Lainy's Musings has MOVED to WordPress

The job in transferring the Posts and Comments from this Blog to the new WordPress Blog has been achieved.

This Blog and the domain, lainyonline.com will cease and no longer be updated from today.

All future Lainy's Musings activity will continue with Lainy's Musings at WordPress.

Hope to see you there!

God Bless! I am Back!

I have been pretty silent for the past couple of days. There has neither been activity from me at my blogs nor at my friends' blogs either. You might think I was in hibernating. If so there was a good reason for it. The truth of the matter is that I was online the whole time. I was not dormant. 

I know it would come as a shock to everyone.  Lainy’s Musings WAS HIJACKED. I had no access to the Blogger Admin Dashboard for my most precious blog “Lainy’s Musings”. It was not until today that I was able to recover Lainy’s Musings.

The trauma in losing the blog that is about  to celebrate its first birthday on April 26  and where Bloggers’ Celebration is taking  place was nightmar-ish!  

I felt totally devastated! 

The last time I had access to Lainy’s Musings Admin Dashboard was on Saturday, April 11. That was when I announced a  contestant’s disqualification. I discovered  something was amiss on Monday when I couldn’t  log in using the same account details that  I have always been using. 

I am not pointing a finger at anyone. This untoward event had caused me distress and anxiety. Everything clouded on me and I did not  feel like blogging anymore! It dawned on me that having the writing competition was a  huge mistake. But my closest friends who were with me in this tough journey never failed in giving the support and encouragement that I needed most. 

The ordeal that I and my one very good friend went through to retrieve my blog was  unthinkable. He even had to stay up all night  until the wee hours of the morning.

He knew all that had happened to my blog. Most of what he explained is beyond my comprehension as I am not blog-technically inclined. There were a lot of new things that I did learn about how it was possible for the hacker to hijack my blog.

I know more or less now how vulnerable Blogger (blogspot.com) is and how easily it may be hacked and hijacked. To explain the intricacies of how Lainy's Musings was hijacked would need my friend to explain it to you because I do not think I am capable in rendering an intelligible explanation.

At the behest of my worthy blog-wise advisors, I have been persuaded to migrate to WordPress and operate this new Lainy's Musings WP Blog from an external webhost. This is far more superior in providing the Blog protection as well as give me more direct control over the Blog.

Z O R L O N E!

First commenter for this post...

Contestant Disqualification

It is with a heavy heart and regret that I have to disqualify one of the 26 Contestants for the Lainy's Hottest Blogoversary Writing Competition: A Bloggers Celebration!

Since the Poll began, this Contestant has beseiged me with unstoppable and unfounded complaints about her Poll.

The polls that she received were incorrect, highly dubious for entries that were pointing to non-existent identifications, repeated entries, something that Poll Daddy (the third Party poll service) would prevent further submission from the same Pollster.

I have been running from pillar to post with her complaints and it has reached a point of ridicule. Instead of being cooperative, she has now published two scathing posts at her Blog (HERE and HERE)  about her complaints and the response she received.

She has failed to let it be known in this POST that she did get FULL assistance and that she was even sent a Screen Capture to prove that her Poll was working perfectly fine.

She also failed to acknowledge publicly that she was told that her Pollsters would be given another chance to make their Polls good. We had to request for her Poll to be reset so that her Pollsters could make their second attempt after 6 pm on April 8th.

Regrettably, their second Poll was as disastrous as their first.

And yet she keeps bad mouthing about the Poll when 25 other Contestants have not uttered a single complaint to me about theirs malfunctioning or their Pollsters encountering problems with the Poll format.

Again, this is not something that I have jumped to making a hasty decision to disqualify the Contestant. 

I, the credible judges and the IT professionals who are helping me make this endeavor a success have been working tirelessly to make sure that FAIR PLAY is taking place. We can not just sit here and simply allow the contestant to ruin our efforts. 

Therefore, Contestant Number 13, Gagay of walkingnewspaper, you are disqualified with immediate effect.

Z O R L O N E!

First commenter for this post...

Let the Poll Begin!

I am pleased to announce that the Lainy's Hottest Blogoversary Writing Competition: A Bloggers Celebration! got twenty five (25) official valid entries. The competition has found a new group of writers who were able to stylistically and creatively expressed themselves via the theme: Blog to the World; Blog for You and Me . They all have labored on the tedious tasks of following the contest rules and came up with such beautiful and interesting contest pieces. I commend the high level of quality work that each and every contestant has put in to this competition and I thank you for choosing to join. What contestants should take to heart is that we, the credible judges and the readers, altogether aim at recognizing and rewarding literary merit. 

Today the poll for the Readers Choice shall commence. Prior to the poll's kick off, the contestants were encouraged to submit their Acceptance Statements to abide by and comply with the contest rules.  The poll is a very legitimate one where all votes cast for the contestants shall be counted in their names; presenting an across the board appreciation of each contestant's entry for the Readers Poll. 

I am urging you to go and support your favorite storyteller. Let your votes be counted! To cast your vote, just click the banner and you are good to go! 

If you want some help on the poll procedure, you can visit H E R E.  

For participants to keep track of their scores, you can click H E R E. 

Good luck everyone! 

F E H D Z!

First commenter for this post...

Contest Announcement

The deadline for the submission of contest entries for:

Lainy's Hottest Blogoversary Writing Competition: A Bloggers Celebration!

is approaching its closing date. This competition certainly has brought out the best in each contestant! Setting their best foot forward in narrating their own blogging experiences has become a source of inspiration and motivation not only for me but to a lot more bloggers out there! You all are winners in your own right!

As of March 31, we've got 25 beautifully and creatively written contest pieces. Twenty three females and 2 male-bloggers respectively shall be competing to become Hall of Famers in the field of storytelling.

However, I have received requests for an extension of the closing date as some bloggers have been unable to meet the deadline due to extenuating circumstances. Therefore, in the interest of these bloggers, I deemed it best to extend the closing date for entries by another seven (7) more days.

Therefore, the deadline for the submission of contest entries shall be on April 7, 2009 Midnight Central Time.

This I hope is a fair response to the requests made as well as afford more time for others who are interested to join. You just need to follow the contest rules from your word GO!

Bloggers taking part in this competition are coming from far and wide- The Netherlands, United States and the Philippines. I am expecting to have one from Cameroon, Africa and more entries from the U.S, too. Participants range from the working class to work-at-home moms; physician, a computer programmer and a call center agent. They all have one thing in common and that's blogging! So there is no excuse! If you have a blog, we definitely would want to hear from you!

Do have a peek at the 25 competition entries. Such interesting and amazing reads!

Z O R L O N E!

First commenter for this post...