I’ve been having some issues with my WordPress application, so I just reloaded and upgraded the software from WordPress.org. You shouldn’t notice anything different, and if you do, please let me know.
I’ve used WordPress from the very start. It’s a great tool when you are self-hosting your blog, which just means that I pay a host for my domain, bandwidth, email, etc. The ads that you folks click on occasionally help pay for all that.
If you are interested in setting up your own blog without the costs, I do recommend WordPress.com, the .org is for self-hosted sites and the .com is for the sites that WordPress hosts for free.
My blog (about social security disability – I used to be a claims examiner for SSA) is on google’s blogger service. I’ve thought about using wordpress, mainly because I like the templates that I occasionally see on various wordpress blogs and I like the layouts. I wonder if hosts that specialize in hosting wordpress sites do the installation and setup as well?
Tim: Most hosts have a utility called Fantastico that does all of the updates and installation for you. It will sometimes take a bit of time to get an important update, but otherwise it works very well.
I looked at your blog and would be interested in sending some folks your way. Lupus patients have a terrible time getting disability.
That sounds great. I may actually do my next blog using wordpress.
Yeah, filing for disability is a hard road. When I was a claims examiner, it used to take 3-5 months to get a hearing date. And the first two steps of the process (initial claim and reconsideration appeal) took less than a year together. That’s still a long total wait, but not nearly as long as now where it takes 2 years in many states just to get a hearing after its been requested. And even if you get approved, you could spend months waiting to get into payment receipt status.
The problem (and very few journalists understand this, though I was interviewed by one reporter in Oregon who did seem to get it) lies in the fact that the social security administration does not have the budget required to properly staff its field offices (where claims are taken) and payment processing centers. The feds also do not provide enough funding to allow the individual state-run disability determination agencies (where decisions are made) to retain employees.
The entire mess we currently have with three quarters of a million pending disability claims and gobs of claimants sinking into a financial abyss has everything to do with the fact that neither the administration nor Congress is willing to properly fund SSA. And by properly fund I mean that they’re not even willing to replace workers who quit or retire. My wife is a former examiner like myself, but she is also a social security field office rep. They’ve had 4 people retire in the last two years. None were replaced. Their workloads were simply redistributed to the remaining workers.
Back to Iron Man, thanks for posting the comment. I did see the movie and loved it. I was also glad to see that we’ll be getting a future peak at Nick Fury and the Avengers.
I’m slowly building my blogroll and I’ve put you on.