Have you ever noticed that most of the girls (and some guys) with blogs try to have all of this useful content, but only end up making a bunch of useless posts about what they had for lunch, and tutorials a squirrel would find useless? So there’s this girl I know. She copies every single thing I do. Not so much anymore because we really don’t talk that often, but when we did. Whew! It was like I had an e-mini-me running around the internet! Her stuff wasn’t and isn’t as good as mine, but it was blatantly obvious she was looking at my layouts, graphics, ect and copying. She even copied a whole sentence of mine, lol. Do people not think you’re going to notice that kind of thing? I never wanted to say anything because she’s sweet, and I figured she must just be impressionable…but damn.

But back to the part about the blogs. How many blogs, personal blogs at that, do you find with useful content on them? Most people use blogs for writing and information that is to be read, not shown. Today we’re going to learn how to make a gradient! How hard is it to make a gradient? Seriously. Select the gradient tool, pick two colors, and holy shit! It’s a gradient! How about learning how to add text to an image? Select the text tool, click your image and… *gasp* type! Well I’ll be damned! You’ve got text! I know people try to do “the basics” but you also have to remember that your readers aren’t fucking brain dead. Those people are simply trying to fluff up their content base, which is pathetic. Write some actual content please.

I don’t know how many times I see people make spelling mistakes, and it really does irk me. Not so much spelling mistakes really, but grammar mistakes in general. People tend to use words wrong by spelling them incorrectly, so here we go!

Your/You’re: There is two versions of the “your” word. One is your as in your shoe. The other is you’re, as in you are, as in you’re pretty. You wouldn’t say “you are shoe” to someone, would ya?

They’re/There/Their: The same thing here. When you had ‘re to they or you, it becomes they are, and you are. Like They’re leaving now. There, as in look over there! Their, is used when talking about someone. Like Those shoes are their’s.

Who’s/Whose: Who’s = who is. Whose = Whose shoes are those?.

The apostrophe S: A lot of people don’t really understand where you should use ’s at the end of a word. You use them as possessive nouns, which is like “Ashley’s website is love-ashley.net” A lot of people also think that if the word ends in s they can just put an apostrophe on the end and that’s correct. It’s not when you’re speaking about something or someone singularly. You’d say “Chris’s house” unless you were talking about more than one Chris!

Letter Omission: This is another thing that confuses so many people.
Don’t = do not
didn’t = did not
I’m = I am
We’ll = We will
he’ll/she’ll = he/she will
who’s = who is
shouldn’t = should not
could’ve = could have

Then/than: Then is past tense. Then already happened. Than = rather.

Could’ve/Could of: Could’ve means could have not could of.

Quotation marks and punctuation: The period always goes inside the quotation marks. Like:
Correct: “Ashley really loves Lee, it’s true!”
Incorrect: “Ashley really loves Lee, it’s true”!

All right /alright: I have to admit, I use the “word” alright. It’s not correct, and it’s not even a word, but I still use it. Why? No idea. “All right” is correct.

Okay, I can’t think of anything else at the moment, but I’m sure when I see something else I’ll add it. And remember… I before E except after C!

Everyone has that one person (but probably more than one) that… stretches the truth. Doesn’t tell full blown lies, but just “spices things up” when telling the story. You sit and listen to this person go on and on about this or that, knowing that they’re completely fabricating the whole thing. You might agree, nod, make comments here and there… but really, why doesn’t anyone ever say anything?

We’ve all done it. We’ve all said things in such a way that it sounds better or more exciting than it really was… but what about the people that make a habit out of it? How do you tell those kind of people that you know that’s not really what happened and you think they sound completely idiotic? Of course they would deny it anyway, but would it do any good? Would they all of a sudden stop acting like they’re so much smarter than you by thinking they can fool you with such a thing?

Personally, I can always tell when I’m being “bullshitted”. I never say anything though, because I don’t want to make the person feel stupid. I don’t know why I don’t though, because I actually find it rather insulting. It’s as if that person is saying “I can lie to you because you’re dumb and you’ll believe it.” I know that’s not the case, and they’re just in the habit of having to make up spicy details because in reality… there are none in their lives. It’s sad really… but what can you do? You can either tell them, which most likely wont change a thing… or you can go ahead and pretend to believe it and make them feel a little better about themselves that day. Decisions decisions!