What's working for me lately?
So, not going to say a lot about what this really means, but I think you can guess that it is tracking activity. I’ve been using it for a little over a month now, and it’s working. I’ve been much more active. This is good. For context, this is up in my kitchen in my house. I see this board several times a day. I love being able to add a date to the board.
What do these numbers tell you?
A wise man said to me this weekend that he’s thinking about turning visitor tracking off on his blog. He values what he gets from blogging, but he’s not sure that stats are helping. Hmm? This blog has been tracking visitors since August 2007. I just took a look at the grid. May 2008 was the best month this blog ever had. I had just shy of 6000 visitors two years ago this month!
Confessions of an annoying Facebook’er (and Tweeter — and Buzzer…)
So Buzz came out yesterday. Have you seen the stuff about Buzz? You might not have noticed if you’re not using Gmail yet. Buzz is a social network integrated with Gmail. Right now, you can post your latest thoughts and it will show up in the Buzz Box of everyone’s email that’s following you. If you want, it will also post a story every time you add new photos to Flickr or Picasa.
Do something with yourself
I was tooling about the web tonight, doing a bit of research for a project I’m working on, and stumbled on this site, Girl Drive. The site promotes a book that two young women, one of whom, Emma Bee Bernstein, is pictured above. The book is a survey of what women their age want out of the world these days and the story of how they investigated it. I don’t know about you, but when I come on a site like this, the first thing I click is the “about,” page.
My guilty pleasure: 'Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood & Sweatsocks' by Mankind
NPR is running a story series called “My Guilty Pleasure,” in which big time authors write about a book they love to read that doesn’t really square with their authorial reputation. Man, I just found one of these for myself: the absolutely amazing Have a Nice Day: A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks, by Mankind (also known as: Mick Foley), his mind blowing account of his unlikely ascent to professional wrestling super-stardom.
Wits about you
The smartest guy in the room is bright. The guy everyone knows is the smartest guy in the room is brilliant. When everyone knows someone is the smartest guy in the room but none of them think he knows it, that guy is luminous.
Dear God...
I like this song. I really like this song. I’ve liked it ever since I bought an XTC tribute CD in college, even though I had never heard of the alt rock legends. I bought it because the CD had covers by both Sarah MacLachlan and They Might Be Giants on it. I really liked those two in those days. I had crazy love for those two. Sarah MacLachlan, in fact, did the cover of “Dear God.
You need to get a book bag and put some weights in it
Today I went running in this. It was worse than this by the time I was done. This was a couple hours into the winter storm, and it was still going the whole time I was out there. When I took up running, a buddy of mine advised me that I should make a point of running in bad weather. Running in bad weather, he said, is one of the easiest ways to feel like a bad-ass.
Old dogs, old tricks. Maybe new fleas?
Are the arts dead? Or, are they, at least, fairly moribund? Or are they more vibrant than ever?I tend to think the arts are pretty boring right now, in the main, and that the people are bored. The evidence is against me. More people are artmaking now than ever before. More art is getting sold than ever before. There is more kinds or art than ever before. There’s more ways to get attention than ever before.
Anti-cycling crackdown in the backwards city I find myself regretting more and more calling home…
The only reason that the two deaths caused by cyclists in recent days are notable is because deaths caused by cyclists are so rare. Let’s let that sink in for a second. If you look at it with any sort of proportion, cyclists hardly ever hurt or kill anyone. On the other hand, death and injury that results from cars is so common that only really stunning cases rate coverage anymore.