Well, I just finished up the Helium.com Challenge and posted my conclusions. Now, I’m ready to move forward and tackle a challenge with Associated Content.

Unlike Helium, I have quite a presence on AC, and because of that, a common complaint I’ve heard when I’m telling others they can do this or that is that, is that *I* can do it because I’ve been on AC for so long and have so many wonderful fans/followers and friends.

The argument appears to be a valid one, except, I know for a fact that I write on other sites, and not always under the same name or under any name at all, and my results as far as page views has a lot more to do with my writing style, my keywording and SEO understanding and my understanding of how the web works in general.

It’s my writing that gets me page views, not my name.

So, in an effort to prove that it is the writing and not the name, and also to prove that a newbie to Associated Content can indeed build up decent page views and income if they are willing to put the work into it, this challenge will be done ‘blind’.

What this means is, I have contacted AC earlier this month and received their blessing and permission to open a new account. The community team knows I’m doing the challenge, but the CMs do NOT know. You guys don’t get to know who I am until the challenge is over. That way, those following the challenge don’t artificially inflate the page views on the content by following the challenge.

I will be, for all intents and purposes, a newbie on AC. Also, since I’m using a new pen name (was the name of my most recent lead character in my novel in progress), I will be at a slight disadvantage over many new CPs in that I won’t be able to really promote my content at all, because I don’t have other sites for promotion with the pen name I’m using and if I use the Devon name sites to promote, everyone would know what the other account is!

It’s going to be interesting… I will be reporting daily, number of articles submitted, number approved, payments, page views as they are updated – the good, bad and ugly (I already told AC I’d be completely honest!)… and we’ll see how AC stands up at the end of the month!

If you followed my Helium challenge, you already know a bit what I’m doing with these challenges, and AC will be the same. The only thing different with this one is that I’m doing it on a brand new account, starting with no content, clout level 1, and seeing how far I can go in a month.

You think I can get to clout 10 in a month? I dunno, but hey, never hurt to try right?

Won’t you follow me on this journey? I’ll answer questions along the way, and I’m sure AC will be watching from the sidelines as we go through this, so post questions here on the blog. If you have a blogger account, you can follow the blog. I’ll update a little on the AC blog too.

So, ready to see how my month-long AC challenge goes?

It starts tomorrow!

Love and stuff,
Michy

PS: Wish me luck! Also, I’ll be doing a Suite101 Challenge just like this in May!

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Okay, so I got an email today with the headline that said, “CP Lawsuit Information”.

Well, being a CP (Content Producer) on AC, I thought, “Oh, no… someone finally sued them (shaking my head).”

Turns out, it was spam for an ambulance chaser attorney website wanting people to sue for their children who have Cerebral Palsy.

That just goes to show how much AC is a part of my life…lol

Stayed tuned for some exciting information about a month-long AC Challenge I’ve been approved to do! I’ll be putting the post up on the other blog, but I’ll come over here and update a bit too.

More to come – the challenge starts tomorrow!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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I’m a commercial junkie.

As such, did you know I am strangely attracted to the geeky “Can you hear me now?” nerd on the Verizon commercials?

Or that the Burger King king scares the crap out of me and the Burger King king’s kid is just creepy? No, really, I mean, he SCARES me.

This morning, my baby made me banana smoothie. I loooove smoothies. However, I have to admit that I think about penises (or is it peni?) every time I eat or even see a banana but ironically don’t when I see a sausage.

(SHRUG)

I like Alka-Seltzer… not because it tastes good or it relieves heartburn but because I like the fizzy and how it tickles my nose.

Plop plop, fizz fizz… oh, what a… yeah.
I cannot chew gum without swallowing it. I get this overwhelming urge, compulsion if you will, to swallow the gum and even if I spit it out, the urge is still there, until I finally get a new piece and swallow it, so now I just avoid gum altogether.

I think I broke my foot tonight. We’ll find out in the morning for sure. I see no reason to go to the ER when they never do anything I can’t do here at home but the charge a lot more for it. Man, I can tell myself to stay off my foot and take a pain pill if it hurts. Will someone send me 800 bucks for telling myself that?

