Mishmash Musings

My in-laws have arrived safe and sound, and will be staying with us for the next 10 days. I know that it’s going to take all my self-control and willpower to get through the visit without blowing up due to stress, so I’m not looking forward to the next week and a half.

I’m going to try to look on the bright side of everything and not get too wrapped up in what I can’t do while they’re here: regular blogging, watching TV when I want, taking an afternoon nap, etc. I feel like I have to entertain them practically 24/7, which means all of my regular duties fall by the wayside.

So anyway, if my posts become a bit erratic here in the near future, now you know why!

The long-awaited social media marketing platform known as SocialSpark has been up and running for about a month now. Developed by IZEA, the company behind PayPerPost, RockStartUp, Blogger’s Choice Awards, and more, SocialSpark was hyped as a revolution that would change blogging forever. I now have a chance to provide a paid review of the service, so here is what I’ve come away with after my first impression. (If that wasn’t clear enough for you, this review is sponsored by IZEA.)

Unfortunately, after poking around SocialSpark for the past few weeks, I have to admit that I’m extremely disappointed by the many limitations that I’ve encountered thus far. Here is just a small sampling of the features I dislike:

– The social networking aspect of the site is annoying. There are users with, quite literally, thousands of friends. We’re talking two or three thousand here, though it’s quite obvious that nobody is truly “friends” with that many people. Same thing with props, which people trade for no reason other than to boost their numbers. You might think that a blog with 700 props would be a darn good one, but in reality, it just belongs to someone adept at getting other people to vote for him. In other words, stats regarding friends and props are meaningless — yet advertisers can select “Most Props” as a filtering criterion.

– I absolutely detest the queue system as well. Right now, when a marketplace opportunity goes live, only a certain number of slots are available for the taking. The rest of the slots are put on hold, and would-be takers must queue up and wait for an opening. This queue function is apparently necessary to accommodate the dynamic pricing feature, which also stinks (in my opinion). It’s frustrating to have to wait for opps to open up (it could be anywhere from several days to a week or more), and even more frustrating to have just 12 hours to complete the opp, beginning from midnight eastern time.

– I don’t like how difficult it is to determine whether an opp is open or not. Green lights, red lights, waiting for slots, requesting slots… this is something that should be straightforward, but it isn’t.

There are a couple of things that I like about SocialSpark, including the way bloggers and advertisers both have a chance to put up extensive profiles. Check out Ted Murphy’s profile by clicking the link I just provided. You can see all the information available there, which is certainly a lot more than was ever possible in the old PPP profiles. Plus, PPP profiles were never public, so SocialSpark definitely has an edge there.

Overall, I’m going to sit on the sidelines while IZEA works out all the kinks in SocialSpark. I do think this has the potential to be a great platform, but it’s definitely not there yet.

I just read that Bill Murray’s wife of 11 years, Jennifer Butler Murray, has filed for divorce from the actor. Among her complaints, she alleges that Murray physically abused her, including one occasion where he hit her in the face and then said she was lucky he didn’t kill her. In addition, Jennifer Murray claims that Bill would often travel overseas specifically to have sex with other women.

Wow, he sounds like a real gem, doesn’t he? I realize this is just half of the story, but… yikes!

The couple signed a prenup, so the divorce should be quick. Jennifer Murray stands to receive $7 million out of the deal.

I just read an article about a 61-year-old woman in Tennessee who died after a power failure caused her iron lung to stop working. The woman’s name was Dianne Odell, and she’d been stuck in the thing ever since she was diagnosed with polio at the age of 3.

Hmm, didn’t anyone think to provide a backup power source (such as a generator or something) in case of a power outage?

Two other things strike me about this story. First, this woman spent her entire life ON HER BACK inside a 750-pound machine and even had to use a mirror just to make eye contact with visitors. I wonder what her caregivers did about muscular atrophy and bedsores — not to mention bathing and the like. Was she ever able to get out of the machine for even a few minutes at a time??

Second, I had no idea that iron lungs were still in use. They sound like such ancient, outdated contraptions that I was surprised to hear that this woman spent nearly 60 years in one. I guess she had some other complications that prevented her from getting more modern equipment, though.

To Odell’s credit, she got her high school diploma, took college classes, and wrote a children’s book. That’s pretty amazing for someone confined to an iron lung. Seriously, I likely would have given up on things well before hitting 61….

(AP Photo/The Tennessean, John Partipilo, File)

The 2008 NCAA baseball tournament, which leads up to the College World Series, is slated to begin soon, which is why the brackets were released today. While this doesn’t cause as much of a stir as, say, the release of the March Madness basketball tourney brackets, it’s still a pretty big deal.

As with basketball, 64 teams qualify for the tournament based on regional tournaments. Once the field of 64 teams is set, they’re divided into 16 four-team regional brackets, where they play in a double-elimination format. The 16 winners from the regionals advance to the best-of-three super regional series, with the eight winners then going on to participate in the College World Series in Omaha, NE beginning on June 14.

