Money Stole My Creativity!

Back before I started writing for cash, I used to maintain this blog. I would post random tidbits of things that I had found online or in the real world. I would share stories of my experiences. I would write long-winded opinions about random topics. I wrote about everything I could think of, even if it meant talking about aspects of my life that should never be put on the blogosphere. Even if it meant slamming the generation before mine. Even if it meant talking about quasi-legal drugs. Even if it meant talking about pick-up artists. Say what you will about the contents of my blog, I was at least a little bit creative back then. And that was when I started really ramping up my efforts to make money online.

I started providing a content service to Internet Marketers. I would write about their lame-ass topics day in and day out, leaving me little time to update The Dark Side. I would write about diet supplements, dumpster rentals and dental hygiene. But not about the 21st century or the Millenial generation or common issues of the day. I didn't mind because hey, I was making money!

Then I actually became one of those Internet Marketers! I started using SEO to try and sell electronic cigarettes. And I had -- am having -- pretty great success doing that. I'm making quite a bit of money each day from the sale of these products. But what I've found is that I only do SEO and writing anymore. All the free time I have, I spend building links or writing content.

And I mean, that's fine and all, but I really wish I could stay up to date on The Dark Side of Now. I like writing about stupid shit that other people may find mildly entertaining. I like writing about controversial topics rather than describing how a diet pill works. Anyway, just wanted to say that I miss this blog and I miss the days before the Internet was only about making money.

New Site: Electric Cigarette World

So, I sold my website (www.ecigstarterkits.net) because I had to purchase a new car. The trusty old Buick Skylark finally was replaced. It's bittersweet but I'm so psyched about this new car. It's a 2006 Crown Victoria, retired from police duty after 146,000 miles. Apparently that's not a lot for a Crown Vic, they can run until 500,000 miles!

Anyway, so I had to sell two of my babies to buy this...the Skylart and my beautiful e cig website :(

So I just wrote this post to promote my new website and throw it the first backlink it will get. www.electriccigaretteworld.com

I'm doing this website by myself, without any link building from my mentor, so we'll see how I can do on my own. I have learned a lot about link building principles and I am certain I can do it.

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Black Lights ≠ Good Times

“I wonder if anybody is going to be hanging out and mixing tonight?” I asked myself bitterly, following my girlfriend into the waiting jaws of a Friday-night date for which I had no enthusiasm. Noticing the purple glow around us as we walked in, I sighed and went through the typical pre-blacklight inspection for erroneous stains that could be exposed by the UV...did I just say blacklights?

I pulled my thoughts from their self-pity and my eyes from the floor; they where met with a familiar scene. Before us was a huge room, decorated with enough psychedelia to challenge Ken Kesey’s Winnebago and enough polka dots to cover a million itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow bikinis. Best of all, non-FDA-approved wattages of ultraviolet rays illuminated it all in a comforting glow.
No, no, we hadn’t stumbled upon an underground rave; we were about to be putt-putt golfing of course! The scenery rejuvenated me; I changed course and stopped believing that this date would be the same old bullshit middle-class entertainment.

I was too quick to forget that Lewis Carroll was no fool; every mystical wonderland has a Queen of Hearts. We had two: the middle-aged woman and young lady who lurked frowningly behind the counter as my girl and I. But this wasn’t so much a case of vile, evil genius nemeses plotting our downfall, it was more a soul-sucking succubus sort of situation. 

Sure, I may have been overly sensitive about the Bruno Mars eardrum onslaught coming from their iPod. And yeah, I probably misdirected my anger about the Brobdignagian bite that the putt-putt cost had taken out of my wallet ($10 a person!!). But it went beyond that; it was their unwillingness to fake a smile, return my pleasantries or even make the slightest attempt to appear happy that caused me to feel as they did. For God’s sake ladies, you’re getting paid to hand out golf clubs to kids in a building filled with games, laughter, music, and giant mushroom decorations!

But alas, these women weren’t the only villains around that night to sour the possibilities of that putt-putt course. In my angry pessimism and unwillingness to just relax and have fun playing putt-putt, I was equally guilty. So too were the parents who wouldn’t even play air hockey with their kids without acting reluctant and unhappy the entire game. Add the owner in, the person that had so badly failed at fostering fun in a building that was built for it. But enough about the unhappy, sad-sack villains already. The villains don’t matter because in the middle of this unhappiness and lack of imagination, on the 17th green to be exact, I realized that my hero was there that night too.

The sign at the beginning of the hole read: “The no-putter hole! Players must use their feet instead!” Only a hero could turn this tacky attempt to create fun into…fun. Her laughter as we awkwardly kicked our golf balls toward the hole, her loving embrace as we finally knocked them in, and her always-cheerful temperament. These are weapons that help defeat modern-day villains, that remind those villains that everything is not lost and joy is found in simplicity and love if you just stop and look for it.

By the time we finished up the 18th hole, where she putted it in for a prize and finalized her 10-stroke victory, I could be heard singing Bruno Mars and finding no fault with those villainous counter-ladies. After all, there’s no reason to fear evil when your personal hero is standing next to you with her beautifully toothy smile and kind laugh.  Here she is:

Funniest thing…as we walked out of that colorful world of black-light mini-golf, I still felt like I was living in it. Everything was  bright, light-hearted and nice. This persisted until we kissed goodnight and she headed home, fading away until the next time my hero came a-knockin' on my door to greet me with a bear hug and her Energizer Bunny enthusiasm...and as soon as I woke up to be able to handle all of that.

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Messing Around on PhotoShop

I was searching all morning for a simple Wordpress plug-in that could create nice-looking review tables. Of course those both happen to be among the rare group of tasks you can't make happen on Wordpress without cash money.

So I tried to make my own rating schema for my other website in CS5. Anybody could come up with this but I'm happy with it nonetheless; probably the best-looking photoshop in my dismal past.

 These were used in a review of Bloog e Cigs that come with a USB PassThrough.

I just used the magic wand tool to get rid of the background content, duplicated the image 4 times and then lowered the opacity and fill for the layers I wanted left "blank". For the half stars, I just cut one of the images into 2 layers and dimmed one of them. 

Thanks for checking out.