Word Verification Can be Fun

I loathe word verification.

You know, those anti-spam devices where you are forced to type in the twisted, distorted characters shown on your screen? Yes, those -- the ones where I sit hunched over, squinting at my screen for ten minutes trying to figure out whether that stupid curved line is a "1", an "l" or a mutated "7", and never make the correct guess. I always get it wrong on my first two tries, and it takes me forever to convince the computer that I am a person, and not a machine cropdusting cyberspace with pitches for herbal viagra or idiotic websites.

Yes, word verification makes me insane.

But I'm going to inflict it upon you. Because as annoying as word verification is, spam-ments are worse. I know you all have noticed the proliferation of spam comments here at Trailheadcase. They go a little something like this:

"This is the greatest blog I've ever seen! You must be the most brilliant writer ever! I am so totally going to bookmark this site and visit every ten seconds! By the way, I have a really cool site too. It's about cockrings!" [Don't bother clicking.]

Gah! It makes me want to drive a stick into my own ear.

But really, there is no way I would have succumbed to word verification if I had not discovered that it could be funny.

This gave me more than one hearty guffaw, and a reason to look forward to those godawful characters that make me wonder if someone slipped acid into my Diet Coke. (Spend some time perusing the rest of the site. This guy's funny.)

And when in doubt, guess "7."