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“I can now honestly admit I was 30-35lbs overweight when discovering Stories Your Parents Were Afraid To Tell You on the internet. At first I was very skeptical because there are so many story scams online, who can you really trust? Well as you can guess by viewing my picture I ended up trying this product for a 15 day period and lost 42.7lbs and decreased my body fat by 7.4%.***

Plus I have a huge secret to tell you and it maybe hard to believe this but I NEVER CHANGED MY DIET and by no means do I eat healthy. After using this product and seeing a dramatic change, it gave me the motivation to get back into reading Happy and Blue 2 and live a healthier life style. I’m a firm believer in what Happy and Blue 2 offers and will be a dedicated client for life!”

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Disclaimers:
*Fast is a relative term. You may be able to read the stories in this ebook “fast” or you may have other things going on in your life and it may take you far longer than 15 days.

**Free is also a relative term. To get the free ebook you need to sign up for the free newsletter. Which is also free. You can freely cancel your subscription to the newsletter at any time just by clicking on the link on the bottom of each newsletter. Of course that will make me sad. But that’s my problem..

***These results aren’t normal. Most people don’t exercise for 6 hours each day like these testimonial people do. So unless you plan to exercise like a banshee you likely won’t achieve the same results.

1: To eliminate 1000 calories you will have to read the stories while not eating. Just sitting there reading the story won’t work either. You have to be doing something to burn calories. Like jogging.
Jogging a marathon distance while reading will result in faster weight-loss BTW.

2: This product will boost energy levels if you are really depressed and then the story makes you laugh. People always feel more energetic when they are happy.

Editors note: This is only on the blog because I was looking at an ad for some weight loss product and I had been amusing myself by changing it for my ebook. It was in draft mode so I could see it when I hit publish by accident.
Since anything that is “published” appears on my RSS feed even if I delete it I just left it on my site.

“I hope Squeaky likes my gift” said Grandpa Mouse. “It’s so hard buying something for a one year old”

“I love Birthday parties” squeaked the other mice in unison. Or at least that’s what I think they squeaked. Mice are always squeaking and it may have been just random squeaking because a butterfly had landed on Grandpa’s back as he was whining.

“I hate Birthday parties! They’re so stressful. And so far from home. My legs hurt. Someone get that giant bug off my back” continued Grandpa. Rather loudly as well. I think he was going deaf so he spoke quite loudly.

“Who wouldn’t want wheat seeds?” replied Momma Mouse. “Now try to be quiet. The fox lives near hear and I don’t want him to find us.”

But of course it was to late. Freddie Fox had heard them and was waiting for them when they rounded the first turn on the path.

“Hello mice” said Freddie. “Who’s going to be my first snack today?”

Of course all the mice looked in Grandpa’s direction. A few even pointed and whistled at him.
Grandpa didn’t see them though. He was spinning around in circles trying to get the butterfly off his back.

“None of us would make a good snack” said Mother Mouse. “We are to thin at the moment.”
“Why don’t you wait until we are stuffed from the food at the Birthday party we are headed to. Then we will make a great meal for you.”

“Makes sense” said Freddie Fox. “See you back here in a few hours then”

“I think I smell a fox!” said Grandpa. “Everyone be careful and keep your eyes open”
Everyone, including Freddie Fox, laughed at those remarks. Apparently there is a lot more to laugh about when life is simple.

The Birthday party was a great success. Everyone played games and sang songs and ate and ate and ate some more. And before long it was time to head home.

“What are we going to do about that fox?” squeaked the children. “ We don’t want to be eaten!”

“Don’t worry” said Mother Mouse. “I have a plan.”
And off she headed onto the path and right to the bus stop.

“Bus tickets for everyone” she said as she pulled the tickets out of her mouse purse.

“We love you Momma” squeaked the mice.
And Grandpa said “My hip hurts. I hope the bus is the kind with a handicap entrance level.”

Of course the bus was just a normal bus. No handicap accessible ramp thing.
But Grandpa eventually got on and found a seat near the front where he could complain to the driver. Endlessly and loudly.
Aside from the loud complaining the trip back home was somewhat uneventful.

Freddie Fox did get on the bus but since there was a “No Food or Drinks” sign he couldn’t eat the mice.
And he lived 2 stops before the mice stop so they got home safely.

Freddie did mutter “Rats. Foiled again.” when he left the bus but no one is sure if he was frustrated by the turn of events involving the bus or if he was just thinking about barbecuing rats wrapped in tin foil for his snack.

