Every once in awhile I have to say "Huh?" when I look at the keywords and traffic drivers to one of my sites. For instance, looking at the top five referring sites for December for the Bast Temple lodge website, I discovered that number five referrer was a Russian site. I believe based on the homepage that it is actually a video game site, but I am not sure---I do not read Russian.
I have no idea why I would be getting traffic from such a site. Does anyone know how to say "Huh" in Russian?
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Confused about what I need to disclose
Despite several hours of research (trying to understand) on the FTC change in the disclosure laws, I am still no closer to actually knowing if I need to disclose the fact that I belong to an esoteric Order when doing my occult book reviews.
If I understand the law change correctly, most of my stuff would fall under CMP. ly 0 classification, and my involvement in an esoteric Order does not have to be disclosed at all.
The only disclosures required are if I was given a copy of the book I was reviewing, or got paid by the author or publisher to do the review, or owned stock in the publishing house. The change in the disclosure laws seem to be concerned only with material gain and interest.
(For those who do not know, recently I was accused by David Griffin, the head of an esoteric Order that resorted to the use of lawyers to try to put other Orders out of business, of creating politically motivated book reviews. Supposely if you do not agree with the opinions of his membership's opinions about a book, you are guilty of political warfare. There was also the fact that I did not think his own book was the best thing since white bread---and the fact that his Order was bragging about his book selling for a thousand dollars on the used market is not an acceptable reason to do a new review of an out-of-print book.)
I asked the administration and writers on Helium if they knew the answer. I really would like to know before the first of the year, considering I am going to be making my full disclosure statement live then (I am still twiddling with it). As for Associated Content, they seem happy with compliance with the CMP. ly system.
If I understand the law change correctly, most of my stuff would fall under CMP. ly 0 classification, and my involvement in an esoteric Order does not have to be disclosed at all.
The only disclosures required are if I was given a copy of the book I was reviewing, or got paid by the author or publisher to do the review, or owned stock in the publishing house. The change in the disclosure laws seem to be concerned only with material gain and interest.
(For those who do not know, recently I was accused by David Griffin, the head of an esoteric Order that resorted to the use of lawyers to try to put other Orders out of business, of creating politically motivated book reviews. Supposely if you do not agree with the opinions of his membership's opinions about a book, you are guilty of political warfare. There was also the fact that I did not think his own book was the best thing since white bread---and the fact that his Order was bragging about his book selling for a thousand dollars on the used market is not an acceptable reason to do a new review of an out-of-print book.)
I asked the administration and writers on Helium if they knew the answer. I really would like to know before the first of the year, considering I am going to be making my full disclosure statement live then (I am still twiddling with it). As for Associated Content, they seem happy with compliance with the CMP. ly system.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Been working on my full disclosure statement
Over the last few days, I have been working on my full disclosure statement, or what is going to pass for a full disclosure statement in my universe.
I have been avoiding cobbling it together for awhile. I understand why the government wants to see bloggers and the new media to have one, but I also think that they vastly underestimate the intelligence of the average interent reader. I think that most readers can spot the paid advertisements.
The reason that I am cobbling mine at this point is that I have been accused of creating book reviews to match the "politics" of the esoteric Orders that I belong to. I think that is just an excuse to disguise the fact that this person does not want any voices talking about Golden Dawn unless they control what is being said. Those who know me realize that if I suspect that you are trying to control the media, then I get a little annoyed with you.
The interesting part, or at least the part that is making the writing of my full disclosure statement hard, is that I know that any disclosure that does not scream "I am so biased that I should be kicked out of the union" is going to be viewed as an outright lie. There is also the fact that the more I work on it, the more stuff that I am having to include, and the more off-the-wall it gets.
Yesterday, my current critic took me to task because I used "they" in a statement, and I did not cite something. Only one of those facts is the truth; the other will be changed as soon as this person realizes that I did actually cite my source. (That is one of the joys of dealing with this person; they go back and rewrite their stuff to make it look like they knew the entire time the shortcomings of their arguments...I pdf a lot of this person's stuff just to remind myself what the original statements said.)
