For the two people out there reading this, the blog might be MIA for an hour or two. Or a day. Hopefully, not a week or more.
But I have poor luck with such things as transferring domain names and switching web hosting services, so don’t remove me from your bookmarks if you can’t access freelief.com for a couple days.
Here’s a few sites that will be up and running if you should miss me:
http://www.squidoo.com/freelief
http://www.cafepress.com/freelief
And of course, it’s not hard to find me on Facebook or Myspace.
Hang on. Hope this doesn’t leave a mark.
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I don’t think there is anything more important to share than this:
The most critical reason to leave an abusive relationship is that your children are more likely to end up in abusive relationships if you stay.
Often, women (and men) who endure domestic violence will not leave for themselves. Self is lost in that situation. Self has no value. They feel worthless.
But when there are children involved, it is unconscionable to let them grow up to repeat the cycle without taking whatever action necessary to break it.
I have mixed feelings when it comes to talking about my own story. I would prefer to let it remain as distant and blurry as a memory of a past life. But my personal experience is relevant here. If sharing it saves one girl, it is worth it.
Moving on.
The second strongest motivating factor in ending a past violent relationship was a friend who convinced me, after years of hearing otherwise, that I did not deserve what I endured.
But the most influential factor was the knowledge that if I stayed, my little girl would be more likely to allow herself to be treated the way I allowed myself to be treated.
Not. A. Chance. In. Hell.
February 2-6, 2009, is National Teen Dating Violence Awareness and Prevention Week.
I’ve created a Squidoo lens to promote this, and will be posting updates on Twitter and Facebook as well.
Join me in spreading the word.
Zero tolerance.
Being a child of the 70s, myself and many of my Gen X friends have teenage daughters and sons, growing up in an increasingly violent world.
Don’t assume that because you don’t see any signs of abuse that it doesn’t happen, hasn’t happened or won’t happen. It may be comparatively easy to talk to your kids about sex and drugs. Be sure you don’t overlook talking about relationship violence.
I’ve never considered myself a “victim” and I know that many, many people who have been in an abusive relationship suffered far more physical and mental harm. Honestly, the whole “this isn’t that bad” or “it could be worse” kept me in place for an embarrassingly long time.
There should not be such a concept as an acceptable level of abuse.
Pass it on.
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abusive boyfriend,
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dating violence,
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domestic violence,
relationship violence
I finally made it into the Top 100 lenses today!
Out of around half a million pages, this one made it to #68.
Tattoo Regret
Okay, so it’s a bit silly to be excited about, maybe, but I’ve been trying… although this is NOT the lens I expected to make it that far!
That’s okay. Whatever helps someone and perhaps puts some pennies in the pocket.
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tattoo regret
As if I didn’t have enough going on with CafePress, Squidoo, Facebook and Twitter …
Soon, I’m sure I’ll learn why I need all these.
More likely, I’ll neglect them like Myspace and YouTube.
…
Okay, enough fooling around.
I’m uploading new designs to CafePress because that seems to be *THE* dependable ROI for my time.
As soon as I’m done playing some random Facebook app …
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Should this widget work, you’ll be able to find the answer below:
I’m wondering myself how well this will catch on.
Here are my first feeble attempts at utilizing the TWTTRSTRM model.
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I love affiliate marketing or performance marketing or whatever you want to call it. You click on a link that I post, you like what you see and buy it, I make a commission. That is beautiful.
I’ve been very pleased with my relationship with Commission Junction.
I post coded links, I get checks in the mail.
example:
Digital Photo Prints for as low as 8¢: Register for free with Clark Color, get 40 free 4×6 prints with your first order. 
(I get $13 if you use my link to register at Clark Color and you can order 40 free photo prints, only paying for shipping. That is the kind of math I like.)
I have mixed feelings about LinkShare.
example:
Get 25 Free 4×6 Prints when you join Shutterfly! Limited Time Offer for New Members.
Same idea really, similar setup, but I so rarely see an actual check from LinkShare that I in turn forget to visit their site for new content. 
PepperjamNetwork has yet to prove itself to me.
Was promised $10 just for signing up. Was offered $10 to blog about them.
I’ve used their store builder (not too shabby) and posted links here and there.
Yet, my Pepperjam Network account balance is still zero. 
:(
On advice of fellow Squidoo lensmasters, I also joined ClickBank.
This marketplace seems to be overrun with what I’d consider CRAP.
