A Matter of Sorting…

I’ve been sorting out this blog on and off for some time now. Ever since I’ve moved it from Movable Type to WordPress it became a bit of a mess. Movable Type had no easy option to convert the format to that of WordPress so I had to clean out all sorts of code. Still doing this whenever I have a moment. Having written a blog for 10+ years is a lot to digest and not just in this particular perspective.

Whenever I’m cleaning out code I end up reading old posts, some I have hidden, some I wanted to delete (although I haven’t) because they’re no longer accurate. They’re still a part of me and they do show how I felt at the time. Some made me extremely emotional the moment I realised what I’d been through and what I’ve had to deal with over the years. Others made me realise that I did what needed to be done…

And I’m proud of myself for doing so. I guess at times I tend to forget what happened since it’s much easier to think about the happy stuff. It also made me realise that some of my ‘best friends’ are no longer my best friends. I took my distance because they were judging me or judging the situation I was in instead of giving me the support and most of all the trust that I could handle things myself without all the well intended ‘good advice’.

I knew I could do it, I knew I could climb out of the hole and get things back in order. I knew I could focus as long as I could believe in my strength to do so. And I did… Life is hectic and I have little time but I miss writing a lot since it’s a way to clear my head and put things in perspective, hence this post. I’ve promised myself to write more often although I realise that I’ve mentioned the same in my last post, this time I need to do this: for me.

I guess I’ve been a tad disappointed with certain people and the way they treated me. I guess I expected them to believe in me since I had it all planned in my head. They did not show their support though, all they did was either criticize me or simply deny everything that was going on. I was tired of having to answer to them so I stopped doing this. The only one I had to answer to was me as I am responsible for my own actions.

It’s a shame that there has to be jealousy instead, it’s a shame that they envy my strength, it’s a shame that they cannot be happy for me and that there seems to be the tendency to ignore everything I have accomplished over the last three years. I do not understand their behaviour but I’ve promised myself not to worry about it, or even think about it because it is taking energy that I’d better use on positive things.

I’m happy and that’s all that matters. Of course there are certain issues that could use change but it will come in time and I’m not rushing to make these changes. Most of it is career-wise. I’m grateful that I have a job, although I work 12 hours a day at the moment having to travel back and forth. It’s a project that is fun and the contract has been extended twice already so I don’t mind.

The team that I work with are a bunch of funny geeks who appreciate what I’m doing which makes it all worth the trouble of having to commute daily. What was supposed to be a two months project already turned into a five months project and it wouldn’t surprise me if that would be extended by another two months. There’s still lots of work to do but I’m enjoying all of it. My designs, expertise and skills are highly valued which is greatly rewarding.

I’m sorting… in more than one perspective and I feel happy doing so :)

Unexpected Grief

I’ve had some serious problems with my business website and other domain, to be precise: with the software that I was using to run that website. It’s the same software that I’m using for this website and that I have been using for donkey years. Probably about nine: ever since the start of this blog. I’m slightly worried that the same might happen with this website and that I have to close it just like I had to with my business website.

It’s totally annoying… I think the main reason for the problem lies with G00gle. G00gle uses a tiny bit of software to scan all the pages for content. I’m avoiding the use of certain words on purpose in case you wonder why I’m all cryptic about it. I will explain in a moment. Since G00gle collects all the data, it is published and available from their website to everyone who visits and searches thus visible to the leeches as well.

So when they find your website and find the bit that is easy to take over and control then you might as well close it down because fighting the problem seems nearly impossible. The software I’m using has a weak spot and this is exactly what they will aim for and abuse. I found out it had been a week spot since the first release. I’ve had about thirty thousand h.i.t.s. in only seven days causing my account to almost exceed bandwidth.

Back to G00gle, since I am not using their service for this website I might be safe for now. But I was with the other one and just before the problem started I had written a post about the fact that I had been receiving lots of fake reactions on my posts coming from the far East. I’d also used keywords and I feel that because of that post in combination with the keywords and the search results from G00gle, it triggered the wrong kind of visitors.

The kind of visitors that just barge in and out each second trying to take control of what is yours and keeping at it with an extremely rigid and twisted enthusiasm. The kind that won’t take no for an answer. Ever since, I have been trying to fight the problem to no avail and it has only become bigger and more widespread coming from all directions of the globe. I’m blocking but some can’t be blocked unfortunately coz they’re way too clever!

I feel I’ve wasted so much time trying to deal with this. First I had to shut down the website, then I had to remove all the software, install a new CMS and totally redesign it. It was up and running for a while but then I saw it spike again and decided to take it offline until I’ve figured out a way to redirect incoming traffic to a fake page that contains no content and uses zero k in bandwidth so they won’t be able to spike it over and over again…

Anyway, you might understand why I am slightly worried. So if this website is gone all of a sudden you’ll know why.