The Twitter Song

Are you a Tweeter? In other words, are you on Twitter? Just in case you're new to computerland, Twitter is one of many social networking communities. This one is all about "twittering" your thoughts, your every little movement (hopefully not going to the bathroom), and networking using about 200 characters or less at a time. Here's an amusing little ditty about the computer, the Internet, and in particular, about Twitter and Twittering. LOL - right? It's cute at any rate. Even the hubby laughed when I checked it out just now. I just found a cute Twitter widget as I was blog hopping. I found a new must-visit blog and this widget which you now see in my blog's sidebar. Maybe it will remind me to Twitter more than every 134 days (that's how many months? About 4?) I don't know that I have the hang of Twitter or even MySpace yet. I think I have a whole 2 friends on Facebook. I barely have time to visit Twitter which takes only a few seconds to make an entry. Do you think I really have time for MySpace AND Facebook? One of these days... That'll be the day I also sign up to host my own radio blog/talk show. I was really tempted a few minutes ago to sign up for my own blog show. It's free you know - well, if you don't count long distance phone charges weekly and if you don't count time as a cost. But then the reality of my free time set in before I hit the register button for my own show and I stopped. I bookmarked the page for later consideration. Until DD2 is out of high school and getting herself to all her softball games which keeps me out of the house almost every night of the week, plus several hours on weekends, I can't truly commit to anything else, particularly not when I have to be at the same bat place, same bat time week in, week out. Yeah, the promo would be awesome for me and for my friends and associates, but only if I can be guaranteed to be present. Someday... Meanwhile, I think I can carve out a few minutes a week to Twitter and hopefully even to be a guest on someone else's radio blog/talk show occasionally. Do you Twitter? How do you get the most out of it? Do you Twitter a lot or a little? Which is better if you have to devote your time to only one? Facebook or MySpace? You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Author Websites and Blogs

How important is a website and a blog for an author? I always thought it was very important and thus I have both. For a long time now, my blog's been a lot prettier than my website. Of course, I purchased a cute design from a real designer for my blog and I tried to make my own website. Unfortunately, I'm not the artist or the computer geke in our family (yes, we have both). I finally broke down and hired the same design company to design a unique design for my blog. We've been having a devil of a time getting it to post, however. I hope it was up in time for my September 22nd release of "Heart and Soul" at TEB. I hope it's at least up by today (I'm pre-posting and pre-scheduling). Both DS#1 and my web designer have worked above and beyond the call to get my new site up. Since I'm not a computer techie or designer I don't understand why there's been a problem, just that there is one. Check out www.ashleyladd.com and let me know what you think. I love it. I wish I could do art like that. I'll have to content myself with writing. I segued. Let me return to my original premise. One friend mentioned that her publisher told her she really needed to have a MySpace page. I just read an agent's blog and he said that it would be good for authors to have these things but that it just needs to have minimal information and look professional, but not necessarily fancy. How important do you think it is for an author to have a website? A blog? A MySpace page? What do you think?

Liars must want to get caught

Once again, I'm flabbergasted. I probably shouldn't be. I've lived almost half a century so I've run across many people and many things. And yet, I learned a long time ago at the day job, that I've not heard it all, that our donors never fail to come up with some new, weird question. This isn't about the day job, though. It's about friends. Or at least acquaintances. My daughter's best friend had her 18th birthday party last evening. She was disappointed that several people didn't attend. She understood about the ones who had to work or who were out of town. One "friend", however, told her that she was "busy doing something more important". That wouldn't have been too bad had it been true. It wouldn't have been too bad had the friend been smart and kept her mouth shut. Unfortunately, the friend who couldn't attend the party posted to the birthday girl's MySpace page and to her boyfriend's MySpace page how "bored" she was several times throughout the party time. What the...? Can someone really be so idiotic? Or does this person want to be caught in her lies? Does she want to inflict pain on her friend? Why do people lie and then post it to MySpace for the world to see? Are they trying to rub something in someone's face? Do they really think no one reads MySpace (or other places on the web)? Do they not care about the other person's feelings? I'm just gobsmacked. Somehow, I doubt the birthday girl will invite this other girl to join the group in future, anymore than I desire to be part of the other group ever again. There's something else that people do that reminds me of this. It's not exactly the same, but similar enough that it also gets a wry chuckle out of me and a shake of my head. A couple years ago, I got sucked into a scam business venture. Before I realized it was a scam and I was trying to work the business, I asked both my director and my recruiter questions by email from time to time. Rarely did they grace me with an answer. Once, my recruiter mentioned that she didn't respond when she didn't want to answer. Fair enough. At one time, I'd thought the recruiter was my friend. In fact, I got sucked into this business only because I was trying to help her. So I also sent a few personal friendly emails that had nothing to do with the business to which she never responded. Again, fair enough. No biggie. When I realized the business was a scam and that this recruiter was not my friend, I figured it was okay to stop answering her emails (only about the business, btw, never in a friendly capacity by this point). If it was okay that she didn't answer my emails and in essence "disappeared", it surely was okay for me to follow suit. Obviously not in her book for several months later I received very nasty emails from her that I just "disappeared" and "didn't answer her emails about the business". Again, people's arrogance never ceases to amaze me. I only realized in the past few years that I'm a lot like my dad in this way. He won't put up with "friends" who ignore him except when they want him to work on their computers, or who never stop to see him but always pass his house to visit someone who lives a few doors down the road from him. Outwardly, my mom was the sensitive one. Dad hides it. But now I see I get this tendency from him, not from her. That said, when an old friend who had done this began acting like a friend again, Dad accepted him back. Enough said. I'll stop rambling. Some days this stuff gets to me worse than others. I just feel bad for the birthday girl and I can so commisserate. She's a very nice person and she didn't deserve that. I just have to wonder if the other girl even realized the consequences of her actions. You'll want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirsch, Molly Daniels, and Sandra Cox are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :) Hopefully they won't be as pensive as I am today.

