It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Hurt...

…is just our diabolical way of getting your attention so we can talk about an issue that is near and dear to us both: Comments.

Or more precisely: Commenter Problems. We beg you to bear with us as we sort this out with you. We love getting comments. Of course, every blogger does. But we’ve always seen our blog as a meeting-ground for likeminded (or at least, likeable) people and want the Chautauqua-members to keep chatting, as it were, and for them to not meet with frustrations as their comments seem to post then don’t, as the ugly captcha phrase at the bottom of the screen shows up out of sight and undermines their efforts, or as the Blogger boogeyman refuses to let them post at all because of obtuse i.d. issues. And all this inevitably happens after our (very dear) reader has gone to all the trouble to write a comment in real-time on the site.

Thanks to a resolute group of readers and friends, we have learned that there are two major issues: either getting a workable i.d. with which to post, or getting the post to stick.

For the first issue, it seems having a Google i.d. is the easiest. If the bugs continue, you can try another browser (Firefox seems to have the most compatibility problems with Blogger; Safari seems good for Mac users, and IE for PCs). Or (in one successful example) try re-setting your Google i.d. password.

For the second issue, we’ve tinkered extensively with the Blogger settings and hope this will help. There is no more captcha feature––which is designed to reduce spam. If we get a lot of spam, we may re-install, but for now we’re going to take our chances.

Here’s the fun and games part. Would you please please please humour us and come along for a bit of a ride so we can assess if any of you continue to have problems? Until our next post on Wednesday, would you mind trying to post just a one-line comment? We can fun it up by playing the comments like that old game where each sentence is a continuation of the last one, in a kind of random free-for-all story. If you need to try a few times to get it to post (like a few of our great readers), could you add that in parentheses to your post-attempts?

The more of you who participate, the more idea we have if we’ve worked out the kinks. If you’ve never posted before, think of it as a chance to break your commenting cherry. If you’re a regular, feel free to add to the story as many times as you’d like.

If it’s still no fun and nothing works, would you mind letting us know at “radeckiritesatgmaildotcom” (with the appropriate symbols, of course)?

And, please, nobody get hurt. Thank you so much.

Love, Deb and Barbara

UNDO

Deb: I just read an article in today’s paper that said that Google Labs is testing a new “undo” button on its “send function” that would give us 30 seconds to stop an email from reaching our boss, boyfriend, neighbour, friend or anyone else we have issue with. It’s called “Undo Send”.

Funny that this comes in the wake of my blog last week about the letter I wrote and ultimately did not send to my neighbour. Being able to blog about it got it all out of my system and with your supportive responses I was able to get over it. That neighbour is now, as advised by my dear friend Annette “dead to me”.

But it got me thinking. Wouldn’t it be great to have an undo button in life? How many times have I said something and watched the words ramble out of my mouth, wishing I could leap in like wonder woman and stop them with my stylish cuffs before they reached the ears of the intended.

I wouldn’t want them just to stop mean things I have said in the past, although that would be so sweet. I want them to stop the stupid, the thoughtless, the things we all do every single day that still when recalled can bring a full on flush to my whole body.

Things like the classic, “Congratulations. When is the baby due?”. UNDO! “Well I never liked your boyfriend anyway, he was such a pig…. Oh ... that’s great ... when did you ... umm ... get back together? ... Married? ... Oh ... how ... umm ... yeah ... umm ... nice. UNDO! “Hi, Bob. Oh this must be your mother. How lovely to finally meet ... your wife? ... Of course ... I guess the sun was in my eyes and I ... er ... umm. UNDO!

And I also wonder how many “I love you’s” I’d UNDO that I gave so willingly to boys that were undeserving? And how many self-deprecating statements would I undo because I didn’t have the grace to handle a compliment? How many “snaps” at husband and child because I was just too tired and crabby to answer in a civil tongue? ALL-UNDO!

But as I am writing this and taking a second look at the UNDO as an aid, and as I look back at my life, I realize that all of these gaffes, these knee-jerks, these quips, and thoughtless comments are what made me me. They have allowed me to examine myself and improve myself and to assess myself and to forgive myself. As horrible as some of these memories are, they are the stained fabric of the Deb quilt, the little bits that the Tide-stick of life cannot completely erase. They are there for a reason. So I will UNDO the UNDOING. And, note to Google––it needs to be a helluva lot longer than 30 seconds, my friends. And it should come with a Breathalyzer.

Barbara: Ooh, I didn’t hear about this new button. Undo. Yeah, I’d need way longer than 30 seconds. Oh, the email-letters I’ve regretted sending. Much like your letter to your neighbour—the email I’ve written in anger or in haste always come back to slap me in the face. Hard. But I don’t want to take the email back until much later, after I’ve cooled down and realized IT IS NOT WORTH IT. Some people will just never get it.

Or undoing the haphazard comments made in real life? Me talking to a young hotshot director while she told me about a novel she’d just written. Me: “That’s great! Is it fiction or non-fiction?” UNDO! UNDO! She: “Well … isn’t a novel always fiction?” Me (red-faced, mortified): “Mm-hm, of course.”

I also want to thank you for your last thought, Deb—because I so agree. Why always punish ourselves for our own life lessons? They are difficult but potentially handy tools for growth and self-discovery.

And, yeah, a breathalyzer wouldn’t hurt…

A Primer For The Middle Ages

Okay, we know that many of you are blog aficionados, speeding along the internet highway in your snappy roadster, stopping in at all the fun places and meeting the most amazing people. But we also know there are a fair number of you who are new to this, cautiously visiting with your tin of fresh-baked cookies clutched in your hands and no idea where to leave them! So if you’re a roadster-type and know all this stuff, then you can just skip to the end of the post for the FUN STUFF.

But if you’re a cautious new visitor, then we thought we might walk you through the few basics we’ve picked up. Oy, talk about the blind leading the blind!

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here goes:

Finding us again: If you like our site, you can “bookmark”  or "favourite" it (top of the page in the toolbar) on your server (ie: Google) and come back with a mere click of the mouse. Or you can go to your “url” feed at the top of the server page (ie that long white oval where the web address shows up) and start typing “t-h-e-m-i-d” (etc), and the feed should give you our site (http://themiddle-ages.blogspot.com/) as an option: just click on it and voila. 

Links: If you see a word or words in our post that show/s up in another colour, that is a link to another page, site, article, or video. Just click on the word/s and off you go! And speaking of which, you can also check out our own blog page-links in the left-hand column (About Us, WTF?!, and Side of Slaw) with more—you guessed it—Fun Stuff!

Comments: Right underneath every post is a discreet little word: “comments”. If you click on this, then you can see how other readers weigh in––and often this is the best part! And, if you want, you can leave your own comment. Start a WHOLE discussion. (But you must "play nice", even if you disagree with us!) To leave a comment, just fill in the square. It will ask you for a profile of sorts, but that is up to you: full name, anonymous, pseudonym. And your privacy is as protected as you would like it to be. The first few times, most people feel shy commenting—but try it and you’ll see how quickly it becomes easy, and how suddenly the world feels like “a cozy place” (as we like to say).

** Edited to say: We've had some issues with people not being able to post comments, so we tried a pop-up window, but that didn't work on our side. If you're having problems, please keep trying. ••

In creating a profile (even with a pseudonym), you can link your name/icon to your OWN website or blog (or any other site you want to support). And that way, every time you comment, your icon shows up and anyone who’s interested can link to you and your stuff. That’s how we spread the blog love … or “blove”!!

Why be a “follower”, how does it work, and will my privacy be compromised? Turns out following is a two-way street. Nice for us as we know you’re out there and reading and we can click on your icon and maybe get to know you a bit too. Good for you because if you have a blogger feed, it’ll tell you the moment we’ve posted something new (on your “dashboard”). And either way, it’s another opportunity to link your profile to your own blog or website. To be a follower, you need to click on the "Follow" icon and it will talk you through the (very easy) steps.

Privacy? We will never pass any of your info over to anyone! But we can’t possibly know all the loopholes that may exist. So … if you’re interested in having a full profile for any of the above reasons but you have concerns, then you can create a free email account (ie: Google gmail or Yahoo) in literally 2 minutes and web-browse using that email address. To avoid missing any emails, just have the new account routed to your private account.

Sharing our blog: If there’s a post you particularly (b)love, you can “share it” on your Facebook or Twitter accounts. You simply click on those prompts (in the bottom left column) and our address and a short passage will go straight to your home page.

If ANYONE has any tweaks or suggestions or questions for this primer, PLEASE let us know and we will try to address them. We plan to create a separate page for the primer after this post, so it’s always there for newbies!

FUN STUFF. As that was (hopefully) helpful but (probably) boring, we have other PAGES you can check out (under “More Fun Stuff” in the column to the left) with new posts in WTF?! and SIDE OF SLAW… . Click over to read.

And speaking of which: We would love to hear and add YOUR anecdotes for WTF?! and/or Side of Slaw. If you want to share, email us your story at: radeckirites@gmail.com

Thanks and enjoy!