206. Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 31, 2005

A good chance if you're on the East Coast, the little ghouls and goblins are probably on their way out trick or treating. Make sure to have them be safe, and if they are grabbing lots of candies out tonight, make sure you check them before you allow the little goblins to dig in. You can never be too safe when it comes to their safety. Growing up this used to be one of my favorite holidays, but now that I'm older I don't get excited as I used to. Kids don't usually come into our complex for trick or treat, so it almost feels like any other day to me.

Noticed that Julie Hill has her monthly writer's horoscope out I mentioned this last month because she always seemed to mention the lack of capricorns in writing. I actually emailed last month, and it looks like some others did as well. This is what she writes this month.

capricorn: i heard from many of you last month, but not as many as some skeptics( my theory: there a few caps in publishing) might want to believe. admit it, you've got other income or you wouldn't be doing this.

So ... it appears no matter what us capricorns do to get Julie's attention, she is set on thinking that not many capricorns write or can write. The little barb about the income actually made me raise an eyebrow. I promptly deleted the feed to her monthly horoscope from my feed reader, and I won't be getting my writer's horoscope from her in the future. Furthermore, the typos in the above were hers. They might end up getting fixed, but I know I won't be checking.

Once one feed was deleted, I decided to go through and clean up the rest of my feeds. I went from over 100 to about 87. Some of those are work related feeds. Need to keep up to date on all the entertainment news and gossip, so a lot of my feeds are entertainment related. Things seem rather slow in the entertainment world today, so I don't have much to write about. A rare easy Monday. I'm in a bit of a shock over that since Monday is usually my busiest day of the week. I'm taking advantage of the break, and I'm taking it easy. Don't know when I'll get another Monday like this. Probably not until the holidays, so I should take advantage of it while I can. Well, I'm off to play on Blogexplosion more. I seem to have become a bit addicted to the site. They have so much to do and ways to earn credits, I tend to play there all throughout the day in one form or another.

Grey's Anatomy fans check out my review of last night's episode on my review site. and for those stuck at home tonight and needing some scary stuff to watch on the television check out my Halloween post on my media village blog. Both links are on my sidebar.

Have a great Halloween night everyone.

205. Well I've noticed ...

Saturday, October 29, 2005

Just by waking up an hour earlier, I get a lot more done, and I don't feel as rushed to get things done, so I'm going to try to start doing that more on Monday. Thanks for your comments on my post yesterday. I figured most bloggers want to know how to generate more traffic to their sites. I just didn't know that I would go on as long as I did. I just figured giving all the information that I knew at the time was best. I might add on to that post as time progresses. I am pondering doing a weekly or bi-weekly post like that in the future on this blog. The posts would cover different topics that might be interesting to the readers of this blog. Some topics I'm pondering are software for writers, my method of keeping your computer virus free and dealing with viruses once you're infected and others. Those are just off the top of my head.

For those that change times, remember to push your clocks back an hour tonight. Living in Arizona, we don't change times ever during the year. We're one of the two states in the US that don't. Indiana being the other, so it'll mean me adjusting my time television wise because some networks are on PST. Mostly cable networks. That means everything will be running an hour later that normal. Confusing let me tell you. I'm sure I'll get used to it in a few days. I'm hoping the month change coming up wakes up my muses. Although I do seem to be getting things better under control. I'm just feeling a bit burnt at the moment. That's why I've been taking it easy.

My blog has no renter as of today. I am trying to link to other writer's blogs on here, and one happened to place a bid. Writesville is a new blog, but I can already see it has a good start with some good information and discussion as one write learns their way during this crazy journey called writing. Check my blog sidebar for the rent my blog box and check out Writesville.

Tonight, I'm watching Catwoman and checking out some other movies on cable. Tomorrow my Cardinals are on television early, and there are some other good football games on television in my area as well, so I'm happy. This means you will see me next blogging on Monday. Have a great weekend everyone!

A look at generating traffic and traffic exchanges

Friday, October 28, 2005

Over on the Romance Divas forum the other day, a topic on generating blog traffic was started. One of the divas had posted something in her blog and wanted others to see it so she posted to the forum. After seeing that, I got the idea to make this review of several of the blog exchanges I'm a member of. They don't call me the Grand Dame of Blogging on the forum for nothing.

When one opens a site, any website, whether it be a blog or a website selling their materials to the general public, they want that site to be seen. As writer's we want our sites to be seen in hopes that our books or future books, as the case may be, are seen by as many people as possible so they will be bought. Many writer's keep blogs, and the number seems to only be increasing these days. For others, they just want their sites seen for whatever reason. They also might have items they wish to sell or they might just like having a lot of people reading what they have to say.

Well how do you get the people to your site once it is out there on the World Wide Web? Generating traffic is not an easy task. No one will know your site is available if you don't promote it. If you don't shout out "Hey I'm here! Look at me!" there is a good chance your site will get little to no traffic on a monthly basis. There are many ways to get the word out there.

There are directories, both for websites and blog specific. You can list your site on these directories, and most of these listings are then picked up by search engines, and that generates traffic to your site. Some of the blog directories I know of are: LSBlogs, Blog Flux, Blogarama, and Blog wise. Links to others are on my sidebar. Some take only a few hours to add your site into their system once checked and approved. Other directories are so busy that is takes weeks in order to add your site. Be patient. Some directories get so many submissions each day that they are backed up for days.

Another way to generate traffic to your site is by the use of traffic exchanges. There are many different types of exchanges. There are some specific to only blogs and some that are open to all websites as long as they follow their terms of service. There are both manual and auto exchanges as well. In a manual exchange, you have to press a button in order to continue on surfing to the next site. An auto exchange automatically takes you to the next site, so you have to do nothing but let the site run. However, some do offer you bonuses if you watch the sites as they appear on your screen.

How do exchanges work? Exchanges work by giving you credits. One credit equals one visit to your site. Different exchanges award you different amounts of credits for each site you view. Most blog exchanges give one credit for every two sites. Other site exchanges vary between 0.6 - one credit per viewed site. Check this out when you decide to sign up. They will tell you how many credits you will receive.

Now what exchanges are out there for you to choose from? A lot. I'm a member of many. Some I join and don't use much for one reason or another. There are some that I enjoy using and I use them on a daily basis. Let me tell you about some of the ones I've used now.

Blog Exchanges

Blogexplosion is probably one of my favorite exchanges because it is so much more than just an exchange. Blog Explosion allows you to earn credits and visitors to your site in many ways. They only keep adding more to the site as time goes on. You have the exchange itself in which you do earn one credit for every two sites you view. The site uses a thirty second timer. While surfing through the exchange you can also earn mystery credits. This can be as little as two credits or as high as one hundred. I've earned fifty credit bonuses from time to time. Haven't seen a hundred yet, but they do pop up. They have a mystery credit page that shows who won what and where.

In addition to the exchange, you also have the Blog Rocket. You add your blog to the rocket, and it goes through a cycle of 25 - 1 before the site is bumped off at the top, and you can go through it again. People can earn mystery credits for visiting sites on the rocket, so this can earn you visitors to your site. Anywhere from 1 to as many as 20 during the busier evening hours.

Recently added is the Rent my blog service. Other bloggers can pay credits for a spot on your blogs sidebar. You can charge anywhere between 10 to 500 credits. The more traffic your site gets, the higher you can charge.

Like a little competition? Then hop on over to Battle of the Blogs and compete head to head for votes against another blog. Voters earn credits for each vote, and the winner of the competition wins 75% of the credits wagered for the competition.

