web-goddess

I hate spammers. I especially hate the ones that send you messages that say, “Hey, I visited your site and noticed you’re not listed on some search engines…” They piss me off.

• Okay, first off, the spammer is assuming that I want my site listed on 50,000 random crappy search engines. Which I don’t. Based on my server logs, 90% of people come though via Google or Yahoo anyway, and I’m already listed there.
• Why add the bit about visiting my site? In the case of Purple Weasels.org, I think it’s pretty clear that the site is not for the general public. It’s an online community for a very specific group of people. It’s obvious that it shouldn’t be submitted to lots of search engines. Therefore, the spammer is either stupid or dishonest.
• Why must they send huge bloated HTML-formatted e-mails? Am I the only one that uses PINE to read my mail these days?

I’m just annoyed because this particular spammer has hit all three of my personal sites and has repeatedly ignored my requests to be removed from their mailing list. Anybody feel like engaging in a little Google bombing with me? Just throw up a link like this – “evil spamming assholes” – on your site. I thank you.

Snookums has his first job interview today, which gives me a helpful kick in the bum to ramp up my own job search. So there probably won’t be much in the way of links today…

Weirdness. Earlier today I read this story that exposes the scam behind all those “Work at Home” signs you see all over the place. Apparently it’s all done by the same company, Herbalife. It sounds incredibly dodgy. Two hours later, Snookums brought in the mail… which included a flier for Herbalife. Can you believe it?

Since I can’t bear the thought of y’all waking up, heading to web-goddess, and seeing that next post right off the bat, I’m gonna end with something a little cheerier. I’m almost finished with my Blogger CD Swap playlist! I went with the Australian angle, because everything else I own is stuff everyone’s heard a million times. So it’s 100% Australian, with nary a Minogue in sight. (Oh, quit your bitching. Like I said, I wanted stuff not everyone’s heard already.) Now I just have to get the all important song transitions right…

Oh God. This is turning into one of those “I hate humanity” kind of nights. Check out this Metafilter discussion and the accompanying links. (Warning: definitely not safe for viewing at work.) How can men be so awful? Why do I even bother trying to be optimistic about my fellow human beings?

Hee! Best April Fools Day fake news story: “You’ve got Blogs! AOL buys into homegrown media”. It’s about AOL-Time Warner supposedly buying the rights to two hundred of the most popular blogs. My favorite part is where the AOL executive says, “No cat will ever go ill in America again in obscurity.” Ha!

Okay, so I’m running this contest over at my Dahl site, right? I received about forty entries all together and now I’m trying to decide who wins. I’ve got lots of nice entries from adults, and several good ones from little kids as well. But the writing in the teen age group is just unbelievably bad. I’m not talking about splitting infinitives or misusing participles or anything tricky either. I’m talking about basic spelling, grammar, and punctuation. You know, the stuff most people learn by the sixth grade. These “essays” were almost unreadable. I’ve never seen such run-on sentences in my life. Random words would be capitalized for no apparent reason. One kid actually wrote the word “copetishion” (as in, “competition”). My jaw hit the floor when I saw that one. The nine-year-olds’ entries were so much better! I can’t figure it out. Snookums feels that – as a former County Spelling Bee champion – I’m being prejudiced against people who have difficulty with language and spelling, but I honestly don’t feel like I’m being overly pedantic. This is basic stuff. They’re not dyslexic; they’re just sloppy. Is it that the younger kids are still at an age where teachers care about such things and therefore enforce them? Is it that teenagers just don’t care? Is it that younger kids visiting my site are probably there because they’re precocious readers (and therefore a good writers), and that most teenagers visiting will probably be looking for a book report to scam off the Internet? Or is this just the way it works, and the smart nine-year-olds of today will eventually mutate into the surly illiterate fourteen-year-olds of tomorrow? I hate to sound so cynical, but you wouldn’t believe these e-mails. Are these sub-literates representative of high schoolers today, Max? I sure as hell hope not.

Since it’s still Easter where most of y’all are…

Happy anniversary to my sweet Snookums. Two years down, lots to go. 🙂

IU is through to the NCAA Finals. As a Hoosier, I have to say I’m pretty proud. And how cool is their new coach? He said, “In basketball, coaches get too much credit. I mean, I proved that this year. I mean, here I am, a second-year coach, no experience, and sometimes I have no idea what’s going on the court — I mean, no idea. I’m happy we’re playing for the national championship.” He sounds fun. Anyway, my cousin Jenny, who sometimes posts here, was actually at the semifinal game, so I figured I’d better provide someplace for her inevitable hysterical victory comments. Go Hoosiers! 🙂