I am back again - or is that a maybe?

It's been a while since I last posted, but not through lack of trying. Blogger would not let me access my dashboard in any manner or form for some time now.

Internet Explorer rendered a blank page whenever I signed in to my dashboard and Google Chrome still won't even let me view my blog on line - it informs me that "It doesn't look like you have been invited to read this blog. If you think that this is a mistake, you might want to contact the blog author and request an invitation."

"Hello Google, I am the blog author and have been since 8 July 2007, nothing has changed"

After a few posts on the Blogger forum, changing passwords, some cursing and much frustration my blog finally became accessible again in Internet Explorer. Alas Google Chrome still wants me to contact the blog author, which is not a problem as I am in constant contact with myself. I have checked all the settings and still nothing has changed - so my browser of choice remains IE.

My intention was to publish a photo with this post, but after several unsuccessful attempts I realise that this is not going to happen.

Is it only me or has Google lost the plot?

Commenting right

I don't know if it is just me, but when I try and comment on blogs where the comments are set to "Embedded below post" and you first have to select your profile from a drop down box, my comments never go through.

It happens like this. I read a post and then select "comment". The comments box pops up below the post and I write my message.

Then I am asked to "Select profile" and I select "Google Account"

I am taken to the page that tells me to sign in. "Why," I ask myself, "I am already signed in."

But being conditioned to the cyberworld and to logging in and passwords, I dutifully type in my email address and password and press the "Sign in" button.

And hey presto I am transported back to the comments page. It now time to do the the word verification thingy. When that is done I hit the "Post Comment" button and I am immediately taken back to the "sign in" page.

Now if I was really compliant I could spend the rest of the night repeating the process. But I am not and that is the end of my social networking.

So if you have your comment form set to "Embedded below post", the chances are that I have visited you but was not succesful with posting my comment.

I still find the most user friendly way to comment on Blogger is with the "pop up window". If you are worried about spam, you can still set word verification. And if the occassional spammer gets through, Google automatically trashes it.

UPDATE and solution to the problem, thanks to Katney:

Max, here is the "detour" till they do get it fixed. When you hit that sign in page, uncheck the "Remember Me" box. It will let you get the comment published. Hopefully, they will have the issue resolved soon, it has gone on way too long.

Give credit where it is due

I feel that I must give Blogger credit where it is due. The recently added spam filter is great.

Spam messages have been a source of frustration for many bloggers and as a result we have had to resort to measures such as word verification to stop these cyber predators. Let's face it, using these measures is a pain.

In the past I would often get about twenty spam messages dotted throughout my site and would have to go to each post to delete the offending comments. The only way to stop it was to activate word verification.

Thanks to blogger I have now deactivated word verification and all I have to do these days is delete the spam messages after going to the Blogger comments tab. If any spam does happen to slip through, it is a simple matter go to the comments tab, locating the offending message and pressing the delete button.

All in all this again makes commenting easier and pressing the delete button once a week is not a problem

Book Review: The Diary of Iris Vaughan

And what I like most about blogging............

Sue discovered a second hand book shop recently and after doing some severe damage to the credit card, came home with some classics. One of them being the diary of Iris Vaughan. This has to be one of my all time favourites.

I am now reading it for the third time. The book comes complete with spelling mistakes and lack of punctuation – but that adds to the charm.

Iris Vaughan was the daughter an Eastern Cape Magistrate and started her diary at the age of eleven. Written at the time of the Anglo-Boer War, the diary gives a delightful account of life seen through the eyes of a child.

The reason her father gave her the diary is best explained by Iris……..

Every one should have a diery. Becos life is too hard with the things one must say to be perlite and the things one must not say to lie. This is something I can never get right. If I say you are an ugly old man, that is bad manners, and if I say you are not an ugly old man I am telling a lie and not speaking the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help me God. That is what the peopel say in the witness box when they are at a case in the courthouse. When they say this is a great sin to tell a lie. Pop says to the witness who is to speak about the prisoner what you are to say is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and the witness says so Help me God. Then he tells the truth and is not punished. But in our house it is not like that. The other day when Mr O. was eating with us he said You are my little sweetheart, and I said NO and he said Why not and I said So help me God becos you are such an ugly old man with hair on your face. For what I was sent to bed without any more dinner even jelly and had a good jawing about perliteness. All the time I said I was telling the truth Mom said Nonsense, you are just a rude little girl. So Pop said you have a diary and and write all the truth in it and when you cant speak the truth its better hold your tongue. That is why I am writing. Charles says it is all too much trubbel. Don’t ever talk and you wont be punished. But my tongue is an unruly member Pop says and will cause me to suffer much being a female.

The book is full of delightful anecdotes about the school choir, the arrival of the boer troops, and subjects such as the “Circus”, the “foto-taking man” and the “horse that escaped seizure in a female cell" .

Iris would probably have been a good blogger with her observations of life and delightful style of writing.

For me blogging is like keeping a journal of my life and writing about things that interest me. What I like about blogging David is that it is a personal journey, but one that can be shared. In the process I also get to meet a lot of interesting people – albeit in cyberspace. And unlike poor Iris I can tell the “the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth” and get away with it.