Isn't Spam the worst?

So. I had not checked my spam folder for quite a while. No big deal, only spam goes there. Right?

Wrong!

What is spam really? Everything that your virus protection takes it upon itself to decree that it is not in your best interest to safely send to your inbox. But do we always remember this useful but a tad annoying aspect of our lives? I do not!

Though strange, and I never really sweated the absence of my Vocal updates, I chalked up it's disappearance to "oh well, crap happens". I was just taking the longer route of checking everywhere to see if my stories had been approved or disapproved.

I began to notice however, that a lot of my usual notifications from Vocal had all but disappeared for quite a while. You Know:

" Congratulations .........Your story has been approved"

"Your story has not been approved".

"You have a new reply on your story". And my far flung favorite:

"Congratulations you have a top story". No, that was not in spam, no top story recently, sadly. But no worries, there will be one tomorrow.

Strangely, the only ones coming through were the ones that read:

"You have a new comment on your story". Apparently, Mr. Spam liked that one a lot. Juicy gossip interests even computer programs it seems.

There I was thinking that the good hard working folks at Vocal were just too busy to bother with the thousands of updates to all of our many and varied stories on an ongoing and maybe (probably) tedious basis.

Lo and behold, I finally decided to empty my spam folder and there they were; many, many Vocal updates. SPAM ate them all.

My apologies to the Vocal folks.

My apologies to all the creators that I never replied to.

Spam did it!

Apparently, my anti-virus protection is over zealous and chooses to lock me out of very many programs. Now I am not a computer whiz, in fact I am really terrible with the computer stuff. The under 10 years old in the household are my go to for computer advice. Does it seem to everyone else that they were somehow born with pre ordained knowledge of technology, as if they were here before and reincarnated with advanced knowledge of their previous lives. Computers do not like me. They see me coming and immediately start acting up. I am technologically cursed.

But, I digress.

I went ahead and hit the 'not spam' button. I am unsure if this means that from now on, all of my notifications from Vocal will be sent to inbox, or I will actually continually have to keep checking the spam folder. Maybe it is just my very enthusiastic and vigilant anti-virus that does this, but to anyone else who has had this problem, and maybe is thinking the same thing that I did.

Spam is the culprit!

Computers are a blessing and a curse. It has brought us all together as the Vocal Family. I would not have missed that ride for anything. We all love to write and I am getting to know more and more individuals albeit virtually and electronically. We are not all getting rich and famous, but we love the challenge of participation in the myriad topics that titillate and allow our imagination to travel to thousands of different planes of adventure.

Spam, much like life events, happen. Disagreements, misunderstandings and thoughts of unfairness will happen. It is all a part of the human journey.

I shall be checking my spam and trash folders from now on, who knows what I may find there one of these days. Maybe a million dollars.

N.A.