Sapheyerblu Review

Archive for February, 2010

I’m a sucker for anything antique-ish. What I mean is that I love those old pictures from the 18th and 19th centuries. I also love seeing those pictures set against different backgrounds. Not just because I’m an antique freak, but because it reminds me of those cool animations that used to come in between clips on the old Monty Python Flying Circus shows.

I found the coolest site in the form of The Gathering Nest. Site owner, Debby Harriettha, creates some of the most beautiful postcards I’ve ever seen. She combines patterns, pictures, and textures together and takes her work beyond that of mere postcards, but works of antiqued art. They’re absolutely gorgeous.

This Libat postcard is the creation and sole property of Debby Henriettha and The Gathering Nest. This image is used with permission from the owner and may not be reproduced without the owners expressed permission.

I can’t post any pictures at this time, but have requested permission to do so. I’m hoping to hear from Deb soon, and if allowed, I’ll post one of the post cards she’s produced.
UPDATE—I’ve received permission from Deb to use one of her pics.  Thanks Deb, I really appreciate this.

I invite you to run over and check out her site. And if you hurry, you can get in on her current giveaway which will run through the 19th of Feb. Winner will be chosen on the 20th. And no, I don’t get another chance of winning by posting this review, I’m only doing this because I think the site is so cool.

If you have a thing for the nostalgic look, you’ve got to check out The Gathering Nest. This site oozes class, beauty, and bit of the odd. I was totally at home. LOL

In my previous post, I discussed the funnier side to comment spam. This time, I’d like to discuss the not-so-funny side of spam comments. The kind that make me want to slap the taste out of someone’s mouth. I’m usually a pretty laid back kinda gal, but there are some things in this world that just piss me off. One of those things are people who think they’re slick, when they’re actually just sneaky.

As I said in my last post, I always check the spam comments on my writer’s site. I had gotten a notice in my email that I had a real comment over there, so I had to go check it out. And true enough, it sounded like a real comment sent from an actual writer who had started their own site. Problem was with the post the comment was linked with. Don’t tell me that “you and your wife found this site both informative and deserves mentioning elsewhere”, especially when the post you’ve left the comment on has to do with writing ideas for the month of December. Would have made sense 2 months ago, but not in February.

So, I checked out my spam folder and found the exact same comment listed 7 times. Word for word, all from the same website, but all different names and addresses. Oddly enough, they all came from the same ISP address. Wow, that’s just fricking amazing. I know I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but come on. I’m not that fricking stupid. And yes, this pissed me off. Each of those comments was linked to a different post all around my site. Was almost like saying, if I work at it, maybe I can get at least one of them to go through. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I decided to go check out the site and see if it might be worth a shout out. Then I decided screw it, I wasn’t giving this person the satisfaction. What really upset me was the sneakiness about it. You’ll notice that I’ve not mentioned the name of the site, and I’m not going to either. Even without a link to the site, I’d still be giving this person free advertising, and I’m not going to do that.

Normally, it wouldn’t bother me a bit to help out a fellow writer. I’d be more than happy to check out a website and tell the rest of the world about it. But, because of the way this person went about it, I’m not going to help. Piss on ‘em. If you want my help, hey, just ask. But don’t try to sneak in through the back door and make a name for yourself through me. I’ll throw you out in a heartbeat.

Maybe I shouldn’t take this so personal, but I am really upset by this. Yes, the writing industry is a tough niche and it’s full of competition. Getting your foot in the door isn’t easy, and unless you’re associated with the right people, you might never get noticed. And more than that, I’m not exactly the most well-known member of the online writing community. But, I have built up quite a little following at my writer’s site and I don’t want a bunch of crappy comments killing that for me.

So, anyone out there actually reading this, if you have a writing related website and would like for me to check it out, just ask. I’ll be more than happy to look at your site give it a little free publicity. I can’t promise you’ll end up a giant in the writing industry, or that you’ll even find a way to earn money writing. The only thing I can promise is that you won’t end up a long-ass rant on this site.

I hate spam as much as the next person. No, not that crap our grandmothers tried to pass off as meat, (I hate that too, but that’s a different post). I’m talking about those stupid emails and blog comments that people send out in an attempt to get people to buy their crap. Now this post isn’t about the email spam, it’s about the stupid BS that people try to pass off as real comments on my blogs.

I have 5 different blogs, but my writing prompt blog gets about 25 to 30 spam comments a day. And I’m just weird enough that I actually go in and read them before I tell Akismet (or as I like to call it, Ass Kiss Met) to kick em out. So, this post is dedicated to the dorks, morons, and idiots who actually think that I’m going to fall for their BS and let their spam comments to get through.

The truth of the matter is that most of them crack me up. For instance, when I get 5 comments in a row that all say the exact same thing, and from 5 different email addresses, do you really think I’m gonna see that as real? Not a chance, my friend.

Then there are the comments that say things like, “I’m so glad I found your insightful article while searching for this issue in Google”. Then I look to see which post the comment is linked to and it’s posted to go to my site disclaimer, or worse, my contact page. Excuse me, what issue were you looking for?????

But, my all time favorite spam comments from my writing prompt site have to be the ones that say things like, “I left a comment once before but it must have been filtered into your spam file”. Duh!!!!!! Or the comments that say “I respect your opinion on this matter but think you should take the time to look at all sides of the issue”. That one really cracked me up when I found out it was set to go with a post about October holidays. Um, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that posting a list of International holidays would be such a problem for someone who wanted to get their crap posted on my site. LOL

I know there’s no real way to keep from getting stupid spam comments on any of my blogs. So, rather than get all freaked out, I’ll just keep reading them and laughing at them, right before I hit the delete button.