...sailor's delight.
Monday, March 13, 2006
Peggy Noonan, Hollywood and the French Revolution
In my last post I took Peggy Noonan out behind the barn and gave her a right good thumping for having been morose. I would like to remedy any hard feelings by saying that her recent article on Hollywood was excellent. Here’s a sample.
The news media and Hollywood have George Clooney.
It's time to storm the Bastille, dudes.
George Clooney has a canny respect for the Hollywood establishment, for its executives and agents, and treats his audience as if it were composed of his intellectual and artistic inferiors…Here’s the money quote for me:
And because they are his inferiors, he must teach them. He must teach them about racial tolerance and speaking truth to power, etc. He must teach them to be brave. And so in his acceptance speech for best supporting actor the other night he instructed the audience about Hollywood's courage in making movies about AIDS, and recognizing the work of Hattie McDaniel with an Oscar.
Most Americans aren't leading media, they're leading lives. It would be nice to see a new respect in Hollywood for the lives they live.Peggy, you rock! That gets you a big bowl of tuna from K T Cat. However, there’s a historical parallel that you need to follow up on. It’s the French Revolution. Here’s a key quote from my 1959 World Book Encyclopedia entry on the subject.
…in the 1700’s…the country was still in the Middle Ages so far as its forms of government and social organization were concerned. The king ruled by “divine right.” Nobles lived lives of great luxury, and the peasants did not have enough to eat…At the same time, new ideas about freedom and government were spreading from the men of learning to the people, who had come to think that government was not a divine right of kings, but an agreement shared by an entire nation.Let’s alter that quote to match today.
…in the 2000’s…the country was still in the 1960’s so far as its forms of news media and entertainment were concerned. The broadcast media felt they ruled by “divine right.” Actors and reporters spoke from positions of great importance, and the people were not given respect…At the same time, new ideas about freedom and government were spreading to the people, who had come to think that sharing information was not a divine right of the media, but an ability shared by an entire nation.The French Revolution turned violent in part because the French aristocracy had the army and personal guards to defend them.
The news media and Hollywood have George Clooney.
It's time to storm the Bastille, dudes.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
A New Lawn Refutes the Decline of Civilization
With apologies to P. J. O’Rourke and his essay in Republican Party Reptile, Ferrari Refutes the Decline of the West.
I’ve taken to reading the blog, Storming Jericho. His post on the End of the World as We Know It bears some discussion.
Get over yourselves! Christopher Lawford, Peggy Noonan, Ted Kennedy, what is this, The Great Gatsby? Who gives a rat’s ass what these people think? Here’s what concerns normal people:
That’s my neighbor’s new lawn in their backyard. They had a landscaper put it in last week. Maybe they needed it so that when they were overcome with existential ennui and passed out from overwhelming fatalism they had somewhere soft to fall. Or maybe they wanted a new lawn.
In the echo chambers of the self-important, this kind of conversation may be intriguing, but for the rest of us it’s downright ridiculous. A recent post on IMAO by Laurence Simon discussed the choice between going to an Astros game and seeing the cast of NRO play a baseball game as a fund-raiser. I like NRO, but let's be serious. The Astros are professionals. As for the NRO staff...Oooh, is that Ramesh Ponnuru at the plate? Oh, the glamour! I’m all a-twitter!
Stop and think about the event Peggy Noonan described for a moment. Uncle Teddy is getting pickled and some idiot is writing down what he has to say. Imagine that at one of your parties with your friends.
I’ve got a better idea. How about if Peggy Noonan takes a deep breath and then visits a Home Depot on a Saturday. I’m sure we can find one on Martha’s Vinyard or in the Hamptons. Let’s see here… well, there’s one in Hyannis. That should be close enough to Thurston Howell III and his friends so Peggy will feel right at home as she drives over to rub shoulders with us filthy proles. Afterwards she can sip a few glasses of Bollinger on the Kennedy yacht to wash away the sight of normal people doing constructive things to make their lives better.
Here’s a suggestion for a new column, Pegster: If the world sucks and we’re descending into a bottomless pit of despair, how come people are buying PVC irrigation pipe and drill bits?
I’ve taken to reading the blog, Storming Jericho. His post on the End of the World as We Know It bears some discussion.
I first started thinking about the direction of the changing world a few months ago after reading this entry by Cicero on Donklephant. Here Cicero discussed the notion among many Americans that the nation is coming apart at the seams, beyond anyone's ability to repair it.For those of you who read my blog for cats and humor, let me summarize my response so you can move on to the next post.
Here’s a key section from the Cicero post quoting a morose Peggy Noonan column:Among the elite, Ms. Noonan relays an anecdote about Senator Ted Kennedy, as told by Christopher Lawford, Senator Kennedy’s nephew, in his book ‘Symptoms of Withdrawal’:…Everyone was laughing. Then, writes Mr. Lawford, Teddy “took a long, slow gulp of his vodka and tonic, thought for a moment, and changed tack. ‘I’m glad I’m not going to be around when you guys are my age.’ I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because when you guys are my age, the whole thing is going to fall apart.’ “
Get over yourselves! Christopher Lawford, Peggy Noonan, Ted Kennedy, what is this, The Great Gatsby? Who gives a rat’s ass what these people think? Here’s what concerns normal people:
That’s my neighbor’s new lawn in their backyard. They had a landscaper put it in last week. Maybe they needed it so that when they were overcome with existential ennui and passed out from overwhelming fatalism they had somewhere soft to fall. Or maybe they wanted a new lawn.
In the echo chambers of the self-important, this kind of conversation may be intriguing, but for the rest of us it’s downright ridiculous. A recent post on IMAO by Laurence Simon discussed the choice between going to an Astros game and seeing the cast of NRO play a baseball game as a fund-raiser. I like NRO, but let's be serious. The Astros are professionals. As for the NRO staff...Oooh, is that Ramesh Ponnuru at the plate? Oh, the glamour! I’m all a-twitter!
Stop and think about the event Peggy Noonan described for a moment. Uncle Teddy is getting pickled and some idiot is writing down what he has to say. Imagine that at one of your parties with your friends.
Heather Johnson knocked back her fifth margarita and as she slid to the floor off the tattered couch was heard to mumble, “We’re all screwed.”Hey, Heather was drunked up said the country is going to the dogs! I feel so lost and impotent! Let’s write a column about that!
