Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • Win Free Advertising on Sleepless Nights

    I was over at Problogger the other day, reading a post from Josh at Worlds Strongest Librarian – both good blogs to read through if you’ve got some time – and he was talking about how he got sponsors for WSL.

    He ran a competition, asked people to submit an application to him and at the end of a month, he had sponsors.

    The deal:

    I ask for an application – you provide it, along with a 125×125 px image to use as your ad.

    You get a month’s free advertising on Sleepless Nights, in the left sidebar over there, just above the No Clean Feed graphic.

    At the end of a month, you can either choose to pay for another month’s advertising, or walk away from this whole deal with nothing lost, hopefully still sticking around to read me.

    If everybody walks at the end of a month, I will run the same competition again, with new applicants and new ads, for another month long free advertising stint.

    The Application:

    Here is what I want from you.

    I want you to email me with:

    A 125×125 px graphic that will be used to link your blog.

    Answers to these questions:

    Who are you?

    What makes you happy?

    Why do you want to advertise on Sleepless Nights? (correct answers include – because I like Sleepless Nights – incorrect answers include – because it’s free stupid.)

    Why is your blog/business special?

    ***

    I will be accepting applications up until the 1st of March and I will announce the winners on the 14th of March.

    When I say ‘month long’ I meant from the 10th to the 10th or the 20th to the 20th, regardless of how many days in the month. February is out of the running, so you’re not getting short changed.

    ***

    Fine Print, that isn’t actually fine at all, because it’s the same size as everything else.

    There will be 6 ad spots available.

    I will be judging the applications myself, with some help from Frogpondsrock – who will also be running the same competition on her blog. I will be as impartial as I can.  Our decisions will be based on your application – it will not be based on the size of your blog or business.

    You don’t have to be selling something; you can advertise your blog.

    I will not advertise for drugs, illegal activities or propaganda. I reserve the right to make that decision.

    Everyone will be charged the same amount at the end of the month, no special deals, or more expensive ads for big businesses. I reserve the right to not tell you how much I’m charging in this blog post, but I will disclose it within emails.

    My email address is veronica@somedaywewillsleep.com and please include the words ‘Advertising Competition’ in the subject line.

    I’ve been thinking about how best to monetise Sleepless Nights for a while. It’s no secret that we’d all like to make some money from our blogs and I’m no exception. Personally I’d be happy if the blog would cover the cost of some chocolate now and again and that’s what I’m working towards.


  • Twitter and Tasmanian Politics and I was blocked for the very first time.

    I don’t get political here very often, although there is no doubt I am green at heart.

    It recently came to my attention that there is a law in place silencing discussion of the upcoming Tasmanian election by people on blogs and twitter. We’re not allowed to write about them anonymously, or comment on them anonymously. And in this case, anonymous means not having your full name and home address at the bottom of every single post or comment. For clarification, this is the definition of the ambiguous ‘electoral matter’.

    This same law recently caused outrage in South Australia – why are we not seeing the same outrage in Tasmania? This law, it’s been in place for SIX YEARS.

    Six years.

    Of course, this is the first election where the Internet and social media are in heavy use by the voting population and it seems that no one actually knows what the precedent is.

    But you tell me, if you’re making comment about our election, do you really want to have to add your full name and home address at the bottom of that comment?

    No. Me either.

    It’s a safety issue for one.

    I don’t see our esteemed Premier, Mr David Bartlett giving out the address where his children live.

    Why should I have to?

    Don’t worry though, the writs aren’t in place for another 5 days, so for now, I’m safe.

    I’m half tempted to write about the election anyway, just because I can.

    I should clarify first, before you read the rest of this post, that this is not David Bartlett’s law. He didn’t create it and pass it and he wasn’t Premier when it went through.

    ****

    On twitter, I follow a lot of our political leaders and enjoy having the backwards and forwards with the politicians. It’s my opinion that having to answer to us personally on twitter keeps them honest.

    However, I clicked over to see what our Premier was up to today and discovered I wasn’t following him anymore.

    Strange I thought, and pressed follow.

    Oh you can guess what happened next.

    Remember, this is our Premier. The leader of our state. The man who makes all the decisions that impact on me personally.

    And he blocked me. On twitter.

    I thought you had to have a thick skin to get into politics?

    Not be a wussy cry baby who worries about twitter and being made accountable.

