First off, let me lay out who am to the degree that you can get some context.

I’ve been blogging for five years, participating in forums two years longer than that, and using the Internet for eleven years. I had a career as a licensed clinical professional counselor prior to health issues which are managed but incurable.

My health issues and the desire for a flexible schedule drove me to explore part-time work options on the Internet and as financial opportunities popped up I’ve tested the waters. I was a bookseller part-time for five years through Amazon. However,  after a few years it seemed that the forces that be did not want me in that field–plus my allergies to musty books were out of control so I stepped away from book selling permanently over a year ago.

I still needed a part-time income stream so I continued to explore Internet options and I came across paid blogging which admittedly, I knew nothing about prior to that time.

I signed on officially with one paid blogging company a year ago this month and when that one seemed to be foundering I added another four months later. They are very, very different and my interaction with the other bloggers is on the one side pretty heavy–on the other, none at all. And that is fine–can’t be all things all the time–and get my work done.

What has taken a disproportionate amount of my time in discussion at the one paid blogging site is the question of what constitutes the bare minimum in English-language abilities so your blog is coherent as well as lucrative for the advertiser?

The company for which I do the most work also has the most–I must be blunt–terrible bloggers. I’m embarrassed to be lumped in with them. To make the situation culturally charged, the low-quality bloggers have a poor command of the English language yet take on jobs that require at least an average command of written English. Then they fill the unpaid parts of their blogs with half-English blathering about what they had for breakfast and how they miss their country of origin.

At times I get very upset and resentful of these people because as I stated they are not qualified for the job and they make both the company and bloggers that are outstanding in comparison look bad by association.

Why would the company allow such bloggers into the system, having screened everyone who blogs for them?

That’s a really good question. If the company is strictly looking for numbers–for vast quantities of bloggers of any caliber to do paid blogging–then they are on the right track.

If they care about attracting quality advertisers who are looking for quality bloggers the company needs to make some very big changes in the selection process.

I care not if this seems politically incorrect. Facts are facts when two-thirds of your most awful bloggers are originally from one country. Yes, there are crummy bloggers around the globe–that’s a given–but allowing crap bloggers to clog your system is wrong-headed and counterproductive.

Time for some big changes before this big, new part of the company crashes and burns.

Tags: annoyances, behaviour, blog, blogging, business, heart failure, Internet, opinion, pagerank, paid blogging, personal blog, quality, social networking, talent, whine and cheese

(Above) Brad On Tuesday in Nice 

Though Angelina Jolie’s Caesarean section birth to twins in a French hospital is not scheduled until next Tuesday, the actress-charity worker sounds as if she’s ready to get it over with now.

While staff praised her her extreme politeness when she first arrived, after a week spent confined to the 4-room suite in the private Lenval hospital in Nice, Angelina’s mood has turned ugly of late, In Touch Weekly claims. 

An insider told the publication that Angelina feels the staff are not attentive enough… She’s throwing fits if she rings and they don’t come quick enough.’

Angelina has even insisted she be served salmon for lunch, despite the dish not being on the hospital menu. The source added: ‘And I don’t mean asked - demanded. The food at Lenval isn’t very good - and I think she was fed up. The insider continued, ‘I think she’s in meltdown mode. She’s been getting upset if there’s not enough ice in her drinks…she doesn’t even take a shower early in the morning. She just stays in bed, talking on her phone, typing on her computer, reading magazines and watching TV.’

Angelina Grows Impatient, Brad Looks Whipped

Tags: Angelina Jolie, Angelina Jolie C-Section, annoyances, behaviour, Brad Pitt, celebs, family, fanwank, Lenval Hospital, photo, photograph, whine and cheese

People are funny in that they are so predictable–and I’m not exempt.

Mozilla releases a *new* browser and it of course, is not perfect. But what?! Not perfect!??? As in may screw up, may inconvenience, may annoy, may cause unfriendly sentiments towards Mozilla? Yup.

But not from me. In that way I refuse to be typical.

As a Windows user, which I realize makes both you and me uncool, all one needs to do to not be mad because your newly installed Firefox Browser 3.0 just crashed_ again_ is to think of the alternative: IE.

Riiiiiight.

Tags: annoyances, bugs, firefox browser 3.0, fixes, IE, Internet, issues, patches, tech, windows

Every new “Today” seems more anxious than ever. Do you find more solace in “Yesterday” or “Tomorrow”? Why?

Solace: comfort in sorrow, misfortune, or trouble; alleviation of distress or discomfort.

Find solace in yesterday? No. Tomorrow? Tomorrow is probably what I need solace from, lol.

Today is as anxious as I allow it to be. It’s an old-fashioned notion but it happens to work. There will always be the good times and bad times. Most of the time life is on an even keel. Maybe some people think these are “bad times” and certainly for people in crisis it is. But I’m not in crisis–today anyway–so I have no need to find solace.

It’s not that I never worry. I do, absolutely. And I may seek solace in distracting myself for awhile. Ultimately however the only solace (for me) is to address the problem head on. If I know I’m doing something–even if it’s just keeping my head together and moving forward with my life then I feel OK. It’s when times are difficult and I get stuck that I have a real problem. I won’t stay stuck. I can’t. So I work on getting unstuck.

