Sunday 28 November 2010

things have gotten closer to the sun

I was tweeting with Gemma at From Gem With Love last night about materialistic followers. Her blog is a lot bigger than mine, so she gets more bloggers using her hard work as an advert, but i still get the odd few. It proper gets on my wick because i didn't do that to get followers, i just worked really hard on my posts, as do most huge blogs who get exploited. The fact that a lot of bloggers are aware of this, further proves that the population of 'follow me and i'll follow you'ers  is multiplying faster than the snow on my drive (bloody snow). The fact that they use us as an advert, isn't the most offensive thing though, it's that they don't think we can detect their false statements and actually believe they've taken an interest in our blogs. Right before they plug the shit out of theirs or their giveaway. I only comment on post that i like, and i actually say something about it in the comment, i take time to read and understand the info before i comment and make it as personal as i can to the author and as relative as i can to the post. Gem made a good point by saying "i'll link to their blog if i like it" and "make their own blog great so they get readers", which is so true since now it seems these pluggers care more about getting followers, than they do about putting effort into their posts. The reaction i usually have, is flat out ignore them and their copy & paste method, to try and freeze them out. I honestly would rather have three followers who enjoy reading what i put out there, than four thousand that couldn't give a flying hedgehog what i think. The irony is, they'll probably never read this post.

On a lighter note...
I got given two 'Versatile blogger' awards this week, one from Purdey at Kittenish Behaviour, and the other from Nadine at Bimbobeautiful. It meant a lot to me, since i only started getting followers about a month ago, before then it was like i was talking to myself! So here are seven things about me:

001. My three biggest fears are dwarves, horses and jellyfish. Seriously dwarves just really terrify me. Once, in the precinct in liverpool town, one came riding up to me on a bike, dressed as a pirate and shouted "arrrgghhh". I ran, i ran like a motherfudger.

002. I have seven scars. Main ones are a collection of scars on my hands and knees from when i got hit by a car almost three years ago. There's one on my palm from when a had a nasty bite from my hamster nibbles when i was nine. On the same palm, there's a huge long scar from when i had the bright idea of letting my dog (who was bigger than me) pull me on roller blades, eventually leading to me falling onto a piece of glass (and chipping my tooth). Up and left from my bellybutton is a round scar, from when a belt buckle was digging into me all day, then got infected. I had to be pinned down by four people whilst a first aider squoze it to death and stitched it up. On my first day as a chef, i chopped off a big chunk of my wedding ring finger, it's still a bit wonky. One on my right thumb from when i put my hand in a sink with a knife in it and it cut it open, because it was a carving knife though, the scar is quite squiggly and looks kinda cool. And the best one, above my left eyebrow from walking into a lampost on the way home from school!

003. I love science. I love learning about it. I love thinking about things in a scientific way. I always approach things scientifically. I love scientific programmes, documentaries and books. I study forensic science in uni (i should be doing work for it right now). I just bloody love science.

004. I've only ever had two boyfriends. After being tied down throughout my whole escapade across europe, i came back and wanted to be single, since then i had been. Until i found jack, who i've actually known since primary school and made brief encounters with throughout my adolescent years. One day, i hungoverly/still drunkenly went 'round to his house and spent the day making up innuendos and eating pretzels, we hung out a lot after that day until he kissed me about two weeks later. Then he moved to london (talk about timing), he still asked me to be his girlfriend though and i said yes (huge deal for me), so far so good. We disagree on almost everything, in a good way, and there's always a debate on the horizon. 

005. I'm going to spend the summer in New York next year. I go on about it enough, i'm stupidly excited, four months of work followed by three weeks of travelling. I'm also terrified but a good terrified, i love going to new places on my own, i meet a lot more people because i'm motivated to do so. I better get a freakin' move on applying for jobs as apparently most of them are gone by january.

006. I have weird food cravings. In first and second year, i ate some very questionable combos; chocolate pasta; beetroot beans; cider jelly; onion ring lasagne and lots of others. Seriously, i'm suprised i didn't die, but i still get cravings for these things. Yeah, first year really fucked me up.

007. My mum is my best friend.

Now i'll tag seven blog chums to indulge me in theirs.
Laura from As If By Magic
Michelle from daisybutter
Sarah from Burn the Blonde
Rose from rosedl
Ashlee from Photobooth killer
Dottie from dottie

P & L

27 comments:

  1. Aww thanks for the tag! What a surprise! Great post and I love your 7 things, you have such a way with words! I spent last summer in New York (are you doing the J1?) so if you've any questions about accom/work/general stuff I'd love to help, it was the best summer OF MY LIFE and I'll talk about it at any opportunity!

