When you go about in Rome, you notice that facades are being rejuvenated, fountains cleaned, churches renewed and illuminated, ancient ruins uncovered and restored. It’s ongoing. Rome wasn’t built in a day and it won’t be repaired in a day either. There’s always something. In fact, there is a Roman proverb about unending jobs… “La Fabbrica di San Pietro non finisce mai… The work on St. Peter’s never ends”. La Fabbrica is now the title of the office of the maintenance of the massive place.
So, restoration, rejuvenation, renovation. That’s what I undergo for myself when I come to Rome for these sojourns. Important repaired work.
Coincidentally, the October Sojourns have also been periods in which this blog has been upgraded or migrated. Since it is old, and really big, that’s been a hard task and, along the way, some things got broken or lost. The old place was getting to be like a side chapel at The Parish™ with hundred of years of candle smoke and the wear and tear of use and movement when things happen.
At The Parish™ there has been astonishing work of cleaning the side chapels, the altar paintings, the decorative frescoes and stuccos. On top of that, a new and highly sophisticated lighting system has been installed. I remarked to a couple I met yesterday after the Solemn Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, that we now are able to see the church in a way that no one in its history had ever seen. The restored chapels and the illumination are a feast for the eyes. There are details now visible which we didn’t know were there, forgotten under the layering of years.
Which brings me back to the blog.
Once again during an October Sojourn, although the work started in September, the blog is getting its rejuvenation.
I won’t go into sharp detail about everything. Frankly I don’t understand a lot of what needed fixing and support. But someone who has been a long time reader and a member of the once established Catholic Signal Corps, came in with his tool belt and got to work.
DO’R has been working with the blog’s perennial guardian angel, DY, in a month dedicated to the Holy Angels. What they’ve done is remarkable. To focus on merely one of the troubled features here, the podcasts – everything was broken and/missing – partly due, I suspect, to my own lack of savoir fare, here is the description DO’R sent by text and why I am sitting here at 0500 writing this post. Gratitude is a powerful motivator.
WDTPRS cleanup: what was done today
Podcast site (Castopod) [One of the features provided by Federated Computer to replace SaaS]
The podcast site is working again: all 660 episodes play, and Apple Podcasts can play them too.
Gave it the blog’s look: red theme, a banner with your coat of arms, the “Z” icon, and an updated description.
Fixed the “Listen on” links so they point to your original Apple Podcasts listing, and added Overcast and Pocket Casts.
Podcast players on the blog
128 podcast posts from 2020 on now use the podcast site’s player, with “Listen & subscribe” links under it (Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, RSS).
11 of those were moved off SoundCloud.
Removed broken old podcast players that had reappeared on older posts.
Old videos
Recovered and converted 66 old videos, including old Flash ones, to a modern format.
Put them back in the 60 posts they belonged to, such as the 2008 World Youth Day clips, Habemus Papam 2009, and the Archbishop Chaput interview.
Amazon links and images
Repaired Amazon links and book covers in about 1,300 posts.
Around 1,700 book covers fixed; dead covers replaced with each book’s current cover.
222 dead Amazon links now go to the right book again.
Your affiliate tag added where it was missing, and corrected where it was damaged or belonged to another site. No existing tag of yours was removed.
Old podcast audio
Searched again for the missing audio from 2006–2019. 380 old podcast posts now have all their audio available.
I have a list of the 176 files still missing, with episode titles and lengths, to check against your backups.
Everything was backed up first, and each change was tested on one post before being applied.
Coming next: bringing the 2006–2019 podcast archive into the podcast site, and replacing the old “Subscribe in iTunes” badges.
See what I mean?
If you would, in your goodness, stop and say a decade of the Rosary for DO’R and for DY, I would be grateful. If the blog has been helpful for you, please remember these guy doing the work in the background. Concomitantly, the getting the blog up on the hydraulic lift has raised my spirits too.
maternalView on Catholics must read the entire Tradition in light of the Council in order to remain within the Church.: “My thoughts in parentheses. Catholics must read the entire Tradition in light of the Council. He claims this is necessary…”
