"*+*+wHeN sTaRs cOlLiDe oR sOmE sUcH bUlLsHiT=>>"

So I've decided that I'm going to be a complete slut about promoting my blog. Like the Ghostbusters' proton guns, traffic sharing engines become more useful when their streams are crossed, so I'm just going to add button after button. BlogSnob didn't work because they don't like my ads, but Blog Explosion seems to be okay with my blog name - at least for now. Plus they have features that make sense, like toggle switches for adult content and the like, so presumably anyone who didn't want the word "orgasms" showing up on their computer (and bitching aside, I guess I can understand how you might be one of those people, i.e. you're Pat Robertson's laundry-and-bagels monkey, or somebody's mom) could avoid doing so without denying me the god-given right to shill for a readership.

Maybe somewhere down the road I'll see what I can do about making the site look a little less generic, too. My banner's kind of ugly the way it is right now. Colours just ain't right.

The other good thing about traffic sharing engines is that surfing them as opposed to just hitting that "next blog" button top right is that you don't waste time tripping over all the friends'n'family blogs, and I have yet to see one of those ungodly java box series come up. It's so uncomfortable to see, say, "*+*+tEl mE we wIll alwYz b fRIEndz+*+*" jump out at you from the familiar gray box, and your only way out is to click "OK". You should never say anything in your blog you wouldn't say to a stranger in a shoe store, is my feeling. The sudden and unsolicited demand of your eternal love is no way to begin a conversation.

Or maybe it is. Maybe that's why this guy became famous: because human beings don't demand enough from each other.

Of course, there's still some charm to the "next blog" feature on Blogger. It's how I found this ugly little beauty, for instance. It's only three entries deep, but if she keeps going it'll be a gooder. It has a seedy kind of charm, like a one-legged stripper who doesn't care if you stare at her nubbin just so long as she can be the only person in the room who's dancing.

Sigh. There probably won't ever be a Blog Explosion button on her site. Nothing that isn't completely obscure is ever really perfect.