Popular Posts & Weird Search Patterns

One of the features of the new template I love is the "Popular Posts" sidebar that gives the four most popular posts on this blog in the last week (you can change the timeframe on that if you want, but I like a week as a fairly large chunk of time that's not too large.

However, one thing I've noticed in checking my stats daily, and even more so now that I have a "Popular Posts" sidebar, is that people have a weird Google search pattern that is, well, kinda spooky too.

You may notice the top two posts right now are "One Hit Wonders of the 2000s (Part 31)" and "The Sphinx Mystery."

Yet I don't think those posts have been read since they were posted.

Why do I think that?

Because people are finding them on Google for their pictures, not their content.

On the one-hit wonders post, there is a picture there labelled "hunk," and I put it there as part of a joke where I provide something for my female readers to look at (since so many of the pictures in those posts are of women).

I can't count the number of Google image searches for the word "hunk" that end up on that post. I have no idea if people are downloading the picture or just clicking away from it once they see what it is, but that's the sole reason that post is the most popular of my posts.

The same is true of "The Sphinx Mystery." A lot of people are doing image searches for the Sphinx, and they land on the post.

Nobody's actually reading the content, sadly. They're either grabbing the picture or just backing out of the site. The results are a bit skewed.

But I'm not too unhappy about that.

It's nice that I apparently will always have a book review and an example of one of my great comedy series on the front page. I hope people decide to check them out when they get to my home page (or any other page, actually, since the "Popular Posts" sidebar is on all pages).

It is a bit sad that I know nobody's actually reading them at the moment, but I can get over that.

Incidentally, I'm constantly finding out cool things about this new template. I discovered the other day that it has threaded comments! So replies to comments will appear underneath the comment in question instead of at the end of the comment field. I'm very happy about that one.

And that's your blogging minutiae for the day, in case you were wondering why you're seeing the same two posts at the top of the page.

A Triumphant Return - Blogging, Star Trek, and Others

Ok, not sure about triumphant, but guess what? I'm back!

Yeah, I know I went down to the corner store for some milk and, um, got lost. I ended up Brazil, had a harrowing journey down the Amazon (let's just say that thankfully, piranhas don't seem to find me very tasty), then I stumbled upon a seer in the Andes who placed his hands on my head, closed his eyes, scanned my aura, and told me that I was far from home.

Either he scanned my aura or he saw the Iowa State shirt that I was wearing. Come to think of it, he did seem a bit shady. But he did have tons of watches to buy! So I bought you one.

Yes, all of you.

So I finally made it home after a few months and, well, I don't know how to tell you this, but...I forgot the milk.

Sorry.

Anyway, now that I'm back, I intend to keep this blog going, and I've come up with some ways to do that. Here's what's going to be coming on the blog that will help me keep it regular (no, not that kind of regular, thank you very much).

First, I'm going to have some regular content that I can schedule well in advance, making sure that there is stuff coming down the pipeline that's not time-sensitive. Don't worry, I'll still post timely opinion pieces and other stuff like that which will be what some of you are coming back for. But the regular stuff will make sure that there's steady content even when I don't have anything else to say.

This content will include:

1)Star Trek episode reviews.

I have all seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on DVD sitting on my shelf. When I was reviewing for Epinions, I made it a goal to go through all of them and write reviews of the episodes. One of my favourite things when the episodes were fresh was reading the reviews of Timothy W. Lynch on Usenet. He reviewed every episode, and they were quite well done.

That inspired me, and I made it through quite a few episodes. But I stopped doing that.

I have a healthy backlog of these reviews, though, and I'm going to post them once or twice a week on here. These will be gussied up with pictures as well as edited in case there are any references that don't make sense now.

Of course, once I catch up, I will be doing original ones again.

2)Book Reviews

I've missed quite a number of book reviews in my absence, so I'll be posting the backlog periodically as well. I'm going to try and spread them out a bit, though, making sure that they last at least a little while.

I haven't decided yet, but I may also post some original book reviews here too. These would be ones where I didn't really have enough to say for a full review on Curled Up With a Good Book, but I do have a few thoughts. They probably won't be as formal as the other ones are. We'll see whether this happens, though. No guarantees on this front.

3) Anything else I can think of.

I haven't come up with anything to replace the "one-hit wonders" posts, and I'm not sure I want to do something that heavy right now. Yes, the posts were very funny (well, I thought so, anyway), but they were a lot of work! Not sure I want to do that again right now.

But I am open to suggestions on something that I can do, maybe on a weekly basis, that isn't quite that time-consuming. Maybe a weekly top 5 or something like that.

As I said, I do plan on "regular" opinion posts as well. These will be slotted in between the other weekly stuff as they occur to me.

I think this is a good plan for me to keep the blog going again. Because I really do love it. Whatever writing funk I've been in, it's been a long-lasting one where I briefly break out of it and then get sucked right back in.

It kind of sucks.

Hopefully this will work.

For those who subscribe to this blog by email - and an MST3K treat

You're going to get a little something extra this morning. Possibly.

I'm not sure of the ins and outs of how Blogger's scheduling system and Feedburner's email subscription works, so maybe not.

I just did a post that I meant to schedule for Monday, May 28.

I accidentally scheduled it for May 21.

Which, as you know, has already passed.

I've now edited it and it will be coming out on Monday as planned, but I don't know whether it will be emailed to you tonight because it was published. Publishing it on May 21 may mean it won't show up in your email box. Or it may go back in time and show up in your box last Monday.

Wouldn't THAT be funny?

Anyway, this doesn't affect many people, but I would like to know whether you get the post or not. Just so that I get an idea how this subscription thing works. If one of you could let me know, it's a Dallas post.

Much appreciated!!

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.

Who is that Stranger?