Captain Kirk is my friend

Captain Kirk is my friend.














For real.

I am soooooooooo pumped. I mean it. I'm not being sarcastic.

I'm a huge Star Trek fan. When I was a teen, I was in love with Mr. Spock. I thought Captain Kirk was cute, but I was a Spock woman 100%. Now that I'm older, I like Kirk. Actually, as an erotic romance author of menage, I could see myself with Kirk and Spock (I mean back in their ST days).

I also happen to think Denny Craig (Boston Legal) is downright adorable.

Isn't it cool that we can be "friends" with all kinds of people, even Captain Kirk/William Shatner via the Internet? Specifically, through MySpace.

Okay, I'm not completely brain dead. Shatner only has about 57,000 "friends" on MySpace. He probably has a PR firm who handles all this. He probably never glances at his MySpace or FaceBook profiles. He may not even know he's got a profile on MySpace. It's time consuming to make friends on MySpace.

Still, it feels cool to say this, which means I'm a big nerd. I know. I'll be a Star Trek fan as long as I live, even if that's till 2000.

I think the law of 7 is neat. I'm sure you've heard of it, also known as the "Kevin Bacon Game".

For the few who don't know of this, it means that all of us on earth are within 7 people of knowing everybody else on earth. It's not so hard to imagine.

My ex-boss knew the Prime Minister of Jamaica who knew the Queen of England who knew the Beatles. Yeah! Just how many people do the Queen and the Beatles know???

So now I have a connection to William Shatner, to Captain Kirk, and through him to Mr. Spock, and through him to all the Vulcans and Klingons, etc. etc.

Have you heard the joke about "Bubba and the Pope"? It's one of my favorite jokes of all times. Here it is. Enjoy!

Bubba was bragging to his boss one day, "You know, I know everyone there is to know. Just name someone, anyone, and I know them."

Tired of his boasting, his boss called his bluff, "Okay, Bubba, how about Tom Cruise?"

"Sure, yes, Tom and I are old friends, and I can prove it." So Bubba and his boss fly out to Hollywood and knock on Tom Cruise's door, and sure enough, Tom Cruise, shouts, "Bubba! Great to see you! You and your friend come right in and join me for lunch!"

Although impressed, Bubba's boss is still skeptical. After they leave Cruise's house, he tells Bubba that he thinks Bubba's knowing Cruise was just lucky.

"No, no, just name anyone else," Bubba says.

"President Clinton," his boss quickly retorts.

"Yes," Bubba says, "I know him, let's fly out to Washington."

And off they go. At the White House, Clinton spots Bubba on the tour and motions him and his boss over, saying, "Bubba, what a surprise, I was just on my way to a meeting, but you and your friend come on in and let's have a cup of coffee first and catch up." Well, the boss is very shaken by now, but still not totally convinced.

After they leave the White house grounds, he expresses his doubts to Bubba, who again implores him to name anyone else.

"The Pope," his boss replies. "Sure!" says Bubba.

"My folks are from Poland, and I've known the Pope a long time."

So off they fly to Rome. Bubba and his boss are assembled with the masses in Vatican Square when Bubba says, "This will never work. I can't catch the Pope's eye among all these people. Tell you what, I know all the guards so let me just go upstairs and I'll come out on the balcony with the Pope." and he disappears into the crowd headed toward the Vatican. Sure enough, half an hour later Bubba emerges with the Pope on the balcony. But by the time Bubba returns, he finds that his boss has had a heart attack and is surrounded by paramedics.

Working his way to his boss' side, Bubba asks him, "What happened?" His boss looks up and says, "I was doing fine until you and the Pope came out on the balcony and the man next to me said, "Who's that on the balcony with Bubba?"

* So how come I don't know Bubba? I'll have to see if he's on MySpace...