Trying for a Lighter Note or Sunday Blessings

My speeds are picking up a bit. I am at about dial up speeds now. There is no way I can do my drops yet. This is a tough thing for a die hard Entrecard dropper. I'm sorry my blog friends. Thank you to all of you who are still dropping in on me. I did open Daisy the Curley Cat's blog this morning. It took like 5 minutes but I hate to miss Sunday comics.
Since I am not hooked to my computer in my free time I have managed a few blessings:
My house is getting clean.
Laundry is getting done:
I watched a movie.
Did some long overdue paperwork.
Future plans include: Taking pictures of more items for my shops and writing ads. That way they will be ready to go when speed comes back.
Taking pictures you might find interesting for my blog and writing blog posts for those days when I am busy.
Writing my novel. OK...maybe that won't get done but a woman can dream!

More F.A.P. Ranting or WildBlue SUCKS

30 days is going to be a really long time now that I have been FAPed. What is F.A.P. you ask? It stands for Fair Access Policy. It is a policy that the satellite company's put on your internet bandwidth usage. I went over mine. I have only had this service for a month. It will take a month of me doing no downloads to get my speed back. I couldn't do a download if I wanted to anyway. Speed now is slower than dial up. I can check my email and hopefully post this blog entry. That's about it. If it's peak hours I can do nothing.
I wasn't told about this when I signed up. Of course in their defense, when I called to INQUIRE about the service, the lady was talking fast and was difficult to understand. I had to ask her repeatedly to repeat things. I heard 2 year contract and when I said," So you mean I am now locked into a 2 year contract?" She said "Yes." So I was reeling from that bit of info and she may have went on to tell me about FAP and I didn't understand. Do they PURPOSELY hire people like this? I think so.
I asked another friend who also has this same company about what happened and she told me she had never even heard of it either! She will find out if she does one too many downloads or looks at 1 too many You Tube videos..
My son got an ipod for Christmas. He was excited to be able to put a movie on it. We had just gotten this high speed internet so he downloaded one. It took 24 hours to download. I believe it to be the main cause of my FAPing. Then of course I had some updating to do also. Things I couldn't do with dial up or I could but it wasn't worth the wait. We watched some YouTube Videos, I put on the Entrecard Bar, and did my drops. Then I downloaded Tweetdeck. It was a 3 minute download but I guess it put me at my 100%. So here I am paying 60.00 a month for nothing. I got rid of my home phone and dial up to pay for this satellite service so I can't even hook my dial up up. Satellite internet is a rip off and they lock you into a 2 year contract. Both Wild Blue and Hughes net have the F.A.P.. With Hughes net you only have to wait 24 hours to get your speeds back. Wild Blue has a 30 day rolling. I think that means I will be lucky to have it back in 30 days. (I went to the library computer to study all this after the fact) I have tried calling them to ask just exactly what a 30 day rolling period means and I can not get a straight answer. They just keep telling me I have to get my usage below 70% and don't do any downloads. They read from a script.
I told her, "Look..I couldn't do a download if I tried!"
She replies," Just do not download anything."
I said, " Lady is there another number I can call for complaint's?"
She said," I can give you an email address."
I said, " Lady, if I could GET to my email I could get the address for myself!"
When I checked my usage on the library computer it said 98%. I have had my router unplugged for 3 days!!!! So see? What the hell? Those of you who think Wild Blue is great, well it is when it is working. It's still not as fast as cable or DSL but it sure is better than dial up. Just don't download ( or upload) too many things. Believe me it isn't much and they will punish you like a 5 year old. Are you aware of the F.A.P.? Did they tell you when they signed you up?
I have my router unplugged now when I am not TRYING to use the internet or working off line. Why? Because what if my AVG (anti virus program) is updating? Is that a download? I don't know but not taking any chances. I'm scared now.

Truthfully, I am tired of this kind of crap. A 2 year contract with Satellite service? It's bad enough with cell phones. It has to be stopped. We should be able to be FREE to pick and choose the best deal/service without penalty. What if they run a cable out here next year?
I pay DOUBLE for Satellite service than everyone else pays for cable or DSL because it is my only choice next to dial up in a rural area. A service that is not even close to being comparable. You may have a FAP on cable or DSL but you will never notice it because it is more than enough to do what you need to on the internet.
I am worried about my drops and my internet business. What will happen to all the hard work I have put into them? I can only get to the library so much.
I am sorry for this long rant. This blog was not intended to be for this. I would make a new one if I had internet service. LOL. I have to vent this somewhere. I look forward to your comments.
Meanwhile, I am going to go bang my head against the wall.

I must interrupt this regularly scheduled blog with some work/shop/plug announcements!

First of all: I received my bead work bracelet cuff that I won from ThreeFatesDesign. I absolutely LOVE it! It is so me! She does quality work I tell ya! Please give her my love by going to visit her etsy shop or her blog HERE or HERE.

Second of all: I ordered some soap from camsoaps the other day. It came yesterday. I wasn't sure what to expect but I will say, this is some of the best soap EVER! Nice large bars. Professionally packaged. The perfect hardness. I believe she told me she lets them cure for 6 weeks. Let me tell you about the scent! It is to~ die~ for~ wonderful! I ordered the Goats Milk Patchouli Oatmeal. I just want to carry them around with me all day! But that would be weird wouldn't it? ( At least I won't have to worry about any of my followers leaving me now because I smell bad) hehehe! Please visit her shop HERE

Last, but definitely not least, to my Cowgirl and Cowboy readers and the rest of you too! My online selling friend Papabear has run into some medical problems where he is unable keep up with all he needs to do. He crafts the most amazing leather work and it has practical uses! Like checkbook covers and such. I am hoping my financial situation gets to where I can order a checkbook cover or 2. ( I spent my money on soap this week) I love the barb wire one! His wife Carol is getting his shop running and you can find all of his wonderful leather work in CarolsCountryStore on etsy. Please go on over and give them some love! Just click HERE.

