessBlogger‘);

/** MySQL database password */

define(‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘IWillbeMoreCarefulNextTime‘);

/** MySQL hostname */

define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘ClickOnThePencilIconAndThisOneCanBeFoundBesideHostName‘);

5. Moved on. As expected, I opened my site and was welcomed by an entirely new page, fresh page, all blog posts gone. But there is no point in crying over spilt milk, or in this case a wiped out blog; so yes, moving on and starting all over again is the last step in this process.

***

I am now trying to decide if I should continue catering nuffnand adds. About a month ago I checked and I have got some payment for having it on my blog – about 6 pesos. Yes, just 6 pesos.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (I heard my wife will be going to SM. Note to self: avoid the cashier near the men’s section.)

Another Fresh Start for MarcusCanBlog.Com

October 1, Philippine time. If you have been an avid fan (indulge me) of this blog and returned to discover that something is amiss, well, you are right. That is because over the weekend, with me taking a day off earlier than usual because some of my colleagues suggested that I grab the extra time off slot, whatever their reasons are, which I gladly accepted anyway, I tried to install an Instagram plug-in so that I can integrate wifey’s photos but unfortunately I got careless and clicked on the wrong file — and of all files, the main database — on my GoDaddy.com hosting page. And to make the story short, that wiped out ALL my blog posts.

Thankfully, all is not really lost. Two months ago I got another plug-in called Feedfabrik that made me save all my blogs, at least until July 2012, into one e-book consisting of around 1,200 pages. I can also recover some from my old wordpress.com but these contain a lot of grammar error than my recent posts so it might take some time before I review and completely edit these posts and proudly showcase them on marcuscanblog.com.

***

Lesson learned: back up, back up, back up….the right database.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Happy Blogger!)

Poem for Spongebob Squarepants

We used to hate you and your cartoon show,

Until Marcus made us fall in love with your color, yellow.

He has stuffed toys, yes, more than one,

But he always looks for you more often than anyone.

You’ve made him laugh when something, or someone, made him cry

We know, therefore, he wishes that you’d never die.

Happy 26th Birthday,Yaya.

***

Trivia: Our son, even until now, calls Spongebob Squarepants as Yaya (that’s nanny in Filipino)–not because he is always with him like any yaya should be but it’s from the yeah, yeah, yeah expression Marcus hears from this cartoon character.

***Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Thanks Berocca!)

Spider-Man or Spiderman?

 

 

 

“Seeing a spider isn’t a problem. It becomes a problem when it disappears.”

— via Twitter.

While Peter Parker had to face problems such as when to be in the right place at the right time to fight crime and whether he should give up his hero status to have a normal life with the girl he has been longing to be with, I on the other hand has begun thinking when the character who I’ve used to know as just Spiderman became to be Spider-Man. Thanks to the grammar OC in me, I made an extra effort to actually send an email to the folks of www.grammarphobia.com, an email which I never expected would be taken seriously but I was wrong; A couple of days after, I received an interesting answer.

Here’s what I wrote to mailbox@grammarphobia.com1:

Good day! This latest Amazing Spider-Man movie made me realize that I have been spelling Spider-Man wrong but I am wondering if there’s any difference between Spiderman and Spider-Man (while I’m typing this letter, the red wriggly line of spell check tells me that the non-hyphenated word is incorrect).”

And here’s the answer: Hi, Cris,

Spider-Man’s name has a hyphen because Stan Lee, who created the comic character with Steve Ditko, apparently wanted to distinguish him from Su- perman.

In a Feb. 24, 2010, comment on Twitter, Lee wrote: “Spidey’s official name has a hyphen—’Spider-Man.’ Know why? When I first dreamed him up I didn’t want anyone confusing him with Superman!”

However, Lee’s memory may have been playing tricks. His superhero’s name appeared as two words, “SPIDER MAN,” when it first showed up in 1962 on the cover of the final issue of Amazing Fantasy (a magazine previously known as Amazing Adult Fantasy).

 


1mailto:mailbox@grammarphobia.com

 

 

We’ve also read online that Lee, a former president of Marvel Comics, may have wanted to avoid infringing on the DC Comics trademarks for the un- hyphenated “Superman.”

(“Stan Lee,” by the way, is the pen name of Stanley Martin Lieber.)

