Ask Me, the skype stalkers

Ask Me. Get promoted. Win stuff.

It’s that day again. That day when I get to be the know it all I always dreamed of. Thankfully we are all getting back into the usual routines again, with the summer drifting behind us and the kids back to school soon. I don’t know what it is about Autumn that makes me so inspired, but I truly come alive from this point of the year onwards.

So much so in fact, that inspiration was my idea for the giveaway this month. I figured since many of us will be back to writing more heavily, with the sunny days turning to cold rainy ones, something to help those creative juices would be in order. So this month’s Ask Me prize is a beautiful hardbacked journal, which is an exact copy of my own personal journal here at home. (psst….click on the thumbnails to see completely)

Back

Front

If this journal doesn’t wanna make you get down to some writing, then I dunno what to say. These were the best pics I could find that did it some sort of justice. The front is magnetic, with metallic type colors embossed on it. It’s 160 lined pages for you to fill, with a red ribbon marker and a little pouch in the back for all your inspirational ”stuff”. I love the size, not too big, not too small, measuring at 130mm x 180mm.

So here is today’s question from one of my oldest bloggin’ buddies Eva.

Eva from Wrestling with Retirement  asked: I would like to use skype on my computer, but when I sign on to skype, this guy I went to high school with calls me.  Like all the time.  It’s not a romantic thing, believe me.  I think he’s just bored.  But he is boring.   I don’t mind chatting on skype with him once or twice a year, but not every freakin’ day.  We don’t have that much to talk about!  How can I use skype but avoid him?  You know what’s great about networking programs like Skype and Windows Live? That you get to keep in touch with everyone. You know what sucks about them? That you get to keep in touch with everyone. I mean, you’re not even safe to use your pc anymore sitting in your hair curlers and bathrobe over your morning coffee in case some weirdo might video call you on Skype cos he’s bored.

 Thankfully, the inventors of these programs also got their boring schoolmates, psycho ex’s and Mother in Law’s attempting to contact them and collaborated to stop such madness. So here’s how you block the buggers…..

• Get your contacts list up and right click on the person’s name you want to block. You should get a menu that looks like this:

Is there a Bomb button?

• Then scroll down to Bomb…I mean Block this Person…and click.
• MAFIA HIT OPTION: You’ll have the option to get Vinny to whack em, totally removing them from your contacts list forever, blocking them from ever seeing you again if you want them taken out permanently. To do this, just tick the box that says Remove from your Contact List which Skype will ask after you block them. They’ll be sleepin’ wit the fishes.

OR

• SUPERHERO INVISIBLE MODE: Just leave the Remove from your Contact List box unticked and you’ll simply block that person from seeing you’re online until you wish to speak to them later. You’ll know you’ve done it as they will have a red circle with a line through it next to their name in your list. To let them see your awesomeness again, just right click their name in the contacts list and simply scroll down to unblock this person. I give you 5 minutes after unblocking before you regret doing it. Heh.

That’s it. That’s how you can use Skype but not have those weirdo Skype stalkers on there ruining all your fun and games by attempting to catch you out in your sexy green face mask and nuthin but your bra and undies. I hate Skype stalkers!

Enjoy your Wednesday folks and remember to get your questions sent in to mesina@artisticallynuts.com for your chance to win the journal this month! Want the low down on all this Ask Me stuff? Click here for the full official word on the street.

So go on…

Ask Me!

Ask Me and the winner is

Ask Me. Get promoted. Win stuff.

Can you believe it’s Wednesday already?! Time flies when you’re having fun! I promise that the dust will be off the blog once again after today, since our guest from Holland is going home today and life will resume as per the normal once more. [insert chaos here]

Today I shall merely be posting our lovely winner for the month, since for the second week running no one sent in any questions (*gasp horror faint*) I’m really hoping this blog project leaps off in September when everyone gets back home off vacation, gets their kids back to school and pretty much gets more than five seconds on their PC’s again. It’s totally understandable and cool, so let’s all cross our fingers and toes that’s how it goes down.

But without further adeu, here is Augusts winner for the goody bag from Hotel Chocolat, which may or may not have some chocolates missing. I mean, what’s a girl to do when the need for chocolate arises and this bag is sitting in your house like calling out to you. I’m not talking about me. Um, crap. (Psst. Don’t worry, none are actually missing. But if there is it’s the postman’s fault. Jerk.)

[Que Drum Roll]

Angelia from Amelioration!!!!!

Congrats Angelia and thank you so much for entering, you are simply amazing! I’ll have my people call your people and we’ll get the package sent over asap.

I’ll be announcing next month’s prize by Friday, so stay tuned to see what goodies are in store for next month’s Ask Me. And if you’re new around these here parts then I suggest you have a little look-see at this page to stop you from head scratching.

