This is my 400th! Post

Goodness! I can't believe I have reached 400 posts. There for a while, I was posting statistical information about posts when I reached certain milestones and I thought I would use my 400th post for just that purpose. Prepare to be bombarded with links!

1st post: I had not really took to blogging before creating Dee Declares on June 9, 2011. I tried of course, but they never lasted longer than 10 posts or so. I just got too bored with them. This blog has lasted almost a year and a half and for a while, I posted every day. I'm trying to get back to that- honestly. Social Media is more work than people want you to realize. Anyone that says it "is easy and only requires 5 minutes a day" isn't putting enough time or thought into their posts. The original purpose of Dee Declares was to begin to build my writing platform and has turned into a personal soapbox on some occasions, a showcase for my crafts, a cheering ground for important milestones, etc. I am incredibly proud of this blog!

100th post: My 100th post was not a happy one. This post was regarding the aftermath of the London riots from August 8, 2011. I posted articles, videos, and links to find help for those affected by the riots, those wishing to help clean up the city, those that just wanted to know what the hell was going on. I also ranted about the celebrities that were incredibly mum about the rioting, while praising the 3 (Neil Gaiman, David Krumholtz, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt) that at least mentioned it. It was a very scary night and I was half a world away!

200th post: I had to laugh when I reread my 200th post. It is the first of my 2011 NaNoWriMo journal posts. Last year, I hand wrote a journal and then transcribed them to Blogger at the end of the week with annotations relating to what I wrote. I tried to keep the transcription as true to what I wrote as possible but it was hard not to edit what I had already written to make it clearer and less manic. I remember that night at Star Bucks very well. *cringe* This year's blog isn't annotated and is much shorter.

300th post: This post went up January 14, 2012 and was edited to remove all photo content on August 15, 2012 due to reports of bloggers being sued over the use of other people's images even in the case of taking pictures down immediately after a take down notice, linking back to original sources, openly stating non-ownership of the images, and giving credit to the actual owners/originators- all on blogs that do not generate income themselves. I have been very resistant to putting AdSense on my blog because I for one hate ads and never click the ads on blogs or other social media. I find it distracting and invasive. That said, I can see both sides here. I deleted the images and replaced them with the disclaimer that is now on the page (and several other pages). It took forever to go through every blog post and delete images. Ugh. You can read the post relating to the image take down here.

Did you know that part of my signature that appears at the end of every post from August 14, 2011 onward- minus the one here and there that I completely forgot- is a line said regularly on NBC's The New Normal? Alright, it isn't probably specifically from my signature as it really is a common sense phrase (love is love) but since I've been using it for more than a year prior to Ryan Murphy, I'm claiming credit. :P And yes, I freaking love that show. That original post was about an article posted on LGBTQ Nation about what Jesus would do if he were invited to a wedding between two men or two women. Here is the post and here is the article.

Over the past near year and a half, I have taken to voicing my opinions on pop culture, current events, and politics. I participated in the social media blackout protest of SOPA and PIPA. I voiced my displeasure of the indefinite detention article of NDAA. I wrote an essay letting people know exactly what I stand for and what I stand against. I wrote about some of my favorite shows/movies, performers, authors, and books.

And finally, since this started out as a writing blog, I have added a link at the top of the page where I have compiled all of my writing specific posts. You can scroll to the top and look at the banner under the title. You'll find these links at the top: Blog, About Me, Journey of Shadows, and Writing Information. The blog tab will take you to the latest 10 blog posts; about me is a link happy semi-humorous biography; JoS includes the cover art (shout out to Alberto who made my amazing cover- seriously, go look at how amazing it is), links to purchasing my book from Smashwords or Amazon, and a pronunciation guide for words found in the book; and Writing Information will take you to a list of writing specific posts (not including all the NaNoWriMo posts- maybe those will go in another page some other time).

This blog has survived post-a-day marathons, elections, riots, computer crashes, two NaNoWriMos (alright, so one is in progress right now), political turmoil, copyright issues, lax maybe-5-a-month posts, and more since it started in June 2011. I am close to 800 views per month and expect to reach 14,000 total views this month. I couldn't be more proud of Dee Declares. Thank you for coming by. I hope you'll comment, share, like, etc. and continue to come back for more randomness by me!

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS

Hey there! Yes, You...

Sorry for being absent this week. Our Internet hasn't been the most reliable thanks to some scattered storms and utility "repairs" down the street. I gave up after they flipped our electric off for the 4th time in an hour and decided not to attempt to blog until they were finished. That was on Monday. They aren't there today so I'm crossing my fingers that they completed their project, and not just gone for the weekend. Just in case, I'm working on some blogs for this coming week and will be scheduling them throughout the week.

Coming this week:
Monday- Short Story vs. Novel
Tuesday- Tuesday Treat: Favorite Snacks of the Great Scribblers
Wednesday- A View From the Margins
Thursday- Thursday Thought: Tradition
Friday- Friday Five: 5 Questions with a Reading Teacher

Stay tuned!

I'm Sick!