This may be where I appear in a puff of smoke, hacking and coughing because some of it got up into my lungs and all that. But appear I shall!

Some of you must really have been wondering what had happened to me. If I have any followers who don't also follow me on Twitter or Facebook (or even on Game Informer, where I have still been posting some blogs that you should read if you want a laugh), you probably were wondering if some giant chasm opened up in the Earth and swallowed me whole.

(Thanks to Laughing Squid)

Actually, that did happen, except that I managed to avoid it by using my super powers.

But I digress.

I've written quite a bit over the last six months before my final post on January 22 (has it been that long?) about getting into writing funks, wondering whether I had the determination and will to keep going on this blog. The desire to write blog posts and come up with interesting topics was just eluding me. It was starting to feel forced, and more and more it became a place to post my book reviews and latest podcasts and that's it. Pretty boring if you're not interested in either of those. I would come back raring to go for a brief period of time, and then the desire would leave again.

Finally, after going through the motions in January, I just stopped. Is it ironic that this came shortly after my "I'm feeling newly invigorated!" post that I did on January 2? I think it is.

Anyway, things have continued on in the life of Dave, even if I haven't been sharing it here.

The short story writing class that I mentioned in my New Year's post actually did happen. Eight weeks and we wrote a lot! I really enjoyed it. Had some great classmates (though I'm a bit disappointed that nobody seemed to connect outside of class, or at least not with me). We had a great time sharing our writing with each other, giving us some wonderful critiques and I produced a couple of short stories that I may do something with some day. The class was taught by Alison Acheson, and she was a wonderful instructor. She gave us very good feedback, writing tips, as well as the inspiration to keep writing.

I really do want to keep the wheel rolling, and while I haven't written as much as I would have liked since the course ended, the inspiration is still there. I wanted to join a writer's group and keep going. I'm not sure I'm ready for a critiquing group yet, or at least one that meets every couple of weeks. Maybe after the NHL play-offs are over and I have more evenings free. I did, however, join a writers group called The Vancouver Independent Writer Group that I found on Meetup.com. I've been to two of their gatherings now, where we go to a coffee shop (at least the two I've been to, though I know at least one of the previous ones was sushi) and just talk. Mostly about writing, but just anything really. I'd talk more about it, but why rob myself of a blog topic possibility?

The same goes for Meetup.com, a great site that I will blog about later.

We have also had five podcast episodes posted since I stopped writing here. You can find the link to all of them here. And if you bookmark that page, you can always find them.

So yes, I am alive. I am active. I've just been in a funk, the worst one I've had in a while. I haven't even been reading blogs (other than political/news blogs), so I'm way behind on my friends' blogs like Healing Morning. I will read the backlog that I've missed, Dawnie! I promise.

I've decided to use this week I'm taking off (only needing three vacation days to get Wednesday-Tuesday off because of the Easter holiday...WIN!) to start up this blog again. I may add a new template to really make it new, but not sure if I'm in the mood for *that* much work. I am back, though, at least for the time being. I don't want to unduly stress myself by making promises I might not be able to keep, so I'm not going to say this is permanent. I hope it is. I truly want it to be.

Finally, before I close out, I wanted to send a shout-out and thank you to Raquel, an old friend. She's going through a tough time right now, and I reached out to her because of that. In the process of doing that and our conversing about it, she mentioned how much she enjoyed my blog. It's hearing things like that, completely out of the blue and from unexpected sources (as opposed to expected sources, which are also wonderful to hear and well-appreciated, but don't have quite the same impact), that give me inspiration. While I've been mulling over whether to revive the blog or not, it was her saying that which put me over the edge and made me decide to do it this weekend.

So thank you, Raquel.

For now, Dave's mind is buttoned back up, and ready to spill over with bloggy goodness.

A Brand New Year

The year 2012 is upon us, and as always it's a time of reflection.

I thought about posting some drunken revelry on New Year's Eve, something that would make you all laugh, but there were two problems with that. First, I wasn't drinking. Second, I wasn't reveling. I was having a wonderful evening with my wife, just enjoying her company as well as playing some video games and a Midnight kiss, of course. However, I wouldn't call it "reveling," as that implies a party, with lots of people around, confetti, champagne, and all that good stuff.

So no drunken revelry post from me. However, here it is January 2 and I'm sitting at the computer having just finished a book review and looking at the computer screen, and thinking. ("Uh oh, that's not a good sign" - The Peanut Gallery) Thinking about this blog, about blogging in general, about writing, and just thinking about what the new year is going to bring me. More importantly, thinking about what I'm going to bring to it.

I'm not a believer in New Year's resolutions (I share my friend Dawn's views on those), but I do believe that the turning of the year is a good time to reflect back on the year that's past and forward to the year that's coming (ok, that's not technically "reflecting," but never mind). The year 2011 was a really bad and stressful one for me, but it also had some good things as well. Work has been going very well, and the success of our podcast (maybe not in the number of listens, but in the buzz around the Faculty as well as the fact that it's something I've stuck with for a year now) has been very heartening for me. It's something that's beyond my comfort zone, and the fact that I am putting myself out there, not just my writing but my voice as well, is something that I'm very proud of. Now we just need to expand our listener base.

I've made some progress on my personal growth journey as well.

For example, I went to V-Con, the Vancouver science fiction convention. The last time I went, four years ago, I pretty much just went to panels and hid in a shell. I was absorbing stuff, watching stuff, but not participating. This year, it became the first step in bringing me out of my shell. I didn't go to as many panels, but instead I interacted with people there. I hung out in the gaming room and socialized with some of the gamers there. I actually stopped people who were in interesting costumes and asked to take their picture. That seems weird, but it's something that I would never have done before, despite the fact that I know one of the reasons people wear costumes to conventions is because they want to be photographed. I sat in the Hospitality Suite and talked to people. Yes, I went to the convention to have fun, so it wasn't just a "social experiment" for me. But I was determined that part of that fun would be actual interaction, and I think I accomplished that. Next year will be even better, I think.

