Not long after Head Rambles was launched, I signed up with Google Adsense.

It seemed like a fair way of covering expenses, and I had heard good [and bad] reports about them.

Before long, I discovered that the only way to make significant gains was to make the ads the primary function of the site, with the content running second.

I hate sites where I have to pick my way carefully around banners and Google links.  It’s irritating in the extreme and gives the strong impression that the site owner is more interested in making money than in imparting information.

After running Google Adsense for a couple of years, I have decided it just isn’t worth it.  Taking into account the irritation they cause to readers and the server overheads slowing down the site, and balancing that against the pittance that was being earned, I decided to strip them off the site as soon as the payment level was reached.

I reached that level a couple of weeks ago, and the cheque should be in the post shortly.  As soon as I hit the magic mark, I removed all traces of Google Adsense from the site.  Plugins were removed and all coding in the template was erased.  Good riddance.

What is very strange though is that I’m still earning.  Within the last two weeks or so, my earnings have continued to grow at their customary snails-pace.

I like that.

Good on ya, Google!

Damnit! I have just realised that it is nearly two weeks since I was last here.

One of the main reasons for this is a deterioration in the old M.E.

M.E. manifests itself in many ways, one of which is Restless Leg Syndrome.  Naturally in this day and age of acronyms, this is generally referred to as R.L.S.

R.L.S. is a nasty complaint in that it has an all pervasive effect on life.  During the morning, it is completely absent.   Around mid-afternoon, the first symptoms show up.  There is a mild tingling sensation in the calves and thighs which is easily ignored.  However as the evening progresses, it gets worse.  The sensation soon becomes like a series of constant electric pulses through the leg muscles, or else there is a sensation of dozens of ‘things’ crawling around inside the legs.

There are two very strange things about R.L.S.

The first is that the symptoms can be more or less instantly eliminated by standing up.  Also, leg movement helps a lot, so I seem to spend my evenings either standing around as if I were a stranger at a party, or else I am sitting frantically rotating alternate feet from the ankles.

The second, and more serious is that the symptoms are instantly magnified tenfold if the sufferer relaxes.  Any attempt at an afternoon nap is out of the question, as the legs are soon crawling, jumping and generally being extremely irritating.

Naturally, symptoms are very bad in bed, where one is at one’s most relaxed so sleep is difficult.  Even after getting to sleep, the legs continue to twitch during the night, so sleep is disturbed.

The result of all this is that the R.L.S. sufferer gets progressively more tired.  The sufferer feels tired during the day, but can’t get a nap.  Exhaustion sets in at night, and sleep comes, but it is disturbed.

There are no cures for R.L.S.  It is something that has to be endured.  There are medications that can relieve the symptoms, but they generally have fairly drastic side-effects, in my experience.

During the day, therefore, the brain is tired.  We all know what the thought process is like if we are short of sleep, but to the R.L.S. sufferer, this is a constant daily curse.  Thoughts are sluggish and there is little incentive to do anything that requires a bit of brain power.

M.E. manifests itself in many ways, such as the fatigue and occasional pain.  Of all of them,  R.L.S. must be the worst though.

Today must be unique.

For the first time since I started working back in the ‘60s, I have no work as such to do.

I have a couple of projects still floating around, but they are more or less complete.  I still have some business bookwork to do, but that can take its time.

I have had periods before when I had no work on hand, where I managed to grab myself a week or two [or more] of relaxation before the next project arrived, but this time I have made the ultimate decision.

I am not taking on any more.

I have had enough of web design and web development.  At my stage in life, it is a hassle I can do without.  I will keep up the web hosting for the time being, as it only causes occasional trouble, and anyway I need somewhere to park my sites.  If an existing client wants work done, I will consider it.

So the week stretches ahead and I can relax.  If I take a good mood, I might do some writing.  If I take a bad mood, I’ll send out some invoices.

Life ain’t all that bad!