Hope you guys are having a fab mid week and I’ll be seeing you bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow when the Chaos sets in. I can’t promise my posts will make any sense, but at least I’ll be here. Wait, do my posts ever make any sense anyway?! Don’t answer that.

Get your questions in for next month (mesina@artisticallynuts.com). I’ve also got a bonus giveaway coming in the next few weeks, which should be fun so watch out for that too.

So go on….

Ask Me!

Ask Me, well someone has to

Ask Me. Get promoted. Win stuff.

Well, it’s Wednesday already. Are we all feeling the mid week hump yet, or are your days running into each other like mine? I had to actually double check it really was Wednesday. It was like I woke up and didn’t believe myself or something. Yeah, I’m so not trustworthy.

So, here we are with another edition of Ask Me. Get promoted. Win stuff, except…

This is the first week I’ve not actually had any questions!

I mean, honestly no one sent in any questions this week. So either all the rest of you hate chocolate, OR everyone is on vacation in Egypt without me. Or maybe in Mexico getting drunk with Paco, living it up on tacos and tequila. Damnit. I bet the weather in Mexico is a lot better than here in the UK, where we are predicted nothing but rain and gloom from now until winter. Pfft. We were totally robbed of summer, when summer crammed itself into like three weeks and then went there ya go England, happy now?! Jerk face summer.

So with having no questions this week, I thought what the hell am I gonna do now? Then it came to me, sort of like a cross between a burnt out light bulb and a wimpy bolt of lightening, I was struck with an idea. Because duh I’m a genius you guys. I’ve had all sorts of people saying to me in total secret I have some questions for your Ask Me stuff, but um, I’m way too shy to ask. Which actually makes me wonder if the questions are like majorly personal and need cream, or if I know like a hundred shy people. Entirely possible either way.

So here’s the deal this week. I’m going to ask a few questions, and whoever posts me some answers in the comments section will  get entered into the prize draw for some scrummy chocolate. So I suppose it’s like Ask Me in reverse. This could get interesting. So here we go…..

1. Is it ok to use my awesome mind powers to damage my dog’s voice box? I mean that’s like not inhumane right? Because I’m not even sure what’s going to happen if she keeps barking.

2. Why is it that if subtitles are turned on, I can’t stop myself staring at the freaking subtitles even though everyone is speaking English? It’s actually pissing me off.

3. Is God punishing me when I walk down the street and the only stranger to check me out in five months is a dude in his 70′s with no teeth wearing a trench coat in summer? I’m sorry God, I still don’t know what I did wrong.

So there you go, three questions that have been bugging me for weeks now. You don’t have to answer all three to be entered, just one will do. As I stated on the prize giveaway, international entries are most welcome so there is no reason you can’t get your hands on some chocolate.

Next week is the final Ask Me week for August so send in those questions for another chance to win (yes you can enter twice!) and get your blog promoted (or just yourself if you don’t have a blog). I will be annoucing the winner of August’s prize in next weeks post too!

—————-> mesina@artisticallynuts.com <————-

Send your questions here. Do it. Or I’ll eat the chocolate.

Ask Me, blame the raccoons

Ask Me. Get promoted. Win stuff.

You know how it goes when you really need to sit down and have a second to get something really important done but you realise that…

You’ve had four kids, this is so not happening?

Well, I never saw that coming. This morning has been a little like that. Ok, it’s been a lot like that and now I’m hoping that all the kids are done needing whatever it is they are needing. Which really translates to Mom we just want to torture you because it’s fun for us. One day I shall outsmart them, so help me.

However, welcome to another edition of Ask Me, where all you wonderful readers send me some crazy questions and I attempt to sound like I know what I’m talking about to give you answers. Of course, this month you’re doing it for chocolate. By doing it I mean sending in questions, not like pimping yourself out for chocolate. Just making that perfectly clear right now.

So on that rather adventerous note, here’s the peeps this week who have been doing it for chocolate. heh. 

Aleta from Fleur de Aleta asked:  I made the mistake of telling family and IRL friends about my blog.  My bloggie friends don’t have any issues with things I write about.  But my family and friends?  Egads!  They critique every little thing and make comments like, “You don’t need to tell the whole world about certain things..”  Or when something funny happens, they immediately turn to me and remark, “Don’t blog about this.”

 One of my lovely readers, Lynn asked: I’ve lost the cable that attaches my camera to the computer, where could it be?  Lynn, you are not even going to believe this. Last week, I totally lost the exact same thing, No Joke. After tipping my house upside down and shaking it a hundred times, I finally found it under a folded blanket which didn’t belong in the office anyway. Don’t ask. However, I’m pretty sure that you don’t have a folded blanket in your office that doesn’t belong there, so I’m just going to list a few random places that maybe you should check.