You can also use your credits towards banner impressions that will show your banners throughout the site on surf pages and elsewhere. For every credit you get thirty five impressions. This exchange is probably one of the biggest and in my opinion the best.

Update as of 11/22/05: Blog Explosion keeps getting better and better. As of November 1st, they have added live support. As of November 20th, they added image hosting, and there is a lot more in the works. They are also revamping current parts of the sites as well. Still my favorite of the blog exchanges. I spend some time here daily promoting my sites in the Blog Rocket, Battle of the Blogs and surfing.

Updated 12/13/05: This blog exchange has added free image hosting, stat counters and more is to come in the weeks ahead.

Blogclicker is another exchange I use a great deal. This is more a pure exchange. No bells and whistles here. For every site you visit for 20 seconds, you earn 0.6 credits. This site is probably one of the fastest I've used. They also have banner impressions you can buy. One credit equals 25 impressions. These will be shown on the surf bar. Each week, they have a weekly surf contest. The top three surfers win credits, impressions and money. I've won third once. I surfed a lot that week. After some down time at the end of October to change to a new server, this site looks to be as good as ever. A surf problem popped up soon after the server change, and it was fixed quickly.


Blogsoldiers is a growing blog exchange. When I first joined up, I didn't like it very much, but they made some additions to the site in the last month, and now I enjoy this site a great deal. This is another almost pure blog surf exchange. The site runs on a twenty second time, and you earn 1 credit for each two sites viewed. The bonus credits are what I like about this site the best. They have three ways to give you bonuses by surfing. The letter hunt game, bonus links and bonus surf pages. As you surf, the three will pop up.

The letter hunt game is a level game in which you earn different levels as you continue surfing. The higher you go up the levels the more it takes to get to the next one because the word names for the levels get longer. At first I can earn a level in a few days, and now it can take me up to two weeks to move up. When you do move up, you earn about 250 credits, as well as banner and text ad impressions you can use to advertise your blogs on the surf pages.

For approximately every twenty five pages you visit, you also have the bonus page that pops up. Answer the easy question offered and earned 7 credits to your account. The last is the bonus link. These pop up randomly usually near a bonus page, and you get 8 credits for clicking on these. Site views tend to go through slowly, so your credits can add up a bit, but they are starting to move through faster as more people join.

Virtual Loop is another exchange I like. I don't surf this one as much as the others, but I pop in once or twice a week. I somehow built up a high number of credits soon after joining, and they are still working for me. The site has a lot of little features, but it is mostly a surf exchange. This site also runs on a 20 second timer, and you earn two credits for every three sites you visit. This site had some problems soon after I joined last month, but after a server move the site has come back strong, and they look to be adding more features. They have weekly competitions for credits as well. Their weekend block party is a standard competition, and during the week they pop up with random competitions for a couple of hours. You can earn anywhere between 400 to 50 credits to your account just by surfing a bit and winning.

EDIT: Updated surf ratio to 1/1 on December 9th.


Blogazoo is another smaller exchange that is picking up speed. The site runs on a twenty second time and like the rest you can earn one credit for every two sites visited. The exchange is smaller, so you can get anywhere from five to ten site visits a day by surfing the site. They also have a new way to earn credits and getting your blogs read, and that is by posting a gazoo on your blog. The site has so many homeless gazoos and while surfing people can spot these gazoos and earn credits by clicking the link. Admin is easy to contact, and you can ask for a gazoo each week.

This blog exchange isn't officially open yet, but I somehow think it is set to do great things. Blogmad is in pre-launch right now, and the rumor is they will have an almost 1 for 1 credit exchange, which is unheard of in blog exchanges for free members. The best one can get right now is 0.6 and that is with Blogclicker, which I mention above. I just dealt with the help staff at Blogmad because I hadn't been able to access my account since I signed up. I finally decided to email once I received my most recent newsletter from them, and within 20 minutes I had heard back. Over the course of an hour, several emails were exchanged, and the problem was resolved quickly. I now have access to my account, and I see I have credits already added to my account. That is for doing nothing but signing up and having my referral link on both my blogs. In the most recent newsletter, they sent a screen shot of the service in action. You can take a look at them here: 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Traffic Exchanges

Blog exchanges aren't the only way to earn traffic to your site. There are also other type exchanges that allow all kinds of websites to their systems. Some offer both auto exchange and manual exchanges. Some even offer cash and for surfing a certain amount of sites each day. Be wary of these though. Some are scams and don't pay you anything in the long run. Traffic exchanges are a good way to get new readers that might not otherwise see your site, and they also help you raise your rankings in the search engines. I'll talk about a few now.

I joined Pro2mote last week. It is both an auto and manual exchange. I've noticed not many use their manual surf though, so those credits tend to sit there. On this site the auto surf rate is one credit for every one site you visit. For manual, you earn 1.5 credits for every site you visit. Every twenty five sites, you earn a fifty credit bonus. not bad for a few minutes time. I have all three of my sites on here, and I've seen a steady flow of traffic to my sites daily. The auto surf runs on a fifteen second timer. They also say you can surf for cash, but I haven't seen that yet. You can also purchase banner impressions, text ads and paid to click ads with either cash or credits, and I am looking into doing one of those in the near future. I am collecting credits to do it. With the bonuses it shouldn't take me all that long.

Another auto and manual surf exchange I joined in the last few days is Free-n-easy Traffic. I've only been a member here a few days, and I can see this site becoming one of my favorites. A fifteen second time with both manual and auto surf. In the auto surf you earn .6 credits and in manual surf you earn .75 credits. For every twenty five sites you view, you earn twenty five bonus credits. On top of those credits, you also have bonus surf pages that seem to pop up A LOT. On these you can earn anywhere from 50 to 1000 credits, and I've earn a lot of bonus credits this way. Trick is here you have to watch as the pages cycle through or you miss those pages. That ensures your site will get viewed on this surfer.

A new traffic exchange I just joined is Breed Traffic. I'm still feeling this site out, but from what I can see already by just using one of my sites with it, the site does offer good traffic. It has both a manual and auto surf program. The surf window runs on a thirty second timer, and as a basic member you earn .75 tokens auto surfing and 1 token with the site's manual surf. They also have banner impressions, banner exchanges, and it appears text ads. Doesn't appear to be any bonus credits involved with this program, so you can just surf away without even having to be at the computer.

Surf Wizard is an exchange I recently joined, and I'm already loving it. It is a website traffic exchange with both auto surf and manual surf capabilities, and from what I can tell site members use both and use them often. This means traffic to your site. One thing I immediately noticed and liked about this site is they have a category for blogs that you can select to list your site in and also surf in. Not many website exchanges have this. They also have a great pay to click site that helps you build up credits quickly. Just check in daily to that part of the site and you'll have a good number of credits in your account already. If you have one blog or site added it will take you ten to fifteen minutes a day to add up a number of credits to direct hits to your site. I'm really loving this smooth running exchange.

Once you have generated some traffic you can also list your blog on some of the top sites available. Let the world know how you rank against other bloggers! Some top sites are: Top Blog and Blogtopsites. See how you stack up!

My advice when looking at generating traffic to your sites, if you want to use an exchange look at a few different ones. Join a few and try them out. Every person likes different things, and the blog exchanges are different enough that you might find yourself liking one over another. Exchanges are there to work for you. You can surf as little or as much as you want in order to earn traffic to your site. It is all up to you. I didn't mean to go on and on forever. I just felt the need to give the most information as possible so that you know what you're getting into if you decide to join any of the exchanges.

