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My WordPress site was hacked yesterday – here’s how I fixed it

hellomelissa.net, irritants, web 3 Responses »

Feb 222011

I was off for Family Day yesterday and I had planned to spend Flora’s naptime getting some writing done for this site.

(Sean was trying to spend his time catching up on some work. Our priorities may be a little messed up here.)

It was bad enough that Flora wouldn’t nap, but then I discovered that my site was hacked. So that put a stop to any writing I planned to do.

Let’s say this again. My site – my tiny little site – was hacked. You’d think this meant that I have hit the big time and that my site was worth hacking, but my stats don’t reflect this. I think this jagoff decided to hack my site just because he could. (I assume said jagoff is male – the name on my hacked page read as male, but maybe I’m wrong. Either way, still a jagoff.)

So I spent Flora’s non-naptime trying to remedy the problem. Trying to fix a web problem I’ve never had before with a non-napping toddler hanging off my every move wasn’t very effective. I did what I could, then got back to it after she went to bed. I went to bed with the site up but unsure of how to keep this from happening again. I did lots of Googling but I was having trouble with the more complicated concepts. I’ve been blogging a long time, but I’m fairly new to WordPress, so fixing its issues takes more time for me.

These articles helped me, and I’m posting them here in case you need them for your own site. (I hope you don’t.)

I’ve done most of the things these articles mention and I hope they’ll help against future attacks.

This is a big reminder to keep regular backups. I was able to restore the site because I had been backing up my database. Had I not done that, I could have gotten the site back up, but with no content. What’s the point of that?

So back up your stuff and do whatever you can to protect yourself. Hackers even want the little personal sites, not just the big guys.

(Note that these tips apply to self-hosted WordPress sites, not WordPress.com sites.)

#reverb10 – Day 7: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010?

friends, hellomelissa.net, ideas, life, thinking, web, writing No Responses »

Dec 082010

December 7 Prompt

Author: Cali Harris
caligater.com
@caligater

Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

reverb10.com

This article, posted yesterday on parentcentral.ca sums up some of my feelings on community:

First-time moms more likely to tweet and text than others

I was tweeting for over a year before I became a parent, but I found my usage really took off once I became a mum and was at home with the baby. I posted in other places too: Facebook, my “baby board” – a message board geared to mums with babies born in the same month as mine, my website, Flickr and so many places.

Having a baby just gave me so much to say to the world. I think that was because when I was at home, I was talking to myself or the newborn, who didn’t talk back yet. I needed an outlet for all the little things I wanted to say, but would forget by the time my husband returned from work. (By then, those little things weren’t usually as important anyway.)

Once I got out of the newborn haze, it was easier to reach out to the world and talk about things other than parenting a baby. I struggled with talking and posting about her too much, and reminded myself to talk about the rest of my life. Like most new mums though, my world was small and didn’t stretch much beyond my daughter. As she got older, my world got bigger, and now I feel like I’m part of the world as a person again, and not just a parent.

Two years ago, I never could have participated in this type of writing project. It would have been boring, repetitive and I wouldn’t have had the time. It may still be occasionally boring and repetitive now, but at least I’m not saying “ZOMG BAYBEEZ!” in every sentence.

I have been so grateful to connect with so many people online, whether they are parents or not. Going to Blissdom Canada this year allowed me to take that sense of community into the real world, and I hope to repeat that in 2011.

I find it easier to reach out online. Now I need to do a little more reaching out in the real world. I hope to do both in 2011.

#reverb10 – Day 3: Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year.

hellomelissa.net, ideas, life, writing 2 Responses »

Dec 032010

December 3 Prompt

Author: Ali Edwards
Memory Keeping Idea Books
@aliedwards

Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Reverb10.com

It’s hard to pick one moment when I’ve felt the most alive. Mostly because I’m alive all the time.

But the moments when I’ve felt most alive this year (and all the time), all have a common thread.

I’ve put everything down, looked up and paid attention to the outside world.

Whether I’ve been outside bringing my lunch back to work, looking out the window on the subway or just walking around outside, reminding myself that I am a part of the world at large makes me feel more alive.

