One of the beauties of the Internet is that it’s truly a forum. I posted earlier about earning only a cent from Google Adsense and almost immediately I got an email from a reader commenting on it:

Dear Donna,

I have been reading Donnaville for years and I have to agree with Adsense. Your content is only worth about a cent. Even that is overpricing it. At one time you had some flair and your content was moderately interesting but something happened over the last few years. You lost any and all entertainment value. Give up now. Stop crowding the Internet with your rambling words. Take the cent and run.

Love,

Dad

P.S. Your mother wants to know if you are coming over for dinner, should she put a hotdog on for you?

I am not going to post the email that came in from my mother.

I checked my Google Adsense Revenue Report and I pulled in a whole CENT over the last 7 days. ONE CENT! That is amazingly horrible. I always thought my site was priceless… I just didn’t realize how priceless. ONE CENT!

This adventure in website monetizing has taught me a lesson. I used to go out of my way NOT to click on advertisements on websites! I don’t really know why I did this but I did. Now I realize that this is really wrong. I should be clicking and buying items through the websites I frequent. This is how they are rewarded for putting out good content– content that I read and enjoy. In a way, you could look at it as the subscription fee they don’t require. Besides, I was spending the money anyway… why not make sure some of it goes to someone who deserves it?

I am thinking it would be cool to create a website directory in which blogs can list the products they hawk. This way when you are going to make a purchase, you can search the directory for the product you want to buy. The directory would list the different blogs that advertise it. You can then find a blog that you read and buy it from them so they get the commission. Now that’s a good idea!

Yahoo has set a date on the death of Geocities. My first home page still lives there, static, a living memory. But not for long. Come October 26th it will be put down. It saddens me a little. I loved that old website. It documented my love of Amazonian women, Germany, Nigel Bennett, and it listed my favorite movies and links. It’s funny how tastes change. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. RIP Geocities!

Now here’s the surprising part– Angelfire and Tripod are still going strong!

Recently read a blog post about combining beer with limeade. Supposedly fantastic for a hot summer’s day. I believe it. Reminded me of the Radlers I used to drink in Germany. Radler is a light beer combined with 7-Up or Sprite. It’s apparently also known as a Shandy. We also drank Diesels in Germany too. That’s dark beer combined with Coke or Pepsi. I recall someone telling me the point of it was to be able to drink as much as possible without getting too drunk. Such silliness. I found a listing of different soda/beer variations on Wikipedia. Turns out there’s a lot of different versions! I remember years ago in Trenton there was the Champale brewery. It was in a big brick building and on the side of the building they had hand-painted their Champale logo. I miss seeing that sign. The drink was a combination of beer and Champagne. I never tasted it. Apparently it’s still being made. I would like to know how it tastes… it must be better than how it sounds.

I woke up, got dressed and decided it was time for me to finally go through my starred email. I had a number of emails that required responses and I couldn’t let them sit any longer. Because I am involved with C4L, I had a number of emails from people inquiring about upcoming events and projects. Here’s a couple examples: “Where can I get more information on the 9/12 PA Project?” and “I heard there’s going to be a march in DC on September 12th, can you give me more information?” I have no clue about any of this stuff but I Googled it, got the information and sent it off as a response. Why didn’t the people writing me just Google it? Why did they email me? Weird.

At any rate, I worked my way through my emails… I still have some stuff left to do but the major items are accomplished. I glanced up from Gmail and noticed the clock on the wall said 2:00! I started at 9. How could this have taken me 5 hours! I am beginning to wonder if all the frustration I used to feel had more to do with my penchant for underestimating the time it takes to complete most tasks? My daily task lists were just too long. That’s why I could never finish anything in enough time. But now I wonder how other people do it. There are people out there who get a lot more emails than me! And they have families and lives and work…. how do they accomplish it all? I don’t know. Days speed past me. Books remain unread. Work is not done. How can I accomplish what I want to accomplish, especially when it takes me 5 hours to respond to a handful of emails?

I spent Friday and Saturday in New York City. My cousins were visiting and I accompanied them as they attempted to take over NYC. They were pretty successful, too.  Looking around at all the local New Yuckers, I couldn’t help but feel tremendous envy– almost all the women were wearing BEAUTIFUL dresses. Made me want a new dress. And then yesterday I finally got my mail and found the Johnnie Boden catalog had arrived.  I love this catalog.  The clothes look like stuff that Emma Peel, second (colour) season might wear.  I immediately fell in love with this dress to your left.  I want it so much!  Unfortunately it is $128.00 and I have never spent so much money for a single article of clothing PLUS I am in spending freeze mode.  I think I will keep my eye on their clearance page and hope it makes an appearance (in my size and color preference).  While we’re talking about clothes, Boden also had some really awesome boots.  Check ‘em out!  You can’t tell me that Emma Peel would have turned those babies down!  It’s funny how as soon as I get into spending freeze mode, that’s when I suddenly start wanting things. 

Ray ripped down the tiles and found….. NOTHING! No mold! No deterioration!  Mesa happy, Master Anakin! 

I think I learned a lesson here.  There’s a lot of drama queens out there in this world.  And they want to scare the bejesus out of you.  “Oh Donna!  Once they rip down that tile, there will be so much mold and they will have to rip down the entire wall!”  It’s hard but you must be able to pinpoint these individuals and take what they say with a grain of salt.  It’s not too hard to see them, really.  They’re the ones that actively seek you out and tell you about all the horrible things that are going to happen.  WHY ARE THEY SO DANG FRIENDLY?  That’s’s how they get close enough to scare you.  BOO! 

The new 2010 Ikea Catalog is out! Unfortunately it is only available online. I am going to hold off on perusing it. Last year I went buck wild checking it out online and when it finally arrived in my mailbox, there was no surprise and I felt like the moment was spoiled.

Ray’s coming over today. He’s gonna tear out my disgusting tiles and shower basin. Although I don’t think he’s going to put my new shower in until later in the week. I can hardly wait. I’ve been told by other owners of similar units that there is a possibility that when the tiles come down we will find rot. Apparently the builders of these units cut costs and built poorly. My fingers are triple crossed that everything is going to be OK. The tile will come down and everything will be fine. Yes, everything is going to be fine!

I had a weird ass dream last night. My mother told me that my old Elementary School nemesis had asked me to be in her wedding as a bridesmaid. She wanted all of us to wear white wedding dresses and so my mother gave me a box that apparently held her old dress. This seemed very odd but I decided to go with it. I drove to this strange museum-like building where my old enemy was getting ready. When I got there I learned it was a mistake, I was supposed to wear a bridesmaid dress not a wedding dress. Ms Nemesis told me I would have to go out and buy a dress and hurry since I was holding up her wedding! I approached the other bridesmaids hoping to learn where they bought their dresses. The two girls turned around and my eyes almost fell out. They were wearing pastel pink and pastel green LACE dresses that went down to the floor. There were two holes cut out of the dress that exposed their ginormous breasts. I didn’t know what to do! I can’t wear a dress like that! I started to panic! And I woke up right as they told me that I could wear pasties with tassles if I wanted since I was clearly shy.

Where in the world did that come from? So freaky weird. Freud would have a field day!