Mea Culpa.

Talk about an embarrassment.

I’m a pretty computer-savvy guy, you know? I’ve been around computers since the floppies were bigger than the dinner plates – as a user. I was a cat herder – er, network administrator for a while in the ’90s, but I never got into the uber-user, HTML spouting, raw-coding side of things.

Well, look at me now! I’m a certified moron! I managed to goof, something semi-serious.

Over there in the left column, under the counter, is a colorful little icon-thingy that looks like one of the Arizona automobile license plates. It identifies this site as a member of the Arizona Bloggers webring – or it would, if it was active. In a typical (for me) learning experience, I was being my efficient self – so I thought. When I signed up to join the AZ Bloggers, I got an e-mail from the webmaster telling me exactly what to do. Actually, I signed up both of my blogs – my normal voice blog (Yes, Cartter With Two Ts) and this Snarky voice blog that you are currently reading and wishing you hadn’t stumbled into on such a nice day.

At any rate, I received two emails from Mr. Webmaster – one for each blog. So – I clicked through on the first one (for the other blog, which in hindsight is painfully obvious), grabbed the little piece of code that puts that colorful little icon-thingy on the web page, and pasted into the code for the template for the other blog.

This is where my efficiency and knowledge of computers collide in a rather humbling display of hubris.

I opened another window into the Internet. I started another blog edit session. I logged into this blog. I copied THE SAME PIECE OF CODE into this template.

Mr. Webmaster was not amused. Well, maybe he was, but in his gruff, webmasterly tone he promptly discontinued the link to this site.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the great Cary has broken the ring! This blog was listed for less than twelve hours, and I managed to bring down the wrath of the ring leader. Apparently, the code is unique (due to an identifier) to each web site!

<smack forehead with hand>

Who knew? Well, obviously, a lot of people KNEW – I just wasn’t invited to the information pool party.

Remember a few entries back where I snarked at the anonymous commenter? Guess what, anonymous? I’m not perfect! I just learned something. Hey, guess what else? I’m going to practice what I preach and LEARN form this mistake, thereby eliminating (to a great degree) the chance of REPEATING this mistake. Hopefully, by the time you have gotten this far, the Webmaster has grudgingly allowed me back into the inner circle, with a minimum of grumbling and threats.

And that, dear lurkers, is what it’s all about.

Learn, do, make mistakes, learn from mistakes, don’t repeat the mistakes, learn even more.

My Grandfather once told me, “Making a mistake is normal. Making the same mistake over and over again is just plain asinine.” How true, and how guiding. I miss you, gramps.