Updated: December 13th

203. A weird dream ...

Thursday, October 27, 2005

I woke up later than usual today, and it has set me off track for the entire day. Things are not as hectic as usual because some shows are taking the weeks before sweeps to air repeats, so my reviewing duties have been minimized a bit. i had the weirdest dream earlier right before I woke up. I dreamed I was Sydney Bristow, and I was going through an Alias story line, and Vaughn had come back but died again. And it was weird. TV seems to have taken over my brain. I'm even dreaming it now, and Alias is on tonight even which makes it weirder!

I've been attempting to take advantage of my lightened schedule. Things have been so hectic the last month or so, I should try to take advantage of what little down time I can. I really want to get back into my fiction, and I'm trying to. Maybe this weekend. Even though, I've been saying that the last three weekends. I'm going to really try this weekend. I'm just so tired lately, and the kitten seems to be going through the terrible twos if that is even possible. He ripped a hole in my favorite jacket the other night. I've had the jacket since I was fifteen, so we're going to try and repair it at the cleaners. It's jean material so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Alias is about to come on, so I'm going to end this here. I just wanted to come on and check in with everyone. Even if this day has been crazed. Have a great night everyone!

202. End of the month blues ...

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Another month is quickly coming to an end, and I'm just exhausted. If I was writing for Nano, I'd have just about made my 50,000 word quote for the month. That is how much I've written between my two sites the last month. Words add up quickly. Too bad my words are all nonfiction and in the form of articles and reviews. Very little fiction to speak of. I know a lot of people are joining in with Nano this upcoming month of November. I'm not one of them. I just don't have the time to join in with my other commitments. So my question to those that stop by my blog: Are you jumping into Nano this year? What are you planning to work on during this month of November? I'll cheer you on from the sidelines.

Lost is a repeat tonight! Sigh! I hated the long breaks between episodes last year, but I understand why they have them. I'll impatiently wait for new episodes. Last night was Supernatural and Real World. Recaps and reviews of both are on my review site. I'm a bit tired, so I'm going to end this entry a bit short. Hopefully, I'll have something better for you tomorrow here.

201. Well a muse peeked out ...

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

A muse. For all of twenty minutes that is, and then it ran scurrying back into the place where all our muses go when they are hiding. A new muse. So I spent those twenty minutes writing a page of something new. Sigh I always start something new, and then the current WIP's get neglected. I need to really work on that. One thing at a time though. First I have to get my muses going again, and then I'll worry about grabbing the right muses.

Last night, I finished reading Never Love a Stranger by Ellen Fisher. It took me a bit of time to read it, even if it is a short read coming in just under 200 pages as a trade paperback. I had to read my other commitments first, but the story had pulled me in, so I tried to read a little bit each day. I plan to have a formal review of the book up on my review site within the week, but in short I loved it.

I just saw Lindsay Lohan's newest video for her first single off her new CD. I found the video online last night, and I think it premiered on MTV last night. I don't know what it is but the pop princesses seem to pull me in. I love Lindsay, Ashlee and Hilary. Actually have bought both Lindsay's and Ashlee's CD's, and I know I'll pick up Lindsay's new one next month when it comes out. Watching the video though, my heart broke for her just a little. The song lyrics are based on her own relationship with her father, and the video is just heartbreaking, and you can hear the emotion in her voice when she is singing. She has definitely been through a lot it seems.

For those television junkies that stop by, check out my review of last night's episode of Surface over on my review site. Tuesday is a busy night for me with two shows I review airing - Supernatural and Real World. Real World is really losing me this season though. I hope the torture ends soon! I'm excited because I know Bones returns next week, but that will only make my Tuesday nights even busier!

Have a great night everyone.

200. Wow never thought I'd still be here ...

Monday, October 24, 2005

Yes, you can see the number of this entry, and I can honestly say I never imagined this blog still to be in use or written in on a daily base in any case. This is my third attempt at blogging in the last year. My first was just a bit under a year ago on tripod, and then in January I tried to start again on Blogger. That blog didn't catch on for me either. I had been writing in an online journal on one or another of the journaling sites since July 2001, but blogging just wasn't clicking for me.

So sometime back in March, I tried yet again. This time I did things a bit differently. I found Blogcritics, and I began writing reviews there. If I didn't have anything to write about I would write up a review to post on here and there. I also submitted my blog over at RTB and a few other blog directories. I don't write for Blogcritics as much now. I write more than I did when I wrote for them, but I think I decided I wanted my reviews to be a bit exclusive to my review site. I wanted people to come to me. A bit risky, but it seems that risk is paying off for me.

Then I started reading other blogs and making friends. I kept finding other authors with blogs. I'd find one, and that would lead me to others, and then I began commenting and getting involved. Then people started coming here and commenting me. Yes, I was shocked at first because I never really thought anyone would be interested. Hell, most of my daily ramblings over on my personal journal probably caused many of the people that are my friends yawn on a daily basis.

Soon I started updating more, and I'm not even sure when it became a daily exercise. Blogging used to be one of the first things I did when I came online everyday. Blogging here has led me to maintain two other blogs that also have daily updates, my review site and my news and gossip blog over at Media Village, which I will be paid to maintain. Never imagined I'd turn into a little blogging machine, but I have. Now if only I can find a way to balance all my blogging with my fiction writing. I'm still trying to find that balance. However, that is a discussion for another time.

Since I've begun blogging here, I've met so many other writers, and in my blog hopping each day I meet more and more. One thing this blog has helped me with is writing something every day. I maintained this blog daily up until recently. Now I give myself Sundays off because by the time the weekend rolls around I'm burnt a bit. I want to thank everyone that stops by on a daily basis at this blog and leaves comments. I enjoy reading many of your blogs as well. I don't see myself giving up this blog any time soon.

Later on this week, I plan to talk more about blogging and take a look at some of the blog traffic exchanges I use to bring more readers to my site. One such traffic exchange is Blogexplosion. They are a bit more than just a traffic exchange, and they offer a lot of services for the blogger. I'll talk more about later this week, but one new service they have implemented in the last week is called Rent my blog. For a small fee, paid in credits (no cash involved), a blogger can rent ad space on another blogger's blog. Two blogs have rented space on my blogs for the week. One on here and the other on my review site. Both blogs this week are blogs belonging to fellow writers so hop on over to the sidebar and check their blogs out! The blog on my review site will only be up til tomorrow night, and then I'll open that space for another blog.

For those looking for my review of last night's Grey's Anatomy, check over on One Couch Critic for that here. Have a great night everyone!

199. That's it?!

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Have you ever read a book and go that's it?! There has to be more to the story. You start looking for more pages you know aren't there, and when you don't find them magically then you feel a bit disappointed in what really was a good story. This happened to me last night when I read one of the e-books I'm reviewing. It was a quick read, but too quick of a read because when it ended I was seriously wanting more. This kind of made the read bittersweet because I enjoyed the story up until the ending.

Today there isn't much happening in TV land, so I might try and write later. Maybe tackle a muse and just see what happens. I'm seriously dealing with a bit of writer's block here, and I'm not sure what to do to get myself out of it. I'm still writing where I need to, but not where I want to. Thing is I'm having trouble finding my muses or a muse. I'll take anything at this point. So maybe later one will show up. Who knows?