It kinda hurts though.

How did I do it, you ask?

Oh, nothing major. I just tripped over my own foot. No, really, I actually tripped over my own foot.

While I try to live with Grace, I’ve never ever been accused of being graceful.

It’s okay, my shoulder has been killing me and I needed to go have it looked at anyway. I figure this way I get my money’s worth – a twofer, so to speak.

They built a new Jack in the Box restaurant in my town – our first ever. I’m unimpressed. I’m really starting to wonder about junk food like fast food. Do you have any idea how many calories and fat and bad stuff one sourdough sammich has? I’ll probably have to eat one and report back to you guys, I mean, in the name of writing research of course.

We’re trying to plan a trip to Austin next month… time to find a building for the creative arts center and of course a home… home. Not a house, a home.

Yes, it’s time.

And yes, I’m actually going to travel. I know someone who is performing a show up there in August and I’m committed to going to see him do his first live performance, even if it kills me!

Truth is, I’m getting stronger every day… I am. Am I well yet? Nah, not yet. Am i cured, healed, perfect? Nah, but that’s okay. I’m a day better than I was yesterday, and tomorrow, I’ll be a day better than today.

There’s some really powerful, wonderful and awesome things moving through my life right now.

This is what you call frazzled!

I’m swirling around in my head so fast I don’t even know what to put here first… so for now, I’m going to go, spend some time with my family, and just enjoy the glow of the pain pill I took for my aching foot.

I hope everyone is having a splendiforous evening!

Love and stuff,
Michy

Song of the Night: “…Every now and then I know you’ll never be the boy you always wanted to be. But every now and then I know you’ll always be the only boy who wanted me the way that I am. And every now and then I know there’s no one in the universe as magical and wondrous as you….”

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I live my life in a place of gratitude and joy. I’ve often been asked how I manage to stay in such a good mood all the time, always upbeat and positive.

I think to myself, “Boy, do I have you guys fooled.”

Still, why am I usually so happy and positive?

Because I choose to be.

Yes, it really is that simple. I choose to be and so I am. And every second of the day, every minute, and every breath, I make that choice all over again.

Still, there are days where I can’t find my gratitude. What do I do then?

Make a list of all the silly little things for which I am grateful.

For example:

I am grateful I am not a bug. It would really suck to be a bug and be squashed out of existence by a big giant shoe, so I am grateful I am not a bug.

I am grateful I am a woman. I could not imagine what I would do if I had a penis, but I’m pretty certain I might never leave the bedroom, so I am grateful I am not a man.

I am grateful I do not have fleas. Sometimes when our dog spends a lot of time outside with daddy, he gets fleas even with the pills to prevent them and he has to get a bath with flea soap, and flea soap really stinks, so I’m grateful I do not have fleas.

I am grateful I am not allergic to chocolate.

I am grateful I do not have a hairy chest.

Come to think of it, I’m grateful that the majority of my hair is on my head, and what little isn’t is easily shaved!

I am grateful for pillows. I don’t know why I’m grateful for pillows; I just am.

I am grateful for trash cans. Without them, where would we put all the trash?

I’m grateful for toilets. Can you imagine having to squat on the ground or something? Yes, toilets are a good thing.

I’m still feeling a whole lot of gratitude that I am not, in fact, a bug.

I’m super duper grateful for creme brulee cheesecake…. in fact, I’m going to be grateful for that for breakfast.

Let’s see, what else am I grateful for?

Nothing, that’s it.

There’s not much else..

Oh, wait, I guess I’m grateful for my family and friends too (rolling my eyes), if I HAVE to be…

(giggles)

I hope you all have a wonderful and great-full day, as well as a grateful one.

After all, you could have been born a bug.

Love and stuff,
Michy

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I talk too much.

I write and type too much.

And in the process of performing these very mundane tasks, I committed murder.

Who knew that writing was a full contact sport, right?

But alas, less than a year after my sweetie bought me my new laptop, it gasped, it shuddered, it convulsed, and then…

… it died.

