I'm HOME!!!! (With A Survey)

Okay, so sorry for not posting in such a long time. But I just remembered by looking @ Sam's blog about the whole survey thing that "Ravens n' Robins" tagged me with. I'm not going to tag anybody with this; whoever thinks it's cool can put their own answers up on their blog!
Here are mine:

Four jobs you have held:
1. Momma's helper (MY momma, that is)
2. Library Assistant
3. Assistant Coach on a girl's basketball team
4. Umm... unpaid entertainer...room cleaner... damnit, I don't know!

Four movies you can watch over and over:
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Chocolat
3. The Princess Bride
4. Ever After

Four places you have lived:
1. Seattle
2. Seattle
3. Here comes the big ol' Seattle...
4. Guess.

F0ur TV shows you love:
1. The West Wing (Robson aka Ravens n' Robins showed me this one)
2. That 70's Show
3. HOUSE!!!!!
4. SCTV (I showed Robson this one)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. St. Louis
2. Carlsbad, California
3. Vancouver Island, last year, damn that was a fun school trip (no showers for three days though, ewwness)
4. Maine

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Speakeasy.net (my email domain place)
2. Sam's Blog
3. Blogger
4. My blog (to see if there be comments)

Four favorite books:
1. The Immortals Series by Tamora Pierce (Almaseer, I see you like Tammy as well, have you read these?)
2. The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (she wrote Brokeback Mountain, folks)
3. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke (and Inkspell, which I'm halfway through)
4. The Amber Spyglass

Four places I'd rather be:
1. Out of this damn country
2. At the theatre, performing
3. In Hollywood, shooting a film
4. In Barnes and Noble

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Salmon pasta
2. Tacos (with salsa)
3. Egg Rolls
4. Sweet n' Sour Pork!!! mmmmm yummy this is good when it has pineapple. If I told you how much of this stuff I ate in one sitting, at a restaurant after four days of camping in Vancouver, you might barf.

This is a fun quiz to take, so blare your own answers out to the world-place on your own blog!!! And TFATF!!!!
-your good buddy ol pal Ahaneen

I Read Over My Blog... I Mean Your Blog...

Don't you hate the feelings you get when you have scorned a certain practice in the past, but now find that you yourself are forced to do it?
Here's what I'm talking about: advertising. Blog advertising. It used to bug me, and for a while I was reduced to doing it. Now most of it just makes me laugh. Sometimes you'll get on your blog (or, as it often is with me, see on some other blog) a comment which is all advertising and shows no sincere interest. Or at least a very small amount of interest. These advertising comments come in a few different forms. One form, the "Blatantly Offensive" form, often looks like this:

"I [sort of] read your blog and found it [some mildly flattering adjective]. I think you'd like my blog about [something really stupid], so check it out!"

Please. In the past, I tried to reply graciously to comments like these. I even went to the advertised blogs sometimes--but when I did, I could really see why they needed publicity. Those blogs were about things like styrofoam, or candy wrappers, or bird feeders. Holy crap! I thought, upon reading the first ten words on blogs like that. Why would anyone in their right mind want to visit these? So I stopped. And you may call me a hypocrite because my blog's topic isn't really of any great meaning either, but at least it's got more of a point than bird feeders.
The other form of advertising comments I have seen is the "Sly and Creeping" type. A comment like that usually goes something like:

"Wow! I like your blog a lot, maybe I'll bookmark it. I liked how you put ____ and how you forwardly stated your position on ____. My opinion on _____ is a lot like yours, but I also think _____. Oh by the way, I have a blog about _____. Come check it out if you like!"

I have a bit more leniency towards people who post these, because it shows that they at least skimmed what you wrote on your blog. However, it still amuses me when I read a perfectly normal comment and then see at the end that their real intention was advertising. I also empathize with these people, because I was in the Sly and Creeping business for about a week at one point. But I didn't go around to random blogs and advertise; I advertised only on blogs I liked. I am a choosy solicitor, you see. :)
Before I myself was forced to advertise, I had absolutely no patience for it. Now I just look at it and laugh. After all, if we didn't laugh at our crazy world once in a while, WE'D go crazy.
TFATF!!!!
-Ahaneen