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 |  Breaking the laws of blogging, one entry at a time. |
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Wanted: For repeated blog faux pas, including, but not limited to: Obsessive ranting - guilty on 92 counts. Repeatedly beating a dead horse - guilty on 17 counts. Unnecessary use of curse words - guilty on 142 counts. Boring daily recounts - guilty on 45 counts. Pointless entries - guilty on 214 counts. Contradictory statements - guilty on 72 counts. Recounting toilet actions - guilty on 15 counts. Overdramatization of insignificant things - guilty on 152 counts. Overreacting to meaningless gestures - guilty on 22 counts. Unnecessary temper tantrums - guilty on 75 counts. Cruelty towards animals, superiors, peers, and inferiors - guilty on 146 counts. Repeated bad grammar, spelling, and opinionations - guilty on 214 counts. Suspect is considered armed and dangerous. Do not confront directly, instead call the authorities and slowly back away. Do not provoke suspect, as she is easy to agitate. The best action to take is to smile and nod. Any other response could lead suspect to rant and rave for days without ceasing. REWARD OFFERED FOR CAPTURE Dead or alive. Offending evidence: ![Merit Badge in Journaling
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Given for penning the favorite response entry in the Follow the Leader contest with "Come Again?"](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif) (Exhibit A) ![Merit Badge in Variety
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Because I never knew what to expect from your Follow the Leader entries, but I'm oh so glad you played!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/general-Variety-2500.gif) (Exhibit B) (Exhibit C) ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| So... does this make sense? A fly lands on my nose on purpose, because he knows it pisses me off. I try ignoring the fly, but it still pisses me off when he lands on my nose. I try shooing the fly away, but he keeps coming back and pissing me off by landing on my nose. I try smacking him with a fly swatter, but for some reason, I can't hit him hard enough to kill him. And he still keeps coming back and pissing me off by landing on my nose. What do I do next? I know! I'll cut my nose off, because then the fly won't be able to land there. Hahahaha! That'll show him! Meanwhile, I have no nose. But I've spited the fly, so that's all that matters.  |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** You are quite the social butterfly! Though you find it difficult to become close with anyone, you are liked by everyone. Indeed. Well... most everyone, anyway. I do have my naysayers.  |
| I'm very indignantly trying to be the better person in this situation. I really don't give two beans about what he thinks, but the fact that he really has no clue about anything. First of all, he bitches in an earlier entry about how he feels jipped because he works harder to earn his newsletter gift points than the rest of us. OK. 100,000 gift points = $10.00. My average newsletter has about 20,000 subscribers. I get paid 1 gift point per subscriber. That's about 20,000 gift points per newsletter, which equates to about $2.00. Not that I'm complaining about the pay scale for newsletters. I write for them because I like to and because its usually pretty fun. And I write for 2 different newsletters, and both newsletters have a different style. I've found, in the year that I've written for the Comedy newsletter, that I get more comments regarding personal anecdotes than I do when I write something informative. In the year that I've written for Contests & Activities, I've found that writing informational editorials is more successful. I also don't believe that if you feel like you've run out of ideas that you should quit writing for a newsletter. If you actually take the time to engage your readers and find out what they want to know, it will give you enough material for multiple newsletters. That is what makes a good newsletter editor than anything else. If you can engage your readers, you know what they want to read. If you know what they want to read, then you can provide it. As far as choosing the features... You want every editor to choose 10 features, from a variety of case colors but favoring other moderators (at least that's what I've gathered from your comments about others' choices, as well as my own), using a variety of items (meaning more than just static items), with our choices following the theme of our newsletter. Well... if the example you gave me personally had actually been created at the time that I submitted my newsletter, I may have used it. But it hadn't been, so I guess that point is moot. That aside, I disagree that case color is a big deal. And if anything, there should be more features highlighting Registered Authors than Preferred Authors and up. Why should that be so? Besides the obvious fact that Moderators get enough exposure just by being Moderators, and Preferred Authors get more exposure by being Preferred (although less because they don't have the blue case), there are a considerable amount more black cases around this site than any other case. This is on purpose, so if you don't like the policy, it's something that should be taken up with The StoryMaster  and The StoryMistress  .I am of the personal belief that we, as Moderators, should be supportive of the "lower" case levels. (I use that term for lack of a better substitute.) So, in my world, if a newsletter editor features more Moderators and Preferred Authors than Registered Authors, then he is doing a bad job. I don't call him on it, but I still think he is doing a