I’ve got a better idea. How about if Peggy Noonan takes a deep breath and then visits a Home Depot on a Saturday. I’m sure we can find one on Martha’s Vinyard or in the Hamptons. Let’s see here… well, there’s one in Hyannis. That should be close enough to Thurston Howell III and his friends so Peggy will feel right at home as she drives over to rub shoulders with us filthy proles. Afterwards she can sip a few glasses of Bollinger on the Kennedy yacht to wash away the sight of normal people doing constructive things to make their lives better.
Here’s a suggestion for a new column, Pegster: If the world sucks and we’re descending into a bottomless pit of despair, how come people are buying PVC irrigation pipe and drill bits?
Treats and the Proper Respect of Cats
Dear Readers,
I, K T Cat, your Maximum Leader, rarely write in my own voice. It is usually the human who I have granted the honor of feeding and petting me who writes these entries. Today, however, I take up the keyboard so that I may record an incident of great distress to my person.
The other day, the human's father came over to my house. As is fitting for all such visitors, he offered me a treat. The odor of the treat was sweet unto my senses and, with as much respect as I can show to such subordinates, I asked him to set the treat down that I might partake in it.
Amused by the urgency of my request, he laughed as I repeatedly asked for the treat. I felt that such indignities were unbecoming his Maximum Leader and I suggested that the treat might best be employed blocking one of his bodily orifices.
Upon seeing my discomfort, he respectfully placed the treat upon the floor so I could dine.
I believe that I speak for all cats in suggesting to all humans that when they have treats for us cats, they place said treats within reach immediately.
Your Maximum Leader,
K T
I, K T Cat, your Maximum Leader, rarely write in my own voice. It is usually the human who I have granted the honor of feeding and petting me who writes these entries. Today, however, I take up the keyboard so that I may record an incident of great distress to my person.
The other day, the human's father came over to my house. As is fitting for all such visitors, he offered me a treat. The odor of the treat was sweet unto my senses and, with as much respect as I can show to such subordinates, I asked him to set the treat down that I might partake in it.
Amused by the urgency of my request, he laughed as I repeatedly asked for the treat. I felt that such indignities were unbecoming his Maximum Leader and I suggested that the treat might best be employed blocking one of his bodily orifices.
Upon seeing my discomfort, he respectfully placed the treat upon the floor so I could dine.
I believe that I speak for all cats in suggesting to all humans that when they have treats for us cats, they place said treats within reach immediately.
Your Maximum Leader,
K T
Welcome Carnival of the Cats Readers!
The Scratching Post is an eclectic blog. We invite you to look around. We also do posts on politics , ethics and humor.Saturday, March 11, 2006
What's Your K Factor?
How do you measure the effectiveness of your blog? Let me posit that blog effectiveness can be measured by determining how often new visitors surf around your site. That is, how often do they visit one post and become so intrigued that they bother to look at others before they leave?Among other metrics, blog success can be measured by the number of links to the site and the number of hits on the site. I would suggest that hit count is the more important of the two.
Measuring your success by the number of links you have can be deceiving. As soon as I joined Stop The ACLU, my link count shot up tremendously. However, if you went and examined those blogs linking to me, you would see that I was a single link in a sea of other links. I was indistinguishable from the rest. While I rose in the ecosystem, I did not see commensurate increases in traffic.
More evidence of this came from a recent Carnival of the Cats. I had two entries in it. One was the lead entry in the Carnival and the other as midway down the list of about 100. The first post got 15 times as many hits as the second. Being one link in a mass of links is relatively worthless.
In contrast, I recently received a link in a post from The Anchoress. That link pulled in over 150 hits to my site.
Carnivals and links from the more popular bloggers produce individual spikes in traffic. They are a poor measure of blog success since it doesn’t tell you if anyone liked your blog enough to read more.
Blog traffic can be broken down into
Ambient traffic + temporary traffic.
Ambient traffic is your repeat visitors. A good way to measure this is the number of times the first hit comes to your root site. Of course, this can come from one of the links on a sidebar or from looking at your profile, but this gives you a crude measure of your general popularity.
Temporary traffic are those visitors who come to a specific page from a link at someone else’s site. Again, this could include some of your repeat visitors, but in general it represents people who haven’t seen you before.
Ambient traffic is the key. Temporary traffic requires effort. You write a post and then advertise it as best you can, hoping for a link from someone. Ambient traffic comes by simply posting. Your repeat visitors will come back to see what you said without needing a link from another site. I’ve come up with a metric for how successful you are at converting temporary traffic into ambient traffic. I call it the K Factor. It’s really simple.
K Factor = count of hits to a specific post where the visitor went on to look at more pages / count of hits to a specific post.
From a recent Site Meter report on my own blog, of the last 20 hits I had 13 hits to specific pages. Of those 13, 8 went on to look at more of my blog. My K factor is then 8/13 or 0.62.
The higher your K Factor is, the more people like what you write. In general, if they don’t go on to visit other pages, then you didn’t grab them sufficiently to get them to come back again.
The K Factor can also be broken down by referencing sites. For instance, Hamster Heaven readers are typically just beaming in to look at hamster pictures. I have’t seen them stick around. In fact, in a recent entry about my hamster that I posted on the Hamster Heaven discussion board, I directly asked for comments. They came by, read the post and then went back to the discussion board to leave their comment instead of leaving it on the blog like I asked. Almost none of them stayed to see more of the blog. By contrast, a recent post on Spike Lee got many secondary hits by visitors from The Anchoress.
Analyzing your K Factor can tell you where to do your marketing. Hamster Heaven has been an outstanding source of one-time hits. Each post I link to on their discussion board brings in about 70 hits. That’s great until you realize that the only way to make that part of your recurring traffic is to repeatedly post links on their site. After the Anchoress gave me a link, it got a similar spike in traffic and then I saw a steady and permanent rise in ambient traffic. Both marketing efforts required the same effort. By examining my K Factor, I could see which one to repeat.
If you choose to feature the K Factor on your blog, please include a link to The Scratching Post.
Welcome Carnival of the Capitalist Readers!
The Scratching Post is an eclectic blog. We invite you to look around. We also do posts on cats, politics , ethics and humor.Justin's Blog Rocks
First, go and watch this.
Then go look at the rest of his blog. He gets added to the friends list even if he doesn't link to the Feline Theocracy.
