I never thought it would happen but it did.

Google slapped me with a penalty claiming I had some funky links that didn’t meet their Terms of Service.

I didn’t expect it because I have done very few sponsored posts and those I did came from reputable companies whose names you know.

Nintendo, Subway, Kenmore and a few others.

I made a point to make sure I disclosed my relationship and went about my business but old man Google didn’t like it.

He/She/It told me about the penalty last October or maybe it was November and said that until I cleaned things up they would not crawl my site.

Since they didn’t tell me what was wrong it took a bit of time to cull through 10,000 posts and guess at what needed to be fixed.

Apparently, I figured it out and was reinstated.

The Great Google War of 2016-17 is over.

Push Forward

I was irritated by the penalty but it didn’t stop me from writing or trying to push forward.

My kids hear me talk about the importance of being relentless and of chasing down our dreams and I do my best to live it.

It is part of why I haven’t been as active here because I have been pushing forward in other places.

*****

I am a big fan of Teddy Roosevelt…quotes.

If you are among the long time readers you have seen me use a bunch of different ones on numerous occasions.

Ideally, they have done a good job of helping to illustrate a point and or add some depth and layers that wouldn’t otherwise exist.

That has been a part of the push, becoming a better writer/storyteller and I feel like I am making progress.

Stories To Share

Got a bunch of stories locked up inside my head that I want to share but I haven’t figured out the who, what, where and when.

Haven’t decided if I want to do it here or elsewhere.

Haven’t decided if I want to test things out here with my pseudonym or if I should do it under my real name.

There are bigger and more important decisions that occupy my days, but this one holds some weight.

Circle back to the quote about courage and you have my biggest issue.

The other stuff that is going on in my life is tiring me out and my reserves are low so my willingness to put some personal stuff out there is a bit lower.

It is not that I can’t handle criticism, but I kind of don’t want to right now.

That is not a good recipe for success but it is a good excuse for not doing anything right now.

So I am working on balancing things out by giving myself a little break. Doesn’t mean you won’t see anything new here, but it does mean that I might continue to wait to produce some new fiction.

We shall see, in the interim I am exhausted after a long day of Superbowl watching and other stuff so will end this now and say see you tomorrow.

There probably are more than 643 ways to cook your mother-in-law but I cannot share nor recommend any of them.

Not because I can’t bring myself to write them down or cut and paste them into existence but because this blog doesn’t promote cannibalism, murder or serious mayhem.

Minor mayhem maybe, but major or serious…not usually.

However we do like to air our the archives and share posts that not everyone has had the privilege of reading and or commenting upon them.

1. The Hijinks & Shenanigans Of Angry Lost Lovers
2. If Your Son Wasn’t A Jerk
3. Please Give Me A Second Chance
4. The 867 Finest Recipes For Cooking Your Cat
5. Unfriending Proves People Hate You
6. Does Your Past Dictate Your Future?
7. You Won’t Become Smarter But You Might Be Sexier
8. Sometimes You Run Towards Danger

So there you have a tiny sample of some of the sorts of content you find here.

Ten thousand posts or so and counting. Might update this a bit later with some more original stuff for you to read but figured an update with links for those who have never been exposed is better than none.

Come closer and I’ll confess something and share a piece of me that is less than flattering.

Sometimes I can be a snob.

That side doesn’t come out often and when it does it is generally attached to one thing, vocabulary.

I get a little crazy when people try to populate a discussion with big words that they clearly do not understand.

It is not my finest trait but it is mine and I own it.

I try to make a point not to let it serve as my sole judge of who a person is, but sometimes it is almost all I have got.

Have You Been Defenestrated Lately?

That quote above is awesome and a significant part of why I write and will always do so and it ties in nicely with our topic.

Defenestrate is one of my favorite words and it is not uncommon for me to work it into conversation.

de·fen·es·trate
dēˈfenəˌstrāt/
verb
1.
rare
throw (someone) out of a window.
“she had made up her mind that the woman had been defenestrated, although the official verdict had been suicide”
2.
informal
remove or dismiss (someone) from a position of power or authority.
“the overwhelming view is that he should be defenestrated before the next election”

You might wonder if I have actually defenestrated anyone and the answer is why yes, I have.

Way back in days of yore when I was a silly college lad we engaged in all sorts of crazy antics, some of them included defenestrating people but only from a first floor window.

They even managed to defenestrate me but being someone with foresight I had already placed a mattress under the window.

*******

Given the current election cycle, I have probably talked about defenestrating people more than 1,983,322 times.

Hell, I used it today when my computer overheated, but I didn’t actually defenestrate my computer or people.

But let’s circle back to my confession and my snobby attitude towards how some people misuse words.

You might ask if I am some kind of grammar nazi let me assure you I am not.

I am a rule breaker and a color outside the lines kind of man.

Sometimes I double space after periods and laugh about doing so, but I won’t populate my external dialogue with a series of words I read in a dictionary because I am trying to impress people.

I ain’t no lexicon peacock.

I am just an average Joe who loves words and feels better when my message is easily understood.

Misuse of words isn’t a criminal offense, but it does lead to misunderstanding and I prefer to avoid those.