Please Make It Stop....I'm Beggin' Ya.....

No this isn't going to be another weather rant, or about the annoying holiday ads on TV, or the really sad abused animal posts that I'm sick of seeing on my Facebook newsfeed.  It's about CAPTCHA, that little box that pops up on blogs and other websites and makes you type in a hard-to-read sequence of letters and blurry numbers.  The purpose of this is to prove you are a human and not a robotic spammer.  It sucks.  There I said it.  Sucks out loud.  As you've noticed, I have limited my life-ranting ever since moving here.  I really don't have much to rant about anymore anyway, but this issue is like a burr under my hide and it's annoying me more with each passing day. 

I don't want bloggers who use it to get mad at me or think I'm telling them how to run their blogs.  But please hear me out on this topic.  I do understand the need for it on certain fan, political and business blogs and sites.  Ones that get more traffic and, therefore, subject to more robotic spam than a craft or photography-themed blog.  Blogging A-Z Challenge also posted about this topic HERE on September 27th.  The key here is robotic spam.  99.9% of your readers are, indeed, human and having to prove it with this ridiculous feature is, well, ridiculous.  If you are a political blogger and post controversial topics, or you have a high profile fan site for a celebrity, you are going to be subject to human spam and vitriolic and/or wacky comments by humans who don't care about filling out a CAPTCHA just so they can leave their two cents.  Having the CAPTCHA turned on makes zero difference, so you might as well turn it off because it's pissing off the majority of your readers.   

I have been aware of CAPTCHA for a long time.  And in the beginning, like 2005 or so, it seemed like a good way to protect your blog from weirdos and spammers, and as time went on the technology got better in terms of building in robotic-spam blockers to stop it before it starts.  In the over 6 years since my blog has been open, I have been subject to very little spam or nasty comments either by humans or robots.  Every now and then someone posts a link to something, but it's certainly not enough to force my friends into typing a CAPTCHA.  I see it, I delete it.  No big deal.  It's not like I get hundreds of comments like The Bloggess and Wil Wheaton do.  As a blog reader, I want to comment and move to the next blog.  Sometimes if I remember there's a CAPTCHA and my time is limited, I won't leave a comment.  Then I feel guilty because I know the time and effort it takes to put out a quality blog and I should at least acknowledge that I stopped by.  But when it takes a person twice as long to type in a nonsensical word than it does their comment, blog owners are going to see less traffic/comments on their sites.  Believe me I would much rather see that my comment 'is in moderation and waiting blog owner approval' than the dreaded CAPTCHA box.  The only reasons I suffer through it is that I have become quite fond of many of the blogs that I read & their owners, and I look forward to each new post, and also because I have way more time to waste online than when I was working.  If and when I do go back to work, I will be unable to visit like I do now and if CAPTCHA is turned on, it's even less likely I will comment.  

When I did Blogging A-Z in April, they emphasized over and over to turn the damn thing off or else the Challenge would come to a screeching halt around the letter H as bloggers opted not to leave comments on, or decide not to follow, a CAPTCHA blog.  Throughout the challenge, the Blogging A-Z hosts asked us how it was going, what were the positives and negatives, and the #1 negative was CAPTCHA.  They again stressed to turn it off.  The people that used this feature refused, even when some readers came right out and commented nicely that it'd be great/appreciated if CAPTCHA could be turned off.  

It's really easy to turn this feature off, turn on comment moderation and even limit who can comment.  This way you can weed it out without forcing people into the word verification.  Maybe some of you don't even know you have it on.

When you are in your list of posts, look on the left side and click on Settings which has a picture of a wrench.  In the drop down of that, click on Posts and Comments.  Now you can select to turn on Comment Moderation if you want to nip spam in the bud.  Where it says Show word verification, if that box next to it says 'yes', click on it and pick 'no'.  When you are done, go to the top right and click the orange 'Save Settings' box.

Please...I'm beggin' ya.....stop the madness......please turn of the word verification once and for all!

