Anti-Spam

Posted: Wed 23 April, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, WordPress | 2 Comments »

Since updating to WordPress 3.9, D4D™ was getting thrashed with spam comments – something that hasn’t happened for a long time. Nothing else changed, so I assume that there’s an issue somewhere within 3.9 that’s opened up again.

Anyway, having seen upwards of 200 spam comments per day, I asked around for some advice on other things to block it, and on Twitter Laura came through with a suggestion to use another plugin called WP Hashcash which I’ve done.

So far, it appears to be working very nicely, and I’ve not seen any more spam comments coming through at all. Definite win.

Of course, it may be that some valid comments get blocked too – if so, email me at lyle2 at the domain name…

Three Days Later

Posted: Sat 18 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Getting Organised, Interviews, Work-related | 1 Comment »

It’s been a hectic week following on from the interview on Tuesday.

First of all, I got the offer by the end of Wednesday, so that’s my 100% success ratio intact. Still dependent on references (which shouldn’t be an issue) and all that, so no confirmed start date as yet, but still, success is mine.

Since then it’s just been fun and games with the last week of the existing contract. A combination of factors worked to make it – interesting. Yeah, that’s a good word. And that level of ‘interesting’ kept me busy, with little to no time for writing, or doing anything else. Hence a small hiatus here on D4D™.

There’s a couple of other bits that have come up as well, which I’m sure I’ll write more about over time. At least one is due for some good juicy rants about bureaucracy, inefficiency and government organisations. Should be fun.

Still, my current contract has now finished, and all has been left on good terms. The coming week is looking like a week “off”, except that Monday is already booked for a meeting down near Southampton with an existing client, and Tuesday is booked up with getting the car MOT sorted (as well as a replacement wheel-bearing)  Of course, if I were sensible I’d have swapped the days round on those two, but sometimes that’s just the way things go.

Christmas Day

Posted: Wed 25 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Festering Season | 1 Comment »

ScroogeAnd lo, Christmas Day is upon us once more – and hopefully some semblance of retail sanity will return soon after. (I’m not entirely convinced it’ll happen, but we can still hope/dream)

Have a good one, whatever you do, whoever you are, and whatever you believe in.

6,500

Posted: Fri 29 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2013/14, Business, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Weight Loss, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

Yes, this is the 6,500th post on D4D™, according to WordPress. So what better time to look at what may be happening here over 2014? (There’s no guarantees, it’s more about where my head’s at right now)

In just over a month, it’ll be 2014. As usual, I’m not making any resolutions for 2014 – that old ‘everyone else does it, so I’m not‘ thing kicking in again – although there is the stuff from Project 42 (i.e. what I want to do from November to November) to consider. Which all means I have to balance out time across a number of things – something I’m renownedly abysmal at doing.

So – what may happen is that D4D may step back a bit, maybe not have the daily updates. (Of course it might stay the same, too. It kind of depends on everything else)  I’ve got some writing ideas – as well as some other things I’m not going to go into right now – and I need to make time for them. I’ll still be updating, it just might not be daily.

This coming year is going to be interesting. There’s a lot of potential ideas and plans, a lot of stuff I’d like to do, but I do need to figure things out in order to be somewhat realistic about it as well. I’m going to take time over December to get things in place, work out priorities, form that limited company that needs doing, and a bundle of other prep crap to let 2014 be as productive as possible.

As for D4D™, it’ll keep on going – on and on. I can’t guarantee another 6,500 posts (who could?) but it’s not being planned to die off anytime soon.

Festerous

Posted: Thu 21 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Charm School, D4D™, Festering Season, Marketing, People, Shopping, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

ScroogeThis year I’m trying hard to not get ranty about the Festering Season – which is no mean feat, I can assure you.  (I’ve also just discovered that I’ve not used that Scrooge image for nearly three years in a Festering Season post, so welcome back owd fella)

After all, my local Tesco Tosspots had Christmas Cards on sale at the end of September, for fuck’s sake. They’ve had mince pies since August, but I didn’t even bother getting any photos of those.

Since then, it’s just been going on and on. Their tree went up (fully decorated) before Hallowe’en was done.  The foodstuffs have been in since November 1st.

I know shops need to have the time to sell all their festive shit. I suspect that they’re also stretching out the season ‘because of the financial climate’, allowing their customers to spread the cost of the Festering Season over greater time, rather than being crippled in December. I get that, and I don’t mind. (Too much)

It still narks me that everything is so obsessed with materialism, gifts, and the social-status inferred therein. I can’t help it. I don’t like seeing it in the shops for three damn months, or hearing poxy bastard carols on shop sound systems for two months. But it’s pretty much unavoidable – I try to limit my exposure to it all, but there still has to be some, sadly.

But I’m trying hard to not be too ranty about it. For now.  That may change over the next few weeks – after all, there’s still a month to go…

Nearly 6,500

Posted: Wed 20 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 500, 6, D4D™ | 1 Comment »

At some point soon (and which I’ll probably forget about closer to the time) I’m going to write my 6,500th post on D4D – for reference, this one is number 6,491.

6,500 is nothing special, just an arbitrary “oooh look, that ends with a 500 or 000” post, but all the same, it’s not a bad thing to become suddenly aware of.  In an ideal world, #6,500 would’ve been “Why I Blog“, but that’s already been done, so I’ll just have to think of something else to fill that particular space.

Of course at the same time it also means I’ve been writing this rubbish for one hell of a long time, and with wildly varying levels of quality. But there we go, that’s the way this show shambles on into the future.

Why I Blog

Posted: Wed 13 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Words, Writing | Leave a comment »

[Inspired by this post with the same title over at Gordon’s place]

I started writing D4D™ back on August 9th 2002. Eleven years ago – damn, that time’s flown past.

I’ve said this before (almost certainly more than once) but I started blogging primarily because I wanted a project to keep on working on. I’ve always been a lover of the written word, since I learned to read, and I wanted to see if I could write. I’d done other projects along the way, short stories, novella-length and a couple of novel-length as well.

But the main reason was that I know how bad I am at not going through with projects. I start them, and then I move on to something else. I know that about myself, and the basic reason behind D4D was to keep a project going – as well as to get into the habit of writing, and to see whether it spawned anything else.

D4D’s been part of my life ever since. It’s been there through the ups and the downs, and a lot has changed in that eleven years. I had a year or more where the writing fell off a cliff, but this year I’ve worked quite hard to get back into it, and I think that’s been quite successful. There’s still a way to go, but I’m getting back into the habit and the routine of it.

And has it spawned anything else? Well, yes and no. I got into the writing of D4D, but in some ways that supercedes the writing on anything else, and I need to rediscover – or perhaps find at all – the balance between writing here, and writing elsewhere. I’ve got more writing ideas, stories and screenplays, but I need to find the time to write them.

D4D will keep on going for the foreseeable – I’ve still got a long way to go, and I want the ability to look back on things afterwards. I’ve changed a lot in this eleven years, and so has my writing – none of which is surprising, considering that time span – and it’ll be interesting to see how things develop from here on.

And that’s why I blog. Writing, routine, a diary, a repository of ideas and thoughts. D4D is all of that, and more.

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