You may have noticed a significant decline in the number of article on Raging Chicken Press over the past several weeks. I want to apologize for not writing to you sooner to let you know what’s up. Well, I’m back in the saddle again, logged on, and trying to catch up on a backlog of work.
This past April, as you may recall, our site was hacked. The hack didn’t pose any kind of significant security threat, but it seriously messed up our site. As a result, I had to delete our site theme and rebuild from scratch. Luckily we are built in WordPress and have an AWESOME hosting company that provides exceptional technical support. So, if you are looking for a place to host your site, I STRONGLY recommend Bluehost. Seriously, without their assistance, I would have ripped my hair out.
While the hack was time-consuming, it also happened at the worst time of the year. My full-time job – you know, the one I get paid for – is being an academic at Kutztown University. April is the end of the academic year – when the workload it the heaviest. This whole year has been exceptionally stressful to begin with, but the months of April and May took a toll. Around the same time, my assistant editor, Sean Kitchen, and I were trying to set up Raging Chicken Press’s first-ever podcast, figure our how to fund our site and contributors, and figure how the two of us were going to be able to handle the increased workload. Sean’s work hours steadily increased and my kids’ demand on my time did the same. This is part of the difficulty of trying to run a site like ours as a side project.
At the end of May, the computer on which I do 90% of my Raging Chicken Press work, decided to crap out. While I was able to do some updates on my laptop, most of the graphic design, audio and video editing, and site maintenance work I do is much more suited to a desktop computer. After much thought and research, I finally bought a new computer with tons of memory and speed. My computer was not fresh and quick. I, however, was not. Frankly, I was exhausted. After a couple of additional family issues, I needed a break – some time to think about how to keep all of this going. My one regret is not letting all of you know earlier. Frankly, I don’t think I realized how exhausted I was until I had a break for a couple of weeks.
I want to say a HUGE word of thanks to Sean Kitchen for continuing to post and keep Raging Chicken going during my little hiatus. I realize the site may have seemed more like that Raging Kitchen over these past few weeks because of that…I hope you all enjoyed it. But seriously, Sean is a rare individual and someone who has helped make Raging Chicken Press all that it is. He and I have hoped to expand our little editorial group over the past couple of years, but thus far it’s pretty much been the two of us.
So, there is so much to do and it’s already the end of June. I’ll spare you any more of my whining…time to get back to work. Thanks to all of you for your continued support! Keep on Raging!
You guys put out more valuable info, insight, and context than any mainstream media of which I am aware. The NYT should take notice. Of course, I almost forgot, they only print “all the news that fit to print” “FIT” being a key word. Establishment tool, but the NYT’s huge number of articles often makes some of my friends think they actually do real investigative work. They usually only scratch the surface, IMO, with a lot of factoids and little context. You guys and places like CommonDreams.org do us all a great service. Thanks for Raging Chicken—by the way, the genesis of the name comes from the appearance of the clock tower at Kutztown U., sort of looks like the profile of a chicken, correct??
I appreciate the note! We do work our butts off building a site for progressive, activist media. And, yes, the clock tower at KU is where I got the idea for the name. I wanted something to signify our commitment to a Pennsylvania, to locales, and to where we got our start. 🙂
Did you say the site was hacked? Any ideas by whom? Perhaps you meant fracked.
Welcome Back, Professor Raging Chicken!
Thanks, Wendy!
I’m glad you are feeling better! Remember: if you want another podcasting voice, I’m your gal.