Roadside Flare

One day so easily blends into the next. Before I know it I'm staring at the fact that the last three posts on this blog have been Youtube Tuesday entries. YTT is supposed to be weekly fun filler, not the entree here.

It's difficult not to feel guilty. I tend to think of Myself as someone with plenty to say and, well, no one would have a blog if she truly thought that what she had to say was totally worthless, would she?

So, plenty to say. It's worth saying. So . . . where's all the posts?

There is no simple answer. I start 4-5 non-YTT posts for every one that eventually gets published. (You will have to be the judge of whether the fact that what you see here is the product of intense scrutiny/selection is heartening, or depressing.)

There is work. There is the rest of life. There's all the usual other reasons. In the end I fall back on what I always say, rendered no less true for being familiar: I'm working on it. When the posts and stories are ready, they'll pour out. In the meantime, I'm reading you all, even if you don't see Me, thanks to the feed reader, and following your adventures avidly.

More soon. Really. KAHTATUS.

Update

1. I finally got around to going through the link list and removing the dead entries.

So the link list to-do list now looks like this:

Check link list for dead links
Remove dead links
Subscribe to feeds from linked blogs
Catch up on linked blogs
Look for new links
Leave comments/Link-whore

2. As you may have seen, I posted the first part of a new Lenora X story last week. More soon.

3. My health issue continues to remain manageable/good, so that's a huge plus.

4. The thought occurred to Me yesterday that it's seven months since I last smoked. I don't necessarily feel tremendously better physically as a result but it does feel very good to have accomplished quitting.

5. Some significant events coming up in Lenora-land soon: tasha's birthday and iris' third anniversary. As always, iris, storm, and tasha are My inspiration, My pride, and My joy. I love them so much.

6. I hope everyone is well and happy. KAHTATUS.

End Of The (Sitemeter) Era

I don't know all the gory details and background, but it's come to My attention (a few months late apparently) that sitemeter, the hit counter you (used to) see at the bottom of the page, has been allowing the placement of spy tracking cookies in the sitemeter code.

Apparently, sitemeter will move users to a special server if they don't wish this to happen, or I could revert to the non-Javascript version of the counter.

The easier solution for Me is to just use a different counter.

Not that I think that third-party marketers are necessarily clamoring for My meager readership, and certainly I'm not selling anything. But on principle it seems to Me the right thing to do is to dump sitemeter.

The counter that now appears at the bottom of the page is spy-cookie free.

My health troubles of late have kept Me from doing much here aside from doggedly maintaining the weekly YouTube Tuesday video clips (I can tell from the barrage of comments on each one how much that's appreciated).

A bit more on the health stuff. It is serious but not life-threatening, ranging in severity from annoying to semi-debilitating. Good days and bad days. I do go to work every day, and I make it to the end most days.

So I still have a more or less normal life. The problem is that by the time evening comes, the energy I have I put into being with My girls and the odd baseball article for armchairgm.com. Plus, on some evenings I take a pain pill and well, responsible bloggers don't blog under the influence of controlled substances. Weekends I need the extra rest.

It is slowly getting better, however, and before too long I expect the health issue to be pretty much an afterthought, and I'll have more energy for the thought pieces and the fiction.

Until then, you are in My thoughts . . . and I look forward to really settling down and being able to catch up on everyone's lives, update/clean up the link list, and resume link-whoring with vigor.

KAHTATUS.

Brief

Health issues have been more or less consuming lately, and the blogging/writing energy just isn't there.

Will be better soon. KAHTATUS.

This/That

1. I hope everyone's summer is gearing up nicely. Summer here in the Northeast seems to flash by so quickly . . . I try hard to savor it.

2. I've not been a great blogworld citizen lately. I haven't been reading My link list a whole lot, and I know there are some now-dead links there. And a couple of once-regular reads have gone invite-only. Please, I need invites. If I can't see your blog I can't see your profile and that means I can't e-mail you to ask for said invite.

I will get caught up on My reading and get the link list in order. It is also time for a fresh round of link-whoring so I'll have to work that in at some point, too.

3. The writing projects are creeping along. The motivation is fairly low right now; it will return.

4. Tiggr, I have not ignored/discarded the interview questions you sent Me. I just haven't yet given Myself the time to sit down and address them in the thoughtful manner they deserve. I also will see what I can do about writing another Fantasy Friday story one of these days.

5. I hope everyone is doing really well, and getting what you each want/need out of life. I may not be reading as often as I should, but I'm thinking about you . . .

KAHTATUS.

More Things

A few more items.

1. I'm going to make a real effort to not let the baseball blog fall by the wayside this season. So far so good but it's not even April yet. Time will tell.

2. A friend in this arena lost his mother recently, rather suddenly. My thoughts and wishes for what peace can be found in this event to be found as painlessly as possible go out to him.

3. I want to thank everyone who commented recently and reminded that they are still out there. I shouldn't ever forget/doubt that, but, well, stuff happens. Even to Me!

