So, I had some urgent work to do on the site tonight and wanted to share my results. First off, I want to thank Robin at NakedinEden.com as well as Dena at EvolutionYou.net for pointing out that my site was being reported to have a virus or unsafe site reference on it over the last couple of days.  I didn’t believe this at first because I just couldn’t find anything about this or confirm it.  Anyway, I thought I would share a bit of what I went through to narrow this down and finally find it (and it seems to have fixed it).  It’s amazing to me how sneaky some of these hacks can be and even more so, how they get access in the first place.  I’m a software designer and developer and so I generally know my way around computers, websites and do at least the basic steps to protect yourself, yet I am constantly amazed that that is not enough nowadays.

Confirm it

Anyway, some of the actions I took in searching for this were:

1. Robin mentioned the specific text which was showing in your virus detection so I started hunting for that. “seeintraf.com/click/in.cgi?3″
2. I did a full database scan for all URLs and Author Names in case it was lodged inside some comment from someone (I’ve had image links for gravatars before showing as malformed URLs like this before). After a full search, nothing.
3. I loaded the site into every browser out there from multiple computers in multiple locations with multiple virus softwares and none of them showed any problems or detected anything at all.
4. I then did a full site extract and download to RAW HTML using a website downloader that will download all the images, links, URLS and everything into RAW html. I searched that with full text search to find any of those URL I characters from the virus software. Nothing.
5. I ran a number of online virus scanner that check the site for bad links and online viruses or threats at the site. Nothing. None of them found any problems.
6. I did a google search of course for the text and there were only two web sites in a forum that even mentioned it, but provided no help in solving it. Still nothng.
7. I checked out the errors and blocked content showing up in IE for each page by pressing the little eyeball icon in the lower statusbar. This finally showed the referenced URL above and listed it as a blocked site and a tracking URL. OK, finally confirmed it!

Seek it

A relief to see that I was not just going crazy though and finally could confirm what my helpful readers had pointed out.  Next on to solving it.  I had no idea where to start and just started playing and testing.  Here is what it took to find it.

1. Turned off plugins to see if any made a difference to the tracking cookie incase I had some bad plugin.  Nope. No differences.
2. Checked pages with and without the sidebar on to narrow down WHERE the URL could be loading from.  No difference with or without it.
3. Checked file access times and permissions of all my site files for wordpress, nothing had any recent edits.
4. Checked log files to see if any activity that was likely NOT mine showed up in my website logs.  Nothing.
5. Checked for wordpress updates and of course searched all the wordpress forums for this type of error.  Nothing.
6. Finally, swapped the theme back to the wordpress default theme and voila, problem went away.  So, this meant that the problem was in my theme files

A nice relief came at this stage to at least know where the problems was even if I hadn’t narrowed down on it completely.  It was just a matter of time though.  The easy part here though.  Since I had already tested if plugins or sidebar made a difference and it didn’t, I knew the problem had to be in my headers, footers or main display pages.  Surprisingly, I came across this in my header.php file right after the start of the body text.

<script language=JavaScript>document.write(unescape(‘%3c%69f’+'ra’+'m%65 %7   …..  65ig%68%74=%31 border=0 framebor%64e%72=0 %73%72c=%27htt’+'p://pr%6ffil%65sgu%69de.c%6fm …..  hp%3f%73%69d=1%27%3e%3c/if%72am%65%3e’))</script>

Note: I’ve broken the sequence of escape codes so this can’t be reproduced by anyone.  It appears that the hack puts the URL into escape codes so you can’t easily just search for the URL like I had already tried to find this reference.  Sneaky, that is for sure.

Destroy it

So, I removed it and tested the site.  It was still the same problem, but I did notice some other URLS removed from the blocked content list.  So, I checked my footer.php file for my theme as well and there it was again, a similar chunk of unescaped codes being written into my browser html.  Once I removed this as well, I refreshed the site and it no longer has any of the blocked URLs showing up so it seems to have fixed the problem.  I’ll obviously keep an eye on this and make sure it doesn’t come back.  Hackers have a tendency (since they are usually automated systems) to get in over and over under the vulnerability is actually solved.  I’ll have to continue looking into what that might be, as I have no idea right now.

