Am I Being Paranoid?

Red often comments on my posts but why, I wondered, is he not posting at the moment.  So I went to my dashboard and saw that his last post on the reading list was four weeks ago.  In fact he had lots of posts four weeks ago. ?  What it didn't tell me is that he has written many posts since then.

Somewhere, I would guess, around 1964 I read Joseph Heller's Catch 22.  At that time I was deeply into the Russian novels and so Catch 22 was a refreshingly different type of satire and I can recall even now that it made a big impression on me at the time.  I've read it once since - perhaps in the '70s.  

So when I was wondering why Blogger seems constantly to ignore posts from my friends in Blogland or post them to my reading list at seemingly random times Yossarian's words from Catch 22 came back to me:  'Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you'.

In fact I think that Catch 22 probably has more memorable quotes in it than any other book I've read. I've just been reminding myself of some of them.

So Red or anyone else who wonders why I am not visiting (bearing in mind I don't always comment) if you happen to read this you will now probably know why.

Who's Graham Edwards? Where's GB?

I've just noticed that I'm no longer GB.  This is not good enough.  I don't want to be Graham Edwards.  Blogger has substituted my Blogger persona with my Google+ persona.  It's my fault for ticking some request box or other in an email yesterday.  Caveat Blogger!

Now how do I remedy that I wonder?

Done it.  Blogger really didn't like me doing that.  I'll no longer have all the benefits of the thousands of extra people who would come flocking to read my blog having seen me on Google+.  Do I care?  No.   I'm quite happy being just plain GB in my small corner of Blogland.  For the time being anyway.

I'm Not A Robot!

At around 1am today ie about 22 hours ago I was having problems with Blogger in that it posted one of my posts 36 times.   To add insult to injury this evening when I tried to post my Thankful Thursday post I got the following message:

 

 I typed in etholudi 1521 and got the following message:

 

I know that paranoia is a silly response but bear in mind that just because I may be paranoid it doesn't mean that Blogger isn't out to get me.

Happy Anniversary and Plus ça Change

Five years ago today this blog was born: two years after I first went to New Zealand.  I say 'went' instead of 'came' because at this moment I am not in New Zealand.  Nor, in fact, am I in my 'other' home of Scotland.  I am hidden away in the Italian Tuscan countryside.  It is a Sunday morning and all's quiet, very quiet.

I was wondering how to commemorate the day.  I could search for my favourite posts or photos or a summary of some sort.  I even contemplated writing about why I love New Zealand and my life there.  I've decided, though, just to seize the moment and post a few ordinary reminders of my life in New Zealand.

Blogging has become such an important part of my life and, through blogging and particularly in New Zealand, I have made some truly wonderful friends.  I won't use the word 'real' because some of my blog friends are as real to me as those I meet face to face.

Most of my reminders are to do with thoughts of my friends and my special New Zealand family but there are some other reminders:

The hills of Hawkes Bay

A picture of a Kingfisher in pastel which hangs in my study by Catriona aged 9

Some of the things which make The Cottage my home

The Cottage

And, of course, croquet

Blog Appearance on Cellphones

A number of people have mentioned that when they are using their cellphones/mobiles the blogs do not appear in a phone-friendly format.  Unlike many people I've been using the new Blogger interface since its beta days and I think that it's a considerable improvement on the old interface.  One of the things that I did as soon as it became possible was set my template to mobile format for use on mobiles instead of the usual template which we see on our laptops or PCs.  It can be found on the following page in the new interface.

Eh?

I've just looked at my Blogger Dashboard and Reading List to see what is happening even though I'm unlikely to have much time until next week to catch up in Blogland.  However I was suddenly inundated with posts from kalou at Optical Mouse trying to interest me in, you've guessed it, an optical mouse.  When I investigated the blog I discovered that this is a person who has obviously been selling just about anything via a blog and has obviously been infiltrating people's reading lists.  How?  Or is this a Blogger way of making money by selling access to people's reading lists?  Presumably I'm not alone.

I Don't Believe It

I have dozens of half finished posts spread out over the last year or so, perhaps longer.  Every now and then I go into Posts>Drafts and haul them out, look at them, use the odd thought and close them again.  I last did that a day or two ago.  I have, somewhere a half-written post I was just going to finish but when I went in to Posts all there is is All.  The other filters have gone.  Excuse my French but Le Blogger m'a vraiment pissé outre du de premier rang cette fois.