And Grandpa got a hearing aid the next day.
When his next pension cheque arrives in a month he is hoping, as are the rest of the Mouse family, that he can afford to buy some batteries to make it work.

So todays question is:
1) Do you like Birthday parties?

I’m not telling you this to get pity. I chose this job. It’s pretty standard in private business to have these kinds of “benefits”..

And I’ve also spent the majority of my working life in a Government job that gave me paid sick time and 4-6 weeks paid vacation a year, etc..

The reason I’m even mentioning any of this is that I blog.

Blogging is different from having an offline job. Even people who blog for social reasons are expected to post daily or at least several times weekly, every week, 52 weeks a year.

We are under the impression that if we stop for just a day or two that we will lose our readers.

The expectations for business bloggers is even higher. Not only will the business blogger lose his/ her readers but they will lose credibility and their business will fail.

Business bloggers are expected to keep a posting schedule, be active daily in Twitter, Facebook, etc, produce products, do promotion and marketing, deal with mounds of email, do guest posts, create unique content, give away things, build a list, write a newsletter, create forums and paid sites, et.al..
Couple that with the fact that the longer one continues the more readers one attracts, the more comments and emails one has to deal with, the more demands on our time…..

The current model of blogging is doomed to failure for almost all bloggers. Which is probably why most bloggers, even successful business bloggers, seldom last for more than a year or two.

If offline jobs demanded the same ever increasing time commitments that blogs demand then most people would be quitting jobs and choosing welfare.

In the blog world this happens all the time. Popular, often very successful bloggers, announce that they are quitting. They vanish, much to the surprise of those following them.

So, I wonder why we place such a ridiculous expectation on ourselves to begin with.

Part of the problem is that the top bloggers lead us to believe that if we start a blog and continue it for a short time that we will become rich.

Generally they provide, for a small fee (?), their secrets which will make us successful and wealthy.

Part of the problem is that we believe them. That building a successful blog is easy. That we just need that one missing piece of the puzzle and we too will be just like them. Rich and famous.

Part of the problem is that we are so busy trying to find that missing piece of the puzzle that we don’t consider planning our business as being necessary. We can plan things when we are successful.

And part of the problem is that we fail to realize the time commitment that it takes to be successful.
The ridiculous time sucking time commitment that never allows us to take days off or take a holiday.
Time spent away from our blog is time wasted. And it’s time for the competition to move ahead of us.

We live in constant fear that someone will do whatever we are doing better than us. That they will steal our customers and ultimately our business.

So we forge on putting in more and more time on our blogs, our social media, our marketing, our business.

In the offline world my great job with great benefits required me to be on call 24/7/ 365 a year..

The pay was great. The benefits were great. The reality was that I spent my weekends on the phone or in person at work dealing with problems. I couldn’t get vacation time when I wanted it and often had it just paid out at the end of each vacation period. I worked when I was sick.

Life at the top isn’t really all it’s made out to be.

Certainly when I left there was a payoff. I have income that keeps me comfortably. I currently work for my enjoyment and for the social benefits my current job provides. And I don’t care if I’m not paid for the vacation time I take.

But I left my old job with 2 years of vacation (which was paid out to me) and 1 year of unused sick time ( which I wasn’t paid for).
And I left feeling burnt out and disillusioned with business.

I gave up a lot personally to make money. Time that I can’t ever get back. Time I could have used to connect with friends and family. Time I could have used to learn and try new things.

I blog.

But I have no intention of devoting my life to it.

The blog is a place to write what I’m thinking about. It’s a place where I try new online things like video posts or audio posts or story ideas. It’s a way to connect with a few readers.

I’m content when I write.
I’m equally content when I don’t.

Blogging isn’t my life and I don’t want it to be.

I can’t be creative if I am spending my time worrying about comments. Or my limited audience for that matter.

We are told to write for our readers.

I suggest that doing so is doing us a disservice to us and to those who follow us.

We need to write for ourselves. And let others decide if they want to read our words.
We need to produce things for ourselves. And let others decide if they want to use the things as well.
We need to try things that appeal to us. And quit worrying about what our followers think of our work.
When we want to take time to explore other things we need to take time. Not try to fit our current interests into our already to busy lives.

Instead of trying to do to much we need to stop and do only what makes us happy.

If we don’t we will become bitter and jaded and stop altogether.

Which is why I quit the “good” job..

Funny, I don’t regret a moment of doing the “good” job.
But I don’t regret a moment since quitting it either..

