I’ve been in kind of a funk lately.  I just haven’t felt like myself.  I think it all started with going out for my friend’s bachelorette party — ever since I’ve felt a little different, like I can’t quite focus on normal things like work anymore.

I think basically what happened was that going out to the clubs and everything for the party was overstimulating to me, particularly compared to the fairly quiet life I’m accustomed to.  In some ways it made me dissatisfied with my life because I had so much fun, and for days afterward I couldn’t concentrate on work because it wasn’t nearly “exciting” enough.

Since I write for a living, I do have a certain degree of control over the work I do, so I decided that I needed some new topics to write about — something to liven up my workload a little.  One of the things I started writing about was boating vacations, such as my horseback riding instructor takes — boat supplies and accessories to have on hand, what the layperson needs to know about boat engine parts, etc.

The variety and excitement of a new topic did help a bit, but I think what helped the most was having some deadlines a few days later.  That forced me to concentrate on work because I knew I had to get it done — I  didn’t have a choice anymore.

I will be very glad when all this wedding stuff is over, and I can go back to my quiet life again!  As Bilbo says in Lord of the Rings, “It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door.  You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

I’m really looking for a good suggestion as to a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia.  Hotels are everywhere there, I know, but I have a particular need NOT to run into my ex-husband while I’m there.

We went through a very bitter divorce, and he works quite a bit in the Atlanta area because he does contract work for TBS sports television.  He covers the Braves quite a little bit, so I’m sort of looking for a suggestion for a place that’s right in the heart and from where it’s easy to find all the landmarks and attractions, but that does NOT contract out to sports teams or television crews.  I have no idea of the name of the hotel(s) where he normally stays anymore.

However, I do have to admit that it would be sweet justice if I were to observe him walking into the lobby of a hotel there with a strange woman that is not his new wife.  He cheated on me while on the road with dozens of women.  It was so pervasive that I even had to start believing that he was an actual sex addict.  I can’t help but expect that he will do the same to her, since he met her on an online cheaters website.  And I really really hope that he actually does cheat on her!  So maybe I should stay where he stays after all!

Though I have never attended summer school in the past, I decided that it was going to be something that I would do this year.  Since I am almost done my degree, after taking two classes this summer, I can be done in December – four months earlier than I am supposed to be.

So, I decided to take two electives this summer – one of them being English, and the other being Physics.  Truth be told, neither of these sounded too interesting, but I needed them to graduate, so I had no choice.

The English class went by without a hitch, and I ended up with a good mark in it.  I would like to say that it added some value to my life, but truth be told, I could have lived without taking it.  I guess if I was a little bit more of a reader, then I might have appreciated it, but ever since I was a child reading gave me a headache, so I was very happy when I was done this class.

The second class was a lot more interesting that I had thought.  In fact, I love what we are studying now: the difference between different types of light bulbs.  It is interesting to learn how the particle interactions differ inside a Metal Halide bulb compared to a Fulham Ballast.  Truth be told, I had no idea that there were so many different types of lights out there.

Needless to say, this summer has been great and I am looking forward to this being my last fall in school – seems like I have been here forever.

One of the things that I told David (my husband) at the start of the year that our home needed some decorating.  We have had the same trinkets hanging on the wall for the past ten years, and quite frankly, I am tired of them.  Since he wasn’t going to do anything about it, I told him that I would, and the house was going to change according to my wishes, not his.

Since the whole thing was up to me, I decided to go with a western home decor theme throughout the house.  I was inspired by my best girlfriend Julie’s home – I have never seen anything so beautiful and I want my home to look the same.

So, I have decided to seek her advice on what I should be buying and benefit from her experience on where to get the best deals.  I know that their western bedding sets were bought at a price that was much lower than any business in town here could offer, so I am hoping that she can help me save some money too.

Even though I hope that David likes it, in the end, as long as I like it, I’ll be happy.  It will be nice to live in a home that looks a little different for a change.

Article marketing is a popular way to market one’s website these days.  This usually consists of submitting marketing articles to article databases across the Internet, which users can reprint freely as long as they include your company’s information and links, a section usually referred to as a “Resource Box.”

But should you also load the articles onto your own hosted FTP website??  While having the same information on your own site can be beneficial to potential customers, reprinting the same article on your site can actually get you dinged for duplicate content.  The search engines actually do try to rank websites according to quality, and they figure if you have the exact same article found elsewhere on the Internet, your site can’t be as high quality as others that have unique content.

There is a way around this, though.  Instead of posting the entire article word for word, write two different versions.  Once you finish the article, just rewrite it all over again, without looking at the first version.  This will help you come up with two completely different articles — one for your website, and one for the article directories.

Although this approach will take a little more of your time (or perhaps a little more of your money, if you are paying a writer to create the articles for you), it is worth it in the long run to avoid getting your website dinged for having duplicate content!