This year, I plan to do more of that. I am enrolled in a short story course that starts in February. Again, there are two good things about that. First, it will get me writing again. The second thing is, again, social interaction. I look forward to interacting with my classmates, both with writing and other stuff as well. Will any of us come out of there as friends? Who knows. But I look forward to doing it, and maybe I'll have something written to share with some of you folks afterward.

I also plan on going to the Northern Voice social media conference again in May. Last year, I didn't socialize much, as my re-found determination to do so came afterward. This year, I'm going to take a bigger part in it. I'm not going to leave the Friday night party early like I did last year. I'm going to talk to people at the conference itself. I'm really looking forward to it. Even better, since it's professional development (I do social media work for my office), I don't have to pay for it! But even if I did, I would be going. I had a lot of fun last year, so hopefully it will be even better this year.

None of these are "New Year's Resolutions," though, because I decided I was going to do this a few months ago. But as I sit here on the cusp of the new year, thinking about the year to come and the plans I have for continuing this personal journey, I greet it with great anticipation.

Yet Another Blogging Update

It's been one of those writing funks that are just incredibly hard to get out of. I realize that it's December 17, and I have only posted once this month, and that was a bi-weekly podcast notification post.

I'm not sure what the problem is right now, but I just haven't had the wheels turning in my head, and I've been so easily distracted that it's annoying. It also really pisses me off that these "blogging updates" have become so frequent over the last few months. They always say that to write, you just have to sit down and do it. That's really half the battle. Sure, what you write initially may be crap, but just getting the juices flowing again is the most important thing. You can always edit later. Or just throw it out and write something else.

I do most of my writing on weekend mornings, and I have managed to bang out a couple of book reviews over the last little while. I'm pretty much caught up, though there are three books that are older that I haven't reviewed yet. I've caught up on the recent books I've read. Even that has changed, though. I used to review everything I read. Now I only review books that I received from Curled Up With a Good Book.

There have been a few things that I thought would be worth posting about recently, news stories that struck me as interesting, but I sit down, stare at the keyboard, and say "eh, maybe not."

I avoid New Year's resolutions like the plague, but I am resolving to myself that I am going to be better at doing this. Hopefully better quality, but definitely better timeliness. I look back at this blog, over 700 posts, and I remember the idealism I started with. "I'm going to post every day" I said. "They're going to be interesting and worth reading!" I said.

That has tapered off (the timeliness, hopefully not the worth), and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Blogging every day isn't necessary. I used to think that it was the only way to keep readers interested and subscribed. That if I took days off at a time, these people would drop away. I know that's not the case now, but it's still in the back of my mind. You blogging friends of mine, who manage to keep the readership despite posting very infrequently, I admit I get a little envious sometimes. It shows you've made a connection with people, something that transcends time.

Anyway, that all sounds a little self-pitying, so I'll stop that now.

Let me just say that I will be posting more in the next little while, and I am going to do my best to keep it up. I have made promises like this before, both to you and myself, and they've fallen through. So I'm not going to promise that it will all happen. I do promise to re-dedicate myself to it, and to do my best to get this blog back up to where it was before.

I've got a podcast post going up later today, a book review tomorrow, and maybe some things that will be of interest to other readers who aren't interested in podcasts or book reviews.

I do plan to blog on my travels next week as well. At least, I hope so.

Until then, stay tuned, and stick around. I hope you do it voluntarily.

Handcuffs chafe.

Spreading Blog Traffic - Where to Respond?

With the increase in the number of social media platforms, and with the urge to spread ourselves over as many of them as possible to get our words out to the largest group of people, it sometimes feels like overload. Not an overload of information, but an overload of time and effort, checking the various venues where we hang out to see if somebody has responded to our work. It also has that effect on the reader too, especially if you're following somebody who's on all these different platforms. Where is it best to respond?

Dawn, a friend of mine who often comments on this blog (and vice versa), recently went through a rather frightening experience with an unknown man potentially trying to abduct her, that also has turned into a good lesson in safety for all of us. She posted what happened, as well as what it has taught her, on her blog. She wants to share her insights with the rest of us, and I think it's a very valuable (not to mention gutsy, re-living it in order to write about it, and then share it publicly) post, and I encourage you to go read it when I'm done here (or, if you promise to come back, you can go read it now...but you'd better stick to that promise! I'll be watching.).

It's a powerful post, as well as being filled with great advice and information.

The night it happened, I happened to be on Facebook when she posted it in her status (another cosmic "coincidence", Dawnie?  Since I very rarely see FB status updates?) and was one of the many commenters going back and forth talking about it, advising, or just being there for her.

Since I had already been there on Facebook, the "what happened" part of Dawn's post was already known to me, but the rest of it (the life lessons that can be derived from her experience, following your instincts, etc) was new. So I read the post and greatly enjoyed doing so (Dawn's blog is well-worth following). I wanted to respond, leave a comment.

However, I was reading it on my phone, and responding to Blogger blogs (and blogs in general, I think) can be pretty irritating on the device. I told myself I'd respond later, when I was on my computer.

Then I was browsing the Google+ app on my phone, and saw that she had posted the link there as well. She, like many bloggers, posts the link to the various social media avenues that she inhabits (Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and feel free to tell me where else if I'm missing anything). We sometimes, especially on Twitter, have communities that don't overlap with our other communities, and we want to make sure these people see our work as well. I'm the same way.

Since I was already there, I decided to leave a comment on her Google+ entry.

