That Grrl

One Word Blog Day

2008-07-07T00:34:00.002-04:00

Raggedy

CBC.ca: Vote for Maria

2008-07-06T23:57:00.001-04:00

Are you Timid about Moderating Comments?

2008-07-06T22:25:00.005-04:00

What About Blog is posting about comment moderation. Not about spam comments but those who post something negative, mean or abusive. Sure there is freedom of speech, on paper. On your own blog you should be the one to draw the line. Debate about a topic is one thing. Would you accept a comment that is not constructive but just obnoxious? It would be different if your blog was about debate, arguments and so on. That kind of blog pulls out arguments from the readers.

In the case of my own blog I do not accept obnoxious comments. Why should I? This is my blog, my little web empire. I don't have to be excessively fair or nice to someone who comes and attacks me. I moderate the junk comments (those posting for the sake of sticking me with their link and nothing else) and I also have no guilt about moderating aggressive and obnoxious comments.

I seldom get such comments but there have been a few over the years I have been here. I used to have a regular reader who enjoyed a sarcastic witty banter. That was fun, once we both understood that was what it was. I miss HappyandBlue and wish he would show up again, surprise me. :) I check his old blog links now and then but he is never there.

Anyway, do you feel obligated to post every negative comment? Where do you draw the line on which comments you accept and which you do not? If you do post them all is it because you have that idea that nice girls never say no? Maybe that is something you should rethink. After all, it's your blog, you are in charge.

Adventure Quest: Ebil Games

2008-07-06T15:15:00.003-04:00

I like Adventure Quest, an online RPG game you can play free. Here they have a set of Ebil Games. I'm not sure if they are a new feature but they are new to me. Trying one of them out this afternoon when I should be doing something more productive.

Sunday Scribblings: Chance Encounter

2008-07-06T14:50:00.002-04:00

Sunday Scribblings

Blog Talkers: Goals 2008

2008-07-06T14:14:00.003-04:00

Blog Talkers: Goals

Where were you at midnight, when it became 2008? What sort of goals did you set for yourself for 2008? Have you met those goals? Are you working on those goals? Have your goals changed? If so, how? What are your goals for the remainder of 2008? Are you looking forward to 2009? Or are you just taking one day at a time?

I'm not a great goal setter. I tend to take everything as it comes along. I especially don't want to set big, high goals and then disappoint myself again and again. That just makes you feel discouraged from trying.

Sentimental about PC Dinosaurs

2008-07-06T08:32:00.005-04:00

Why are we sentimental about old electronics? I've seen them at the Goodwill, those thick monitors side by side, the old towers with their dirty keyboards leaning against them and the mouse dangling like a spider. I've seen photos taken by others who have found old computers, video game consoles and assorted technological anatomy discarded on sidewalks, rummage sales, tossed out of windows. It's funny that they bring more feeling than the other debris, the general run of the mill stuff like cracked dishes, beat up furniture and half-dead clothing.

It's funny that we do care. I get a funny feeling seeing those discarded dinosaurs, unwanted and hopeless. Of course, they have no thoughts about the whole thing. Whatever emotions or passion they ever had were from the people using them. Maybe it's because they became something more than a hunk of plastic, a tool. They became familiar, like a family pet you give attention to every day, worry about when it's sick and feel happy spending quality time together.

Still, they are totally useless now. Unless you can make some kind of modern art with them, deconstruct them and build a new system using some of the old parts. Those old clunky monitors are too far gone though. But, they could make a very unique fish bowl for your goldfish. So there is always hope, if you really want to save your old PC.

What Do People Envy About You?

2008-07-05T14:10:00.002-04:00

People Envy Your Confidence

You have the attitude and self esteem to take on anything. Failure is beyond not an option for you - it doesn't even cross your mind.

People envy your ability to take on any challenge ... and they're secretly afraid you think you're better than them. You don't. You're just sure of yourself.

What Do People Envy About You?

Weird answer cause I don't think I'm very confident at all.

Thursday 13 #25: Things I Like

2008-07-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

A day late for Thursday Thirteen...

This idea comes from XKCD I was drawing mini frames for each one but ended up finding time to finish it while out having coffee with my nephew Zack, waiting for my Mom who was at the doctor. I combined a few of the things into the same drawing.

Online Marketing to Old Rules Won't Work

2008-07-03T14:45:00.006-04:00

Let go of some of your old marketing ideas. Look around you, smell the coffee. This is the Internet and the format is not the same as offline.