4. I did mean what I said about leaving more comments. As soon as I'm able to find some time to read some posts.

5. My best wishes to everyone . . . soon it will be spring in spirit as well as in fact, and that's pretty wonderful. KAHTATUS.

Two Items

1. If you click on the Lenora's Fiction link over on the sidebar, you'll see a new Index page, from which you can navigate to either the Lenora X detective stories or the category loosely termed "erotic fiction," where currently The Taking Of anni and the mini-erotica stories reside. Eventually the Planet of the Blondes story posts will find their way there too. (I know to this point that Planet of the Blondes isn't showing much in the way of "erotic," but trust Me, it's getting there.)

The new pages, as always, are the work of the lovely and talented tasha, who does a wonderful job, always. And it's not an easy job, trying to figure out what I actually mean by My vague statements about what I want, patiently explaining what can and can't work in a given graphical space, and somehow translating it all into the perfect visual representation of what I was thinking. Beautiful job, tasha . . . thank you again.

2. That two episodes of Planet of the Blondes have been posted without registering a single comment to this point touches on a point that is an ongoing source of frustration for Me.

Certainly I understand not leaving comments here there and everywhere -- I've written here, despite My joking (joking, really!) about link-whoring, about how I often write out a comment, edit it, then reconsider and end up not leaving it, feeling it was somehow unnecessary.

I am beginning to reconsider that stance, honestly. While I'm not looking for universal and total acceptance and agreement and appreciation of everything I write here, it can get to feeling lonely, sometimes. So, as a public service, start leaving more comments. And I promise to do the same, worrying less about how "necessary" it is and a little more about letting the author know that what I read inspired Me to say something. I very well might have been wrong in my previous stance . . . now, if I could just find the time to read all the blogs I want to read.

Update

1. Still smoke-free! It's just about a month now. To be honest, I don't feel markedly better, or even different. But I'm glad I did it. And yes, I was (sadly) right about one thing. People STINK, and when you don't smoke you're completely open to exactly how much people stink. I am seriously considering carrying little department store spritz bottles with Me.


2. Daily visits to the blog hit a low about a month ago, coinciding with the latter stages of the long Lenora X story. Visits at that time were down to about 110 daily. Lately they are back up and in fact higher than ever, verging on 150 a day. I attribute this largely to adding a number of links to the link list . . . and, wonderfully, I got a bunch of links in return without any actual link-whoring! But I won't let serendipity throw Me off course -- link-whoring can and must continue.

3. The girls are fine, and their usual wonderful selves. They are a continual source of pride, joy, and inspiration to Me. I gladly repeat Myself to say that I love them, so incredibly much.

4. Judging by the comments and allowing for the typical ratio of readers to commenters, the erotic fiction seems well-received. Which is nice. I am not sure exactly how long and where "The Taking of anni" will go; contrary to usual practice I just sort of tossed Part I out there without having any grand plan in mind. The little snapshots of Miss and anni will continue at least for a bit . . .

5. I have another Lenora X story forming, and a more structured D/s-type story on the horizon as well. And the one "mini-erotica" post I did is the first of hopefully many; I enjoy the short-short form. With the long stories it's a matter of time, and "spacing" -- as I was explaining to someone recently, I find that when I'm doing a story it's difficult to stop and do normal blog posts. And I don't want this to become strictly a fiction blog. My goal is to have the three main things in the title banner -- essays, fiction, and slices of life -- is more or less equal balance. It's a work in a progress.

6. I hope that everyone out there is doing well and blessed with all the love and happiness that is possible in life. KAHTATUS.

P.S. Please don't make Me write another pathetic post about how no one e-mails Me! I'm certainly not above it but I'd really rather not. Do your part!

Housekeeping, Etc.

Now that the lonnnnnnng Lenora X story is finally done, I can get to some updates I've been meaning to do.

1. I removed the dead links. And along those lines, I get an error when I try to access Katja Minx's blog, sadomasokitten. Does anyone know if that blog has poofed, or is that just a temporary error?

2. A few blogs seem to have ceased, and others announced that they ceased. Those blogs I moved into a new section, called "Emeritus." The difference between putting blogs in this section and removing them completely is that the Emeritus blogs left their content up.

3. I'm behind on My blog reading, way behind. And further behind on exploring new links so that I can grow My link list as I threatened promised to do a couple weeks ago. I know everyone's anxious -- TEPB is all about finding masses of high-quality links and shamelessly whoring sharing them with My readers.

4. Still smoke-free! And I haven't killed any one, caused Myself grievous bodily harm, or committed any willful acts of property damage. Thanks to My girls for their support during this time . . . it's meant the world to Me.

5. Have a great weekend. KAHTATUS.

Let's Talk About Smoking

It's Day 8 of the plan to quit smoking, and the second day without any cigarettes at all, having stepped down sharply over the first 6 days.

Perversely enough, I've found that talking about smoking seems to help rather than make it more difficult.