Resurrection Blogfest

From December 18, 2006, following a devastating wind storm that brought Western Washington to it's knees on 12/14/06, with widespread and prolonged power outtages and terrible damage.  My power was out for nearly 6 days, during the darkest and coldest time of the year.  It very nearly ruined the holidays.  Crews were brought in from all over the USA to try and restore power & phone service.  The rural and mountain communities didn't get power back till Christmas Eve.  It was so bad that this storm even has it's own Wikipedia entry HERE.  It was dubbed The Hannukah Eve Storm of 2006.  The emergency response came under massive fire and criticism.  It should be noted that after sinking nearly $10,000 into a state of the art generator & gas stove after this storm, we never lost power again.  This post was done when I was at work since I  had no power at home until the 20th.  I was unable to post the photos taken the day after the storm for several days.  

Without further adieu, I give you:  

BUT HEY, I'M OK

POST-STORM REPORT CARD:

State of Washington: F

Puget Sound Energy: F

City of Bonney Lake: F

Qwest Telephone: A

Comcast Cable: A

It was one hell of a storm we had on Thursday night. It poured rain in buckets all day long, and my boss sent me home at 2 to prepare for the storm. I was so relieved when Brian made it home. The wind didn't start kicking up till about 6:30 and it was pretty bad. Our power flickered for a few hours. We finally went to bed at about 9:30, and when Pepper woke me up at 10, shivering and crying, the power was out. Poor little doggie was so frightened. I got up and gave her half a doggie tranquilizer and let her get up on my bed, but she wouldn't stop shaking. Brian finally got up and gave her the other half and let her up on his bed.

We woke up to massive devastation on Friday morning. Fortunately, no trees fell on our house, but we had a lot of huge and heavy branches in the yard. We also discovered that Sagan was so frightened that he'd vomited in his crate all night long, so Brian had to clean that up. Friday we went for a walk w/ the dogs and checked out the damage. Lots of trees on power lines, snapped poles, one guy had a tree fall on and cut in half his brand new 5th wheel. We also saw a few damaged homes. All things considered, we were in good spirits on Friday, and Friday night we figured our power would be on by Saturday night. Meanwhile, we withheld food from Sagan on Friday but he did drink water, which he proceeded to projectile vomit all over the family room rug that night.

Saturday arrives and our kitchen freezer is clearly melting, fast. There's a huge puddle of water on the kitchen floor. We threw out all the food in the freezer, and put some of the fridge stuff outside since it's cold enough to keep. We were able to get the cars out of the garage by propping the door open. We were starved so we went out for breakfast, came home, and did storm clean up just like the rest of our neighbors. The thing that REALLY annoyed us was that as soon as you turn off our street, everyone else has power. But you should see the piles of debris alongside the roads!!! I swear, just let the City of Bonney Lake tell us to remove the debris and they will suffer my wrath. Meantime, we let the doggies out in the backyard to play and get some air while we cleaned up out front. Saturday night arrives, and we are still in the dark. I notice that Sagan is acting really weird. He can't seem to stand up or walk right, he keeps staggering into the walls, tipping over and he has this goofy grin on his face. Brian gave him a quick exam and there were no yelps of pain. Then we smelled it.....sour apples. Sagan got into the rotting apples in the back yard and was drunk. I half expected to wake up the next day and see that he had a tattoo on his leg that said "mom" or "rosie" or something. lol We spent Sat. night in the dark, again.

Sunday we get up and there's STILL no power. By this time I am pretty much apoplectic. I was able to get the car out and go to the bank, but the gas station was out of gas, and they had jacked the price dramatically. I called PSE and was assured that they were "working on it". I called them again at 3:00 and I shit you not, the message they had on their first menu, after listing all the towns (in King County of course) that may not see power for another week, was "for emergency shelter information, go to our website." HELLO!!!!!! How can you check a website WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE ANY POWER? Morons. I finally talked to someone and basically bitched at him.

