Now, can I just say that I love the word Versatile. It is a word I probably use far too . . . → Read More: A Versatile Blogger]]> I’ve received the Versatile Blogger award from Listen to the Voices. Thank you so much Clarissa, and if you hadn’t just have given it to me, I would have given it to you. I really love your blog.

Now, can I just say that I love the word Versatile. It is a word I probably use far too often, but for some reason I just like how it sounds.

The Rules:

1) Thank and link back to the person that gave you the award.

2) Share seven things about yourself.

3) Pass the award to fifteen bloggers that you think deserve it.

4) Lastly, contact all of the bloggers that you’ve picked for the award.

With that, said – here we go.

First, thank you Clarissa. I love your blog too and I have linked to it above. And I have a character in one of my stories named Clarissa, so in case you couldn’t figure it out from that little tidbit, I also love your name.

7 Things About Me

1. I am an avid reader, and earlier on this year I made a goal and commitment to myself to read 150 YA (my genre) books this year. I’m not even halfway there but I have faith.
2. I am not sure I could live without my coffee. I absolutely love the smell of a freshly opened canister, it makes me happy. I love flavored coffees, but not creamers very much. My creamer needs to be plain. I drink about a pot a day and when I die, it will probably be from coffee overdose because I am known to make a pot in the evening and drink it too,while writing.
3. I write everything in the morning. The wee quiet hours of the morning. I don’t want to write anymore about this one because it is a post for later today.
4. I actually get sad, and wind up thinking about the people who take hiatus’ from their blogs – even short ones.  Summer is killing me! Usually this only occurs when it is a blog I read regularly and I get pulled into their lives. Then I miss them like a real friend when they are gone. Yes, I know it’s pathetic.
5. I have to have background noise of some kind while I am writing. Doesn’t matter what genre, what type of writing (novel, poetry, free, blog, etc). and if it is music – my writing tends to come out 10 times better than if it had just been the kids, tv or something else. I am sure there is some music self help program for people like me, but I am content.
6. I would rather spend the rest of my life living in nature, having beauty all around me than be restricted and confined inside a house. I’d probably sell a lot of books that way too, because nature inspires me. I spend as much time outdoors and I truly hate being stuck in a house. I am also that way with shoes – I hate them. Give me bare feet any day of the week. Maybe I am claustrophobic? (kidding, I’m not)
7. I am absolutely addicted to the Sims and a lot of people don’t know that. I have every single game and every single expansion pack (except 1 of the expansions for the Sims2 on PC).  And I can’t stop. I have a whole mini-bookshelf devoted to all of them. I even have ALL wii related Sims games and have finished them all. I have already pre-ordered The Sims 3 for Wii (Oct.), and Wii MySims SkyHeros (Sept.) . I am however, not fond of the SimAnimal, SimCity games or other types of Sim games – only the people ones. Am I a control freak in disguise? lol I will probably never admit this again. (oh, and I should I just go ahead and admit that I have my kids addicted too and we play as a whole family?)

I’ve been told I have to pass on the award to 15 other people. Does anyone ever know why the # has to be so high? I mean, why can’t we just pass it on to 5?

To make things easier for myself, I have chosen to follow the dictionary definition and give it to 7 people/writers/bloggers (in honor of the 7 things I had to share) I consider Versatile.

adj.

1. Capable of doing many things competently.
2. Having varied uses or serving many functions: “The most versatile of vegetables is the tomato” (Craig Claiborne).
3. Variable or inconstant; changeable: a versatile temperament.
4. Biology. Capable of moving freely in all directions, as the antenna of an insect, the toe of an owl, or the loosely attached anther of a flower.

Oh, and these people are being awarded (in no particular order!) because I think they are absolutely amazing writers with lots of talent, and I love getting to know more about them as we go. Now I will know 7 more things.