And I have no intention of making my blog a full time job..

So today’s question is:
1) What are your thoughts on blogging either for social or monetary reasons?

Some people, like those living in Mosolo for example, had fewer choices. When you have nothing you must continually work to survive. There is only one choice.

But Zimble didn’t live in Mosolo. His choices seemed unlimited.
And that was the problem.

When it really doesn’t make a difference whether you do one thing or another then doing nothing is as good an option as all the rest.

In Zimble’s life starting and stopping things happened regularly.
He had taken beginnings and endings to define his way of life.

Zimble would start a job, quit it and start another one.
He would start exercising regularly and then decide one day that he didn’t have the time and would stop.
He would work on his diet and then eat junk food the next week.
He would write and write and then stop writing on a whim.
He would…

Zimble envied those with more focus than he had.
Those who started something and completed it.
The ones who have the desire to carry on even though they don’t have to.

But Zimble was stuck in an endless loop of starting something, reaching a point where he realized that by just pushing on a little longer he would become successful and then stopping.

Knowing that you can do something if you wanted to seemed to be enough for Zimble.
Actually doing it seemed to hold little reward for him.

And he would back away at just the point where it was within his grasp to achieve something worthwhile and he would do something else.
The point just before he could make a difference in either his life or the lives of others.

When Zimble finally died there was nothing written about him in history books. ( I was actually shocked that I could find out so much about him. It’s almost like I knew him personally..)
Certainly he was listed as existing. There are records kept of everything.

But it was just a name. Useful for family trees perhaps, but little else.

No one remembers ordinary people. They are but filler in the records of life.

So today’s question is:
1) Do you care about where your life is heading?

I am currently in that position..

My house renovations are somewhat complete. At least the parts that outside workers needed to do for me.
But of course that leaves the aftermath for me to complete.
There is electrical work to finish- some lighting, plugins, switches..
There is some painting for me to do- doors, window trim, wall touch ups
There are other accessory pieces that need to be completed- a list that seems to remain at about 30 items on the go at all times- a do one, find another kind of thing.

There is yard work to do
Spring is here and there are plants to finally plant
There is a deck that needs to be painted
There is a driveway that needs it’s yearly touch ups.
Grass to cut
Trees to trim

Sadly I have a long range plan for my home and yard
And the plan requires a lot of work.
Life was easier when I didn’t have a plan. Things didn’t look as nice as they do, or will look, but I had a lot more free time.

I have work to go to.
And our business is growing by leaps and bounds.
Which is good in a business sense, but tiring in a personal sense..

I have visitors coming. Like they do every year.
And I have to prepare for them.
This year preparing is harder because I have to finish home projects between visits using the time that I would previously have used to relax.

Online I am becoming frustrated.
I have this site.
It’s being neglected while I work on everything I’ve listed above.
And I still want to create a book of stories.

I plan on creating a second site related to business writing.
Business interests me but has no place on the current site.

I’ve been here before.
Life cycles through times when it’s busy and times when it’s not.
It will pass as it always does.
And I’ll forget what I am currently going through.
History repeats itself but I never remember it,ha,ha..

So today’s question is:
1) Do you have any tips on how to deal with times when there is just to much to do?

Of course inanimate objects survive quite well without todo lists but they use complex calculus ( scientific speculation as most science is) to keep themselves organized. And in man, woman, dog and cat kinds defense things like rocks and clouds and such have been around far longer than we have so they have had more time to evolve into higher beings than we have.

But in the animal and bird and plant kingdoms life without the todo list is unimaginable.

The best feature of a well thought out todo list is that once something has been written down we don’t have to actually do it.

It’s on the list. We are going to do it. Someday. Not today of course. And certainly not right away.

If we did it right away we would have nothing to do. It would be done.

To the best of my knowledge no one has created a todone list where we only list things that we have already done. And even if they did having to record what we have done would require a todo list of todone items.

So we are stuck with just a todo list.

It’s an endless cycle really.

We create a todo list and as we do the things on the list they are replaced by new todo things.

I needed to write a post for my site so I added it to my todo list. And when this was done I crossed it off. And then I added a new todo item to write another post for my site.
See, it’s endless…

To quote Shakespeare in his original draft of Hamlet:

To do a list of todo items, or not to do: that is the question:
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous todo items,
Or to take arms against a sea of forgotten stuff,
And by opposing end them? To die: todo ;
No more; and by a todo to say we end..