Over on my review site, I've picked my favorite scary movies. Hop on over there and check them out, comment with your own. I thought i'd get a jump start on Halloween and post my list now. I might also do my least favorite picks at some point this week, but I'll see how that goes. In case I forego a Sunday post again, have a wonderful weekend everyone!

198. Making changes ...

Friday, October 21, 2005

Well I spent a small part of the last twenty four hours taking a look at my sidebar hear on this blog, and making some changes to it. When I looked at it I saw I hadn't changed some things in a while. All my attention has been focused on my review site the last month. I need to give this site attention too. So I moved some things around. Also added my blog here to some of the traffic exchanges that my review blog is on, so I might see a bit more traffic here. Always good to have some new faces see your sites. All the work on the blog here took a bit more time than I thought. I want to find a new site background once halloween passes. Something a bit more holiday or winter like, but I didn't have time to look for any today. Maybe later on. I have some time to do that. i like the layout of both my sites, so I think I'll keep them. Some sites I've seen have some horrible designs.

Last night, my ISP went down for a few hours. I was getting ready to post one of my reviews, and my connection just died on me. After waiting an hour on hold with AOL, they finally told me they had nation wide server outage, and the service should be back up between two to twenty-four hours. The site was up in just under three, but it delayed me on doing some of the things I usually do at night, so I stayed up til 5am to do them. Got everything done though. Took the down time to finish reading another one of the novellas in the Vampire Sextette. three down and three to go. This book is taking forever to read, and I still need to read the two short stories that ERRW assigned me to review this month.

This month has been especially hectic, but I'm hoping things slow down a bit. I want to get back to my fiction because I'm starting to miss hearing the muses talking in my head now. The weekends are a bit slower for me, so maybe I'll try to tackle a muse later on this weekend. Have a great night everyone!

197. Where did this day go?

Thursday, October 20, 2005

I was tempted to skip my entry for today. I overslept, and then things were busy on the entertainment news front so I was writing up my daily posts for my media village blog most of the afternoon. I also woke up to what looked like nearly a hundred emails on one of the lists I'm on. Seems in the last eight or so hours I was offline there was a bit of a ruckus, and someone was ejected from the list because of it. So I spent most of my afternoon going through those emails as well, and emails are still trickling in now. I thought about dropping my two cents into the matter, but what good is that going to do but just add more to everyone's inflated inboxes.

I'm the type of person when I'm not happy with some thing as this writer apparently was, I keep quiet. It takes a lot for me to speak up. If I'm not happy with a situation, I find the most professional and easiest way to get out of it when it comes to my writing. Part of the reason why I created my own review site is because I wasn't happy with a certain situaton. My review site could have done really bad, but I'm happy to report in just a little over six weeks time I've had over 10,000 visitors, and I'm pushing towards 13,000 page loads. I work at promoting my site heavily each day, but hopefully in time i'll have a set of readers. I'm already seeing this happen. When I search for my blog through technorati, I see links to my review site, and more of them pop up each day.

I'm slowly getting over what bug I had. The early part of the week I felt horrible. I overslept today not because I felt ill, but because my cats picked this morning to keep me up. They kept running in and out of the room, and my kitten loves the new warmer quilt I put on the bed so he was jumping up and down. For some reason, the lump under the covers meant nothing to him, so he kept jumping on top of me. lovely way to wake up out of a dead sleep. I even heard my brother yell at the cats once or twice.

Last night was spent watching Lost, check for my review of that episode over on my review site, and reading. I'm playing with ideas in my head. The muses wants I think want to play, but they don't want to play with any of my current WIP's. This makes me feel bad because if I start another project, I know it'll make it harder for me to go back to the ones I have in progress at the moment. Everyone is gearing up for Nano next month, and I'm not even go to try this year. The last two years I have, but it just didn't work for me. I write my fiction too slow for it to work. I might look at one of the alternatives I see floating around some of the message boards. Maybe try one of those.

Well, I'm off. Have a wonderful night everyone!

196. Fun with search engines and other stuff

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Over at Daisy's blog today she posted a totally hilarious post mentioning this little search engine game I've seen floating around the blogoshere lately. Go to google and type name followed by needs in the search box. For example, I typed in "Gina needs." Yes, you need the quotations. This is what I've found I need according to google.

* Gina needs a severe reprimand for having done what she did, but she certainly didn't fabricate a story out of thin air like what's his face over at ...
* Gina needs to draw herself naked
* Gina needs to watch cable in her room
* Gina needs a makeover
* Gina needs to change her self-talk
* Gina NEEDS bloomers in Xtra Small
* Gina needs to be able to. reach out to him, rather than have him initiating. the contact all the time.

A few of these really cracked me up, especially the draw myself naked one. Hah I can't even draw stick figures, so that would come across well. Only not? Alos we will not discuss the one about my bloomers! Hah! If you want to play along, post the results in comments or in your own blog! Trust me its fun!

I've been real under the weather the last few days. I've had to struggle a bit to keep up with commitments to my two other blogs. It usually hits me at night harder, so I've been writing my news bits for over at Thoughts from the Couch in the afternoons, and posting them throughout the day instead of all at once as I had been doing originally. I think that actually works better, so I'll probably keep doing things that way.

I'm finally getting into the flow of things there. I spend anywhere from an hour or two every day looking for and covering entertainment news for my blog there. Then we have my review blog whch is doing well. Check over there for reviews of this week's Grey's Anatomy, Surface and Supernatural. Link is on my sidebar! Tonight is Lost! I'm excited. Lost, Grey's and Surface are probably my three favorite shows right now. They are all good television shows.

I'm hoping whatever bug I have goes away quickly. I think my muses might be waking up, but I don't do well when I'm sick, so we'll have to see. Have a wonderful night everyone.

195. The Search For Joy

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Kelly tagged me with the Joy meme last night, so here we go.

THE SEARCH FOR JOY

Search your blog for the word "joy" used in the context of "happiness." If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below.

joy - amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor, gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment, mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonder

If your weblog does not include a built-in search engine, then you can use Google to search it only for the word you wish to find. Do this by inputting the word you wish to search for followed by site:your web address. In my case, I searched for joy site:ginasramblings.blogspot.com .

If you've found the word and it was not used facetiously or sarcastically, good for you. All you need to do is link to your earlier entry, and write a few words about that joyous moment. If, however, you have no joy (whole words only) in your weblog, you must dig deep in your soul and find something wonderful in your life right now. One little thing that fills you with warmth, that bubbles you over with quiet happiness, or tickles you with its good-hearted hilarity, or makes you glad you just took a breath, and are getting ready to take another. It doesn't have to be anything big. A smile someone gave you; your cat on your shoulder; the way the light angles through your window and casts rainbows on your floor. All it has to be is something genuine, something real, something that matters to you.

Because we all need joy in our lives, and need to take the time - from time to time - to recognize it. And sometimes, we need to pass it on.

Even if we're a big pain in the ass when we do.

When you've dealt with your own joy, pass the quest on to five other bloggers.


Well, first I'm not tagging anyone because I never remember who's done what meme especially with the number of blogs I hop from on a daily basis. next, this was a bit amusing because when I searched for the word joy, all my entries came up because on my sidebar I have The Joy of Writing Sex for Fiction Writers as recommended reading. Good book. I believe it is still there on my sidebar now, but I haven't checked my sidebar for awhile. It becomes a habit of putting things there. You know they are there unless you change them. So because of this I had to go through the entries it pulled up and see if there were any entries that stood out as happy or joyful, and I found one.