Before I explain further, those people who do not live here or have ever lived here need to understand the dynamics in Washington State. King County thinks that they are god & Seattle is the center of the universe. They think they are the only county in the state. They look down on Pierce County as if we are a bunch of redneck country bumpkins. A few years ago I was on my way home from work and there were 2 accidents on Highway 410, and a brush fire at the top of the highway, and not one single Seattle-based traffic report mentioned it. Not one. All facilities are restored to King County FIRST and foremost. (Unlike the east coast, where people are more town-centric, west coast people identify themselves by county. It's the same in California). Meanwhile, as you travel around town, you can see plenty of Qwest and Comcast trucks working on their lines, but not a PSE truck or City of Bonney Lake truck to be seen anywhere.

At 6:30, I called PSE again. I wade through their stupid menus and finally get a person. I am stark raving mad now. And you know what she tells me???? She has the unmitigated AUDACITY to tell me, "I know, we have people in Medina who are still out of power too." That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. "MEDINA?!" I scream into the phone. "WHO CARES ABOUT THE GODDAMN BILLIONAIRES IN MEDINA!" (Bill Gates lives in Medina!!) The only reason the fucking lights are off in Medina is that the richest of the rich flew their private jets to Vail or Aspen for the holidays!!!! If she had said any other town - Spanaway, Graham, Yelm....places that are remote and poor, I would have been more understanding, but don't expect me to feel sorry for the mucky mucks in Medina for chrissakes. So then she explains the 4 stages of repair: "First we assess the situation. Then we assign a job number to the repair and wait till that number comes up, for the repair stage, but if the crew has to wait for another piece of equipment to arrive like the tree cutting crew, they will leave and go to another location to keep working. Then we next make sure that the mainlines are working & power is restored." She goes on to tell me that they are flying in crews from other states to help.

I said, "OK, the trees are on the lines, there's a pole snapped in half and dangling over the road, SITUATION ASSESSED! NOW GET THE DAMN TRUCKS OUT THERE!" She was actually really nice and took my abuse pretty well......and I did try to tone it down a little b/c a part of me felt sorry for her b/c I'm sure I wasn't the only one who was that upset. In fact, she said they were getting a lot of irate calls from my neighborhood. But she did say that it was in their system so that meant that the crew had been out to "assess" the situation & repair number was assigned, which meant that we were now in the "repair stage". Well la-de-frickin-da. And another thing, it's not like they didn't know this storm was coming! Why weren't crews from the other states on their way up here on Friday? They wait till Sat. and Sun. to fly people up?

At that point, I left a message on my work's machine and my boss' home machine, with my cell phone number, requesting that he call me at 6:00 a.m. to wake me up so that I could get to work on time. He called this morning, as requested, and felt awful about our situation. I had to bring Pepper to work with me because the house is too cold, and we took Sagan to day care. Both dogs desperately need a bath.

Next time my PSE bill comes in, I'm thinking about sending my payment at the last possible second with a letter that says, "your bill came in and first I assessed the situation. Then I assigned it a bill-paying number and put it in line after all the other bills that came in before yours. But then when I went to pay it, I didn't have a pen that worked so I moved on to other things. Then once I found a pen that worked, I was able to write the check. Then I had to bring it into work to get a stamp. Then I mailed it."

So all things considered, we are fine and in a lot better shape than those who had multiple trees fall on their houses. However, we are greatly inconvenienced without power and clearly, I was not cut out to be Amish. The first 3 things on my "want" list are: A landline telephone, a generator and a gas stove.

First Annual Resurrection Blogfest 2012!!

Mina Lobo at Some Dark Romantic is hosting a Resurrection Blogfest, which will take place on November 7, 2012.  This is an opportunity to resurrect a post from your very first year of blogging.  

If you'd like to participate, please click HERE to add your blog to her Linky List.  Initially I wasn't planning on participating, since my first blogging year was 2006 and I wasn't sure I wanted to revisit my old life of 6 years ago just yet.  But I figured what the heck, I can take a quick look through my posts from that year and see what I can dig up resurrect.  Hope you all can join us!!!!