Florida was selected as the top seed in the nation, with North Carolina, Arizona State, Florida State, Cal State Fullerton, Rice, LSU, and Georgia also scoring top national seeds.

Meanwhile, two-time defending champion Oregon State didn’t qualify for this year’s tournament after posting a mediocre 28-24 record during the regular season.

I usually try to catch a couple games of the CWS on ESPN every year, so hopefully there will be some good action in the 2008 tournament!

I’ve never been much of a car racing fan, but there are a few events that I tune into every year. The Indianapolis 500 is definitely one of them, and even though I wasn’t able to catch the whole race today, I did see some of it.

Fan favorite Danica Patrick was clipped on pit road by Ryan Briscoe, damaging her car and leaving her unable to finish the final 29 laps of the race. Until that point, she’d mostly been running in the Top 10, but was never really near the front of the pack.

This year’s Indy 500 winner turned out to be Scott Dixon, a 27-year-old driver from New Zealand. Dixon beat Vitor Meira out of the pits on the last stop and was able to hold onto the lead until the checkers flew. It was Dixon’s first Indianapolis 500 victory.

(Photo by Robert Laberge/Getty Images)

Several years ago, a friend of mine gave me a coin that was issued in France to commemorate the achievements of linguist Jean-Francois Champollion. Even though it was a silver coin, I don’t think it had much real value, since it wasn’t rare or anything like that. Even so, I loved that coin and carried it around with me as a good luck piece — until I somehow lost it.

At any rate, I’ve been thinking about starting up a coin collection that actually does have a chance at appreciating in value. With the stock market as shaky as it is these days, I think putting my money into gold or silver coins would be a much safer way to go. I took a look at Monex.com this morning, and saw several excellent options for investing in gold and silver, so as soon as I get some extra cash together, I’m going to talk to someone over about making a purchase or two.

My in-laws are coming for a week-long visit next week. They’ll arrive on Saturday and aren’t leaving until June 8, at which point I’m sure I’ll be on the brink of insanity! I get along with my in-laws for the most part, but I hate having house guests for an extended period of time because it throws me off my routine. We have such a small place that it’s impossible to find any kind of privacy at all when other people are here, so I’m not going to be able to work or relax in peace.

I can’t complain though. I mean, they’re coming all the way from Japan, so I should actually be grateful that they’re only staying for one week instead of two or three.

At any rate, I’m going to be spending most of next week cleaning up in preparation for the visit. I’m going to try to keep posting regularly even when they’re here, but there will probably be a couple of days when I won’t be able to log on.

Wish me luck!

It seems that the only thing people are talking about these days is money. Specifically, they’re talking about how much everything costs now, from gas to groceries and all sorts of other products in between. Frankly, I’m getting sick of all the complaining, know what I mean? Sure, my savings account is suffering from the effects of this terrible slump the economy is going through, but it’s just extremely depressing to hear people constantly moan about this stuff.

How are we dealing with things? Clipping coupons, eating at home, renting movies instead of going to the theater, cutting down on a bunch of extras… the usual budget tricks. Thankfully, we’re still getting by, and I hope we can continue to do so until things pick back up!

Wow, has there been an unusual amount of natural disasters in recent weeks or what? From killer cyclones and devastating earthquakes overseas to deadly tornadoes here at home, it seems that Mother Nature is on the warpath.

I just read that there were a couple of tornadoes in Colorado and Wyoming today that caused major damage, left people without power, and even killed at least one.

The tornadoes mainly affected Windsor, Colorado (Weld County), a farming community of about 16,000 residents; Johnstown, Colorado, about 10 miles north of Platteville; and Laramie, Wyoming.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has declared a state of emergency in Weld County, and has the Colorado National Guard assisting in the area.

AP Photo/ Darin McGregor, Rocky Mountain News

We bought an alarm for my husband’s new car today. It cost us more than $400 (installed), which was a bit more than I thought we’d have to pay. I mean, for that price, I figured we’d be able to get gps tracking and other cool features, but that wasn’t the case at all. It’s just your standard alarm that beeps and wails when it detects someone trying to break into the vehicle.

Oh, well. This was a purchase that we had to make, so I can’t complain about it too much. At least we’ll be able to save a bit on our car insurance now that we have the alarm installed!

The results are in! Kristi Yamaguchi is the Dancing with the Stars winner for 2008. Kristi and professional dance partner Mark Ballas bested pro football player Jason Taylor and his partner Cheryl Burke. This was the first time in four years that a woman won the competition, so good for Yamaguchi!

I actually like Jason Taylor too, so it wouldn’t have mattered to me if he had won. He was surprisingly good all season long, which made it easy to pull for him.

Anyway, Dancing with the Stars has become one of my favorite guilty pleasures. Yes, it’s just a “stupid dance show”, as my husband likes to say, but it’s really a lot of fun!!