Captcha Craptcha! How to remove captcha.

WELCOME!

Welcome everyone to the 
Captcha Craptcha Blogfest of 2012.

and a special welcome to James Van Der Beek
and my co-hosts James Duckett, Randy Lindsay, and Jolene Perry

I'm sure you are familiar with captcha even if you don't know it by that name (AND even if you have no idea who James Van Der Beek is or what he has to do with any of this.) Captcha is defined below* but basically it's those squiggly words and photos of numbers that you are asked to type in to 'verify you are not a robot.'

As a new blogger it didn't take me long to realize that this affected whether I would comment on someone's blog or not. It is a hoop that is sometimes too hard (come on, look at that blob above!), impossible (like on mobile phones or when your computer is just being weird), or, let's be honest, I'm feeling too darn lazy to take the extra time.

Then one day it hit me. DO I HAVE THIS ON MY BLOG? Guess what? I did!

But not any more.

And neither should you.

As promised I will help you to remove captcha* from from Blogger

(If you blog with another host I would love to hear about it in the comments.)

BLOGGER:

If you go into your SETTINGS at the bottom of the left side bar you will find that it has a subset of choices. The second choice there is POSTS AND COMMENTS. Choose that one and you should have something that looks like this:

I have scrolled down past POSTS and into COMMENTS.

To remove captcha just go down to SHOW WORD VERIFICATION and say, NO.

JUST SAY NO.

If you want extra security you can do a few things. Under WHO CAN COMMENT you can narrow it down to Registered Users, or only people with Google Accounts, or even only people who are in your GFC. But just know that the more you narrow it down the fewer comments you will get.

Another option is COMMENT MODERATION. If you want to verify all of the comments through your blog you can do that. It really isn't that hard to do and people generally don't mind waiting to see their comments. The only no-no with moderation is to captcha THEN moderate. It feels so redundant.

Then make sure to SAVE SETTINGS in the top right corner.

ONE LAST WORD:

I can't let this go unsaid. Though I love being a hyperbole-kinda person I must admit that there is some good going on with captcha. If you have some time watch this video which illustrates the good and the bad of captcha. (Plus, it's just plain inspirational)



*What the crud is Captcha?
-Wikipedia says: A CAPTCHA ( /ˈkæp.tʃə/) is a type of challenge-response test used in computing as an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a human being...A common type of CAPTCHA requires the user to type letters and/or digits from a distorted image that appears on the screen. Such tests are commonly used to prevent unwanted internet bots from accessing websites.

Still not convinced?
HERE IS A WHOLE SITE DEDICATED TO HORRIBLE CAPTCHAS
HERE IS A FUNNY FOUR MINUTE VIDEO OF SCOTT STRATTEN HATING CAPTCHA
HERE IS AN INTERESTING ALTERNATIVE TO CAPTCHA (are you a human)

I'm not the only one hating on captcha today.

Pop around to my friends sites below and hear what they have to say about it.

and if you wanna join the fun feel free, the linky will be up all day!

Lets have a party!

I'm planning a 

holiday!

I hope you'll join me, Jolene Perry, Randy Lindsay, and James Duckett

for
Captcha Craptcha Day!

I know it's catchy.

I'm hoping to get as many bloggers (all over the blogosphere) involved to educate other bloggers about the dangers of captcha.

What danger, you ask?

Captcha is evil. It takes too much time. And did I mention that I hate it?

So what do you say?

On Monday November 12th who wants to post a post about why you hate captcha? On my blog I will be posting a post on how to remove captcha from your blog (posted midnight the night of the 11th) and if you want you can link to it to educate those who wish to change their ways.

No blog? No problem.
You can Facebook and Tweet this stuff as well.
In fact feel free to to all three.

Use it on November 12th, liberally.
Saturation is the goal!

James Van der beek told me that he hates Captcha as well.

(Here's the HTML code if you want it: 

<a href="http://writingwithshellyandchad.blogspot.com/2012/10/lets-have-party.html"><img src="http://i1356.photobucket.com/albums/q734/shellybrownwriter/Craptcha.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket"/></a> 

Just copy and paste that in HTML happy places)

If you love captcha, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to insult you...just captcha.

Here are some beauties to inspire you.

So are you in?

Dance Pictures

Every once in a while

we all need to remember

how silly we were

as if we aren't anymore

especially those of us who write YA

So I when Emily and Kelley made a call for dance pictures

I responded

Unfortunately Chad and I didn't meet until college so my picture is a college dance 

but let's be honest

is there really much of a difference?

Oh how I wish these were the cool cheesy professional photographer pictures

that I hope to see many of in this blog hop

but alas they were not

They were scanned pictures from a scrapbook

(Why, oh why did we scrapbook?)

But I looked for my HS pics but they were BURIED

in a pile of boxes

so I figured you'd forgive me

if 

I showed you Chad with hair.

Did it work?

This one is my favorite picture from that dance

Wanna see everyone else's pictures

Find the Linky HERE

Emotion: I'm Hearing Voices

By Shelly Brown







Here's the criteria for today's portion of the blogfest:
 Emotion is the engine of a story. Pick an emotion and in a flash fiction piece of 250 words MAKE us feel it! We want to connect with your character. This will be a challenge in 250 words.
I will warn you. This is a little twisted. More twisted than my normal writing but it's flash fiction and this is how it came out:
___________________________

“Sarah!” I yelled, “I hate you! Give that back.”

She flung my diary at me.

“Jacob?” Her face contorted.

I burned hot. “You had no right to read that.”

“Hannah, that’s disgusting.”

“It’s not like I’m going around telling people. I’m working on my own issues, OK? I can’t 

believe you read that. Nobody was ever supposed to read that.”

“He’s your stepbrother. Does he know?”

“Don’t be stupid. Of course not.”

“I think he should.”

I died a little as I saw her leave our room.

“Mom!” Sarah yelled down the hall. Dianne was in the kitchen and when Sarah reached her 

Sarah spilled everything she just learned.

“Is this true, Hannah?” Dianne asked.

Silence and hot tears.

“She should go live with her mom,” Sarah said.

Not an option but I wasn't going to talk about it.

Just then Jacob walked in with Greg and Steven.

Sarah’s eyes got big and she leapt for them.

“Don’t Sarah.” My tears of anger turned pleading. “No, Sarah. Please.” The physical scramble and the emotional supplication wore on my nerves until I screeched in desperation.

Sarah laughed.

“Hannah is in love with you. She has been for years. That’s why she broke up with Steven.” She spat out the words, turned on her heels, and left.

No one said anything. Not Jacob. Not Steven. Not Dianne. Without making eye contact with anyone I left. Sarah was right. I was disgusting.

_____________________________________

Did you guys know that Rachel Harrie is doing her fourth writers platform building campaign. If you would like to grow your blog readership it is a great way to do it. Join the fun HERE! You have till the 15th to sign up, but do it before you forget!

Dialogue: I'm Hearing Voices

by Shelly Brown




Here is the criteria for this portion of the blogfest:Have two characters introduce each other using only dialogue—no backstory, no internalization, just dialogue between the two. Max 250 words.

WIP: The Race for Love and Friendship

“Are you going to classes?”

“No.”

“Get off the couch, girl. It’s been two days. He’s SO not worth this.”

“You just never really knew him like I did.”

“I know he broke up with you on your pocket compy when he just lives across the street.”

“He’s on tour.”

“Where Oakland?”

“Modesto.”

“He was a total four-oh-four error. Besides, that Malfoy only broke up with you because you can’t be his sugar mama anymore.”

“Not true.”

“I’m sorry, but it is.”

“Oh. My. Gosh. You’re right. This all started when I got cut off.”

“So let's get you showered and to Geography class.”

“Hmmm. Let’s make it a shower and a trip to Humberto’s for taco salads and you have a deal.”

“Tell you what. I gotta skidoo to Drafting and Design but when I get back if you are showered and wearing some color other than black, I’ll pay for Humberto’s.”

“You don’t have that much money.”

“What do you know? I have a few hundred that I saved from plucking instead of waxing yesterday. I tucked it away for just such an emergency like this.”

“You're Fab Tab.”

“I know. Now stop crying. This shirt is silk.”

“I noticed. I can’t stop rubbing my cheek against it.”

“Get off! Go get showered and I’ll be back in an hour.”



So what did you gather from these characters? Gender, age, lifestyle? What is going on in the scene? Anything jar you out of the story? Anything you liked?

Two Books I'm Grateful for

by Chad Morris

I think the blogfest only asked for one, but this is a twofer. I love to alternate between fiction and non-fiction books and it was hard to choose between them—so I didn’t. I love how fiction fires my imagination, but I love the depth and reality of lessons learned from someone who really existed or something that really happened. So here are two books I’m grateful for--one fiction, one non-fiction.

 1) The Book of Three, by Lloyd Alexander.

“I’m bored,” I remember saying to my mom. She hated to hear it, but it didn’t stop me from saying it—over and over again. I think I was somewhere between third and fifth grade—a very considerate and sensitive age for boys (Did the sarcastic font come through?).

“Why don’t you read?” my mom said.

“I hate reading,” I answered. And I meant it. I hated reading. I’d much rather play basketball, let my German Shepard out of his kennel and try not to let him pounce on me, or take turns with my brothers seeing who could stay folded up the hideaway couch the longest. Reading was so . . . stagnant. It just wasn’t my thing.

But sometime, I don’t remember how, I checked out The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander from my elementary school library. It probably had something to do with the fact that we had to check out something, and this book had a guy with antlers coming out of his skull head riding a rearing horse. Yes, a skull and antlers. It was just that cool. Unlike many of my other library books, I actually read it. And I liked it. The girl was alright, but I related to Taran’s uncoordinated but brave actions, and I loved Gurgi, his mangy sidekick who always rhymed when he spoke (munchings and crunchings).

I went on to read all the books in the series. I didn’t do it quickly, and I didn’t stop trying to jump the sewer cover with my bike, but I did finish them.

I collected autographs at the time. My father’s job at a sporting goods store had really helped my collection. Patrick Ewing, John Stockton, Karl Malone, and Mike Tyson had all signed their pictures for me. But I also wrote to Lloyd Alexander, and he was nice enough to send me his autograph for my collection—the only author among athletes.

I can’t say that I was a serial reader after that, but I started. I still preferred a game of full-contact sledding with my brothers and cousins, but afterwards I didn’t mind relaxing with a good book. Since then, my love to read has just increased. I’m grateful for a book that started me down the road.

2. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, by Frederick Douglas.

This one is much more recent. I picked it up a few summers ago while Shelly and I were in Washington D.C. (It was one of those Dover books that is like $3, which was a welcome tag in overpriced souvenir shops). It’s a thin book and a reasonably quick read, but it was one of the more life-affecting books I’ve read. I profoundly respect the man who started his life as a slave and ended it as an influence writer and orator against slavery.

One of the passages that really struck me was when Douglas recounted a time as a boy. One master’s wife began to teach him to read, but then was forced to stop by her husband who claimed, “ ‘. . . A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. . . . If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy.’”

Douglas recounted, “These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought.  . . . From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. . . . Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read. . . .

“A little experience soon demonstrated . . . that education and slavery were incompatible with each other” (Frederick Douglas, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, 20, 22).

Douglas continued to teach himself to read. He was moved from place to place and master to master, until he found a way to escape. He wrote this autobiography to encourage the anti-slavery movement, and it was published when he was about 27. It quickly became a bestseller though many questioned whether a black man could write such a fascinating and articulate work. It was reprinted nine times within its first three years of publication. Douglas became a powerful writer and orator for the abolitionist cause, and is one of the most famous black men in US History.

And reading his book, made me extremely grateful for the opportunities I have, the books I can read, and the lessons I’m free to learn.


I want to thank Beth Revis for the awesome blogfest. November is a great month to focus on what you're grateful for. If you have the chance check out the other entries or enter yourself. There is still time!

November Giveaway Hop

The great giveaway lady, Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

and the queen of hops Tristi Pinkston

are hosting this November Giveaway Hop

November is about gratitude,

at least for me,

and so I chose a book that demonstrated love, forgiveness, and gratitude.

