Just Another Writer

We have a problem in my small town. We are close to nothing that resembles civilization. The freebie phones that you get when you renew your evil bloodsucking contract with Cingular do not work well in environments where paved roads are a novelty. After checking my bank account and deciding, that no, I do not have the money to buy new, functional cellphones right now, I opened my email and discovered that I had won Contest Blogger’s $100 giveaway! Contest Blogger, my older son thanks you, as he will be the eager recipient of a brand spankin’ new Nokia386xxx4 or something like that–today!

Along those same lines, Angela is the winner of the book, My Job Sucks and I Can’t Take it Anymore! Help! I used Random.org as always, but I think the random generator must have snuck into the comment section before generating her number! Quitting to become a bill collector?!? Angela, I will mail this book to you pronto! You must not unleash evil into the world! By the way, Roberta the Bill Collector, I’m sorry about the time I annoying sang the ABC Song until you hung up on me. Those days are over now, as I’ve reformed my financial habits.

Speaking of the comment section, Rhodester’s comment got my attention and I moseyed on over to do some reading. I found dialog like this:

“Oh man, if you eatin gaytuh you KNOW it! That’s some good eatin theyuh. Dey’s hard ta kill too, but if ya git um unawayus yu kin sink dat knife in and slit em from da throat all da way down to da nuts and all dat gut spills out and dey is dead fastuh dan you can count tuh ten.”

I wanted to ask him if gators really had nuts, but I chickened out.. and I was REALLY curious how you sneak up on one and catch it unawares, but I didn’t get a chance to ask him about that because a pretty girl walked out of the store right in the middle of his vivid description about killing gators.

I just love it. This guy’s a riot. You’ll have to click on over to The Chronicles of Rhodester to read the entire thing.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Take a shot at this month’s contest and win a set of shot glass checkers! Five runner ups will win mini-advertising slots that normally go for $5 a shot, as well as have their names on the Contest Page forevermore.

If you don’t live in the US, have an annoying drinking problem you’re trying to get a grip on, or are just plain greedy for cash you have the option of receiving $25 smackeroos in your PayPal account instead.

So what got me thinking about shots? It’s a bit convoluted. On my new Advertising page, I mentioned that in-post advertisements could be had for $5 a shot. Then I became lost in a revere in which I was remembering the buttery nipples that I slurped on at Happy Hour last Friday. I drank enough of them to feel absolutely comfortable regaling my colleagues with the tale of how I once won $100 in The Local Bar’s wet t-shirt contest, which was information that I’m sure they really didn’t need to know. I’m also pretty certain that you’ll show better judgment than me, hence the option of the shot glass checkerboard prize.

There are three ways to enter:

1. Send me a pic of yourself downing a shot or other libation. I’ll post it, along with a link to your site. (10 entries)

2. Mention this contest on your site, linking back to Bloggrrl.com’s main page. You can do this numerous times, as long as the link is in different posts. (5 entries x how many times you linked)

3. Tell a story about the dumbest thing you’ve ever done while drinking and link back to Bloggrrl.com. (10 entries)

That’s it! Let’s lively up this place! Be safe and responsible.

Contest ends on September 30, 2007 at midnight Central time.

I’m enjoying the whole contest thing. I have entered three, and won two. The latest thing I’ve won is that ultra-cool purse that I turned some social bookmarking and blogging flips for. I wouldn’t have done that for the $44.95 plus shipping that the purse cost, which is strange and not very rational. It makes me wonder if others are equally irrational and if I should perhaps offer something more specific in my next contest. Probably, Confessions of a Housewife is onto something here. I’ll have to think about my next move, probably at 3:30 in the morning, as usual.

The Bloggrrl Strip Poker Contest was not as successful as the Cow Patty Bingo Contest for two or more reasons. The first reason immediately became apparent, as people commented, mentioning that they’d like to enter, but that the whole strip poker concept didn’t really fit with the scheme of their blog. Now, I would never have guessed that people would be more willing to write about cow crap than strip poker, but okay.

