7 Things You Do Not know About Me

And Probably Wish I Wouldn’t Tell

I was tagged by Kristi from Kikolani.com to do the 7 Things People Don’t Know About Me meme. The rules for this meme are as follows:

• Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged.

This is my first tag (and last so don’t even think about it) but I am my favorite subject and you deserve to know more about me. Kidding… kind of What is a meme? Just as extra credit Richard at Makak Media tagged Kristi. I like Richard’s blog so I wanted to get that in.

My life is like an open book. There’s not much I keep secret. Here’s a few things that most of my online friends already know about me. I use my real name Brian D. Hawkins. I have to use the middle inital because some jerk got my URL before I did. I am very opinionated and outspoken. I love animals. I am very passionate about many things and will sometimes say things for the shock value without thinking things through. I have been married to the love of my life for almost twenty six years. We have four children, all grown, and three and a half Grand children (My youngest daughter is expecting).

1. Personality: I’m actually very anti-social. I have always had one close friend but never more than one at a time my entire life. I find close friends very stressful and can’t handle more than one at a time. I keep a safe distance even from that friend. The thought of going out and doing things on a social level like dinner, golf, games etc. bothers me to no end. At the same time I can handle myself in almost any situation or environment. Whether meeting with a top CEO or rubbing shoulders with gangbangers in Detroit I can handle the situation perfectly yet hate doing both equally. The internet and the birth of social networking is the only place I’ve found where I actually enjoy communicating with others. I am about as open minded as one can be. I am not racist, sexist or a bigot. I don’t judge people from their color, sexual orientation or where they are from. Life is far too short for such nonsense.
2. Religion: I do not consider myself religious yet believe in a higher power. I feel God is beyond my comprehension and get a little frustrated when others try to ‘explain‘ everything. I feel everyone has a right to their beliefs and respect their opinions. I just feel it’s a little arrogant for others to assume what they ‘believe‘ is fact and anyone that disagrees is wrong.
3. Patriotism: I consider my self very patriotic. I’m proud to be American. I served in the United States Army for seven years and would fight to the death to defend our nation. At the same time I can understand and respect differing opinions. I have no problem with others, American or otherwise, speaking their mind for or against the United States. I love to hear from people of other countries and cultures.
4. Obsessive: I always have a hobby and that hobby would take over my life if I didn’t have my Wife to reel me in. I have obsessed over woodworking, body building, classic cars, photography and various businesses over the years. Now I finally have a hobby that turned into a business since I make a profit – online business.
5. Education: I’m a high school dropout. I left home and quit high school just before my seventeenth birthday. I received my GED when in the Army and have taken several collage courses but never pursued a degree. Even though I earn more than most collage graduates I will be the first to admit that an education is very important. I got lucky and decent jobs for the under-educated are getting harder to find. I have no intention of getting a degree at this stage in my life but I will take more marketing courses simply because that’s my passion.
6. Intelligence: I have an undiagnosed and undocumented disorder that causes my brain to grow larger than my head will allow. This condition pushes brain overflow into my abdomen. That’s why I’m so smart but look overweight. I also have a sense of humor.
7. Just SHOCKING: My Wife’s mother married my Father 10 years after my wife and I were married. I’ll just let that soak in.

Now for the hard part. First of all, I have to say I’m doing this under duress. Kristi from Kikolani.com is making me do it. There simply is no way to look at that pretty face and say no Those that I tag, on the other hand, don’t have that problem so I understand if you ignore the tag. I’m not sure how memes work but I believe internet gods swoop down and disable your modem if you ignore the tag.

Who on Earth do I want to torture – I mean treat by tagging them?

1. How about Pheak Tol? Sorry Pheak but you have an interesting story on your ‘About Pheak Tol‘ page so 7 more tidbits might be nice.
2. Next is John Baril of Johnny’s Training Blog For Online Marketing. Yes, Johnny, a married Paramedic in British Columbia with two sons has more than one paragraph to share.
3. I must tag John Dillbeck of 21st Century Affiliate Marketing because I think he’s going to find it hard to find seven things about himself that he hasn’t already published lol
4. I have to know more about Adrian Jock from Ezine Advertising tips & reviews. This guy reminds me a lot of myself. Very opinionated and not afraid to show it. Sorry Adrian but I’m going to enjoy your post.
5. My friend Ben Pei is a good sport and I’m interested in how he will work this into his blog. De you have a personal blog Ben?
6. The dot Com Guru Shanker Bakshi leads an interesting life. It is hard to tell him apart from John Chow but we will soon know more when he continues the meme. Tag Shanker, you’re it.
7. Speaking of John Chow… Yes, I have the fortitude to tag mighty John Chow. How about it John, I know you are very busy writing and fine dining but can you take a few to jot down a little more about yourself? I know you share everything already but this will really go viral with a boost from you.

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YourAdTracker.com is an ad tracking and short URL membership site that we’ve been running for a few years now. The site has grown to several thousand members and we’re proud of the service we provide.

Our site has gone off line three times in the last four months from abuse. We were hacked twice, a couple of members used mass mailers and spam and then just two days ago we had several free accounts using our service as a mass phishing attempt for several large banks.

I’ve come to realize that the spammers and phishers always use multiple free accounts. As I was searching through thousands of free membership accounts trying to clean up the abusers I noticed that the vast majority of our free accounts were either abandoned or violating our terms of use policies. I quickly decided the best action to take to clean up our database and prevent would be spammers and scammers from abusing our service would be to go to an all paid membership.

I have spent a solid day and a half going over every single free membership one at a time. If any member was violating any of the following items they were probably deleted:

• Inactive accounts. If a member setup an account and never logged back in within thirty days they were deleted.
• Linking to IP addresses rather than web addresses.
• Fake names. We require real names. Made up names, handles and initials risk deletion.
• Fake or bouncing emails. Verified emails are required to maintain an account.
• Linking to graphics, files and content other than web pages. Linking to files or dead links create a huge load on our server.
• Using our tracking links for spamming, phishing attempts, porn, wares etc.
• Dead links. We upgraded the script a long time ago allowing members to edit their tracking links. It’s the member’s responsibility to keep the links clean and working. Dead links hurt our site and service.
• Zero hits to a bunch of trackers. Many people setup dozens of tracking links months or years ago and never received a single click.
• Trackers on trackers. This means they would use our tracking links to redirect to other tracking links. This includes tracking links from other sites as well. The only reason for all of those re-directs is an attempt to hide your identity.
• More than two accounts.

From this point on all new memberships will be ‘Pro’ (paid) only. No free memberships will be offered on YourAdTracker.com. We offer a quality service that’s worth every cent of the very small membership fee. By requiring every new member to pay via PayPal we can be reasonably sure it’s a legitimate person.

I would like to thank every member, both past and present, for allowing us to improve and grow as a membership site. If your account was deleted in the clean up I do apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately all data has been deleted and can not be recovered. Due to the large task of removing bad accounts I am unable to answer individual questions asking why they were deleted other than as discussed above.

Brian

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