In the past bludgeon-them-till-they-scream marketing may have worked. Out of one hundred telemarketing calls you may have caught someone on the right day and gotten them to sign up for your service. That won't work for email. It is too easy to delete it, unread and thus, unheard. Even auto deleted, untouched by human hand or eye.

Standard marketing will not work online because people online are being flooded with the stuff every day and in just about every way someone has thought up. The past several years of marketing online with constant onslaughts of spam have trained people how to not look at ads on websites. Think of the last site you were on. What ads did you look at, do you remember anything about them?

There are more ads and ad schemes online than on any other media. In one hour of time online looking at websites, checking email or using forums you will encounter easily double the amount of ads you would if you were watching TV, reading a magazine or listening to the radio. Read a book, that is one way to get away from ads (except for other books).

So the marketing plan online is ineffective and needs to be revamped. It may work on that thousand and first person to view your ad or be attacked by your marketing campaign to flood a social network. Meanwhile, what about that thousand people you just annoyed? There has to be a better way. Something more effective for your cost and your time and your energy.

I don't have the magic answer or the magic beans or the goose that lays golden eggs. But, I do know the old methods which are still being used are just turning the Internet into a wasteland. It's getting harder to find something to read versus something to ignore. Someone is going to come up with the marketing plan that works. Why can't it be you?

Instead of trying to get other bloggers to trade meaningless links with you and instead of trying to get everyone on a social network as your fake friend - come up with something new. The time it takes to find a better way will win you far more than clinging to the old ways. Be an entrepreneur instead of a follower.

For Monday Art Day: Hair

2008-07-03T11:51:00.004-04:00

Why are so many of the young women in fairy tales blondes? Everyone knows blondes have more fun, brunettes are clever and pleasant and red heads are dangerous. Wouldn't it be just natural for all those clever, lovely and gentle young women to be brunette? Seems that way to me. Not that I'm prejudiced or anything...

Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel were my favourite fairy tales. I even named my favourite cat Rapunzel. She was the only one of her litter to come up with long hair. It was a mess to look after but after one really bad time with thick chunks of tangled/ matted hair it seemed to grow just a bit shorter (except for the tail) and then it was never so awfully tangled again.

Monday Art Day

Which Tarot Card are You?

2008-07-03T01:26:00.001-04:00

From Island Wench.

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Are You a Survivalist?

2008-07-02T19:51:00.006-04:00

I've been posting writing prompts to the Word Grrls blog awhile. I'm not sure what put the end of the world scenario into my brain but there it was.

If you were a kid during the Cold War times when we kept hearing about the bomb that was going to drop (from Russia, China or some other country behind the Iron Curtain) how does it still affect you? Even now that the Wall has gone do you just think the bomb (may as well call it that as anything else) will just be from another direction. Most of all, do you think you could be someone who would adapt and survive?

I'd like to survive, mainly just to see things in the changed civilization. But, I'd be really lucky in a glitchy way to stick around. I tend to pick up all kinds of odd illnesses, mostly virus stuff. So, my chances are about as great as the cockroach the first bomb lands on, nil to squished.

Here is the comment I made in Word Grrls. Would like to hear more thoughts about this and decided to post it here.

I remember it too, those years as a kid in the little grades, thinking about the bomb that was going to drop and end us all. Kind of a weird age to live in as a kid. I think even now that the wall has come down that feeling of impending possible doom is still hanging around. I guess it has just changed direction.

I'd take some food, mainly canned stuff and water. Some of that powder stuff you can pour in to make your water taste like lemonade cause I'd be sick of water pretty quick. I don't like it much now.

I'd really need a lot of paper, pens, coloured markers and pencil crayons. Various books. Maybe a ton of those classics which I always mean to read (feel I should read) but haven't so far.

Mostly, I'd like some way of staying alive long enough to see how things come back. I love reading those science fiction stories about how people get through disasters and rebuild. To live it would be really interesting. I don't think I'm a very good survivalist though. I'd be dead pretty quick from asthma, allergies or some weird virus.

After posting this I found a blog called Suburban Survivalist. Another blog found through Entrecard.

Wordless Wednesday: Flower Eater

2008-07-02T19:23:00.001-04:00

Wordless Wednesday

Balloon Race... Disappointing

2008-07-01T10:50:00.003-04:00

The Internet Balloon Race is over and I'm not going to miss it. I never saw any sign of my blog being included. Never saw the next site for balloons to go to appear on the right hand side. Never figured out how giving other racers a boost made any difference for them or myself. Never found a way to show I had been on a site which I visited during the race.