We have an iPod. We also have a Rio Karma. The Karma's software is lightyears better than the iPod. I hate Apple. MP3 players are hard drives with a simple file structure, a program or two and a child-proof human-machine interface. Having written code for PCs, SGI machines, the Nintendo 64 and microcontrollers, I can tell you that this requires journeyman programming skills at best.
The iPod has an MS Outlook-like function. Calendar, contacts, task list and so on. MS Outlook is a simple database. You could reverse engineer the structure of the database with a text editor and some simple binary dump tools. Converting one database to another is a TRIVIAL ACTION. While it was advertised to be able to import your Outlook information onto itself, in reality, the iPod was utterly confused by the whole affair. I would have had more luck asking a cruciferous vegetable to display my Outlook calendar.
After endless hours on discussion boards, calling support and going to the Mac store, we gave up. By the way, the people at the Mac store are talented professionals who, with a little training, could get a job at Abercrombie and Fitch. As mannequins.
Since they use Macs, their primary talent is looking cool and bored and hip. You, the unwashed masses, walk into their store, see how cool and bored and hip they are and buy a Mac so that you, too, may someday be that cool. Macs are cool. They come in cool colors and shapes. People who use Macs are cool. The rest of us are not.
Right.
Then go look at the rest of his blog. He gets added to the friends list even if he doesn't link to the Feline Theocracy.
We have an iPod. We also have a Rio Karma. The Karma's software is lightyears better than the iPod. I hate Apple. MP3 players are hard drives with a simple file structure, a program or two and a child-proof human-machine interface. Having written code for PCs, SGI machines, the Nintendo 64 and microcontrollers, I can tell you that this requires journeyman programming skills at best.
The iPod has an MS Outlook-like function. Calendar, contacts, task list and so on. MS Outlook is a simple database. You could reverse engineer the structure of the database with a text editor and some simple binary dump tools. Converting one database to another is a TRIVIAL ACTION. While it was advertised to be able to import your Outlook information onto itself, in reality, the iPod was utterly confused by the whole affair. I would have had more luck asking a cruciferous vegetable to display my Outlook calendar.
After endless hours on discussion boards, calling support and going to the Mac store, we gave up. By the way, the people at the Mac store are talented professionals who, with a little training, could get a job at Abercrombie and Fitch. As mannequins.
Since they use Macs, their primary talent is looking cool and bored and hip. You, the unwashed masses, walk into their store, see how cool and bored and hip they are and buy a Mac so that you, too, may someday be that cool. Macs are cool. They come in cool colors and shapes. People who use Macs are cool. The rest of us are not.
Right.
Take Me Out to the Ballgame
My son has an 8AM Pony League game today. It rained ferociously last night. Here's the current view from the deck:
The game hasn't been called yet. I love sports. I've managed several teams. This is way too hard core even for me.
After the tornado sweeps us away, I'll be blogging to you from Oz. If my camera survives the trip, I'll be sure to try and get some shots of those flying monkeys just for Frank J.
The game hasn't been called yet. I love sports. I've managed several teams. This is way too hard core even for me.
After the tornado sweeps us away, I'll be blogging to you from Oz. If my camera survives the trip, I'll be sure to try and get some shots of those flying monkeys just for Frank J.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Oh Come On, This Isn't a Surprise
| You Are Animal |
 A complete lunatic, you're operating on 100% animal instincts. You thrive on uncontrolled energy, and you're downright scary. But you sure can beat a good drum. "Animal! Animal!" |
The Great Sunflower Seed Debate
Just last night, Jacob and I had a serious disagreement. You're invited to cast your vote in the comments and resolve this debate.
Jacob: Would you mind getting me some sunflower seeds? I really like them, you know.
Me: I did. I put them in your dish.
Jacob: No you didn’t.
Me: Yes I did.
Jacob: Look at the dish! There’s not a single seed in it!
Me: You took them all and stuffed them in your cheeks.
Jacob: That’s an outrageous lie. There’s nothing in my cheeks at all.
Me: What are you talking about? Your cheeks are bulging with seeds.
Jacob: No they’re not. This is how I always look.
Me: Your cheeks are so stuffed with seeds that you sound like Marlon Brando from The Godfather when you talk.
Jacob: That was a good movie, wasn’t it?
Me: Yeah, but I liked the book better. Wait a minute! You’re changing the subject!
Jacob: You brought up the movie. So will you go get me some seeds already?
Me: No. I just gave you some.
Jacob: I thought we went through all of this already. There are no seeds here at all.
Me: This is getting repetitive. I suggest we leave it to the readers. Deal?
Jacob: Deal.
OK readers, here’s your chance. Did I cheat the little Syrian out of his sunflower seeds or does he have them in his cheeks? Your vote determines whether or not he gets more seeds tonight.
Jacob: Would you mind getting me some sunflower seeds? I really like them, you know.
Me: I did. I put them in your dish.
Jacob: No you didn’t.
Me: Yes I did.
Jacob: Look at the dish! There’s not a single seed in it!
Me: You took them all and stuffed them in your cheeks.
Jacob: That’s an outrageous lie. There’s nothing in my cheeks at all.
Me: What are you talking about? Your cheeks are bulging with seeds.
Jacob: No they’re not. This is how I always look.
Me: Your cheeks are so stuffed with seeds that you sound like Marlon Brando from The Godfather when you talk.
Jacob: That was a good movie, wasn’t it?
Me: Yeah, but I liked the book better. Wait a minute! You’re changing the subject!
Jacob: You brought up the movie. So will you go get me some seeds already?
Me: No. I just gave you some.
Jacob: I thought we went through all of this already. There are no seeds here at all.
Me: This is getting repetitive. I suggest we leave it to the readers. Deal?
Jacob: Deal.
OK readers, here’s your chance. Did I cheat the little Syrian out of his sunflower seeds or does he have them in his cheeks? Your vote determines whether or not he gets more seeds tonight.
Volunteering to Fight the Police State
Got my coffee, got my music, got some rain on our glass dome roof, got my blog. It’s time for some Early Morning Blues and Greens and writing.
Instapundit links today to a well-researched Marc Cooper column on Hillary’s latest campaign speech. She claims some border control proposal or other will create a “police state”. Marc compares Clinton and Bush administration policies to make his point. I think he overanalyzes the situation. Zimbabwe is a police state. The US is not. Hillary’s assertion is self-evidently stupid. She might as well write campaign commercials for the Republicans with speeches like this.
Anyway, Marc takes up the gauntlet and manfully thwacks Hillary about the head and shoulders, but misses a broader point.