Here is the copying of my own words that he did:
And I would like to point out that Nineveh Shadrach implied that they want us to construct this square. "Count yourself fortunate [to know about the Qaf square], but this fortune is merely a potential. It can only really become a full reality in your life, if you create the magic square and release its power" (xii). Why say this if they did not want us to actually do it?
Now, I will admit that I am guilty of misusing the word "they"...sort-of. I may or may not have been taken to task by a literature or journalism teacher for using "they" instead of "he" here.
Personally, I think it is clear that Shadrach is "they." I am not so sure that it is clear that I wasn't completely sure if Ninevah was a "he" or a "she," so I defaulted to a neutral term.
(We really need better neutral terms in English.)
The other accusation was that I did not cite the page number of the quote I used. Huh? I guess that my critic does not know the MLA rules because the page number is obvious (the 12th page of the introduction; yes, the publisher uses roman numerals here). So I had to put all the various citation styles that I occasionally use in my disclosure statement.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem that they are going to have with my disclosure statement, other than the fact that I am positive that my crimes are completely different than what I am being accused of (it is not politics that drive my writing, it is Google Lust), is going to be the fact that I treated my full disclosure statement like a joke. But it is the only way I was going to tolerate writing it, and my regular readers are going to be able to tolerate reading it.
*sigh* It is times like this that I find myself wondering why I thought my choice of profession was a really good idea.
I have been avoiding cobbling it together for awhile. I understand why the government wants to see bloggers and the new media to have one, but I also think that they vastly underestimate the intelligence of the average interent reader. I think that most readers can spot the paid advertisements.
The reason that I am cobbling mine at this point is that I have been accused of creating book reviews to match the "politics" of the esoteric Orders that I belong to. I think that is just an excuse to disguise the fact that this person does not want any voices talking about Golden Dawn unless they control what is being said. Those who know me realize that if I suspect that you are trying to control the media, then I get a little annoyed with you.
The interesting part, or at least the part that is making the writing of my full disclosure statement hard, is that I know that any disclosure that does not scream "I am so biased that I should be kicked out of the union" is going to be viewed as an outright lie. There is also the fact that the more I work on it, the more stuff that I am having to include, and the more off-the-wall it gets.
Yesterday, my current critic took me to task because I used "they" in a statement, and I did not cite something. Only one of those facts is the truth; the other will be changed as soon as this person realizes that I did actually cite my source. (That is one of the joys of dealing with this person; they go back and rewrite their stuff to make it look like they knew the entire time the shortcomings of their arguments...I pdf a lot of this person's stuff just to remind myself what the original statements said.)
Here is the copying of my own words that he did:
And I would like to point out that Nineveh Shadrach implied that they want us to construct this square. "Count yourself fortunate [to know about the Qaf square], but this fortune is merely a potential. It can only really become a full reality in your life, if you create the magic square and release its power" (xii). Why say this if they did not want us to actually do it?
Now, I will admit that I am guilty of misusing the word "they"...sort-of. I may or may not have been taken to task by a literature or journalism teacher for using "they" instead of "he" here.
Personally, I think it is clear that Shadrach is "they." I am not so sure that it is clear that I wasn't completely sure if Ninevah was a "he" or a "she," so I defaulted to a neutral term.
(We really need better neutral terms in English.)
The other accusation was that I did not cite the page number of the quote I used. Huh? I guess that my critic does not know the MLA rules because the page number is obvious (the 12th page of the introduction; yes, the publisher uses roman numerals here). So I had to put all the various citation styles that I occasionally use in my disclosure statement.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem that they are going to have with my disclosure statement, other than the fact that I am positive that my crimes are completely different than what I am being accused of (it is not politics that drive my writing, it is Google Lust), is going to be the fact that I treated my full disclosure statement like a joke. But it is the only way I was going to tolerate writing it, and my regular readers are going to be able to tolerate reading it.
*sigh* It is times like this that I find myself wondering why I thought my choice of profession was a really good idea.