May 31st 2005

This was the day I found out I had my column set to review Queer as Folk for the season. The column that started me down this path of television reviewer. Up to this point, I'd reviewed a few DVD's and CD's, but nothing weekly. Not a column. The last column I had was back in 2001 - 2002, when I had a weekly column for beginning writers on Suite101. I cringe a bit when I read some of those now. My writing has changed so much since then. My writing has even changed a lot since May when I started writing my reviews of Queer as Folk. My editor over at Gay Wired gave me some good advice about how to write television reviews, and the editors over at Blogcritics have as well. I've now taken what I've learned there to my own site and my media village blog as well.

I look back, and I can't believe that was only May. A lot has happened writing wise for me since then, and I know more changes will come. I'm still not very patient, and I want things to happen faster, but I'm being forced to learn that in writing patience is a virtue you have to develop.

Have a great night everyone.

194. Conversations from the weekend

Monday, October 17, 2005

Some amusing conversations that have taken place in my household this weekend. Mostly between my brother and myself.

Brother: Sis, I threw the milk out. It was two weeks past due, and when I went to drink some it kind of clumped out.
Me: (pause, blink, stare) UH ... didn't dad eat cereal this morning?
Brother: .... yeah?
We both pause, blink, stare!
Me: ... Oh my God.
Brother: Let's not tell dad.
Me: Good idea!

And just today.

Me: Did dad ever mention anything about the milk?
Brother: He asked, and I told him, and then he mentioned feeling sick.
Me: Well ... (laughs)

More from today:

me: I don't feel well. Do I sound sick to you?
Brother: Well, you sound congested and like you're not feeling well. Are you getting sick?
Me: (pause): Oh that was smart! I just asked you if I sounded sick dummy!
Brother: Oh ... yeah you do.

So, yes I took another Sunday off. I might start doing that every week. Gives me a little break. and last night, I did feel like I was catching something. The flu is going around here and everywhere. My brother woke me up this morning because he was feeling off too. So I slept in later than normal, dragged myself out of bed at 1:30 this afternoon. I go to bed after 5am every morning, so I sleep in. Some days I'm up at 11am and others at 1pm. All depends on what is happening.

Things here are piling up again. Just received my review assignments for over at ERRW. Two e-books. One is quite short, and the second is a little bit longer. Both due at the end of the month. Still have my review assignment for over at Diva's too. I'm also one of the interviewers on staff over at ERRW too, and my first interview assignment will be assigned some time tonight. This is something new, so I'm still figuring things out there.

Still not working on anything fiction wise, and now I'm starting to feel a bit guilty. The muses just aren't communicating, and there is so much going on in other parts of my writing life. I don't want to overdo things and stress myself, especially if I'm already coming down with some thing. I'll have to see how things go this month. I might jump back into the gear of things next month. Get some things done. things also slow down TV wise in December, so I'm hoping to kick out some writing over the holidays too. See how things go.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Have a great night everyone.

193. A bit something different ...

Saturday, October 15, 2005

I started writing an entry in my media blog today about the lack of television on tonight, and it turned into an entry comparing books and television and creating characters. I know Alison Kent has also been mentioning television and characters this week. So feel free to hop on over there and jump in with comments if you have anything to mention. Comments on Media Village blogs do need to be approved by me before they appear live on the site - a spam blocking feature. Check out my entry here.

I might be taking tomorrow off again from blogging in here. I haven't decided yet, so if I don't see you tomorrow I'll see you all back here on Monday! Have a great night everyone.

192. You know what I love ...

Friday, October 14, 2005

A good story that just sucks you in. You keep turning page after page because you're into the story and you want to read more of it. You want to read it until its done. I'm still reading The Vampire Sextette, my assignment to review for over at Romance Divas. it's a collection of six novellas, and the first one read really slow for me. The second story, shorter, but is just reading so much faster for me. I'll probably finish the last ten pages tonight and move onto story three.

I was so engrossed in my reading, I didn't get to my fiction last night. Did do my necessary posts over on both my review and media blogs. This morning they announced the new James Bond. I was still awake when the announcement was made official during the UK lunch hour. The new Bond is Daniel Craig. Um ... not to be mean or anything, but he just isn't the right man for the role in my opinion. He really isn't all that sexy to me. Plus, he's blonde. All Bond's have been dark haired. Rumor is they might dye it. Names that were also up for the role included Hugh Jackman and Jude law. Clive Owen was also mentioned. Now those three I can definitely see as Bond. Hugh especially. Clive too. I really loved him in Sin City and Closer.

I really need to kick back into gear fiction wise. I'd done so well the last two months with keeping up both sides of my writing. Maybe I needed a break. This happened to me in July too. I wrote very little fiction, but I did well on the nonfiction side of things. I guess I'll have to see what happens. I did sign up for the mentoring program over at Romance Divas as an apprentice. I really need to figure out what's wrong fiction wise because it just isn't selling. It's been really a bit discouraging and frustrating to see one side of my writing doing okay and building, and the other side falling flat on its face. At first the program was set to start on November 1st, but it looks like it has been moved back to after the first of the year. I'll have to see what happens. I have no plans to do Nano this year, but I might jump over and do Evolution's short story one next month, and another message board has something next week too for short stories. So I'll look into those.

Fans of ER can check my review of last night's episode over on my review blog. Check for link on my sidebar! Have a great night everyone!

191. What way to wake up ...

Thursday, October 13, 2005

As I was going to bed this morning, Caleb and Kyle came out of hiding and started talking. They were acting out the next scene I have to write in my short story formerly titled "for Hire." I was dead tired, so I went t bed knowing I'd get to them sometime tonight or tomorrow. The busy part of my week is over, and things aren't all that busy in my part of TV land because two of my shows are off for baseball at the moment.

I woke up this morning, and the two were still talking, so I was pleased. Then I checked my email, and I got another R. This one of the flash short I sent out last week. This flash has gone through three submissions. One in a shortened form, and the next two after I added some to it to make the story just under 500 words. Now I'm not sure where else to try. So I'm scratching my head and thinking on that. Not too much of a market for flash gay erotica. Longer yes, but not under 1,000 words.

The R caused Caleb and Kyle to go back into hiding. Maybe I'll try to locate them later tonight. I have a lot going on in my head right now, but I'm not sure how to put it all into words. So I'll leave you all here. Lost fans can check out my review of last night's episode over at One Couch Critic. Link on my sidebar.

Hope you're all well. Have a good night.

190. The weather changes ...

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Living in Arizona, you learn to live with the summers, and then wait until the weather starts to change to the cooler temps. When the change happens, it is quick. Sometimes you don't even realize it has happened. Now when you deal with above a hundred temps all summer any huge drop in temp and you're freezing. Well, the last few nights it has been in the sixties. For most that is barely cool. For me, I'm sitting here in my room shivering and borrowing sweatshirts from the brother because for the life of me I couldn't remember where my warmer clothing was. Once I had the sweatshirt on, I found it within ten minutes, but I didn't want to wait those ten minutes. I wanted warmth, and I wanted it NOW.

Today it is in the 80s. A warm day. I'm still cold though. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 94. The weather is changing though, and this means people catching colds and the like. I'm hoping it doesn't happen here in my household because if one gets sick all of us somehow gets sick. Speaking of getting sick, I woke up today and started up my computer to find it had a virus. I somehow knew I had one yesterday, but it wasn't showing up anywhere. My computer was just running really slow. So I looked for one a couple of times with no luck. I quickly found it when my computer started this morning and rid my computer of it. I'm hoping all traces of it are gone. Things look to be fine now, but I won't know for sure until I try rebooting again.