Hillary is a politician. She may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she’s reasonably professional. She wants votes. She gets votes by talking. She thinks this speech will get her more votes. Why? In short, Hillary needs campaign volunteers. Because of the blogosphere, those who might volunteer for her campaign want to hear this.
Those of you growing bored are encouraged to go look at pictures of KT and Jacob. My next post won’t be so serious, I promise. I’ll get this windbaggery out of my system and go back to animals and humor shortly.
In Michael Medved’s autobiography, Right Turns, he discusses his experience as a volunteer on various political campaigns. What struck me as I read it was the mechanics of getting elected. While wealthy corporations and individuals can bankroll campaigns and grant advantages over campaigns with less funding, to be consistently successful you need a cadre of dedicated volunteers.
In general, volunteering for a political campaign is the act of a political fanatic. With the advent of the blogosphere, political fanatics now have a place to gather and encourage one another.
Howard Dean rose to contend for the presidency because of such volunteers. That lesson was not lost on everyone else. In addition to courting the fatcats like George Soros, politicians like Hillary are courting the pools of volunteers. The blogosphere helps politicians like Hillary tune in to what these people want. There’s no need for focus groups because the fanatics are publishing mini-manifestos on a daily basis.
More than that, these echo chambers create peer pressure among the volunteers. The Daily Kos is savaging Joe Lieberman on a daily basis. It’s kind of hard to volunteer to work for the guy if your ideological comrades will beat you senseless for doing so. It’s a high school locker room for political junkies.
I was going to list some posts from Kos to give you some examples of the locker room chatter, but after paging through 60 of their headlines I found them so relentlessly boring that I couldn’t bring myself to inflict more than one of them on you. Here’s a sample. Pretend you're Hillary and you want to court these people. Why wouldn’t you say America was becoming a police state?
Instapundit links today to a well-researched Marc Cooper column on Hillary’s latest campaign speech. She claims some border control proposal or other will create a “police state”. Marc compares Clinton and Bush administration policies to make his point. I think he overanalyzes the situation. Zimbabwe is a police state. The US is not. Hillary’s assertion is self-evidently stupid. She might as well write campaign commercials for the Republicans with speeches like this.
Anyway, Marc takes up the gauntlet and manfully thwacks Hillary about the head and shoulders, but misses a broader point.
Hillary is a politician. She may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but she’s reasonably professional. She wants votes. She gets votes by talking. She thinks this speech will get her more votes. Why? In short, Hillary needs campaign volunteers. Because of the blogosphere, those who might volunteer for her campaign want to hear this.
Those of you growing bored are encouraged to go look at pictures of KT and Jacob. My next post won’t be so serious, I promise. I’ll get this windbaggery out of my system and go back to animals and humor shortly.
In Michael Medved’s autobiography, Right Turns, he discusses his experience as a volunteer on various political campaigns. What struck me as I read it was the mechanics of getting elected. While wealthy corporations and individuals can bankroll campaigns and grant advantages over campaigns with less funding, to be consistently successful you need a cadre of dedicated volunteers.
In general, volunteering for a political campaign is the act of a political fanatic. With the advent of the blogosphere, political fanatics now have a place to gather and encourage one another.
Howard Dean rose to contend for the presidency because of such volunteers. That lesson was not lost on everyone else. In addition to courting the fatcats like George Soros, politicians like Hillary are courting the pools of volunteers. The blogosphere helps politicians like Hillary tune in to what these people want. There’s no need for focus groups because the fanatics are publishing mini-manifestos on a daily basis.
More than that, these echo chambers create peer pressure among the volunteers. The Daily Kos is savaging Joe Lieberman on a daily basis. It’s kind of hard to volunteer to work for the guy if your ideological comrades will beat you senseless for doing so. It’s a high school locker room for political junkies.
I was going to list some posts from Kos to give you some examples of the locker room chatter, but after paging through 60 of their headlines I found them so relentlessly boring that I couldn’t bring myself to inflict more than one of them on you. Here’s a sample. Pretend you're Hillary and you want to court these people. Why wouldn’t you say America was becoming a police state?
Thursday, March 09, 2006
A Little More on Argentina
Check out this post and blog.
In my post below, my quick research revealed Argentina as an up and coming place. Reading this fellow's blog reinforces that. I also just read the entire World FactBook piece on Argentina and found more reasons to like the place. I wonder what the Wall Street Journal has to say...
Here's what I found:
The FactBook says they have about 35% or so of their population below the poverty line and WSJ makes some warning noises in other articles. Nevertheless, there's a world out there other than Europe, Asia and the Middle East that bears watching.
In my post below, my quick research revealed Argentina as an up and coming place. Reading this fellow's blog reinforces that. I also just read the entire World FactBook piece on Argentina and found more reasons to like the place. I wonder what the Wall Street Journal has to say...
Here's what I found:
Now, with Argentina in the midst of its fourth year of a super-strong economic recovery and having paid back in full a $9.5 billion debt to the IMF, the mood between both sides appears to have greatly improved.
The FactBook says they have about 35% or so of their population below the poverty line and WSJ makes some warning noises in other articles. Nevertheless, there's a world out there other than Europe, Asia and the Middle East that bears watching.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Thursday 13
My Thursday 13 is being published on Wednesday night. I've got to be in at work by 5:30AM, so I don't think I'll be blogging tomorrow morning...
Thirteen Things about K T Cat
13 Places I want to visit
I suspect you'll see a theme here. I really enjoyed this exercise. It took forever to find nice links for each of these, so I didn't write much. You'll just have to check out the links to get the message. I've got a ton of frequent flyer miles and I'm thinking that #5 looks pretty good right now...
1. Maui – been there several times. Maui no ka oi!
2. Key West – Going there soon. Can’t wait!
3. New Orleans – Awesome food and N’awlins Saints football!
Mmmmm. Tropical Islands....
4. Kiribati
5. Fiji
6. Tahiti
7. St. Thomas
8. Maldives
Cool places to visit...
9. Cairns, Australia
10. Thailand
11. Peruvian Amazon
12. Yucatan
13. Galveston – Of course!
Welcome, Thursday 13 visitors! Please have a look around. We do posts about animals, charitable acts and some political humor, too.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
Yellow Rose
Wystful
Reverberate
Master Enigma
Heather
Volcanic Sacrifices
Jake Silver
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
13 Places I want to visit
I suspect you'll see a theme here. I really enjoyed this exercise. It took forever to find nice links for each of these, so I didn't write much. You'll just have to check out the links to get the message. I've got a ton of frequent flyer miles and I'm thinking that #5 looks pretty good right now...
