After my last post, my blog has been seriously fried. I am writing this article as a "test" to see if it cleans up.

I have been spending time trying to increase traffics to my blog, and after trying blogexplosion for awhile, decided to try blogclicker (linked on my sidebar). Blogclicker, like blogexplosion, works on the premise of getting points for your site for every site you visit. But UNLIKE blogexplosion, blogclicker gives you the option of upgrading your membership to increase the surf ratio, and of buying credits if you don't have the time to surf to earn them. Because of this, I tend to like it bet...

I remember the appearance of one of our liberal bloggers on this site. He came onto one of my threads and flamed me and was subsequently blacklisted. "FREE SPEECH!" He shouted, on his own blog and the blog of any who would listen. "Gid's censoring me on his blog and stifling my free speech". He then proceeded to plead his case to all of his buddies, who harassed me on my threads with pleas to lift the blacklist. Eventually, the blogger earned my respect. But I came to realize the respect w...

I have always tried to have a diverse group of friends. I enjoy input from others as it helps me to think and grow as a person. Because of the diversity of friends, however, it is not unusual to have a conflict between two or more that I regard as friends. This isn't a problem until one expects me to choose sides. It's that way in real life, it's that way online. Essentially, my exile from one person's thread exists because I won't denounce another that person has issues with. Well, se...

With the latest JU brouhaha about bloggers harassing and impersonating others, it got me to thinking: could someone successfully impersonate me, and would I be duped consistently by someone who was impersonating another of the bloggers I read faithfully? Short answer: I don't think so. You see, when I look at my work, I see a certain style. They are characteristics that are as much a signature as the one I sign at the bottom of my meal ticket at the restaurant. Simple sentences are a rarit...

So, here I am, at a pinnacle few, if any, have reached on here. 1000 articles. True, some may have reached it except for deleted or hidden articles. But perusing the points totals tells me there's only a couple of "possibles" in that number (or their points would be substantially higher). This number's a relatively meaningless statistic, I grant you (like "hits totals" in baseball; stick around long enough, you'll get 'em), but one that takes effort, time, and consistency to achieve, non...

Well, Bagdad Mack, I decided for your sake to write this blog. You see, you care so much about my opinion that you continually post blogs to get my response (while being too chickenshit to allow me to comment directly and rebut my responses yourself...but I digress). And so, I must reciprocate your concern. You see, I am beginning to understand you better. A little research into your favorite pasttime of huffing brought the following results: The chemicals found in volatile solvents, aero...

I've seen more than a few invitations to join Greenzap. While I have considered it (hey, even paypal paid you to join when they started up!), I also have to think back over my time online. There was a time when I was determined to make a living off of my online time. Paid email, pay to surf, pay per click, you name it, I did it. While I did make money off of a minority of those companies, the majority were scams. Either the payout limit was so high that you could never hope to reach it at the...

Well, it's phone book season, so we had to get out and pick up phone books today. The next few days will see us delivering phone books until it's time to deliver papers, then going back and delivering phone books again...interspersed with possible brief trips to the library for computer access, the requisite java high, and occasional experimentation with sleep. All this because we can't pick up another directory route until this one's delivered, so we have to get these phone books out the door r...

Every once in awhile, I hear people whine about how JU is allegedly a "right wing" site, and squelches liberal bloggers. While it is true that liberal bloggers have been squelched here, they have NEVER been squelched because of their politics, but rather the nature of their interaction with others. And conservative bloggers have been silenced as well. Sooo, on with the story. I decided it was time to register with Democratic Underground. Not because I agree with their ideas, mind you, but ...

I know admin has their own policies regarding banning members, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents here. I'm really hoping that in some future day when JU has "pay" features, premium users can choose whether to allow/disallow banned members access to their pages. I don't know the admin's criteria for reinstatement; frankly that's a matter between them and the offending member, but I do know that there are banned users whose input I would generally prefer to have on my page (and whom I wou...

This is about as close to an apology as I get. I titled a recent article "Liberals Killed Shasta Groene's Family", and while I don't regret it or the point it made, I DO see the legitimacy of the criticism that followed on Myrrander's thread (for the record, when Myrrander addresses a reply on his blog, it's not point whoring, it's because he CAN'T--through no fault of mine--reply directly to my articles, so it's completely acceptable). And the fact is, in one sense I didn't go far enough to ...

JoeUser's going through another one of it's personal battles. So, in the interest of restoring civility, I decided to abandon my usual political bent for one article and blog about "fluffy" bunnies". I mean, if we can't all agree on "fluffy bunnies", what CAN we agree on. So, here it goes. There it is, for all you aesthetes out there...pictures of fluffy bunnies for your peaceful enjoyment. BUT... Because I cannot live without SOME strife, I've decided to provide some ...

I was reading the blog of another person whose material I read because I regard the person as a "friend" in the acquaintance sense of the word. Interestingly enough, we've never met...but there's a scant degree of separation between the two of us. And if it were not for the internet, this person would remain a complete unknown to me (although we probably wouldn't know the same people). Here's how it went down, for you newbies. You see, my family and I had moved to a forbidding hellhole so...

I have lately been inundated with popunders from the sites I surf. At first, I thought it had to do entirely eith the sites I surfed via blogexplosion and blogclicker (as I run three separate windows when I surf). But as I went across another JU blogger's site, it became clear: SOME of those popups, at least, are coming from JU blogsites (before you ask, I don't have the option of downloading software to kill these pesky mosquitos...it's a library computer, 'member?). I realize that there ...