How Much Cock Do I Have to Suck?

**or How Many Blogs Do I Have To Hop To Get the Traffic?

There are people who drop by your tagboard, leave a quick message, and then promote their blog. They are not asking for a link exchange, they just want to let you know that they blog too. Whoop-de-doo.

There are people who comment on your most recent post, and then promote their blog. You then remember your policy towards generic comments as you remember the other generic comment before this one.

There are people who go straight to the point and tell you that a link exchange is necessary. You used to entertain such invitations. And you longed for such invitations until you realized that, in the long run, it is better to keep fewer bloggers and call them family as opposed to maintaining a long list and call it grocery shopping. Or blog shopping to be more specific since that's what it basically is. What makes it such a drag is that you find out that don't need everything in your bag.

There are people who just "dropped by." These people are also bloghoppers. So why can't they just "hop by?" But I don't get it when they say they're just "dropping by." Oh shit. You can tell just how bad I am with puns.

And then there's the rare kind. They tell you to go to their blog with not as much as dispensing early courtesies. So, you don't.

You already know that you have a nice blog. Somebody already beat them to it, but they called it a rocking blog, or a great blog with "nice posts," or a cool site with rocking entries. They're not even implying that you reciprocate. And this makes you wonder: Is this the blogger's handshake?

SPAM is only good when it comes from a can. And you know how molested you're tagboard has become when it's festered with unsolicited advertisements and people "dropping by." Oh shit. Take a picture of me and my bad punning.

Looking back, you realize that everybody needs to start somewhere. Just like you did. And then you smile as you remember how you once participated in this attention-whoring cycle. You still do. But then again, you remember that you were never of this type:

There are people who call your blog names and call themselves anonymous. This is because they only have one ball left to identify themselves with. Yes, all that name calling exhausted both their balls in the process.

See also:
Momel's Take: The Unwritten Rules of Blogging

I Used To Be Poor

I'm an agent in a call center. But unlike most agents, I don't speak English outside of the office on account of I believe that my English is something that they're paying for. I never paid no eighty pesos for one cup of coffee, never have and never will, I'm not that flashy, and I never used my occupation to social climb.

Yes, the income borders on the slightly lucrative, but that's never an excuse to become a totally inflated airhead. At least I never saw it that way. It does afford a comfortable lifestyle personalized with the most fantabulous accessories the income bracket can provide. But it still sucks if it's making you defy the earth's gravitational pull on your head.

I've been working in the same industry for three years now, and I have been working for three different companies all that time. Although it is a little too early to say that I've been there and I've done that, what little experience I've had in the industry tells me this much: I used to be poor.