My Brain Doesn’t Work That Way!

Originally posted on the old blog, on 02/04/13

My name is Jesse, and I’m captcha challenged.

There. I said it. Didn't even hurt much.

Now, I’m willing to admit that the captcha generator for this blog can be a bit … shall we say temperamental? I once had to reload ten times to get one that I could figure out. I’ve pinged the developers on the topic, but for the moment, please try a few times if the verification box claims that it didn’t really say ‘agdink’ even when it clearly did.

You’re not nuts. The captcha genie is evil.

That being said, I have a talent for flubbing even the simplest word verifications, just like I can’t ever see the hidden images in those crazy polka-dot pictures that were a novelty a few years back. I would stand there for way too long, focusing and unfocusing my eyes, but it was no use. I never saw the pirate ship or the kids playing ball or whatever—it was all dots to me.

I faked it a couple of times, doing the “Oh, right. I see it!” because if I didn’t, one long-ago boyfriend would keep haranguing me, moving me a little to the left, little to the right, and insisting, “You can see it now, right?” Um, no, but I was young enough that it felt like it mattered.

These days, I don’t have to fake it. (Heh heh) I’ll sit there and stare at the gibberish excreted by the captcha genie for too long, trying to make the squiggles, blobs and acute angles into recognizable letters.

It feels a little like writing, really. I try one thing and it doesn’t work, so I try another, and another … and eventually, I hit on the right combination of letters, the gate opens, and I’m in! The words flow, the story moves, the characters come to life.

Ah. Heaven.