GOOGLE IS MAKING CHANGES

Dear followers,
       I have mentioned that certain global areas haunt my blogs and use them to entice folks to their own venues. It appears that Google might be working on an answer (just my interpretation). There is no mention of readers who receive emails when I create a new post, so perhaps this announcement is truly only intended for "followers." Erring on the side of caution, I'm following Google's advice and posting their announcement here.

The holidays went well, but I'm ready to get back to my Sunday job, and it looks like I'll be working with "almost" two hands! Let's all hope for a more peaceful year, and health aplenty.

Here's what Google says:

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

HOT GREASE & THE COLD WAR

       It was my pleasure to return to the shelter this morning, where little has changed. I take great comfort in that. Arriving later than I did back when I had two pain-free arms, I saw again the small hoard of men who ply their way from the uptown meal to the downtown meal. By early afternoon, they'll be hanging out uptown again, waiting for their dinner and a bed. They look like a content bunch—I saw smiles perched atop their bulging backpacks. Who's to say that theirs is not a more perfect existence?
        Mr. A. is scarce these days (personal issues with staff, I hear), but Doug, Gatekeeper and Crazy were in their places. There was little for me to do before serving time, but I did open a #10 an of applesauce and pour it into a bowl. Crazy fried chicken nuggets and crinkle potatoes. There was bubble gum aplenty, so each plate got a piece of that.
       I'm still fascinated by the change in our pre-release prisoners. We've not housed any scary ones in a very long time. Surely, that is a policy change—probably has something to do with our housing regular homeless families as well. There's a rumor, from time to time, that the "regular homeless" will be dumped in favor of state monies for housing prisoners. I don't see that happening…
       The little artist came to lunch, and he chose a toy car this morning. Then he brought me a 3 x 5 card with a drawing of a Christmas tree on it. He's faithful.
       Our deaf fellow is still there, and he waved from the dining room. I've been practicing, so I gave him a confident "Hey! How are you?" And he signed, "Fine!" I'd forgotten "fine," but recognized it immediately. Signing seems to be a lot like riding a bike…
       After 90 minutes, I had served two groups and many extra helpings. It was time to punch out, and bring home the gimpy arm. Doug and I went over the holiday calendar, and while he'll be there on Sundays, he's got big plans to celebrate New Years day with a large hangover.
       On the cold war front, it really ticks me off that sites in that huge country just north of Mongolia (lest they be phishing for mention of themselves) hit THIS BLOG 75 times this week! I know from past experience to not look into the URL that links them to this site because it's pornographic. Once an innocent blogger hits such a website, they are hounded with outrageous amounts of hits. While I love to see if anyone has read my post, and from which countries, it's seldom more than a dozen or two in a week, and the USA and France are the only guaranteed friendly hits. This porno thing is something I have researched; other bloggers struggle with it too, and no one has a solution to the problem. Just FYI.