What I Don't Like Could Fill This Screen To Capacity

whips out his trusty bullhorn and whistle. blows the dust bunnies out of the whistle and turns on the bullhorn. and blows whistle into bullhorn.

Okay, it's been a very, very, very long time since I went off on a multi-tangent tirade on this blog. In fact, it's been so long that I probably don't know where I should start looking in the seventy-five plus tags that I got floating on the main page. But, in the past few weeks, I've experienced a litany of annoyances that have aggravated me so much that I decided to unload what's been bugging me on this blog toot sweet.

"But G.B., why not unload on Facebook about it?"

Because what has been annoying the crap out of me covers all spectrums of cyberspace, including Facebook, so the safest place to do it is here on the blog. I figure no one reads this much anyways anymore, so I think I'm pretty much safe from any blow back.

In no particular order of importance beyond a proper numerical countdown, here's what's been bugging me lately.

1} Google: three weeks ago, when I caved in and changed my name on my YouTube account, I got automatically dumped into Google+, which I neither want, like or give a rat's ass about. Sadly, with one of two options not viable right now because pursuing it would run the risk of not having a blog anymore, I was left with the option of making sure that I am not bugged with Google+. That option was unchecking every notification/tag option under the sun. Forewarned, if you try to add to me to Google+, I will bad mouth you on Facebook and this blog.

2} Spam: Six months ago, I got rid of the ability of people to comment anonymously because I got sick of dealing with spam. Less than one week after being shoved into Google+, I got spammed by someone from Google+. On an unrelated note, I got a junk e-mail from a SEO company about my adult blog getting lots of page views. Seems that a post on my adult blog, specifically an excerpt from one of my WIP's is being touched by the gods of spam. F them.

3} Facebook. While I love my publisher's private group for the fact that I can keep up to date about what they're doing, the fact that it's quickly turning into a ginormous lovefest is bugging the crap out of me. Example: whenever I log onto FB, I have anywhere from 10 to 20+ notifies for the group (that translates to roughly 50-60+ per day). I click on the link, and almost immediately, people are posting things like 5 star reviews that they've gotten for their books. Not jealous, but at this point, I'm taking any and all 5 star reviews that I see, with a huge boulder of salt.

4} Back to Google. Depending on the browser and said age of browser, you get a different log in screen. I have IE 8 on my old computer and I use it mostly to print stats from this blog (Chrome doesn't print in color) and other assorted odds and ends. The log in screen for Google on IE 8 is different than the log-in screen for Chrome on my old computer and different for IE 10 on my new computer. Seriously irritating.

Oh and they updated the Google website so that the toolbar is gone and thus is now non-user friendly.

5}Writer's blogs. Nothing irritates me more than hooking up with a writer's blog that is more style than substance. To me, there are two kinds of writer's blogs: writers who already have such a heavy/long term presence in the blog world that their blogging is simply an extension to their regular writing, and writer's who establish a blog way after they've started publishing their stories. The later blogs become mostly cannon fodder for blog hops, boring author interviews and the latest pimping of their books.

Piece of advice to those writers who fall into the second category: DON'T DO IT! BUILDING A BLOG AUDIENCE TAKES AS MUCH IF NOT MORE TIME AS BUILDING AN AUDIENCE FOR YOUR WRITING!

6} Commercial radio. Redundancy and lack of originality is taking a toll on my ability to listen to commercial radio longer than fifteen seconds.

7} College radio. While I love college radio, I detest and despise fundraising drives. Right now, I equate college radio fundraising drives with PBS fundraising drives. One of my favorite stations is doing one, so now I'm forced to listen to other stations that play hip-hop. 'Nuff said.

8} My health. As most of you know, I suffer from this. Because of that, I have a tendency to not put up with a lot of crap from my body whenever it decides to rear its ugly head. Right now, it's rearing its ugly head in the form of pulled muscles in both of my thumbs. That's right, both thumbs. And no, it's not carpal tunnel, because I made a point many decades ago to switch off when using a mouse for my computer. At work, my left hand works the mouse, at home, the right hand works the mouse and both hands will work the little mousepad on the computer. Back to the thumbs. It's creating a little bit of havoc with my driving because obviously, you need a minimum of seven digits to turn a steering wheel, and when you're down a few, it because very difficult. And creating a bit of havoc with my writing at work, 'cause you know, you need at least a finger and a thumb to hold and write with a pen.

9} Blogs. If you're gonna decide to throw in the towel, please kind enough to let your readership know that you're saying "Adios!" as you ride off into the sunset. Nothing worse than going to a blog and seeing all the content erased from the blog.

10} Phone spam. About once a month, I get a phone call from ASI (Author's House) asking if I want to purchase any more books to sell. Usually I don't answer it and the reason why I can say with confidence about they're asking me is that they leave the question in a voice mail. With the latest voice message, I'm sorely tempted to call him back and make him question the reasoning behind him working there.

In the meantime, here's food for thought. ASI is owned by Penguin Books. Yes, that Penguin Books. So if you're thinking about submitting a manuscript to Penguin, remember, they own vanity press Author's House.

11} Facebook. I still have the usual complaints going with Facebook (what's popping up in my newsfeed and not with the actual website), so there really is nothing new to talk about there.

Okay, I think I'm all set for the next few months with my ranting. Unless a few more irritating things raise their collective head which forces me to unload on my blog yet again.