Well, I sure haven’t been posting much, have I? But over the next week I will be posting even less.
Why?
The kids and I are heading to the Rain Forest again tomorrow. The Col. and The Dog will stay here and keep an eye on things- like deer. That’s all The Dog does- watch them. They’ll be taking care of the watering too.
I have a Tea Reception to attend that is a kick off for a museum exhibit on some of my family and it’s history. Then the same family is having a reunion on the weekend. Should be fun. Plus some time visiting with family.
I was going to have a few posts queued up for you while I was gone but it doesn’t look like that will happen. So… have a good week. We’ll see you when we get back.
It started out innocently enough- a few post titles in a row that started with the letter “C” and then the wayward thought of “I wonder how many I can come up with?” Watch out for wayward thoughts, they can be dangerous.
Then, after awhile, I wondered if anyone was noticing. No one commented, which is the only way that I know that you know, etc. This blog thing can be a communication tool, ya know, but in order for that to happen you have to leave a comment all you lurkers! I know you are out there.
The Col. finally noticed and then fed me a few “C” titles because I was getting stuck. I thought I’d end it at the end of June because of that. But with a few more ideas- plus some titles without post ideas to work with, on I went.
After a total of 23 posts with titles starting with “C” (this is #24) the charming, smart, funny (single) brother of mine called me out with this comment:
c, you’re cilling me with all those titles that start with C. Cwit already! 
Whew! Now I can stop! Anyway, Eric gets a prize for being the first to comment about it. Although I have no prize to actually give. Maybe I’ll let him have my three kids for a weekend. Ha! No, that would be a prize for ME! I’ll have to think of something.
See? It pays to comment- then you too might win a non-existent prize!
I had been noticing that a few of my computer programs were crashing rather frequently and then some programs wouldn’t come up at all. So I shut the machine down and on start up got a blue screen with white writing on it. That’s not a good thing. It said, though, that if this was the first time I was seeing this screen to shut down and start up again. So I did. It wanted to send a report to the Great Computer Company that Creates Programs that Hog Resources. Since it seemed serious enough, I said go ahead. It came back that I had something called “malware” on my computer. Oh dear. Well, this was beyond me so I phoned my handsome and clever Tech Support Guy.
He asked me to hold while he transfered me to India.
Har. Har.
I was instructed by Mr. Funny Tech Support Guy to shut my computer down and he’d work on it when he got home.
Geez! I had posts to post, websites to visit- truly important things to do! Luckily, I was distracted with VBS all evening.
So far Col. Panic, who didn’t panic, hasn’t found anything suspicious on here. Just lots of tracking cookies for a certain person who “browses” a lot. Who could he mean?
So now we are back to our regular scheduled blogging.
KN asked the other day if blogging was addictive because she is finding that reading them can be! (Hold on a second while I figure out how to link to a comment. Oh that wasn’t so hard.) Is “be” a preposition and did I just end a sentence with one? Gosh! The things one runs into with Bloggy Stuff. (A copy editor reads this and, I am sure, cringes at each post- but fortunately, I think she’s becoming addicted.)
Back to the subject at hand, I wouldn’t call the actual blogging part addictive. It can be quite difficult to think of catchy titles and figuring out which category to put things in. (One blogger I know doesn’t put anything into categories but I have used it to find things on here before.) Plus, the really important part is actually having anything worthwhile to say! I have posted about having nothing to say (now, where is that? Oh! Here it is.) But one can only get away with that a few times (Hmm, it’s been almost a year….). The kids only say so many cute things and as they are getting older, there is less of that and I only do so many dumb things, thank God! A bright spot is that the weather has provided some blog fodder but that only goes so far too. The actual writing part takes time and thought. I am thankful for Spell Check.
But, the part that is addictive is getting comments. That part is fun! It says someone has read what I’ve written and has thoughts on it. Then, it’s more of a conversation than a monologue. I like the sound of my own voice for only so long.