Looking up at the sky. Taking a deep breath. Reminding myself that I am more than what most of the world sees. That we are all more than what the world sees of us.

That deep breath while looking out at the world makes me feel like a part of the word at large. And if that isn’t a way to feel alive, I don’t know what is.

#reverb10 – Day 2: What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing – and can you eliminate it?

hellomelissa.net, ideas, life, thinking, writing 5 Responses »

Dec 022010

December 2 Prompt

Author: Leo Babauta
focusmanifesto.com
@zen_habits

Prompt: Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?

Reverb10.com

Distract and procrastinate.

Aren’t those two of the most powerful tools in a writer’s bag of tricks?

In the thirty minutes or so since I started writing this post , I’ve chosen and fiddled with my choice of background music, flipped in and out of Twitter a few times, gotten Sean a snack and written some truly awful material.

I’m pretty sure I’m distracting myself from answering the hard questions here. Next I’ll procrastinate on actually answering the question.

I’m not so sure I can eliminate distraction and procrastination from my life completely, but I can certainly try to control it better.

How do you control your levels of procrastination and distraction while writing?

#reverb10 – Day 1: One Word

hellomelissa.net, ideas, life, motherhood, parenthood, writing 2 Responses »

Dec 012010

December 1 Prompt
Author: Gwen Bell
gwenbell.com
@gwenbell

Prompt: One Word. Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

Reverb10.com

So it’s Day One of #reverb10. I thought the first one would be easy. And it is, sort of. Come up with two words, one to describe 2010, and one to describe 2011.

I’m not a one-word thinker. I think in paragraphs, not bullet points. I’m a bit of a talker, and it sometimes takes time for me to get to the point. This one word thing seems to be following me. I came up with my one word from the conversation about it at Blissdom Canada earlier this year. It only took me nearly two weeks to come up with it. And I’m supposed to come up with two “one words” tonight?

Can I use the same word? I don’t think so, they don’t seem to match.

2010 was an interesting year. We saw lots of milestones in the Mitchell household. Flora moved further away from babyhood and into toddlerhood by learning to walk and talk, having her one-year anniversary at daycare and having her second birthday. Of course lots of other things happened to her this year, but these are the big ones.

But this isn’t about my daughter’s year, it’s about my year.

I’m having trouble separating them though. I’ve written and erased several sentences of clichés about my life as a working mum of a toddler. It pisses me off that I’ve become that clichéd image of a working mum. I’m not high in the office pecking order, so it’s not like balancing these two parts is any more difficult than it is for most parents.

But it is really hard sometimes.

So I guess my one word to describe 2010 is “blended”. I’m certainly not balanced. The scale tips this way and that depending on who needs me more when. Sometimes it’s Flora. Sometimes it’s work. Sometimes it’s Sean. Sometimes it’s family.

Sometimes – and not nearly often enough – it’s me.

No one is balanced. I’ve learned that no matter what I’m doing, I’ll always feel guilty I’m not doing something else, everything else, all at the same time and to as close to perfection as I can get. So, everything gets blended into one big thing. I’m lucky that my job doesn’t require lot of take-home work. I don’t travel anywhere and I like the people I work with.

Still, it takes a lot of energy to keep the machine running sometimes.

I don’t expect 2011 to be much different. I’ll still have a toddler (an older toddler, but she won’t be three until September) and I’ll still be trying to manage everything all at the same time.

To be clear, I don’t manage everything on my own. Sean is a great dad and a hard worker and I know he feels as pulled in as many different directions as I do. I’m grateful that we’re in this together.

I try to remember that you can’t make everyone happy at the same time, so you need to make yourself happy first. I don’t always succeed in living by that motto, but remembering it is a good start.

So my ideal 2011 could be summed up as “prioritized”. I’ll do better with picking my battles – I can’t pick all of them at the same time. I’ll try and make the right choices that best take care of my family, and of myself. I will make Sean and my marriage a priority. I will make myself a priority. We can’t all be Priority One all the time, but we can’t all be left off the list either.

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