Blogger Boggle!

This morning I began my mornings internet check by going to my blog - My Camera's Eye. There I have listed my favorite blogs to visit and that's where I "depart" to read their daily listings.

Imagine my surprise to get a message saying the blog didn't exist! Seems the Blogger link spam robot has flagged it as an offender. "Link spammer"...I don't even know what that means.

So I go to the dashboard and request that it be unlocked. I get an auto reply saying they will look at the blog and let me know the results. That's good, BUT, HOLD ON! They are going to send the results to an email address that I NO LONGER HAVE! Great, just great.

I check my account and that old address is NOT LISTED as my contact email address. Why did the auto reply list that?? Now what?

So, since a simple answer or a direct link to a Google person is nowhere to be found, I had to resort to posting a question on their "help" forum....and oxymoron, if there ever was one! Do I really expect the Help forum to help - honestly, NO. It's never helped me before..... I must be an eternal optimist to keep trying.

UPDATE; November 23. Still blocked, but I found this message at the dashboard:

**Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on November 19, 2009. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.**

Moving at a Snail's Pace seems to be Blogger's speed too.... unless there are a lot more blogs out there they've screwed up and are having to fix them all.

Enough To Drive You To Drinkin'

I had the brilliant idea to move my JustRidgebacks site over to Google sites this morning so I could save on the cost of keeping it at Tripod. On and off I moved page after page to the newly created site. After all, I have a couple of Google sites and I LOVE Blogger. What could be simpler?

After getting the pages over, I noticed the PayPal's codes weren't there, so I just signed into the site and using the HTML view, I put one in. Odd. The regular little button wasn't there. Instead there was some squarish looking thing labeled : Google Gadget whatchamacallit. I looked again at the HTML I put in - gobbledygook was there instead!!

I decided to risk looking through Google's "help" feature. This should more accurately be called "shortcut to cussin' and fussin" and should come with a warning label that it could easily drive you to drinking. It's that bad. Even if you find a question someone has posted that sounds like yours, sure enough, some geek has posted a short post saying "Just put in a Friggamagig and it will work." Of course, if we knew what a frigggamagig was, we wouldn't have to be asking about the frigging thing!

After the post, Google has a link that says "Was this helpful - yes or no". I do get some enjoyment of clicking NO. I just wish I could add comments, but knowing the state of my mind when I get to that point - it's best there not be comments.

To make a long, hair-pulling, wall-smashing story short, the upshot is that Google sites doesn't "support" PayPals form codes. For a company that wants to rule the internet, this is mind boggling. How the freaking hell did this happen? Blogger supports PayPal codes, why wouldn't Sites?

After all that work, I had to delete the whole shebang...all because I couldn't put the PayPal form code in so people could purchase the items.

I cognitated on this awhile and came up with a plausible conclusion.

Blogger - EASY, newbie friendly.
Sites - royally screwed up.

The only logical conclusion is that Google has geniuses and folks they should fire-but won't - working for them. The genius levels created Blogger. The dunces created Sites.

In Search of.......

I think that I shall never see
the haircut and style,
I want for me.

I desperately needed a trim, so off I went to the local cut and curl shop at a nearby shopping center. My aim was to get a trim, then run to the pet store and get some special food for my old dog..... all this before it started the afternoon monsoons.


I NEVER get the haircut I imagine. I am the eternal optimist when it comes to getting my hair done. After all, when I say "Just a trim", it seems the "stylist" could easily see that I like my hair a bit longer on top and down to the side, then shorter in back and over the ears. Nope. Apparently, you would have to be someone who notices the obvious...a logical person perhaps...and that kind of person does not do hair at the places I can afford. If I could cut my hair myself, I would. (I do for several weeks until the back becomes unmanageable.)

I knew I was in trouble when my usual lady wasn't there.... but, hey, hair is like grass - it grows...so how bad could it be??

A brand- spanking new person, that's who I got. A victim of the economy & hurricane Katrina, who use to be a shrimper, now he's a hairdresser. Now, there was a red flag if there ever was one.

"Well", I thought, "good for him. He's trying". Famous last words......

