Irony
Three examples of irony from my search for fame and fortune. Mostly fortune.
1. The profeader
A few months ago, I wrote a post about my plan to quit my job after cutie is born and try to do some work while he learns to bond with his pacifier. I received a lot of good wishes and good suggestions, the longest and probably the most earnest came from an email from Jennifer. She is a professional blogger who, among other places, writes here, so of course I meant to follow her advice. But I didn't, because I'm a smart ass (smart arse, for my English readers). Basically, it meant that instead of concentrating my efforts on a few good leads, I spent hours on those crappy freelance bidding sites until I couldn't deal with it any more and stopped looking. At least until I get motivated again.
But that's not the irony. This is:
2. Ethics
I found this place where you can write essays and get paid, so I started filling an application, and then I got to the "How do you feel about students paying others to write their term papers?" question. So I started talking about how important it was for my personal growth to actually try to learn as much as I could and get as much as I could out of my college experience, and all that, and then it clicked...
So I left that application and I moved on to the next site. This one claimed the buyer would use my essay only as a tool to write his own essay, but it was pretty much the same thing . Only more ironic:
3. Digg
I decided to try that whole domaining thing all the big boys were talking about. So I went on a GoDaddy shopping spree and bought politicartoons.com, and I forwarded it to a Blogger site, and I put a little AdSense. Now all I had to do was put some political cartoons, and I was set!
But I don't know anything about copyrights, and Honey was busy feeding the little guy, and I just wanted to put something on there, submit it to Digg to feel I've accomplished something, and get some sleep.
But I can't draw.
So I have a site about political cartoons, but I can't put others' cartoons there, and I can't draw, so what the hell am I supposed to do?
And then I thought I might as well just put a Hillary picture up, add some lines using Microsoft Paint (because I don't know how to use Photoshop), post the result on the site, and submit the image to Digg, including a little signature that will hopefully get some people to the site.
And how cute is that? Nine people Dugg it already (here). That's more than anything I've ever written on this site. I spill blood and guts trying to come up with meaningful stuff, and maybe one person will do me a favor and Digg it. But I use Paint to put some words over a picture, and all of a sudden I'm a cartoonist.
20 comments:
1. That's not a typo. profreading is the right word to use in Englism Spanish. Not to be confused with English punctuation Spanish.
2. How do you feel about students just copying other's essays ant not paying anyone a paisa (or cent for my American readers).
3. You could draw abstract toons. "That's not just a slanted line dumbass that represents the ever increasing pain of the common man."
Damn it, SJ nicked my profreading explanation. Now I have nothing to add.
Hi Peeps.
Great idea. I love cartoons and political humor. Good combo.
profreading, dear oh dear, now that must smart...
Stick figures. I've seen others who have cartoon sites and they draw stick people. The captions and the drawings are funny. 2 pronged there.
I love the profreading. hee hee hee
Well the Hilary cartoon was a great idea!
Well you know I wish you all the luck in the world with making blogging your job. Funny how the picture got diggs but your writing did not. Don't let that bother you however. I never really bothered with thewhole pro blogging thing but if you find the winning formula, let me know.
and don't go helping those little punks with their term papers. :-)
I know this is more responsive to your post of 30 March, but ...:
http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c39_a5882/News/International.html
heh,heh.
Ain't amerika great.
SJ, 1. oh no... Now I feel so stoopid! 2. It's better--at least they show some drive. 3. See, I was thinking about doing stick figures because that's the popular thing right now (I'm very culturally aware), but does it mean I'll have to scan stuff to the computer? Too much work. Now, abstract lines I can do on Paint...
Rol, maybe he's really good at reading professors' notes?
Mickie, thanks. I did another one today. But it wasn't funny. Or humorous. Oops. Well, People in the Sun was a very different creature a year ago. We'll see where this one goes.
Xbox, maybe he wants to profread LOL cats?
Shelli, yes, but like I said to SJ, do I need to then scan the stuff? Life's too short to wait for printers to warm up.
Morinn, thanks. I feel stuff like that has been done many times before, but I can't think of an example. Maybe I actually did something new here... Na...
Ricardo, the Digg thing is funny but it doesn't bother me. I know Diggers have a short attention span. I do, too, sometimes. Most of the time. That's probably why I can't write long sentences.
That whole domain thing just makes sense to me. Problem is that I don't see myself developing a website just to sell the name a year later. Once I put something there it becomes my baby, you know? But at least I'll experiment with ads for a while, see if I like some more than others.
And screw the punks.
Pelkyi, that's interesting. I hope it gains as much publicity as possible. It's incredible to me that Jewish people think they're helping what they consider their Israeli brethren by donating to right-wing Israeli lobbyists.
Cooper, best kuntry in the world.
In English it is proof-reading.
I tried to read what was on the photo but some words were not legible. I thought cartoons were supposed to be funny. From what I could read this wasn't at all funny, it was slander and ridicule. All politicians are liars, some just better than others.
Anonymous, you have won Comment of the Day. Congratulations.
Oh man, see how you need to follow advice I email to you. Those bidding sites suck. But at least you have a sense of humor about it. Lots of people do the bid sites though, they finally come around and do things right.
PS I bet you'd get more hits on Stumble Upon than Digg.
Jennifer, I'll never doubt you again. Not that I doubted you before--I just tried more things. And I was also taken by Elance's nice Web 2.0-whatever-design.
At least I didn't get a "professional" account.
And about the Digg-SU, I think it depends on what you put there. Until yesterday, I only put individual pictures up, so I had no idea how many people saw the pictures, only how many people clicked Thumbs Up or Digg. But today I couldn't wait, and I put the site on SU. So I had 200 people over, which is cool, but I also know that no one from SU ever leaves a comment. Who's got the time, when there's so many photoshopped pictures websites to lol about.
That was me being cynical.
But man, when did I become so tech-savvy?
Have you checked out the place called Associated Content? I think that's what it's called anyway but you get paid to write articles on different things!
B, I did look at it before, and I need to do that again. It's a nice looking site, although I don't really know what I could write there. I'm not much of an expert on anything. Right now, I've been learning a lot about the changing colors of a growing baby's poop. Probably not too many buyers for that, though.
Anon, it's actually proofreading in English. But I digress...
I must know this advice. I need to start freelancing again. *taps foot*
Well?
Finn, that Anon was quite a dick. "From what I could read this wasn't at all funny, it was slander and ridicule." -- They let any virgin fuck comment nowadays. And s/he has two misplaced commas in that short comment that was supposed to correct my English. Great--another irony.
And as for the advice, it was basically a list of links for sites offering freelance work. I would start with the site Jennifer writes on, Freelance Writing. It's very popular and the jobs advertised look interesting. Other than that, it was a few more sites, including jobs advertised on ProBlogger. And avoid bidding sites, avoid places that don't offer enough. And I would suggest maybe contacting Jennifer on that writing sites if you have more questions. She's the pro. I'm just the procrastinating diaper-changer. Good luck.
Hello my old friend. I am so glad you found me and dropped in.
I see we are of like minds yet again.
Please drop back by soon!!
HA! You should see MySpace page. I was working it a great deal for the cause. But, felt like I could contribute more by setting up shop where I get many more readers.
Of course you know me...always the subtle moves.
Peace,Jackie
Jackie, hey. I remember a while ago you had the split personality. I think you actually commented here under two different names... That's okay. I suffer from that now, too. The internet is so big and we're so small...
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