1. Maui – been there several times. Maui no ka oi!
2. Key West – Going there soon. Can’t wait!
3. New Orleans – Awesome food and N’awlins Saints football!
Mmmmm. Tropical Islands....
4. Kiribati
5. Fiji
;){kind=link}
6. Tahiti
7. St. Thomas
8. Maldives
Cool places to visit...
9. Cairns, Australia
10. Thailand
11. Peruvian Amazon
12. Yucatan
13. Galveston – Of course!
Welcome, Thursday 13 visitors! Please have a look around. We do posts about animals, charitable acts and some political humor, too.
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
Yellow Rose
Wystful
Reverberate
Master Enigma
Heather
Volcanic Sacrifices
Jake Silver
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Mi nombre es K T Gato
Mark Steyn has written extensively on demographics and how it is changing the world. He writes almost exclusively from a birth rate point of view and persuasively suggests that Western Europe and Japan are in for rough times because of their low birth rate and the advance of a rapidly growing Moslem subculture.
Rather than repeat his work, I’ve chosen to look at where things are going well. Put another way, “What language should you learn to speak aside from English?” I took the 25 largest countries in terms of their economies and then removed ones where the people are very poor, and then removed the ones where the birth rate is so low that the population is aging rapidly. I then ranked them according to per capita income, which gives you a rough idea of how well off the citizens of that country are. In addition to the top 25, I threw in Ireland because it’s supposed to have one of the freest economies in the world and Ireland is cool. Also, I’m part Irish and so they’re doubly cool for me.
I got the data from the CIA World Factbook on the web. Insert your CIA jokes here.
Here we go.
The 25 largest economies, plus Ireland, in order of their Gross Domestic Product:
1. USA
2. China
3. Japan
4. India
5. Germany
6. UK
7. France
8. Italy
9. Brazil
10. Russia
11. Canada
12. Mexico
13. Spain
14. South Korea
15. Indonesia
16. Australia
17. Taiwan
18. Iran
19. Turkey
20. Thailand
21. Argentina
22. South Africa
23. Netherlands
24. Poland
25. Philippines
26. Ireland*
If the people of the country made less than $8,000 per year, that country gets thrown off the list. It’s an arbitrary number, but it reflects the fact that below a certain level you worry more about starving and freezing to death than you do studying geometry and starting a multinational corporation. Say goodbye to China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines.
1. USA
2. Japan
3. Germany
4. UK
5. France
6. Italy
7. Brazil
8. Russia
9. Canada
10. Mexico
11. Spain
12. South Korea
13. Australia
14. Taiwan
15. Iran
16. Thailand
17. Argentina
18. South Africa
19. Netherlands
20. Poland
21. Ireland*
Countries where few children are being born are in for real trouble. You know those taxes you pay for Social Security and the retirement funds that come out of your paycheck? Up, up, up they go! I set the birthrate threshold at 1.7 births per woman. Anything below about 2.05 indicates a falling population, but I gave partial credit for countries that seem to be at least trying.
Japan, Germany, UK, Italy, Russia, Canada, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Netherlands and Poland, out, out, out you go!
1. USA
2. France
3. Brazil
4. Mexico
5. Australia
6. Iran
7. Argentina
8. South Africa
9. Ireland*
So here we have a list of the most powerful economies in the world that would be good places to live (because the people are doing OK) and will be in good shape 10 years from now (because they are still having kids). Let’s sort them by per capita income.
1. USA - $41,800
2. Ireland* - $34,100
3. Australia - $32,000
4. France - $29,900
5. Argentina - $13,600
6. South Africa - $11,900
7. Mexico - $10,000
8. Brazil - $8,500
9. Iran - $8,100
Of the top 8 plus Ireland, English-speaking countries take the top 3 slots. Thank you, Queen Victoria. If you don’t speak English now, you should. If you do speak English now, what’s your second language going to be? I count 3 Latin American countries in the mix and three unrelated countries. And yes, I know, some Latin countries speak Spanish and some speak Portugese.
Mark Steyn makes a good case against France. Riots and all that, you know.
South Africa has severe AIDS problems. No thank you.
Iran is not the best place to hold Easter services. Is it too late to change my flight to Tehran to a flight to Rio?
So what language should we learn? Let’s all say it together, class. “Buenos dias, amigo!”
Rather than repeat his work, I’ve chosen to look at where things are going well. Put another way, “What language should you learn to speak aside from English?” I took the 25 largest countries in terms of their economies and then removed ones where the people are very poor, and then removed the ones where the birth rate is so low that the population is aging rapidly. I then ranked them according to per capita income, which gives you a rough idea of how well off the citizens of that country are. In addition to the top 25, I threw in Ireland because it’s supposed to have one of the freest economies in the world and Ireland is cool. Also, I’m part Irish and so they’re doubly cool for me.
I got the data from the CIA World Factbook on the web. Insert your CIA jokes here.
Here we go.
The 25 largest economies, plus Ireland, in order of their Gross Domestic Product:
1. USA
2. China
3. Japan
4. India
5. Germany
6. UK
7. France
8. Italy
9. Brazil
10. Russia
11. Canada
12. Mexico
13. Spain
14. South Korea
15. Indonesia
16. Australia
17. Taiwan
18. Iran
19. Turkey
20. Thailand
21. Argentina
22. South Africa
23. Netherlands
24. Poland
25. Philippines
26. Ireland*
If the people of the country made less than $8,000 per year, that country gets thrown off the list. It’s an arbitrary number, but it reflects the fact that below a certain level you worry more about starving and freezing to death than you do studying geometry and starting a multinational corporation. Say goodbye to China, India, Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines.
1. USA
2. Japan
3. Germany
4. UK
5. France
6. Italy
7. Brazil
8. Russia
9. Canada
10. Mexico
11. Spain
12. South Korea
13. Australia
14. Taiwan
15. Iran
16. Thailand
17. Argentina
18. South Africa
19. Netherlands
20. Poland
21. Ireland*
Countries where few children are being born are in for real trouble. You know those taxes you pay for Social Security and the retirement funds that come out of your paycheck? Up, up, up they go! I set the birthrate threshold at 1.7 births per woman. Anything below about 2.05 indicates a falling population, but I gave partial credit for countries that seem to be at least trying.
