Over at Kevin Kim’s Big Hominid blog is a post about being a creature of habit. As Kevin says, most of us are, and I’ve never seen that as a bad thing. Now that I am in my retired years with no work responsibilities to fill my time, I’ve developed my own rituals, routines, and habits that give my life some structure and semblance of meaning. Of course, I’m sure my regular readers see most of these activities as boringly mundane, and perhaps they are. But there is comfort to be found in sameness when you enjoy doing what you do. That said, I do try to take at least one trip out of town every month to change things up a little, and that helps keep things interesting. The bottom line for me is that having daily routines is beneficial, as they provide perspective and help keep life in balance. That works for me, anyway.
Things aren’t always the same around here. Today, I got a rather distressing email from my blog host that some suspicious malware had been discovered and removed:
During a recent security review of your WordPress installation for mccrarey.com, we detected and removed a malicious administrator account named “admin2backup” that had been added to your database on September 4, 2025.
We also located and removed the file that created this account, which had been uploaded through a compromised plugin upload request on September 12, 2025. Both the file and the unauthorized user have been successfully removed from your account.
At this time, no further suspicious activity has been detected. Please note, this cleanup was performed as a one-time courtesy. If further malware or compromise is detected on this account in the future, it could result in service suspension or account termination to protect server integrity.
Well, thanks for that, HostGator. Scary shit when someone attacks my humble little blog with only a handful of loyal readers. I’d hate for LTG to die before I do!
So, back to the routines. The Wednesday Walkers gathered as usual at the Baloy 7-Eleven and decided we’d walk the long version of Monday’s Hash trail in reverse. And that’s just what we did, more or less. Going up the original down proved challenging, but otherwise, most of the hike was on familiar ground. Being out and about is the mission, and that goal was achieved.
Sorry, for some reason, I wasn’t in a picture-taking mode, so that’s all I’ve got. Hell, you’ve seen it all before, anyway.
Fellow hiker Steve has recently returned from several months back home in Aussie-land and asked to join us for our nightly intake of alcoholic beverages. Hey, the more the merrier!
Swan said we broke a record by returning home prior to 7:30. Damn, I’m such an old fogey lately.
This post from the May 2014 LTG archives documents a time when I had some staying power. The story of a Korean weekend is primarily told through photographs, so take a look and see what you think. Getting back home at four in the morning seems mind-boggling to me now.
Facebook memories reminded me of a gal I met in Manila eight years ago:
Today’s YouTube video features another vlogger I’ve never watched before, recounting how he learned to accept the Filipino way (even if he still doesn’t know how to spell “Filipino”).
Let’s try these on for size:
Oh well, there’s still time for more screw-ups, so I’d better get to it.
Another first! Never heard this song or of Tove Lo before:
re: your security problems
For future reference, how can you check to make sure you haven’t been invaded? It doesn’t seem fair for you to be shut down because of something you can neither verify nor control. Maybe that’s a question to ask the AI god. I’m sure there’s a way to see such problems and take care of them yourself.
re: habits
Just don’t let your habits stop you from trying new stuff now and again. Like Filipino food. How was that burrito, by the way? I didn’t see any pics of it, so maybe you Hoovered it up too fast for photos.
I don’t come here daily; I hit your blog once or twice a week and then play catch-up but last month, it happened two or three times that when your blog opened, it reverted to a page telling me I had to update Edge to the latest version. Closed that tab, tried again and all was well. Also, I received a few warnings from Malwarebytes not to proceed to your blog because of malware.
I asked ChatGPT about your cyber-security situation. (It was either that AI god or the Google AI god.) Here’s a link to what it said.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my anti-virus blocked me from your site saying it was a scam. I am still getting warnings , but I can get through because I added it as an exception. Don’t know what you can do on your end, but do you have an anti-virus program running ?
Terry, this is all uncharted territory for a techno-peasant like me. I do use SiteLock, and they are the ones that first advised me of the malware issues. I asked HostGator for assistance, and they removed the culprit invader. I’m going to look into upgrading my SiteLock in the hopes that they can identify these internet bandits before they make a nest on my blog.
Kevin, thanks for getting the AI assistance. It was very educational. Some are beyond my capabilities, but maintenance — such as monitoring and updating my plugins — is something I will pay more attention to in the future. I’ll also upgrade my SiteLock security.
Swan did make me that Filipino breakfast burrito, and it was yummy. I took a crappy photo that didn’t really capture its inner essence, but she bought the ingredients for another round, so I’ll try to do better with the camera this time.
Glad that you still visit my humble blog, Nomad. Sorry it’s been a pain recently, but hopefully that’s all in the past. I need to do a better job of monitoring what’s happening behind the scenes. Thanks for letting me know the issues you encountered.