I still haven't hopped back into my fiction yet. I know I will. The muses have been peeking their heads out for brief moments of time, but if I go to grab one they run and hide. I'm thinking I needed this time to get settled with other things. Once those things in the nonfiction side of my brain are more organized, I'm sure I'll be back to normal fiction wise. Last night, I reviewed and recapped Supernatural and Real World. Check for both reviews over on my review site, One Couch Critic!

NOTE: I've been getting hit horribly by spam on this blog the last week, so I've turned on spam protection for a bit on here. Hopefully, the spammers will leave me alone soon so it can go back off.

Have a great night everyone!

189. Making a living?

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

I'm sure every writer says this to themselves at some point. I'm feeling a bit stressed at the moment, and I'm still trying to fit everything into an increasingly busy schedule, but I'm not seeing all that much in the way of money for my efforts. No, I don't write purely for money, but since I'm unable to work, establishing a set income that I could possibly live off in the years to come is important to me.

Over the years, I've dine every possible thing one could possibly do in order to earn an income from home - in addition to my writing. I've been a virtual assistant. I've had a resume business. I've done telemarketing. I've gone through websites that say you can earn money through them. I always stop before I give these sites any money because most of these sites are known scams.

I was scammed by one just in the last six months. My story with one website Surfjunky is in my archives somewhere here. The catch with the site is you surf so many sites a day and you earn cash for just doing that. Just allow the page to cycle through sites on your browser. Well, I tried it, and I actually racked up about thirty dollars in the first month, but just before payouts were set to go out my account was suspended. A week later it was reinstated because it was their error, but I still was never paid my money owed. Live and learn right? These kind of sites seem to pop up often though, and sometimes I'll try them out to see if they will pan out. I can usually tell within a few days if they will or not.

Well, I tried a few in the last few days. I got sucked in by the thought of some easy money. I spend so much time online what could it hurt? What they said would be an hour a day turned into three or four hours a night. Too much for me to tack onto my already busy schedule. Last night I began taking a serious a look at it, and I looked at it again today, and I am figuring the time spent isn't worth it for what is really pennies a day.

I'm still trying to get things organized with my schedule, and this little trip down make money online lane sort of messed that up a bit. I'm still working on figuring out the set format for my blog over at Media Village. I keep changing up the content a bit. I know once I have a set pattern in place it'll be easier to post there every day as well. I had been doing one big entry with news everyday, but now I might do a bunch of smaller entries and also do a smaller review of the shows I watch each night too. Figuring things out.

Last night once I got frustrated with myself, I decided to see if my muses were totally dead or if they were just being very very quiet. I just had Elmer Fudd in my head saying that! Hah! I went to one of my prompt communities over on live journal and picked up a prompt. 3 minutes to write about love in an elevator. Yes, I had the Aerosmith song start to play in my head when I saw that last night. Now I want to listen to it. HMM! I seem to be stuck on Existentialism on prom night at the moment. I'm the type to put a song on and listen to it on repeat for a half hour straight. Well, in 3 months I had just under 200 words in response to the prompt. I posted the result over on my fiction blog. Link in my sidebar! I'll see if I can find the muses later on tonight and see if they cooperate. I have two shows I review on tonight, so that'll keep me busy. Might need to wait until tomorrow night, but I'll see what happens.

Speaking of shows, my review and recap of last night's Surface is up over on my review blog. You can check that out here. I also made a few changes to my review site yesterday. You can read about those changes here. I'm nearing ten thousand page loads and over 8,000 visitors to my blog since I opened it a little less than ten weeks ago. Not bad for the new kid on the block.

Before I go: GO ANGELS! AHEM! The LA girl in me comes out. I may live in Arizona now, but I was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley area of LA, so I have a special place in my heart for the So Cal teams.

Hope you're all well! Have a great night everyone.

188. So I went missing yesterday ...

Monday, October 10, 2005

I decided to take a blog day off. I've been writing in here daily since March, and I think I've only missed three or four days. Maybe a few more, but I know it hasn't been all that many. I came online with every intention of updating yesterday, but each time I came to update to my blog I just didn't have much to say. By the time 6pm rolled around, I decided to just take the day off. I've been having a problem writing in here the last week or so, but I think that was just because of the general writing funk I'd been in. I think I might be slowly be breaking through that, but I'm not all that sure yet. I am worried about jinxing it really.

I think the past week or two has been me adjusting to the changes again. My review blog took off like I never expected it would - nearing ten thousand hits. It should hit that some time this week. I'm actually already trying to think ahead for the future there. The slow summer months for television are already popping up on my radar. I'm sure some programs will pop up. So You Think You Can Dance will probably make a return this summer. I used to think ahead for my fiction like this, but now my mind is adjusting to focus on this for a bit. I need to train my mind to think about both. I have daily entries over on my Media Village blog too. Well - mostly daily. I write the daily buzz in television news and entertainment in that blog six days a week. not much happens on the weekends! I think that might be what is interfering with my blog writing here. After I write in there, I don't know what to write in here. I might take one or two days off a week in this blog just so I don't burn myself out.

So yesterday I took it easy watched and listened to football. My team played at home yesterday, and this time they did air it on the radio. I live about ten minutes from the stadium, so if they score I can hear the fireworks go off from my bedroom. I've never been to a live football game though. I've only been to a few baseball games over the years, and I spent most of those games focusing my binoculars on the rear ends of said players on the field. Well, its true! The game here yesterday pissed me off though because my team, the AZ Cardinals, started off great and then fell apart. They had a 14 pt lead at one point, and then lost it. So I wasn't all that happy about that. Hopefully the bye week they have this will let them get themselves together. I did see the Packers did well which made me happy. Always have loved Favre. I have favorite players spread over many teams, and he happens to be one of them. He did good yesterday.

Over on Today's Buzz on my media blog, I wrote about a short commercial film that is set to start airing in Belgium sometime this week. The short film features the Smurfs. One moment they are happy, and the next they are running for their lives as their village is bombarded by bombs. The only survivor is Baby Smurf. The short film is meant to be a fund raiser for UNICEF, but I'm just shaking my head here. Why must they ruin a child's icon to raise funds? I just don't understand the need for it. It's been bugging me since I read this article about it last night. You can read more of my thoughts on the short film and some other news buzzing in the media over here. For Grey's Anatomy fans, you can find my recap and review of last night's episode here.

On the schedule for tonight is Surface on NBC and hopefully finding one of my muses and working on some fiction. I meant to do that last night, but I got distracted! Have a great night everyone.

187. Another quiet weekend

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Another Saturday is upon us, and it looks to be fairly quiet. Not even much is happening on the celeb gossip front. Shocking really. Like my friend just told me that probably means something big is about to break. I've decided to take a bit easy on the writing front right now. Trying to pressure myself back into working on one of my WIP's won't help me any. I'll just be even unhappier with the results. I'll keep up with my posts on my blogs, but other than that I'll take it easy. I'll read and there is two good movies I've been wanting to watch on cable tonight too. Alien vs. Predator (Yes, it will probably be cheesy as heck, but I used to love both movies when I was younger) and Finding Neverland (which I've heard nothing but good things about).