I changed all my account passwords on my site, searched through the rest of my theme files and put all my changes back on for plugins and other site content.  I’ve made a full site backup and database backup now just to be safe and will watch the site closely for a few days to ensure nothing else happens.  I’ve let my ISP know about the hack as they often trace down attacks, especially if they can detect it on other domains as well and catch whoever is doing it.  I hope this articles helps someone someday with a similar problems, gives you ideas for troubleshooting your own site problems if you have any or at least reminds you to backup your own blog and ensure you keep your passwords and content under close watch.  Again, I thank my readers for informing me of this issue and I hope the site here didn’t cause any other issues for anyone.  It doesn’t sound like that virus is any threat to your PC directly, but I honestly don’t know what they could have been tracking?

Posted by Mike King under Personal | 8 Comments »

Change is obviously a huge part of personal development as you can’t truly develop without change.  You can learn, you can gain knowledge, but you don’t really develop without putting those things into practice where you develop your character, your relationships, or work or some part of your life.  I always strive to put more than just the learning aspect in my articles and the biggest differentiators that I have learned in realizing personal development is that of taking action.  And action creates change.

Start Small

Change is tough.  It scares people and when we are satisfied with life, it threatens to break whatever certainty we have in keeping that satisfaction.  Personal development challenges that by looking at driving change to improve oneself and to better our lives and the experiences we create in life.  Whether you are a master change agent or an individual of daily habit afraid to try anything new, the only way to create any method of change for personal development is to start small and work up to bigger and bigger changes.  For those just starting to explore change and personal development for the first time, simple ideas or change are the best way to start.  Focus on thinking of the positives from change and what you can accomplish once you have made it.  Think about what you will have, how you’ll feel when you accomplish that first change and how it motivate you.  Perhaps it will give you specific feelings of pleasure or happiness you don’t have without it.

Starting small can happen simply by looking first at those ideas.  The way you think about change is really a crucial step and unfortunately it’s often overlooked.  Just imagine yourself where the change has already occurred and think about the future with that change in place.  This visualization you create is the first small yet crucial step in making change happen through action.  Changing the way to think about change and looking forward to what you will have from making change, even before doing it, is an action in your mind that will enable so much more.

Practice those thoughts of change, visualizing the great things you will have and the next small thing to do to implement change is to simple decide that yes, you do in fact want that change.  Reinforce your desire for it and keep reminder yourself of the pleasure you will have by getting it.  Perhaps you will also avoid some pain you experience now by NOT making that change.  If so, the promise of avoiding that pain by making the change can further enhance the desire you have to make the change.  All of this and you really haven’t DONE anything yet.  Start small.

Building Confidence

From the desirable change you’ve now imagined in your mind you’ve got to convert that desire into something stronger.  You need to make a decision to get the change.  Depending on how committed you make yourself to your decisions, this might be a powerful factor or a weak one.  It still makes an impact once you commit and decide to make it happen.  The strongest way to do this is to write it down and share it with a friend or loved one.  Share it to make your commitment stronger.  With that commitment on paper and in the minds of others, its time you set out and take action.  Make the first step that leads toward the change.  Just as before, start small and build upwards.  There are many ways to progress your steps from simple to small. These won’t apply to all change but they do provide a list of ideas from simple to more complex.

• Tell someone about the change you visualized
• Use pictures to visually represent the change you want by creating a poster or picture
• Use daily affirmations about the change in place
• Create a list of steps or goals that lead you to the change
• Tackle one change each day to work towards the change
• Remind yourself and reward yourself for progress made

The best thing about progress in change is that it builds confidence.  Gaining confidence create momentum which allows you to take on larger and larger actions, leading to bigger results.

