This one is long folks, but I hope you will enjoy it,

Now this is some crazy stuff here... I was checking out a fellow blogger's blog site and saw an article that had something to do with boosting one's own blog popularity. The comments that this article relieved were personally disturbing to me.

Several of the responders commented on how difficult it was to attract people to their blog and how they were concerned about the amount of money that they could make as opposed to the amount they were actually making, or not making. I thought to myself; "How do they expect to make money from a blog?"

Well... The blog that hosted the article had a link to click on if you happened to like various stories/posts. So I clicked on a couple of the "I like this story" links and it lead me to a Pay Pal page that enabled the visitor to send monetary donations directly to the the owner of the blog.

Later that morning, I clicked on one of the "Noted" blogs from a well known blog host. I went to the guys blog and his first and main article was all about how his Domain name was about to expire soon and that the cost to renew the domain was 10 dollars (yes... Ten, Ten #### dollars). He even gave the name of his bank and the address of it, as well as his email to set up sending a payment or "Donation" as he put it.

I later checked out some other blogs. Some of these people went on about how they were Writers and Authors and were giving up their precious time to share their work on the internet, and thus somehow might deserve a monitory reimbursement for their time to share their golden words with the rest of us.

Ok, I personally am writing two books (horror). I will send actual paper copies to the United States Copy Right office along with 40 dollars for each manuscript to be copyrighted. After that I will send my manuscripts to various Publishers in the hopes that they will read my work, contact me, edit my work, rename my work, and then offer me a piddly amount of money to publish me. THAT my friends is how it works! That is how your words become worth real money years down the road. Begging money for trite (even somewhat useful trite) is just that; Begging. But hey, "A sucker is born every minute". Ever hear that one?

I personally have had only one experience with begging during my life on this planet and it was short lived with the threat of going to jail...

I was probably about 10 years old when "Hostess HO-HO's first came out. My friend Dennis and I went into the "Buckeye Mart". Upon entering, there was a lady sitting behind a folding table with the latest snacks. They were FREE. Being kids and with little funds to spare, we were all about anything free. Oh my God! these little rolled cakes with cream filling were soooo good!, addicting actually.

We kept returning for more and the lady would give us more. As time went on and our addiction grew, she finally said that we would have to pay for any more. TIME FORE A PLAN!...

We then roamed the store and stopped anyone that we could. Our story was that we had taken the bus to the store and that we had no money to take the bus back home, let alone to call our parents to tell them that we were stranded. We only asked for a mere 10 cents for the phone or 25 cents for a bus ride. We would collect the loot and head to the HO HO lady.

As time went on, we were approached by an off duty police officer. He said that he had been watching us and informed us that begging was against the law. He also told us that getting home was not going to be our biggest worry, but getting out of jail was. He informed us (one again) that begging was against the law!

But as time and years went on, I was on the opposite end of the begging scheme...

Lost in downtown Nashville Tennessee, a young man came up to me and asked for 5 dollars. I informed him that I did not have any money. He then gave me a convoluted story about why he needed the money and why I should give him the money (after all, he was asking). I explained again that I did not have any money to give him. At that point some of his friends walked forward out of the darkness and he asked again for money as he pulled a knife out of his front pocket.

At this point I decided to offer a "donation". I pulled my coat to one side and reached behind me as my "needful" friend's eyes opened big with the thought that I was reaching for my wallet to open it and make his requested donation (if not more)... he then realized that in this life, sometimes you don't always get what you want. What he actually received was a snub nosed 357 magnum in his face.

Both of those stories are true. If you liked them (or this post) in either way, you can send your love gift below: