Yesterday, a vulnerability in WordPress and Drupal was announced. Both open source communities responded with patched versions of their software that should be updated immediately.
According to Mashable, “The vulnerability uses a well-known XML Quadratic Blowup Attack — and when executed, it can take down an entire website or server almost instantly.”
This issue underscores the importance of having a strategy for keeping your site’s systems patched and updated.
I seem to have good writing ideas/intentions while I am working on tasks with a high physical :mental effort ratio – you know, digging a hole, weeding the garden, etc. However, my interest in actually writing those things is very different when I have the opportunity to write. I think my apprehension of writing and subsequent procrastination and avoidance goes beyond laziness or having other things to do.
One factor is perceived value. I ask myself why I would write those thoughts. Would anyone read them? Do I measure value by quantity of readership? By search engine ranking? By comment quantity? By residual income?
Another factor is vulnerability. It seems that writing well about my endeavors involves being open with my readership. Everyone is different about this, but especially at the beginning stages, I feel that publishing my thoughts to the internet may lead to unwanted feedback. This deserves more thought. I think my intended audience is quite different from the real audience and I cannot control the audience in this medium.
A third factor is skill. Writing something that is to-be-published is quite different from writing a casual email message. How well do I communicate? Do I know how to use my blogging platform (e.g. what is a trackback)?
Anyway, for now I will do my best to occasionally write. I’ll try to tell myself that I am not blogging, but I am writing online and I will learn my way.
I suppose most blogs start with an inaugural post announcing the writer’s intentions. Before I get to my solution, I should describe the problem that I am trying to solve.
I feel bad saying this, but the primary problem is that in a non-digital world, I am very sloppy. For example, my garden, I don’t write down what I planted and where. Also, from one year to the next, I can’t remember what is a weed and what is a plant. I should keep a log but my handwritten notebooks have been atrocious to read and I don’t keep up with them. Also, sometimes a picture, captured with a datestamp is exactly what I need for a note and again, digital is superior in that space.
My secondary problem is that I want to share with others rather than keeping my notes to myself. Sharing is easy in a digital world and a blog is an obvious solution.
My third problem is that I am under the impression that being a prolific writer and social media expert is part of my line of work and I feel like I should be doing more professional writing about web development.
My goal is for the website to be a place where I can experiment, post thoughts and document or log work being done.
Thank you for reading.