Japan, Germany, UK, Italy, Russia, Canada, Spain, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Netherlands and Poland, out, out, out you go!
1. USA
2. France
3. Brazil
4. Mexico
5. Australia
6. Iran
7. Argentina
8. South Africa
9. Ireland*
So here we have a list of the most powerful economies in the world that would be good places to live (because the people are doing OK) and will be in good shape 10 years from now (because they are still having kids). Let’s sort them by per capita income.
1. USA - $41,800
2. Ireland* - $34,100
3. Australia - $32,000
4. France - $29,900
5. Argentina - $13,600
6. South Africa - $11,900
7. Mexico - $10,000
8. Brazil - $8,500
9. Iran - $8,100
Of the top 8 plus Ireland, English-speaking countries take the top 3 slots. Thank you, Queen Victoria. If you don’t speak English now, you should. If you do speak English now, what’s your second language going to be? I count 3 Latin American countries in the mix and three unrelated countries. And yes, I know, some Latin countries speak Spanish and some speak Portugese.
Mark Steyn makes a good case against France. Riots and all that, you know.
South Africa has severe AIDS problems. No thank you.
Iran is not the best place to hold Easter services. Is it too late to change my flight to Tehran to a flight to Rio?
So what language should we learn? Let’s all say it together, class. “Buenos dias, amigo!”
Postscript
A little more on Argentina.Too Mellow to Blog Loudly
I’ve got my cup of coffee. The kids won’t be up for another hour and a half. I’ve got a couple of posts I started a while back I could finish, but it just doesn’t seem like the thing to do right now. Last night was another awesome sunset over the Pacific, but they’re so commonplace now that we didn’t even bother to run up to the deck to take the photos. I’ve got a couple of spares to share with you here.
Stop the ACLU had some interesting emails, but I just don’t feel like getting all wound up to mock the poor people who worry that military recruiters on a campus receiving Federal funding are a sign of the Apocalypse. Get a haircut and get a real job.
K T is an independent cat, but last night she lay down on the desk with me while I surfed and blogged. She got upset when the mouse invaded her personal space and we had a short wrestling match, but no photos were taken.
I let Jacob out to run around last night while I sat with him and read. He’s new to our family and he’s a little skittish, but he’s calming down. He really likes sunflower seeds and he now stops what he’s doing and sits up when I come in the room, hoping for the magic seeds. Last night he ran over to me a couple of times, but didn’t work up the courage to climb up and sit on my knee. That will come in time.
It’s supposed to rain this weekend and it looks like it will be too cold for surfing. My son’s baseball game may get rained out, so we’ll have an indoor weekend instead. I’m trying to think of a family project, but nothing is coming to me. Feel free to leave some suggestions.
A few weeks back we made a custom bookshelf for a spot in our house that had odd dimensions. We used white, laminated particleboard and tried to use dowels to make the joints, but without a drill press, dowels are very difficult to use. We ended up making some unusable jigs and drilling unusable holes and then fell back on wood screws and pledging to never move the thing so that it wouldn’t fall apart. It’s sturdy where it sits, but if we move it, the wood screws will pull right out of the particleboard and the whole thing will be ruined. It ended up looking really nice.
As a dad, I want my kids to be well rounded when they leave the nest. Cooking, carpentry, home repair, car repair, literature, music, investing, they should feel comfortable with each. A month or so ago I made a list of the things I wanted to share with them before they moved out (the first leaves in four years or so). I’ll share it with you as soon as I set up my Road Runner home page so I can post html files. If there were things that you wish you had known when you moved away from home, let me know.
To the folks that are still reading this post let me just say thank you. I read an essay by a fellow who, as a young author, got to spend an afternoon alone with Rudyard Kipling. He told Mr. Kipling that he thought the encounter one-sided as the legendary author freely gave advice. Rudyard replied, "Well, you're giving me your time and attention and that's a sign of affection." Not comparing myself to Kipling, I want to acknowledge your gift of attention.
Warmly,
KT's Human
Stop the ACLU had some interesting emails, but I just don’t feel like getting all wound up to mock the poor people who worry that military recruiters on a campus receiving Federal funding are a sign of the Apocalypse. Get a haircut and get a real job.
K T is an independent cat, but last night she lay down on the desk with me while I surfed and blogged. She got upset when the mouse invaded her personal space and we had a short wrestling match, but no photos were taken.
I let Jacob out to run around last night while I sat with him and read. He’s new to our family and he’s a little skittish, but he’s calming down. He really likes sunflower seeds and he now stops what he’s doing and sits up when I come in the room, hoping for the magic seeds. Last night he ran over to me a couple of times, but didn’t work up the courage to climb up and sit on my knee. That will come in time.
It’s supposed to rain this weekend and it looks like it will be too cold for surfing. My son’s baseball game may get rained out, so we’ll have an indoor weekend instead. I’m trying to think of a family project, but nothing is coming to me. Feel free to leave some suggestions.
A few weeks back we made a custom bookshelf for a spot in our house that had odd dimensions. We used white, laminated particleboard and tried to use dowels to make the joints, but without a drill press, dowels are very difficult to use. We ended up making some unusable jigs and drilling unusable holes and then fell back on wood screws and pledging to never move the thing so that it wouldn’t fall apart. It’s sturdy where it sits, but if we move it, the wood screws will pull right out of the particleboard and the whole thing will be ruined. It ended up looking really nice.
As a dad, I want my kids to be well rounded when they leave the nest. Cooking, carpentry, home repair, car repair, literature, music, investing, they should feel comfortable with each. A month or so ago I made a list of the things I wanted to share with them before they moved out (the first leaves in four years or so). I’ll share it with you as soon as I set up my Road Runner home page so I can post html files. If there were things that you wish you had known when you moved away from home, let me know.
To the folks that are still reading this post let me just say thank you. I read an essay by a fellow who, as a young author, got to spend an afternoon alone with Rudyard Kipling. He told Mr. Kipling that he thought the encounter one-sided as the legendary author freely gave advice. Rudyard replied, "Well, you're giving me your time and attention and that's a sign of affection." Not comparing myself to Kipling, I want to acknowledge your gift of attention.
Warmly,
KT's Human
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Is it Possible...
...for Bill Gates to make a rock so big even he can't lift it?
My home page is a categorized list of my favorite links. I wrote it in MS Word and saved it as html. When I open it in Explorer, I get this panicky warning telling me that "this file contains active content and will probably cause you to lose all your data and find rancid wool in your shoes!" Or something like that.