I suppose if Shakespeare felt so strongly about todo lists it must be necessary for we regular humans as well.

So, today’s question is:
1) What do you have to do today?

But where this story took place it was normal. So the night was dark. Not like in the wacky North Pole where anything goes with light and dark.

Keddie had slept through the dark night. As is often the case.
And now it was morning and the Sun was shining so he woke up. As is often the case as well.

“Well, it’s back to work for me.” said Keddie in a booming voice.

“Shut the @#$%$% up you loud @$$!!$.” said his wife Lettie.

Lettie had been kept away all night because Keddie also snored in a booming snoring type voice. And like most of the neighbors on the block she wasn’t pleased with being kept awake all night.

“Yes, yes, I love you too” replied Keddie still in a booming voice. Apparently Keddie was pretty much deaf. Or he was like most married men and just tuned out whatever his wife was saying..

Anyways within an hour he was off to his job as the town’s air raid siren.

Keddie had worked at many other jobs before landing this one.

He had a brief job at a china store. Which ended as soon as he greeted his first customer and shattered all the china in the shop. He’s still paying for the china destroyed at that job.

And he worked in a circus for a while. Until the fateful day when his booming voice scared the lion tamer’s lions and they ate the lion tamer.
Keddie’s lawyer got him out of paying the lion tamer’s family for their loss by putting a question in the juries mind about a lack of protein in the lion’s diet. That and the lion tamer’s costume made him look appealing. Well, to the lions anyways. Actually most people, including the lion tamer’s wife and his children, just thought the lion tamer looked somewhat gay in the costume. In a jovial way I suppose.

Keddie also worked as a cruise ship employee for a while. But it didn’t work out to well either. Appaently the Titanic sank* when his voice overpowered the warning horn that signaled a change in direction was necessary to avoid an iceberg or something.

He survived the sinking by bellowing loud enough for help that he gave a whale a heart attack. So he floated to safety on the back of the dead whale and ate blubber until he arrived safely at shore years later..

*History records the sinking differently of course because the few that survived recalled Keddie’s “Would you like another round” to the bar patrons as “We’re all going to drown” being announced by the Captain..

Anyways, Keddie finally got the job as the town air raid siren when the electricity went out in his town during a storm and the siren failed to work. Which shows that there is a job for anyone.

So, the story of Keddie is both inspirational and some other words I can’t think of..

And today’s question is:
1)Do you know anyone with a really loud voice that you wish would just quit talking?

Editor’s note: Keddie’s wife left him shortly after this story was written. She now sleeps soundly during the night in a city far, far away.

Keddie is so absorbed in his work that he hasn’t noticed Lettie is missing yet. He is however wondering who keeps stealing the supper she used to make him each night..

Jubo trained his mice to drag his slippers over to him when he got home.
And he trained his mice to use a mouse litter box.
And he eventually trained his mice to not eat holes in his walls or eat his sandwiches when he put them down to answer the phone.

But Jubo grew tired of training his mice for simple things.

So, one day, while reading a dogsledding magazine in the doctor’s office he decided to take the plunge and train his mice for the Iditarod. Which is a famous dog sled race so I’ve been told. Although I have to admit I’ve been told a lot of things that turned out to be false so who knows if this is true either.

Anyways, Jubo believed it. And since the story is about him and his mice that’s all that really matters.

Jubo set to work as soon as he returned from the doctor’s office.

His first challenge was to build a mouse sled that looked like the one in the picture which he had ripped out of the doctor’s magazine while pretending to cough.

He tried using a block of cheese first. Cheese is easy to carve. But the mice ate the cheese sled leaving only the macaroni runners he had taped on the bottom.

Next he tried carving a sled out of ice cream. Which is also easy to carve. But in the morning the sled was gone from the kitchen counter.

“Darn those mice” he thought to himself as he cleaned up the mysterious mess ,that looked like melted ice cream, that the mice had left behind.

Next he taught the mice how to clean up messes on the counter.

And then he hired a carpenter to build the mouse sled.

Over the next few months Jubo worked with his team of mice until they could run around the neighborhood pulling the sled really, really fast. So fast in fact that he was ticketed for speeding twice while trying to keep up to them in his car.

When it was time for the big race Jubo took his mice and their mouse sled to Alaska and registered them for the race. And since he had named his mice dog names no one at the registration desk questioned his entry. Until the next day.

On the day of the race, with all the sleds lined up, the race judges told Jubo that he would have to ride on the sleigh if they were to stay in the race. Or he could run along beside them.

