Everyone gets rejected at some point, whether it’s when applying for a job, submitting a manuscript or something else. But rest assured, you are not alone and even some of the greatest writers on earth have had their books rejected before.

I have long been a proponent of “Dear Blank” messages, but I was never so motivated as to print them out, photograph them and reupload them to the computer. Nevertheless, I’m glad someone did.

Wrapping up our Valentine’s Day posts, Mental Floss has a great article detailing the strange role the flea once played in romantic poetry:

The most famous of these poems is The Flea, by John Donne. The poet’s narrator, struggling with a woman who wishes to hold on to her virginity, compares its loss to a fleabite: small and insignificant. When a flea actually does bite them both, he notes that their blood has mingled inside it. He just wants to mingle other bodily fluids anyway, so sex should mean neither sin nor shame nor loss of virginity at this point. Other writers imagined themselves as fleas exploring their lovers’ bodies, or bemoaned the fact that they were not fleas able to explore the secrets of a woman’s body without detection.

Fleas were symbols of love outside of poems, too. Some Frenchmen would pluck fleas from their lovers’ flesh and keep the insects as pets—it was a way to have a small piece of their beloved with them always. The fleas lived in tiny gold cages worn around the neck and were fed a daily meal of the man’s blood.

Here’s hoping you don’t get bit by any literal “love bugs” this year.

Image via Scurzuzu [Flickr]

Those of you who follow my works on a regular basis may have noticed I occassionally have issues myself -and that’s with a trusty spellchecker on hand.

Thank you Mental Floss for boosting my confidence today.

Just visit the Upcoming Queue page, post your article and if it gets voted up, you’ll get on the homepage. It’s also fun to vote on other people’s posts.

I put a new post up on InventorSpot today showing you 15 terrible gifts for your Valentine. I really recomend checking it out! It will make you giggle. Also, I wrote a new post over at Neatorama about 5 famous people with depression. Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for the support everyone!

“Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.”

Seriously, this is some bogus crap. I remember before the whole columbine thing, I had wrote a short story about a little girl with fish bowls for eyes. The other kids pushed her in a fountain. When fish swam in her eyes, she could see for the first time and noticed how much the other kids hated her, so she shot them.

It was a stupid story, something to get my angst about school out in a creative, non-threatening way. The kids who write these things aren’t the kids that will blow up the school. Nowadays, they love to take anyone who seems alienated and push them further towards the edge. The idea should be acceptance and understanding, not more hatred. My god these people are retarded.

Fact of the Day:
HIV has been around over 100 years. -Source

Today’s Holiday:
Bring your teddy bear to work or school day –since I stayed home sick, my teddy bear was at my side all day.

Link of the day:
8 classic movies with gaping plot holes.