1) Buffy Andrews
2) Fiction Groupie
3) Heather McCorkle
4) Jane Steen (because she has been far too quiet on her blog and I miss her!)
5) Anne Tyler Lord
6.) PJ Kaiser
7.) Katharine Grubb

And just for the record, I thought about 10 more people I would have bestowed the award on, but I either already know they won’t participate because they are not into that kind of thing, OR they already received the award. Well, actually I have no guarantee that these 5 will participate but I definitely like getting to know them! So that’s it in a nutshell. If you’ve done this and you have a link to yours, I’d still love to read about you guys – I like knowing random personal things about the people I talk to a lot or am just getting to know.

Now, off to go warn notify them.

On Writing I had a word goal last night of 1000 words before bed, and I placed the goal just under 2 hours before I crashed. I made it to 932 words before I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. . . . → Read More: Sunday Writing Ramblings]]> Have several things on my mind today, but didn’t want to write several posts for everything.

On Writing
I had a word goal last night of 1000 words before bed, and I placed the goal just under 2 hours before I crashed. I made it to 932 words before I just couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. Plus, I was pretty sure that much of what I was writing that last 20 minutes or so was laden with mistakes, nonsensical words and well… it was just generally BAD. I was happy to have made it almost to my goal though. I have to get some writing done today, and I have two chapters I want to edit. I am hoping for the best. What writing are you getting done today?

On Twitter
Twitter is annoying me more and more everyday with the arrival of the Fail Whale about a dozen times a day now. I really hope they figured out what the problem is, or figure out how much they have grown, and repair the ever growing problem before it gets worse. In that regard, I was also annoyed this morning to see that I have around 880 tweets. What?! I used to have over 2000 tweets. I had one girl tweet me that twitter embellished the #s awhile back, and that they were probably just fixing that. Okay. Except I really had a LOT of tweets. I tweet about 10 times a day at the minimum, and yes of course I miss a day or two here and there. Sometimes I tweet more than 10 times a day. (when you include the @ replies to people). I don’t get where they all went, and I really hope they are all still there. Anyone else having that problem?

On Facebook
I’ve been so anti Facebook lately. It just annoys me to no end, and I cannot even explain why. I did get on a ton this weekend, updated a bunch of stuff and accepted a whole group of new writer friends, so maybe I will pop over there a little bit more. Why do I find Facebook so miserable to use?

On my Wedding
I promised to post a few professional pics from my wedding and I have not done that yet. I will try to get a few up during the earlier part of this week. I had no idea there was so much interest, but I’m flattered. It’s been exactly ONE month today since we got married. I have HALF of the thank you’s done, and I really must quit procrastinating and just finish them. I’m being rude, I know. Happy 1 month anniversary to me. LOL

On Kids
It’s been so quiet since yesterday afternoon because my step kids went to visit mom. I tried to use some of that time to get some writing done, but my two are still here and seem to want/need something every 45 seconds. I tried to occupy them by taking them to the lake last night to swim, figured I could get some writing done on my netbook, but nope – it rained. We lasted less than 2 hours. Summer is a lot harder to get work done than when they are in school all day long. On a happier note, my son – who had the WORST 8th grade year EVER, so we had no hope for Freshman year, just got his final grades for 9th grade. 2 A’s, 5 B’s. What?! Not complaining, very excited for him.

And that’s about it, for now.
I have a couple of posts in the process for this week, I also have a completely overhauled version of Tweets for Writers This Week, I will be posting tomorrow. Life is good. Hope you have a fantastic Sunday!

Many of you followed me when I used to blog for the . . . → Read More: The Today.com Scam]]> As I’ve said here before, Writers Beware. There are always websites out there trying to lure you in to write for them for measly pennies, and then watch you crash and burn when they take it all away from you for one reason or another.

Many of you followed me when I used to blog for the former owners of Today.com (now the Today Show has bought out the domain). Many of us were thrilled to actually watch THEM (the former owners) crash and burn but were disappointed when the sale of the site went through, because we knew they made out like bandits selling that domain name. The idea that our blogs were removed was AWESOME.

The joke is once again on us though, and ALL of our former websites have been moved to a new domain: Blogdog.com

Our blogs are at: http://yourblogname.blogdog.com (same way that today.com used to have them).

