A Day of Posts ADAP Day 18 Is this still your number?

We all get THOSE calls, well at least in the United States we do. You know the calls or texts telling you that your car’s extended warranty is expiring and you MUST ACT NOW!!!!!. SCAM!!!!!! Kind of funny when you don’t have a warranty or even a car right? But how about a text from a local number reading like this…” Hey Grace, is this still your number? It’s (insert a name you know here)” My first thought was “Hmmm, there is a new it’s your car’s extended warranty scam surfacing?!?!?. My next thought was, “you know I do know an (insert name here) , she was a really nice person. Shrug, “WTH?” I thought and replied with, “Yep” and set the phone down.

I went into the other room to tell Einstein what I did, fully expecting him to chastise me for my ignorance. When the text chirped again 5 minutes later….We looked at each other thinking…. “dumbass, probably shouldn’t have done that”. I KNEW better. I shrugged again, and finished what I was doing before going to retrieve my phone.

It was another text from that same number. THAT part didn’t surprise me in the least.

BUT the message itself did

IT REALLY WAS (insert name here) with a VERY SWEET message saying that she was enjoying reading my blogs again.

AWWWWWWWWWWW! No, Seriously….. AWWWWWWWWWWWW

That message MADE MY FUCKING DAY!!!!!!!

This happened two days ago and I’m still on a high about it. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy life to say such sweet things!!!

Earlier this weekend a blogger friend of mine dropped a LINK to my blog giving me some credit for lighting the blogging fire under his ass again. AWWWWWW another warm and fuzzy feeling moment. Thank you Steve!

Two weeks ago, another blogger, cowpattymt made my day when she offered me the encouraging words “Go for it girl, I like your posts” in the comment section of one of my APAD posts.

Thank you for the positive vibes! Part of the reason I disappeared last year was because I couldn’t handle all the negativity in the world and needed time to recharge. I’m glad I have your for company!!!!

For my European and Canadian friends, Do you also get scam telemarketing calls about expiring warranties etc?

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Enter the “How Grace-ful are you?” Contest

Grace-ful- knowledgeable about Grace Fullnot or msgracefulnot.com

On Saturday evening, I mentioned that there would be a contest today. In case you did not see the previous post, let me explain the terms here.

1. Please do not post any answers to the questions until Sunday, September 6th between 9 and 3pm central time so that more people have a chance to enter.
2. When answering a question, please include information as to where you found the answer (post name, guess, etc) *If you have the time, this part is not necessary to win.

Here are the questions:

1. How old am I?
2. Why did I select msgracefulnot as the name of my blog?
3. How long have I had MS?
4. What is the “address” of my advice to those diagnosed video?
5. What is the name of the disease modifying drug I am on for Mulitple Sclerosis?
6. How do I refer to my daughters in my blog? Can you tell me why?
7. Which of those sweet little demons did I leave at the store?
8. Name at least 3 places I have traveled to via plane in the last 2 years.
9. How many times have I been in a boot for a broken foot? (this is a trick question, even I don’t know the answer)
10. What is the most annoying symptom of MS that I deal with? Please list at least 2 treatments I have tried.
11. Do you remember my German Shepherds name?
12. One of my happiest memories from 2018?
13. What do I call my significant other?
14. What are my grandsons names?
15. Do you remember how we met or how you found msgracefulnot.com?
16. What is your favorite post that I have written?
17. What 2 three letter words, or acronyms, internet slang do I use the most? Can you tell me what they mean?
18. Bonus points if you share this post on social media, and share the location you posted to!!!!!!
19. This is a “freebie”… If you are a blogger, can you create a post with links to past posts you that you have written that you feel would give a new reader a good sense of what your blog is about? If you do I will share the hell out of it….FREE ADVERTISING HERE!!!!
20. If you are the winner, which rose would you like? With or without stem?

The winner will receive their choice one of the above pictured roses that I printed with my 3d printer mailed directly to their home or office. (more about 3d printing to come)

Thank you in advance for stopping by!

On second thought….

About a week ago, I wrote a post called “saying goodbye“. My credit card was billed $94.00 for a word press subscription that I wasn’t using, so I figured it was a good time to cancel. After posting said post, several of the friends I have made on WP advised me that WP had free version and I would only need to pay $18.00 a year to keep my domain name msgracefulnot.com. Hmmm ok that I could do, so I took down the Saying goodbye post, cancelled the paid subscription, and here I am.

Thank you again to those of you that reached out to me!!!!!

Why I stopped using Word press

For the greater part of last year, I made the conscious choice to avoid social media as much as possible. My personal plate was full and I couldn’t deal with all the negativity, fear, and hate being passed around between people. I saw sides of people that I could not imagine they were capable of, so after writing, Say what you mean, and mean what you say, I pretty much “disappeared.”

When I created my blog, my original intention was to provide PROOF that with the right amount of determination, creativity, and humor you can survive almost anything.  I wanted to help anyone that was feeling alone or overwhelmed with their lives, to see that they were not alone.  I believe that on many occasions I did that.

1. I have written about  being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. 
2. I’ve written about choosing a disease modifying therapy.
3. I’ve written about how insurance companies like to “play doctor”.
4. I’ve written about my children and not winning the mother of the year award.
5. I’ve talked about air travel with MS.
6. I’ve talked about Train travel in a wheelchair.  and the importance of knowing your equipment and your limits.
7. I’ve talked about being full of shit.
8. I’ve shared some of the treatments for bladder incontinence and urge incontinence due to MS.
9. I’ve shared some of my most painful moments.  (Mentally and physically)
10. I’ve shared some of my happiest moments.

