Get On My TinyLetter, STAT!

How's it going creepers and gumdrops? It has been a while, since publishing another blog on OMG, Anna! What's Going On?!

Those of you, who have been with me on this journey for the last 6 1/2 years, already know that the so-called "struggle has been real." 

From the time of joining the original Xanga 7 years ago to Blogster to It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns to Blogger, I still continue to blog. However, I have been blogging a lot less since 2017. 

Job hunting, submitting my short stories to publishers, finding dentists and clinics that accept my insurance for oral extractions, x-rays, etc. Helping to take care of my mother occupies most of my time offline.

As some already know, being a caregiver is a lot of time and work. My mother may not be a vegetable, but she is high maintenance. 

Imagine dealing with a bullheaded and defiant teenager, who acts like a know-it-all with bad health. Yeah, my mother's like that except she is in her late 50's.
 
Despite all the setbacks, I've been updating It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns and previously published blogs on it every so many days, weeks, and months. Therefore, I have not forsaken any of you or my content. In fact, I just changed the background scenery on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. So, check it out!

Why I am telling you all this?

Well, even though I may be unable to publish blogs on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns and OMG, Anna! What's Going On?! (which is on Blogger) 2-3 days a week, I DO update and share previously published blogs every so often and occasionally publish new blogs on both sites.
 
Webs.com has so many glitches. This is especially when it comes to sending and receiving notifications and comments. Their engineers still have yet to repair my Guestbook page.

Meanwhile, Facebook and other social media sites keep destroying the algorithms for entertainers, bloggers, authors, and content creators like yours truly. Therefore, sending newsletters is the best solution.

It has been repeatedly said, that entertainers, bloggers, authors, and content creators should have our own newsletters. 

Why should we have our own newsletter(s)?

Because we have our own content AND contact lists of subscribers. With a newsletter, we have a greater chance of our subscribers seeing our content rather than social media sites like Facebook changing their algorithms to hide our status updates and content on their sites.

For all those, who may have never had a chance to read and comment on past and present blogs, you have a better opportunity of doing so, now. 

If you have friends or know some adults 18 years old or older, that love learning about interesting foreign folklores, writing, music, animation, reading Psychological Horror, Crime, and Psychological Thrillers, etc, etc. send them my way! 

Get on my TinyLetter newsletter, STAT!

I promise not to spam you a gajillion times a day. If I do, you can always blame it on a malfunction.

Anyway, as I continue to work out some other kinks online, stay tuned!

Got Any Questions For It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 5th Anniversary?

How's it going my gumdrops? On September 23rd, it will be 5 years since the time of building my website, It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. If it is possible, I would love to have another Q&A blog. 

It is tradition to celebrate It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' Anniversary by me annually publishing and sharing Q&A blogs.

Normally, I allow 1-3 questions per friend, subscriber, and visitor. My answers are usually very long because of the complex questions that are asked. 

With that being the case, here are 2 Q&A's I previously copied and pasted to my other Blogger page.

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns: Q&A #1

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns: Q&A #2

Here are the rest of the Q&A blogs from my official website.

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns' 2nd Birthday [Q&A EDITION] 

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns 3rd Anniversary: Q&A

It's Not All Gumdrops And Unicorns Q+A 2017 [Part 1]

It's Not All Gumdrops And Unicorns Q+A 2017 [Part 2]

You have 1 week to ask questions, that will be published and shared for the upcoming Q&A. 

The questions typically asked are entertainment based regarding movies, musics, shows, writing, etc. I try to be as apolitical as possible. In other words, I refuse to alienate viewers with politically divisive questions and answers.

Once again, it has been a while, since I last published any blogs not only on OMG, Anna! What's Going On?!, but also on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns.  

Over the last 5 years or so, I have dealt with more than my share of struggles. 2018 has surely been a year of deaths, health issues, hiatuses, and mostly repairs both on and offline. 

Normally, I publish and share blogs 2-3 days a week. Last Thanksgiving, my great uncle died of cancer and my mother had another medical emergency the day after Christmas. 

During late January 2018, a distant cousin's heart stopped. She was briefly put on life support. Then, she died a few days later. 

In addition, I spent months searching for an oral surgeon who would take my insurance. The oral extraction for my wisdom tooth wasn't done until literally 2 weeks before my birthday. 

Speaking of my birthday (which is in mid-June), this last birthday felt more like a Sixteen Candles type of birthday except I turned 36 rather than 16. Now that I think about it, both of those birthdays sucked. 

While doing yard work in the sweltering heat and on my birthday of ALL days this year, I lost my claddagh ring. 

Most of this year has been spent dealing with problems offline. That's not including having to deal with problems online. Since last year, the engineers at Webs have been unable to repair all of our websites' glitches. 

We still cannot send out e-mail blasts to our subscribers. That has to be the worst problem I have had, since the beginning of this year, regarding Webs. Luckily, Webs' engineers did modify our URLs by adding "https" to make our websites more secure. 

However, none of this changes the fact, that Webs continues to have problems. Because I have spent YEARS managing my website, It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns on Webs, I continue to keep it live. 

Meanwhile, the asshole moderators at Google Plus made sharing my blogs harder by constantly blocking, banning, and blacklisting my content by marking it as spam. 

Is it not bad enough that Facebook keeps changing their algorithms, making it harder for everyone to communicate with each other? 

I refuse to go back to using Twitter. That social media site is a bigger sewer overrun with smear campaigns, cyber wars, negativity bias, and political division than Facebook. 

Regardless of what popular social media platforms I'm on, they are sickening to use. This is especially when the social media sites are user UNFRIENDLY,  as I share my online content into the void of mostly indifferent people. 

Today I almost didn't publish and share this blog, which should say something. You may be wondering, "Anna, are you burnt out?"

In a way, I think it is a combination of being burnt out from both on and offline problems, as well as being stuck in a rut without anything or anyone to help me.

The moderators at Google Plus have actually exacerbated my preexisting problems. It is amazing how a last resort social media site like Google Plus wants to treat their most loyal users like we're all a bunch of criminals.

Because of the all the preceding issues, that I have continuously been struggling with this year, I have continued to backburn working on my website and blogs. 

Even though this has probably been the worst year that I have had within the last 12 years on and offline, I have been more productive by contacting book publishers, literary agents, etc. 

Despite everything I have said, do you have any questions for me? I look forward to hearing back from you. 

Thank you my gumdrops! Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, +1 on Google Plus, and leave your feedback in the comments section below!

Song Saturday: The Afghan Whigs' Gentlemen

How's it going my gumdrops? Gumdrops is what I normally call my subscribers and readers on my website, It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. Is that alright with you? Let me know! If you would like to read all the previous blogs I published on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns, simply click on this blog listing.

Speaking of It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns, I published a blog yesterday letting all my gumdrops (readers and subscribers) know, that I will be experimenting with a re-branding on Blogger.

 

Experimenting With A Re-brand On Blogger

As of today, this will be Blog #1 on OMG, Anna! What's Going On?! Normally, I publish Song Saturday and Cartoon Sunday blogs every weekend on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. If you are interested in these types of blogs, that I publish and would love to know why I publish them, click on the following link:

 

Why Do I Publish Song Saturday + Cartoon Sunday Blogs?

If it is possible these next 2 weekends, 2 Song Saturday and 2 Cartoon Sunday blogs with creepy love and possibly disturbing themes will be published for Valentine's Day. All those, who know nothing about me should know, that I am a Horror and Thriller fan, as well as a Horror/Thriller writer. Therefore, you can expect to see CREEPY content being shared in these blogs. 

Speaking of creepy, are you familiar with The Afghan Whigs? The Afghan Whigs is an Alternative Rock band, that launched during the late 1980's. They managed to gain some mainstream exposure, during the 1990's. By the early to mid-90's, Grunge Rock was at its pinnacle. I don't really consider them to be a Grunge Rock band. 