    Now to be fair, I have disagreed with him. The state of the midland highway is atrocious and I wanted him to answer me as to why it was left looking unfinished. I heard nothing from him by the way.

    I have questioned his policies, but then, I assumed that as Premier of Tasmania, questioning his policies would be something he was used to.

    And yet, he blocked me.

    What a sook.

    Feel free to tell him what a sook he is if you like.

    Heh. Appears my soapbox is getting a bit of work lately. I might just keep it out, just in case.

  • Snoring

    No matter what the provocation, it is illegal to murder your partner.

    So at 11.30pm the other night when I was seriously considering murdering Nathan, I got out of bed and walked away.

    No matter what I did, he kept fucking snoring.

    I poked him.

    I prodded him.

    I swore at him.

    I kicked him.

    I shook him until his teeth rattled.

    I stole his pillows and beat him with them (small step to considering suffocation).

    I squeezed his ribs, hard, and at least this one made him roll over.

    But he didn’t stop snoring.

    When my final two ploys failed – pulling his leg hairs and then his pubes – I bailed out.

    I’d exhausted all of my for-the-love-of-god-stop-snoring techniques and I was left trying to work out which would be better, a pillow, or a knife. Not great options either of them, considering I really prefer him alive. But oh the fantasy, it was tempting.

    I grabbed my pillows, hit him with them for good measure and went and slept in Amy’s room with her.

    I’m not sure what was worse, the band saw snoring, or Amy poking me with her feet all night.

    She’s very poky.

    All I can say is thank goodness she has a double bed and thank fuck Nathan doesn’t snore like that most of the time.

    Because otherwise, he’d be lucky to live through another night.

  • Unicorns and faerie dust and all that.

    Phew! after the fallout from my post admonishing Domino’s for false advertising, I think I need something shiny and pretty to talk about.

    Or maybe a unicorn. Actually, if I could be bothered, I could try and stick a horn on one of the horses, but I doubt they’d be impressed and I’m not really sure I’m prepared to chase horses around the paddock all day with a camera.

    Anyway

    ***

    It’s been a hard week, this last week. I’m due for my period, my joints keep forgetting that they’re meant to attach to each other and sleep has been restless and broken.

    Nan’s house sold and new people moved in. I thought I was fine with that, but it turns out, seeing their car in her driveway was a bit too much to bear. I cried a lot that day.

    I miss her. So much. I would have liked to hear her perspective on Domino’s and I know she would have been watching the comments as closely as I was.

    I watched a documentary on Palliative care last night. Brilliantly done. It follows four patients through their end of life journey. I cried the whole way through it, but if you’re interested, you can view it online here.

    The lady with breast cancer, her attitude reminds me of Nan so much.

    I miss her.

    ***

    Photos!

    My children play well together. Except when they don’t, and then I fear for my own safety as I wade into the fray of hair pulling and toy throwing to separate them. The house is in a permanent state of disarray, but we’re all having fun. Except for Nathan, the mess makes him twitch.

    Susie is settling in well. She’s such a smart puppy and she learns so fast, that aside from normal puppy behaviours, we’ve not had any issues.

    We just won’t talk about her penchant for chewing books.

    Naughty dog.

    ***

    Again on the Domino’s thing – I rang the ACCC and the government body who deals with food safety and labelling. They’re very interested in Domino’s; as the ACCC says, it’s deceptive advertising to call something Gluten Free and then add a disclaimer that it might not be completely gluten free.

    Please forgive me for not knowing which government department exactly I was speaking to, I was passed through 4-5 before I got the right people. It’s someone in the Health Department and they deal with food labelling laws and issues arising from mislabelled food.

    Anyway, the guy I spoke to at the Health Department, he says that Domino’s cannot have it both ways and agrees that yes, they are breaking the law in claiming Gluten Free, but then adding a disclaimer. He was lovely and we discussed the issue, including the response I got from the Coeliac Society and Domino’s.

    So I can let it go, at least on the internet.

    It’s being investigated by the relevant officials now.

  • Minor Technical Details –

    To everyone clicking through your feed reader to my latest post and getting a 404 error, I’m sorry, I’m having some small technical issues with a post that wasn’t meant to go live for a while.

    I got a WP error in the middle of scheduling it to post later and then everything went wrong.

    Argh!

    So uh, don’t mind me. Just pretend you didn’t see it, okay? I’ve just rescheduled it and resync’d feedburner, so it might not even be an issue yet.

    xx

    love me