Curious about the plot? CLICK HERE

OR

A $5 Amazon Gift Card

If the winner is international I will be offering Annette Lyon's great grammar book

There, Their, They're: A No-Tears Guide to Grammar from the Word Nerd

for the Kindle


To enter:
 1. Become a Follower of this blog


Extra Entries
1. Follow Shelly or Chad on Facebook
2. Follow Shelly or Chad on Twitter

Good luck and have be sure to comment and let me know what you did :)

Scarefest Blog Hop

Jordan McCollum at JordanMcCollum.com is hosting the Scarefest Blog Hop

The theme is FEAR. Post a short scene (400 words or less) with a character who is afraid. Scared. Terrified. Petrified.

I am still in edits and I'm trying to make sure that I am ready for NaNoWriMo so timing was hard for me BUT I dug through my WIP that I am editing and found a scene that would scare the heeby-jeebies out of me. 

A short excerpt from The Glass Slipper Chronicles (a work in progress)

Annabelle picked up another stick. “Lying to a princess is treasonous.” She threw the stick and missed.

“And I am guilty, but you may want to get someone with better aim to administer the punishment.”

Annabelle picked up several more sticks and a few stones, and raised her hand to throw again. Then she froze.

Claudio noticed her stop, and whirled around to see what had caught her attention.

An enormous bear stood on its hind legs not 50 yards ahead, chewing berries off of branches.

Claudio stood completely still. “Don’t move,” he whispered.

The bear looked in their direction and fell forward onto its front feet. Annabelle could feel the earth tremor beneath her as the bear hit the ground. It must weigh hundreds of pounds. The bear walked forward, it’s hulking shoulder blades raising and lowering with each step.

“What do we do?” Annabelle whispered. She had heard tales of experienced soldiers losing their lives to a bear in the woods. “Should you use your bow?”

“No,” Claudio said back in a hush. “Not unless we really need it. Shooting it with an arrow or two would just make it mad. It takes scores to bring down a bear.”

The beast moved forward, it’s eyes looking at Claudio then back to Annabelle. It sniffed several times, then roared. Annabelle involuntarily shuddered as she looked at the rows of sharp teeth.

Killer Characters: Protagonist

So I have tried to stay faithful to the idea of killer in the blogfest title both in the idea that they are totally amazing characters and that they kill people.

The protagonist category seemed like such a hard one.

I almost thought I wouldn't come up with one.

I wanted a protag that was a good protag, not like the main character in a horror film. 

Someone that embodies what I think a protagonist should be.

Like, 'I wish I was as cool as the protagonist.'

And I don't really think killer are all that cool.

I was beginning to think this was hopeless when I thought of her.

This, my friends, is my killer protagonist

'Nuff said.

Thanks Deanna and Emily for the totally fun...

Killer Character Blogfest: Antagonist

     One of my all time favorite books is Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The antagonist, Count Dracula, is a being with social power and money, not to mention the ability to assume the form of an animal, control the weather, and he’s stronger than twenty men. He can turn the living into the undead and preys on women in hopes of trapping men.

     There are plenty of stories with villains who have powers like these nowadays but the protagonists usually have some things to help them fight. The protagonists in this book have almost nothing. No magic, no powers, no technology. They are sadly ignorant as to what they are fighting and have to research all of the legend that we know from childhood (garlic, wooden stake, daylight) to even have a chance. And research in those days meant travel and libraries and folklore. It took months. None of this ‘google it’ stuff we do now.

     Dracula is a formidable villain because he is trying to expand his buffet, if you will, by traveling to crowded cities. Where he was a far-away threat before, he becomes a threat to all that the protagonist hold dear. And when the Count is able to take one of their dear ones the protagonists must steel themselves to kill her again.

The Dracula of the cinema could never hold a candle to the Dracula of literature.

I hope you all have bars on your bedroom windows.

Killer Characters Blogfest: Supporting Character

One of the most evil side characters in the history of literature is Catherine Ames (Trask) from East of Eden. John Steinbeck was symbolically following the biblical story of Cain and Abel and unlike the other ‘Cain’ characters, whose names also started with a C, Cathy had almost no redeeming qualities. (Ironically her son Cal was more ‘Abel’ than the other ‘Cain’s)

Cathy manipulated the world around her with such subtlety that it was virtually undetectable. She knew that mankind had weaknesses and pushed those weaknesses to serve her purposes, in a way that her victims held themselves responsible and hid the truth for shame. To everyone else Cathy was an ‘Abel’, a victim, and not even her parents or her husband could really see her for what she was. Her desires were demonic, her deeds pure evil, and yet her smile was charming.  Later in the book she became the Madame of a whorehouse (by poisoning the previous one) and I can’t imagine the hell that those girls must have lived through under her care. She ruined the lives of everyone around her and literally felt no guilt.

