Something New

In a new turn for the ol' blog, I've invited a fresh face to put up occasional posts.

I was worried that my somewhat misanthropic, generally conservative, often contrarian views might be too out of sync with the progressive times we're living in -- and besides, my posting sched. has not been the best. So I've invited a nice, earnest progressive idealist to submit occasional posts. He will endeavor to provide a progressive take on the issues of the day, hopefully enlightening us as to why on earth that tired, tyrannical philosophy would hold any attraction for anyone.

I am informed that his first may well be up later today. He'll be posting under the name "Dewey" and will be keeping in the somewhat insouciant spirit of the blog. Look for it and I hope you enjoy it.

Warning: Slow Traffic Ahead

I've got some work-related stuff that'll be keeping me pretty occupied for the next month or so, just to explain the slow posting of late and to come.

Of course, if I have any more run-ins with prostitutes, you kind people will be the first to know.

Also, to my anonymous debate partner in the AIG-bonus post, I've seen your latest and will respond but, sadly, that will be slow as well.

Photo Fun!

Inspired by my friend Mr. D's blog, I have spruced up my title with a snappy new picture.

The picture was cribbed from here and adjusted in MS Paint with my awesomely spectacular graphic design skills. If anyone who has actual graphic design skills wants to come up with something better, I would be much obliged.

Couple of other blog management type things, while we're on the topic:

1) I am vaguely considering switching the blog to Wordpress. There seem to be some better features over there that interest me. If anybody has thoughts on the relative merits of Wordpress vs. Blogger, or even just wants to tell me about the fantastic features of Wordpress, I'd be interested.

2) Ads. As I was implementing my title picture, I noticed a "Monetize" tab in the Blogger management screen. Since we in the U.S. are now all about monetization, I was intrigued. But, of course, I live to serve my readers, both of them. Would there be any sig. objections to my experimenting with the relatively run-of-the-mill Ad-Sense text ads? Please register objections in the comments to this post. Frankly, I'm interested to see what ads my rather specialized take on the world would draw...

February made me shiver, with every blog post, I didn’t deliver…

Sorry to have gone silent for the last month or so. I wasn’t “feeling it”, define that as you may.

I’m going to try to get back into the swing of things but I’m focusing a little more on work and other stuff so you’ll have to bear with me, I’m afraid.

Or not, I suppose.

I shall return

Although recent events have forced my retreat from the blog, I came through and I shall return.

Some time ago I began composing my promised response to Salty Girl and it is still forthcoming.

January found me hammered (fn1) and I am just now digging out. The end of the deluge at work is now within sight and I shall soon be free to resume my inchoate rantings about the many things that annoy me.

Stay tuned.

fn1: In what can only be considered an unusual turn of events to those who know me well, I was hammered with work and other obligations this time, rather than my more traditional sort of hammered.

Red Letter Day!

First off, I feel I should apologize for my flurry of comments last Wed. As I mentioned, I hurriedly finished off a bunch of half-formed ones and got them out before I left town for the weekend. As we all know, haste makes waste and as I re-read them I realized that they were somewhat poorly written even by the admittedly low standards of this blog. So apologies for that.

Yet I can't feel completely bad about them as they had the salutary effect of drawing 5 brand new comments over the weekend! I feel like the blog has come alive.

Speaking of coming alive, one of the comments was from Elvis; I am glad to know that he's still kickin' and v. flattered to learn that he's a reader.

But perhaps even better were a couple of genuine, dyed-in-the-wool substantive comments in reaction to my pointing out the paternalism inherent in foodstamps and the followup post on bad decision making.(fn1)

I can't say how glad I was to see comments taking issue with my posts. I do think that Salty Girl misunderstands my positions on a few things and might have run away a bit in her comment arguing against things that she thinks I said that I don't believe I did. Regardless, it's these kinds of exchanges that are the lifeblood of our political system(fn2) and I look forward to continuing the discussion.

To that end, I shall have an in-depth response to them soon, with hopes that I do not too adversely affect Salty Girl's studies.

And while we're on the topic of posting, while it is my definite intention to keep up a steady schedule in the new year, the fact that we're amidst the busy year-end season at work and other issues might preclude that to some extent. So apologies in advance for light posting over the next few weeks.

Hope everyone's New Year's celebration was fun.

fn1: I feel like I need to make special note of Tom's comment too, so he doesn't feel left out as I mention all the other posters and not him...

fn2: Not to mention of a blog...

Site Stats

Some fun statistics on my blog:

I have now made 108 posts.

I have received 7 comments, only one of which was me responding to another commenter.

One of the comments was spam from some motivational speaker no doubt trying to draw my enormous readership to his blog.

One comment was from a Brazilian(fn1) who I must assume was confused or otherwise mistaken in leaving a one-word comment of no particular relevance.

And the rest are from Salty Girl, usually haranguing me when I stop posting for too long. Most of these date to when she was my sole reader.

Nowadays my ad-hoc estimate of my readership is in the 10-12 range on a good day. All friends and family, of course.

Thanks to anyone who reads and Happy New Year!

fn1: The word "Brazilian" reminds me of the joke about Bush being told that two Brazilian soldiers had been killed in Iraq. Bush's face falls, he's silent a moment and then says "That's terrible. How many is a Brazilian again?"

Flotsam and Jetsam

There's a bunch of random posts that I had played with and not posted a few days ago that I'm going to be putting up now.

So that's why it might appear that I'm suddenly interested in the same things again and also suddenly v. prolific...

Public Notice: Heroes is possibly the worst show on television

The show Heroes was interesting during its first season but ended kind of weakly.

The second season was almost unwatchably bad. The only reason it gets the "almost" qualifier in there was because of the interesting first season.

The third season was actually promoted prior to its start with the phrase "if you gave up on last season, you need to try it again..." which was somewhat heartening because it at least showed some recognition on the part of the producers of the show about how bad it had gotten.

But still, I was very trepidatious going into this season. No great eagerness to jump in. I finally got around to watching the special 2-hour premiere last night. The show is unwatchable. It's lost the "almost". I will be adjusting my dvr accordingly.