When One Person Ruins It For Everyone

Hello my loyal readers.  I appreciate all of you accepting the invite for Tahoma Beadworks, since I have had to change this from a public blog, to an invite-only blog, due to the actions of two psychos, who came after me and my squeeze last Friday, because of information they gleened here.  It was so bad that I had to delete the entire post about how he and I met, because her friend left a very nasty "Anonymous" comment. I deleted the comment, and, out of sheer frustration and anger, deleted the post before I decided to change to invite-only.  I do regret that because it was a great story.  Needless to say it was a very upsetting and stressful weekend for he and I, having to deal with the lies and repercussions thereof.  I want to thank all of you for your support and your help, especially last Friday when the shitstorm hit. 

Unfortuately, my squeeze's ex is unbalanced (as is her best friend, who was in on the attacks). Somehow, she found my blog (still not sure how) and she came absolutely UNGLUED when she read the story of how he and I got together.  Most, if not all, of you know what was said, as I told you in private messages.  To be honest I wasn't terribly surprised to find her messages in my inbox b/c he told me he'd gotten a text from her that morning and she was good and mad.  She's one of those 'if I can't have him, no one can' bitches.  I knew her in high school.  She was a slut then and she's a slut now.  As long as she has contact with him, even if he's angry and telling her to leave him alone for good, she seizes on that contact.  She nearly succeeded in driving a wedge between us, but he & I refused to let that happen.  We both could have let this escalate to an all-out war, but neither of us has the time or desire for it.  This isn't high school anymore.  The less we engage her in her twisted games, the more likely she'll be to back off.  Hopefully.  Fortunately she lives in Florida.

It's a pity because I don't let people bully me and I take shit from no one.  I was bullied in school a few times and I learned to stand up for myself.  I don't care what I put out there in public about me and my life, and I adopted a rather defiant "who-cares-what-she-thinks?" stance. I thought about turning on comment moderation, but the bottom line is, if Tahoma Beadworks remains open to the public, she will still be able to see what I am up to, comment moderation or not.  And also, he cares, and sometimes fears for my safety.  That is why I agreed to compromise and lock down my blog so that she can no longer track my every movement and activity, while still being able to write & post what I want.  It's a damn shame, but I understand the necessity for it, especially at this time while he and I are apart.  I know one thing, it sure motivated me to settle on my last day of work.  I have now scheduled the PODS container accordingly, and I have made the flight reservations for my honey to come out here and drive back with me.  After nearly 7 months of long distance contact and only a few precious days in March when we saw each other, it's going to be a novel concept of (1) Being in the same time zone when he's on the road and (2) Finally knowing that at the end of each week, he will come home to me.

Still, I'd really love to know how the bitch found my blog in the first place, because my Facebook profile is set to the highest privacy settings and the link to my blog is on FB.  Maybe it's because I erred and put my baby's name in the post and she googled his name and that came up. I did, however, have to change my Facebook message settings so that only Facebook friends can contact me.  It used to be that anyone could send me a message, in case an old friend was looking for me.  But because I received 3 unbelievably horrible FB emails, full of lies, from the psycho and her friend, I had to change that as well.  In addition, I used to have my blog posts automatically published on Facebook, in case any of my non-blogging friends would want to read it.  I've also had to disable that function b/c I am now FB friends with some of his relatives and friends, and I don't know who I can trust not to be snooping on the psycho's behalf.   I really have no idea how much digging this woman has done, or is doing, to find out what we are up to or how serious we are.  It's pretty obvious that I will be unable to post any information about my upcoming trip/move back east, either here or on Facebook.  Although I am confident that we will have no further problems, I've learned my lesson about prematurely sharing too much.