bad job. Now, if any one of you can go out, on a weekly basis, and search the site to find 10 items that follow the theme of a single newsletter, and actually find a variety of items that don't suck, I congratulate you. You'd find this especially difficult for newsletters that cater to a particular genre. Believe me. I've been doing this for more than just the year that I've been writing for the two I write for now. And scrounging for things to put in the Ask & Answer section? If nobody says anything to me via the Feedback form, I'm not always going to go on Scroll to get questions. I doubt that 99% of the people who frequent Scroll pertain to the same demographics that apply to my newsletter. I take that back. More like 60 - 70%. And more than half the time, they don't have anything interesting for me to add. Believe me; I've tried. See, the thing is this. SM and SMs know that we volunteer to be Moderators. They know that we volunteer to write newsletters. They try to give us some kind of compensation for this, in the form of Gift Points. But Gift Points don't buy me food, nor do they pay my rent or keep me healthy. So, if one week I'm a little ill and can't spend as much time researching or coming up with a newsletter, I apologize to those who may be disappointed. Besides that, SM or SMs generally check each newsletter before its release. If they didn't think it was good enough to send it out, they wouldn't. And they also understand that people work, have lives, have things to do, get sick, get sidetracked, or procrastinate. They also understand that things happen, people get ill, people have emergencies, and people sometimes forget. Thank goodness they're running this site, and not you. Otherwise, I don't think it would be nearly as successful. |
| So anybody who scrapbooks and wants to join in, we'll be having an online crop at 12:30 pm Writing.Com time. You have to have a Yahoo ID in order to participate. If you'd like to join in on the fun, just leave a comment and I'll contact you for your Yahoo ID. And I want no comments from the peanut gallery, Problematic Content  .  |
| Nope. I should know by now not to think this person has the best intentions, because he does not. I thought he was trying to help me out on a few mistakes, and really, honestly felt bad because I may have been taking it the wrong way. Nope. I wasn't taking it the wrong way. He really is a pompous asshole. I can't believe I thought for a moment that he was doing anything other than trying to stroke his own ego. I shouldn't even be writing about this, because it does nothing more than give him exactly what he wants - some kind of reaction. But I can't help it. It pisses me off that he can be so audacious to think that he knows how to write for every genre, every topic, and everything. I don't read things to analyze them and determine how I could have better written it. I don't try to rewrite peoples' stuff for them, invariably changing it so much that it is nothing like what was written in the first place. I'm not one of those kind of readers, and I don't want my writing changed so its nothing like what I would have written in the first place. To me, this bullshit he's pulling now isn't being helpful. And I should ignore it. Elitest assholes are easy to ignore. Most of the time. At least when they don't do something that is basically mean to myself or my friends. |
| It's ironic that I wrote my last entry about being able to ignore the elitest assholes around Writing.Com, and I get an email from one about something not related to this blog. I'm kind of miffed about it, but trying to ignore it, and I can't. People who think they know everything and have all of the answers piss me off, especially when they're trying to rub something in your face. At least that's the way I took it, because this person always likes to rub things in peoples' faces. Especially when they do something so human as make a mistake. I'm waiting to respond. I haven't decided whether to be fake and give thanks for the help, or come up with something equally snide that can't be taken as such because it seems polite, even though its not. I've insinuated with this person that the hatchet was buried and forgotten, but can I add a clause? It would say, "As long as you don't send me emails about anything, no matter if your attempt is at being helpful, because you always come across sounding like a pompous asshole." I want to just leave it alone and ignore it altogether. It won't go away, but at least I can keep the claws retracted this way. That, and I said elitest assholes were easy to ignore around here. |
| I have a rant about another website. I'm not naming names or places, but there's only one other site that I go to where scrapbooking stuff is concerned. And I'm in a "critique group" which is really just a group of people who go in and leave nice comments about your layouts, sometimes offering suggestions where it doesn't seem rude and generally trying to be helpful. There's one particular girl who... I'm pretty sure she hasn't been scrapping very long. She still does the "sticker sneeze" thing and does a lot of things that aren't considered very stylistic or even follow the flow of the page. But she loves the way it looks when its done, and that's really all that matters. Lately, she has been trying to modify her style so that she can submit to magazines to be published. In doing that, she found out that it made scrapbooking less enjoyable for her and stressed her out to much. And to be honest, I think her style needs time to mature before she should start trying. I've told her this, but not in an open public discussion. That is what private messages are for. Anyway, there's another girl in our