Last night, I finally got around to starting the book I've been assigned to read for Romance Divas, The Vampire Sextette - a collection of six novellas with vampires. Perfect read for the month of October I think. I'll read another chapter in a bit probably. Sunday is football, and I'm looking forward to the games this week since some of the players I have in fantasy team have games on television here tomorrow. So much better when the games are on TV. My brother has informed me that the LA Angels are up in their series over the NY Yankees. I won't watch the games because I may love the sport, but the games bore me to watch. I can never sit through an entire baseball game on TV. However, I am an LA home girl, so I must cheer on my Angels. My other brother used to work at Angels stadium, so I got to hang out there behind the scenes once or twice. It was fun.

I've noticed something recently. I'm not all that much of a social person. I have a couple of people that I talk to on a daily basis, and a couple of others that drop in when they can. What I've noticed is some don't realize what they say before they say it. Sometimes even words said in a joking manner can be hurtful. Words are one of the most powerful things, and sometimes they can hurt even more than physical actions. It just depends on what the words are referring to. Sometimes what one might consider to be funny might not be considered funny by someone else. As writers, we are more aware of the power of words, but not everyone else gets that. In the grand scheme of things, one off color comment doesn't mean much though. People get over it, and its done. It doesn't become something to dwell on, but in that moment it does hurts, and it will probably sting for a day or two, but it'll pass.

My review of Fiona Apple's new CD went up on my review site last night. You can check that out here. Tonight I'll review one or both movies on cable tonight as part of my Saturday Night Premiere, and once SNL airs tonight's episode I plan to write up my thoughts for Ashlee Simpson's appearance tonight on that show for my Weekend Buzz over on Thoughts from the Couch!

Have a great evening everyone.

186. The Cycle of life

Friday, October 07, 2005

Doesn't it feel like life goes in cycles. Everything does when you really think about it. Our moods, our lives, our writing. Some months we go like gangbusters and we write all this stuff, and then the next month you write nearly nothing, or what you do write you hate? You look at stuff you wrote and you make a face and then you resist the urge to delete delete delete. I have those moments, and I know other writers do too. I'm in one of those cycles myself at the moment. It feels like I'm pulling teeth when it comes to my writing. I'm actually glad things are slowing down a bit. One of my weekly shows just ended its season, another is about to in a few weeks time, and two of my shows are off this month due to baseball coverage on FOX. It is given me a bit of time to get out of this bit of a funk I'm in.

I'm hoping to find my muses sometime this weekend. I also have a music review to write for my review blog on the newly released Fiona Apple CD. Then I need to write up the review for Mr. Right Now at some point this weekend as well. I tried to start reading my newest review assignment for over at Romance Divas last night before bed, but my eyes were tired. I was so tired the lights were dancing in front of my eyes.

Tonight on TV, we have Ghost Whisperer and Threshold and a new show on ABC called Hot Properties. Has anyone else noticed the string of new shows that all claim to be the next Sex and the City? I was a die hard SATC fan for many years, and I'm seeing all these new shows come out saying they are the next SATC, and I'm just shaking my head. Why can't the shows try to be more original and not compare themselves to something else that was very popular? If a show is good, it will stand out on its own and not because it is like this show or that one. Over on One Couch Critic I have a review of last night's ER here.

Over on my Media Village blog, Thoughts from the Couch, I've started a new feature called Today's Buzz where I talk about what's hot and happening in the news in regards to entertainment and television. The Buzz today seems to be about Oprah helping nab a sex offender and another one of those Dancing With The Stars type shows soon coming to Vh1. Hop on over to read all about it.

Have a great night everyone!

185. The voices are silent

Thursday, October 06, 2005

So last night I was feeling a bit on the blah side. I had finished my reviews for the night, and for some reason I wasn't all that happy with one of them. Noticed a typo when I came online this morning and smacked my head. Typos happen though. We're not perfect in any case. After I finished my reviews though, I tried to summon the voices that live in my head to work some on one of my WIP's and they were completely and totally silent. I know I usually don't get much done around the beginning of the month on my fiction, but I usually can still think about what is ahead and plan a little, but now the voices are silent. This bugs me. I know they will return, but it still bugs me.

I've also been noticing lately how much of writing is really a waiting game. The writing isn't the only part of it. Then you have everything else. The long hours of promotion, the waiting and waiting for those emails to come back to you from editors and publications that you sent submissions too. Some don't even have the common courtesy to respond at all. So you're left to wonder. Generally with online e-zines, if I don't hear back in 3-6 months, it is a good shot they weren't interested. I only know that book publishers take a long time.

This makes me a not so very patient person very frustrated, and I guess I feel my frustration growing. Possible this has also caused the voices in my head to go silent. I'm not really all that sure. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens.

Tonight on TV, we have ER and Night stalker. OC is off until after the playoffs. I might pop on over and catch Alias tonight. Last night, I posted recaps for the finale of So You Think You Can Dance and Lost over on my review blog. You can catch those both here.

Have a great night everyone.

184. Blogging and other bits

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

Hello everyone! I hope you're all having a wonderful day. I'm in a really good mood today, so I'm hoping everyone else is. I just spent some time working on gathering things for my review blog to include there later on this week. I'm waiting for a couple of more things to come through before I move things around a bit over there. I was feeling a bit under the weather the last couple of days, but I'm on the mend. Another day or two, and I'll be back to 100%. I'm still tickled pink about my recent Romancing the blog post. I never heard back from the PTB at RTB since my submission in August, so I didn't know it had been accepted for posting. Not sure if they never emailed or if the email somehow got lost. In any case, it went up. Glad everyone is enjoying it. I actually wrote that post as an articles for Absolute Write back in May. After a few edits to update things, I submitted it to RTB in August like I said.

In my blog hopping today, I see Beth mention about a small decline in blog traffic, blaming the decline on the fact that she is ordinary now, and people don't want to read about ordinary! Well, first off let me say Beth's blog was one of the first ones I started reading on a regular basis, and I still read it everyday. I met Beth in a chat over at the Writer's chatroom back in January, and I won a copy of one of her novels.

However, she has brought up a point that I've often pondered myself. Are my posts entertaining to everyone? Or do I cause you all to yawn with my ramblings - about my life and the television I watch. I know my life isn't all that exciting except for the occasional cute cat story or issue here at home. Then I seem to fit television into everything, especially now because of my review blog and job over at Media Village.

I've been blogging here since March. I never imagined it would become a daily thing I did. I never thought I would end up with three other blogs as well. Weird how things work out. Some day I hope to use this blog to promote my own fiction, much like I have seen others do with contests and other offerings. I'd do that now, but money is a bit tight around here, so eventually that is my goal. I just don't want to be a boring blogger. I've heard that is curse worth than death to a blogger. I know my review blog is already about to surpass the hits I've received here on this blog, and this blog is 5 months older than my review blog.

I also found a post over over Brenda's blog also talking about blog traffic today - particularly the odd things that bring you heavy amounts of traffic. She mentioned a certain type of notebook, and it brought her over 300 hits in a twelve hour period. I remember a review I wrote and posted in this blog at the very beginning of this blog's life about Star Wars, and I mentioned Han and Leia. Somehow someone picked up on my blog using Han and Leia erotica as a search term. That still pops up from time to time. Strange!

The entertainment news of the day is twofold: Jessica and Nick, MTV's favorite newlyweds have split, and Katie is pregnant with Tom's baby. I seem to remember reading something awhile back that Katie was waiting until she married to lose her virginity. I guess that went out the window when she engaged Tom! Check out my sidebar if you want to read about what happened last night on Supernatural and Real World. Also reviewed CBS's latest new show: Close to home. Check that out here. Tonight is the finale for So You Think You Can Dance and Lost. I'm excited for both.

