Seriously, it's time for a New Year!

2012 provided some wonderful things for me personally, some fabulous things.  But as fall approached .. things starting going downhill, and this year has ended with some incredibly crappy things happening.  Here's hoping that 2013 will bring brand new, shiny, wonderful things for all of us once the corks are popped and confetti thrown.

Wishing you all the very best of new years to come!

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Maxine Monday

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THIS IS A CAPTCHA FREE ZONE! Putting my foot down in 2013.

It's almost 2013.  I'm thinking it might be a good time for bloggers out there to stop making their readers prove they are not undesirable commenters and or robots. The way I look at it, when someone comes to my blog they are a guest.  I assume they are gracious visitors and treat them as such.  In other words, I trust first and react after the fact.

If you had your house on the market and were hosting an open house, would you be meeting people at the door and making them prove they could afford to buy your home before you let them in?  Or would you allow them in, let them look around, open cabinets, look in the closets and wish them a lovely day on their way out?

You want people to not only come to your blog, you want them to interact.  You want them to comment.  But when someone takes the time to type out a thoughtful (or funny, snide, provocative, take your pick) comment, why would you then put the onus on them to prove that they are not blog-scum by making them squint and type out a captcha - and sometimes retype (okay I usually get them wrong the first time) before you allow that precious comment to be published?

What that says to many readers is that your blog is not necessarily a friendly place.  That you would inconvenience your readers rather than yourself.  That you really don't care if they comment.  I mean - if you feel the need to moderate, then take the responsibility on yourself and use comment moderation.  A pain in the butt for sure having to approve every comment before they are displayed.  But isn't that better than making all of your readers pay for some occasional visiting trolls or spamming software?

Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm captcha-challenged.  But more than half the time I CAN'T MAKE OUT THE DAMN THING!  Ahem.  It annoys me.

Welcome to my blog!  Stay and visit for a while.  :)

And I'm willing to bet you would get more comments if you would take that word verification off and throw it in the very back of your blog closet.  You don't have to serve tea or some cookies (although how nice would that be?).  But please stop making me beg to comment on your posts.  Because I don't know about you - but lately if I don't get that captcha on the first try - I'm outa there, abandoned comment or no.

JUST SAYIN'.

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When your pre-assembled gingerbread house - isn't.

There are some advantages - you get to avoid your own (as well as other people's) artistic expectations of what a perfect little gingerbread house should look like.

.. and it's still yummy anyway!

Wishing you PEACE on Christmas

.. and cats under your tree.  Has to be some kind of good luck, don't you think?

Merry Christmas everyone!

Maxine Monday

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Ice, anyone?

Do you have a smart phone?  Do you have an ICE app on it?  In Case of Emergency is what it stands for.  I put one on the first screen of my iPhone a couple years ago, thinking it was a good idea but that I would probably never need it.  But as I was crouching on the ceiling of my car and the fireman outside the door was asking me questions about medical conditions and medications - I reached in my purse and handed him my phone with the ICE app open.  I could have answered his questions but it would have taken more time and honestly, at that moment my brain just wasn't going to the names of the meds I take.  If I had been unconscious - I wouldn't have been able to tell them at all.

The app I use is free, very simple, and has places to fill in the info any emergency worker needs to know.  My name and address, my emergency contacts, if I have any medical conditions, if I take any medications and if so - which ones.  All very important if you are in an accident or collapsed because of some kind of physical problem.  I was never sure whether first responders would actually use that type of thing, but they do.  It's not silly to have one on your phone, and very well could save your life.

Just sayin'.

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