    Burn the Blonde X

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  2. I know how you feel about the whole 'i'll follow you if you follow me' comments. I get a few and it just pees me off! if they actually took the time to read my blog then i wouldn't mind. but half of them probably don't! I love this post, i love hearing more about people i follow! so jealous of you going to New york in the summer, It's my dreamt to go there i bet you'll have the best time of your life. thank you for the tag <3 <3

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  3. I agree on the whole comments thing. I get people doing the whole follow trade thing or ones that just simply say 'nice post follow *blog url*. I find it disrespectable. I leave essay like comments on blog because I enjoyed the content. I hate how blogging has become some big commercial thing where people are trying to compete :/ By the way, I've featured you in my new 'bloglight' post because I really enjoy your blog.

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  4. I'm a new blogger and have noticed blogs that have a lot of followers but not many comments. That got me thinking do all their followers actually read the blog. Anyway I agree with leaving a comment on a post if you enjoyed it. I know I get more excited by comments on my blog rather than followers.
    I cringed a little reading about your scars, mainly because I've done similar things, cutting my finger end on a corned beef tin more than once.
    Chocolate pasta sounds interesting :)

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  5. Hello there, I'm rather new to blogging and really get your point! I tend to leave really long comments and feely silly for doing so but then I'd rather receive a long one than the sort you refer to, and I've received a few that literally just say "cute blog/ cute post" then follow me" with a smiley face. It does seem like a competition now, just to get followers and do giveaways that require people to follow to be allowed to enter..
    By the way, your list of scars sound impressive (and scary!). I have a fair old collection too.
    xx

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  6. Here here, well said Voodle. There are some really knobby bloggers out there.

    It's alway nice to get an insight into the people who write blogs, I think you might need to be wrapped in cotton wool - I thought I was accident prone!!!

    Keep up the good work hun, love reading your blog.

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  7. I've learnt a lot from this, mainly about not letting dogs pull yous on rollerblades, which is a shame as I was thinking about entering Britains Got Talent next year with that exact act DAMN. I'm quite a weird eater, I eat pasta with rice and sometimes even potato, everyone's like omg carb overload, but I just curse at them through my rice mash delight :) So true about what we spoke about, glad you bought it up petal. So I'm having this competition, but you have to follow me to enter right, then tweet about it several times just to get one entry, then can you do a blogpost on it, then can you add my button to your blog, yeah? I'll add yours to mine if you do it. Sweet.

    P.s Cute blog FOLLOW ME???

    Hahahahaha. Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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  8. Really interesting post, I completely agree. I do care about followers and views and comments because I love the thought that people are reading and care about what I have to say. I'm happy just rambling on to myself but as a journalist looking to make a career out of writing, I know I'm always going to be happier if people actually follow me and get involved in what I'm saying. THAT SAID generic comments that just plug their own blog always make me feel rubbish - like what's the point? There seems to be this whole blogging ettiquette and code of conduct that's implicit and Im not sure I always agree with it. X

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  9. Thank you for your comment hun :)
    If you like weird combinations you should definitely try Marmite on toast with Ketchup!
    That is an impressive collection of scars you have there, I shall now also not be getting my dog to pull my along on my rollerblades (my dog is tiny though so this might have been safe to try?!). Enjoy your roastie beast x

    Kittenish Behaviour Blog

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  10. great post, i love your blogger integrity about followers and the people who leave cut and paste comments..also mega jealous you will be spending a summer in nyc! that is my dream! :) x

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  11. I am totally with you hun I started my blog as a visual diary of what I wore on a daliy basis as a personal record and if people liked it that was just a bonus. I am not in it for any gains just a a hobby and relaxation. Great post and I am sure there are loads of us out there who feel the same way. xoxo

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  12. Aw, thanks for the tag! That's quite a scar collection...

    I definitely agree, as I'm pretty sure most people do, it's just a few that I think ruin it. I started blogging because I've always had too much to say and I loved reading other blogs for a long time. It's also somewhat disheartening, especially when your blog is small, like mine is, when you get a comment that's obviously copied and pasted. I work hard to post things that I believe people are actually going to care about as well as just rambling on about my own life, and I do get quite excited when I get a comment, because it means that someone's liking what I do. If that comment isn't really worthwhile, it's like I got a bit of a kick in the teeth!