• Under your desk
• Behind the PC
• That junk drawer that no one is supposed to know about
• Under your microwave
• In the sofa, along with the £2.88 it’s eaten
• Your ”safe place” – you don’t know where that is? Me either.
• your bookshelf
• Under your bed
• Your kitchen cupboards
• The bathroom (the stuff we have in our hands when we go)
• The dog’s basket (if you have a dog)

If it is not in any of these places, then it’s mandatory that you blame someone else in the house. That gives you a perfect time also to bring up all the other stuff they are responsible for, like DIY projects that aren’t finished, that time they lost your mobile and whatever stuff up to six years ago that might help the argument. If that’s totally not do-able, then it’s highly likely that a Raccoon came into your house, stole your camera cable and used during a wild Raccoon party. Raccoons are bastards, just ask my Uncle, he had one rip up his boat seats. I’m pretty sure they like boat seats and camera cables. Seems logical really.

Oh and if you find it, you so have to let us know where it was!

Ask Me!

Ask Me, Facebook dramas and chocolate

Well, it’s officially August for like four days now. How many of you are getting to go on vacation? You know the thing about having babies is that they suck your cheque book dry. So while I’m scoping out weekends in a super cheap hotel in Paris, Maurice is looking at me like how bout nooooooo. But the baby is way too cute for me to be mad.

So, you’ve been dying to know what the giveaway will be this month (just work with me here) and here it is:

This is the chocolate of all chocolate. Seriously.

This sweet goodie bag is from my absolutely favorite chocolatier Hotel Chocolat! I thought what better way to celebrate our final month of summer than with a Cool Summer bag of chocolates. Plus, who doesn’t like chocolate?!?! Ok, some people don’t but they’re just weird. My friend Cheyenne included. (You heard me Cheyenne!) Included in this bag are a selection of Summer Chocolates, A Strawberry Lick and a Tutti Fruitti Slab. Scrummy!

Remember, UK, Europe, Canada AND US entrants are welcome to participate, I’ll ship this international babeh!(Plus, US peeps, Hotel Chocolat is coming to the States and this goodie bag made their ship list!) For those of you new to Ask Me, you’re like…omg Mesina, I NEED that chocolate, like wtf do I do to get it?! I’m glad you asked. Just click here to see what this Ask Me thing is all about and please note: You do not have to have a blog to enter. For those of you with blogs, you’ll get your blog button (If you have one) and a mention with link to your blog if your question is featured. This helps get your blog out there a little bit more (not that my blog is going to get you a million readers, if it does please email me. That would be awesome.) So, let’s get to our first question of the month shall we?

Angelia from Amelioration asked: Recently, I post something on my FaceBook page that was, I will admit, rather vague.  The post referred to my teenager and her drama-queen-ness.  Unfortunately, my sister-in-law saw the post and assumed that I was referring to her mother, my mother-in-law.  She called me-screaming,yelling and cursing.  This has caused possibly irreparable damage to my relationship with her and has caused more family drama than I know what to do with.  What advice would you have for me and for other readers using social networking sites regarding choice of verbiage? This is why, you should never let your family on your Facebook profile! EVER! Ok, that’s probably totally unreasonable I know. This is such a difficult issue to tackle, because it comes with quite a grey area right? I know some people who totally avoid adding family, others who have gone in and made a second profile for ”just friends” and some who just stay the hell off Facebook altogether. But for us Networking junkies, there is no stay the hell off Facebook, Twitter, or god forbid MySpace. (eww.)

The thing is, you can’t control how people are going to take stuff on these sites. How someone comes over in a typed message can easily be misread, so when it doubt be specific. But if things are left wide open to interpretation and someone is going to make things an issue and pretend they knew exactly what you meant there let them kick and scream. If they aren’t going to listen to your explanation, or attempt to find one, they are the ones with the issue. I’d block them, no two ways about it. (Yup even family) You can argue that blocking will create more of a problem – and it might – but then again so could leaving someone to rip apart every damn thing you said.

It sounded to me (from your post) that your Sis-in-law already had it out for you anyway. She was just looking for an excuse to blow up and create drama, if it hadn’t been Facebook, it would have been something else. If she wants to play mind reader, there’s nothing you can do to stop her. Families are awesome eh?

Don’t let the bastards get you down. Leave other people to create their own drama. If you give into it, then nobody knows who’s side to be on. If you let them throw their tantrum, in the end they’ll be all alone throwing a tantrum. Those who give a shit will ask your side – those who don’t ask don’t deserve your time anyway.

Isn’t it crappy that we can’t all be grown up about Facebook?