It was quite comical to my baby girl who was online with me at the time and laughing at the multiple mmmmmmmmmmmmmm llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll that started appearing.

Or the text that began to look like this:

Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:11:09 PM): mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:11:11 PM): mmmumh umhmm
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:11:16 PM): mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmoammmmamalsdkjf;asldkfjmmmm
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:11:22 PM): mmmmmmmm uh oh

Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:19:49 PM): we, it’s ldoling solething
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:19:57 PM): llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:20:06 PM): i’ not dloing thatl it isl
Michy Devon (7/27/2008 3:20:08 PM): llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

We were giggling, but it got a little frustrating after awhile.

It finally gave up completely this morning and a couple of the letters just don’t work anymore.

I contacted the manufacturer and this is the original response I get:

“From your E-Mail, I understand that some of the keys on your keyboard are not working properly.”
I was impressed for a moment… I mean, I’m certain this is outsourced, and yet, they managed to truly understand my problem! Whooohooo!

Until they told me to reset my bios and uninstall and reinstall the drivers for my keyboard. Yeah, neither of those things are going to work. Yet, the thought of them asking a user to reset their bios… if that had been my mother, that would have been, well, interesting to watch.

Anyhoo, I’m on another keyboard, and it’s amazing how used to a certain keyboard we can get. I’m typo-ing left and right here and having to edit everything.

Oh, wait, is that really that different from before?

Fortunately, it’s under warranty still. If I can get the support folks to understand my problem before the warranty expires in November, I’ll be getting a keyboard replacement.

It’ll be a stretch… I mean, November is not that far away.

Anyhoo…

I’m a murderer. In fact, I’m a serial murderer – yes, indeed, a repeat offender.

This isn’t the first keyboard I’ve killed.

Nor will it be my last.

There is no hope for rehabilitation.

I intend to kill again.

First, a shower, and then I’ll be back to attempt to do some damage to the new external keyboard I’m using until we get the laptop one fixed.

I will try not to kill it today… but I make no promises.

Love and stuff,
Michy

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It’s storming here tonight. Big sizzling lightning crackling overhead, big rolling booming thunder rattling the windows and vibrating your core… and a yappy little dog who is terrified of the storm.

It was freaking hilarious at first, and now, it’s just a bit annoying.

Okay, you know how I am about commercials, right? I love commercials.. don’t know why. Actually, it’s a love/hate relationship thing with commercials, but they sure have given me lots of fodder for my blog.

Okay, so have you guys seen the True North ad on TV?

This is a new product line of snacks made from nuts by Frito Lay.

But their ad says something like this at the end, “The result is an extraordinary nut snack.”

Say that really fast now…

I’ve been watching people on the blogosphere showing outrage over the nutsack comment on the commercial.

Listen for yourself:

So, okay, I know it says nut snack. I know they probably in part wanted it to sound like nutsack, and it does…

.. but funnier than all of this is the other day when I was watching a 3D Hannah Montana show on television with my son (God only knows how I got roped into that one), the family station that this concert was on dubbed out the NUT part!

Seriously, it was, “…and extraordinary (obvious pause) snack.”

The thing I find the most amusing about this is… I seriously doubt most children would even see the connotation. They would actually hear NUT SNACK.

So I have to laugh at all the blogosphere folks saying they will NEVER buy this product, showing sheer outrage at the marketing, because you know, it’s their own dirty mind that makes them think any other way!

And did I mention that nuts are in sacks? I mean, some on folks – even if it was nut sack, (which some are saying it was first and they changed it to nut snack), so what?

In case you’re wondering, the snack is pretty good. So are the nuts.

So are the nutsacks too, but I’m going to have to digress on that one.

Love and stuff,
Michy

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When the ceiling in the second living room was being redone, the guys came to blow the cottage cheese finish on it and I told them I wanted glitter on the ceiling. I like it. It’s sparkly. I think it’s pretty. Plus, the master bedroom and the front room both have glitter on them, so the second living room should too, right?

The guys told me, “Oh, we don’t do that anymore. It’s not the current style.”

When I went shopping with my daughter for new clothes before she goes off to college, I picked out several outfits I really liked and held them up for her and she said, “Mom, those aren’t in style anymore.”