Tags: annoyances, behaviour, happiness, issues, me, our garden, photography, qotd, under pressure, yesterday or tomorrow

I have no self control. I’m heading downstairs to watch Battlestar Galactica instead of going to bed. I hated that it was off for two weeks and I’m really hating that it’s the last season and I’m depressed because work is way down and TypePad which I’ve always loved is FUBAR and unlike their usual MO they are taking a good long damn time fixing the issue. Six Apart, please don’t make me regret all the praise I’ve heaped on you over the years. I will feel much more kindly towards you if you fix the problem with my “Starry Night Blue” page displaying when I use the background that I loved instead of this poor substitute. I changed everything in my sidebar to coordinate with that background and it just sucks that you can’t/won’t fix whatever broke on your end.

BSG always cheers me up even at it’s most dark. It’s simply the best teevee show evar!

Tags: annoyances, Battlestar Galactica, blogging, frustrated, issues, six apart, TypePad, Weblog(s), website

Gah.

I’ve been putting off the inevitable.

I need a Canadian passport. I’ve known I was going to need one for awhile but it hasn’t helped that the US and Canada–so far the only countries for which I need a passport can’t decide exactly when I’ll need it. Canada gets miffed because they believe that the US is being too restrictive and the result will be less tourism at the US-Canada border and the United State’s official stance is that Canada is too lax and that the Canadians are letting in all kinds of undesirables at the Canadian borders and those terrorist-types are slipping across the relatively easy-to-cross US-Canadian border. It’s been at least six months since I read an update on this “family feud” but if I don’t want to be at the whims of two countries (bad enough being at the whims of one) I’d best just apply for a passport and be done with it. Until the next security implementation which I’ve heard will be a sub-cutaneous microchip in your neck.

Tags: annoyances, Canada, passport, United States

Eliot Spitzer’s resignation had been widely expected since he said on Monday that he had acted in a way that violated any sense of right or wrong.An FBI investigation has implicated Mr Spitzer in the alleged use of a $1000-an-hour prostitution ring. He has apologised, but without giving details. Married with three teenage daughters, Mr Spitzer was once dubbed the “The Sheriff of Wall Street” because of his hard-line stance on corruption and prostitution. Mr Spitzer announced the end of his governorship. He was elected state governor in 2006 after serving as attorney-general.

For once, I can agree with Shrub when he characterizes Eliot Spitzer’s situation as “sad.”

Eliot Spitzer is the guy who so boldly went forward as New York’s “Sheriff of Wall Street” with an unforgiving stance on corruption and prostitution. Spitzer has now shown himself to be a corrupt politician who uses state funds to solicit high-end prostitutes.

And here is his wife (above), a highly-educated woman by his side at news conferences twice in a few days after his last recorded liaison took place as he left her and flew to another state on Valentine’s eve to have sex with a whore.

Firstly, if I were in her place he couldn’t stand up and hold a press conference because I would’ve broken both his legs.

What a disgusting man this is. Still, he is so self-involved that he trots her out and makes her share his humiliation. Ugh.

I listened to his initial press conference as he blustered on in the grand way politicians do and I thought this guy does not get it–at all.

And this morning upon reading more about Spitzer and other “disgraced” male politicians and the women who have literally stood by them as the cameras flash in the face of their disgrace, I really didn’t have to think much on the whys. They are sadly apparent when you have a good long look at these women. Silda is either medicated up to the eyeballs or in shock.

But still, why would a woman stand by such a grotesque example of a man? What is she telling her three teenage girls by example, about the place a woman stands in a public marriage–in any marriage. Was poor, disgraced Silda always just a stoic prop at her husband’s side?

Only time will tell if she plans to leave him and write a tell-all book ala former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey’s wife, Dina (later to appear on Oprah–giving her side of the story) or continue to suffer through being the wife to such a man–for appearances sake–for the sake of the children?!? ( She does not need the money.)

It’s sad situation, yes. Not for him–he deserves what’s coming in spades for being such a blatantly hypocritical dillhole.

The sad situation is that Silda Spitzer does not have enough respect for herself or her family to gracefully (that is what she’s trying to act out here for the cameras–grace under the pressure of the revelations of the complete and utter lack of moral and ethical behaviour by her snake of a husband?) go into seclusion and let Mr. Hire An Expensive Prostitute for Valentine’s Day hang out there like a grape that’s shriveled on-the vine.

Silda didn’t have to play it this way. When Bill Clinton was in the White House and caught with his pants down he made a televised apology as Mr. Spitzer has done. However, Hillary Clinton was nowhere to be seen. Despite the fact that they’d acted as a 2 for the price of one set–when he brought incredible shame to their family and the office of the President of the United States, Hillary was savvy enough to let the public Bill deal with the shit storm that he brought on himself. She never lowered herself publicly to discuss what she considered private family business and for her part, it was. Bill brought it into the public venue by choosing to a. have illicit sex acts in the White House, b. lie repeatedly about it–even under oath, and c. having the illicit sex acts with a White House intern.