    Laura
    asifby-magic.blogspot.com

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  13. totally agree with you
    i dont have a blog roll on my blog because i didnt wanna get into the whole if you put my on your blog roll ill add you on mine

    i know who i want to follow and ill follow them. i will talk about them if i want to but i hate people asking for things or putting their competition in my commenst boxes.

    basically thankyou for saying what i was thinking :) xo

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  14. Such a great post! I cannot tell you how many times I have had 'nice blog come follow me!' I actually look at everybodys blogs who comment mine anyway but those comments are the ones who I just cannot be botherd with!

    And aw my mum is my best friend too :-) x

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  15. Sounds like your extremely unlucky with injuring yourself! I cringed reading it cos big knives are one of my biggest fears! And jellyfish... I swam into a swarm of jellyfish in the sea when I was younger and got stung multiple times! The worst part was when I came out of the sea and told my family and they didn't believe me cos I wasn't crying! I was trying to be brave and it failed!

    Anyway, great post! I was also just wondering where you live? I live in Parkgate on the Wirral so I was quite excited to see that your from Merseyside! x

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  16. Thank you for the tag love <3 I'm so jealous that you're spending the summer in New York! I'd love to work and travel there someday, but Uni duties beckon...

    Really well written post by the way, one of my only annoyances on Blogger is the shameless plugging of people's blogs via my comments. I always look at people's profiles and blogs anyway, so it's horrible to log on and see one worded comments followed by a paragraph of the $8435793457 giveaway that they have running :/ xx

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  17. All I'm going to say is this; horses are fucking evil.

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  18. I hate bloggers like that! There is this one blogger and she always is moaning about not having enough followers, she doesn't appreciate the followers she does have. Bloggers need to start blogging to make themselves happy, not to be popular. Good on you for appreciating the ones you do have :)

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  19. Wow this is a great post! I haven't really had anyone try and use my blog for advertising, but then again I'm not exactly well-known!
    I think Cider Jelly sounds nice! Can't say the same for the chocolate pasta though :|
    Well done on your nominations!

    Rhii :) xxx

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  20. Thanks for your comments gorgeous, keep writing, will be back to read soon. x

    iUNDEREYE.BLOGSPOT.COM

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  21. Congrats on the award! I've been seeing it circulating all over the place!

    http://red-soledfashionista.blogspot.com/

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  22. Thanks lovely :) I'm getting sick of people linking their blogs and doing the whole "follow me" thing SO bad. There is one person that comments on every one of my posts, with a link to their page every time. They don't even read my blogs, just say "nice sweater" (when it is a photo with a coat in it) and link to themselves. GAH.

    I will actually do this tagging thing this time, I didn't last time through pure laziness, sorry!! I do appreciate it though :)

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  23. I was actually planning on doing a post about the whole 'follow me and i'll follow you' thing a lot of people seem to do. It annoys me SO much (maybe more than it should?). It may sound silly but I follow a blog because I have read some of their posts and want to read more. I dont follow that many blogs because I seem to be a little bit picky. But I want the people who follow me to follow me for the same reason. I want them to enjoy the things I write, not just follow to beef up their numbers.

    & I'm so jealous of you going to live in New York in the summer. I'm planning on doing something similar when I leave or during university, being fifteen right now I've got a while but planning never hurt! :') x

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  24. ah thanks for the tag <33 look forward to doing this. i'm so excited for you to go to new york. madly jealous, but excited for you.

    we have twin scars! i have one above my left eyebrow too from walking into a glass door haha.

    your blog is lookin dope by the way, i love the background and header, as well as that pic of you with your scrabble rings :D gorgeous.

    lol your food cravings. I drank an entire carton of orange juice this weekend mixed with vodka and whipped cream! very good but it's made me VERY ILL.

    i don't understand these people that are like "great post! follow me!" ...what's the point? thanks for pointing out with love from gem, her blog is awesome.

    xxx

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  25. New York is amazing, I'm planning on going there once I graduate. I'm sure its the place for me. Enjoyed reading this post :) I used to be afraid of Giraffes mostly because I got bit by one as a kid. I'm glad someone else is afraid of horses as well. They're cute to look at though.

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  26. love this wee post girlie!

    Hope ur having a good wk xxx

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  27. I agree with what you're saying - I think people should only follow blogs if they enjoy the content, and vice versa. I don't like how many are commening "follow me and I'll follow back" :/ It kind of ruins the purpose of blogging!

    But anyways, I'm going to post up your badge on my sidebar, hehe :)

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I welcome comments on my blog as i do cake to my face.