Cap the WHAT?!

I'm so-o intensely irked right now.  My cousin, Annette, writes a blog.  Today's topic was based on news that a good friend of hers received regarding his status as a Stage 4 breast cancer victim: "What would you do if you had two years to live?"  Serious stuff.  And sweet.  As per my M.O. I left a thoughtful comment with a smidgen of humor at the end.  Or rather I TRIED to leave my comment.  Over.  And over.  And OVER again.  However, the sadistic creator of the latest round of captchas -- you know, those garbled letters and numbers we must decipher and type in to prove we aren't robots? --  that dreary human being, perhaps HE/SHE is a robot, must detest comments.  The more sure I am that I've entered the code correctly, the more apt I am to be informed that I was a complete failure and should try again.  Oh!  Better yet, try the audio button if you are visually impaired.  Yes, that's loads better.  Now, the letters and numbers are indecipherable against a background of moans and groans and  oddly varied and sundry other noises which make me question my sanity and wonder what horror movie I've stumbled into.

What's worse is that many of them form two words.  I'm supposed to figure out what those two words are and then space them.  Besides bearing unletterlike shapes and huddling together impossibly tight and topsy-turvy-rollercoaster-curvy, the words supposedly within the captcha aren't like any words I use on a daily basis.  Not even words that might end up written on occasion though not common in speech.  What the WHAT?!!!  The help instructions inform me that this will prevent an abuse of the service by automated programs designed by schemers who would rather use their talents to jam up the Internet and scam companies and contests and e-mail users than for some employable purpose.  Well, thank you, abusers of the system.  Because I feel like I've been abused.  Mentally violated.  Made to think that I am both visually and hearing challenged.  Not to mention the fine folks who are missing out on their comments from true fans; I know I'm not alone in this online frustration.  Commentary is one of the reasons we blog.  We want to be read.  We want to express and opine.  For me, I yearn to write and will do as I can until I'm free to do as I want.  And we like comments.

So, I returned to the scene of the latest captcha drama and tried once again.  Yeah.  Just now.  I realized that a picture of a number and the crazy letters were showing.  My mind would not register the strange little picture.  (You really need to see it to believe it.  Try to post a comment on my blog if you have a Google account and take a gander.)  Evidently, the picture represents one of the words.  O-o-k-a-ay then.  After expressing only one-fifth of what I tried to say earlier, it took three attempts to correctly interpret the code, taking the picture into account.  I'll admit my success but tell you the letters really were impossibly difficult.  One would almost have to be a robot to stick with it.

I think it's causing me to lose my hair.  Maybe dark chocolate would fix that.  And I could text my cousin my appreciation for her latest efforts.

There you have it.  Until the next Fare Forward entry I peruse.  Then I'm in real trouble!  Eeeek.

P.S.  A blurry shot of the number 1 + BUSINBA = comment posted.