Redefined Quest

Gee, there is so much going on in my life that I have no idea where to start and what to write. Lately I’ve been thinking about the purpose of this blog which has changed several times over the last years. It should’ve since it’s been almost ten years when I wrote the first post. I have been reluctant to write though because I feel that ever since I moved back this blog has lost its purpose. This is not true. What happened is that I have changed focus over time and I’m in the midst of a self-improvement process forcing me to have a good look at all angles of my life, not just one.

So what I’m saying is, that the quest is still there, it just changed. I have changed, I still am changing. And I guess that in order for me to keep this journal updated I should redefine its purpose and start from there. I’ve noticed that I feel like reading lots of the same neuro-linguistic programming stuff, mostly ebooks about self-help and self-improvement. I have been listening to ebooks/mp3′s as well and not just once but over and over again. Each and every aspect is covered several times and I keep coming to the same conclusions. Stuff that I’ve already written about in older posts.

It’s good though but I think I’ll have to start rearranging these thoughts and ideas to create order because it seems utterly chaotic lately. Perhaps it will help clear my mind as well. Don’t get me wrong this is not about relaxation, this is about creating clarity for me so I can get rid of the clutter in my head thus avoid over-thinking of things. Thinking too much or worrying is a way of procrastinating and so I figured that if I’d use this journal to keep track of goals -thus give it a new purpose- I could benefit in more than one way. I would have a solid reason to keep writing updates.

I would be motivated to write plus it would be a great way to keep track of any progress, to analyse myself and learn from behaviour and/or mistakes. So what is keeping me? Well mostly the things I wrote about in my previous email. I am seriously taking into consideration the fact that what happened to my business blog/website could easily happen with this website as well. I’m still dealing with these dark subjects after almost two months, it’s under control but it doesn’t take away a serious problem. One I luckily managed to avoid so far on here but that is lurking around the corner.

Plus if I was to change the subject I would also like to move this website to the main url instead of hiding it in a subdirectory and keeping it visible only to a few people. I could move it to the root of my domain and install WordPress instead of the current CMS that I’m using which is an accident waiting to happen. So why am I reluctant to do so? First of all it is going to be a lot -and I mean A lot!- of work to set up a completely new website. It means I would have to redesign the look and feel and time is the only thing that I don’t have right now because I need to focus on more important stuff…

The positive side would be the fact that I could easily protect certain posts from being read, or keep the whole website protected from lurkers if I wanted to. That is a major plus! To be honest, I think I’m having a hard time letting go of this so familiar CMS that I have been using for such a long long time. Perhaps it’s time to move away and move on, perhaps I’m not ready to see or face this. What is best for me? To move on… It seems to be the topic of everything that is currently going on in my life, the need for change, the need for progress and the need for knowledge and improvement.

I am working on a lot of things at the moment and I know I would make it a lot easier for myself if I had a checklist (read posts) so I could keep an eye on progress and lessons that I’ve learned so far. It would still be a place to vent at times but also a place where I could keep track of how I reinvent myself, letting go of the past and things that I no longer need and focus on the ‘now’ instead of a future or a past. This is why I had to write this post today, it felt like the right time. Now all I’d like to do is make a decision whether to keep this CMS or move on to another option along with the consequences.

I’m in recess to think this over and make a decision…
(perhaps when you check back you will noticed a/the change ;) )

Note to oneself: if you focus on one thing at a time you get it done much easier and faster than you’d imagine. I have been postponing writing a post for a long time and I wrote this in less than 15 minutes because I was determined to get it done. Lesson learnt: don’t waste time making things look more difficult than they really are. You can easily do it when you set your mind to it! :)

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.