As you see this progress, your confidence continues to grow and it’s a cascade effect.  This process might be over a period of days or years, it depends on the individual.  However, recognizing the progress and the change will always build confidence.

Realizing Continual Change

As you experience changes through personal development, you begin to go through periods a significant change and often one change will lead to another.  This is a great aspect of personal development, because change itself will sometimes revealing new opportunity or inspire another area in your life.  When these start to happen, you’ll end up with changes want to make that overlap each other in time.  As you see more progress, and continue to ramp up the changes you desire and enjoy the pleasure of achievement, you’ll begin to close the gap and see that you are really going through continual change.  Continual change is more than many repeated cycles of change that you intentionally perform, it begins to go much deeper inside one self without having to intentionally do so.

At this point, your subconscious becomes more and more activated by the continual change your experiencing and you’ll start to realize the changes are no longer happening only from your conscious ideas but there also starting to happen with your awareness, with your understanding, and even your fundamental beliefs.  Personally, I found that this new subconscious activity forms conscious thought, questions and a desire to explore it further.  So this realization comes full circle if you once again decide to make a change and carry it through.

Mastering Change

Mastery is a wonderful word.  It implies taking a skill to the furthest level and being able to do it easily, repeatedly and every time with excellence.  Mastering anything takes years of practice and dedication. Mastering a skill typically has a finite amount to learn and practice in order to gain that level of repeated excellence.  Once you reach that level, you can maintain it without struggling and it really becomes automatic.

Change however, is more complex than an ordinary skill.  Change is never finite because every single change you make will always be unique and have its own set of obstacles to overcome.  Improving your ability to change though makes you more flexible and adaptable.  Mastering change would mean that you can take on any change in life easily and do it well every time. Mastery means that change becomes so easy you simple need to make that choice and decide to change something and because of the mastering in change, it will happen one way or another with no further contemplation necessary.  Countless practicing, years of training, conditioning the body and mind to follow are all what leads to and creates mastery.  Eventually, just the decision itself becomes all that is needed as a catalyst to make the change happen.  That is complete mastery in my mind.  This is of course subjective but what a fantastic goal to have.  To be able to adapt to any circumstances, to change oneself for the better whenever the opportunity arises simply by making that decision and then to have continual changes bringing challenge, joy and satisfaction to each and every day in life!

Personal development has that very thing to offer and even though it may be an audacious goal, these steps for change allow us to come ever closer to mastering change, all we have to do is start small, take action and everything else builds on that.

Posted by Mike King under Personal | 12 Comments »

You may have noticed the lack of updates lately and that is because we’ve moved houses and in doing this, I’ve taken on a significant amount of home improvements and some minor renovations which have been VERY time consuming to complete and finish on my own during a move.  In doing this, its been stressful, a challenge and I’ve had little rest and time to do what I normally do.  However, we’ve completed our move, settled into our new home, sold our old house and have only a few immediate things to finish.

The Pain of Doing Things Yourself

Well there is certainly a lot of pain from the perspective of time, labour and difficulties in doing things yourself as there is really no one to rely on except yourself.  This can be part of the reason to take on a challenge for some, but it is also makes unexpected things much more impactful as there is no one to help get you through it.  My wife and I had lived in our house for 9 years and it was our first house.  We like to credit ourselves that we don’t accumulate too much stuff but after seeing this move and actually have to move everything, I definitely know we still have a lot more than we need and in fact, more than we even want!

There were a few major steps in this move, the first was simply moving to our new house as we bought it with no plans to move very spontaneously (the only house we looked at) and hadn’t even thought about selling our existing home yet at the time.  So, the second step was to sell the current home.  Then finally, the 3rd step was to renovate the new house to have a hair salon since my wife runs her business out of our home.

