Have You Experienced Soundless YouTube?

THIS IS A ‘TRUE TALES TUESDAYS’ POST

This is a funny, cute video of my nephew Ali (Alistair). He’s Sammi’s only brother, and is three years older than she is.  Although he has nothing to do with my story, I felt like including this YouTube video of us shopping because he liked the dancing Mickey Mouse.

Thanks to my recent discoveries, I can now hear Mickey Mouse talk.

For the last few hours, YouTube has been soundless for me. If finally figured out why I couldn’t get any of my YouTube videos to play, and why I thought I had no sound on my laptop.

MY TRUE TALE: Read More

The “One Lovely Blog” Award (AKA One Smokin’ Hot Blog Award) Gets This Lovely Blogger To Identify Her Rapist: Lorne Chabot

 

award image

THIS IS A ‘TRUE TALES TUESDAYS’ POST

Identifying my rapist is probably the most unconventional way of accepting an award, but somehow it makes sense for me, since part of the acceptance is to reveal seven things about myself.  Because I cannot simply just say, “I was raped,” and then tell you six more things about me, I decided to shift the focus and combine my acceptance of this award with telling you some things, intimate things, about my past. This is a True Tales Tuesdays post after all! Read More

Writing Is Therapeutic and Helped Me Cope With Being Raped

 

THIS IS A ‘TRUE TALES TUESDAYS’ POST

Most of this post was intended to be a guest post on The Gift Of Writing, but Claire didn’t think it fit her audience well, so I revised it and am sharing it with you since it is a true account of my views and experiences and also fits quite nicely with my True Tales Tuesdays posts! Besides, it was already written, and I didn’t want it to sit, unread, on my computer when it was meant to be read by others! 😉 Although it mentions a few personal things, it also speaks of a tragic event I endured – being raped.

I was raped when I was a virgin, two months before I turned 15. It took me years to deal with this, since I was devastated and didn’t speak about it for years. When I finally sought counselling, I learned several coping strategies. Writing was one of them.

I have always found writing to be therapeutic. Whenever I have to make a major decision, I make a pros/cons list and weigh my options. If my emotions are running rampant, or my thoughts are turbulent, I write out what I’m feeling and thinking. I get an indescribable sense of satisfaction from the mere act of taking pen to paper – even though we live in a technological era where computers and word processors are so much easier to use, especially in the editing process. Read More

20 Blog Post Must-Haves ebook

Are You A “Pro” Blogger Yet? Use 20 Blog Post Must-Haves and Become One!

20 Blog Post Must-Haves ebook

20 Blog Post Must-Haves is officially available to everyone now! I’m pleased to say that you can get it for free, too, if you hurry!

Let me tell you my story about how this came to be.

Yesterday, I had a guest post published about editing blog posts on a site called Mad Lemmings. Another one, on a different site, was published today on Dear Blogger!

That’s not the half of it, either! The two places where I’m guesting this week are on blogging blogs (blog about blogging)! Imagine that! I’m on my way becoming a pro blogger!

Wait – it get’s better! The two guys who are “having” me have never allowed guest posters on their blogs before!

Yes, I feel pretty special right about now.

WOW.

And having my name appear in close proximity to Problogger’s Darren Rowse is kinda neat.

gregs compliment comparing me to darren rowse

Read More

Learn To Be A Better Tweeter (and grow your followers!)

Twitter is one of the most widely used social media networks, and I’m learning to be a better, more frequent Tweeter, thanks to Joanna Penn, who encouraged me to use SocialOomph, and Max Christian Hansen, who put together an ebook that’s super-helpful.
I more than doubled my followers in less than two weeks using Max’s guide, and even tried used the free version of SocialOomph to schedule some my tweets. (The free version runs on a two-week trial period.) I didn’t particularly like scheduling my tweets, but I thought I’d try it. I discovered that I much prefer tweeting on my own, although I can see some benefit to scheduling SOME tweets.

I have also used Ashley Faulkes’ advice, which is to improve the quality of your tweets, and I used  ManageFlitter to help “unfollow” people who have no interest in following you back. These strategies should be used in conjunction with Max’s guide.

The results: Read More