He warned me though.  He told me this could happen if I kept pouring out my personal thoughts in public like that.  He has implored me to stop blogging so much information, telling me I can vent to him and to my friends.  For one, I like to write.  My blog has become an outlet for that and that's what I'm used to now, esp. since I can type faster than I can write in a journal and without the writers cramp.  For another, because Brian had told me that my bad moods or my venting about a bad day adversely affected him and his moods, I stopped discussing my thoughts with him or venting if I had a bad day.   But I admit, I didn't take my squeeze seriously when he said the information I put out there can bite me in the ass.  I never expected to be blindsided by what happened last week.

Now that my blog is invite-only, it probably won't show up in your Dashboard as having been updated every other day or every few days.  I hope you guys won't forget to stop by to see if I've updated. 

Will I go back to having my blog public?  Maybe at some time in the future, but not for awhile, and definitely not till I get back to the east coast.  Knowing her, she will keep checking in from time to time to see if I have gone public again.  It's just a pity that she had to ruin it for everyone.

Post #600

So. Post #600. I totally spaced on observing any of the other milestones, so I don't know why I'm observing this one but I am.

I started this blog in June, 2006, after searching around the interwebs for fans of Vincent D'Onofrio. That's how I met Val, Eliza, Axe, Ann, Mary, Jaime, Susan, Kris, Madi, Tess & Di at The Valentine Cat and all the gals on the Molly Blog. Their blogs were all pretty new too, in the summer of 2006. I am proud to call them amongst my dearest friends. And through our fledgling efforts to D'evote our blogs to the D'Ivine D'Onofrio, I met a whole bunch of wonderful people too: BASRIC, BobbyBeGood1, our only male Vincent Vixen Snarkangel, Jazzy, Nantz, Ruby, MauiGirl and Music Wench. I'm proud to call all of you friends. Other Vincent bloggers have come and go, and I keep in touch with some on Facebook. I apologize profusely if I have left anyone out!!

My fellow Vincent Vixens did a fantastic job at presenting Vincent pics and slideshows, especially Eliza, who works some serious magic with her treasure trove of pics. Unfortunately, other than posting stock shots of Vincent I'd snagged from around the web, I didn't know what else to do with it, and therefore decided to just write about miscellaneous stuff. I like to write and it's been a good outlet for me. It's been a fun 4 years, although I can't believe it's been this long.

Along the way I also found some great Deadhead friends like Aiko Annie at Cozy Shack, Daisy Deadhead at Daisy's Dead Air, Sugar Mag, Fancy Schmancy, White Rabbit and The Golden Road. Through White Rabbit, I connected with Petit Fleur who writes a great blog as well. Her young son comes up with some brilliantly funny quips, which she calls "Harleyisms".

I love Vaporback Writer's blog (f/k/a Danger Panda's Eats Shoots & Leaves) because she lives a few towns over from me and does a lot of writing about the history of places and people, and she loves to poke fun at Pierce County Sheriff Ed Troyer. I love the great travel shots over at Trigby's Rigamaroo. Trigby performed Donnie & Mike's wedding ceremony in San Francisco, and that's how I met him. He and his partner, Eric, surprise each other all the time with fantastic trips to exotic places. I can't afford to travel, so I am happy to do it vicariously through my friends.

And now I've also been enjoying the Hood Photo Blog, San Francisco Sidewalk Safari and Victoria Daily Photo, which represent some of the most breathtaking photography I've ever seen of my fave places. Val, at Incurable, writes some great stuff about her intense long distance horseback riding competitions she does in the punishing Texas summer heat. Maureen's I'd Rather Be Blogging is always good for a chuckle. I've also been perusing the blogs of some absolutely amazing artists, like Sam's 3 blogs: Silkie Sue, SaMmY's PiX n MiX & Gingerwine's Lost Toys. I always loved Drowsey Monkey's blog but she decided to take a break several months ago, although I see she's testing the waters again (Drowsey, if you read this, please restart your blog).

Sorry I don't know how to do links, but they are all on the side of my page.

All of these blogs, including, Just Some Thoughts, Siobhan's Neverland, Sylvia's Stitches, Seraphim Jewelry Design, Blue Eyed Girl, Marching 7/4 and Marble Forum, are what keep me inspired to make my blog interesting and eclectic.