Wow. So their site catch phrase is “Blogging has gone to the dogs.” I’m really not sure that is a good catch phrase, though I will certainly agree that anything they get their hands on, goes to the dogs – and comes out… okay never mind. I’ll be nice.

I have been using my content to some degree on my other blog, because they don’t own any personal family recipes that I shared. I try to just change what I personally wrote before and after each recipe. It’s hard for me to believe that my blog was in the #1 spot over on today.com many, many times – I even won a $250 prize for my blog over there, and I was one of the few that actually got paid from the beginning and made my payout many, many times over and was one of the very last blogs that was on the original payment plan to be removed from said payment plan to the newer $1/post + $2/1000 page views. Oh! And my blog was one of only four that was chosen for a magazine layout that was published advertising the site. So yeah.

Then they just turned to crap. I don’t get it. I really don’t. I think I even used to write with one of the shady owners’ wives on another site a long time ago. She was great. Or so I thought… The whole thing is just maddening, though I have been rid of all of them since early 2009.

Anyway, in honor of their return, I thought I would share a bunch of posts that I have gathered over the past year and a half or more, detailing the many experiences that others have had with the former today.com/current blogdog.com folks.

Here ya go:

Is Today.com the Biggest Blog Scam Around or What? « Deb’s Daily Thoughts http://bit.ly/cfvQoG

30 Something And Searching: Today.com – Why They Suck  http://bit.ly/aiUFac

30 Something And Searching – More Reasons Why They Suck  http://bit.ly/9LayF2

The How and Why of Self Reliance » Today.com Expat http://bit.ly/dgzvKt

Ask Me Anything: For Flit: Why Are So Many Torqued at Today.com http://bit.ly/bM2G2x

Today.com update http://bit.ly/dtCyqR

My Final Story with Today.com : No Job For Mom http://bit.ly/daLtNQ

I’ve been kicked off of Today.com http://bit.ly/91322O

Living Frugal and Simple: Why I Left Today . Com http://bit.ly/drPNPn

Poetic Shutterbug: My Story With Today.com http://bit.ly/cZhTp6

Today.com closed my blog down http://bit.ly/abBpSN

My Mutterances: DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH TODAY.COM http://bit.ly/bi8yqA

My Mutterances: Today.com – lying bastards http://bit.ly/a1uPgF

Is Today Blog a Scam? | Passive Income Online: Lis Sowerbutts http://bit.ly/ctb3fm

And, just in case you actually still care about what they are doing – while it isn’t updated much anymore – there is still the today.com exiles blog.

I like this one, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I will be changing the header images . . . → Read More: New Template]]> I think the new template is a permanent change. At least for awhile. It is so difficult to find something that is customizable, looks the way I want it to, and works the way I want it to.

I like this one, but it wasn’t what I was looking for. I will be changing the header images soon – as they are rotating and I have a few pictures that I would rather use.

In the meantime, let me know if something looks wonky, won’t load or you can’t find. This is a highly customizable theme and I have no clue if I did everything right. It looks good at my end… just not sure about your end. I use Firefox and Google Chrome, but I checked it in IE also.

Thanks for being patient!

So I visited http://twitter.grader.com/ and typed in my user name and up popped this little blurb about how I am . . . → Read More: What is Your Grade on Twitter?]]> I don’t know whether I should be proud or if it doesn’t mean anything, but a friend told me to “grade” my twitter account this morning because I would be excited about what I found. Uhm. Okay.

So I visited http://twitter.grader.com/ and typed in my user name and up popped this little blurb about how I am at a 99.7%
Well, thank you I think.
I’ve never heard of the site before, and I couldn’t really figure out what the big deal was after I did it, until I scanned down the page and noticed that my account ranks on the Twitter Elite for St. Charles.

Well, I guess that’s cool. Without trying at all, I have somehow managed to land myself the top spot on the list. According to the page, it looks like the results are calculated frequently, so I’m sure I’ll slip around on the list a bit, but it was still kinda cool.