critique group who really is very good at giving advice about when something is "off" about a page, what that "off" thing is. She really is helpful about that kind of stuff. But this other person uses a lot of die cuts and stickers, like I said, which is her style. And the person who is usually helpful made a comment basically saying that if the other person wanted to get published, she should stop using die cuts because magazines and the like don't publish pages that use die cuts. I didn't want to chime in and admonish her for, first of all, alienating this person. And I didn't want to correct her, either. So I waited. And yesterday, I was talking back and forth with the die cut person in the group thread, and made sure to mention that I saw a page in the latest Memory Makers special edition that used die cuts from QuicKutz. Because I have to get my dig in. Because I was bothered by the snide, elitest comment by the other girl earlier. I don't know. I left 2peas because of this whole elitest mentality. Because people who don't have a lot of money, or aren't as creative, don't seem to be treated the same as those who have money to buy every supply out there and use it in the most creative ways. Not everyone is going to be able to take a piece of patterned paper, a piece of cardstock, some embroidery floss, and a pen and make a work of art. It pisses me off that other people, who are good, and know they're good, have the audacity to treat others who might not be as good like that. I know the minute I said scrapbooking about half of you tuned out, but it's not really about the scrapbooking. It reminds me of why I have stayed at Writing.Com for 3 years. Not because I'm one of the best writers and always know what I'm doing, but because the sense of community and helpfulness is sincere and makes me feel like I belong. There's no elitest behavior, for the most part. And those who think they're better than anyone else are easy to ignore. I just can't stand when someone has the attitude that their shit don't stink. I know mine does. Jason reminded me a few mornings ago. |
| Me: Wooohoo! I got mail! *clicks the link.* Me: Awwww! Fuck! It's just another newsletter. And I used to find them so exciting. You know, back in the day when I actually had time to read all of them and the editor's picks. |
| http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/12/eveningnews/main2002974.shtml No antiobiotics for ear infections? Wow. Not such a new approach for me. I bet if this had come out a few months ago, I wouldn't have gotten the alien head stare from Ethan's old pediatrician. Although I will admit that the article does say that prolonged fevers and such should be treated, but for they say that they would decrease the antibiotic usage by 56% if they used the wait and see approach. Give the kid some Tylenol or Motrin for the pain, lots of liquids, and lots of love, hugs, and kisses. That later works better than any antibiotic could cure. |
| We watched United 93 tonight, despite J's misgivings to doing so. Despite the obvious fact that we already know how the entire plot of the movie, it really wasn't that bad. And even though I bawled through about 70% of it, I found it cathartic. I haven't done much to deal with my emotions of 9/11, and it kind of helped. I never really got the chance to "know more" about what happened in the weeks following 9/11. Within the week, I was in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, getting ready to enter basic training. While there, I didn't get to read newspapers or watch CNN. When I called home during my weekly calls, I tried not to ask and J and Mom generally didn't share anything. So, basically this was sort of my way of becoming "informed" about the helplessness of our own military, who didn't even know that United 93 was hijaked until 4 minutes after it crashed. Not to mention the fact that their plan in the event of something this major couldn't even get flight clearance from the FAA because they had closed down all air space, and the nearest patrol fighter jets to be able to intercept any of the flights weren't even armed. Or the fact that nobody seemed to have a clue where the President was or what the rules of engagement were. J was pissed because it was my idea to watch it, and I ended up bawling through most of it. Mostly, he just hates it when I get emotional like that because he says it makes him feel helpless. I know that its September 12. But with all of the air time and newspaper articles and community discussions going on yesterday, I just didn't want to talk about it. Every time the images are shown on TV, I turn my eyes. Not because I want to forget, but because I can't handle the emotions that those images bring me. It sometimes feels like its harder to deal with it now than it was 5 years ago. That day, I woke up to a phone call from my Mom. That day, it all felt surreal, like the world was a haze and we were all in a bad nightmare from which we couldn't awaken. I making so many phone calls, to my recruiting officer, to my grandparents, trying to reach friends who were on flights that day, hoping that I would wake up for real and find out it was all some sick and twisted dream that was a creation of my own imagination. I'm sure that those who survived Pearl Harbor had a hard time not flinching when they heard the sound of an aircraft engine in the distance. That's how I react when I see footage from the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, or that lonely field in Pennsylvania. I flinch. And I wait for the world to crash down around us again. |
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Whatever you do, hang in there, he'll be sleeping like a big boy in no time!