Sunday, January 1, 2012

Is there anybody out there?


"I don't know," he said, "it's practice, partly. I don't know. We're each of us alone, to be sure. What else can you do other than hold your hand out in the dark?"
Ursula K. LeGuin, Nine Lives
I don't do anything to promote this blog, and yet for whatever reason over the last year I've seen a steady rise in page views every month.

I used to think that all those hits were Eastern European bots looking for places to promote performance-related products for males, but evidence indicates that this isn't the case. First, there's a definite bias toward specific postings.  Second, I checked with my friend Laurie, who posts about three times as frequently on her blog as I do on mine, and she only gets about a quarter of the hits, so there's got to be something else going on.

There are four people that I know socially who follow this blog. People at my workplace sometimes mention that they've had a look at my blog (and I solemnly inform them that I'm not one of the people there that they need to suck up to), but only about 14 of the people I work with know about The Infinite Revolution.  None of this is adding up to the 2,470 page views that the stats show for December.

So I have a favour to ask of you, whoever you are.  If you didn't check in just to find out about Wonder Woman's bondage roots (the most popular post) and you happen to read this, I'd appreciate it if you'd say hello in the Comments, either here or in the posting that brought you here. You don't need to say anything else if you don't want to - just hello.  Don't be shy - if it helps, imagine it as being like making first contact with an alien life form. 

And if you are a Russian spambot, just give up. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but Blogger automatically diverts all those penis enlargement comments into a holdfile.
- Sid

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

But wouldn't Stacy and Clinton just LOVE this?


 "I have a very bad feeling about this."
Luke Skywalker*, Star Wars IV:  A New Hope
I've recently been informed that a close acquaintance is planning to dress as a Jedi master throughout 2012.  Even more unfortunate, a little research reveals that right now TLC's What Not To Wear is only accepting applications for the show from San Juan, Houston, Memphis, and New York.
- Sid

* Actually, everybody says some version of this line:  Luke says it, Obi-Wan says it, Han says it, Leia says it, C-3PO says it, Anakin says it - it's the Star Wars equivalent of "I'll be back."

Sunday, December 25, 2011

With apologies to my Secret Santa.



You know, it's comforting to discover that if you talk about your interests enough, people will eventually get the idea and apply that knowledge where appropriate.*  As an example, although I expected some sort of generic gift-card style present from my Secret Santa in our workplace holiday gift exchange, to my complete surprise I received two robot-themed Christmas ornaments and a collection of Dilbert cartoons. (Living on the edge with the last one, but they got lucky and bought one of the Dilbert collections that I don't already own.**)

However, I failed to grasp the fact that the ornaments were made out of glass, and as such didn't use sufficient care when unwrapping them at home.  The result, one broken robot. Fortunately, the ornaments came packed in a box from the Vancouver Art Gallery gift shop, so I decided to pay them a visit on my way home on Friday and purchase a replacement.

Once there, I was intrigued to see that there was a selection of other science-fiction themed decorations, and on the spur of the moment decided to add a couple of the others to my collection:



I'm particularly amused by the vaguely apprehensive expression on the flying saucer snowman's face as he looks toward the skies as if into the future.  Let's hope that there's nothing more intimidating than sunshine and warm weather in that future for all of us.

Happy holidays and merry Christmas, everyone - here we are again, half way out of the dark...
- Sid

* With certain exceptions - I won't name names here, but someone in my life has come to the erroneous conclusion that I have enough books, which is of course dead wrong.  I don't have enough shelves, either, darlin'...

** Wait - was owning Dilbert collections on the geek test?