So last time we spoke, I did not know if I would be here at the end of the month. Thanks to a very generous offer from a friend, I have been given a one month reprieve. Hopefully in the next week or so I hear back from those I am currently talking sponsorship with.
The other night, someone went crazy on my Geeky Pleasures website. Like seriously crazy. I was checking my host stats and I noticed a new visitor. That part is not weird as I get a lot of new visitors per day. What stood out about this visitor is the amount of pages they had visited. And then I watched as in the next hour they browsed 571 pages of my site. I don’t even think my site has that many pages so they were checking things out more than once.
Now the city of the IP address is Santa Clara. Santa Clara is in the heart of Silicon Valley. Santa Clara is also the HQ of one of the companies I am currently in sponsorship talks with. This has me really nervous because I still have not heard back from them since I submitted all the info they were wanting. I hope the fact they (if it is indeed who I hope it may be) browsed 571 pages and didn’t leave after only a handful of pages means they liked what they saw and I will hear something back very soon. And if it isn’t who I hope it is well then maybe something will come out of it. Who knows. Seriously why would anyone browse 571 pages in one sitting?
My book has been published! Holy sheep shit Batman! I got a really nice comment on Wil Wheaton’s blog today (well now technically yesterday) from a fellow reader about my Geeky Pleasures website and how much they like it and have already stuck in their RSS reader, my writing style, telling me I am very talented and they can’t wait to be paid so they can buy my book and telling other people to buy my book and check out my site. It seriously brought tears to my eyes. This book has been a very emotional experience for me. When it became available for purchase on Friday, I couldn’t stop shaking or get rid of this feeling of nausea. It is very personal to me and for a cause that is near and dear to my heart.
Even so I do things because I like them and I don’t care what other people think, in this case I honestly can say I do care because it is of such a personal nature. I just hope people enjoy it and don’t feel they wasted their money. The other things I put out it doesn’t bother me if they don’t like it because it has taken no investment on their parts to consume it. They can either come on the ride with me or not. This is different. This is not just about me, it is about my children and raising money for Lupus research. I hope its good.
The fact my book is now published has me thinking a lot about my relationship with my boys lately. I was overhearing Kid2 once again going on and on about how cool I am and you could hear the pride in his voice. The same goes for Kid1. I think it is awesome they think I am cool and speak about me with pride. It also makes me teary. I feel so blessed I have such a close relationship with my boys. I did not have that with my mother.
She was not a good parent by any stretch of the imagination and it does not help that she has severe mental illness. People who do not understand what I went through growing up like to say to me “she is ill, you have to realize it is the disease talking and not her.” This really bothers me. I have my degree in Psychology so I do understand it is part of the disease she has. But she chooses to not get treatment and stay crazy and with her illness, it one of the few where the person suffering has an active part in recovery. She has decided to not get treatment. She has decided to not get better. She made the choice to not have me in her life. For the longest time I hoped and I prayed I could have a real mom. That when I spoke of my mom I could be proud of her and not be ashamed. I gave up on that fantasy a long time ago. So yeah, it really means so much to me that my boys not just love me, but like me.
Tonight was another moment that I decided needs to go into the remember for always always category. It was a brief moment. I asked kid2 if he wanted to watch a movie with me and cuddle. He said sure. So we watched a movie I hate and he loves and cuddled for two hours. After it was done I said to him, “Thank you for watching a movie with me and cuddling. I know how difficult it must have been for you.” To which he replied, “Yeah cause it’s like child abuse.” We both smiled and he resumed watching his shows and I resumed trying to assimilate all that is going on in my life at the moment into some sort of logical thought process.
I wish I could understand Bing. Ever since someone decided to use my Star Trek MMO review as a lure to infect people’s computers with a Trojan, I have been doing vanity searches to make sure that any mentions of articles I have written actually do indeed link to my site. I search both my name and Geeky Pleasures. Some months ago, I made a geekypleasures.com domain at a friend’s suggestion. I forward that domain to my Geeky Pleasures site and it is the name I give out on air when telling people about my site. I have never submitted this domain to any search engines as it is a redirect. Well Bing has decided to list it in search results for Geeky Pleasures. Bing has also done one better. They have given my site and me a new title.
According to Bing geekypleasures.com is Geeky Pleasures with Jules the Awesome. No where in my meta tags, site title, site name or site description meta tags, no where on my site does it say anything about Jules the Awesome. Seriously, how does Bing come up with these things? I had to giggle at it. Then I decided to do a search on Yahoo (something I never do but figured what the hell. Does anyone still use Yahoo?) and they have followed suit by calling me Jules the Awesome. However, at least they have a site description underneath that lets people know its a redirect to juliasherred.com.
So should I sign all my posts now “from Jules the Awesome?”
I am not serious, I just think it is funny and it was kind of an ego booster when I needed it.