Also, there were several bugs and glitches. A pretty long list. For one I had to keep allowing other sites to open pop up windows for my browser. Now I will go in and delete all of those settings. Several sites running some kind of script or code disabled the balloons. I could not boost my own balloon, change it's direction or boost another racer until the balloon cleared the section of the site which had the odd code. Some sites were totally unusable in this way. Many sites had a note up that they were not available. Many sites had no content at all. Few sites seemed to be participating with a balloon racer of their own. Or maybe they were like me and had added their site but it just never happened.

So overall I would say the balloon race was disappointing. It needed to be better thought out and planned and REALLY needed a much better FAQ, with far more information than was provided. How the race worked is still a mystery to me. I did get my balloon moving along but did not really understand how or why.

Ding! You Win... A Dollar!!!

2008-06-30T19:47:00.005-04:00

I have Word Grrls on Project Wonderful. I just checked the account today and it has crossed the one dollar mark. How will I spend my new income? Oh, don't be crazy... I'm not spending a penny.

I don't do stock market games or reality cause I'm an excessively obsessive and bad risk taker when it comes to games of chance. I also don't like reading or obeying a lot of rules. After all, rules just complicate things. But Project Wonderful has been my own penny ante stock market. I didn't have to invest any real money. Just stuck the code up and keep remembering to go in there and check for pending bids.

It took off at a rough start. I felt a bit slimed at the starting gate. I didn't read all the rules so I didn't fix my price per ad to anything. So it was zero, no cents at all. Today is different. I'm out of the penny race and into a nickle. I have two ads from the same blogger, running at five cents each. That was the ad that pushed me over from cents into dollars.

Project Wonderful isn't amassing me a fortune. I didn't expect it would. I hoped it would be fun, something new to learn to stimulate my brain and keep me a little longer away from becoming senile, and it has done that. I'm not pulling it from Word Grrls. I'm not concerned about adding it to That Grrl any time soon. I might, out of interest to compare how each blog does.

If you are interested in trying Project Wonderful I endorse it. But go in with real expectations. If you want big money robbing a bank would be a faster method, a bit risky though. Project Wonderful will show you some new blogs and eventually give you a dollar to add to your next fancy coffee purchase, but it won't make you rich.

Just Like Stick Figure Dolls

2008-06-30T18:45:00.001-04:00

I found these on site this afternoon, Polyvine. The dolls look a lot like stick figure drawings. I thought it was cute and just right for a post here.

Manic Monday: Pride

2008-06-30T18:29:00.001-04:00

Canada Day is July 1st.

Manic Monday

Hillsdale, Ontario Old House

2008-06-29T00:42:00.002-04:00

This is a rough looking place now but you can see it was beautiful once. I wasn't sure it was actually abandoned, just neglected. If I had been sure it was abandoned I would have walked closer and taken more photos. These were all from the sidewalk and street. 10X zoom is great. Though harder to keep the focus nice.

Good Girl

2008-06-28T01:30:00.000-04:00

This one was on Diva Cosmos. She was a bad girl. But, being a good girl I don't really believe she's all that bad.

You Are a Good Girl

You are 70% Good and 30% Bad

Generally speaking, you're a very good girl.

(But you don't have us totally fooled!)

Are You a Good Girl or a Bad Girl?

Text is Crawling Out of my Keyboard

2008-06-27T23:46:00.002-04:00

It's been quite awhile since I really wrote anything. Laziness? Possibly. I do think of things to write. Then something else distracts me. For instance, I am still working on a post for Thursday Thirteen. Kind of sad that is it now Saturday in some places in the world, 11:48 PM here. I'm trying to work on an article about rural exploration, which I actually wrote last year, wrote again a few months ago and have spinning around in my head again this week. I'd be so proud to see not only my article but my photos appear in one of our nationally well known Canadian publications, Canadian Living or Chatelaine. It's a lofty goal perhaps.

I went out on a couple of dates and didn't mention a thing about him. The first date was nice and I had hope for good things to come. I was wrong. He is ok but did not really show an interest in getting to know me. I asked about himself and he really only talked about a few special interests and did not answer about little things (not so little to me) that I wanted to know. Then we had a second date where he had to end it early for work, which was fine as he works on call. But then there was nothing except an email invite for kinky play.