Quote of the day: Arnold Lobel
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
I am an expert in what?!
It is said that if you plan on making your living as a writer that you need to specialize. Specialization makes your life easier, for you can more rapidly hack out articles.
I will admit that I am occasionally surprised at some of the specialities that I am developing. At the beginning of the fall semester, I wrote an article about Amendment 50 (Casinos) and the projected funding that the community colleges of Colorado could expect from this particular law change. I have also wrote articles on the Colorado Lottery.
And I just voluteered to do a follow-up to the Amendment 50 revenue article. My reasoning for voluteering is that I already have the websites bookmarked, therefore I just as well write the article.
So why does this speciality surprise me?
Well, I do not gamble. I am writing about Blackhawk, and have never stepped foot in a casino up there. Even if I did not have a travel issue (remember moving vehicles cause terrible migraines for me), I am not sure that I would go. After all, do I really want to find out if I am prone to a gambling addiction (something that I suspect my aunt had).
There is also the fact that if I am going to place my money at risk, I would rather place it in an investment instead. The stock market: that is real gambling.
I will admit that I am occasionally surprised at some of the specialities that I am developing. At the beginning of the fall semester, I wrote an article about Amendment 50 (Casinos) and the projected funding that the community colleges of Colorado could expect from this particular law change. I have also wrote articles on the Colorado Lottery.
And I just voluteered to do a follow-up to the Amendment 50 revenue article. My reasoning for voluteering is that I already have the websites bookmarked, therefore I just as well write the article.
So why does this speciality surprise me?
Well, I do not gamble. I am writing about Blackhawk, and have never stepped foot in a casino up there. Even if I did not have a travel issue (remember moving vehicles cause terrible migraines for me), I am not sure that I would go. After all, do I really want to find out if I am prone to a gambling addiction (something that I suspect my aunt had).
There is also the fact that if I am going to place my money at risk, I would rather place it in an investment instead. The stock market: that is real gambling.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Impossible Reply
Over the years, some of the hardest writing that I had to do has turned out to be personal, rather than monetary and creative oriented work. Heck, there are times personal writing is even harder than academic writing. I was reminded of this fact today when I recieved a holiday card from my sister.
When I saw the return address on the envelope, I sighed. Yesterday, I recieved a Christmas card from one of my brothers. My prompt response was that he had obviously not recieved the memo that I was...well, not worthy of inclusion in the family. So it was a big surprise to recieve a card from my sister, who should have sent out the memo.
The regular readers of my blog will understand why sending a response to her is going to be hard. This sister is the one that I finally figured out why she was a toxic writing friend early this fall. And one of the things that she told me is that she never wants me to talk about college, my writing, and Golden Dawn ever again.
Hmmm...I have no idea what I am supposed to write to her about. I guess she will have to settle for a thank you, and possibly a question about how everyone is. Because I have nothing else that I can say. *sigh*
When I saw the return address on the envelope, I sighed. Yesterday, I recieved a Christmas card from one of my brothers. My prompt response was that he had obviously not recieved the memo that I was...well, not worthy of inclusion in the family. So it was a big surprise to recieve a card from my sister, who should have sent out the memo.
The regular readers of my blog will understand why sending a response to her is going to be hard. This sister is the one that I finally figured out why she was a toxic writing friend early this fall. And one of the things that she told me is that she never wants me to talk about college, my writing, and Golden Dawn ever again.
Hmmm...I have no idea what I am supposed to write to her about. I guess she will have to settle for a thank you, and possibly a question about how everyone is. Because I have nothing else that I can say. *sigh*
Monday, December 21, 2009
Happy Solistice!
I took the day off from writing today. I spent it sending people season's greetings and trying to catch up with everybody's facebook page. That is one of the advantages of self-employment: you can take the day off to be human.
To all my blog readers:
Happy Solistice! May the coming year bring you Health, Wealth and Love!
To all my blog readers:
Happy Solistice! May the coming year bring you Health, Wealth and Love!
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