So, Jubo said he would run with his mouse team and the race started.

For a long time the mice were ahead in the race. Jubo ran along beside them.

And then after the long time, about 30 feet I’m told, Jubo collapsed. Apparently he wasn’t in good shape.

The mice did win the race. They even set a record for the fastest time ever.

But of course it didn’t count. All because of Jubo being out of shape. The mice were furious of course.

Back at home the mice left Jubo and moved into an abandoned warehouse where they live happily to this very day.

And Jubo joined a gym and dreams of the day when he can be re-united with his mice.
In the mean time he is training turtles for seeing guard turtle services or something.

So, todays question is:
1) Have you ever owned an unusual pet?

Ebook

I created an ebook. Creating an ebook was an exercise to find out what’s involved in making one.
I’m glad I did it. I don’t regret a moment of the struggle.

I still have lots to learn about ebooks. Writing is just the first step. Figuring out how to promote them and get them to people is part of it that I don’t understand very well.

Newsletter

In order to distribute the ebook I thought a newsletter would work.

It isn’t working, ha,ha..

It isn’t working for a couple of reasons:
-I don’t have very many readers
-I’m not interested in adding to my workload at the moment.

Product page

I added a product page to advertise the ebook.
So to get the free ebook you have to sign up for my newsletter.
Or just email me and I’ll email you with a copy.
Or don’t email me and I won’t really care. Creating the book was the point for me. I’m proud of what I accomplished. (so far I’ve given away 5 copies of the ebook and have one person on the newsletter list)

Beyond Blogging Project

I’m interested in business. Offline and online business.
To gain more insight into online business I joined the Beyond Blogging Project.
It’s been really good. I’d recommend it to anyone interested in online business.

Being a member helped me create my ebook.
Of course the program is about making money online, not about giving away things for free.
But I’m more interested in learning how to do things than how to make money from doing things.

And being a member has really helped shorten my learning curve.

I would recommend it to any other blogger who wants to understand how business blogs work. Or to people who would like to do more with their sites but aren’t sure how to begin.

Lack of Posts

I’m still working on my house renovations. The last major part of the renovations will be completed tomorrow or Monday.
I’m obsessed with getting the work done.
And it has created other home work that I’m obsessed with finishing. (moving the guest room, accessories to match the renovations, etc..)

I’m not good at building things but I am good at managing projects and making decisions.
I’m also good at just wishing the construction would be over with, ha,ha..

So, that’s what’s going on at the moment.

Of course Gary took the lead. Not because men always lead but because he was stronger than Ester. After all he had been using a Wormflex for 3 months now while she had used her spare money to sign up for art lessons.

So Gary had 40 pack abs and big shoulders. And Ester was kind of lumpy but could draw like a banshee..

They were almost at the surface when they heard the footsteps above them. Loud footsteps. Kind of like those of a Robin. A Robin that was looking for worms to eat.

“Well, fiddledee dee” said Gary. And Ester, who was right behind him agreed.

“What now Gary?” said Ester said in a quiet voice. As all worms use I suppose. I’ve never heard a worm yell.

“We go to plan “B” said Gary.

And so they did what every earth worm named Gary with a plan “B” would do in such a case.

Gary kept digging closer and closer to the surface until there was just a thin layer of soil between him and the Robin.

And then ever so carefully he slipped his head into the pocket of his sweat pants. Earthworms don’t have arms or hands apparently. But they do wear sweat pants because the elastic waistband helps keep them on.

Once he had his head in the pocket of his sweatpants he pulled out a large Gummy worm.

Ester was disappointed but not really surprised at what Gary had in his sweatpants.
It wasn’t like they were planning on getting married or anything. Nor would they be she thought to herself.

Anyways, Gary then pushed the Gummy worm through the top layer of soil.

And the Robin grabbed it right away.

The good thing about Gummy worms is that they are sticky. So within seconds the Robin was so busy trying to free the two halves of his beak from the sticky candy that Gary and Ester were able to slip past him and play in a puddle until the rain stopped 3 days later.

When Gary and Ester returned home they were quite in love.
Gary proposed to Ester and Ester said no. But she said she did love him like a brother.
Which didn’t really make him feel all that great.

Ester married an Earthworm named Barlow who was a famous Earthworm artist.

And Gary went on to open his own gym. He never married.

Oh, and the Robin got his beak open eventually. He has sworn off Earthworms and now gets all his meals at McD’s..

So today’s question is:
1) What’s your favorite bird?