When Ryan and I went car shopping awhile back, I kept telling this one guy that I wanted a sleek, long car, not a boxy one that looked like someone chopped off the front and back end. The salesman (who worked on commission, mind you) told me, “Those are out of style. This is the new style.”

My son got a Nintendo DS for his birthday and he lost the stylus.

Seems to me, I apparently have no style.

Love and stuff,
Michy

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There are days I love being a writer and days it is a huge thorn in my side.

Today is the latter.

I went to bed around 3am. I went to sleep around 5am. I’ll let your mind fill in the blanks on what happened in those two hours I was in bed but not asleep.

They say imagination is usually far better or far worse than reality anyway!

And yet, here it is about 8am and I’m awake again.

Why?

Because even though my body was tired and had stopped writing, my head did not, so when I had to get up to go to the bathroom at 7:30 or so, I went back and snuggled in bed and inside my head, I was writing blog posts.

No joke, literally, writing the blog posts in my head – not here for Myspace, I mean my work blogs.

Finally, with more than half the blog composed in my head, and the other track in my brain starting to write a different blog, and then the novel I’m working on for the Boundless Challenge… my head just won’t shut off this morning. So after over 1/2 an hour laying in bed ‘writing’ I figured if I was going to be up and writing in my head, I might as well get up and write for real.

I’m absolutely positive that a nap is going to be required today.

Ugh.

Okay, if you look on my profile, I put up a new video yesterday – a tutorial. The video is about a walk through to help writers format their manuscripts in MS Word when there are no posted submission guidelines for a short story, poem or non-fic article/essay.

I was using a screen capture software, which is actually quite wonderful if you see the original, but when you have to compress it for uploading to Myspace or YouTube, the quality degrades big time. Ryan is working on fixing up a part of my site to embed my own video that isn’t limited to 10 minutes and also not degrading the quality by compression.

That is beside the point – what I wanted to tell you guys this morning is a little funny about me making this video. I had to do it five or six times, because of the 10 minute time limit. Yes, that is my voice on the video – but you’ll notice I’m talking a bit fast. Every time I did it, I was over the 10 minute limit.

Sigh.

The first time was 13 minutes, then I got down to 12, then 11 and change. The most frustrating one was 10 minutes and 20 seconds. You’d think 20 seconds wouldn’t matter, but they sure do to YouTube!

So I sped through it and it shows. But still that’s not the funniest story here.

While I was doing the video the last time, which would have been sitting at 9:40 give or take, I had my Yahoo mail notifier turned on.

I get so much spam and junk into my Yahoo! mail it’s unreal. People like Randy Cassingham (the writer of the This is True newsletter – sign up if you haven’t – it’s sooo worth it!) has been blocked by Yahoo! (I’m interviewing Randy in an upcoming article – so keep on the lookout for that!) My own business email almost always goes into the Yahoo! bulk mail folder.

I don’t use my Yahoo mail for anything except to sign up for free crap when I don’t want to give away a REAL email address.

So here, people like Randy who runs a double opt-in subscriber list, and me who has a newsletter to my forum members, neither of whom spam – are block (Randy) and me into the bulk mail folder, and there’s not much we can do about it.

Yet I regularly get nigerian scam notices in my inbox at Yahoo!

And yesterday, while I was doing the video, at 9:40 seconds and nearly finished, a got a notifier window for a new email that has a subject line of:

…and then one shortly after that read:

So, since both of those popped up on the notifier while doing the video, and I really didn’t want folks who watch my freelance tutorials to think anything, uh, untoward about my internet browsing habits.

Anyhooo….

Yahoo! does need to get a clue. Gmail has some of the best spam protection and filtering of any email service I’ve ever used… and Yahoo! just is not keeping up with the technology. Between them and Comcast, I have to wonder at these ‘giants’ refusing to roll with the changes.

Oh, well.

Needless to say, you can imagine how very frustrated I was to have had to do several takes on this video and to finally get it right and have Yahoo! foil me!

Okay, I really need to get more sleep.

