Diana the Valkyrie's Newsletter - October 2000
A hard man is good to beat
Galleries added this month.
There's a new Bookshelf, for Nerraw (there's already a Gallery of Nerraw) and one for Seldomlasts (he's had stories here for a few years now). And DTM has a Bookshelf, and Gribble, also Croushore. A good month for new bookshelves!
Stories added this month.
Nothing much new.
Movies added this month.
Some new programmes were added this month.
Groan.
Mega mega problems with Vanessa at the start of September. I tried to fix things (so it was up and down for a while) but it was so bad that I had to take Vanessa offline completely, and switch over to Anita, my backup news server. Anita has been gathering news for a couple of months, so there's only 3 million pictures there. Only 3 million. I noticed another news server boasting about how many pictures they had up; they were very proud of a quarter of a million.
I'm optimistic about being able to get Vanessa back into action, but it might take some time. Vanessa has been moved, and is being rebuilt at another location. Meanwhile, Anita seems to be performing just fine, I'm pleased to say.
The picture count is about 3 million now.
To be precise the current figure is
Two new videos from Kasie Cavanough.
We currently have seven running; Nicole Bass, Andrulla Blanchette, Sheila Burgess, Christine Envall, Sarah Dunlap, Marilyn Perret and Julia Santana.
If you want to know about a spamming operation from the inside, read this interesting account of what goes on
You'll also learn about pump-and-dump stock operations (the reason for all those great stock tips you see).
My Experiences by Andrez de Tijuana
This is a follow up to Diana's original newsletter article from last summer. You can find it in the archives.
When I discovered these "paid web surfing" programs it seemed like a great way to earn some extra money. While I go about my business of perusing my usual web sites, reading and composing e-mail, I would be renting out a one-inch strip of space at the bottom of my monitor screen to a web site. They would pay me about 40 to 60 cents per hour to flash an ongoing series of banner adverts within that one-inch strip of space. I was free to ignore them or click onto any ads that piqued my interest. Meanwhile, I wasn't required to change my usual web surfing habits. I could browse through the endless photos of interesting people in Newsthumbs, read the message boards and post my usual nonsense. The "adbar" was so innocuous down there at the bottom of my screen that it was easy to forget it was there at all, sort of like stock prices scrolling the bottom of the screen during cable TV financial news programs.
The first one I joined was Alladvantage.com in late 1999. Their payment plan was a basic rate of 50 cents per hour for a maximum of 25 hours per month of having the "viewbar" activated on my monitor. ($12.50 per month, which would defray most of my ISP bill). I wasn't required to click onto any banner ads at all; it was purely optional. I was also free to close the "viewbar" any time I wanted. (Of course, the timer that records earnings would stop too). I wasn't required to change my browser or ISP. Just a short download and I was ready to start earning $$$ immediately. No obligation either - I was free to uninstall the program from my PC and quit at anytime with no questions asked.
I was eager to embrace the challenge of building upon that basic rate of 50 cents per hour by sponsoring lots of friends and family to join this program and therefore earn an additional 10 cents per hour for each one of these new members I recruited. It doesn't stop there; for each new member they sponsor, I earn another 5 cents per hour. When this new tier of members referred new members of their own, guess what? Another 5 cents/hour per head for Yours Truly, and so on into the next tier! Ha! This was exciting!
Classic MLM? I'm well aware of Amway-style marketing. It's a scary thing to most folks as it takes a special breed of beast to want to cajole money from their friends and be consistently successful with it. But this was different.very different. I wasn't asking anyone to whip out the old checkbook and part with any money, nor was I asking them to cadge money from anyone else. There was no registration fee. I made it amply clear up-front that the only money that would change hands would be from the web site's headquarters to you - period. You can never lose money - you can only make money. My reasoning was "Why wouldn't you try this?" You'd think this would sell itself. Right? You'd think they would be all over me like a K-Mart tuxedo wanting the URL and my referral ID#. Right?
Wrong! I got the Amway duck-and-dodge just as badly as if I were requesting money! I got the old hem 'n haw, the deer-in-the-headlights look as though they didn't grasp the concept, the plaintive "Hmm, sigh. I dunno", also "I don't spend that much time on the Web" (lame excuse, there's no minimum time requirement). I even got the rather cavalier "Just nickel and dime stuff".
Nobody cared! This was unbelievable! People are so weird! My initial enthusiasm turned to "You don't like free money? Hmph! Forget you! Who needs you?"