Then it hit me. If I respond there, is there any point in responding on her actual blog? She's already seen my comment. I can't think that my comment on her blog would be any different, though I would like to think, if I did decide to leave one, that I wouldn't copy and paste.

This started me thinking about blogging in general, and how spread out we are, not just as bloggers, but as readers as well. Yes, as mentioned above, our communities in the various social networks can be different, but there is a lot of overlap there. I'm "friends" with Dawn on Facebook, she's in my Google+ circles, we follow each other on Twitter. I subscribe to her blog too (though I haven't looked at my Reader in a while). That's four different places where I can find her stuff, not to mention actually being there on Facebook immediately after it happened.

Where is it appropriate to comment? Should we be consistent, or comment wherever we happen to be when we stumble across a post?

This is mostly a rhetorical question, because the obvious answer is "it's up to you." There is no right answer.

But it does bring to mind how thinly we can be spread sometimes. As a blogger, you have to be keeping an eye on all of these various social networks, or you'll miss a response. Most of us are already doing that, so it's pretty automatic, but it can still feel strange carrying on different conversations in different places. This is especially true if somebody comments in more than one area!

I don't get enough response to be confused, but I can see where higher-traffic bloggers might. I think that if I ever get that kind of traffic, I'd have to wrap my head around it before I became proficient at it.

It's not really a question that I need an answer to. It was just a thought process sparked by what happened this weekend. Something I thought I would explore and see if anybody shares similar thoughts. Even if you're not a blogger, do you find this to be true as a reader? 

It was a Dark Sunday Night

It's one of those weird, yet interesting nights for me tonight. I'm sitting here alone in the dark, a baseball game on TV (but muted). I'm watching the constant stream of tweets about the MTV Music Video Awards on Twitter, all of them coated in derision and scorn. I get the feeling I'm not missing much. In fact, I know that I would not recognize any of these people unless they've become famous for other things (like Lady Gaga or Kanye West).

It's been a busy weekend. We spent yesterday reorganizing the living room, making it a lot more spacious. We got rid of two pieces of furniture and only brought in one piece, so I'm quite happy. I look around, and I feel content at what we have accomplished.

But like all the other times we've done stuff like this, it's stressful, though almost all of that can be put on my shoes, as I allow myself to stress about things that don't really need to be stressed about.

(Thanks to AzTeen)

But it's done, and as I look around, I can see that it is good. I'm doing my regular "oh my God, I haven't been participating on Twitter recently!" activity, tweeting up a storm. And then I decide that I've got thoughts longer than 140 characters that I'd like to get out, so I sit down and blog.

The desk is still by the balcony door, so I look out at the lights of the city that never truly sleeps. It's getting darker earlier now, not even 8:30. I hear the honking of the horns outside; smell the barbecue smell from some other balcony in our building, and the occasional gross-smelling fish (it may taste good if you like fish, but it smells foul). It's the sounds and the smells of Summer in Vancouver, and it strikes me that it will be ending soon.

We're less than a month away from Fall, and school starts in another week. My work has been relatively slow this last month, but next week is when it starts getting busy again.

But for now, I'm at peace. Bowling's on now, but I'll be playing a game of my own soon. I look out at the building across the street, seeing the lights shining from numerous balcony windows, and knowing that nothing is coming out of ours, I feel content. There's something about the dark, with only the TV and monitor brightness shining through, that adds a sense of calm to life.

Something that will end tomorrow when it's back to work.

Maybe I'll be able to recapture it tomorrow night.

One can hope.

Lazy Sunday, Klout, and Social Media

It's Sunday morning, and I'm sitting here at the computer just goofing around. Reading some stuff, looking out the window at the sun-drenched city, feeling a little bit of a breeze coming through the door.

I don't drink coffee, but I've got my Diet Pepsi beside me, I'm listening to some great instrumental music (David Arkenstone does some great stuff). When I'm done with this post, I may listen to a podcast or something, once I'm not worried about it distracting me.

I'm also in a social media mood. I've been on Twitter a lot this morning. I've been reading blogs. I've just been having fun shooting the breeze with people. I've written two book reviews this weekend, something that I've been having trouble getting in the mood to do recently. I wrote a blog post last night on Game Informer (gaming fans with Fall 2011 gaming expectations might want to check it out), I'm doing this one now.

This is what Sundays are for, isn't it? Assuming you're not a church-goer, of course, in which case Sundays are church days! No, just spending a peaceful day with hardly a care in the world. Relaxing. Trying not to think about anything too taxing, but just doing things that you enjoy.

It's actually kind of nice.

My social media presence goes in massive up and down waves, and you can see it on my Klout score. When I take self-imposed breaks (not all of them voluntary; sometimes it's just laziness), the score tends to drop off pretty quickly. Then I decide to start interacting and posting again, and it starts to slowly go up again. I've been having fun discussing all this on Twitter this morning, which has been part of the pleasantly peaceful way to spend it.

But thinking about it also got me tweeting about other things. Not that the score means *that* much in the grand scheme of things. I'm not driven to the point where I must have influence! And if I don't, I'm nothing. It's not that.

It just reminds me that I'm not doing something that I actually enjoy doing. And that's not a good way to spend life.

So I'm reading blogs, tweeting them if I find them interesting. Making comments about this and that. Something that I don't do on Facebook that often, because I don't want to spam my friends (if you really want to see the extent of my wit and wisdom, follow me on Twitter).

This is also a long-winded way of saying that the final episode of the One-Hit Wonders of the 2000s has been postponed for yet *another* week. I'm just not in the mood to work at it today. I want to be lazy. I want to enjoy the fresh air, and the requirement to do nothing that I don't want to.

Which is as it should be.

Blogging: Comments and Conversations - Moderating Comments

Commenting on blogs is always fun, because it can give you a way to converse with the blogger, letting them know what you think of what they said. Some great conversations can come from this, and people can learn things from each other.

