[Jayne Osborn]

Well, OK... but I've changed post #1 to read publishing or literary successes, which is what I should have put in the first place. The Accomplished Members deals with all that kind of stuff.

I started the Good News threads with the intention of more specifically hearing personal and family good news, to cheer us all up, ... and which we otherwise wouldn't know about

Jayne

[John Isbell]

... which reminds me, our son got married last 14 February, pandemic time. Our new daughter-in-law is very nice and they just visited us in Texas. That was pleasant!

Regards,
John

[Jayne Osborn]

A Valentine's Day wedding, John. That's very romantic!

I have my first live poetry reading for over a year tomorrow afternoon, to the staff and residents of a lovely care home, in the garden. It was postponed last Friday as we had torrential rain all day long... but tomorrow is going to be a lovely sunny day.
I shall do a few magic tricks too, in between my poems.

Jayne

[John Isbell]

Poetry and magic go very well together, I suspect. Have a wonderful time!

John

[Jim Moonan]

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Jayne, I admire you. That's my good news : )

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[Jayne Osborn]

Ah, Jim, thanks. That's so lovely of you... and has made my day

Looking back over this thread, it wasn't good news in the usual sense when I broke my neck, but I'm fully recovered, which is good news. How's your back doing these days? I hope things are better for you now.

...And how's the little one born last year? Grandchildren are such a delight. Monday is my favourite day of the week when I look after 3 year-old Oscar.

Jayne

[F.F. Teague]

Oh dear; did you break your neck, Jayne? I'm relieved you're okay now :-)

The good news here is that I've accepted an invitation to return to the Versus Arthritis Publications Review Panel. I hadn't been able to assist for a while due to being overly arthritic, lol. Anyway, meds for autoimmune arthritis are working so I'm back now :-)

I hope your poetry reading and in-between tricks went well <(:-)

[Allen Tice]

Well, this is very small good news, but it restores my appreciation of cybersomething. A month ago I got an odd email purporting to come from my book publisher Kelsay Books. Simultaneously, some of the functionality of this iPod that I’m using was damaged so that I could not use certain features on Eratosphere. I swore, in a very Victorian way, and asked Alex Pepple to check things out. He courteously and promptly answered that everything was good at his end and that I had a problem that I would have to fix myself. Things were only somewhat wonky, and so I plowed on, swearing in a Victorian way now and then. Today, Suddenly Everything Was Good. I’m not sure what happened. There’s a small hunch that I deleted the malware almost by accident while choosing files to back up. Otherwise, thank you cybersomething, I’m not a Victorian today. Small news, yet good news for me.

[Jim Moonan]

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That's good news Allen. I've been there too, swearing like a sailor on a whaling vessel, suspecting everything, paranoid that I'm one step closer to watching my entire life go up in smoke. Thank God for the Cloud.

I realize your situation was likely different, but so often what ails my cyber experience is corrected by shutting down and starting up. (I almost never actually "shut down" my laptop. Not many people do. We just simply close and it "sleeps"). My most recent cyber poltergeist has been the disappearance of my mouse arrow when it is inside the window. I must grope my way to the outside of the window by swiping up until it suddenly re-appears in the bar above the window and then it remains visible as I swipe down. I've surmised it's a glitch triggered by automatic updates that happen overnight, presumably to fix glitches.

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[Allen Tice]

For those who care I will send the very best: I was using an iPod when the crap came in, and it affected only the belt-buckle sized iPod that I carry around. This Problem came in a package that I am convinced was innocent at both ends (mine and Kelsay's), in which Kelsay offered an alternative to PayPal (or a personal check) by using another pay service called "Square". The sample invoice from "Square" was for someone else's book (a good poet, by the way, known to many here), despite Kelsay's statement that it was for me, and which invoice disappeared soon after its arrival. [!!!] But, Bingo, I couldn't access a couple of standard Eratosphere features that always appear at the top right of this screen. That was it...? Everything else on the E-ball worked as before, and all other sites as well. I pondered and squandered and wondered and thundered. I don't think Kelsay had a finger in this rotten little pie. Maybe "Square" didn't either. If I were to name a suspect, I'd love to say Google. But I can't say. As to why, I can't say why either. Commercial espionage maybe. Yet why me? Just because according to a biased witness I'm handsomer than some guys even now? On a whim I excluded certain files from a backup. It was gone. But I've no assurance that was what removed the crap, any more than I know whence it came. Shee-it.