Moving was the fun step as we cleaned up our belongings, thinned out our junk, packed everything up and got excited about being in the new house.  We rented a 26′ cube van and packed everything in for a one trip move with a couple SUV loads along side.  Thankfully, we had a bunch of friends who helped us move and even though we did it ourselves, it was done in one day and everything moved to the new house successfully.  There was certainly hard labor at stake here and some serious lifting required but all in all, doing this yourself if you have help is the way to go.  We were well prepared with everything in boxes which make loading/unloading a snap.  We unpacked and setup everything in a couple days as we knew we had renovations to focus on so didn’t want to drag this process out.

Step two was the one with much more pain.  Selling the old house.  I had a list of about 30 improvements to make, many urgent before we listed the place and then a number to make as we were packing, moving and listing the house.  I worked every night till 11PM after my day job and in between graphics jobs so didn’t really leave myself much free time (OK, NO free time really).  I spent 2 weeks painting, trimming, fixing, putting up some drywall, dropped ceiling in basement, and many other minor things to prepare to list.  Then we listed the house hoping to sell before we moved out ourselves.  Another pain in this process was then from all the showings that realtors had on our house while living there and trying to finish home improvements.  I can’t tell you how inconvenient that was and I only appreciate having my space in my home and privacy all that much more as a result.  This was one of the biggest realizations from this whole process.  I have a lot of gratitude now for the privacy I do have in my home without having to constantly evacuate, keep everything in pristine shape and be ready to leave or not come home at a moments notice. We moved out and then sold our house a few days later with almost a month of overlap having both houses.  This gave me time to build and move my wife’s salon for her home business.

This final step has the one with really the most committment as there are always a thousand little things do to when you move into a new place to make it feel like your own, but I had limited time to do a renovation and get everything setup.  I had some minor electrical to change (with my dad’s help who is a journeyman electrician) and with nearly any home improvement a small task turns into a bigger own.  Got that sorted out and then started the real labour.  I had carpet to tear out and changes to make to the sub-floor where there was a dropped entry way.  Repainted everything, made the changes to plumbing and electrical and put in a laminate floor.  I’m just finishing the trim and final touches and setting up the salon equipment /cabinets now to polish everything off.

All in all, the pain has mostly been the stress of having fixed timelines, the sheer amount of labour itself, the countless trips off to the hardware store and figuring out how to do home improvements you’ve never done before.  Let alone the strain of being too busy to get together with friends as often as you’d like and the stress that wears away at each other in marriage when things are so hectic!

The Joy of Doing Things Yourself

Now on the other side of the fence, there is a lot of joy in doing things yourself as well despite whatever hardships are encountered. The biggest thing for me personally which has always led me to being a bit of a handy man and home improvement guy is just knowing the work is done well, how its done and then seeing and living with it everyday.  Its very satisfying to do your own home improvements and the sweat and time put into it always feels great once the results are there.

That is the other great thing about doing it yourself, the results.  I don’t do anything partially, when I set my mind to something I do it 100% and I do it well.  My results in my work and in this kind of work at home are no different, I see it done exactly how I want and can be pleased with the results.

Another great thing about doing things yourself is the money you can save.  Moving yourself and doing your own renovations comes at a fraction of the cost of hiring it out.  Moving comes with enough expenses from the house sale itself, let along all the other legal aspects of moving/selling.  Our new house adds to our mortgage of course, but the thousands of dollars in extra expenses I’ve saved from doing these things myself are a satisfying relief on that as well.

And finally, the joy of this that really stands out for me, is the joy of what is learned by doing things yourself.  I’m only a handyman because of what I’ve learned by doing things myself and its enabled me to do more and more of my own work, and to experience the joys of it.  There is always things to learn in taking on a challenge and while during the challenge itself things may not always feel worth it, there are things learned from doing it that last far longer than any of the struggles during.  In part, that is what drives me to put in the time and effort required as I know it will result in so much more and I’ll have learned things I will use again in the future.  Not only skills, but in coping with and handling similar situations or for helping others get through them when their time comes.  All in all, its another experience, story and lesson to draw on in my life and anyone who takes on work themselves would likely say the same.  I know its worth doing and I always love to encourage others to try a little do it yourself (DIY) to make that life experience as well.