I really want a relationship where I don't feel I'm alone, again. What is the point if you don't have someone you can talk to and know he is listening and actually cares about what you say? Maybe I will just never find anyone at this late stage in the dating game. All of the men I have tried to meet seem to end up in the same boat. None of them want to get to know me. I really want a guy I can spend time with, out of a bedroom. Don't men want that too? Sure I like sex and in past relationships (all two of them) I have lead in that area. But, I want more! I want romance! I want to be courted and have flowers brought when I get picked up. Yes, Eric did that once and that was lovely. But... it ended with me alone, abandoned without explanation. I had to tell him I was giving up on him and then he said something about why he had given up on me.

Anyway, relationships and dating posts are boring. Really. Aren't they all about the same? Do you really expect to find some great long lasting insight among all this space sucking babble? Good luck! I don't have anything figured out. When my life is perfect I'll get back to you with all those omniscient answers.

Tomorrow we are off early (early for me) to Elmvale. The town is a giant street/ garage sale. We are on the hunt for a summer bike for Zack, the 12 year old giant nephew. The boy is taller than I am now. Not right to call him a boy but he still has that boyishness and since he won't ever be in my age generation without the use of a time machine... he is stuck being the boy for awhile more at least.

Of course, I'd like to find another abandoned farm house during the trip.

Sadly, I am pretty much unemployed and having to watch my dollars. I found a $20 I had forgotten in my wallet yesterday so that was kind of sweet.

I do not want to get another job. I am sick of working. I just want to sit here and blog, write, watch brain killing TV (soap opera afternoons) and take road trips. Well, a few other things too but that's about it. I'm sick of customer service type junk. I'm so tired of obeying rules. How did old fashioned women stand taking the marriage vows knowing they were owned and had no rights. Even their children did not belong to them. I think it is strange that women went from primitive (though I think primitive is in doubt if they were bright enough to have a Matriarch) matriarchal societies to being servants in their own homes. How did we allow men to have the upper hand like that?

Doesn't it seem that women really do have a lot of power, in life. In the space of approximately nice months we cart around a new life. In that time we can decide to keep that life or let it go. Drastic yes. But, in some cases a woman should think of her own self preservation and that of the child to be born into the same world she lives in.

Although, I really don't think things between men and women should be about power. Or who is greater, etc. We need each other. In cases where men and women understand that I think the relationship can really flourish. So, here we are back to that dating thing again. Ick!

I should be shutting the computer down. It's been making more noise than it should be. I keep wondering what it is that is running against my wishes or directions. Windows has really evolved into a little monster. You never really know what the MS creature inside your computer is doing. Likely eating sections of my hard drive on a whim.

It is getting hotter tonight. I thought it was decent all day. Warm and muggy outside but I hid in here under the fan all day and it just seemed breezy to me. Now it is after midnight and it seems the heat has leaked into my sanctuary. I'm anti summer when it comes to heat and humidity. I'd rather have a snowstorm, a blizzard would be just peachy too. The only redeeming feature of summer is the greenery and edibles, peaches come to mind right away. I was thinking of peach pie yesterday. Nothing like peach pie made at home.

Well, this should be enough babble for anyone to read. Likely you are all drooling over your keyboards or shaking your head in an effort to keep your eyes from closing. Wake up and get a fresh coffee or get to bed. Nightie night blogging people.

Doodle Blog Template for Sale

2008-06-27T13:31:00.003-04:00

Grumpy Cow has this template for sale. I like it but can't see it working here the way I have mucked around with my template. If you are interested it can be customized with your blog name, of course. It is one of a kind, only one will be sold to one person for $15 (US dollars).

Making Envelopes from the Best of DIY Blog

2008-06-26T13:37:00.002-04:00

I really like this idea of making envelopes. I found it on The Best of DIY blog which had card dropped on Doodle Week. (Thanks). You could use all kinds of scrap and junk paper. Even all that junk I keep getting from Rogers and Bell trying to sell me more services I already have or don't want.

The only downside is that I have a ton of paper I could use up this way but very few letters I can write. It's been a long time since I was penpalling and all my Grandparents are deceased. Still, if I joined up to exchange postcards (which I would like to do) I could make my own fancy and unique arty envelopes to ship them off in. :)

Would you Survive a Horror Movie?

2008-06-25T23:51:00.003-04:00

From The Urban Recluse blog:

Would you survive a horror movie? Find out @ She's Crafty

Who's Your Inner Buffy Bad-Girl? Find out @ She's Crafty

Which Buffy Girl Are You? Find out @ She's Crafty

What's Your Style? Find out @ She's Crafty

Wordless Wednesday: Bramble Goblinfilter

2008-06-25T23:31:00.003-04:00

Wordless Wednesday