Interestingly, the word “spider-man” had been around (with and without a hyphen) before the Stan Lee character showed up.

The first published reference in the Oxford English Dictionary is from the Britannica Book of the Year (1955): “Spiderman, an erector of building structures.”

The OED‘s entry for “spider-man” (Oxford uses a hyphen) defines the term as “one employed to work on high structures; a steeple-jack.”

We’ll end with a 1958 citation from the Radio Times, a British magazine that features broadcast program listings:

“These spider-men and steel-erectors work at great heights, often where there are no means of protection. They walk along girders at dizzy heights as though they were strolling along Piccadilly.”

And by the way, be skeptical of those red, wriggly lines. There are lots of words that spell-checkers don’t know.

Thanks for a great question, and all the best, Pat O’Conner & Stewart Kellerman”

To learn more about these guys, follow @grammarphobia on Twitter.

***

 

 

 


 

In the real world, Spidey is a Krispy Kreme donut. He did not survive Marcus.

This past weekend, Marcus finally got to watch his first Spidey movie on the big screen though he has been watching over and over and over and over again the Tobey Maguire-starred Spider-Man DVD we have at home.

The Amazing Spider-Man is rated PG13 and not surprisingly it shows sev- eral scenes when we had to cover our son’s eyes to keep him from watching Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy make out. We realized though that he has had enough of seeing hands and jacket in front of his face when he protested and exclaimed, “Not Again!”

There was also another moment when almost every moviegoer was holding their breath as Spider-Man starts swinging from one crane boom to another, on his way to save the city from having more freaky lizards, when our son’s recent fascination with video games got obvious after Spidey disappeared from the frame and an immediate “Game Over!” from Marcus filled the dark cinema. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Under a nipa waiting shed, waiting for Spidey, I mean Marcus who is currently in the classroom.)

He Created Restless Children Too

“It is easier for a father to have children than for children to have a real
father.” – Pope John XXIII

How many times have we been in the church to hear mass and expecting it to be one that so solemn, it relieves us of the past week’s stresses and readies us spiritually for the next? But how many times have we been distracted by kids who have decided to make the pews and the altar their playground and tried testing whether they can generate an echo in every corner of the church? Much worse, how many times have we been the parents of these restless Sunday kids?

To answer the last question, it has been happening to us a lot lately. Thanks to our ever active son, whether he is sick or not, Marcus.

Because like karma proving itself true, I now realize that my past encounters with unruly kids and how I have secretly cursed them and/or their parents while I try to fake a smile and maintain composure as I do my Sunday prayers have finally caught up on me. I seem to now slowly accept the fact that even my most fervent prayers may not work to pacify one restless son. I am now among the helpless parents who can’t do anything but pray for divine intervention – and one that is less likely to happen at all. I think God doesn’t touch uber active children but rather he makes parents ponder what was done and what still needs to be done to produce one well-mannered kid inside the church (or any other place).

So please if ever you get to be one lucky church person, because you are
either single or married but still childless and whose only problem is if your
message to the mighty heavens gets across, please understand that if you
are annoyed by kids running uncontrollably around you, bear in mind that someone among those bowed head somewhere is a helpless and embarrassed parent of that kid and ever wondering if indeed God created restless children, too.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Dear God, Thanks for Sundays.)

Love in a jeepney

Late in the afternoon, the sky is overcast, western wind blows cold but two people still in their college uniforms don’t seem to care. Sitting tightly in a half-full jeepney, the girl’s left arm hooks from under the guy’s right with both hands closing the romantic loop. The couple stares outside as if wondering when heavy downpour will eventually happen, yet they’re not. The rain is the least of their worries.

Almost cheek to cheek, their eyes don’t meet but their body language, despite the reserved movement from time to time to shift from one straining position to another, suggests that there’s more to the warmth of their proximity. It’s Friday and they’re looking forward to doing things but school works.

“Young and in love, I was once like them,” Bani talks to himself as if influenced by the weekly radio show’s new wave music. These are songs from his time, songs from more than a decade ago.

The Cure’s Friday I’m in Love continues playing; this time the volume is a lot lower that it used to be back in his youthful days – just in the background, just enough to mask the monotonous purr of his vehicle’s engine.