My favourite example of this is my "The more attractive you feel you are, the more likely you are to expect to have dinner paid for" blog, because it's the only post that's sparked a long comment stream, though not exactly much debate. It's not like anybody was dumb enough to take the *other* side in that one against such powerful forces.

But this is talking about personal blogs, relatively low-traffic blogs that aren't part of a company or organization. What about blogs like political blogs, gaming blogs, popular media blogs, and the like?

Most of them that I'm familiar with, they don't moderate their comments. They may police them and delete offensive comments after the fact, but they don't moderate them and not post ones that may offend people.

Most of the political blogs I follow are Conservative, but I would bet that Liberal blogs operate in a similar fashion. Some are no-holds-barred comment fests where offensive comments may be deleted after the fact, but commenters are able to get involved in free-for-alls among themselves. The bloggers themselves rarely comment in the threads, though I'm sure they do read them (unless they're paying somebody to monitor the comments for them).

Hot Air is a blog like this.

This can create quite the community, and it can also instigate some valuable give and take between the commenters involved.

Other blogs, like National Review's blogs (I mainly read The Corner, though I do peruse the others sometimes) recently opened comments on their individual posts. They do moderate, but the moderation is generally very quick. I've posted a few comments there and there has usually only been a brief period between me posting and it actually showing up. Sometimes it almost seemed instantaneous. This became the norm after some complaints about how long it was taking to post.

In a blog where individual posts from contributing members can drive previous posts down the page fairly quickly, a delay in posting comments can kill any interplay between the commenters. It would be very hard to get a debate/conversation going when it takes hours for a comment to appear.

Which gets me to what drove me to write this blog in the first place.

What's the point of allowing comments if they're going to take forever to post? Especially when you don't offer the "subscribe to comments" feature on each post?

I went over to the American Enterprise Institute's blog this morning because one of my favourite writers, Jonah Goldberg, posts over there. I saw that none of the posts had comments on them! There were just a bunch of big, fat zeroes.

So I thought I would contribute my thoughts to a couple of them. Since comments are so few and far between, maybe the writers might actually engage!

That was five hours ago. They still haven't posted.

No wonder there are no comments. Nobody's interested when there's no chance that it will facilitate any kind of discussion. This is a political/policy blog! I would think posts there would spark some lively discussion!

But there's nothing.

There are a *few* posts that have one comment, so I know the comment system works.

But it's kind of pointless, isn't it?

I have the page open and refresh it periodically to see if they've finally posted. But I doubt I'll go back once I leave work and see if anybody responded. For one thing, even if they did, it won't appear for a while.

For another thing, again, what's the point? Who's interested in getting involved in a discussion that takes place over multiple days? Where you have to bookmark each individual page if you want to find it again, because it will be off the front page soon enough? If you comment a lot, that's a lot of bookmarks!

Obviously they're not that interested in fostering discussion, and that's fine. But then why allow comments in the first place? Is anybody going to read them? I guess it keeps their email inboxes from filling up with diatribes (though they do offer the ability to contact contributors directly by email anyway).

I'm befuddled.

Any of you have any thoughts on this, and the moderating of comments in general?

Welcome to my Stumbled Brethren

Yesterday, somebody submitted all of my one-hit wonders posts to the social sharing site StumbleUpon. It's a site, like Digg, where you can share stuff that you find on the web with others.

When you create a StumbleUpon account, part of your profile that you create is a series of interests. Then you can submit sites that you think others would find interesting as well. You can find people on there who share interests and follow them, so you can see what they share.

But one thing that's unique (in my limited experience, anyway) is that you can "Stumble" your interests by clicking the "Stumble" button. This will take you to a random site that has been submitted to StumbleUpon by other users, a site that will match one of the interests that you stated in your profile.

I'm not sure how the algorithm works for determining what web site to take you to. I'm sure it's in the back there, silently plotting world domination.

What I didn't know is just how much of an impact that site can have.

My blog usually gets 30-50 hits a day, and many of those are family/friends or image searches.

Yesterday?

6615

My free StatCounter only logs the last 500 page views, so I have no idea whether there were visitors who were not brought by StumbleUpon yesterday. I do know that every time I looked at my StatCounter, every visitor had come over from StumbleUpon.

That's a lot of influence.

I was gratified to see that a number of them at least took a tour through the rest of the one-hit wonders posts, even if they didn't read anything else. And some people did read posts that weren't in that grouping too.

I was sad that it only got me a couple of comments, but you can't have everything.

One thing I did notice this morning is that my Feedburner subscriber count was the highest it's ever been. While it can fluctuate, it's been averaging around 100-110 over the last little while. Today, it was at 126.

It's a start!

So, to those of you who came over here via StumbleUpon, I welcome you! I hope you stick around and check out the rest of the posts. I am a bit eclectic, but I hope you find something that will interest you.

I really should have posted this yesterday. Oh well. Late to the party, as usual.

As always, I'd love to know what you think. Please leave a comment or send me an email.

And the Share button at the bottom of each post does include StumbleUpon, so please feel free to share anything you like.

My ego could use the boost.

No One-Hit Wonder Post today

As the decade of the 2000s winds down in one-hit wonder land, I'm feeling really uninspired this morning. I just looked at the 2009 list and thought "Dave" (because I always refer to myself in the third person), "you're not going to be able to make anything out of this crap today."

I will definitely get one out next week, though! There are only two more weeks left, actually, since there are 16 songs in 2009. And then the series will come to an end.

What's next after that? I'm not sure. But we'll see.

Looks like my thoughts on "taking a break" from a regular post like the one-hit wonders are actually coming true.

Anyway, just thought I would post this for those of you who may miss it and wonder where I am if I don't post anything.