Last night, I went to the Church’s Monthly Soup and Prayer meeting. I drove the Suburban because our driveway and lane were still snow covered and there were areas on the roads that have snow, ice and slush on them. On the way home, I was on a bad stretch and things were going well. I was thinking about KN’s comment and composing a post in my head when I noticed I was sliding. Towards the ditch. I slammed on my brakes.
Ha! Got ya! Did I hear you slapping your forehead and saying “She didn’t!?!?!?” I’m not (quite) that dumb. I eased off the throttle and steered it out of the slide. I paid more attention and went slower after that.
So…. blog writting may not be as addictive as reading them (I know, I am addicted to reading several) but it can be hazardous to your health.
Now, I am off to check my favorite blogs- think they’ve posted anything yet today?
Happy Anniversary Dear Blog!
It’s a year since I started blogging. I’ve only posted 170 times (with a few from Col. Panic thrown in). That’s not very active- only about 14 per month. I see several blogs that post multiple times a day- but I don’t have that much to say. I have increased my readership from 2 (Col. Panic and ever faithful Boo Boo) to 10, at least occasional, readers. Whoopee! The numbers astound! One complete stranger subscribed but it turned out to be a spammer. I read one blog that started just over a year ago and she has thousands of readers and hundreds of comments. I keep wondering if that is what I want and in reality, I don’t. I enjoy writing for my friends and family and don’t want this to turn into a “job” or a “have to” situation. It’s a record of our lives and what I am thinking about and that is good enough for me.
To celebrate my wonderful husband is taking me out tonight. Oh, O.K., it’s the regular weekly date night and it’s my turn on the rotation. It sounds better the other way.
But I am concerned about the blog’s content- when one is reduced to talking about the weather, is it all down hill from here?
In case you have wondered- and even if you didn’t- the photo in the banner at the top of the page is indeed of our little homestead. We live in the rectangular box, the neat building with the steep pitched roof is the Shop. It’s a sad day when The Shop is fancier than The Home. It’s not finished inside so that is one advantage that the house has going for it.
There is now a place for you to subscribe! This means that an email would be sent to you when an entry is added to the blog. You can choose to get the whole entry or just an excerpt in the email notification. If you are subscribed, you will not have to remember to check back to see if anything new has been added. Or you will not get tired and disappointed after checking back daily for days on end with no new post. You can also choose to get a notification for all posts or just for ones in certain categories. So if you are only interesting in one of the kids then you could just subscribe to that kid’s category. It’s easy, free and Col. Panic took the time and effort to get it installed so don’t disappoint him. Click on the “Why Register” at the top.
Speaking of the good (ahem) Col. Panic- if you have ever wondered how he got that name check out the Site Hacker page.
Just as a curiosity, do you all like the font? Too small, too big, too plain, or too difficult to read? Maybe ‘just right’? Let us know!
Thanks for reading our little blog. I enjoy hearing from you whether here or via email. Keep checking back, now, ya hear?
The Evil lurks in every corner… a danger at every stop… ever on the prowl… it’s insidious! Just when you think it’s safe- it launches itself at you with tremendous force! In wave after wave it swamps you into a helpless blob of frustration. Yes, it has happened. The dreaded Spam has found my blog. Only certain entries though. I haven’t figured out why those entries but I have been getting enough that it has become an annoyance.
Therefore, Col. Panic has installed an add-on to combat the evil monster. Now when you leave a comment you will have to type in two words that are all squiggly. It’s called reCAPTCHA .
It is neat because you will actually be doing something constructive when you decode the words. Instead of just proving you are a human being and not a spam crawling bot you will be helping to digitize books.
As I understand it, books have been scanned into computers and are being “read” by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This will make the books searchable and formattable but the OCR doesn’t always decode the words correctly. This is where you come in–by typing in the distorted words correctly you will be teaching the OCR the right word. The first word will be one that it already knows, if you type it in right then it will assume you typed the second word right. It will then compare it to what other people have typed in to verify and then it will know what word to insert into the book.
It is explained better at the above link and while you are there you can decode more words for the project.
My time stamp was off but I have fixed it. By myself, thank you.
We now have high speed internet!
Yipee!
Now I can blog faster than ever.
If only I could think of something to say.
