20 Questions Tuesday: 45 - Why have they taken my blogs from me?!? Why!?!? Intertubes!?!? Why?!?

Today’s 20 Questions Tuesday is all about the Intertubes being stripped away from me. The official topic name is “Why have they taken my blogs from me?!? Why!?!? Intertubes!?!? Why?!?” Catchy, Huh?

Thanks this week go to Dustin, Allrileyedup, JW, Wifey, and me (I had to come up with a few to get to 20, see if you can guess which ones are mine. It will be like a game... with no rules or reason to play) Honest, I didn’t know the answer prior to asking myself the question. I can compartmentalize like that. This here brain has some skills.

On to the Questions:

1. Why doesn't "the man" love blogs like everyone else?
Many people do not realize the importance of the web-log. There are a multitude of blogs out there that are devoted to actual information. I never point to any of them, because, well, I don’t think any of my readership would really care to look at “advanced data visualization blogs.” When people think of blogs they tend to think of people posting pictures of their kids or posting pictures of their cats, or writing about how they have no friends.

2. Are we sure this wasn't the Yeti's doing?
I am fairly certain the Yeti is not associated with this due to his lack of IT job experience at my company. I think I would have noticed a 7 foot tall white curly furred primate with a receding hairline. Sometimes, I am unobservant, but really, if nothing else the fetid stink would have alerted me to his presence.

3. If I was to send your boss a twenty dollar bill and a bag of tater tots...do you think that'd win him over and convince him to reverse his ruling?
I might not even need the 20… Because everything is all righta with Ore-Ida!

4. How are you coping with this travesty? Does it involve cheese cake?
Lots and lots of weeping, but now I want cheesecake. Thanks a bunch!

5. Has Little Man sensed your sadness and tried to comfort you with trains?
Little Man has not noticed my sadness, but oddly enough he has attempted to comfort me with trains.

6. Do you think it has anything to do with you and your blog that all blogs are getting blocked?
Honestly, I don’t think our IT department pays enough attention to notice that I post to a blog from work. I think that my bosses might know that I have one, but they most likely don’t know the url. The IT department installed a web proxy server on Thursday evening of last week and in doing so had to re-install the web security software. The software went back to its default settings which classifies blogs as “Personal Pages” (not “personals pages” I can still get to those "LFMWBF2HBWINF").

7. If you did find out that it was, in fact, YOUR fault, what would you say to your co-workers?
It wasn’t, so I will not have to cross that bridge.

8. How does a computer/server/whatever know what is and is not a blog, in order to block it?
It goes directly by the domain names, for instance anything .blogspot.com or .livejournal.com were blocked, but people who have taken the time to get their own domain name were not blocked.

9. With regard to the question above, what is it that is doing the blocking -- computer, server, or whatever? Define whatever.
It is a software service that many companies subscribe to. At one time the company was using WebSense, but now I think we are using Sentian. Basically it is a way to keep employees from surfing porn sites and streaming radio stations.

10. How will this blog blocking affect your work routine?
Well, it has cut into my morning reading. I start out the day getting caught up on all the blogs I read. So instead of reading blogs, I now play 5 games of the super addictive Spider Solitaire.

11. Name your favorite place of employment and what your responsibilities were
Honestly, this is the first real job I have had outside of part-time college stuff. I worked at a few NordicTrack stores in a couple of different malls. I could sell a mean NordicTrack. Actually I was in the store when a Saudi prince came in. He basically bought everything. I'll tell you what; I made my sales goal that week.

12. Would you rather work in a cubicle for 8 hours a day, or in a sewage plant for 2? (For the same salaries)
Honestly, a cubicle. You cannot get that kind of stink out.

13. What will be the destination of little man's first train trip?
Not sure because we would need to make a trip to Cinci or Cleveland for him to hop on an Amtrak. If there were a station in Columbus, we would have made a day trip to Cinci or Cleveland already.

14. How's Wifey feeling?
Wifey is doing really well at the moment. Keith Richards seems to be passed out, so the gall bladder is not really giving her many issues at the moment.

15. Since the company has made it more difficult for you to post to your blog, will this impact your posting frequency?
I have a posting frequency? Is it AM, FM, or XM?

16. Why haven’t you shown us the before and after images of your digital mounds of dirt that you mentioned a couple weeks ago?
I haven’t really felt like it and they really are not all that exciting. It is not like I inserted a building into a bustling cityscape or drastically changed the look and feel of a particular area, but if you really are that interested, here they are.

Existing
Proposed

I can feel everyone’s hearts collectively palpitating at the excitement of it all.

17. What are you avoiding at work by writing this post?
I am currently not doing a map of rail in Ohio. Little Man would be so unhappy with me. I will finish up that map tomorrow.

18. Without the daily reading of your blogs, how do you not pull all your hair out from boredom at work?
I have to proceed very gingerly as far as my hair is concerned. My forehead (immense to begin with) seems to be getting larger and larger. Not to mention the thinning happening on my crown. So, I do not pull my hair out. It seems to be leaving fairly well on its own.

19. Since you don’t like people and you seem to socialize via this blog, how is this affecting your interpersonal interactions with the people at work?
Well, ummm… My wit has taken a certain edge to it…

20. (from Wifey) What the Hell do you do at work anyway? I mean really, what the Hell do you do? Shouldn’t you be bringing home the bacon and not just posting this meandering claptrap?
Ummm… I do all sorts of worklike stuff. I have a 47% win rate with Spider Solitaire. I have found that reading Wikipedia about “workplace slayings” gets people to leave me alone. I have collected 5 pairs of scissors (2 of which are old plot shears so they are about a foot long). Other than perfecting the art of snarfing extra pizza, bbq, and box lunches from lunch meetings I did not attend, not much.

To recap:
My elbows are quite dry
They are all scratchy
My MSWord has some weird issues when I copy and paste into Blogger
I am sure that tomorrow I will have some kind of bone-chilling tale of suspense and excitement to tell you about
Positive of it
No really
Why is it a “pair” of scissors?
It is just one simple machine, isn’t it?
I just ate but I am all hungry again
35 minutes on the elliptical after a week of neglect will cause some burning sensations in the calf area
I think Wifey is addicted to my iPod
"I'll tell you what" should be pronounced "I tell you wut"