The second reason, most likely, is that I didn’t promote this contest as heavily as the last one, which garnered 109 entries. I had plenty of opportunities to post risque attention-grabbing photos with links to the contest, but I didn’t take them. With 22 entries this time, lesson learned.

Another possible reason is maybe I am wrong about being more specific with the contests and people would just rather have the cash. What do you think?

The contests haven’t hurt me any, though. They have contributed to my Technorati ranking, which I am happy about until I look at Dosh Dosh’s ranking, for example.

Okay, okay. If you are one of the 22 adventurous entrants, I know you want to know if you won the gift certificate to Victoria’s Secret or Amazon.

Drum roll….

The winner is Loretta at Thoughts Out of My Head. This woman knows how to design a header, by the way. Although, if it were applied to my blog, it would have to say, “Thoughts Out of My A**” or “Thoughts at 3:30 in the Morning When I Should Be Sleeping So That I Don’t Go All Psychotic On the Students at Work”.

I got a kick out of the entry post, which has her entry to the purse I won right above her entry to my contest. Hopefully, Loretta will be as happy with sexy underwear as with a new purse. At any rate, this means that I, Bloggrrl, will be rockin’ my new purse while wearing underwear that is losing its elasticity as it stretches across my newly couch-like butt, while Lorretta will be all sexy under her clothes but probably be carrying some 3-year-old purse from Wal-Mart. At least I hope so, because that would make me feel better, in a bitchy, competitive sort of way.

Choosing the winner was easy, by the way. As entries came in, I put them in a folder I call….Contests. Then I went to the Randomizer to get a number. The number ended up being 20, so the 20th blog to enter the contest won. Neato. If you are unhappy that you didn’t win, please complain to the good folks at random.com.

Have a happy Sunday!

378!

Bastet from Parenting Tales is the lucky (or psychic) winner of the 4-Hour Workweek. Just think of how much easier your life will be now that you only have to work four hours, Bastet! And you’ll have me, Bloggrrl, to thank for your new life on Easy St.
If anyone wants to win the $50 Victoria’s Secret or Amazon gift certificate, the Strip Poker Contest is entering it’s final days, so hurry!

I’m sure I’m not alone with experiencing highly variable traffic. I got thousands of page views for a couple of days after my Three Little Blogs post was linked to by several other bloggers, but usually my stats look more like this:

Yesterday was better than usual. Thank you StumbleUpon people! I also accidentally submitted my own post to Reddit while I was jacking around with those buttons at the bottom of each page. I got about 50 page views from that little adventure.

So, what will Monday bring? Your guess is as good as mine! Leave your estimate in the comments, and the person who guesses the closest will win a copy of The 4-Hour Workweek. I’ll take a screenshot of my stats again on Tuesday, and you can see how close you came.

Happy Monday!

I’m not feelin’ it right now. I had one back-up post, and I’ve used it. The post I tried to write last night is crap, and shouldn’t be posted. I can’t think.

Here’s the deal. I found out Saturday morning that my closest colleague (my co-teacher) died. I am sad, and my head is spinning with the whole concept of returning to work on Thursday and him not being there. I ask myself how I will process it with the students. I’m dealing with my principal telling me details I wish I didn’t know about his death and somehow being in the position of being a contact person for others in this regard.

I remember that I have a blog, and that I want to make money as a writer, but I don’t care all that much at the moment. Writing articles about ways to increase online popularity right now just seems frivolous beyond belief.

Of course, I realize that it’s not really frivolous. It just feels that way to me. Which is where the question comes in–how far am I willing to take things with this blogging thing?

If I was working at say, Glamour magazine, and I had to write an article about the trendiest eyeshadows or else, you bet I’d be doing it. But without a boss cracking a whip over my head at times like this, I’m just not motivated.

How do the rest of you deal with your own business endeavors when the stuff in your head or your life becomes overwhelming? Are you able to compartmentalize? Do you take days off? How do you manage?

It is kinda funny that I’m guest posting over at Anke’s blog, where the Buy Me A Beer plug-in originated. That I dissed. And yes, there it is, right under my post! Check it out, it’s called Creativity 101: 5 Ways To Get Your Writing Groove On.