“I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.”

-John Steinbeck’s first sentence in describing Cathy Ames.

Have any of you read East of Eden? What do you think of Ms. Cathy?

Motherhood to me

Motherhood is hard.

That needed to be said first.

I watch new mothers with their sleep-deprived shuffle step and their "I'll never find the time to shower again" frowns and I want to hug them and say, "Motherhood is hard, huh?"

But it gets better.

When I had my twins, my oldest was 3 years old and my daughter was 1 1/2 years old. 

I was in the middle of potty training both of them.

My C-section recovery was long and painful.

Breastfeeding twins was a beast of a job.

In those first two weeks:

I got an abscessed tooth and my whole face was swollen.

We ALL got pink eye and a cold.

The toilet overflowed and started filling up the downstairs living room.

And we had a family wedding.

Put on your Sunday best kids we're going to pretend like our lives aren't falling apart!

BUT

you know what else's doesn't get said enough?

You will be better for having become a mother.

Much better.

(Please understand that I mean no disrespect for those who are not mothers. I believe God loves all of His women and wishes to bless them all, no matter their circumstances. I can only speak of what I know and that is motherhood.)

Motherhood strips you of your

pride

selfishness

time (he-he-he)

belief that you are a good cook (What is this? It's disgusting!)

need to control everything

disillusion that you control ANYTHING

ability to keep your clothes clean

Motherhood offers you

strength you didn't know you had

patience (I know it doesn't always feel like it)

a deep love

chance to be a full time example of good behavior

humility (because you will fail a little at being a full-time example)

forever friends

I love being a mother. It is a TON of work but work has yet to kill me. Being a mother fills me with joy. It shapes who I am. 

Motherhood to me

is a blessing.

• Lessons from my Children by Elisa Allan
• My Little 3 Year Old by An Ordinary Mom
• Motherhood to me by Jordan (MamaBlogga)
• Sing it, Perry by Lindsey
• Motherhood and Me by Danyelle Ferguson
• Motherhood to Me by Brooke Anderson 
• Dear Kids by Erin 

Passing the Love

If you are here for the giveaway then just scroll to the post below this one.

Everyone is invited to enter!

Alex and Matthew are hosting this great blogfest, which judging by the picture involves money. I was hoping that we would send $1 to each person on the list and in turn get $2.5 million BUT this is way cooler (and cheaper)

What I am actually supposed to do is introduce you to three blogs that I love and who could use the love.

THIS WAS HARD

SERIOUSLY, HARD!

Only 3?

I'm a pretty faithful reader of

Live to Write, Edit When Necessary

http://livetowrite1.blogspot.com

I'm kinda addicted to Brodi Ashton's Blog

http://brodiashton.blogspot.com/

She's a funny lady who's YA paranormal is coming out in January.

And I think the talented Robin Weeks' blog

http://robinweeks.blogspot.com

is grossly under-followed.

And there were SO many others I wanted to list!

But I followed the rules.

Yay, me!  

Below is a list of everyone in the blogfest. Talk about a bunch of great blogs to follow. In the interest of time, the fest founders say that you do not even have to leave a comment. Just jump around to the various blogs and follow. 

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Ah, the grade school essay that I always loved to write.

Micheal Di Gesu challenged us write our essay
and here is mine:

Summer is hot. I like the summer. We went to the park. We went to the pool. We went to the water slide park. I jumped off the high dive. It was awesome but scary. We picked blackberries and fed ducks. But we didn't feed the ducks the blackberries. That is what I did on my summer vacation.

I wrote this to mimic the style of my fourth grader. He's awesome. He told me this morning at breakfast that he really wants to publish a book. Just one book would be cool, he said.

This is really what I did on summer break this year. My family is saving up for a Disney Cruise so this summer was really low key. But my four oldest learned to swim, the middle three learned to ride their bikes, and nobody died. Successful summer.