Blogging Emptiness

Wow, has it been almost two weeks since I've posted anything here? I find that hard to believe, but dates don't lie. The last post was July 10, and today is the 22nd.

It got bad enough that people had to come find me and ask what was going on.

While I was on vacation, I didn't really do much of anything online. I did no writing whatsoever. I did tweet some, but not a whole lot. It's like I dropped into a virtual black hole.

(Thanks to Science Blogs)

I just didn't feel up to writing. We had a lot of stuff going on in our lives the ten days we were home, lots of upheaval with feline issues and the like. Every time I sat in front of the computer, I just wanted to veg out. Not create anything.

I came back to work this week, and it was more just a time issue than anything else. I returned to Twitter with a vengeance, since it doesn't take very long to write 140 characters, but I just never had the time or energy to come here.

But that will change.

I know I promised this before, but I do plan on starting again tomorrow, or Sunday at the latest. I've got the latest edition of the one-hit wonders of the 2000s to do (it's been over a month! The horrors!). We have a new cat (not the kittens I talked about in the previous post), and I have three book reviews to tell you about, all of excellent books.

And who knows what else? Maybe something will piss me off enough to write about it.

So, to my loyal readers (and I'd love to know how a blog with zero content for 10 days can *gain* subscribers as far as Feedburner goes), my apologies for the long delay in posting.

Hopefully, the new content will be worth it.

Hang in there. The hiatus is almost over.

Posting Update

Posting's been a bit sparse here this week, which is unfortunate and not intentional. Another unfortunate thing is that there will, once again, be no one-hit wonders post this week.

I know, I know. Please, no rending of garments or anything like that.

I've been spending my mornings writing book reviews that I'm horribly behind on (finished a review for a book that I read back in September 2010...Woo!).

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or are Facebook friends know that we have recently adopted two cats (13-week old kittens, actually). I don't want to do a proper welcome post until I have some pictures, but the opportunity to get them has been non-existent. Either they're hiding or they're out but running all over the place.

I promise a post about them once I do have some pics, though. You will get to meet them.

Anyway, I will try to do better this coming week, and who knows? Maybe I'll do an early one-hit wonders post. Don't hold your breath, but it could happen.

We'll also see what else I can come up with.

Please bear with me, though.

New Blogging Site - I'm Famous!

Regular readers of this blog know that I'm an avid gamer. I'm also looking for an avenue to write about games. Since most of you actually aren't gamers, the posts that I did here about games went over like a hot babe at a Gay Men's convention: total indifference.

I've been writing over at Game Informer, but the (admittedly, extremely remote) possibility of getting free games to review has made me cast my net out a bit wider. I even set up my own video game blog.

Of course, I wasn't writing enough to keep that alive, so I jumped at the possible opportunity to write for somebody else's blog.

The first one didn't pan out.

However, there's a new site that's trying to get going, and they're looking for new writers. It's called Video Game Fever, and Ronald, one of the main guys behind it (there are two, I believe) contacted me about the possibility of writing for them. After some great back and forth conversation where we hashed out what we both wanted to get out of it, I'm now writing some stuff for them. Mainly reviews, as it is also a news site, and I don't think I can keep up with the news. I may write some opinion pieces too. We'll see.

Anyway, my first post went up last night!

It's a review of the new game, L.A. Noire. An awesome, but flawed game about crime in Los Angeles in 1947.

(Thanks to GamerNode)

I'll keep posting here when something goes up, until/unless it becomes frequent enough that it would get really annoying.

Annoying readers: BAD THING. I try not to do that.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Thoughts in the Dark

The lights are off, except the one over the stove. The darkness outside is starting to descend, but there's still a bit of light coming through the sliding glass door. It's almost 9:30 at night and it's not pitch black. Summer is still approaching, just nine days away.

Light from the TV also shines over me, not to mention the computer monitor, its brightness bathing me with whiteness. Roxanne is on right now, but the sound is muted. I need silence, or soft music, when I write. I look up briefly and see a really young Daryl Hannah. Hard to believe this movie is more than 20 years old.

I've got a glass of chocolate milk sitting here beside me, fuel for the physical body. I've just read and commented on a few blogs, tweeted a few tweets, and kept up with the work of many of my friends. Fuel for the blogging soul.

Yet still, I sit here and think. My fingers go silent for a few moments. There's an Empire carpet commercial on now.

And I have no idea what I want to write. No words are really crossing through my brain at the moment. Did I use them all up this morning? And then those nagging feelings of self-doubt present themselves as well.

I enjoy writing, but I always find it difficult. It's the getting started part that is always my enemy. I find that, once I get on a roll, the words just kind of flow out. Sometimes in a seemingly random manner, though usually I'm able to corral them in some way. Sort of like this post, though the stream of consciousness is a bit harder to bring together.

Every once in a while, the doubt intensifies. Weeks like this past week, where I'm not able to post anything. Part of that was time, but if you have the inspiration, you'll always find the time. I just didn't have it this week. I'm always sad when I do a one-hit wonders post, and I realize that the last post on this blog was last week's one-hit wonders post. That's not very conducive to keeping readership, and it's certainly not good for my regular readers.

Sometimes, it's the one-hit wonders posts that keep me going. There has been many a Sunday morning when I've sat here goofing off, thinking that the last thing I want to do is try and be funny. I have no idea what to say.

But every time that thought crosses my mind, I eventually wave it off. I force myself to start. Because I know that if I give in on my one bit of regularity, there will be no going back. Once I stop once (unless there's a good reason, like no Internet or I'm sick, of course), it will be way too easy to say "I won't do one this week either." And it will fall by the wayside.

It's the darkness where the doubts congregate. But it's not the lack of light where they breed. It's the darkness of the mind.