After listening to some of The Afghan Whigs' older songs, they seem more like an Alternative Blues Rock kind of band. During the mid-90's, I always heard of The Afghan Whigs, when I was in my pre-teens or "'tweens."

However, it was not until last year, that I actually saw their music video on MTV Classic for their song, "Gentlemen." Watching the vocalist, Greg Dulli, in their music video instantly gave me creepy vibes. 

In fact, Dulli gave me creepy stalker/voyeuristic vibes in "Gentlemen." He somewhat reminded me of Greg from my short story, The Bill Collector. Greg is a nerdy, red-headed, sales clerk at an electronics store, who is obsessed with the customer, Alice. Greg is so obsessed with Alice, that he pretends to be a bill collector by stalking her beyond harassing phone calls. 

You may be wondering, "What does your short story, The Bill Collector, have anything to do with The Afghan Whigs' 'Gentlemen'"? 

Watch their music video for yourself and see how creepy Greg Dulli looks in "Gentlemen." With that being said, here is The Afghan Whigs' "Gentlemen" for today's Song Saturday.


The Afghan Whigs "Gentlemen" Gentlemen (1993)

Thank you my gumdrops! Don't forget to like, subscribe, share, +1 on Google Plus, and leave your feedback in the comments section below!

Song Saturday: Danzig's Cantspeak

How's it going lurkers? Hopefully all is well on your ends. This past week was a little better than the last 3 weeks. However, it wasn't fantastic. I'm still being more reclusive on and offline. Just the other day, I began brainstorming a list to publish in a new blog. It's something I plan on sharing here.

Luckily, I have been in a more "zen" mood before the start of this week. I didn't have a chance to listen to any more Enya. Although, listening to Tool's albums Undertow, Aenima, and Lateralus put me more at ease.

Before I forget, if you're in the mood to listen to bands fronted by Maynard James Keenan check out the link below:

Song Saturday: Maynard James Keenan (2014)

To be honest, I am more of A Perfect Cicle fan than I am of Tool. Regardless, listening to Tool put me at ease. This was partly because I was checking out something, that a Xangan friend and subscriber shared on her Facebook wall. Talk about '90s nostalgia.

Honestly, I don't care what people say. The '80s and '90s had much better music than these last 10 years. Every music genre was heard on local radio stations and everything in music wasn't about pushing a political agenda.

During the mid-90's, I liked listening to Green Day. That was until they suddenly became a self-righteous, politically divisive, sellout, Pop-Punk band in 2004.

Speaking of '90s music and radio stations, I always hated that radio stations contributed to making bands 1-Hit Wonders. Take Danzig, for example.

Within the last 2 decades, the man has released 9 albums YET all the Rock stations only want to play is "Mother!" Like seriously? C'mon! As much as I liked listening to "Mother," it's NOT  the only Danzig song in existence.

It was not until I started hosting my own radio show during college, that more local listeners began hearing other Danzig songs like "Wicked Pussycat" and "Angel Blake" from Glenn Dazig's 2002 album, I Luciferi. Both MTV and Fuse TV use to air Danzig's music videos. This cannot be said about local Rock stations here in WI.

During 1995, I used to stay up until midnight to see the music video for "Cantspeak" on MTV. Until this very day, "Cantspeak" is STILL my favorite song from Danzig. The music video was directed by Fred Stuhr. Stuhr is mostly known for directing Tool's music videos. 

Supposedly, when Fred Stuhr was in the process of shooting Danzig's music video for "Cantspeak," Stuhr"wanted to create a sense of someone being trapped, someone who can't speak. He's not alive or dead. He's just an ideal, a soul, an existence floating in and out of this time, this reality."

Anyway, here is Danzig's "Cantspeak" for today's Song Saturday.

Danzig "Cantspeak" Danzig 4 (1995)