Please note that these wonderful people do not pay me to blog about their shops. They do not even know I do this! So BEWARE! If I buy something from you and I like it, I'm gonna write about it!

Update on Lost Followers or Silly Me

Everyone stay calm! No one panic! If you see your blog followers disappear don't dive into deep despair like I did. (see post below) Thanks to Lidian for pointing me to Blogger issues web page. This is what they have to say:
You may have noticed that the count of your public Followers has decreased over the last few hours. We are in the process of integrating with Google Friend Connect.

There are a few users that already use both Blogger Following and Google Friend Connect. To avoid linking the profiles of Blogger and Friend Connect users without their permission, we have set these users to "anonymous". They are still following privately and will able to make themselves public again.

Silly me.
Now on to more important things.

I am Sad! Don't Leave Me!

Wow! I just lost 3 followers of my blog in one day! Was it something I said? Do I smell bad. Is it my flannel PJs?
Did I scare you with my ghost stories? If so I am truly sorry. I just wanted to throw them out there to see if any others have had experiences like mine. I have lived in this house for 13 years now. No ghost has run me off. If I had to categorize my ghost it would be a class 1 harmless prankster. A child even. And Hey! It's not that I go around looking for this..it just happens here.
Is it my new Top Spots Tip jar? Hey you don't have to buy one! We have a terrible problem out here in the country. People dump their pets out here. Like they are disposable pieces of trash.
Just about all of us on this lonely stretch of road have taken some in. Our shelters in this area are full! I had 10 dogs and now am down to 8 as I did find homes for 2. It costs a lot of money to feed them all. Not to mention the vet stuff. I thought maybe the TOP Spots might help to fund some dog food.
I work hard on this blog. I update frequently. I post pictures. I try to keep it interesting.
Not that you will be here to read this..you left me. I am sad.
Maybe I shouldn't take it personally. But I do. I mean 3 IN ONE DAY???

My Entrecard Addiction

When I joined the Entrecard community I thought it would be just another traffic driving chore. Little did I know, it would quickly become an addiction. Everyday I travel around the world of blog looking at other peoples sites and enjoying the ride. There is so many great sites out there! There's some not so great sites too. I genuinely enjoy reading other peoples blogs. Sometimes I comment. Sometimes I add them to my feed. Sometimes I start following them on Twitter. Sometimes I watch their YouTube videos. Sometimes I simply DROP and move on. I find out all kinds of interesting information. I find great blog contests. I learn what is good and what is not so good when it comes to blogging. I have had to limit my time doing this or else I would get nothing else accomplished!

WIN 50.00! Voice of Bragg Blog Site Review

While doing my Entrecard drops, I came across this very informative blog. Here is a review of this wonderful site! "Voice of Bragg"
A+ quality content. I read several posts through to their entirety after I arrived there. It's unusual for me to do that due to time restraints. I normally just scan posts looking for interesting or pertinent information. Randy has helpful informative technical and non technical type information. The kind of things we all want to know! Concise writing style. Easy to understand and relate to. An example of this is Randy's, " In Case of Emergency" post. He talks about applying ICE (In Case of Emergency) to your cell phone. A must read for all of us!

The blog is clean and uncluttered. "Voice of Bragg" obviously cares about high quality content. Not a lot of fluff, fancy graphics and mind numbing advertising. He gets to the point in his posts. This blog grabs your attention and doesn't let go!
Relevent information is placed at the top where it can be viewed upon entering. Important links are right there. " Voice of Bragg " is a user friendly site with easy navigation.

Randy cares about his blog and takes blogging seriously. It appears that he cares about the rest of us bloggers also! He is offering 50.00 to the person who can write the best review of his blog. Fantastic!! While I could use the 50.00 and I don't know many of us who couldn't right now, Randy is also offering something even more important than cash for writing a review. More important than money you ask? YES! You write a review and he will link to your site on his blog. He has a page rank of 228,00 on Technorati. This will give your site EXPOSURE and a much needed LINKBACK! Priceless! Click the title to this post for a link to his blog ~or~ go here to get right to the post and rules for writing the review : http://voiceofbragg.com/review-my-blog-win-50/
As a member of Entrecard, I look at many many blogs daily. Some great and some not so great. I would rate "Voice of Bragg" one of my top 10 favorites!
Thank you Randy for offering this opportunity!
http://voiceofbragg.com/

Blogging and the Learning Curve

As you know I am new to blogging. I did not realize how important it is to your business until I started doing it! I keep learning new things everyday. Well, except for the days I was caught up in the Twilight series books. If you scroll down towards the bottom of the page you will see I put in a slideshow of items in my Etsy shop! I was so proud! I find it amazing since I did not even know what a widget was until a couple weeks ago. LOL. I still have so much more to learn but am taking it one thing at a time. If you would like to leave a hint or tip..please do so in the comments.

Things I would like to learn:

How to do a blog giveaway.

How to make a button for trade with other bloggers.

Does this look like a blog where you would like to have your shop featured? If not, what would make it that way?

Thank you for any help you would like to leave here.