Shortly after discovering the "paid web surf" sites, I discovered the "free internet classified ads" sites. There are lots of them out there. My agendum was to hit as many of these classified ads sites as I could find. I'm not sure how many there are out there - perhaps a couple of thousand? I especially searched for those sites that had available "clickable links". These allowed me to enter the URL with my referral ID# piggybacked onto it, so when a potential new member clicked that link, examined the site and decided to join, I would automatically earn a referral credit for that new member. There was no chance whatsoever that the new member would mistype my referral ID# onto the form or neglect to type it in at all. Pretty slick, huh?
I went to work and posted my crisp, concise, to-the-point advert with clickable-link URL onto free classified ads sites in every English-speaking country in the world: USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, South Africa, etc.
I typed these infernal ads until I was bleary-eyed and my fingers bled! (I don't do direct e-mail spam). I doubt that I hit all of the classified ads sites, but I probably got most of them. Early on, my ad was an enthusiastic long chatty ad, but as the realisation slowly set in that the process was taking way too long and the whole tedious process was wearing on me, I eventually condensed the ad to "Web Surf and Earn Money! See link below".
I pumped so-o-o-o-o many of my ads into the vast wonderful world of the Internet that I was dead certain that no matter how poorly-written an ad was (even "F*** you! See link below") it would've gotten at least half a dozen new referrals, solely from the law of averages alone! I was going to stack up referrals as I slept! Hot damn!
A couple of weeks later I signed up with GetPaid4.com and docked their "adbar", "viewbar", "paybar" or whatever the hell the cute nickname was they gave their rented one-inch space on my monitor. (Hmm. I wonder about these computer geeks and their clever names for computer-related items. When I think of a cookie on my hard-drive, I think of a snack during an arduous car trip. What the hell is a "Napster"? A napping gangster?) Ahem.but I digress.
GetPaid4's deal was even better than AllAdvantage's: 55 cents/hour for a maximum 75 hours per month. That's $41.25 per month. I proudly docked GetPaid4's "whatchamacallit-bar" on the top edge of my screen while AllAdvantage occupied the bottom edge. Suddenly my web pages took on a pseudo-panoramic look, like the cheap 35mm cameras that mask the top and bottom of the film frame. I was using that right-hand scroll bar quite alot. Download times for my web pages were very noticeably slower, freezing up quite frequently due to the bandwidth-hogging adbars top and bottom. But hey, I was earning $53.75 per month even if I didn't earn a solitary referral credit (AA's $12.50 plus GP4's $41.25). I immediately went to work posting GetPaid4.com ads onto all of those sites that I used for the previous AllAdvantage.com ads. Again I was going to earn referrals as I slept! This seemed too good to be true!
Let's cut to the chase, folks. The "chase" being a cold slap in the face reality check. I got honest $$$ from AllAdvantage - $12.50 per month but not one single solitary referral credit. Zero. Zip. Nada. Absolutely impossible! AA was stiffing me on my referral credits! It was so obvious! As I explained earlier, I pumped so many URL-linked ads out there that I would've gotten at least a small handful of referral credits by saying "shit" followed by "see link below".
I put AllAdvantage on the back burner and concentrated all of my time on GetPaid4 because they were far more generous with their hourly rate and monthly limit. I estimate that I logged roughly 80 hours during my first month with GetPaid4.com. During those 80 hours I kept my mouse-ball moving at least once per minute so that the timer doesn't pause. I clicked upon at least half of their banner ads. (A requirement of GetPaid4 in order to qualify for earnings is to click upon a "reasonable" number of ads, not zero and not every single solitary ad).
I eagerly awaited my first monthly check from GetPaid4.com. A minimum $41.25 base pay plus whatever referrals I garnered through a worldwide blitz of Internet classified ad sites. No check ever arrived! I went to my account page and here's what I found.
(A) Time logged - about 45 minutes.
(B) Sponsors visited - ZERO!
(C) Referral credits - ZERO!
At least throw me a bone, GP4! I put in a dear amount of time for you low-lives and not one red cent do I get? AA was starting to look good all of the sudden; they only stiffed me on the referral credits and not my hours! AA is not as dishonest GP4! Lol! It's damn sad when one is forced to choose the lesser of the evils in this mixed-up world instead of the finest of what's good out there.