Hope you all have a great evening everyone.

183. Tuesday ramblings

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Don't you hate how you think something is only going to take ten minutes and it ends up taking you almost two hours? I hate when that happens. I was going through the job posting over on Morning coffee, and I saw one that looked promising. A 20k a year part time writing job that is partly blogging and interviewing. So I decided I wanted to apply. Wrote up an email, checked my resume, and then I checked my website since that is what I use to keep track of all my writing clip links. Somehow my clips page got all messy. I'm not sure how it happened, so I needed to go in and redo parts of it. Made some other changes, and I hate digging into HTML because it isn't any fun. Finally got it all put together and submitted my resume. Here's me crossing my fingers.

I haven't been feeling my best the last day or two as I mentioned, so I've done my recaps over on my website, but not much else this week. I've used it as an opportunity to catch up on my reading. Finished Mr. Right Now last night. Look for my full review of that soon to be released book by Monica Jackson later on this week over on One Couch Critic. I've updated my weekly recap links up til the show that aired last night which was Surface. I truly love that show. It sucks me in every week. Some nice twists last night too. Click the link on my sidebar for Surface and read all about it! I'm hoping I feel better soon. I think its something to do with my one tooth. I usually have the same problem on the other side with another tooth, but I'm not sure if they are related. I just have sensitive teeth. Tonight I'll be watching Supernatural, Close to Home and the Real World. Heard good things about Close to Home, so I'm looking forward to it.

Some of you might remember my mentioning my friend in Lousiana area. She returned home last night, and is back online. Minor damage to her home. She is trying to move forward and not making the hurricane the focus of her life. She created a blog today posting some pictures and talking about the effect the hurricane had on her area. She lives just minutes away from the Lake Charles area. You can read about her experience at From The Ashes.

All the HTML work on my site drained me, so I'm leaving you here. Have a wonderful night everyone.

ETA: How did I not know the post I submitted to Romancing the Blog was accepted and went up yesterday? You can see the post here. I never heard back after I sent it in, so I never knew it was accepted. Hah! That just made my night.

182. A call out to fellow Capricorns

Monday, October 03, 2005

I'm a horoscope person. I have mine sent from a couple of different sites to my email each night, and I also have started checking out the writer's monthly horoscope posted each month here. Today I went to look up my horoscope since the feed told me it had been updated and I found this:

capricorn: again,i wonder why i even write to caps because there are so few in publishing. i think we should have a contest---name the capricorn, and have them tell us in 25 words or less why they aren't an investment banker.

This isn't the first time this has been said in regards to Capricorns. I am a Capricorn born on January 16th, and I'd love to have this horoscope too, but it seems Julie Hill believes there aren't many capricorns in the writing business. Am I the only one? Or are there others out there like me that go to Miss Hill's blog for their monthly creative horoscope only to find that there isn't one. I have a crazy idea. Any capricorns out there that read this blog let me know by commenting here and maybe we can all comment or email Julie Hill so she can see there are Capricorns that write/edit/are creative. I thought about emailing last time she mentioned there were hardly any capricorns in publishing, but it slipped my mind with everything I've been doing the last month or two. Things have certainly been crazy.

And in the last twenty-four hours or so, I think I've caught some of type of bug. Not sure. I had a slight fever last night, and a tooth ache, but that comes and goes. I've also been freezing on and off. My teeth have a sensitivity to the cold, so I think that is what triggered the tooth ache. Though I can't be sure. I am chalking it up to the beginning of the month. I work myself down throughout the month, the beginning of the month is also so tiresome for me. I should be okay once we're in the month. I seem to pick up the pace considerably once it rolls around to the tenth of the month or so.

Last night, I watched and reviewed Grey's Anatomy. You can read my review here. I love that show more and more with each episode. It is good drama with both the medical aspect and the personal aspect all intermingled to make a very entertaining show. Tonight is Surface which is fast becoming one of my favorite new shows. Along with Bones and Supernatural. A couple of my shows are off for the month due to the MLB playoffs airing on FOX. Two of my favorites too. I like baseball, but I love my shows more. I'll just have to be patient and see what happens. I think I'm off. I might read some more before Surface comes on in a bit.

Hope you're all well. Have a wonderful evening everyone.

181. Sunday ramblings

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Another lazy Sunday. I don't know what it is about the weekend's I don't get as much done. I think I see it as a chance to reenergize too, so I take it a bit easier. I don't write as many reviews. I post music reviews usually on Friday's, and then I have the Saturday Night Premiere on Saturday nights reviewing whichever movie premiered on the cable that night. Last night was a weak night on the cable networks. The only movie on was Dodgeball and you can read my short review it here.

Speaking of television last night, did anyone else catch Satuday Night Live's season premiere last night? I did, and I'm about to go post about it over on my MV blog. I think some of the opening skits on last night's show were a bit unnecessary. I missed one of them, but the one I caught about the hurricanes and New Orleans I thought was a bit tactless. I didn't find it very amusing at all. Since blogger went down for maintainance as I was writing this post you can read my full thoughts on the SNL premiere here.

Last night I began reading Mr. Right Now by Monica Jackson. I had turned in my latest ERRW review, so it was time to start something new, so I opened the ARC Monica had sent me last week. I had only planned to read twenty pages or so because I wanted to try and write last night, but I ended up reading about half the book. Hope to finish that in the next couple of days, so I can review it. I also received my latest review assignment in the mail from Romance Divas, The Vampire Sextette. Perfect book to read for October!

Over at ERRW, I learned that I won something in their final contest for Super Sexy September. I won a signed cover of Black Widow by Marissa de Amor. Also just in from my email just now, my review blog One Couch Critic was named featured blog by Virtual Loop, one of the traffic exchanges I belong too. They mentioned my blog in their weekend email that goes out to all their members with a link to my blog.

Since Blogger is back up, I can now post this! I hope you have a wonderful evening everyone!

180. Start of a new month

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Well here it is October 1st already. Honestly where does time go? It seems to pass so quickly, but when we're actually in the moment everything seems to move oh so slowly. Isn't it weird like that? I had a busy September. With the start of my review site, and my position with Media Village I wrote over 35,000 words this month, 5,000 of which were fiction. I submitted fiction to two e-zines, and I'm also still working on things there but as when the end of the month rolls around I take it a bit easier for a few days to recharge the batteries. The past week offline was also a bit crazy, but I'm hoping things get better this week.

My review site in its first month open earned just under 6,000 hits. I really promoted it. I made my way onto the fan boards for television shows and onto the traffic exchange sites. Some do work better than others. I just redid my sidebar over on my review blog, added some more links, took out some of the graphics because the page was taking a bit to load. I do want to be dial-up friendly because I'm on dial-up myself. Over on the Romance Divas Forum, I've been given the title of "The Grand Dame of Blogging." Seems I know way to much about blogging and I keep finding new ways to promote my blogs everyday.

None of the movies on cable tonight are really grabbing me at all. I might check in on one of them. I'll have to see. I really want to try and add some more onto the For Hire story. I haven't thought of a new name for it, so that will have to do. After that is done I need to jump back into my paranormal, but the story trail freezes on me. I hate when that happens to a story. I'm feeling a bit lazy today, so I'm off.

Have a great day everyone.