Am I Bovvered?

Sometimes in your blogging career, you're forced to interact with ridiculously childish individuals whom you have to call "peers" due to certain circumstances. These types of people will unfortunately refuse to interact with you like an adult, and will instead turn back to the tried and true methods of childhood. Such as throwing a fit, name calling, and my personal favorite of "you can't play with me".

You see wonderful readers, I know my blog isn't exactly family friendly, and by no means would I ever expect anyone who visits this blog to even think that. I curse. A lot. I talk about violent video games, I cover topics that interest me, like this little gem about Victorian Memento Mori's, or this one about the Night Witches of WWII. There is no theme to my blog, and there is no need for me to have such either. I write like I talk, and I have no regrets about anything I post here. I love my corner of the internet, and I love the few dedicated readers I have managed to somehow wrangle into staying with me over the years.

However, that never keeps the childish individuals in the world from taking offence to the things I post here. In this society, it would honestly be shocking if no one in the entirety of the world wasn't offended by something they saw on the internet. I understand being offended, I can feel empathetic about your offence if you go about handling it like an adult...but since this is a post about childish people, well...I think you can see where this is going.

If you have an issue with something I post here, why not take a few seconds, shoot me an email, and we can chat about it. It's an amazingly simple process to talk to me about the content on my blog. You just look in my left side bar and I have this awesome little contact form right there for you to use. Just let me know what you don't like about my blog, and I'm more than happy to discuss it with you. I know my content isn't for everyone, and I honestly enjoy hearing from readers.

See how simple that was? See how civil, and polite, and mature you can be by using my contact form to talk to me about issues on my blog? Now, since we're still talking about childish individuals, I think you can probably guess by the amount of sarcasm dripping from this post, that someone took offence to what I wrote on my blog, and didn't handle it like the adult I expect my readers to be. You would be right.

They went and played the "I'm offended" card, and inevitably said "You can't play with me".

In the words of Catherine Tate: "Am I Bovvered?"


Love and Lightning Bugs,
 

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses....

As a blogger who has worked with various companies to facilitate product reviews and giveaways, I have heard pretty much every excuse in the book as to why I should write a post for a company without actually getting proper compensation for my time. I thought you might like to hear some of my favorites, and the reasons why I refuse to work with companies who use such excuses.

That's right, time is money. I spend a lot of time and effort in writing a past, making sure I take quality photographs, and promoting the post to you lovely readers. On average, it takes me about 6 hours per post between writing, photography and editing, graphic design, layout, and promoting the post. Now, if YOU were to work for 6 hours doing something for someone else, wouldn't you expect something in return?

I thought so.

Way too many companies I have been contacted by have tried to get me to post a giveaway or review of their product, for absolutely nothing. Not a sample of the item or service, not paying me for a sponsored post, nothing. Anytime I get an e-mail like that, it goes right into my "Fuck You" folder. Any company who tries to recruit hard working bloggers to write for free, is pure scum in my book.

Let me just say, that any company who thinks that the chance of getting more hits to your blog, and perhaps even a new follower or two is proper compensation, can suck a big fat dick. I swear to you, some of the PR reps I have gotten e-mails from where on some severe drugs to think that I was going to jump on the chance to maybe get some followers for all the work I put into their post. 

Not only have I had companies who asked me to promote them just for the followers, but also just for the prestige. One place actually told me that by working with them, it would look better to other companies, who would in turn want to work with me. 

YEAH.

Last week, I received this e-mail in response to me giving  my rates for a sponsored giveaway post:

 "We have worked with many bloggers who don't have this type of criteria. Most agree to work with us at our first request, and ask for no payment in return. By working with us, you will get lots of followers in return, and it looks like you could use them, since your blog doesn't have a lot of followers to begin with".

So...you contacted me to run a giveaway for you, but when I respond by asking for payment to do so, you try to guilt trip me into helping you for free, because 'everyone else is doing it'? My mother could probably get me to send her flowers with that kind of thing, but she housed me and pushed me out of her body. All you've managed to do was throw a fit when I didn't like your terms, and tell me that my blog is crap because it doesn't have the kind of following you like. Well, why the fuck did you e-mail me in the first place?

 I made the mistake of working with an overseas clothing company one time, who offered me some cosplay items in return for hosting a giveaway for them. I was thrilled, because cosplay accessories and garments can be expensive, and con season was coming up. Well, I got the post written, I placed in some of my own photographs where I had posed in my various cosplay's (one of which took 2 hours to get into and photo ready), and I promoted the daylights out of it in the various online cosplay communities I'm a part of. I waited for a week to hear back about my compensation. It was only after I had e-mailed then four times, and threatened to take down the post, that I finally received a response. Turns out, that since the post wasn't getting the hits they wanted, they didn't want to supply me with the items they promised....and that's why that post is no longer on this blog.

Sadly, far too many bloggers fall for these extremely lame tactics, and so companies keep using them.

Stop selling yourself and your blog short. Don't work for free unless it's a cause you can really stand behind. Your time is more valuable than you might think.

Love and Lightning Bugs,
 

No I Don't Want Kids, Stop Treating Me Like an Idiot

Let me just start off with this: I DON'T WANT KIDS.

I never have, and it's beyond doubtful that I ever will. Some of my readers may be wondering why I feel the need to share such information, and if you want me to be honest, it's because I'm tired of hearing all the things that keep getting thrown my way when people find out my stance on children.

In fact, I thought I would collect a few of the more common things said, here for you. And why not, let's throw in some of the real batshit crazy stuff too, how about it? So, let me give you the top ten things not to say to a woman who doesn't want kids.

Photographer: Mario Testino