How to Have Your Followers, and Eat Them Too. Wait... what?

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Alright people. Just so you don't think I'm a creeper, there's a saying that goes, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Now, what exactly that means, I'm not quite sure, and it would be a great thing for someone to comment about. What I want to talk about is How to Keep Your Followers.

The reason I bring this up is because I have been dropping quite a few blogs off of my reading list for a couple of reasons, and I suspect that the writers of said blogs probably don't notice the loss of one follower, but if YOU are the kind of person who would notice that missing follower, here are some tips so that you are not left wondering (under such circumstances, should they arise), "What did I do wrong?"

Reasons I Click the 'Stop Following This Site' Button:

1. They already have 1,000+ followers, and their posts aren't that great. How good the blog's posts are plays a huge role in following or not following. Simply, blogs with a vast follower base are like the Walmart of the blog world. And I prefer to support locally owned businesses, yo; especially if the posts are better quality there.

2. The posting is irritatingly irregular. No, you don't have to post every day, or even every week. I am currently following a blog which updates only once a month, but the point is that they regularly post once a month (and again, the post quality is pretty good). However, the blogs which fluctuate from posting once a week to not posting for a month drive me a little bonkers. The main point is, I don't want to waste that space on my blogroll, waiting for you to post again, when for all I know, you abandoned ship. I don't mean to be harsh, but I'm being honest.

3. (Oo.. a reference to my last 'The Way I See It Post'!) I feel like they don't care whether I'm following them or not. I am following a handful of blogs with the sweetest, most caring writers. I comment on their blogs, or start following them, and they comment back on mine(or acknowledge/give thanks to their followers in a post on their blog). To those of you who do this, (and I always try to do it in return) I love you guys. Thank you for caring about me, out of your how many more followers/commentators. Again, I recently dropped a blog with mediocre posts and a writer who probably didn't even notice when I joined their followers. Needless to say, I don't feel bad about it.
To quote Beyonce's song, Single Ladies, "If you like it, then you should have put a ring on it." Except, it's more like, "If you want me to follow your blog, you should have cared enough to tell me so."

I had fun writing this, and I hope you laughed too at my sometimes ridiculous comparisons or what-have-you, rather than thinking I am just harsh or way off base. And, I'd like to give a big thank you to all of my followers (thankfully I haven't lost one yet) for being so great, whether by commenting on my posts or being sweethearts on their own blogs. I do not take you guys for granted, and if you are ever seriously irked by something I say, feel free to tell me! Otherwise, how would I know?

Converse!

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It doesn't escape attention that we love each other. We are in a state of friendship where one person will be friends with another person who's friends with someone else, and we are all connected in a chain of comradery. And we like our friends so much, that we pick up little traits here and there. We start to laugh like them. We pick up their body language. We use the words they use. We become one. It's wonderful, and in little ways... it's not.
Using the same vocabulary gets a little monotonous.
How many times can you say, "awesome!" and have it keep its weight?

I propose that we go out and add new words to our repertoire. Maybe by reading the Word of the Day on dictionary.com. Or maybe by flipping through the thin pages of the dictionary and where-your-finger-stops-nobody-knows. Maybe even by getting all chummy with the thesaurus and letting it share generations of knowledge with you. And even if... say, even these words spread throughout that huge chain of friendship and likeness... we'll all sound a little more intellectual for the experience.
:0)

Have you ever thought...

about how weird sleeping is? How we regularly lie down and lose consciousness only to regain it hours later? And then we just get up and after a while we do it again! And it is so normal... everyone does it. In fact, we are born knowing how to do it. And the whole "sleeping" part is weird in itself. Sometimes your mind stays active, thinking about things, even if those things are warped and seemingly make little sense. But then there are times when we don't dream at all. It's so STRANGE! I imagine (and no one could really KNOW) that being dead is kind of like this. You stop thinking. Everything is black. All is peaceful. And you can't be upset or confused because there are no emotions. And you can't wonder where you are. You don't even realize where you are because you can't think about it.
I haven't actually read the book of revelations, so what follows is based solely on hearsay. I guess that no one is actually IN heaven right after they die. They are more like... sleeping a dreamless sleep. A really peaceful one. And no one is going to heaven until the day of Judgement. When I guess Jesus comes to earth again? And THEN all the sleeping spirits get up and (the good ones) go to heaven. The bad ones go to the principal. For ETERNITY. And everyone who is still alive are split up in the same way, and their spirits go to their assigned fates.
And in heaven there are gardens of unimaginable beauty and no one is sad or unhappy in any way. And Jesus gives us all a big hug.

Something like that.

Underlying Principles

I believe that from one small observation about a person you can uncover a much greater part of character. At the very core of everyone are a select few ideals which reign over every decision we make. It's something I find difficult to describe...
As an example- I don't like rereading books; even ones I loved the first time around. Not even thinking or saying this to myself ever, I have it etched in my character to avoid repetition. This fact brings about many other choices I consider characteristic to me such as that I don't like repeating myself or hearing other people repeat themselves. And I like to try a new drink every time I go to Perc Place. There are so many little instances where I can connect multiple choices I make to a bigger, deeper principle I hold. Such as avoid smoking anything. I sit in nonsmoking sections when given the choice, I hold my breath if I'm passing a smoker, I avoid being around people that smoke, if I realize one of my friends is a smoker they slowly become less and less my friend unless they stop smoking. At the center of our judgment and reasoning are these guiding principles which we use to decide anything and everything. They're also prioritized. Say your friend lies about having taken something from you without asking. Everyone deserves a different chance is more important in this case than don't waste time on liars.
And in this case, avoid situations in which you could be marked as an idiot is outweighed by share your ideas. That's not to say we're always right... after all, after struggling through the first couple chapters, I am currently enjoying Twilight for the second time. Hope I was right about sharing my opinions though.

The Existence of Average

More than once the question has come to my mind: Would it be better to live in a world with extreme highs and lows or a world in which you have the average of the two? Theoretically thinking, wouldn't both have the same effect? Theoretically, [in the world of highs and lows] the highs balance out the lows and you are given the effect of average anyway. However, the effect in the two worlds is different. My thought is this: A high plus a low does not equal an average. Our lives are not math. Two opposite experiences do not leave you with nothing.
Say you find one hundred dollars one day. You tell people about it. You wonder what you should do with the money. You muse on what you could buy with that money. You take another look in your wallet and somehow you have lost the hundred dollar bill. It must do that a lot. Are you the same as if you had not found the money at all? Theoretically, yes. But you really aren't. You are changed from the experience. You have a funny little anecdote to share with people about luck. You've thought about your values (where you put your money). You have another little thing taking up a piece of your allotted memory.
Bad experiences develop character and appreciation. Good experiences drive us to keep living. Average experiences create a comparison to differentiate between the two. If your whole life were average, a comparison to nothing, would your life be anything at all?

When Animals Die

Sorry this is so morbid, but Kelly made me think of this new topic!
Apparently in the Bible it says that animals do not go to heaven. I believe the Bible; I'm not saying that. I just can't accept that all those fluffy, loving, loyal pets just disappear when they die. (When they seemingly have the same life-driving presence in them as we do).

So.

I like to think that animals, when they die are recycled into the next generation - always staying on earth. (Maybe a dog becomes a dog again or a polar bear). Whereas we humans come in and out of this world.