I cancelled my account with GP4 and returned to AA and settled for their basic $12.50/month as it was better than nothing. Was I receptive to trying out Epipo, GoToWorld, BePaid, Utopiad or any of the dozen or so other similar programs out there? I don't think so, Tim! The rest of the pack can thank these two rogue outfits for tarnishing the image of the whole genre.
I will conclude this rant with these final points:
AllAdvantage has scaled back that $12.50/month to $7.50/month. That was the straw that broke the camel's back! I uninstalled their "viewbar" from my PC.
AllAdvantage claims in their promotional literature to have several members earning $1,000 per month and one who earns $4,000 per month.yet my two-figure checks are imprinted with "check not good over $100". Somebody explain that one to me. (I have no idea what a GetPaid4 check even looks like!)
GetPaid4 still spams my e-mail up the ass to this day, despite terminating my account long ago.
I don't use any "paid web surf" programs anymore. I love a big spacious web page on my monitor anyway with minimal browser toolbars top and bottom.
Try these programs if you wish. My experience was not very satisfying but maybe you will have better luck than I did.
Hugs, smooches, etc.
Andrez J
By Wessex Man
VALLEY STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN, Calif, Oct 1st -- Supercharged strength athlete Sally McNeil, jailed for slaying her Mr California husband Ray McNeil in 1995, is keeping ultra-fit and muscular. She turned 40 yesterday.
This overcrowded jail closed its weights room soon after she arrived, but Sally is managing to run about 100 miles per month and most days achieves up to 1,000 pushups plus many sets of isolation exercises. Her waist remains a tightly muscled 23".
Unfortunately she's beset by continuous visceral anxiety. A Federal Court Appeal appears to be imminent, based on alleged misdirections from the bench at the original trial. "I feel really nervous sometimes -- it's terrifying to think that I could be here till 2012 unless this Appeal leads on to me getting free," she told me in an interview.
News of a Court hearing could come at any time. The circus of a retrial is one real possibility, though she's praying for an easier exit.
Meanwhile she's faced with the aggressive undeworld society of repeat offenders in packed cells. Understandably she feels poles apart from most of them. Sally's record is very different. She's been a U.S. national level bodybuilding competitor, a top athlete in the Marines (as Sgt McNeil) and won the U.S. Armed Forces Physique Championship (female, middle weight) in 1989. She also placed highly in the annual Women's Strength Extravaganza in the early 1990s.
SALLY DESCRIBES HER THREATENING WORLD
"First of all they house eight women in a very small cell. They house insane women with us and tell us to handle our own business. I hear once a month that V.S.P.W. has to pay a fire hazard fine....We can't protect ourselves for fear of getting a '115 Mutual Combat Write-up'....Now when a large woman hits me I can't even defend myself for fear of getting a '115 Write-up'. I'd then have to go in front of a Board to be set free," she explained.
Sally experienced shackles and solitary confinement after an inmate attacked her with a heavy padlock about 20 months ago. This was winter time and Sally was chained in a cold cell with a fixed open window. But she won her case on that occasion and, I understand, didn't lose any brownie points.
CHOWCHILLA CHILLS THE SPIRIT
Valley State Prison for Women, V.S.P.W, was opened in 1995 on 640 acres in the drab region of Chowchilla, a small settlement about 35 miles north of Fresno, California. According to data on internet the jail was designed to house 1,980 women and now accommodates about 3,570.
"Yes, I feel the overcrowding in prison is reaching a dangerous level. I fear for my safety every day. These He/She women think that because they shave their heads and have fat guts, this makes them into a Man.....They think they're tough and want to intimidate women and run the place.
"I believe they suffer a Confusion of Identity crisis which is drug induced. They can be very very violent. I don't feel comfortable just going out to wash my clothes in the Wash Room, or for that matter to make a phone call to my Mom."
PRISON CONDITIONS REFLECT POLITICS, SALLY REALISES
I asked Sally if the political climate was undermining the administration of justice and fair sentencing.
"Yes, the political climate is tough on crime so that Government officials can get re-elected. Even though my case showed that I was a battered wife, I'm dumped with gang bangers, crazed drug addicts, career criminals, car jackers, drive-by gang shooters and the rest.
"All I did was save my life and now I'm sentenced to 19 years to life in this Hell on earth," she added.
All along Sally has pressed the point that her battered wife experiences were ignored by the San Diego court which convicted her. The shooting, at home, was the culimination of a tempestuous marriage. Sally reported that she was repeatedly abused and beaten up to a gross extent. Ray's serial infidelities, referred to in Court, were a further provocation.
