she's
actual
size

Early last night, before heading off again to work, I caught a motion of the corner of my eye outside. I turned my head to look out the screen door.

The lightening bugs are back.

Almost every memory I have of summers when I was small involve lightening bugs eventually. Warm summer days turn into cooler summer nights, and the lightening bugs come out at dusk. I remember chasing them. I remember catching them and letting them go again. I remember "flying" around the backyard with a flashlight, pretending to be a lightening bug. I remember just sitting at watching them.

Last night, I sat and watched them.

They start out slow. Just a few appear, for such a brief flash that you might wonder if you really saw them at all. It's futile to watch the same place constantly, since the lightening bugs are always moving. Then the silent crescendo of light makes your yard sparkle with yellow-green flashes, and it's all you can do to keep from running out there to fly along them.

Then they fade. The number of flashes slowly decreases until there are only a few flashes a minute, and the last one blinks out. (They'll come back, probably in an hour, but by then you'll have gone to bed.)

That's summer.

Thumbs Down

So yesterday I get an email from Bella-Online.

I applied way back in March. I sent in my application March 18. I waited. I re-read their host application in disgust. It said: We will get back to you as soon as we possibly can-we need you! We try to move fast.

Three months is fast? Please.

Back in April, I mentioned that if they replied to my application, I would respond. Well, I'm going to respond, all right. I'm going to turn down the job.

There's three reasons for me to do this.

1. I have enough to do now. In the time it's taken them to get back to me, I've found Epinions and Themestream. That's plenty to keep me busy writing.
2. From what I've heard, the money isn't all that great anyway. They pay from their banner sales, and I haven't seen a single ad for Bella. If I've seen no advertising for them (either on TV or on the Net), how are then going to get traffic?
3. After applying, I've checked back with their site off and on. I haven't been impressed. Broken links to their own pages, inconsistent navigation, broken image tags, and just a general lack of upkeep. This is supposed to be a "professional" site. I'm not sure if I want my name on anything that looks like that.

So. Screw them.