After I looked at the page, I noticed that another writer I follow actually scored 100% on her twitter account. How in the world do you do that without trying? That’s really awesome, actually. I’m hopefully not far behind.

Nice to know people care about what I’m saying. Want to follow me on twitter? @simplywriting

About a week ago, I found Daily Mugshot.  Have you seen this yet? Apparently it has been around for awhile, I’m just a bit behind the times, but . . . → Read More: Daily Mugshot]]> Last year I tried to participate in Project 365: a Photo a Day. However, I missed many, many days and then finally gave up when life got really busy.

About a week ago, I found Daily Mugshot.  Have you seen this yet? Apparently it has been around for awhile, I’m just a bit behind the times, but it’s really cool.

It has a reminder program that will pop up and remind you that you haven’t taken your photo that day (which is definitely what I needed!!)

You just use your webcam or you can take one digitally and upload it via their uploader. You adjust the eyes since predominantly they are the main focal point of the face. You adjust them so they stay in the same position each time. The first day is kind – of boring because you only have one photo up, but each day it gets cooler and cooler when you watch your own mugshow.

So far, this is mine:

It only takes a couple of seconds to snap the photo each day, the problem is, I keep missing a day in between. I’ll get better!

I keep trying different themes and templates and I just can’t seem to find something that totally works for what I want. It’s really weird, because when I first started . . . → Read More: New Template Temporarily]]> Yes, there is a new template. No, I don’t think it is permanent. I think I am going to pay someone to custom make what I want.

I keep trying different themes and templates and I just can’t seem to find something that totally works for what I want. It’s really weird, because when I first started blogging with wordpress several years ago, I could find all kinds of templates that I wanted and that worked for me. However, now I have evolved, I know what I want and what looks good and the pickings seem a lot slimmer now.

I don’t hate this one. I just don’t love it. I want to love my template. So just stick with me over the course of the next couple of weeks because I will probably change it again. I know how to make my own, I just don’t have the time to develop it right now. Soon, very soon. Yeah, right.

Article spinning is a search engine optimization technique by which blog or website owners attempt to manipulate their rank on Google and other search engines. It works by rewriting existing articles, or parts of articles, and replacing elements to avoid . . . → Read More: Article Spinning – What Do You Think?]]> Article Spinning annoys the heck out of me. According to Wikipedia, the definition for Article Spinning is:

Article spinning is a search engine optimization technique by which blog or website owners attempt to manipulate their rank on Google and other search engines. It works by rewriting existing articles, or parts of articles, and replacing elements to avoid being penalized in the Search Engine Results pages (SERP) for using duplicate content. The original articles are often plagiarized from other websites and can often also be copyright infringements if the original article was used without the copyright owner’s permission.

The problem with article spinning is that typically it is not one writer choosing to spin their own articles. I don’t love the idea of that either, but it’s better than what appears to be happening.

I’m constantly going on websites, blogs and doing searches for something and find really poorly written articles that are the same as someone else. I’ve found my own articles this way. At a former site I used to write for, a writer didn’t spin articles but they used my previous articles to re-write their own version. It drove me crazy and did lead to my leaving the site and not speaking too highly about them anymore (simply because it was a problem that could have been addressed and instead they just swept it under the rug.)

But article spinning is worse, in that the only thing they usually change in the article are keywords and certain words… for instance, they might replace “like” with “adore” or “google” with “search engine” or “rose” with “flower”. The problem with the replacing of the words, is that often the articles simply don’t make sense but when google or any other search engine comes crawling, it finds a “new” article and assumes that it is legit. It sucks for the original writer.

I can guarantee that any content you find on any site that I do or have written for, is mine and only mine. I would never even attempt article spinning, simply because I am too much of a perfectionist. It was disheartening however, to do a search on an extremely popular article of mine on a site and find not only had it been spun, but it had also been “scraped” which I will explain more at another date. It’s really annoying. Don’t call yourself a writer if you aren’t going to create quality content that belongs to YOU and not others.

What are your thoughts on article spinning?