As is my custom, I did all of the prep work for my post about our weekend on Sunday, the night before I intended for everything to go live. I uploaded and edited my pictures in Flickr, set up the photo set, wrote the post, linked where it was appropriate, previewed, and edited. All I had left to do was make the photos public, update my “At this time last…” widget, and hit Publish, all of which could be accomplished while I warmed up my lunch of leftover beef and broccoli. No problem.
I went into Flickr on Monday, and when I clicked the Organizr link to make the sweeping permissions change, a red screen popped up, informing me that the site was not suitable for viewing. To make matters worse, since I work in a children’s hospital, the site-blocking page was filled with guilt-ridden rhetoric. There was a picture of a little boy on a stool, holding a stop sign in one hand and covering his eyes with the other, while huge letters intoned, “Stop right there!” It was almost too much for my non-confrontational eyes to handle. As I clicked through my normal routine, I realized that Blogger, TypePad, WordPress, GoodReads, Mighty Girl, and Watch Holly had all joined the list of casualties. I clicked precariously for the rest of the day, cringing at the sight of that darn kid and his stop sign.
I was mostly irritated that I couldn’t publish my weekend post, especially after all of my meticulous set-up the night before. Sure, I would have liked to get to my stats, see other people’s photos, and add comments to Blogger sites right away, but at least the site blocker spared Gmail, Google Reader, and Gchat. Thank goodness. My loyal Gchat friends commiserated with me in fine form, but I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of remorse over what was surely a problem of spectacular insignificance. I’m upset because I can’t get to entertaining websites at my job that completely caters to my skill set and has internet access? Oh, boo hoo.
Much to my relief, all of the sites were mysteriously un-blocked on Wednesday, but the short deprivation period has been food for thought. I’ve been pondering those “problems” that pop up and cause momentary annoyance, but really are not problems at all. For example:
- I reorganized my shoe storage from two crates (categories: open- versus closed-toed) to stacking shelves, only to realize that I have too many flip-flops.
- The CD-sized compartment in my car only holds three CDs.
- My Valentine’s Day gift for JG shipped out via the postal service, which has a terrible online tracking system.
- There’s this one woman at work who marks every single e-mail as urgent, when that is clearly not the case.
Woe is me! Far be it for me to be grateful that I have a choice of shoes, a safe car to drive, money to buy gifts, and so few e-mail messages in a day that I notice an unnecessary red exclamation point. If my worries consist of shoes and e-mail, I think I just need to work a little harder on not taking it all for granted.
11 comments
I HATE the USPS’s tracking system. HATE IT. With a fiery burning passion.
I’m glad that your sites were unblocked. That would have been a Major Problem for me too.
Ours are still blocked. And yes, there are worse things in the world. Thankfully Wordpress has fooled them and I’m still allowed to get on and comment.
Some people need smoking breaks. I need my Blog Breaks. I get my work done, I should be able to do something to keep me motivated at work.
This is all what I tell myself when clearly work wants us to be doing WORK.
I’m glad you were at least able to glean a good perspective about it, even if it does stink. How bad would it be if GMail were blocked?! *shudder*
But if it weren’t for these “problems,” we wouldn’t have nearly as much entertaining blog fodder as we do. Which would be a similar type of “problem,” yes, but a problem nonetheless.
There is nothing worse than people who overflag their emails. My office manager uses the urgent flag on emails about group birthday gifts for coworkers! In my mind, that is not a “problem.” It is a PROBLEM.
I was about to say the exact same thing as Laurel… people who set their default email messages to “urgent” are A PROBLEM.
oh “problems”, no matter what they are always there. I need to work on on attempting to not take everything I have for granted as well.
I’ll know I’ve made it in blogging when my site is blocked somewhere, anywhere. I’m not to worried about that happening, oh, ever.
I have to say I agree with Audrey….what would we blog about without our “Problems”? I’m glad you got your site access back…unfortunately that will never happen for me….I guess I could go whine about it on my blog!
I know how you feel. EVERYTHING is blocked on our computers at school, even the most innocent sites. For awhile, even Gmail was blocked.
This morning on my drive into work, the radio station did an “It’s All Good” spot. Basically, the intention was to focus people on what they were grateful for instead of focusing on a -9 degree Monday morning. It was kind of nice.
I have worked at several places that like to block gmail. My current gig allows me access to EVERYTHING. Next week I start a new one, where I already know, I will have access to NOTHING. I will probably be much more productive!
Oh… another annoyance with work emails. Read Receipt Requests on EVERY email! I know I can ignore them, but I understand the usefulness of them when needed, so I don’t have the heart to ignore them!
To end on a “thankful” note, I’m thankful for flannel lined pants today! Just happy that I don’t have meetings and I can get by with a warm sweater and casual pants!
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