Posted by Mike King under Personal | 16 Comments »

Armen at TimelessInformation has always been a great friend to me in the blogging world and I appreciate the way he examines topics and he has produced a great blog well worth reading.  The value he has in his posts are a clear sign of the thought he puts into his site and he’s always made the effort to help me out by pointing out minor mistakes or new tools to use on my own blog.  He’s been a great example of why I love connecting to so many great bloggers and so I was thrilled when he asked if I would respond to a brief (yet very thoughtful) interview on a few topics common on our blogs.

Please go check out the interview at TimelessInformation.com

You can comment there with any thoughts or additions you have.

If you want to check out more of Armen’s content directly here are a couple of my favorites from his site:

• Your Main Source of Competition is Yourself
• Honesty Is Tough But Worth It
• Insert Goals Into Larger Goals

Posted by Mike King under Personal | No Comments »

Well, I’ve been reading some of the results from the latest craze in the blogging world where people are getting tagged to write 6 things about themselves and then pass on the tag to other bloggers to do the same. It’s been quite enjoyable to learn a little more about the faces and lives of those I read so much from so was about to do the same when I got tagged by Ross at www.willitchangeyou.com . So first, here are my 6 random things about me.

6 Hopefully Not All Known Random Facts About Me

1. I’m a Extreme Mountain Unicyclist (What is it? My Club Website, The Calgary Mountain Unipsychos )
2. I run my own freelance 3D Animation and Graphics company (Ethereal 3D.com )
3. Met my lovely wife of now 10 years marriage when I was 14 years old
4. I used to storm chase and have seen ball lightning up close and personal
5. I love studying the brain and mind and anything with neuroscience
6. I’ve never had a coffee in my life and never will

So, I’d be happy to elaborate or discuss any in comments, please just ask!

Tagging 6 of My Recent Readers

I’m going to continue this little game of tag and target a few new comments and people who’ve I’ve either met just recently or have surprised me in some way with their comments and blogs.

Husain at: http://strengthindiversity.blogspot.com/

• You’ve always kept your word about comments or visiting my site later and I appreciate the detail you put in your comments!

Armen at: http://www.timelessinformation.com/

• Armen, you always catch little errors and let me know on email when I’ve made a mistake in an article or the wording somewhere.  I appreciate your help to point these out and love your thoughts on your blog!

Marshall at: http://bondchristian.com/

• Marshall, you have an amazing blog with very inspiring posts that put some real knowledge and information out there for people from a real Christian perspective.  Awesome stuff!

Pushhyarag2000 at: http://www.evolveever.com/

• I’ve not even checked out your blog much yet, but I’ve liked a few articles I’ve read and I want to return the favor of your excellent recommendation on Entrecard.  You are definitely doing great things by helping to encourage and promote others work at first glance.  Thanks!

Viriya at: http://www.tedded.net/

• Viriya you have a passion for life and your future like no other.  It excites me even if you don’t know exactly what that might be.  That is what keeps it exciting and I look forward to talking to you more about your plans and where you want to steer things in your life!  Thanks for all the compliments to my content and you’re doing a great job ramping up your blog!

Arswino at: http://www.bestinspirationalquotes4u.com/blog/

• You’ve had a lot of great comments and continue to help promote more of my content, thanks for that!  Your blog is coming along nice and I’ve enjoyed a number of your articles.

So, if you are new to this tagging business are are in my list, then plese check out his list for continuing this little game.

THE RULES:

1. LINK TO THE PERSON WHO TAGGED YOU
2. POST THE RULES ON YOUR BLOG
3. WRITE SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF
4. TAG SIX PEOPLE AT THE END OF YOUR POST AND LINK TO THEM
5. LET EACH PERSON KNOW THEY ARE TAGGED AND LEAVE A COMMENT ON THEIR BLOG
6. LET THE TAGGER KNOW WHEN YOUR ENTRY IS UP
7. DON’T BREAK THE CHAIN (not actually a rule)

Posted by Mike King under Personal | 23 Comments »

This article is part of a series called, "Maximum Productivity " in which I’ll explore the topic of perspective.