Anyway, what's with that active content stuff? Can't all the MS programs just get along?
Sheesh!
My home page is a categorized list of my favorite links. I wrote it in MS Word and saved it as html. When I open it in Explorer, I get this panicky warning telling me that "this file contains active content and will probably cause you to lose all your data and find rancid wool in your shoes!" Or something like that.
Anyway, what's with that active content stuff? Can't all the MS programs just get along?
Sheesh!
This is Too Easy
Glenn's PR Firm responds in court to his misdeeds: It all depends on what your definition of "heh" is.
Explanation here.
Explanation here.
Better Living Through Protesting
Before I get started, let me make a few things clear. I work with the Navy and Marines. They are the coolest. I think Sheehan is a publicity-crazed, narcissistic maniac. There. I put on my anti-flame suit. Last time I did this I got all kinds of hate from people I agree with, calling me a troll and worse. Now that I've buckled up and put on my asbestos underwear, let's release the brakes and let it rip.
Have any of you ever been to a demonstration? Not necessarily as participants, but perhaps as bystanders or just walking past one. Have you ever noticed how dreary and tiresome the whole thing is? What a waste of time it is? I mean, back at home, the demonstrators have carpet that needs cleaning, dogs that need washing, plants that need trimming and it’s all going to seed. Meanwhile, they’re out yelling about global warming, war, all manner of large-scale problems while the ones they can really do something about go unfixed.
There are lots of better ways to spend your afternoon if you’re committed to saving the world. Hospice, Catholic Charities and the Special Olympics come to mind.
Michelle Malkin writes today about an anti-Cindy Sheehan protest planned in Germany where Ms. Sheehan is protesting something or other. I think Cindy's protest has something to do with strudel. I started reading about it and dozed off. I find her incredibly dull. Sort of like a symphony with one note.
I’m sure the protesters are very well intentioned and are deeply committed to the cause of anti-Cindy Sheehanism, but I would like to suggest a different approach. How about a get-together based on something productive or fun that just happens to also feature a unified position on Cindy and her antics.
How about a picnic with a softball game?
How about repairing an old house for a senior citizen?
How about a 10K fund-raiser for cystic fibrosis where all the participants wear some anti-Cindy slogan instead of a number? “And the winner today was Cindy is a nut with second place going to I support the troops! Thanks to all of you, we raised $5,643.29 to fight this terrible disease!”
Just a suggestion. I noticed on the protest website that they’re in need of the standard items required for any big gathering. Wouldn’t it be easier to find donors if the cause was a big BBQ? Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun?
Best of all, can you imagine how enraged she'd be at the sight of people having a good time and doing productive things while protesting her? Her kind are the most humorless, self-important toads in the world. What could be worse for her than to be mocked while wahines in bikinis swat home runs and everyone has a beer?
What makes the US military distinctive is how it advances civilization. Palestine has a military, too. At their core, both militaries exist to break things and kill people. The difference is how they’re used.
Taking Iraq as an example, the success of the US military means more schools, a better infrastructure, more jobs, a stock exchange, democracy, newspapers and blogs and so on for the Iraqi people. With some exceptions, a military does not create things. The US military makes it possible for others to create things by protecting productive people.
In contrast, the Palestinians simply blow things up. At the end of the day, the per capita income of the Palestinians is no better off for having had a military. In fact, their car bombs and shooting guns in the air actually destroys things that could be used for productive purposes. Somalia would be another example of this. They have a military, but it’s actually to their detriment rather than their advantage.
If one of the key features of our military is how it advances civilization and productive lives, wouldn’t it make more sense to make your displays of support for them productive as well? Let the other side march in circles, chanting. That produces nothing of value at all and no one’s lives are better because of it. I’m suggesting that our “counter-protests” be highly publicized acts of charity.
No matter the venue, the protests on either side will get no more than 90 seconds or so on the news. At the end of the day when everyone packs up to go home, without anything else having been done, it will be those 90 seconds of publicity that will be the end product. If you make your protest repairing run-down homes for the handicapped, then at the end of the day you have your 90 seconds on TV and some fellow citizens have a better place to live.
Making life better for all of us is what the US military is all about. I’m suggesting we carry that theme into our counter-protests. Thanks for the comment, Noeli.
Have any of you ever been to a demonstration? Not necessarily as participants, but perhaps as bystanders or just walking past one. Have you ever noticed how dreary and tiresome the whole thing is? What a waste of time it is? I mean, back at home, the demonstrators have carpet that needs cleaning, dogs that need washing, plants that need trimming and it’s all going to seed. Meanwhile, they’re out yelling about global warming, war, all manner of large-scale problems while the ones they can really do something about go unfixed.
There are lots of better ways to spend your afternoon if you’re committed to saving the world. Hospice, Catholic Charities and the Special Olympics come to mind.
Michelle Malkin writes today about an anti-Cindy Sheehan protest planned in Germany where Ms. Sheehan is protesting something or other. I think Cindy's protest has something to do with strudel. I started reading about it and dozed off. I find her incredibly dull. Sort of like a symphony with one note.
I’m sure the protesters are very well intentioned and are deeply committed to the cause of anti-Cindy Sheehanism, but I would like to suggest a different approach. How about a get-together based on something productive or fun that just happens to also feature a unified position on Cindy and her antics.
How about a picnic with a softball game?
How about repairing an old house for a senior citizen?
How about a 10K fund-raiser for cystic fibrosis where all the participants wear some anti-Cindy slogan instead of a number? “And the winner today was Cindy is a nut with second place going to I support the troops! Thanks to all of you, we raised $5,643.29 to fight this terrible disease!”
Just a suggestion. I noticed on the protest website that they’re in need of the standard items required for any big gathering. Wouldn’t it be easier to find donors if the cause was a big BBQ? Wouldn’t it be a lot more fun?
Best of all, can you imagine how enraged she'd be at the sight of people having a good time and doing productive things while protesting her? Her kind are the most humorless, self-important toads in the world. What could be worse for her than to be mocked while wahines in bikinis swat home runs and everyone has a beer?
Postscript
Noeli raises a good point in the comments. She also has a blog, go check it out.What makes the US military distinctive is how it advances civilization. Palestine has a military, too. At their core, both militaries exist to break things and kill people. The difference is how they’re used.