I am home sick today. It started yesterday with a slightly sore throat before lunch and an aching back after lunch. Neither gave me much concern at first. I hadn't drank much water which I attributed to the sore throat. My work  requires some lifting, pushing, pulling, etc. so I figured that was why my back hurt. But it just kept on. By 2pm, my ears started hurting and feeling full (which was so weird to me... I've never had an ear infection or anything). By 3pm, I was chilling really bad and the back ache became a full body ache. When it was time to go home, my brain started feeling fuzzy... at least, that's what I call it. My reaction speed was slowed down, my vision was more blurred than usual, and I felt like if I closed my eyes, I'd sleep immediately. I had the nurse take my temperature before I left work. It was 99.6. Less than 30 minutes later when I got home, it was already at 101.2. At bedtime, it was 103.6. And that was after taking Motrin! I got up at 5am and took more Motrin. An hour later, we checked my temperature to see if I could go to work or if I needed to call in and it was 102.2. So I'm stuck home today. I'm going to try to get some sleep but I went to bed at freaking 7:30pm and slept through until 5am. I'm not that tired right now but I need to *try* at least.

Just an update, Journey of Shadows is selling a lot better than I expected. I've already sold 6 copies and have had 10 previews downloaded. That rocks! I opted in to Smashword's Read an Ebook Week promotion, so right now you can find my book in the REW catalogue for 25% off the listed price. Pretty cool!

I'll hopefully feel better soon. I'm going to try to call my doctor this afternoon to see if he will call me some antibiotics in without making me get out today. I really hope the fever goes away soon!

Maybe Good News?

I just got off the phone with a computer guy that is going to attempt to transfer all my stuff off my hard drive this weekend. He is going to check to see if it is my power supply first though since we couldn't find one that was the right size. The good news is that I should be back on track come Monday or Tuesday. Even better, he said that it does not sound like the hard drive crashed. That makes me so very happy!

Operation New Computer is a Go!

I am finally back with a new computer! It only took 2 weeks... I think. So did I miss anything?

While my computer was borked, I managed to borrow my mom's laptop for a few minutes each day. I think I got one daily done in that time... good thing it had already been written the week before. haha Between starting a new job (where my sleep schedule has completely changed) and using a borrowed laptop that is shared between everyone else in the house, I didn't get more than 20 minutes at a time on the computer. Frustrating but couldn't be helped.

Plus, her laptop is old as the hills, slow, and very annoying to try to use with any proficiency. Nothing is set up how I like it to be used. It basically makes me hate using the computer when I can't use mine.


So, I have a new computer now. My bookmarks are probably lost, as I'm not sure if I can find my code for FireFox Sync. And I'm not even sure it updates as I add new bookmarks or if I was supposed to do that manually. I'll give it a try if I find my list of computer stuff. It is around here somewhere. I'm still crossing my fingers hoping that all my files are still intact on the desktop hard drive. I haven't gotten it to my computer guy yet for him to look. It will SUCK if the hard drive is gone. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

So the new computer is nice. I'm happy with it even though it cost more than I planned to shell out at the moment. It is a Toshiba Satellite P755D laptop. 6GB of RAM and 640GB hard drive. Apparently the processor is decent but I don't know squat about computers. I just know that my desk top was a 3.2 on the Windows Experience Index with fairly consistent scores from 3.2 to 3.6. This new one is a 5.9. If you know what the numbers mean, lucky you. I just know that higher numbers is supposedly better. This new computer got a 5.9 for the graphics and primary hard disk. It has a 6.5 for gaming graphics, a 6.8 processor, and a 7.3 for RAM. Good yes?

I'm working on naming the new computer. I don't know why... someone told me during my first NaNo that all electronics should have a name. I think that is where I got it. Anyways, so I had to come up with names. The name of my desktop and my netbook change frequently though. The netbook has been Pipsqueak, Thumbalina, and Purple Polly. The last name it held was Peaches... not because it is orange-ish but because of the baby from Ice Age. It is my favorite movie series after all. The desktop was named Grumpy for the longest time as it had some issues. It was 8 years old, so it fit. Lately, I had been calling it Gramps though... might be why it decided to give up the ghost finally. So for this new one, Harvey is jumping out at me. On the bottom right of the screen edge, the words harmon/kardon is printed and I immediately thought "Har-don" for a name. Of course, I can't use that. So Harvey is probably going to be it for a while at least.

So, now that Harvey has been introduced, on to other business. My daily posts are going to be limited now that I am working, especially since I am still working on the transcription of my final Immo1 edit. Even more so if my file is gone. Let's hope not but I'll let you know about Immo1 when I find out. So as for daily posts, they aren't going away 100%. I'm going to keep a few of them, namely Tuesday Treat, Thursday Thought, and Friday Five. I'll add more in as I figured out a good schedule that optimizes my free time. I hate that I have to cut out over half of my dailies but I love having a job and I love having time for sleep... something has to be limited until I find a balance. Other posts will continue as they come along... one good thing about limiting the dailies is that I will be able to write more writing posts. Since this is a writing blog after all. :)

So stay tuned for Immo1 updates, new semi-daily posts, and actual writing stuff. I'm very glad to be back online!

New Color Scheme and Other Blog Stuff

Just a quick fyi, I changed around the default blog font and the blog colors. Let me know what you think please. I thought it would be nice to mix it up a bit with the new year and all. I definitely like the black background, white foreground, and black text though if it were really to my preference, it would be a black background, black foreground, and white text. My vision sucks so white text is much easier on my eyes. I'm not so crazy about the banner color at the top. It almost matches the blue of my "Yay coffee" picture, but it still irks me for some reason. I'll be tweaking this over the next few days.

What do you think of the colors? The font? The font size? I need outside opinions. :)

Busy Holidays

I spent all day yesterday shopping for holiday markdowns at Wal-Mart and the mall. I was so busy in fact that I forgot to do yesterday's post until very early this morning. I'll be working on both yesterday's post and today's post over the next couple hours. Check back soon.

Love is love, no matter the back story. <3 DS