But Bill Clinton was skilled enough at running the country that the forces to “throw the bum out”–and there were many–never gained enough momentum to do so.

Spizter does not have that luxury as I’m quite sure that the New York press, if not his Republican arch-nemesis, would have him thrown out.

Clinton, Spitzer, and so many others that came before them and will undoubtedly continue to blight the landscape are fascinating in how they blaze to glory then, with the very momentum with which they did so, manage to blow up their careers by succumbing to the very things that brought them to the forefront to begin with.

With Spitzer it was his “Sheriff of Wall Street” persona. With President Clinton his good ol’ boy schtik. Both those routines were what ultimately led to their demise though admittedly, Clinton in the past eight years, has laboured mighty to polish his image. He’ll always carry that stiff stench of indiscretion however, and I dare say Spitzer the uncontrite will, too.

Tags: annoyances, eliot spitzer, family, governer, new york, photo, political, prostitution ring, resignation, silda spitzer

Man, it totally has not helped that spouse brought home a bunch of Girl Scout Cookies including the new ones this year that I’d heard are good. And they are good. Damn it.

Just call me the Cookie Monster.

I wonder if they are still called Girl Guides in Canada. Let’s get them a link, shall we? Girl Guides Cookies. Apparently they are called Girl Guides everywhere but the US. Shocking. We have to distinguish ourselves from the rest of the world, don’t we? Having us on par with everyone else just. would. not. do.

Oh, this is too precious to pass up!

Bill O’ Reilly Feb 26,2008, mid Girl Scout cookie drive, interviewing an anti-Girl Scout cookie organization woman.She says we are too fat to have cookies and Bill just worries about if he’s too fat to have them ‘cos he “likes them.” Find Girl Scout Cookies

O’REILLY:…But do I look fat to you?ROTH: You do not look fat to me.

O’REILLY: I am not fat. All right? Thirty-six-inch waist. I eat these cookies! Come on…

ROTH: OK, OK.

O’REILLY: And I like them!

ROTH: I like them, too. But let me tell you something. America likes them much too much.

This is an era of obesity. They’re sick.

O’REILLY: OK, but what you’re talking about, a fascist state that says to people you can’t eat cookies, you can’t have ice cream, you can’t have cake. And I’m telling you that it is the parental authority that should regulate what kids eat, No. 1. And, No. 2, it’s over the line.

A couple of Girl Scout cookies, even though they’re loaded with sugar, not going to hurt you or anyone else.

ROTH: So you went Mussolini on me. OK. Look, we don’t want a civic organization whose mission is to make the world a better place, which is what the mission statement is for the Girl Scouts — we don’t want civic organizations — and that’s PTAs, that’s churches, synagogues, anybody — using junk food as a fundraiser. Not now. Ninety years ago, cute idea. Today, not so much.

O’REILLY: See I think cookies make the world a better place. Because they’re sweet. And that’s a treat.

Now, if you’re going to abuse the cookies and eat the box and get fat, that’s on the parent. I agree with you there. But you’re trying to intrude, I think, way too much.

But I don’t want somebody telling me the Girl Scouts can’t sell cookies. I don’t want that. That’s not America. That’s not freedom of choice. Come on.

ROTH: Well, I think — I think the message is the Keebler elves’ mission statement: make money selling junk food. But when you’re using young children as the front to sell $700 million, 200 boxes…

O’REILLY: People know what they’re buying. People know that cookies are loaded with sugar.

ROTH: Is that the right message? Is that the right message?

O’REILLY: The message is freedom. If I want a cookie, I’m going to get a cookie. I don’t want some piece of tofu from the Girl Scouts. I’m not going to buy it from them!

ROTH: All right. Well, you’re not alone in your thoughts.

O’REILLY: We disagree.

O’REILLY: Kids can lose it.

ROTH: No, no. Are you kidding? Are you kidding? The outlook for that child is grim…

O’REILLY: Right. No cookies for you tonight. Thanks for coming in.

…and for gord’s sake, have a cookie!

Find Girl Scout Cookies

Tags: annoyances, behaviour, business, food, happiness, health, issues, parenthood, quotes, Television

“The Clintons are in a difficult position,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa, who has tracked the presidential race. “If she wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she would need Obama’s supporters. But she needs to be careful. If this talk of him on the ticket is seen as a cynical maneuver, it could backfire and hurt her,” Goldford said.

The Clintons are shameless but we already knew that.

At the start of this thing I actually backed Clinton because I thought Obama needed more experience. But Barack could handle the task. He’d surround himself with good advisers and before the end of his first term he’d be a powerful leader who undoubtedly would secure a second term. The instant he stepped into the White House he’d be 10X, 100X better than the person currently occupying it.

Hillary and Bill have disappointed us on so many levels, time and again. They are no doubt well-seasoned political animals and that’s precisely what we do not need. We’ve had sharks like that in control of the White House since 1980.

I agree with Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Daschle said,

“It may be the first time in history that the person who is running number two would offer the person running number one the number two position.”

Tags: annoyances, behaviour, opinion, political