Unacceptable

When AOL closed their blog platform nine years ago the sites were automatically migrated to Blogger and all thousand + photos moved to Photobucket.  Last week YaYa called my attention to those error on Slapinions.  When I went to Photobucket to comply with the upgrade request,  I was appalled: the "affordable" option is $399 per year.  So,  the first five years of my blog are permanently gutted.  Now,  I'm a paranoid prone to redundancy,  so I have a complete pdf version of the site,  but I am still in mourning.

Blogger Issues and Changes to the Comment Page

I had a big scare here on Slapinions yesterday. With my home computer still down I visited the local library after work to check my email. That worked fine, but I was unable to view my site on the first computer I tried. So I tried another. No site. Another. Still no Slapinions. I could sign into my dashboard page but venturing any further resulted in a Blogger error message.

The first Blogger resource I queried suggested my site had been automatically shut down as a 'spam site'. I guess it's not all that uncommon for Blogger to close a site because of a false negative whenever their algorithm mistakes a phrase or link in the site as spam content. Naturally I'd noticed that my last post had resulted in two spam comments, at least one of which linked to porn. Great.

But, the resource was quick to say, Blogger is quick to restore the site in cases of mistaken identity, while of course always searching for a way to improve their algorithm and bring sunshine into the life of all God's creatures.

Phooey. So much for Google being the safe haven of the exiled J-Landers.

A little later a rash of complaints quoting the same error code came up on Blogger help groups, which cheered me up quite a bit. One guy getting screwed is easy to ignore. Not so much when three dozen people are moaning about it all over the web.

Today, the site was back up where it belongs.

So as of today, with some regret, I've added the annoying anti-spam, word verification step to the comment page. I know Ken, in particular, hates that step but I'm gonna have to play it safe and run with it anyway. It's not like I'm inundated with comments, spam or otherwise, but I'm not going to take the chance and have one moron out there knock out five years of my work.

And you better believe I'm searching for a way to back up the site - again - this time off Google, which ain't easy to do, as the big G is to the web what the Mantle era Yankees were to baseball.

Who knows, maybe the first Blogger resource was dead wrong and it was just a general error - but why dare to take the chance?

Blogger Progress, Smiley, Runway

I portered over my test blog to blogger today and it went very well. As for Slapinions proper, there is still housekeeping to do before the move. As a 'for instance' I'm adding pics to my posts from my time at the Presidential Inauguration in '05, and I need to move over all the comments from the non-AOL comment site I used for a few years. I could do it post-move, but I'd rather wrap it up nice and tidy in a format I'm used to working in.

* * *

On a personal note I'm eating like SH*T - well, not quite. I haven't had a candy bar in two months and I have avoided pizza in recent weeks, but I've hit the brownies and starches hard. Argh, scratch that. At work (where the problem seems to be the worst) I had pizza the other day, nasty greasy eat-it-with-a-spoon pie :(. I also chowed on ice cream cake today, but we'll explain that later on in our program.

I have, however, kept up the exercise, taking the kids out for bike rides even as the weather grows harsher. Today, for example, I tossed the three youngest in the bike trailer and headed out for a brisk 15 minute ride. Hills that used to stop me now fly by with barely a notice, which is great, and I've grown rather fond of the 'burn' in my calves after a bit. Now I just have to find a good winter activity to keep me at a 'reasonable' size .

* * * *

Great family night. LuLu, who really enjoys helping in the kitchen, helped Lisa make breaded pork chops and scalloped potatoes. We had to pass the pork off as 'chicken' to the kids, even the assistant chef. They tore it up, but tell them it's anything else and they'd go 'ewwww'.

Afterwards the bike ride and some time in the backyard, where Smiley gently scolded Lump by saying 'Bay beee', which floored me. When I asked him to repeat it he couldn't, but it was clear as day.

Later the whole family (minus the sleeping Lump) cuddled on our bed to watch Project Runway. LuLu is a big fashion nut and nearly every morning it's an ordeal to get her dressed because she wants things 'just so', so we knew she'd love Runway.

YaYa and Lisa rooted for Leanne, Lu and I for Kenley. Both girls wanted Jerrell voted off because of his gender and got their wish, but I'd have kicked Kato (sp?) to the curb myself.

[I was proud of Lu for identifying Kato by saying 'the woman with the dark skin' rather than as 'the black girl'. It seems a miniscule point in print, but out loud it was a nice confirmation that, at least as of now, she views color as a secondary or minor trait.]

During the show Smiley sat fidgeting, bored out of his mind. And then again, out of nowhere, he said 'Bay beee', and this time could repeat it on command. Lisa and I gave him a big hug and told him we were proud of him, and you should have seen the grin on that kids face!

A teacher at the girl's school said Smiley would do fine there next year. I'd have bought the argument if she hadn't gone ahead and said she'd had 'lot's of kids that didn't talk at the start of the year' but wound up jibber-jabbering by spring. I like the woman and she's a fine teacher, but I'm about up to my neck in yahoos writing off his problem as 'something that'll just go away' or that came about because we don't 'make' him talk.

My vote - and Lisa and I differ here - is that he stays where he is, not only because they know him and his needs, but because the girl's school is at times a vain place, and I won't have my son singled out as an 'oddity' by anyone.

We'll see.