Riding out Fay

Now that hurricanes have become part of the perennial cycle of South Florida, they have become part of my rituals of reflection.

So much has happened since Andrew, but Fay looks as if she is going to be more of a rain maker.

The house is much quieter now--we're battened down and ready for the storm.

For now, all is well while the rain beats against the shutters.

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It Could Happen to You: Blogger Deletion

Who would have thought that Google would have reached out to a quiet corner of the Internet and threaten deletion? And yet, it happened to me.

The Arte y Pico Award was supposed to be a going away on vacation post, but when I got up on Friday morning to check the blog, I saw this notice:

623 Posts, last published on Jul 31, 2008

This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.

This blog will be deleted within 20 days unless you request a review.

Request Unlock Review

Of course, I was shocked and began asking myself: What did I do to incur the wrath of the mighty Google?

Was it because I supported my gay brothers and sisters by announcing the publication of Our Caribbean or by writing a story that has a gay protagonist?

Was it because I don’t use an “authorized” Blogger template?

Was it because of my rare political stances or its because I now associate with blogs such as Afro Spear or Electronic Village?

Who knows?

All of the fears of my Black immigrant heart were awakened. What was next Homeland Security? Google rifling through my Gmail account? La Migra?

As is the nature of the Internet, one of my blogger colleagues, Dave Lucas, stepped into the fray with this post: Around The Blogosphere 02 August 08

Thanks for your support, Dave!

And then, this morning I checked my blog, all was well.

It was as if nothing had happened. No apologies, no text message, no e-mail. Nada. Not even cab fare.

All I know is that I’ve backed up my blog and hope that when I come back from my vacation (they may delete me forever after this post), it will still be here.

1Love,

Geoffrey

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Arte Y Pico Award

The Fearless Blog has awarded Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot with an Arte Y Pico award. In order to spread the love around, I am not going to nominate my perennial favorites: Poefrika, Inspirations and Creative Thoughts, Jahworld, Professor Zero, and Morphological Confetti. Instead here are five bloggers who continue to inspire and amaze me with their work:

Less Ordinary

Crafty Green Poet

Barbados in Focus

The Books of my Numberless Dreams

The Illumination Blog

Congratulations to all and keep up the great work!

NOTE:If the awarded blog owners wish to pass the torch to five others please go to http://arteypico.blogspot.com/and read the rules.



RULES

1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter what language.

2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5) To show these rules.

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I will be taking a month long break from blogging to begin work on some other projects, both personal and professional, that are in dire need of my attention. I will be back on Monday, September 1, 2008.

In the meantime, why now browse through the Archives?

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Enjoy your summer!

1Love,

Geoffrey