PayPerPost is going to release some big news in the near future. I have a pretty good idea what it is, since I stumbled across the website by accident. I’m not going to spill the beans though. I will answer the question they asked: how do you think the world will react? Frankly, I think most of the world will ignore it, and the same bloggers who’ve been dissing PPP since it’s inception will have a field day with this. Maybe I’m wrong. I hope so.

Here are a few announcements I wish they’d make.
1) Yes, you know your own blogs better than we do, since you have been the ones writing them. We apologize for our high-handedness in trying to tell our best bloggers what they actually talk about on their blogs.

2)We’re sorry we rolled out the whole segmentation thing without explaining it adequately to either the Posties or the advertisers. We made an error, and we have compiled a fact sheet explaining categories and tack scores and bans, and this fact sheet will be sent to every advertiser and blogger via email.

3)We’re sorry that some of our Posties have been unfairly penalized because we didn’t bother to explain what a ban meant to a blogger when we encouraged advertisers to use it. We will go back to the advertisers and verify that they meant to ban *every blog* a Postie has, and not just the one the opp appears on. Additionally, we will remove bans that advertisers have placed just to keep a blogger from taking their opps, when the content and writing are fine. We’ll encourage them to use phrases such as “please do not take this opp if you have blogged for us in the past”.

4)Regarding the bans, we apologize for telling you to improve your blogs, and then not giving you feedback by refusing to reveal the reasons advertisers may be displeased with your work. In the future, you will receive email notification of any ban, and while bans will stand, we will remove the negative impact from your tack scores of those bans that are not due to poor work quality.

Perhaps if PPP makes a couple of those announcements, I will be in love with them again. I’m just not right now. I’ve tried to keep my recent feelings of discontent off my blogs, because I still believe that PPP can turn this ship around and get it headed back in the right direction. Acknowledging that you have left your best writers confused and angry would be a great place to start. If you don’t begin to address these issues, then soon you will have left only those bloggers you were attempting to get rid of with segmentation.

Technorati Tags: PayPerPost, blogs

Hands reach for mine,
Tiny baby hands that want comfort and solace,
Warm and full of life,
And connected to chests that giggle
In pleasure when I reach back.

Hands reach for mine,
Medium sized hands that want companionship,
Fast hands that have almost outgrown Mom’s reach,
And don’t hold on too long lest they
Be seen to still need me.

Hands reach for mine,
Adult sized hands that want understanding,
But barely brush my fingertips,
And these hands are moving on in life
In search of being all grown up.

One hand reaches for mine,
An old, gnarled and ugly hand
Slow and unsteady and painful.
This is the hand that comforted me.
This is the hand I never outgrew.
This is the hand of Love.

Today’s agenda:
put away 48 loads of clean laundry
wash and put away 3 more
photo shoot DS#3
school
do some reading in several books as background for blog posts
knit on the lace dress
blog

That oughta take till midnightish

I’ve been thinking for a few days about upgrading to a faster computer. This one made me happy when I got it, but I’m using the internet more now, and since it’s an income stream for me, I thought an upgrade might be in order. Yesterday, for instance, I made 15 blog posts. That’s a lot of time spent here at the desk, as most of them were fairly lengthy. I was thinking a lap-top might be a wise choice, as it would give me freedom to be where I wanted to be and still get my work done, especially if we could swing wireless internet.

Well, there are a couple of snags in my plan. Dh tells me that wireless is really slow compared to our current connection, so that would be a really bad thing. The idea of a laptop still appeals to me, though, so we’ll see how that goes. I don’t know if I could even blog without an on connection, because I like to/need to link to what I am talking about, and frequently need to do research as I am typing even the most personal of posts.

Here’s the other one: I don’t want VISTA. Everything I’ve heard about it begins with “It stinks” and ends with “It blows”. In the middle, it’s “security issues”. So, I’ve been leaning toward a mac. We had one several years ago, and I really liked it. However, when I asked DH about getting that instead of a windows based system, he told me they were higher in cost.

I don’t want to take out secured loans for a new computer or any other thing. I just want a faster system for me, and to let the girls use this one for schoolwork. I’m just not convinced I can get what I need at a price I am willing to afford.

Technorati Tags: computer, wireless internet, VISTA, mac

So far, I’ve gotten my room cleaned. Well, except for DH’s dresser, and I don’t do that. I’m looking at the laundry piled on the sofa like sand on a beach, and thinking, ummm, no, not so much wanting to deal with that just now. What I really want to do is NAP. Considering the length of time it has taken me to type this blog entry, I should probably do just that. Perhaps I will dream of the sunny Caribbean, instead of dreaming that I am actually awake, as I did the other night.

Let me just say this: you know your lack of proper rest is a problem when the insomnia actually haunts your dreams.

Technorati Tags: insomnia

Today’s plan includes cleaning my room, and putting away clean laundry. I’ve gotten it as caught up as it can ever be with us, but it’s all on the couch instead of in the drawers.

I’ll also be doing some more site maintenance over at Knits. Do you know I have over 1600 posts there? Well, now you do. It takes a long time to re-categorize that many posts. I have done about half of them. And the joy of it is that when I am done, I get to do the same thing here. The good news is that I have under 600 here, and it’s not in quite as bad a shape.

Technorati Tags: site maintenance

I have been here at my desk most of the day again, posting on my blogs, and re-catting the posts on Knits. I’m up to page 42 of 160+ pages. I think since I live at this desk, I should get an address plaque for it. It should say
Cass’s Corner
101 Information Superhighway
Internet, NC 28—

Whaddya think? Little embossed dealie? With a cup holder on it for my coffee?

Technorati Tags: site maintenance

I am reading Adam and his Kin for my history blog, and the reading I did last night had such spiritual ramifications that I wanted to discuss it over here just a bit. It also ties into what Pastor preached last Sunday, and you can pull those notes up here. When the serpent appeared to Eve in the Garden, he asked about the fruit. He was trying to tempt her, of course, and it worked.

Here are the instructions God gave in Genesis 2:16

Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

But notice what Eve says in Genesis 3:2

We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die’

See, Eve added to the requirements God had set. Her addition made a reasonable restriction seem unbearably heinous. That’s legalism. It makes God look harsh and cruel.

Notice the other change: you shall surely die became lest you die. She took away from the punishment God had set. That’s greasy grace. It makes God seem capricious and unjust.

Neither of these views of God is true, but both ideas sprang from that first moment of temptation in the Garden. When we try to put our human interpretations on God’s Word, when we try to qualify it with our own “ifs, ands and buts”, when we twist it the least little bit, we begin a ride down a slope that can only lead to destruction. We set ourselves up to fail at a list of “requirements” that are impossible to fulfill and that God never made; or we set ourselves up for sure and certain consequences by denying the seriousness of his commands. Both stem from a refusal to take God at His Word.

Carnival of the Redeemed 3/13

Technorati Tags: Adam and his Kin, Eve, Genesis, God, legalism, greasy grace