Blog Hack Update … “Dear Hackers ….”

Hi everyone! We have rain in the forecast here in Denver. We always need rain so it’s hard to complain.

So many of you asked about the hack-palooza event in May,  I wanted to give a brief blog hack update.

I almost titled this post,

“Dear Hackers”

But that sounded like an invitation for a bored bot to just pounce on my blog’s server.

Let me give you the blog hack update in a sentence. My blog got hacked. Yep, at the end of May, my blog got hacked. I lost everything. My first post on my new blog was published here. There was nothing else to read so surprisingly it got a lot of attention!

What about my backups? Oh.. those got hacked too. I believe corrupted was the word the hosting associate used with me over the phone. Oh, but first he casually asked, “How long have you been blogging?”

At first, I thought he was making chit-chat while I listened to him type frantically on a keyboard. But as the brief phone holds turned into minutes and more minutes; I realized he was calculating how many posts, words, stories, projects, links, and images were lost forever in a data table.

blog hack

I lost everything!

Any and all backups were also corrupted.

I reached out to anyone who had helped me with my blog in the past two years, hoping they may have stored a backup on their server. Nothing.

But, what doesn’t kill ya makes you stronger. I slept okay and when I woke this morning I began of list of “must do now.”  I was fortunate to have a team of fabulous women, I had worked with in the past, who worked over the weekend to get my blog back online.

It’s going to be okay.

The night of the blog hack was devastating until I remembered I had something the hackers didn’t delete permanently.  I had backup copies of all of my blog images. Every single one. Because a few years ago I upgraded my Dropbox account to store all of my RAW images from every barn door project, master bath update, sugar cookie dough pictures.

It’s going to be okay.

I knew the images were the most important thing I needed at that moment. Why? Because the images jogged my memory of favorite projects. And, the reality was the bulk of the photos were pretty crappy from the earlier days of the blogs. Which empowered me to either edit the photos or delete them and back new photos.

the blog images

The images jogged my memory for my favorite posts. Although the posts (data tables) got hacked, the words and stories around those posts can be recreated. Photos trigger our memories and thoughts; our steps and processes and our emotions. Hackers can’t take away the feelings and emotions attached to our photos.

Like this photo. I may have lost the post about the day I found this leaking from my main floor closet, but the image reminds me of the, “What in the h*&&” is that leaking from the closet.

It’s going to be okay.

I’m just getting started! Literally!

PS This shot of Olive from Little Miss Sunshine is what I looked like when I was eight years old, except I didn’t get glasses until fifth grade. If you have not seen Little Miss Sunshine it was one of those quirky movies about all types of families. In the beginning of the movie, I thought it took place in the early 1980’s, but the cell phones gave it away.

If you are reading this it means my blog IS back up and running, but it might look like I have been blogging for a few months, rather than years. Thanks for stopping by and please visit. I need traffic and comments!

Oh and here’s my new logo!