You still here?

• 15,000 is a very fascistic number and makes me quite uncomfortable. A prime number would have been much better. (The first prime after 15,000 is 15,013.)

• I miss sharing but not the sense of having to share, of having an empty blog every morning in need of feeding. Some have said, post less often or fewer items. But, of course, the whole point of this site has been to dazzle the internets with limitless quantities of wisdom, whimsy and wit.

Ron Howard’s brother still generates a surprising number of page views every day. So does burning the Zozobra.

• I can see (from the website stats) that some people are still dropping by every day or two even after I haven’t posted anything for six weeks. This is very gratifying.

• But only a few have mentioned the coda at all. Perhaps some readers assumed I’d be back (fair enough) or perhaps they didn’t care (also fair enough). Not hearing from certain individuals, however, was discouraging.

April 19th (see also this and this) really ought to be a national holiday and not just a holiday in Massachusetts. (And even in Massachusetts it has been bastardized into the third Monday in April.)

• I don’t want to write about just one or two topics. Or, if I do, I don’t know what they’d be.

• I don’t like the name NewMexiKen. I really never have.

• To be honest, I had more than seven regular readers.

• Two of my grandchildren are playing football this spring. Each is quarterbacking their team. One is a grandson and one is a granddaughter.

• The Susan Boyle video made me cry. I will be so disgusted if we find out, as some have suggested, that the whole thing is a gimmick. Whatever, the woman sure can sing.

• The hosting service is paid for until May 20.

14 thoughts on “You still here?”

  1. Still here. Been hanging out over at Functional Ambivalent a bit more. Glad to hear you’re doing well. You might consider doing something more like Rands in Repose, in terms of fewer but longer posts. I say this having neglected my blog for a couple of months now: still trying to get in the right frame of mind so I’m not just ranting or leaving notes for myself. You write well, and there’s not so much of that on the intertubes.

  2. Hi, Ken-

    I understand your … ennui. You’ve done an amazing job over the years, creating a one-of-a-kind site in a sea of sameness. You are the Dean of NM Blogs. Nothing lasts forever. I recall a sadness I felt on returning to a few jobs where I thought I was irreplaceable. Everyone was polite, but everything went on without me. That is not meant as a swipe at you, towards whom I feel kindness. Maybe it is time. And, you know from experience, you can resume anytime.

    FWIW, I use RSS feeds for the sites I care most about. As a result, I don’t think about “gee, is this thing still going,” nor will I have to remember to check in in six months — I’ll get your posting so long as your RSS feed stays the same.

    I hope you read Scott’s entry on number 700. Perspective. I hope to see you around the blogosphere again. peace, mjh

  3. No, but you are still in my RSS reader.

    About three weeks ago, I did actually panic and realize that I had not read anything by you in a while, and checked your website. I was glad to find out you were okay, and bummed that you had decided to stop your weblog.

  4. Please let us know where you’ll be. Intermittent, occasional or all-NewMexiken – all the time. It’s nice to have someone filter the Internet noise in a way that is relevant to both NM and my views. Selfish I know. I just like someone summing it up for me. And I always was amazed at the things I learned here — about things I may not have thought about. My Amazon wish list is composed of a ton of your recommendations. Alas, if only my energy level was the same as my wishes. (see having someone sum things up above.)

  5. I also use RSS so website visits can be misleading. I have a habit of giving a blog 3 months before I pull the plug on them.

    It’s good to see you back.

  6. You could rethink the blog thing. Buy a new domain. Try doing a message board, where you post little bytes for conversation.

    Or something else.

    As long as it’s fun for you. I totally understand missing sharing but not missing the obligation of sharing. I don’t think we feel that you’re obligated, though; I think YOU feel you are. I think you’re a duty-driven person in general, yes?

    I liked this website, but I’m confident I’d like whatever else you were to come up with.

    And how TOTALLY cool that your granddaughter is a freaking quarterback!

  7. Not sure why the number bothered you, but an easy cure is simply …post again!

    And while I pass through to check on ya, I never felt you were obligated to entertain me – so wasn’t going to yank your chain.

    Missed you while you were missing, glad to see you when I see you.

  8. Ken,

    Still here. I didn’t unsubscribe to your RSS feed. I had hope! … and I’m sort of lazy that way. I’ve always liked the name NewMexiKen.

    Of all your topics over the years you could drop the meme that the San Luis Valley belongs to New Mexico. That was all settled sometime around the Civil War.

    Coyote Gulch

  9. Coyote (may I call you Coyote?),

    The original New Mexico Territory included present-day Colorado south of the 38th parallel and east of the Rio Grande to Kansas. This was based on New Mexico’s border with the U.S. (the Arkansas River) as part of Spain and Mexico.

    When Colorado Territory was created in 1861, its southern boundary (the 37th parallel) was made an extension eastward of the southern boundary of Utah Territory. The Utah-New Mexico boundary had been established as part of the the Compromise of 1850. That Compromise also strengthened the Fugitive Slave Act.

    If you wish to base your state boundaries on such a noxious and notorious political act, alas what can I say.

  10. Ken,

    Yes you may call me Coyote.

    “Noxious and notorious,” sort of describes many or most of the political acts from that time, the heyday of tortured reasoning, until our current “torture memos” crisis. I guess “settled” was the wrong word to use. 🙂

    Coyote Gulch (John Orr)

  11. The world has returned to a sense of, a small sense, of normalcy. Welcome back for however long it lasts. Now that I’ve visited, two/three days late as it turns out, the NewMexiken link is taking over the “Empty Space Where NewMexiken Used To Be” link.

    Maybe this will all make sense someday. Maybe it won’t.

  12. Oh hallelujah! I’m one of the folks who was checking every few days. And then I’d finally given up and let go. Then I read Avelino’s post about how he selfishly wished you still posted.

    And I was formulating an email to send. I didn’t want to bother you, yet I wanted to plead with you.

    Thank you for the fact I didn’t have to grovel in email.

    Welcome back. I’m behind, must get caught up.

    Can’t describe how pleased I am you’re back…even if for a little while.

  13. I’m glad to see there are new NewMexiKen posts in my Netvibes as well! I would still request/beg that, should you decide to do something else or stop posting, you keep the site up as an archive (that way I can find out what’s happened on any particular day in history, for example).

    Also, May 20 is my birthday! I can think of a present you could get me…

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