Why Would I Write

Category: Rants

  • Stop Hacking My Blog, Man

    It’s been a while since my blog was last hacked. This time it was more subtle – there was some malware causing redirection shenanigans leading people to other sites instead and set off Chrome’s unsafe site warnings. I thought I solved it by creating a new copy of my blog (and losing my old theme in the process) and deleting all my old files. I changed my passwords and installed some security plugins. It’s been fine for the most part and everything seemed okay for a while. But over the past few days I’ve had malware warnings again and notifications about failed logins and files being uploaded to my blog.

    Obviously something is up but I have no idea what. I deleted and restored the files on my blog and everything seems okay again. Today I enabled 2 factor authentication. Hopefully that solves the problem. Because if someone else is getting in without my knowledge, I don’t know what else to do. My web host can’t seem to offer any solutions either, claiming that it’s probably a WordPress issue and that I should create my own CMS or switch to an alternative – something I wouldn’t mind doing if it wasn’t so much of a hassle.

    WordPress makes blogging so easy and I’ve got everything setup the way I want it. If I were to move the blog to another service, it would break ALL the internal links on my site. Not a good idea, obviously. But if I keep getting attacked, I don’t see an alternative. Maybe go back to blogger or have my site hosted on wordpress.com – which would be terrible. If anyone has any solutions, I’m all ears. But for now, I hope 2FA is good enough.

    Also, I don’t understand why hackers would want to target my site. I honestly have zero traffic – I max out at around 30 visitors a day, usually it’s less than 5 people. Nobody shares my articles besides myself. The only ones that have any traction are posts about my Vortex Core and Whorecraft review (I kid you not, I get search results for it almost every month – unfortunately the images don’t even load anymore because I wiped my web space, also it’s such a shitty review, it doesn’t do the movie any justice).

    But back to why I’m targeted. I know it’s the result of random attacks – hackers sniffing sites on the internet, finding those with weak security and injecting malware into them. They don’t care that I’m just another blogger with nothing important to say – to them I’m just another conquest (if you can even call it that). They’ll take what they can get to increase their botnets. Hopefully none of my readers are daft enough to fall for fake links (trust me, you won’t find singles in your area clicking those shady links).

    Even though these words will fall upon deaf ears, I just hope they will leave me be. Trying to get rid of malware is exhausting. There’s only so much effort I want to put into maintaining this site. The whole reason I’m using WordPress is because it’s free and isn’t supposed to be high maintenance. Please exclude me from your attacks.

    In other news, I’ve been slowing down my writing recently. I have either been too busy to write or not bothered to write when I have the time. I think it’s because I found the quality of my writing going down. If I want to put something up, it should at the very least be worth my reader’s time. Not that any of us gain anything from it. Time is a limited resource after all.

  • Too Young To Die

    “Oh, he/she was so young.”

    What is that supposed to mean?
    Is there an age we’re supposed to die at?

    Is any age ever a good age to die?
    Can someone be too old to die?
    Or is that just the default response for someone to say whenever they find out the age of someone who passed away?

    Isn’t it all relative? What if the person who passed away did everything he/she ever wanted to do before passing away? Would that a good age then?

    What if they didn’t die, and spent the rest of their life accomplishing nothing else. Would they be at a better age to die then?

    If someone was too old, would the correct response be “I guess his/her time was up”?

    There’s no right age to die.
    People just die.

    “I’m sorry to hear that.” is sufficient.

    There’s really no need to add anything else. It doesn’t make people feel any better. Really.

  • The Only Conversion a Dying Person Needs is Respiration

    I was listening to the latest episode of the Break It Down podcast today and they brought up the topic of dying happy. There was some interesting points raised during the discussion, including extending someone’s life against their own will. What if a person who is hospitalized would rather die than be treated? Who would it be the person in charge of making the decision? According to the guest, doctors usually go with the conservative route – meaning if somebody wants the life of the patient extended, they will comply. After all, they say things like: he’s too old, he can’t think properly, of course he wants to die.

    But how can you tell if someone is saying what they truly mean? Do you hook them up to a lie detector? Some people have lived enough and are ready to leave the world. Do we deny them their wishes? What a tough position to be in. I don’t envy doctors. But if it’s against the law to not do everything in your power to save a life, why aren’t people left hooked up to machines forever? After all, there is a chance in a billion that their bodies will miraculously recover due to sheer willpower to live. Can you still call it living if you’re forever tethered to your bed or a drip machine?

    Speaking of people who are dying, do we take advantage of them and convert them to our religion when they’ve lived their whole life following a different one? What makes it okay to do so? Are all their past sins (praying to idols and various other activities) suddenly forgiven? To be honest, it’s happened recently to some of my family members and I find the act despicable. What gives you the right to convert someone to your religion just because you follow it? Fuck that shit. If someone wants to live differently from you, let them.

    What is the point of converting someone to your religion when he/she doesn’t have enough time alive to contribute anything meaningful to your cause? Does it even matter at that point? Why does this god want the souls of everybody? Sounds the plan of some sick, twisted villain. If everything was according to ‘God’ then I guess it was supposed to happen that way. You can’t fight destiny right? Oh wait, I thought humans had free will. So what does ‘God’s plan’ really mean? Nothing?

    You know, when people can’t be saved by medicine, they say – it’s part of His plan. So why even bother praying? Why even bother checking them into the hospital? If they were going to survive they would regardless of what they did right? Using religion to cope with problems is one thing, but using it as a convenient excuse just unravels the whole farce that is essentially a legalized cult.

    I used to be a believer. I would even consider myself devout at some point in my life. Initially when I left Christianity, I was apathetic to the whole situation. It didn’t bother me and I left it at that. It’s been over a decade since I stepped foot into a church to worship, but I find myself filled with contempt instead of indifference. It’s like God has turned me into this hate-filled meatbag to go against his word. Wait, does his master plan still apply to my life once I’ve dismissed his religion? If I don’t believe it, does it make it false?

    I believe that religion was created during simpler times when there were no proper laws in place to govern the behavior of people. Now that we’ve evolved and progressed as a race, there’s really no need for such things anymore. Sure, keep it around if it helps you get through with your life, but don’t shove it down the throats of people despite what your god tells you to. Or do. I don’t care. You’re just wasting your time, go be productive instead.