Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Hostages released...

No, not world news.
I'm referring to me and my blogs.

Google closed the place down and denied
me access to everything unless I agreed to
give them my phone number.
They said they detected unusual activity and
wanted me to prove my identity.

I waded through pages and pages of options
and forums and... stuff. Red tape loops.
They finally emailed a code that was supposed
to clear things up but, surprise, it didn't work.

I finally googled them and found a 'contact us' link
on their home page and sent an email saying I saw
no reason for them to have my phone number and that
the code they sent did not work so, please just release
my blogs.
Very early this morning I received a no-reply email
with an apology telling me everything should be fine now.
Seems to be so.

Thank you to those who checked in with me via other
channels to express concern.
It was nice to know I was missed.

10 comments:

Karl said...

Good afternoon Jean,

Glad you're back. That must've been like dealing with the gov't. Looks like nothing disappeared. They just locked you out?

Jean said...

Thank you, Karl.
Yes, locked me out and closed both blogs.

Everything seems intact, except I noticed that I had a new follower.
Me. Following myself...? That wasn't there before the big lock-out.
Oh well.

kdzu said...

Welcome to the very real world of paranoia.
By my latest calculations I should be on no less than 6 different watch lists by myriad governmental and Non Governmental agencies (NGO's).
Just because you can't see them doesn't mean the bastards aren't lurking in the weeds.

Glad you're safe darlin'.

boneman said...

so everything is back to norm l? W it. The " " isn't working! Well, th^t's OK. I c^n fix th^t. E^sy enough, wouldn't you s^y? Just gl^d th^t w^s ^ll th y took. oops. Now my " "s? Oh, f3^th3rs! OK, I'll us3 ^ 3 wh3n i n33d ^n 3. Just I h p3 th^t's ^ll...WTF!? 0K, th^t r3^lly w^s 3^sy, 3h? It's ^ z3r0! H^! f nd th^t...
th ngs... 0h d3^r. 0h, ! h^v3 !t...
Wh^t's n3xt? h-0h. N0w ! n33d ^ (3w3) M^yb3 ! c^n *s3 th!s? ! h^v3 t0 h^v3 ^ w^y t0 t^lk t0 y0* ^nd th!s !s ^ll ! c^n th!nk 0f.
W3ll, n0t ^LL ! c^n th!nk 0f...
h3 h3 h3.
! m3^n, ! c6n th!nk 0f pl3nty 0f th!ngs t0 th!nk 0f. L!k3 s3x.
! th!nk ^b0*t 3x ^ l0t...00p . W^!t, ! h^v3 0n3 0f th0$3, t00. ^ft3r ^ll, th3y 3v3n L00K l!k3 3$$3$, d0n't th3y?
! $*pp0$3 p30pl3 wh0 ^r3 r3^d!ng th1s ^r3 h^ppy th^t !'m Y0*r b0yfr!3nd, w0*ldn't y0* $^y? 3ll0?
3ll0?.
#3ll0? t#3r3, t#^t'$ b3tt3r. M^n, w#y b0t#3r w!t# ^ n0rm^l ^lp#^b3t w#3n t#3r3'$ ^ p3fectly g00d r3pl^c3m3nt$ r!g#t #3r3?
0K w3ll n!c3 c#^77!ng w!t# y0*.

#^v3 ^ n!c3 d^y

boneman said...

d=^))

Anonymous said...

Boneman that is just TOO good! Ha, ha.

Jean glad you are back, I tried to visit for your visual, but you know the result. Nice Haiku, and nice photo for your visual. Winner is announced.

Serendipity

(am not even trying open ID...)

Jenny said...

Boney is very funny.

So glad you're back. I don't undestand why they require a phone number. I always give a "phony" one.. basically a number that drops directly into an un-used voice mail on my company phone lines.

are you sure you're following you? maybe it's Google disguissed at you?

:-)

Jean said...

Larry, it was such a straaaaange feeling! (You've been missed here.)

Berry, <*&^?. LOL.!#@<^%

Serendipity, one of the things that made me super crazy was being out of the Haiku Loop! grrrrr. You did a great job hosting, btw. The topic turned out an amazing number of wonderful haiku.

Boxer, I think it's just another way for them to gather info for advertising. And, this time giving a fake number wasn't an option because they wanted to send the magic code that would let me back in by phone. They sent one by email but it didn't work. Finally googling Google was the only thing that got me a direct message to them. And it worked, this time.

Google bots show up on my sitemeter all the time. But, yes, it looks like I am following me because now my posts show up on my reader list on my dashboard page.
That's just weird. :-)

♫NWM♫ said...

hi... glad you're back.

Boneman

Whiskey
Tango
Foxtrot!!!

Jean said...

hi...Thanks.

re Boneman...intelligent dyslexic?

d:-)