Ya’ll have a great day!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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This morning, I overfilled my coffee cup. It was quite by accident, but there the cup sat, on the table beside my chair, with the level of the beverage at the same level as the rim of the coffee cup.

It was so full, in fact, I could not put a straw in it to suck it down a bit without the straw pushing liquid out and spilling it.

What to do, what to do…..

So, I attempted to carefully pick it up and take a drink but 1) the side of the cup was hot, I mean, it is coffee, after all and 2) the thing was too full for even the steadiest of hands to lift it without spilling, and I do not have the steadiest of hands to be sure.The next thing I tried to do was to stand up, walk over in front of the table and bend over to sip/slurp the coffee until it was low enough I could pick it up.

Now, moments ago, I was sitting and working on my computer.

At this point, I am not bent over, my ass up in the air, slurping.

What happens then, of course, is someone walks into the room.

Why do people always walk into rooms at the most inopportune times? (shaking head)

But not only did said someone start laughing at me, he proceeded to call everyone else in the house to come watch.

(sigh)

Ah, life.

Eventually, I slurped down enough coffee to be able to pick the cup up and drink it.

Later that morning, I was eating fresh strawberries and writing, and I kept thinking my strawberries, that I was dipping in a little bowl of Splenda, tasted funny.

I was so wrapped up in what I was doing, I didn’t realize what was going on, really didn’t pay attention to my strawberries, simply noted in the recesses of my brain that they tasted funny.

A few minutes later, engrossed in my writing still, and eating with one hand, I here Ryan ask me, “Baby, why are you dipping your strawberries in your coffee?”

Hummm.

Another hazard of being a writer, I guess.

I’m glad I provide an endless source of entertainment to those in my life.

Hope all had a great day.

Love and stuff,
Michy

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Warning: This blog, though attempting to be moderately humorous, contains obscene, coarse, or improper language. If profanity offends you, too fucking bad. (Ahem) I mean, stop reading now and move on. Please, do not send me multiple emails telling me about the language. I wrote it – so I know I’m about to talk about cursing, okay?

The other day, I was sitting here minding my own business and was listening to Gregg talk to a friend of his one the phone. Okay, I guess that means I was minding his business and not my own, but that is beside the point. Man, not even a full paragraph into this post and I’m already digressing.

Back on track, I heard Gregg say, “I don’t give a shit, man.”

And that got me to thinking, and then was added to that thought when later, my son says, “I gotta take a dump.”

All right, confusion time.

I guess in a way I can understand the “I don’t give a shit.” It’s a phrase that means, “I don’t care.” I guess if you don’t care, then being unwilling to give a shit for whatever it is, well, that’s really not caring a lot, right?

Plus, who would really want you to give a shit to them? Well, maybe your proctologist, but I’m digressing again.

But the phrase that really has me stumped is, “I need to take a shit,” or “I need to take a leak, take a piss, take a dump….”

Uhm, where do you need to take it? I mean, technically, if you are sitting on the shitter and you are shitting, aren’t you GIVING a shit and not taking one?

Why, other than to the proctologist, would anyone want to take a shit with them anywhere, or really, why would anyone, again except for the proctologist, want to give a shit to anyone?

“What do you want for dinner tonight, honey?”

“Oh, I don’t give a shit.”

“Well, good, because I wasn’t really planning on eating shit for dinner.”

Now, there’s another one though…

“I don’t give a fuck.”

Well, this could be good or bad. If you wanted a fuck, and someone said to you, I don’t give a fuck, then you’d likely be a bit upset at not getting a fuck. But if, as chances are most likely, you really didn’t want a fuck from that person, then them not giving you one could be a blessing in disguise, right?

Right.

Then there is, “I don’t give a damn.”

Well, unless you’re God or perhaps even the devil, chances are you aren’t eligible to give damns.

Now, we can give a shit, give a fuck and give a damn… why can’t we give an ass?

These are things I really want to know, things that keep me up in the middle of the night pondering.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go take a shit and give a fuck, and I don’t give a damn if you like my ass or not.

Have a fantastic evening!

Love and stuff,
Michy

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