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Obligatory Anniversary Post

March 29, 2011April 1, 2011 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

April 1 2011 is the 11th anniversary of my first public blog post. I’m not linking it, but you’re welcome to dig through my archives and find it.

I posted much more frequently back then, but many of those posts were only a couple of sentences long. Some were only tweet-length. Many things probably shouldn’t have been posted, but the site certainly makes for an interesting time capsule of my 20s, and now my 30s. (I was 21 when I started blogging. I turn 33 in August, if you were wondering.)

My blog has seen me through a lot of major milestones:

My first major job (I’d been working there for nearly a year by the time I’d started but I was still pretty green, especially when you see some of the things I was willing to say. Nothing truly trashy, but I was sure open to admitting that I was writing instead of working. I was meeting my deadlines and targets, but I still want to pat my 21-22 year-old self on the head and say “shut up Melissa!”
My move into Toronto (I really don’t miss that Oshawa > Toronto work commute)
Getting engaged, buying a house and getting married within 13 months.
Pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood
And all the little milestones in-between that don’t make all the sappy banking or life insurance commercials but are still important

Just for kicks, here are some links to how my site has looked over the years using the Wayback Machine (which is pretty neat in itself). Dates indicate when the site was crawled.

I learned a lot about web design during the early days of my site. I used to hand code the layout and Blogger took care of the rest. Then I started using Blogger’s built-in themes with some customization. When I moved to Vox.com, I relied on pre-built themes which were super-easy to change. I do that now with WordPress as well. I love that I can concentrate less on the structure and more on the content.

I enjoy blogging because I like having a place I can write and say what I want. This place can be a journal, a soapbox, a place for general information, or whatever I want. I have complete creative control. And that feeling is awesome. Reading, and eventually meeting great people due to blogging is such an amazing bonus. I blog for me first, but I’ve learned from so many people over the years and I am grateful for each and every one of you.

If you’re a blogger, did you expect to get hooked? What sucked you in?

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

February 22, 2011 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

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?

December 8, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

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.

December 3, 2010 by Melissa Price-Mitchell

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.