I want to thank all of my wonderful friends and family who pop by to read, either regularly or now and then. I appreciate the support. A lot of blogs I've seen never have any comments at all and it means a lot to me that I do get comments. I love all of you.

So the other day in the car, I was listening to one of my fave songs, "Blow At High Dough" by the Tragically Hip, which was also the theme song of one of my fave shows called "Made In Canada", about the film and TV industry in Toronto. It was brilliantly written and acted, extremely accurate and I developed quite a crush on Peter Keleghan, who played Alan Roy, the head of Pyramid Studios. Peter was simultaneously on "The Red Green Show" as lonely, loony Ranger Gord, who I also adored. When I got home, I looked Peter up on Facebook and found a page. I thought it was just a fan page till I checked out his friends. Oh it's definitely him alright. So I decided, what the hell, I'll send him a friend request. I included a message saying that I've been a long time fan of his, and assured him I wasn't weird or a stalker. Less than a half hour later, I got a notification that he'd accepted my friend request. I was ecstatic!!

Last year I'd also done a similar friend request to another long time fave actor, John Pyper Ferguson, on whom I have had a major crush since 1993. To my utter bliss, he also accepted. I've always been star struck, but to have 2 of my 3 biggest actor crushes consent to be a Facebook friend is like the closest I will ever get to meeting them in real life, or seeing what they are up to, even though neither of them are on that much. Now if only Vincent would get a page! Then my trifecta of actor crushes would be complete.

I covet this pendant. I am thinking about buying it. It's like $45 though. But I love it. We'll see.

As I mentioned the other day, Sagan's boarding this weekend. Today I got up at 7:30 and checked the following things off my Do It or Die List: Cleaned, vacuumed & dusted the downstairs, washed the downstairs dog beds, put away the DVDs, CDs and books. It took me about 4 trips to and from the upstairs livingroom with arm loads of dog toys that had to be brought back downstairs and put in the toy boxes. I coloured 2 pictures this afternoon, and also started one of my craft kit of the month club projects. It's stenciling. Because I have always sucked, and will always suck, at stenciling, I am having to try to salvage it as I continue on w/ the project. Needless to say when it's done and I take a photo of it, the photo will not be a closeup.....

The weather's been very cool and rainy, which suits me just fine, but for the ever-growing horror show that is my backyard. But the longer it stays like this, the shorter the summer. Last year was so awful. Just so hot. Too hot. Africa hot. Tarzan hot. I-don't-think-I-can-stay-here-if-it's-gonna-be-this-Hot. That's why I will happily take this off & on rain, any day.

I met Brian on July 2, 1988, 22 years ago today, in Oxford Maine, after the Dead show. I don't really remember that specific meeting other than saying, "Hi" when we were introduced, as it was late and dark and everyone was flying on LSD except me, who had to drive about an hour back to Michelle's place in Freeport. It was the next day, July 3, when he and I bonded after I sold him my extra ticket for what I paid ($20) and he said, "I love you". We didn't start hanging out regularly till months later though.

July 4th always makes me feel nostalgic and I will probably do a post about what it was like to grow up in a place like Sandwich, in the 1970's and celebrate the 4th of July. It's so quintessentially American, especially when you grow up surrounded with the history of it like I did. The fledgling rebellion would meet at Fessenden's Tavern, which eventually became the Dan'l Webster Inn, where I worked every summer as a chambermaid. The loyalists would meet at Newcombe's Tavern on the other side of Shawme Pond. I was born and raised in the heart of America's birth. So was Brian, being originally from New Jersey and outside the Philadelphia area. And typical of children, I didn't appreciate it when I lived there.

Tomorrow's goals: Dusting & vacuuming the upstairs, washing the livingroom windows, taking the stuff to Goodwill, washing out Sagan's crate and cleaning the kitchen & bathroom. And crafts. Always crafts.