But I refuse to let them stop me. I've got 630 posts on this blog. I've been doing it for two years this coming July, and I don't plan on that coming to an end anytime soon.

Just have to nip those doubts in the bud, and actually sit down and write.

Which is always the best advice, whether it's about writing or anything else.

Writing Disappointment

About six weeks ago, I got the urge to see if I could write a video game blog, or write for one. I started my own, but I haven't posted anything for a little while now (must get back to it).

I was looking for video game review sites, but I stumbled upon a video game news site that advertised that they're always looking for new writers. I jumped at the chance. One of the positions they were offering was "weekend writer," which means you would post the majority of your stories during the weekend, though you could also contribute during the week as well. There would be no pay, but you could eventually be given games to review, and you might actually be able to get into some video game events and stuff as "Press."

All in all, it sounded pretty cool, and I've always said that one thing that would motivate me to be regular on my blogging is having something be "required" (i.e. I'm not doing it just for myself, as I tend to get lazy sometimes when I do that).


I'm not going to name them, but I will say that it's not any of the really famous ones (Games Radar, Game Informer, Gamespot, etc). I had never heard of them before. But you've got to start somewhere, don't you?

I sent in my request, and didn't hear anything for two weeks. I had pretty much put it out of my mind when I get an email from them, thanking me for my interest and saying that they make their "hiring" (is it really hiring if you're not paid? I don't know) decisions by asking the prospective writer to write stories based on press releases that the editor sends. These are releases that the site has already written about, so it's not like what you send back will be posted. It just gives them an idea of your writing style and response time. Most stories on the site are 150-200 words long.

I receive the email on a Sunday morning. I quickly responded back, and I ended up writing three pieces for the editor that day.

Then I didn't hear from him for two weeks.

Again, I just wrote it off. Ok, rude way to turn somebody down, but whatever.

I did hear from him again, though. He apologized, saying they'd had a lot of work revamping the site and he hadn't been able to get back to me. Sent me another story to do. Keep in mind all of this happened on Sundays.

Didn't hear from him again until the next Saturday (the day I was at a conference) when he sent me another press release. I emailed back (Yay, iPhones!) and said I was at a conference but I would do this first thing Sunday morning.

I sent the story back on Sunday.

No response.

Today, I get an email thanking me for the write-ups, but "unfortunately I have to say your style is not what we're after right now, so I'll have to decline I'm afraid."

And you know what?

I'm not that disappointed. A bit pissed off, but not that disappointed.

The first weird thing (and not the thing that really pissed me off, because I just thought of this while writing this post) is: why the hell did you have to wait a week to blow me off? I know this was for a "weekend news writer," but does that mean that this guy only works weekends?

And even if he does, since they're gauging writing style, couldn't somebody else have done it too? It's not like they have a different style on the weekends, so only the weekend editor can make any judgement about the writers.

The most annoying thing, though, is that I really felt like I was being strung along. It took a month for all of this. Granted, one week he was busy and apologized, but still. In that month, I wrote five pieces. Five pieces? In a month? And three of them were on the same day.

That's ridiculous.

I really only kept going because, if it happened, it would have been kind of cool. I'm in Vancouver, and there are a lot of video game companies up here. Maybe they would have asked me to go visit them and see a game? I don't know.

But the longer it dragged on, the more I felt "it's cool if it happens, but I really don't care that much any more."

When I got that email today, my initial response was "Eh."

It's too bad, though.

I would have looked cool in the tweed hat with the "Press" tag on it.

She must have mistaken me for someone else

That's the only reason I can think of for all of the nice words my friend Dawn said about this blog yesterday in her "Spotlight On..." post.

Either that, or I get to have my own Sally Field moment.

I'm very flattered by being one of Dawn's spotlighted blogs. It's always nice to be recognized by our peers, and even more so when they're a good friend. I'm still proud as hell of that Smiling Widow award that my friend Lisa gave me.

Many thanks to Dawn for the recognition, but most importantly for the friendship. It's meant a lot to me.

And I definitely encourage you to check out her post, and then the four other bloggers that she spotlighted along with me, including the "Pure and Simple" blog by Debra Elramey, who has also left some awesome comments on my blog here. I'm an avid follower of her blog as well.

But don't forget who sent you, and make sure you come back here.

I don't want to have to send the St. Bernard with the wine cask around his neck after you.

He tends to get lost.

Keeping in Touch With Your Favourite Blog

Do you have a bookmark folder on your web browser that's exclusively devoted to all of the blogs you read? Whether it's a bunch of home-schooling blogs, video game blogs, political blogs, or what have you, it can sometimes be tough to keep track of everything that you're trying to keep track of.

I am a blog reader as well as writer, so I am in the same boat as you (though my cabin's up on the Ledo Deck).

I do have that folder, and it's got lots of blogs in it. Many of them which I don't read any more. Others that I read habitually.

If you're having trouble, though, keep in mind that there are lots of different ways to follow your favourite blogs, many of which don't require you to keep checking to see if the blogger has actually written anything that day.

For example, my friend Dawn's blog, Healing Morning, is one that I don't have bookmarked. (It's an excellent and inspirational blog, by the way, so you should definitely check it out). The reason is that she doesn't write every day, but instead when the spirit moves her. To keep checking once a day would get annoying after a while, not to mention padding her visitor stats count with a hit that's not engaging with her content (mainly because I already engaged with it when it first appeared, or shortly thereafter).

Instead, I've made it so I don't have to keep checking. I find out she's posted something whenever I want to. I'm subscribed to it through Google Reader, which collects all the blogs that I read in an easy to use manner. It's very easy, and it makes blog reading a lot more bearable.

I'll go through the ways that you can subscribe to *my* blog (because I'm selfish that way), so you too won't have to keep checking whether I've written something. Instead, it will come to you.