Bless his heart, he wanted to get the cut JUST RIGHT.....every hair perfectly blended in with every other hair on my head. He cut and he cut and he cut and he cut. I was getting really worried. My hair was getting shorter and shorter... but I didn't want to yell out "That's enough!!" because his new boss was at the chair to my right. SHE did 3 people in the time he took to do mine.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack of thunder, we all looked out the window and it was pouring buckets! I used this opportunity to say " Oh, no! I've got to get home quick!" ...in the hopes he'd stop cutting. At least, he put down the scissors - and then picked up the clippers! Gee, I thought we was going to shave my entire neck down to my shoulders...and I don't have much body hair period, much less on my neck!

Finally, I started taking off the wrap and saying I've got to go, what do I owe you??

My cousin gave me the name of her hairdresser..... next time, I'm going to give her a call..... couldn't be worst, could it?

An "Eye" Full

I saw this pretty blue dragon fly land near me while out for a walk. I snapped it's photo. When I looked at it the first time in Photo Shop, I laughed - look at that face! Big brown double eyes, a "black button" nose and it appears to be smiling with white lips - I love it!

Later, I wandered out front to water the plants and saw this Buckeye butterfly... check out all those "eyes".

Then I saw this beauty.... I think it's the female version of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I couldn't get a photo with it's wings open, but the side view is just as spectacular.

I followed it over to the zinnas and witnessed "the battle of the butterflies"! Another female showed up and wouldn't let the first one settle for very long on any of the flowers...



Unlike the first one, the second kept her wings open.... perhaps to seem bigger??

The second one finally crowds the first off the plant and followed it up over the house. I don't know if it was a battle for territory or what... I had no idea that butterflies even had territories.


Ya learn something new every day.....

Blood Ties

Today, my cousin, Martha, and I got up early and tooled off up the road towards the family stompin' grounds - otherwise known as "up the country". That area is composed of Clarke and Marengo county where our ancestors have lived since the 1800s.

We have one aunt by marriage who is in an assisted living unit in a small town and that's where we met up with her daughter (another cousin) - Margaret, and her husband. After visiting with the aunt for awhile, we loaded up and went in search of food.At the restaurant, Margaret's sister, Nadine and her husband also caught up with us.

It was an enjoyable afternoon.... so good to see everyone! Lots of exclamations about how much you look like your mother..... you resemble the Ernest side of the family, etc, etc..... I did notice that they'd look at me and just smile.... Hmmm, I could just heard the thoughts about... where did you come from??? I don't mind, I know that I resemble my father's side of the family.... always did. :-)


We decided to do this again in about 2 months and see if we couldn't scare up a few more cousins to join us. (Did I forget to mention we are all first cousins? I think we once counted 19 first cousins in the family, although 2 died as children and one of the older cousins died last year - very unexpectedly. )

Most of us live in Alabama. One lives in Texas, two in NC and one in GA... The rest in the southern part of the state. We hope to catch up with them and get them to plan on coming.

All in all, it was fun... just the right amount of visiting time and everyone got home before dark.

Conversation Skills Are Dead

After getting off the phone earlier today, it dawned on me that the art of conversation is dead, dead, dead. Conversation should be a give and take. I ask about you, yadda, yadda, yadda, then you ask about me, yadda, yadda, yadda. Give and take - makes both of us feel good about ourselves that someone would take the time to ask about what makes us tick.

When I call someone, I'm calling to find out how they are, what they've been doing, planning on doing as a way to let them know I'm interested in their lives.

Apparently, NO ONE is interested in mine! At least today. Not once did the person stop talking about them, their current interests, etc and say "... but what about YOU? How are YOU doing, what have YOU been doing." No, it's just blah, blah, blah, me,me,me. mine, mine,mine. Bor-RING!

I've got news for you - You just aren't THAT interesting! People who constantly talk about themselves and theirs are tacky, selfish and insulting to the other person.

I discovered long ago that if you want people to think YOU are interesting, ASK them questions about THEMSELVES - LISTEN to what they are saying and inquire further about it. They'll feel positively important and will love to be around you because of the way YOU make THEM feel. You don't really have to be interested in what they are doing, just engaged in what your friend is saying because it makes them FEEL good.

Such a little thing, really. with a BIG return - Why can't people see that?

Something Unexpected

I live in suburbia, so on my way to WalMart the other day, a big coyote crossing the road was unexpected to the nth degree. At first, I thought it was just a largish, yellowish dog, but it turned toward me at the edge of the brush and, by God, it was a coyote. No mistaking that head. Cool! I love that there are still wild things around.

You can get your Daily Coyote right here.