CommentLuv and Spammers

Blogging, Spam

I’m a big fan of CommentLuv. It lets me reward my commenters with links back to their blogs. It also introduces me to blogs that I might not have otherwise stopped by (either due to a comment on my blog or a CommentLuv-enabled comment on someone else’s blog).

Not too long ago, B brought an issue to my attention. Apparently, a spammer tried to post to her blog. Akismet caught the spammer, but what worried her was the CommentLuv link. Despite filling out his URL, CommentLuv was showing a different, legitimate blogger’s CommentLuv link. We wondered how exactly he was able to pull this off and worried that it might mean the beginning of spammers abusing CommentLuv. A short while later, this same spammer tried to spam my blog with the same tactic. Again, Akismet caught it. Instead of deleting the spam like I usually do, however, I decided to hold onto it to examine it.

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My Bullied History, Part 3 – High School

Bullies, Life, School

If I thought Junior High School was bad, I was really unprepared for the level of bullying that came when I went to High School.  It started pretty "tame" (that being a relative term).  One guy would make insinuating comments to me in the locker room before and after gym.  As an overweight teenager, I was frankly more than a little embarrassed about the changes my body was going through.  I had just "discovered" girls in the first few days of High School whereas many of my fellow students made that discovery in Junior High.  With many people dating, walking around holding hands, etc, I was very unsure and frightened when it came to my sexuality.  So this person’s remarks questioning my sexuality struck particularly hard.

Over time, though, it got worse.  There was a group of kids that teased me.  (This initial guy was part of this group.)  They didn’t sit behind me in class spitting spitballs, though.  They followed me from class to class taunting me.  If I altered my route, sped up or otherwise tried to lose them, they kept up with me and taunted me more for trying to lose them.  If I passed one of them in the hall, nothing was said and I was ignored, but should that one be joined by a friend or two of his, they suddenly got very courageous.  I tried to ignore them as much as possible because I quickly learned that anything I said would just lead to more teasing.  (I certainly didn’t fight back physically as I was afraid of getting in trouble.) » Read more

Project New Me: Week #20 or The Final Weigh In #newme

Health, Project New Me, Weight Loss

Weight: 188 lbs (up 1 pound)

Average Hours of Sleep: 6.2 hours

Total Workout Time: 0

Total Calories Burned: 0

This past week brought an unexpected challenge: The Jewish Holiday of Shavuot. I forgot that during the holiday I wouldn’t be able to write down my points. Usually on Saturdays (when I also can’t write), I just keep track in my head. That works fine for 1 day, but 2 days is too much. I’m quite sure that I would up eating too many points on those days which hindered my ability to shed pounds gained from JSL’s birthday party. Still, I only gained a single pound which isn’t too bad.

With this weigh-in, I bring my 20 Pounds in 20 Weeks challenge to a close. While I didn’t end at or under my goal, I’m not going to count that as losing the challenge. First of all, it’s just one pound. I lost 19 pounds over the past 20 weeks. I can’t see calling those 19 lost pounds a “loss” because one additional pound didn’t drop off. Secondly, I actually hit my goal weight twice. And lastly, well, it is my challenge against myself so why *can’t* I declare myself a victor? 😉

Next week, I’ll look back over my weigh in and sleep figures and that will be my last Project New Me post.

Aloha Friday: Cooking with Kids

Aloha Friday, Cooking, Food, Parenting

Last week, NHL, JSL and I made pita pizzas for dinner. As young kids, they can tend to limit the foods they want to eat. JSL, for example, would eat Macaroni and Cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him. Yet, they also like doing things with me and my hope is that cooking with them will help expand their culinary horizons.

My Aloha Friday question for this week is: Do you cook with your kids? If so, what have you made with them?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha Friday by Kailani at An Island Life

Aloha #39

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