1) Subscribe through a blog reader

I find Google Reader to be the easiest for me to do this, though there are many readers out there that you can try. All you have to have is a Google account. You can log into your Google account and, not just do your email, but also follow your blogs at the same time. On the Google home page, there are a bunch of links at the top. One of them is "Reader". If it's not there, then there's a "More" pull-down menu right at the end. In that menu will be "Reader." Or you can just go to www.google.com/reader

One thing that I love about Google Reader is that it makes other Blogger blogs (Blogger is owned by Google) really easy to subscribe to. See that "Google Friend Connect" box on the right side of the page, about a quarter of the way down? The label is "Followers". That is where you can "follow" my blog through Google Friend Connect (I've got 58 and counting at the time of this writing!).

The cool thing is that, if you use Google Reader, it will automatically add any blog that you follow through Google Friend Connect. You don't even have to take an extra step.

It's not limited to Google blogs, though. You can subscribe to any blog in a reader. See the section on the left side of the page, labelled "Subscription"? That little button there will allow you to subscribe through any reader. It's a standard button, so you should look for it on any blog that you read. It should be there somewhere. You just add that address to your reader and voila! You are now subscribed to it.

If you want to go to the original post and leave a comment, there is always a link to be able to do that. Either it will be called "View Original Post" or the title will be hyperlinked so you can just click on it.

Even better is that Google Reader has its own iPhone/iPad app too! Don't know about Android and Blackberry, but I wouldn't be surprised. That way, you can read your blogs on the go.

2) Email

How would you like every blog entry I post to appear in your email Inbox the next day? You can also subscribe to my blog via email, and it will show up in digest form the next morning. That means if I do more than one post, you will still only get one email. All of the posts will show up in that one email.

This is really handy for those who want it hand-delivered to them (I literally do walk through all of the Internet wires and place it delicately in your Inbox. With a fluffy pillow and a piece of chocolate as well). That way, you never have to check the blog itself. You can just wait for my blogging awesomeness to appear the next day. Again, you can just click through the link if you wish to leave a comment.

On my blog, the email subscription link is on the left side of the page, just above the "Ask Me a Question!" Formspring box (speaking of which, none of you are asking me any questions, and I'm starting to get a complex).

Just click on the link, enter your email address, then respond to the confirmation email and you're in!

3) Networked Blogs

You can also subscribe through Networked Blogs, which is a Facebook app. That means you don't even have to be my friend on Facebook in order to see it. You can do that through the handy "Networked Blogs" button on the right side of the page. However, I believe you do have to go to the Networked Blogs page to see the blogs you're subscribed to. I'm not sure on that.

If we're already friends on Facebook, I believe the post will show up in your News Feed twice: once because it posted to my wall and once because you subscribed to it via Networked Blogs. If you don't subscribe, it will only show up the one time because it's on my wall.

I think that's the case, but one of my Facebook friends can chime in and tell me if that's how it works.

If you can stand the indignity of admitting that we're friends.

4) Facebook Fan Page

Finally, if all else fails, you can "Like" my page on Facebook! That's also on the right side of the page, and I would love it if you clicked that button. That way, you can just go to the fan page and see if a post has been added. It should also appear in your News Feed as well.

In fact, you don't even have to do it as a way to subscribe to the blog. If you just like the blog, click that button. You can follow me any other way you want. But the more "fans" I have, the less likely I am to sit in a corner and cry my eyes out because nobody likes me.

So get clicking!

There are other ways to follow blogs that I don't have enabled on here. At least I think there are. Since I don't use them, I haven't researched them.

But the most important thing is that you know how to follow *this* blog, so that's what I'm concentrating on.

They can find their own readers.

Authentic Blogger - come join the fun!

Are you a blogger? Want to join a group of like-minded individuals who also have awesome blogs themselves? Why not join the Authentic Blogger group on Facebook?

I've been a member of the group since....checking history....wow, it was created in December 2009? Um, ok, I don't know exactly how long I've been a member (for some reason, I was thinking September 2009, but obviously not). But I know I've been there a while, and you can't find a much more inviting group of people.

To quote from the group description:

"Authentic Blogger is a community site for blog promoting, publicizing, sharing of tips, accolades, awards and overall encouragement to bloggers worldwide to continue dreaming, writing/blogging and creating."

The most important word there?

Community.

We are a community of bloggers. Everybody's encouraged to share their posts on the wall of the group, getting word out to the other members that they've posted something good on their blogs.

It's a mutual support system.

Got a blogging question? We currently have 670 members. I'll bet at least one of them has an answer for you. Or if you just want to shoot around some ideas, I'm sure there are plenty who would love to offer some thoughts.

Or just meet some awesome people. I've become friends with the creators of Authentic Blogger, Duane & Dawn, both of whom have awesome blogs of their own.

But it's not just the creators. I've also met some other really awesome people on there. There's Anahid, my co-new-admin (as opposed to "new co-admin," since what I mean is that Dawn & Duane just asked both of us to help them administer the site...look, I've coined a new word!)

Or Lisa, who will always have a special place in my heart (and this blog's, if it, you know, had a heart and everything) for not only being such a cool blogger, but for giving me my tagline (there, just under the name of the blog...no, the *other* side...there you go). She will always be a part of this buttoned-up mind.

But those are just examples. There are lots of great people! Become one of us (only not in that creepy, Village of the Damned kind of way).

Get your blog noticed. Get some readers. Find some new blogs to read yourself.

It's all good in the Authentic Blogger group.

Look, I even gave you the link again so you didn't have to scroll up. Aren't I a nice guy?

Don't answer that...

Oh, and hey. While you're doing the Facebook thing and everything, how about "liking" my blog? Why not get all the Facebook stuff done at the same time?

Sounds like a good idea to me.