I turned around, and there she was. Of course, “Love” is a blood elf!

I didn’t watch today’s Super Bowl game. I was, however, able to keep up with most of the action thanks to my recently downsized Twitter account. And during the game’s halftime show, I noticed quite a bit of antagonism towards this year’s featured act. Continuing the post-nipplegate trend of keeping things “safe,” the NFL chose to hire The Who to provide this year’s halftime spectacle. I’ll admit, I had mixed feelings about this decision. I’ve been a fan of The Who for a long time. At one time, I probably would’ve even described them as my favorite band. But, guys. Seriously? Here’s some soon-to-be-removed-from-YouTube clips of the band’s Super Bowl performance:
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Love Is In The Air Fest started today.

Inside My Head Podcast number 103

This is the annual Anti Valentine’s Day episode of Inside My Head. Expect to hear ranting, and an exclusive haiku of frustration.

If you would like to hear the previous two Anti Valentine’s Day episodes, here they are:

*Anti Valentine’s Day 2 from 2009

*Anti Valentine , the original, from 2008.

All the songs I selected for today’s episode are about bad, or dysfunctional, or doomed relationships. No happy little love songs in this episode!

Music by:
* Pearl , with a song called “Cruel”
* Whitestar , with a song called “Love Gets In The Way”.
* Al Lewis , with a song called “One Way Love Affair”
* The Chad Hollister Band , with a song called “My Best Friend’s Girlfriend”, (which is a cover of the song by The Cars)

* Loomis and The Lust , with a song called “Break On Love”. Listen to the show to find out more about this song!
Loomis and The Lust took a second from their break between sets to pose for a photo with me:

* Trey Green , with a song called “My Girlfriend”. This song is both an Anti Valentine’s Day song, and, an nice hint about what my next show will be about.

Where else has my voice been lately?
* Ourobouros number 127 “A French Flavour”
Colin played the bumper I made him for his “Weird Track of The Week” segment.
This show went up January 22, 2010

* Ourobouros number 128
Colin played the promo for my Inside My Head Podcast
This show went up February 5, 2010

* All Things Azeroth number 179 “Loregasm”
You can hear my voice in the intro for the show and the news bumper. I also did a Back to Basics segment about WoW’s Love is in the Air Fest, which appears at the end of the show.
This show went up February 4, 2010

* Blast From the Past Podcast number 52 “Happy 1st Anniversary, Blast!”
Shawn and I were guests on this episode, and it was so much fun!
This show went up February 5, 2010

Featured Promo:
* Dead Hunt
This zombie novel is coming in March, as a podiobook. What could be a better way to end an Anti Valentine’s Day episode, than with zombies? Somewhere in this podiocast, both Erk and Judy from Channel Erk have a part.

Enjoy the Third Annual Anti Valentine’s Day episode:

I am still working as a freelance writer at this moment. So far, I love it. There have been times when I needed to find my motivation to continue writing, as opposed to, say, continuing to play World of Warcraft for another hour. But, for the most part, I am having a good time. Again, the job has an endpoint, and I am aware of that. My employer has offered me extra work, and then some more extra work, and I think that is a good sign of things to come.

There is something very interesting in the big blue pamphlet that I am so glad to have found. For those of you new to this blog, the big blue pamphlet is one of the first things I was sent when I signed up for Unemployment Benefits. It’s an informational booklet, designed to answer questions about the whole process. Inside, there is this lovely word: “Piecework”.

Page 16 of the booklet states:
“If you receive pay for piecework, report the total amount paid in the week it was earned. Include the word “piecework” in item 6b along with the employer’s name”.

I had been wondering just how I was supposed to let the EDD know that I had been hired as a (temporary) freelance writer. I considered trying to figure out how many hours I worked on it, and also thought maybe it would want me to somehow convert the pay into hours. Nope! I am being paid a specific dollar amount for a specific amount of writing. This means I am being paid by the piece. I am doing “piecework”!

Every two weeks, I must fill out another Continued Claim Form, and send it to the EDD (the government) to review. I will have to do this every two weeks until my Unemployment Insurance runs out, or, I manage to get a job that is going to sustain me like the full time job that I once had. In general, when it comes to filling out government forms, it’s best and smartest to find a way to make everything fit “into the box”. It seems that the EDD wants me to call the freelance writing I am doing “piecework”. I assume that if I was a carpenter being paid by each piece of cabinet I put together that would also be called “piecework”.

That lovely little word “piecework” is going to make things so much easier for me! Easy is good, especially when dealing with paperwork from Unemployment Insurance.

I’ve got one more little update, but it’s not as important as “piecework”. In a previous blog, I mentioned that I had a little coupon from Baja Fresh. I had to go online, sign up on their website, and write a code down onto the coupon itself, before bringing the coupon into the store. Seems I have been misreading the coupon. Disregard what I put in my previous blog. The correct amount was it gives you five dollars off of a ten dollar (or more) purchase.

I am happy to announce it worked, with no questions asked. Shawn and I went to Baja Fresh to eat dinner after watching Avatar in 3D. Both of us had friends rave about how awesome that movie was, and that we needed to see it in 3D before it left the theaters, and this made it seem like as much of a cultural event as we get nowadays. So, we saw the movie, (yes, the movie was awesome), and then went to Baja Fresh afterwards. We spent about ten bucks, used the coupon, and immediately got five bucks off. No hassle, and no questions asked. It’s nice when places live up to the promise they print on their coupons.

This player is going to have a hard time adjusting to the changes when Cataclysm hits!

I’ve been using Twitter since April/2007. And since joining, I’ve had some simple rules about which Twitter accounts I would choose to follow:

1.) If I had an interest in the person/company/organization using the Twitter account, I’d follow it. No expectations here that the newly-followed account would follow me back. But it’s always been appreciated when that’d happen.
2.) If an account chose to follow me first, and that account was representing a person/company/organization I hadn’t heard of before, I’d usually follow it back unless it was engaging in obvious spam-like behavior.

And that lead me to where I was just a few hours ago. I was following well over 900 accounts, and it was too much. Sure, I had created a special list using TweetDeck to keep track of the accounts that I really cared about. But that list represented a fraction of the total amount of accounts I had chosen to follow. And that’s just silly. Why bother to follow an account and then never actually see that account’s Twitter posts? So, I’ve spent the last couple hours clearing out my Twitter account. I’m now following a more manageable 444 accounts, and I’ve removed that special list from my TweetDeck.
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