Blogger Fail 101 v's Real Life Win 101

Not a fail really as it doesn't particularly bother me.   A couple of months back I thought I would get in on the blogger action, boost my blog and make millions a couple of dollars.  I put all the advert stuff on and then I looked around at other blogs to see what they were advertising.  within days I removed the code.  WHY?  In all honesty I couldn't promote what I didn't believe in.  If we don't use it or like it how could I ethically say to others "here is this great product!!"  I would have been hard pressed to find something to advertise LOL  Now don't get me wrong,  I am not saying people shouldn't do it.  If you use do and you make money from it then WAY TO GO! It just wasn't some thing for me.

I also made the all consuming effort to join the memes, the flog and boost your blog and all of that.  You know what, it is really time consuming and I just can't do it.  Not because I work or anything like that but because I like to spend time with my kids and away from the computer. Honestly it was taking forever.  Not just the actual post writing and linking etc etc  but if I was going to join in on a meme then I wanted to read those other blogs, not just join it for personal promotion and ignore the others.  My reader has grown to an average of 400 blog posts a day and I just can't read them all.  So I will not participate when I am not able to 'give' as such.  It is not fair of me to have others read me and promote me and me do nothing in return.

Don't get me wrong, I have found some awesome blogs and value the words these people, mostly women take the time to write and that has been great.  I am not deleting my reader but I am not stressing if I don't get to read every blog post that is written.  I will do a meme if I have something to write that suits but I am not going to fret over it.  Life is too short and I have more important things to do with my time.

I guess I am not the geek I thought I was LOL   Bugger, just a friggin wanna be geek.  I will go paint a backward L on my forehead now!

However, all is not lost, I am getting heaps of shit done!  I am not going to write about christmas.  blah blah blah you read one post you read em all.  presents, money, family, food, booze, fights (oh hang on, nope no fights)  so I won't bore you.  My kids are yoyo-ing between my house and their dad's place.  They current have their step sisters visiting from Melbourne so are rapt about that.  They haven't seen them for well over a year.  I see these two girls and oh boy do I feel old. They were almost 6 and 8 when I met their dad and now they are 16 and 18 and blossoming into young women.    So, I talk to the kids often and I went and visited them today and took them icecream and icecream cones!! It is bloody hot here at the moment, did I mention that.  FARK!!!  melting!  The younger sister, H is bed ridden with severe sunburn and sunstroke (damn lucky Tassie is crap weather and doesn't get hot or goodness knows what would happen!) so they are house bound atm.

My free time has been spend ever so productively!  Sleeping, naturally to make up for the lost years of sleep when my children were younger and were waking every night (last week actually).  A bit of weeding has been done.  Some friend visiting.  Some sewing,  ah yes, this may deserve a paragraph on it's own later.  Some tv watching, beer drinking, ball scratching oops  nail varnishing and reading.  For my tv viewing (over the past few weeks actually) I have seen:
Treme - wow!!  Set in New Orleans music district three months post Hurricane Katrina, it is drama but it is awesome.  Very easy to become involved with all the characters and the music is tremendous.  John Goodman places a brilliant role in this first series.
Boardwalk Empire - another amazing HBO production!  Set during the prohibition in the USA amidst the Irish/Italian  struggle for power in the ganglands.  Great acting and directing.
Glee - not sure there is anyone out there who doesn't know what this is. I decided I should check it out.  Not a complete loss of time but I am still trying to work out if it is comedy or drama LOL
Fame - OMFG!! Now anyone who remembers the original tv series will die if they see this.  It is blasphemy at it's finest!  Fucking shambles.......
Salt -I usually like Angelina but this was lame IMO  who is a spy, who isn't.  too busy and not enough story
Inglorious Basterds - wow, lots of killing and violence but I liked it for some bizarre reason. One thing about Brad Pitt is that you can really see he just LOVES acting!  I saw it in Burn After Reading where he played a perfect himbo and once again in this film.
The Town - fabulous film. Lots of action but not too over done.  Ben Affleck produces and acts in it, he is great and Don Draper John Ham is the FBI agent.  Well worth the watch!
Pirate Radio  Hilarious, great film.  A real feel good movie with some great English actors such as Bill Nighy, Phillip Hoffman and Chris O'Dowd (IT Crowd).
The Social Network - in a word?  Crap but mildly entertaining crap
The Corner -  Oh boy, this is confronting.  I have watched the first of a six part series of it.  It is an older HBO series and is based on a non-fiction book.  Set in an area of  Baltimore renown for it's drug dealing/dependancy and poverty.  Heartbreaking
Animal Kingdom - Australian film with Ben Mendehlson and Jackie Weaver.  I saw this on the movie show and thought it would be great but I was disappointed with it.  I thought it was very weak.

Now just when you thought I was turning into a couch potato I have also been reading some great books.
I, The Aboriginal - awesome!  This is the story of a traditional Aborigine told by Douglas Lockwood.  It was written in 1962 and tells of this guys life and that of his family.
The Other Side of the Frontier - Henry Reynolds is a historian well known for his support of the indigenous people and their battles for land rights and recognition.  Excellent book and one of many of his that I love.
Dumbing Us Down - John Taylor Gatto, writes on the education system and it's inadequacies.  Great read!
God's Call Girl - very weird read, this chick is strange and I am not sure I actually believe the book.
Unveiled -  ten interviews with nuns in the UK from different denominations.  Really interesting read.  An op shop find.
Brothers to us - another op shop find and great read.  About a white family in South Africa who were harrassed, jailed and threatened for their support of native south africans.
Look Me in the eye - an account of living with aspergers by John Elder Robison.  Fabulous book gives a great insight into ASD
Life at the Edge and Beyond - a mothers journey with a son with aspergers.
House Rules - Jodi Picoult.  although fiction this is fabulous for people touched by ASD. She has done heaps of research and it is written from several peoples perspectives.
Rape of the Soul So Profound - by Peter Read who coined the phrase "stolen generation'.  Have also just started this book but am impressed so far.
Father's Music - currently reading this book by Irish Author Dermot Bolger and enjoying it.  You can tell he is also a poet as his words seem quite lyrical at times.
These are just some of the books I have read over the past year, I can't remember them all so these would be the last couple of months only.  I mean to write them down this year or join goodreads or something.  I wish I had a dollar for every book I read...........

Enough for now, next post I will talk about my plans for the year and the sewing I have been doing.  That is the plans other than those in my last post.