a bit of blog befuddlement

Many thanks to everyone who left a comment about commenting.

I've been wandering around backstage in my own blog, trying to find the source of the problem. I've learned a couple of things, but nothing related to the issue.

So far the only possible clue is that comments may not be posting from phones - 

two readers have now mentioned that.

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I'm relieved to know that there are no ads appearing on Comptonia!

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About the ads that have recently been showing up on the Feedly page, here is an example using my own blog post list. I hope the screenshot will be legible - as always, left-click to embiggen.

To be clear: I'm not seeing these ads on the actual blogs - just prominently displayed on the Feedly list of posts for each blog.

One of these things is not like the others...

 

Here's another example.

Ads disguised as blog posts:

Well, that's enough about the mysteries of the internet for one day.

Onward to something I understand: today's Daily Markmaking.

A detail of the base of the massive red oak on the Upper West Side,
surrounded by stones and snow.

I hope your week is off to a grand start!

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cats on the web

Since Della and Moxie moved in, I have learned many things.

Here are a few of them.

A kitten can scroll a touchscreen with her paw.
Considering that I - a human with fingers - sometimes have trouble with the touchscreen, this really amazed me.

Kittens can also - in a split second, on a daily basis,

and with just one little paw -

find things on your laptop you have never seen before.

They can summon Help for the operating system. Repeatedly.

They can turn on voice activation.

They can open a pop-up window of keyboard shortcuts that I wish I could find again.

They can set up skype.

They can mute the system in a way that requires googling to figure out how to cancel. (So far, they themselves have not googled anything. But to be on the safe side, I only open Amazon when they are both asleep.)

They can add umlauts to the onscreen keyboard.

I still haven't figured out how to undo that.

They can compose and send a tweet:

I just noticed: twitter provided a "translate" button on the kitten-tweet - LOL!

A couple of days ago I opened my laptop and found
a pop-up window on twitter that sternly warned:

You are not permitted to Block yourself.

Well, thank goodness, is all I can say to that. Because I don't know how I could have ever gotten back into my account to Unblock myself.

Of course there's one thing I already knew, but which the kittens have learned:

it's possible to fall asleep at the computer.
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listing

The trouble I find with not writing a blog post until something is "over," is that sometimes things go on and on. Meanwhile, other things are happening. Soon I have a choice: either write a novelette-length post or wipe my brain-slate clean and post a photograph with no words at all. Helloooo, Wordless Wednesdays!

I'm going to try a middle-ground approach today: a sort of illustrated bullet list of things not mentioned in recent weeks. Let's see how it goes, shall we?

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Goats: two worrying health issues. Tansy, recurring and baffling lameness with no other symptoms. Campion, shockingly off feed for a full day due to apparent mouth pain, now - I hope - resolved.

Little Tansy, Having A Think

Campion (My Champion)

Nothing wrong with Vinca.
Except an inability to believe a pocket can be EMPTY.

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Piper: recovery from dental surgery going beautifully when suddenly a mysterious cyst appeared on near foreleg. My vet aspirated; after two extremely long days, lab reported no evidence of cancer cells. Whew.

Piper at the pond today

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Me: saw doc mid-July for joint pain review. Two hours of standing/sitting at her office generated severe upper back pain, leading to a headache which lasted 8 days before I broke down and saw chiropractor. Note to self: next time don't wait 8 days, you eejit. Also: whew.

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Gardens: the incredible lack of rain all season has been a challenge for plants. Currently harvesting cucumbers; watching squash and pumpkins. Yesterday something caused the entire center of my popcorn patch to fall over. It is hard to see plants on the brink of pollination...downed.

suyo long cucumbers

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Tech updates: liking the free version of Zoner Photo Studio! Also, new laptop now communicating with both goatcams! Tiny laptop sent for repair, came back yesterday with totally new problems! Back it goes.

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Me again: a person who cares about me and did not mean to be hurtful said, "If you didn't have those animals you'd be living in a chair by now." You know, I often say the animals are the reason I must get up and out and get things done, every single day, no matter what. It's a fact. It's my life. I am grateful. So what that person said was just another way of framing the same thing, I guess. But I spent the next few days trying very hard not to feel upset about those words.

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DrawingAugust2016: been making an effort to play at drawing every day, for a little while, either working outdoors or from a photograph. It's a bit magical to do a simple pen sketch:

then add watercolor pencil:

then a wet brush:

As "magic" goes, this is inexpensive, portable, and fun.

I highly recommend it.

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Well, that's it for the Illustrated Bullet List.
What say you...better than a novelette?

I hope your week is going well :)

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