Taking Iraq as an example, the success of the US military means more schools, a better infrastructure, more jobs, a stock exchange, democracy, newspapers and blogs and so on for the Iraqi people. With some exceptions, a military does not create things. The US military makes it possible for others to create things by protecting productive people.
In contrast, the Palestinians simply blow things up. At the end of the day, the per capita income of the Palestinians is no better off for having had a military. In fact, their car bombs and shooting guns in the air actually destroys things that could be used for productive purposes. Somalia would be another example of this. They have a military, but it’s actually to their detriment rather than their advantage.
If one of the key features of our military is how it advances civilization and productive lives, wouldn’t it make more sense to make your displays of support for them productive as well? Let the other side march in circles, chanting. That produces nothing of value at all and no one’s lives are better because of it. I’m suggesting that our “counter-protests” be highly publicized acts of charity.
No matter the venue, the protests on either side will get no more than 90 seconds or so on the news. At the end of the day when everyone packs up to go home, without anything else having been done, it will be those 90 seconds of publicity that will be the end product. If you make your protest repairing run-down homes for the handicapped, then at the end of the day you have your 90 seconds on TV and some fellow citizens have a better place to live.
Making life better for all of us is what the US military is all about. I’m suggesting we carry that theme into our counter-protests. Thanks for the comment, Noeli.
Monday, March 06, 2006
Do NOT Go to this Link
Dear readers,
Please do NOT visit this link.
Linklinklinklink.
HT: Emporer Misha.
If you go there, you may find yourself feeling good about being an American.
Please do NOT visit this link.
Linklinklinklink.
HT: Emporer Misha.
If you go there, you may find yourself feeling good about being an American.
Request for Stories of Kindness
One of the themes of this blog is that kindness pays in all kinds of strange and wonderful ways. Joe over at A Tic in the Mind’s Eye hosts a weekly World of Goodness Blogburst. I can’t think of anything more important for the blogosphere, whacking Dan Rather included.
Here is Joe's latest example.
Civilization, in its broadest sense, advances with every act of kindness and recedes with every act of cruelty. I think we can encourage kindness by publicizing it. Lord knows evil gets enough publicity.
I would like to make an offer to all of you. I’m a fast typist and a reasonably good editor. I will take any story of kindness and its results you can send me. I'll accept it in whatever form you wish and edit it and make sure it gets posted in the World of Good blogburst. After I edit it, I will send it back to you for final approval. Nothing will be posted without your OK. Names can be changed to protect privacy and no email or blog addresses will be posted unless you ask for it explicitly.
You can email me here.
When I say I will accept stories in any form, I do mean any form. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, organization, I will take care of all of that. Give me the raw material and we can get to work encouraging good.
If you send me a story, please try to have the word kindness in the subject line so my email program can filter it properly.
Some people, men in particular, are reluctant to acknowledge kindness. It can be seen as a sign of weakness or sentimentality. I think it’s a sign of strength. The instructors at my old Kung Fu school are some of the nicest people I know. There is no way one would consider them weak. Mr. Early is an extraordinarily compassionate person, but when he fights he is a very, very unpleasant man.
The Anchoress lives up to her philosophy. I sent her a link to a post I had written about an obscure movie suggestion and she posted it on her blog. She’s a blogosphere heavyweight and I needed some exposure, so her act was very kind.
I’m a marketer, but I market emotionally instead of analytically. FMF helps with the Carnival of the Capitalists and he accepted my entry without requiring tables, graphs and charts.
Laurence Simon is the bomb. His Ask the Cats posts are a great way for a new blogger to get some links out there.
Emporer Misha does nice things without knowing it. Many of the popular blogs do not allow comments. They require added effort for the blogger as they have to patrol the comments for nasty messages. His work in maintaining his comments allows newbies like me to post messages that get my work seen by many.
Reformed Blacks of America not only enjoyed my (positive) suggestions for the next Spike Lee film, but invited me to participate in their discussion boards. They rock.
Bonny Underfoot responded to some questions I had about blogging with some very heartfelt comments that I treasure.
Angel, Jake and Killired are just good friends to have.
I know I’ve forgotten a few, but I’ll try and catch them next time.
All the best,
KT
Here is Joe's latest example.
Civilization, in its broadest sense, advances with every act of kindness and recedes with every act of cruelty. I think we can encourage kindness by publicizing it. Lord knows evil gets enough publicity.
I would like to make an offer to all of you. I’m a fast typist and a reasonably good editor. I will take any story of kindness and its results you can send me. I'll accept it in whatever form you wish and edit it and make sure it gets posted in the World of Good blogburst. After I edit it, I will send it back to you for final approval. Nothing will be posted without your OK. Names can be changed to protect privacy and no email or blog addresses will be posted unless you ask for it explicitly.
You can email me here.
When I say I will accept stories in any form, I do mean any form. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization, organization, I will take care of all of that. Give me the raw material and we can get to work encouraging good.
If you send me a story, please try to have the word kindness in the subject line so my email program can filter it properly.
Some people, men in particular, are reluctant to acknowledge kindness. It can be seen as a sign of weakness or sentimentality. I think it’s a sign of strength. The instructors at my old Kung Fu school are some of the nicest people I know. There is no way one would consider them weak. Mr. Early is an extraordinarily compassionate person, but when he fights he is a very, very unpleasant man.
Acknowledgements
Now I need to acknowledge some people who’ve done good things for me recently.The Anchoress lives up to her philosophy. I sent her a link to a post I had written about an obscure movie suggestion and she posted it on her blog. She’s a blogosphere heavyweight and I needed some exposure, so her act was very kind.
I’m a marketer, but I market emotionally instead of analytically. FMF helps with the Carnival of the Capitalists and he accepted my entry without requiring tables, graphs and charts.
Laurence Simon is the bomb. His Ask the Cats posts are a great way for a new blogger to get some links out there.
Emporer Misha does nice things without knowing it. Many of the popular blogs do not allow comments. They require added effort for the blogger as they have to patrol the comments for nasty messages. His work in maintaining his comments allows newbies like me to post messages that get my work seen by many.
Reformed Blacks of America not only enjoyed my (positive) suggestions for the next Spike Lee film, but invited me to participate in their discussion boards. They rock.
Bonny Underfoot responded to some questions I had about blogging with some very heartfelt comments that I treasure.
Angel, Jake and Killired are just good friends to have.
I know I’ve forgotten a few, but I’ll try and catch them next time.
All the best,
KT
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