Bani cherishes this advantage of being in an enclosed and air-conditioned car where air is pure which the rusty and annoying jeepneys outside him obviously cannot boast. The void, however, inside the comfy sedan cannot be denied. Bani is in deep thought. A part of him wished that he can just be young and in love and be in a jeepney.

On cue, the music transitioned from the Robert Smith classic to The Cars’ Drive – another track Bani used to enjoy even while inside a packed jeepney.

“Who’s gonna tell you when, it’s too late Who’s gonna tell you things, aren’t so great You can’t go on, thinkin, nothin’s wrong Who’s gonna drive you home tonight…”

Traffic has begun to move and he glances from left and right to check the mirrors and quickly returns his sight in front of him. Through his lightly- tinted windshield, he can see that the young couple has huddled tighter. The rain has started pouring hard. The road is starting to get wet.

***

Lyrics from Sing35.com2

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Half lies, half truth.)

Interesting Thirteen

If there’s one number that’s so common to us this month, it’s the number 13 and whether that’s a good sign or not, I find it interesting nevertheless.

13th wedding anniversary. This year we are celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary and to make it unique than the previous ones, I wrote the longest letter ever to my wife. If I’m not mistaken this too beats, in length and probably even in substance, the letters that I’ve given to her during our courtship days. Let’s just say that this is my way of making sure that we survive the 7-year itch — our 2nd set. By the way, we got married on a date that is equal to 2 multiplied by 13.

The warm trio and the cold Ortigas skyline.

 

13th floor, anyone? Wifey made a reservation for an overnight stay in Holiday Inn Galleria for our special day. On our way up to our room, I was trying to prod our son to read and count the numbers on the elevator’s level indicator when I noticed the red LED-lit display jumped from the number 12 to 14 – it skipped a number. I’ve been riding elevators for years and it is just now that I noticed that there’s no 13th floor. So the practice of excluding it is really true. Wow, freaky. (According to Yahoo!3, some buildings, like

the famous Empire State, have designated a13th floor.)


3http://ask.yahoo.com/20070207.html

Proof that Holiday Inn has poltergeists.

June 13. This is just some coincidence, nothing extraordinary. It is only the day when Marcus finally started going to school; Marcus, who became our son on November the 13th. Ti abi.

Marcus on his way to school for the very first time. He did better than expected that day.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Stuffed from last night’s food spree at the office.)

Goodyear Duraplus offers quieter ride


It’s no Goodyear but I know Marcus would love to see Guido live in action.

Concrete, asphalt, potholed, slippery, and a combination of these road conditions had me nothing but praises for my car’s new tires. Other than the confidence of having deep-treaded tires during this rainy season, I am starting to get the impression that Goodyear Duraplus tire offers quieter ride compared to my old Bridgestone tires.

I got our car out of the dealer’s shop with Bridgestone 185/80R13 as its stock tires and just days after that I began accepting that what I’ve heard and read about the Honda City 2008 model are true – that road noise penetrating the interior is one of its design flaws. I never knew though that friends and people in the forums could be wrong. Now it seems clear that it is not the car’s design that is the culprit but rather the factory installed tires. And why do I think so?

You will know that my car remains almost stock until now, no modification whatsoever except for the DIYed front speakers upgrade. Budget has stopped me from soundproofing by using sound deadeners
that most car enthusiasts would recommend for a quieter ride. Of course I have read about replacing (or experimenting with) tires as a solution to road noise but I’ve been skeptic about it because I have this notion that any tire would emit the same level of road noise anyway. Well, I was wrong. I recently learned that one of the cheapest Goodyear 175/70R13 size in the market is capable of lessening road noise to a noticeable level even if a quieter ride isn’t among those benefits explicitly stated on Goodyear’s website.

So now that I am free of that rumbling sound that I’ve gotten used to in the past four years, I can now put to good use my sense of hearing while driving. I can now focus more on incoming traffic, identify the sound of motorcycles approaching my blind spots, and hear pedestrians rushing to cross the road. Similarly, I will now be less distracted when I have people inside the car talking such as one little boy blabbering about almost every- thing that comes to mind while he is in the backseat. And yes, when all alone, I may now fully enjoy any music from the car stereo and sing along with it in the process. Well, there are annoying sounds that are even a good car tire just can’t handle. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Hot Saturday morning!)