Do We Really Need Word Verification? Plus Awards!

One of the things I left out on my Looks Matter in the Blogging World post is word verification (WV). Did I mention that it drives me nuts? No? Didn't think so. At least one other of those 65 people who commented on Elana's post mentioned it too. It's just another layer that burns time and slows us down when reading and commenting on other blogs.

Here's my question: are there really dementoids out there waiting to hack in and make comments? Or computer programs that are busily sending out bots or whatever those feel-y things are to, uh-oh, wait, wait, drop some spam in my comments section?

Once I realized WV annoys the ever-lovin' outta me, I turned mine off. Doesn't it make it sooo much easier to leave a comment on my blog? If I get spammed, well, shoot. I might just have to take a fraction of a minute and, um, delete it!

My buddy, Eric W. Trant at Digging With the Worms, turned his on the other day and made a game out of making up sentences with it. Now that was fun. I even got a fun little snippet for my wip out of that game. But having to do WV every single time I want to comment on your blog? Ugh. Because chances are high that if I'm over there reading your post, I'll want to comment, too. Come on. Make it easy, k?

Now that I shared that peeve, here's my wip report. 22,009 words as of 1:18 a.m. EDT. I missed my goal of 22,000 by the 30th, my birthday. But only by an hour and eighteen minutes. So in my book, I dunnit. Yeehaaa!

Lastly (I think), thank you to Suzie, at Writer Junkie, for sending me some link love in the form of One Lovely Blog Award. Awww. Thank you, Suzie! Go check her blog out, this amazing woman has three! romance wips going at once. She's also a new writer for Critique This WIP.

Here are the rules:

1.Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and her/his blog. (check)
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you've newly discovered. (oh, man, more linky thingys, does anyone know an easier way to do that??)
3. Contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award. (I'll be around soonly.)

Newly discovered. Hmm. Here goes:

1) Stu, at Stusplace, who impressed me muchly with his Bickering Blogfest entry.
2) Tiffany, at Tiffany Neal
3) Kristen, at Take It as It Comes
4) Elizabeth, at Elizabeth Mueller
5) Donna, at Donna Hole
6) Elaine, at Wordsmithing
7) Jen, at unedited
8) Melanie, at Meanderings of Melanie Sherman
10) Arlee Bird, at Tossing It Out
11) L'Aussie, at L'Aussie Writing
12) Mary, at Giggles and Guns
13) Vicki, at Rambles and Randomness
14) Talli, at Talli Roland
15) Jemi, at Just Jemi

Okay, my arm is officially falling off right now sooo...that's it folks! If you recently became a new follower here and didn't comment, then darnit, I've missed you. Let me know and I'll come by to see you and give you some link love!

~That Rebel, Olivia

Postscript: Grown Ups is a sweet movie with enough belly laughs to satisfy. I stuck around until the end of the credits and was rewarded with this song. Adam Sandler wrote it for his dad a couple of years ago. I dedicate it to all our dads: