Category: Blogging

A Sticky Wicket

Spring is in the air, which means that so too are pollen and bees and other nasty allergens.

I’m doing battle with the bees today, given that they’ve begun to dig into our porch railings. The pollen, well, there’s not much I can personally do about that, is there? Seriously, I just washed the car two days ago, and yesterday it was already yellow instead of white; thankfully, we had a good downpour today, which really helped me out this time.

Traditionally, spring has been a time for cleaning; cleaning house, cleaning the attic, cleaning the yard, just cleaning in general. And so, in addition to sorting through several decades of National Geographic bestowed upon me (I should have known something was up when he said there was no place to store them) I’m also trying to spruce up the blog.

We love our blogs; we’re often our number one fans. But that can get in the way of meaningful progress.

Therefore, I need your help.

Take a look around and tell me what could me moved, improved, or removed all together.

I promise not to take it too personally.

I’ve already modified the background; while I liked the word cloud, I felt it distracted my actual content.

Let me know your suggestions in the comments!

I just know there was a Far Side cartoon about a sticky wicket in a wicket factory.

Google, you have failed me!

The Word of the Week is . . .

Discovery seems to be the Word of the Week.

First, photoblogger consistentrelent gave RIMH its 1,000th like!

1k Likes

Then I decided to take the plunge and join my first MOOC: Irish Lives in War and Revolution. After listening to NPR review MOOCs and doing a little independent research, I hit upon this course thanks to OpenCulture. Seriously, if you’re not following them on Twitter, you should be. I find something worth reading, saving, and sharing several times a week.

Speaking of Twitter, another good Twitter account is Bibliophilia. I find myself saving their shared images daily. Images like this one:

Muses

Oh, and speaking of images, I’ve been taking WordPress’ Photography 101 course and found it extremely inspirational. I’ve discovered that I can, indeed, take and edit good pictures with my iPhone 4s (I highly recommend the Afterlight app). I’ve also discovered some apps to manually adjust the ISO and shutter speed and some tips on taking iPhone photos with a telescope; given the time change – is that today? It is! – I’m going to attempt some “morning moon” pictures this coming Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned! In the meantime, here’s a gallery to get you caught up:

Day 1: Home
Day 3: Water
Day 4: Bliss

Was I talking about apps earlier? I think I was. Another good app I discovered this week is InstaQuote (thanks, Gus Sanchez!). I had some iTunes money left from Christmas, so I went ahead to bought the full package. The app lets me do things like this:

FM Quote 1
Bonus Points if you know where it comes from 🙂

Look for a weekly feature to being next week highlighting a quote or random text from a book I’m currently reading or a song lyric that’s been stuck in my head. Want to know what I’m reading? Check out the bottom widgets! Want to know what I’m listening to? Sometimes I share it on Twitter!

And then there’s that moment when an author you follow on Twitter retweets you.

Twice!

Amanda Palmer Retweeted Me

With so much going on this week, I’m certain I forgot something.

Look for an update if I remember anything!

Sleep of Death

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

As a matter of fact, I was only mostly dead – I mean sick.

PB Mostly DeadAnd mostly dead is slightly alive . . .

I don’t get sick, except when I do.

According to my wife, I act like a baby when I’m sick.

Except that I don’t.

So there!

Neener! Neener!

I actually took something stronger than acetaminophen – always a risky venture. What might happen this time?

Six hours of hallucinations?

Three days of amnesia-ridden drunken stupor?

Death-like sleep?

None of the above, thank goodness.

MPHG I Got BetterI got better . . .

However, somewhere in that medication-induced bliss of recovery, I became inspired.

First, I found inspiration for a book. It combines my post “Haunted” and the inventory given me by @youarecarrying. Its raw form was inspired by Cloud Atlas, A Burnable Book, and M. Night Shyamalan. I haven’t quite decided if that’s good or bad.

Second, I decided to embark on a quest: a real-time version of Divine Comedy in tweet form. Look for it to begin on Good Friday! The handle and hashtag are in development. In fact, suggestions would be appreciated . . .

Third, I settled on a theme for my monthly “big idea” posts: Manifesto. Some time ago, Daily Prompt asked us to write a manifesto, and I never quite got around to it. Rather than write one extremely long post, I’ll break it into manageable sections. Look for Part 1 sometime before February!

So, what have you been up to?

The Data Doesn’t Lie

I searched for a bit and finally found my Blogging Year in Review.

Hint: it’s accessible from the classic dashboard / stats page.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2014. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

I’m assuming you took the time to scroll through the summary.

For me, several things stood out:

I love the comparison of my blog to the Sydney Opera House.

I wonder if they’re playing Wagner this year?

Nope.

But they do have a performance of La Boheme, so there’s that . . .

My most popular post on my most popular day was A Most Interesting Man?

I would have thought it’d be . . . well, I don’t really know what. But not that one.

I only wrote 68 new posts?

Well, I suppose I did have a months-long blogging sabbatical.

I’m not going for a post-a-day, either.

Eh, I can live with 68.

Wait. This can’t be right. My most viewed posts are all from last year?

How did that happen?

Ok, the one about Monty Python I can understand; it was Freshly Pressed, after all.

I suppose those things get passed around.

But my number one viewed post is still that blasted You Can’t Name a Pig Napoleon?

I think that was the first post I ever wrote for this blog.

It was an exercise, an attempt, a throwaway piece of information.

Why are people still reading this?

No, WordPress, I won’t write more like this.

Except when I do.

Eventually.

People were directed to my blog from various and sundry websites, so I suppose that’s a good thing.

I wonder about the buttons – for – website dot com, though.

Nice to see some global representation, too.

I know I have a few readers in the UK and Germany, but I didn’t know about Canada.

Sorry, Canadians.

As for my commenters, it’s no surprise to find my wonderful blogging friends

vivachange77 (aka the Crone Chronicler)

Phil the Philosopher Mouse of the Hedge

Kathleen R. of Lehrer Werkstatt

stormy1812 (Stormy Musings)

schattenengel

Really, without these – and all other commentators – this blog just wouldn’t be the same.

Who knows what 2015 will bring?

Let’s find out . . . together!

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