I mentioned earlier that I’ve had a full plate this year, but I’ve not been at all specific. There are multiple reasons for this.

In some instances, the stories I want to share, are not entirely mine to tell. For example, both of my parents are going through life changing medical issues. I can tell you how it’s been affecting me, but I’m not sure how much is TOO much to share. I’m still working on this.

Another reason for the vagueness is because the “jury is still out” about many of my health issues. While I can share what I have been experiencing, and why I’ve been doing what I have been doing, I still don’t know if my decisions were the right ones to make, so I don’t want to lead anyone astray if they are dealing with anything similar. I will work on this as well.

In the meantime, I would like to reintroduce myself, and invite you back into my world. If you are joining me for the first time, my About Me page, is a good place to start. (I wrote it a year ago, but I believe most things still apply.)

When I thought I was leaving wordpress, I was trying to think of a way to “go out with a bang.” I began creating a “contest” to attempt to draw everyone in, one more time. It has occurred to me, that I can use the same contest to “Come in with a bang”, or “get back in the saddle if you will.” Giving away prizes, opens the door to discussing some of the positive things that I have been doing over the last year as well.

On Wednesday, September 2nd at 9 am Central Time, I will post a list of questions about myself, or things I have written about in this blog. I do believe that most of the questions can be answered by reading the posts that I have linked above. (if not THESE posts specifically, the answers will still be available within my website) The prizes will go to the first two people that post the most correct answers to my questions in the post “How graceful are you?” in the comments section of that post no earlier than Monday September 7th @ 9 am central time and no later than 3 pm Central time of the same day.

I hope you will all participate. See you soon!

Not your typical Blogger Award revisited

Revisited? re awarded? Whatever the case, last year I wrote a post, Not your typical blogger award, in which I decided to share some of my favorite blogs with you. I would like to do that again now.

The blogs that I have chosen to list are the ones that make me laugh, or even just really think the most.  I have purposefully NOT included the blogs I follow about MS, or other chronic illnesses, because AGAIN, today is just NOT an MS day for me.  If you are interested in hearing a list of chronic illness bloggers, let me know.  (I have some great motivating and inspirational recommendations.)

The first blogger I would like to recommend is, Tom from Tom Being Tom.  Of course I have to direct you to a fabulous post that Tom wrote about me, Graced (I can’t resist the free publicity.)  Seriously though, let me talk about Tom for a minute.  Tom is the 2nd blogger, I have read every post they have written.  (The first was superman, who I previously nominated for this award.)  There was no challenge to read Tom’s words, it was a pleasure.  Sometimes serious, sometimes light hearted.  Sometimes, (ok frequently) Tom writes about sports and politics, but imo he makes up for that when he shares his love of his wife and his fur babies, Ludo and Moxie.  If you have some time, do yourself a favor and give him a read.  (If you haven’t clicked on one of the links to his posts above, start here.)  This is my favorite.

Up next is Lisa, the writer behind All About Life.  Although Lisa is a relatively  “new kid on the block”,  you wouldn’t know it by the number of followers she has racked up in the few short months that she has been blogging.  There is not just one word to describe Lisa, but here  is one….  CANDID.  Refreshingly Candid.  I don’t remember how I first discovered her blog, but I am certainly glad I did.  In fact, I think she is the next blogger I will be going back to the beginning to read (once I finish rereading the posts I have made) If you are looking for a place to start (not the beginning but an insight into her personality, may I suggest. Refusing to Grow up.

My final recommendation is the blog Lockwood Echo.  While I don’t actually know her real name, Lockwood works for me.  I can’t think of a better way to recommend her than to share what she says about herself on her The Editor page….

The Lockwood Echo was born from a collection of random musings and a wish to collate what I thought may be of interest or side-splittingly funny.

Using humour to deflect rage or feelings of misjustice and trying to make people think I’m wickedly witty has been a game-plan of mine for many a year. It’s self-preservation when life hits melting point. It’s also not healthy to bottle up so much sarcasm. It’s best I let it out.

She does this quite well!  While reading her posts, I promise you will feel….”omg that has happened to me” or maybe be glad that it didn’t. (though you might not admit it as she does.)  If you need a place to start, check out,  then there was that time series.

I’m going to end this post now, as I have much more reading to do.  Please take a minute and look at the blogs that I have listed.  I promise you will not be disappointed!

 

Go Big or Go Home?

Last week I posted that in one day I had received 370k comments in my spam folder in the a 24 hour period.  Things have slowed down a little bit, this morning I have 564K. SMDH!!!!!

When I contacted wp support, they suggested that I activate the comments option that makes name and email required.  Ok did that.

I also added almost 100 individual ip addresses to the block list

I have added all the repeating words that I found in the posts (ty SDC for the tip)

I have blocked anyone using an email from outlook (as that was a huge portion of addresses)

I went through the 1.8k comments that I have approved in the past and removed any from an anonymous user as was suggested by another blogger.  (thank you Ralph)

Tom and Tanya both suggested bot blockers and upping my spam control.  Whatever version on wp I am using only allows me to use askiment, and it says it have blocked another 300k in spam.

I switched back to all comments needing to go through moderation ( sorry for this guys), but after my phone going off ever 2 minutes with notifications for an hour, I have now removed WP from my phone.  Which means I will be checking it less frequently.

I want to apologize in advance if I miss something you have commented on, I am deleting spam in bulk, and although I do scan it first, there are literally thousands of comments.

The only other thing  I can think to try is switching to self hosted.  I have heard of sites like godaddy, siteground, bluehost.  Would anyone mind sharing what host you use?  I need a site that will “hold my hand” so to speak .  Thank you in advance!