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Sunday, January 8, 2017

Where The Past Is

In recent weeks, there have been several inquiries about my reticence to restore Anonymous access to the comments section of my three blogs.  Five years ago, I wrote a little poem about being a grampa. Its title is Where The Future Is.  This has been a very rainy day, a good one for very rainy day activities such as going back in time to locate the temporal coordinates of that decision. I have done so.  Here is a post from "Gardening With Geo."  that illustrates the need for such boundaries. It is transported whole and includes the comments it got --strange as they are.
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Monday, February 27, 2012


Where The Future Is

(Norma photos)
I will tell you
Where the future is.
I step beyond my
Shadow on the green
Back door to
Where she put a
Hat on him

And grandmothered dreams
Into memories.
The future roams our
Work in short steps
Under boughs and birds,
Seeing all, startled
At wind-eddies, awed
At assemblies of
Ants and daffodils.
I am paid in pebbles.

4 comments:

  1. This the ARYAN BLOG with GEOLOGIE HURE?
    You with DARLENE- PLO?
    FLAKSTE- ORFLAST - DYST?
    USTECO- KENCO?

  2. No, Anonymous, this is the blog about quantum horticulture. I believe you want the blog down the road.


  3. Новинка сезона - мазь для о*****а. Из инструкции: "...1 сантиметр пасты выдавить на ладонь и втирать в ч**н до наступления о*****а...
    Устали сидеть и флудить на форуме? Предлагаю сделать перерыв и п*******ь!
    Эротическая фотогалерея от Mr.Wobbly

  4. Thank you, Anonymous,  for offering such a creative, if confusing, use for pasta. Best of luck with "Mister Wobbly".
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    I trust this post offers some insight into the reasons for my comment adjustment.  To those who have requested I allow Anonymous access, I hope this helps ease the discomfort of commenting via Google I.D.s that have been disused but are still functional. I have installed your current blog links in the sidebar blogrolls at my sites so that you may be reached at other hosts and private domains that don't support Google Friend Connect and wish you every success in your new frontiers. As for me, I am trying to update my understanding of this new system --still confused about what Google+ is (help?!)-- but for now, it fumbles around where the past is. 

31 comments:

  1. How sad that someone has to make something ugly of such a beautiful tribute.

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    Replies
    1. True, Emma, but not directed specifically --by 2012 spamming and hacking had become a cottage industry in Russia and several other countries. I was compelled to narrow comment access.

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  2. Paid in pebbles - which are infinitely more valuable than rubies.
    Sigh on the anonymous front. And sigh about the new system too.

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    Replies
    1. Sigh indeed, but the toddler in the post is now 5 years older and knows more about computers than I. He and the other grandkids will coach me on new systems.

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  3. First of all, it's a beautiful poem, Geo., and so are the photos that accompany it.

    Second, I can fully understand your reluctance to restore anonymous comments. Ironically, most of the weirdos who have tainted my blog comments were NOT anonymous (though they should be...).

    Third, I think the entire purpose of Google is to annoy the hell out of us with useless complexities.....or something like that....

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    Replies
    1. I must agree, Jon. It's hard to keep up with Google's arbitrary "improvements". What's harder is reading Cyrillic script, which is what I was doing when your comment came through. I was masking out Mr. Wobbly's references to anatomy and attendant sensations with asterisks at the time --something I neglected to do 5 years ago-- but all seems to have gone ok. I notice I translated as "pasta" what is rightfully "toothpaste" back then, so I must be improving even if Google isn't!

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  4. Thanks for cranking up the way back machine-though as quickly as the calendar turns it is not too far. That is a lovely poem. The hats look terrific and that precious lad no doubt has new fascinations to awe him.
    Personally I prefer that correspondents use a name or something with specificity.
    Anonymous is like "they." Who is they? Probably a pack of Anonymous's.

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    Replies
    1. Tom, thank you. Yes I have been most fortunate in regard to high-quality grandchildren. As to Anonymous, I've tried reactivating it several times to accommodate readers --and they always closed with a name-- but sooner or later spammers would find it and then whole packs of them, growling in strange languages, would tear at the comments section with sharp teeth. I do have comment moderation as a 2nd line of defense, but that gets bothersome too.

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  5. Alright! I do not consider myself to be particularly computer literate. I do not understand the first anonymous comment made to your past post, nor why [apparently] someone who understands English/American chooses to answer in Cyrillic(?) script.

    I did love your poem and the photographs. Above all, I liked your measured, polite responses to the anonymous comments. But then I wouldn't have expected anything less.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Tom. I do recall the poem was fun to write. As for the 2 comments it got, I don't understand the 1st one either. 2nd one is in Russian, but contained some terms I was unfamiliar with. This time I looked them up and *ed them out.

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  6. I remember reading that interchange of ...ideas?.....strangely I could only understand your responses. How you managed to make a modicum of sense out of the gobbledygook I will never know. What a sweet little baby, by the way. Growing like a bad weed in your garden is he?

