tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7347482.post-1151466237126229532006-06-27T20:42:00.000-07:002006-07-09T00:54:20.503-07:002006-07-09T00:54:20.503-07:00About two years ago, I was dying to get one of those newfangled Gmail beta accounts. At the time, they were hard to come by, and I was too cheap to buy one on eBay.<br /><br />I had heard that Google was giving away gmail accounts to users of Blogger, a subsidiary of Google. I figured, <span style="font-style: italic;">what the heck? I'll sign up for a stupid Blogger account to receive a Gmail account. That's easy</span>. I waited and waited, and no gmail invite. I reasoned that I needed to actually <span style="font-style: italic;">use</span> Blogger to receive that coveted Gmail invite. I had never even heard of "blogging". But I was so determined to get that friggin' Gmail account, I started a shill blog called "Grouchy Golf". My <a href="http://grouchygolf.blogspot.com/2004/06/hello-world-golf-gods-strike-tiger.html">first post</a> was short and sweet, because I figured that one post would qualify me for a Gmail account. But when I still didn't receive a Gmail invite, I created another post to better my chances. That began a vicious cycle: no invite, new post, spin cycle, repeat. Eventually, I directed some friends to Grouchy Golf for fun. They got a kick out of it so I continued to create new posts for our amusement. Two years later, and I'm still going strong! The ironic thing is that I never did receive that dog-gone Gmail invite from Blogger! Newman!Golf Grouchnoreply@blogger.com12