Top Secret Fat Loss Secret! … The Reason You are Fat and Unhealthy is Because You Have Disgusting Plaque and Horrible Little ‘CRITTERS’ Living in Your Guts!
Get Google Ads Free! :: New Secret!! :: Newbie Affiliate Made $109,620. In Just 1st 60 Days! :: Contains *Magic Code* When Added To Any Site Makes Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Costs Go To Zero!
How To Catch A Cheating Spouse! How You Can Quickly And Easily Discover If Your Mate Is Cheating On You!
But who am I to judge? Apparently, people DO buy these.
Maybe, one of my horse friends will be intrigued by one of these offers, click through and buy the eBook … and LOVE IT. That would be fabulous.
Train Your Horse & Cure Bad Habits! - Revealing Powerful And Effective Horse Training Techniques Of Old Time Master Horse Trainers.
Teach Yourself Natural Horsemanship In 14 Days. The Ultimate How-to-guide That Teaches You To Train Horses Yourself. Gentle Natural Horsemanship Teaches You To Speak To The Horse In Her Own Language.
I’m more concerned that they would feel it was a waste of $19 or $29 and I would feel bad for being an influence in their decision to check it out (since I’d likely pocket a decent percentage of that sale) and I would not want to lose credibility with any of my friends, virtual or otherwise.
(Wow, I suck at marketing.)
I would love to hear tales of ClickBank success. I know that people are making money with it.
I’m just not sure if I can handle the guilt of sharing in the profit of even ONE sale of “Top Secret Fat Loss Secret” because someone had to find out more about the parasitic critters in their gut…
Posted in
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affiliate marketing,
clickbank,
commission junction,
linkshare,
pepperjamnetwork,
performance marketing
The email arrived quietly yesterday, among hundreds of others that I will file and probably never read, due to lack of time and general sense of meh.
But the words “Squid Angel” jumped out at me.
I’ve been neglecting my Squidoo lenses since not terribly long after becoming a Giant Squid months ago, due to aforementioned meh and absolute aversion to spending additional hours before a computer monitor after a long day of staring at text and graphics on my huge (yet still never quite big enough) Apple Cinema display at work.
Now that I have special super secret powers, however, the lure of Squidoo is impossible to fend off.
(Plus I get another cool badge.)
If you’re a Squidoo lensmaster and you have a very special lens you’d like me to review, post a link to it in the comments.
Be warned: Angels can not only offer blessings but can also smite your lenses with dings. Don’t send me crap unless you’re prepared to suffer the consequences. I’m not as angelic as the term implies.
But chances are, unless you’re fool enough to actually send me a flaming bag of dog crap lens, I’ll just ignore it rather than take negative action.
I’m not inclined to leave a lot of “you’ve been blessed” messages in guestbooks as I quickly grow weary of entering captcha codes when I’m already logged in at a site, but when you get a blessing your lens will receive a temporary boost in LensRank all the same.
[Not sure what the heck Squidoo is all about? I posted this how-to blog months ago and sort of forgot about it, but it tells you what to do if you'd like to give lensmastering a try.]
I’m excited.
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Squid Angel,
Squidoo
Once upon a time, life sucked.
sticker from cafepress.com/verbalaa
…
I created this somewhat crude text design early in my love/hate relationship with Adobe Illustrator, as a newly divorced community college art student.
It later occurred to me that I could raise funds for local domestic violence shelters by offering the design on merch at CafePress. But I didn’t think many people would respond to it.
To my surprise, one person recently bought hundreds of these stickers. I can only guess it was to hand out to survivors and others who might help spread awareness of the key message: verbal abuse is still abuse.
Due to this person’s generosity, I will have a check ready for the SIREN shelter right after the holidays. Just about the same time 8 years ago when I would have needed their help had I not had family to turn to.
Thank you.
Posted in
CafePress,
Squidoo Tags:
domestic violence,
verbal abuse
Have you ever noticed the power that the music you choose to listen to exercises over your thoughts and feelings?
For instance, when I listen to angst-filled rock, I get edgy and angry and somewhat hostile. Sometimes.
When I listen to top 40 hip-hop, I gots to make da booty drop.
And when I hear country, my dog runs off and my truck won’t start.
freelief.com music
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Please do not buy me these things for Christmas or any other holiday …
Presenting, the anti-wishlist!
Although, the bacon band-aids are intriguing …
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Squidoo,
wish list