Unfortunately for Sally hardly anyone came forward to support her at the trial. The bodybuilding community turned its back on her and she was left alone to face judicial wrath. The Court only saw her as a tough hell-raising weightlifter who relied on steroids and ended up shooting her husband. The fuller background was never extensively explored, as her family and supporters are now trying to explain.
SALLY RETAINS HER OPTIMISM
But Sally is still hugely buoyant at heart. She looks to the future where she has a ready-made career to return to. She's also still well-known around the world through numerous web sites and videos.
"Yes, I do plan to re-enter bodybuilding and strength sports. The day I get out I'd be ready to wrestle and box and in six months of physical refinement I'd be ready to compete in bodybuilding and maybe a year out I'd get my strength back in powerlifting," she told me. Sally's received various solid job proposals while in prison and keeps up her contacts.
For the record, she's squatted 400 lbs, benched 225 and deadlifted 375. When she was competing in bodybuilding (weighing around 133-140 lbs) her key measurements were: biceps 14-1/2", calves 15", expanded chest 40", thighs 24". Height around 5' 3".
SALLY SETS SIGHTS ON TRIATHLON
If she gets out soon she hopes to get into Triathlon training with her athletic daughter Shantina, aged 17. Shantina seems to share her Mom's genes and is well-muscled for her age. Sally's two kids, by her first husband, live with Sally's mother in Allentown, PA, where Sally grew up.
Meanwhile she keeps her mind on what's possible right now. "This next 14 days will be awesome for biceps workouts. I'm really concentrating on my biceps to even out the symmetry on my arms," she told me in a recent letter.
SHE REVEALS HER MIND IN POETRY
Sally's also a published poet. Some of her poems can be found on internet -- insights into the feelings of an athlete who could well be one of the most physically oriented writers in the U.S.
Perhaps Nathalie Gassel, the Belgian bodybuilder and sensuous author, is a literary match for Sally. Unfortunately neither speaks the other's language. My attempts to put them in touch have proved fruitless ! Nathalie's new book, Eros Androgyne in French, breaks new ground for sophisticated muscle literature.
I've put TwoPossum's name on the TV And Movies board. It was his idea, and I think that a board as well-used as that needs recognition.
Peggy Schoolcraft and Lori Karl are two new Message Boards added this month.
Member | Posts |
| jabb6328 | 5393 |
| gaily304 | 5163 |
| tre1313 | 3524 |
| stone001 | 3386 |
| Blast222 | 2740 |
| TwoPossums | 2704 |
| TomNine | 2678 |
| boomer444 | 2659 |
| mit19237 | 2449 |
| rdhdpwr150 | 2020 |
| new453 | 2009 |
| Diana the Valkyrie | 1847 |
| tex666 | 1667 |
| dgt321 | 1547 |
| fistman | 1488 |
| stu666 | 1483 |
| 000wlt | 1474 |
| pan314 | 1266 |
| mookster | 1202 |
| lpdorman69 | 1103 |
Jabber maintains his reputation for jabbering, with Gaily a little behind.
There's a new Message Board, all about New Message Boards. And also boards for Lori Karl and Peggy Schoolcraft. And TwoPossums has taken over the TV and Movies board.
Most posted Board of the month | Poster of the month | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The Chess Board ranks first more, but then TomNine is the top on-topic board. | Shanice has been very busy on the Chess Board again; then comes Jabber followed by Tre. |
Mavis is counting the number of times the message list is checked for each board, and the number of times that a posting is read. This gives a very different picture from the one above. The chess board seems to be write-only; it's being posted to, but not read.
Most listed Board of the month | Most read Board of the month | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| People look at the message list of the TV and Movies board, and it's very heavily read, but not as much as TomNine's board, which gets about 1500 message reads per day. This probably means that people are dipping into the TV board, but they're working their way through the postings on Tom's board using the "Next" button. | A Grinchless month! Maybe I've solved that problem. |
I checked the site statistics. that Sandra counts up each night.
At the end of September 2000, there were about 278,000 pictures (13.8 gigabytes), 35 gigabytes of video, 4000 text files (mostly stories) and a total of about 49 gigabytes.
On Anita, the Newsthumbs server, there's the NewsThumbs, which is another 3.1 million pictures in 200 gigabytes and 4.4 million text files, a total of 210 gigabytes.