So, some random observations:

1. What is it with these women (it's always women) who are able to only smoke during Happy Hour? Everyone's been at Happy Hour with one of these girls -- they smoke 17 cigarettes (all bummed of course) over four hours of drinking, then go back to their normal non-smoking lives and don't smoke again until two months later at Happy Hour again. WTF? Someone explain that one to Me. If I wasn't smoking, then smoked that many cigarettes in one night, I'd wake up addicted and pick right up the next day. Sigh.

2. There is one gigantic drawback to quitting smoking. And that is this: People Stink. When you smoke habitually, it dulls your sense of smell to some degree. Only when you stop smoking do you realize that not being able to smell everything all the time is actually a blessing. It's a nasty stinky smelly world out there -- a smoking habit provides a nice little buffer, one that you don't appreciate until it's gone.

3. A little research tells Me that in the early 1960s, a pack of cigarettes and a gallon of gas cost just about the same: 28 cents. There is something quietly romantic about that little factoid.

4. To be honest, I will miss smoking a lot. I understand all the reasons there are to quit, and I know that quitting is absolutely the right thing to do. But I was never a social smoker. I wasn't someone who smoked to have something in My hand. I love it. Certain cigarettes . . . that first one in the morning, the one after a good meal, the one after great sex . . . they're soooooo good. There's no describing them. They can make smoking the moral equivalent of shooting heroin, they can tax it half out of existence, they can restrict it and restrict it and restrict it, they can marginalize smokers all they want, but a lot of people smoke and keep smoking not solely because they're addicted.

5. I do worry about what happens when the pointy-heads do finally make smoking illegal. There are three big issues I see:
A. How will government make up the lost tax revenue? Be prepared to pay a lot more in gasoline and alcohol taxes.
B. Prohibition transformed organized crime groups from local crews that operated neighborhood by neighborhood into global powerhouses who were then able to increase their wealth geometrically again with narcotics. In more recent times the War on Drugs has enriched the cartels beyond anyone's wildest dreams. It's Rule #1: Supply appears in response to demand. Making cigarettes illegal doesn't lessen the demand, and there are plenty of people willing to supply them without having to worry about legal restrictions, quality control, etc. And then the government gets no tax revenues and still has the health-care costs.
C. The tobacco industry employs a lot of Americans. I don't know if the international market will be enough to keep the US tobacco industry going. It's important to remember that even industries we don't like contribute greatly to the economy.

6. OK, very quick very corny very necessary pep talk. If you think you can't quit -- you absolutely can. I know I can, and I am. You can too. Really. I don't have any magic answers but anyone who wants to know how I'm going about it can e-mail and I'll gladly share.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I needed that.

(My tanks to tasha for helping Me develop some of the ideas in this post.) KAHTATUS.

Brief (Errr . . . ) Update

1. Big News! For Me, anyway . . . I am into My fifth day of quitting smoking. From close to a pack a day down to three cigarettes yesterday, and today might very well be the "zero" day.

I'm not too cranky, considering. The biggest problems have been the wanting to eat everything in sight and having My sleep/wake cycle completely thrown off. But, it's all temporary and all for the best.


2. The current Lenora X story rolls on . . . with luck (and better alertness) another episode will get posted this weekend. Once again, My thanks to tasha for doing such s great job on the fiction web page. Oh, and yes, will get the older Lenora X stories posted there too . . . soon.


3. I haven't been posting a lot aside from detective story chapters lately, and that's mainly because nothing much inspires Me of late in the D/s theory and philosophy arena. It's odd, but it happens from time to time . . . last night, I surfed blogs for over an hour, starting with My link list and going far afield, reading a lot of posts and comments . . . and finding nothing vaguely inspiring. I don't think it's any sudden decrease in the insightfulness or creativity of My fellow bloggers; it's just that . . . "stuff happens." In the meantime, thankfully, there are the Lenora X stories.


4. I, along with many others, note with sadness the passing of Freya's House of Dreams. I wasn't terribly surprised, I have to admit. Freya's wonderful blog was showing the signs of impending cessation -- her entries had become intermittent, and had a perfunctory feeling about them. I wish her all the best in her endeavors, and will miss her writing there tremendously.


5. OK, I've come to the realization that link-whoring in and of itself it not enough. In looking around at other blogs, and seeing how popular some are, I've come to the conclusion that in addition to consistent and faithful link-whoring, there is an aspect of unselfishness required, and that unselfishness is reflected in having a B.A.L.L. (Big-Assed Link List). Yes, you heard Me right -- maintaining a huge list of links regardless of whether they link back to you or not.

Karmically, it's the right thing to do. Plus, some people just will never link back, either because they don't read their e-mail, they can't be bothered to mess with their template, they don't know how to change their template or are afraid to, since it was done for the person by his or her geek friend.

And it looks mega-cool. And, a lot of links are gong to get reciprocated (and this is difficult for Me to say) without one's link-whoring to get them.

So My goal now is to have a B.A.L.L. That, applied with consistent link-whoring and a few other techniques (to be discussed/revealed in future entries) should have Me well on My way to blog stardom in no time!


6. More soon. As always, My girls please and thrill Me no end . . . I am lucky and blessed to have them. I love you, so much. Here's to the (smoke-free) future.