See the rest of the series here:
Intro: Maximum Productivity: Series Introduction
Part 1: Maximum Productivity: Perspective
Part 2: Maximum Productivity: Attitude
Part 3: Maximum Productivity: Focus
Part 4: Maximum Productivity: Persistence
Part 5: Maximum Productivity: Adventure
Part 6: Maximum Productivity: Connections

I guess the first point to understand is what is productivity?  While productivity as a definition is simply producing readily and abundantly, that itself leaves a huge gap for what you are producing.  And that is where I will start things off in this series by looking at life, tasks, work and everything people do and wish to do from a perspective that matters or has some purpose!  Being productive is useless if it’s not on the things that matter to you.  So perspective is first.

Perspective

Perspective is really about looking at where productivity can be applied in your life.  It’s about taking a step back to analyze your situations and environment to see what it is you want to be productive at.  This allows you to put more efforts and productive work towards the things that are in some way meaningful to you.  To gain that perspective there are a number of things you can do to change your normal perspective and realize what does matter.

• Explore your passions
• Discuss and even debate with others
• Read books that question or expand your views
• Ask others for their opinions and stay open minded
• Write your will or obituary for yourself
• Explore and understand the legacy you want to leave
• Imagine yourself in other people’s situations and challenges
• Look at how your creativity can change your perception
• Study and learn new things to gain new understanding
• Ignore your gut or instinctive response

All of these things can help you to step back from what is normal in your life and analyze new situations from a distance.  It’s critical to CHANGE and EXPAND your views on every subject without limiting yourself to your old beliefs.  It’s often those new areas that will truly let you see not only what you can do to be productive but also why that is important!

Identity

The way you see things is a big part of one’s identity so expanding that and exploring it deeply is done to really take a deep look at oneself.

• Do you know what drives and motivates you to do the things you do?
• Could you explain all of your actions to others and would you be happy to hear that explanation?
• Is the time you spend on things productive to you?
• Are you OK with that whether it is or isn’t?
• How much time do you spend productively?
• Can you change that and do you want to?

The things you consider to be productive should be the things you enjoy doing and want to do.  That is part of what drives you to do it and so of course this drive has to come from within to have any lasting impact.  That is why I encourage you to reflect on those questions above, answer them truthfully and look at what reveals itself.  It’s impossible to just become productive overnight and it is a slow process to change since it’s your identity, not just your productive actions, that must also change to shift to seeing that new perspective that is required in everything.  That perspective change will enable you to learn easier from new experiences and adapt quicker to changes.  This will make controlling your productivity much easier. Expanding and seeing with more perspective is also helpful to look for improvements, optimizations and ways to be more productive.  Instead of just thinking the current way is the only or best way to do something, you can accept suggestions, changes and help to increase your productivity.

Who Do You Do It For?

This concept of perspective applies not only in looking at productivity directly and seeing areas to improve that but also in why you do it.  What makes you want to those things and motivate you to improve.  To what end?  Do you have something to achieve in working at those areas?  Some people do it for approval, to be liked, to make themselves happy, to meet others.  Some do it for status, material things, health or longevity.  I personally look at productivity more from an angle of service to others.  I want to do things that are productive not only for me, but for others, for strangers, for family, for new friends, old friends, and for God.  Those are things that I highly value they motivate me to drive forward in creating more time, more productivity and more results in the areas that are service oriented.

So who do YOU do things for?  Can you say that you are working with a purpose, a mission and set of values?  I hope if you don’t that you stop to take a look at why you do things, what will leave you happy if you only had short time to live and that you are able to be productive with the things you want out of life.  That, my friends, is what perspective is for and I hope I’ve been able to shed a little bit of new light on this first article in a series for maximizing your productivity.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23

Posted by Mike King under Life & Personal | 16 Comments »