Friday, August 1, 2008

Friday Five: Lock Me Out, Lock Me In


Over at RevGalBlogPals, Songbird writes:

For some reason, Blogger declared this blog possible SPAM and locked us down yesterday. This morning, we're free to post again, but there was a fair amount of excitement last night among our contributors, who found a dire notice on their Blogger dashboards threatening that this blog might be deleted in 20 days!

We requested a blog review, and I posted a request at the Blogger Help group, where I found we were not alone. Many other perfectly nourishing and cromulent blogs got the same notice last night.

This turned out to be a very small barricade in our blogging community life, but it seemed appropriate to explore locks and blocks and other barriers this week. Also, I liked the picture of the security team above! Could they be Blogger's Spam Prevention Robots, working overtime?

In honor of their efforts, I bring you the "Lock Me Out, Lock Me In" Friday Five.

1) How do you amuse yourself when road construction blocks your travel?
Since I am not ever the driver, I amuse myself pretty much all the time I am in a car -- in this case I would look at the workers, be glad I'm not working as a flagger for $8 an hour, and perhaps try to amuse the driver, if necessary!

2) Have you ever locked yourself out of your house? (And do you keep an extra key somewhere, just in case?)
It's been a while. Many of you will be shocked, but we normally don't lock our doors, and this was true when we lived in the city as well as now. I do seem to recall an incident when one of the children had to crawl in through a window -- maybe one of them will remember and comment.

3) Have you ever cleared a hurdle? (And if you haven't flown over a material hurdle, feel free to take this one metaphorically.)
Maybe this morning -- or maybe not. I had a job interview and I couldn't really tell exactly how well it went.

4) What's your approach to a mental block?
I try to think about something else for a while, and usually the answer will come to me when I'm not expecting it any more.

5) Suggest a caption for the picture above; there will be a prize for the funniest answer!
I'm not so good at captions, but...
"If they won't slow down or stop for real live construction workers, why would they stop for us?"

My sympathies on the Blogger confusion, by the way. For several weeks, Blogger made me type verification letters in order to post. They were squiggly and hard to read and I often had to make two or three tries before I reached one I could interpret. My appeals for a review were finally met just before my birthday, and it was a wonderful present!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

We haven't locked much at all, but we're reconsidering after having things stolen from our cars (which are definitely getting locked now!) and some apparent tampering with our gas caps earlier this week. Such a bummer!

Anonymous said...

I had to climb in the basement window of the most recent Mpls. house at least three times, and the back porch window probably twice that many. Also, I remember being boosted into the old house's window once when we were all locked out.

The housing inspector suggested we replace the essentially unlockable basement windows at the new place with glass block, and I feel strongly that we should.

Mavis said...

All the best as you wait the outcome of the job interview. I had two last week (and an informal one tomorrow). It can be so hard to read back and work out how they went. The mayor of the town we lived in when the children were small never locked his door. ASnd never had any problems!

Cathy said...

We are not big lockers either. I hate the thought of having to do it either.

Mary Beth said...

Hope you have heard about the interview by now.

and...look forward to seeing you at the bean supper!!

Crimson Rambler said...

and a happy birthday to you and a whooping good celebration on Sunday!