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    Replies
    1. I can make sense of some taradiddle and most flapdoodle but little goggledygook. My replies were mainly guesswork. And yes, grandson is growing vigorously.

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  7. That is such a lovely, sweet poem and people who are fortunate enough to have a grandchild to love, can relate. My children are wonderful people, but my grandchildren are perfect (maybe because they don't live with me.)

    We, who blog, put ourselves out there to the world, and sometimes come across spammers and trolls. I have received only a few, but they have upset me and made me want to disappear from the net. However, then I would lose so much - meaning all the wonderful people that I have met thru this media. There might be some interesting comments from those who label themselves Anonymous, but I rather not take the chance.

    I have not figured Google + either and I am Ok with that. Keeping it simple is my new mantra.

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    Replies
    1. An excellent mantra! I will keep it in mind. I too am discouraged by the amount of spam and trolling on what should be a freer, happier medium. Your attitude is admirable.

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  8. Dear Geo.,
    First: a beautiful post, very worth to be repeated! "I'm paid in pebbles" is really great - I feel the warmth of little eager hands having collected them.
    Second: anonymous comments -- I very seldom have them, thank God, but one bitter cranky old lady shut up after my answers (but then I thought: why invest time into that?) I sometimes get strange followers on Google+ (looking up their link a lady can get red ears :-)

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    Replies
    1. Dear Brigitta, thanks. I truly enjoy the calm, happy company of grandchildren. They share simply and unselfishly --which reminds me not to forget how. I am determined to learn about Google+ but don't know if I'm actually on it yet, or what that means.

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  9. "grandmothered dreams into memories" ... "paid in pebbles" ... I love these lines. Heck, I love the whole thing.

    I feel very fortunate I haven't gotten spammed yet. I'm sure it will happen. I put comment moderation on quite quickly after starting my blog, due to one comment I did not want to publish. It not only allows me to vet what's published, it alerts me to comments on previous posts where I might not otherwise notice them.

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    1. Very glad you like the poem! Re:comment moderation, I use it for the same reasons and hope Google never "improves" it into something less useful.

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  10. Hi, Geo!
    Your poem is lovely, and I especially enjoyed how you captured a child's sense of wonder about the world around him. I don't understand and I hate Google+, so you have my complete sympathy. I do allow anonymous access because I have two sisters who use it. I have no clue why, since they always identify themselves.
    I zap any comment I don't like into cyber limbo forever. So far it has worked. I may have emerged from computer and internet hell ~ "May have" because I've already had two sessions on the phone today with our internet provider. Argh! Darling photo of your grandson paying you with pebbles. Now for a little catching up on your posts!

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    1. Thank you, Louise. I did try allowing anon. comments for a few weeks recently and got nothing so strange as the comments in the text from 5 years ago. Maybe Google's wards are holding. It's late at night right now but I will chase your comments up and down the years until I get too sleepy.

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  11. I moderate comments also, sparing my readers irrelevance and offence. Although sometimes the grammar is entertaining. Haven't been Cyrillic-ed yet but handed many pebbles. Much prefer the pebbles :-)

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    1. Pebbles are a universal medium of exchange much favored by kids --a currency based on affection. Even one pebble imparts great wealth.

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  12. Your grandson is at that perfect age to be curious of everything--if we could just keep the curiosity.

    I allow all comments for the first week of a blog post then the comments have to be "approved." I figured I can watch over a blog post for a week and remove anything inappropriate. About half of the ones for "Comment Moderation" end up marked as spam.

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    1. Thanks, Sage. You have an effective routine in place for dealing with spam. Perhaps I'll restore anonymous comments to my settings again sometime. Sure wish there were easier ways for readers without Google I.D.s to participate. Maybe somebody's curious grandchildren will solve the problem.

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  13. "grandmothered dreams into memories". I love that part especially. It's a beautiful poem. I've had some of those Spam visitors, as well, if I've left the blog for an extended period of time. I don't really understand how it benefits them.

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    1. Thanks, Chicken. As for spam, it's a strange thing --if one person in a million clicks their links --which are disarmed here, incidentally-- that's quite a few bites in a field of 7 billion. I can only guess what they're selling --codewords into international conglomerates like TECO, KENCO etc., or "erotic photographs of Mr. Wobbly".

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  14. Knock on wood, I haven't had to deal with any unpleasant comments posted anonymously. (or non-anonymously, for that matter) It's a shame some people feel the need to do something like that. I'm glad it didn't turn you off of blogging, though. Turn off the anonymous nonsense, and keep on entertaining and educating the rest of us, dude.

    Loved your poem. :)

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    1. Susan, thank you --both for the kind comment and indication that your eyelids are working. Hope all is healing on schedule.

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    2. So far, so good! Most of the swelling is gone, and the coolest thing is my bruises are RED! (I love red!) No, the coolest thing is that I can SEE. :)

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  15. Only thing better than to be paid in pebbles is to be paid in Fruity Pebbles. (Former currency of Ukiah, before the most recent devaluation.)

    Yours ever,
    Suze
    the erstwhile Muse

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