Taking care of business

Did some minor business updating today (profiles, account information, etc.).

The most important update was probably the fact that I decided to swap around my "real" name and my "alternate" name on Facebook.

When I signed up on Facebook, it was to keep touch with a couple of friends that I made when attending college. That is why I signed up---college. So I used my real, legal birthname, the one that my college friends would know me by. It is also the name that people who went to High School with me would know me by.

What I did not realize was that more of my Facebook friends would end up being game players (most of my networking involves game-playing) or people who had knew me by my pen-name (who probably never heard my birthname before encountering it on Facebook) than people I was going to college with.

As my regular readers know my pen-name became the name that I introduce myself by because one of my family members did not want my activities being associated with them. There is a moment in one of the Harry Potter books where Uncle Vernon wants Harry to claim to be attending St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys because they do not wish to admit that there is a wizard in the family. I understood that scene; I have been there.

The goose has flown on that particular ploy a few years ago. Someone I went to High School with connected the dots between me and my pen-name. And given the size of the town I went to High School in, well...if one person in the town knows---everyone knows.

Today, someone noted that they still could not get used to my real name, and I decided that enough was enough---so I decided to swap the names around. Besides I had it rigged already that you could find me by either name.

The second most important update today (maybe) was the fact that I enabled adsense for my Bukisa account. Bukisa had decided to abandon their Bukisa Index (mainly due to fraudant traffic), and pay out though Google Adsense or Chitika Ads instead (taking a forty percent cut off the top). I already have an Adsense account, so I went with it. Not that I have much up on Bukisa, just three test articles (someday I will get around to fleshing out that section of my writing portifolio).

Doing stuff like this is not why I became a writer, but it is neccessary stuff to do.

Frustrations

I am a little frustrated today.

Had a survey freeze up on me (ten minutes into it).

I have two articles on Bukisa sitting in editorial.

The wife keeps asking me if I am coming out to help her work on the flower bed. I think she is trying to guilt me into it. This is why I am going to get a cubicle job after I graduate college. She does not understand that self-employment means putting your business in front of everything else.

And Helium not only put a title I suggested into the wrong channel (literature---international writer?!) for a book review on Magic Squares and the Tree of Life (new age maybe, literature not even close), but the title also has a spelling mistake in it. I know that they are going to blame the mistake on me, despite the fact that I copied it from my Word document and it appears correct on two other writing sites.

The only people/site who have not bugged me today is Associated Content. Give them time.

Joined Bukisa

Now that I am done with the Open Full Moon ritual, I finally had time to do a couple of things that I have been putting off.

I checked my grades: two As (Shakespeare; History: Theory and Practice), one A- (Literature: Cather Willa) and one B+ (Rome: City and Empire). I am going to have to go online later and see if I can figure out what is up with my aid for the fall semester.

On the writing end, I am working on three book reviews.

And I finally got around to joining Bukisa. An online writer friend told me about the site a couple of months ago, but I just did not have time to go look at it until today.

Bukisa is another site that you can post articles to and earn income from. It reminds me of Associated Content except that you can earn referral income from Bukisa, a whole three levels worth. There are no upfront payments, but the rate for thousand unique pageviews is higher than Associated Content. The payout threshold is ten dollars, payable though Paypal (net plus 30). The site is open to non-US residents.

Bukisa may be worth the time for an online writer to check out. One knows that those who are good at getting referrals are going to flock to it, simply because they will do better there than on Helium and Associated Content.