Ruth's Cantankerous Pragmatic Ramblings: October 2005

Eat My Way to the Top? How Do I Start?

I can't wait until tomorrow to put up another post. This came to mind and I have to write it... How does one become a Food Critic? More importantly a PAID Food Critic? I am VERY big into texture and taste and consider myself pretty good at critiquing food... I would LOVE to visit new places, try their menus out... and report to the public whether to waste their time & money on it, or to run, not walk to get there ASAP. And I love reporting things to the public via the Internet... must be why I have 2 blogs and about 5 websites... I start a new one each time I think of an idea... hmm so maybe that is how I can start... create a new website... but then what? That's the easy part. How do I get it to some acclaimed people... and eventually into the hands of someone that will pay for my efforts...? And if I post it on a website... why would someone pay me?? Or is that just a stepping stone? How did Rachel Ray start the ... on $40 a day show? Was she already on TV cooking? ... Or how did Al Roecker start?

Put Up or Shut Up? or.... Where the Feng Shui is the promised information?

This week I got my weekly 'newsletter' from Debbie DeSpirt "About.com - Feng Shui Guide". I haven't read her emails for months, but this one I opened... and saw it offered help in Choosing Colors for Rooms - and since I'm about to paint a few rooms in my house, it grabbed my attention. Now.. go with me here for a minute... I promise this post is NOT about Feng Shui. Moreover, it is about people offering something and not following thru.

Debbie had ONE paragraph, a paragraph that hooked you into "read more". So I clicked...leading me to yet another Paragraph on the About.com website. Inside THAT paragraph was ANOTHER link... to a totally different person's website... a Newsletter of Feng Shui tips... or so it says. Now this newsletter... was dated May 1, 2000 - I know that Feng Shui has been around for thousands of years.. but come on.. there MUST be more recent info to link to?? Or at least she could have found an article that actually offered help in what she titled her article... this newsletter referred mainly to the color of the Exterior of your house... Hmmm. Foiled again.

So I wrote to Debbie... told her I was disappointed... and she wrote back... telling me basically... she can't please everybody, but she pleases the Majority. I wonder how she knows if she pleases the Majority? Does she send out a POLL at the bottom of her email? NO. She invited me to UnSubscribe if I didn't like her "article". So I did.

Those darn >> Fwd >> symbols... What Don't People Understand???

I can't believe the emails that come in with multiple >>> symbols on each line. For example, LOOK at this.....would YOU want to read thru all that garbage?

>>>Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security
>>>number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and
>>>other private information -- exactly what the scammer needs to commit
>>>identity theft.

What is it that people don't understand about removing them before forwarding on the email? We are ALL busy... we ALL have better things to do... Are they all waiting for ME to do it? Like I don't have anything else to do with my day?! I am close to putting a RULE in my email which will block emails that have those darn things in them. I have politely asked for people to remove them before sending them on....it doesn't work! All it would take is fir ONE person to remove them, and then if people could learn to COPY & PASTE instead of using the darn FWD key... that's the ticket... we need all the email program companies to REMOVE the FWD options from email programs! That'd do it!