Buggy

The bug in NewMexiKen is back, if less troublesome than before.

I am switching back to last weekend’s look as it seemed just fine. And even got a compliment.

I will improve it as I can.

Serious Matters Discussed Here

Enough already with politics, the sins of the media elite, education in America, and the wrongs done Al Gore. Today Bob Somerby gets to the serious matters. College football!

Unlike Kevin Drum, we weren’t real surprised when Southern Cal fell to the Bruins on Saturday. Yes, the Trojans had trampled the best of the rest, beating Arkansas, Nebraska and Notre Dame by an average of 25 points. But they struggled within the potent PAC-10—they went 7-2, with several close calls—and UCLA was always capable of beating them. The real pain of this weekend’s games? Being forced to hear all that tired old pap about the SEC’s manifest greatness.

He’s not much impressed with the Big 10 either.

As the Expression Goes

… pardon our dust.

Something had been amiss with either NewMexiKen’s code or the hosting service’s servers. In an attempt to eliminate the possibility that it is the site’s code, I became rebuilding it last night from the default.

Please bear with the cosmetic changes while I fiddle. The content is otherwise unchanged.

Update Saturday Morning: Since I’ve switched to the default format (and posted a variation of the above at 11:12 last night), things seem to be working much, much better. The format will change gradually as I implement changes a little at a time, find what works and get back to a look I want.

Hi Everybody

A map of the locations of the last 100 visitors to NewMexiKen as of about 3PM Mountain Time. The red dot was the most recent, green the 10 most recent. (I guess you can’t see all 100 dots because of the overlap.)

Nostalgia

Wow, I did something really stupid (with the NewMexiKen database) and it took 90 minutes of lost productivity to undo it.

It was just like being in a real job again.

Five Paragraphs about the Latest Blogosphere Brouhaha

When I heard that a prominent conservative blogger had gone after a young feminist blogger because she had dared to have breasts in the vicinity of former President Clinton in the course of a meeting between Clinton and liberal bloggers (“she wears a tight knit top that draws attention to her breasts and stands right in front of him and positions herself to make her breasts as obvious as possible”), I thought, “well, what do you expect from these Dorito-flecked guys typing in their mothers’ basements—they literally have nothing better to do.”

But when I learned that the blogger in question was not a Dorito-flecked guy typing in his mother’s basement but a tenured law professor, I thought, “wow, that’s remarkably pathetic. That might be one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen on the Internets.”

And when I saw that the tenured law professor was a woman who was chastising the young liberal blogger in the name of feminism, while writing, “Jessica should have worn a beret. Blue dress would have been good too” and “Jessica looks like Paula Jones,” I thought, “good lord, that’s more disingenuous and gratuitously vile than I can say. I’m so sorry this professor was asked by the Chronicle of Higher Education to participate in the same forum on academic blogging in which I appeared back in July.”

And then when I discovered that the tenured law professor was replying to people who’d pointed out that there was nothing exceptional about Jessica’s clothing or the photo in which she appeared by telling them to face reality, and replying to Jessica directly (who’d pointed out that the professor was attacking her for her appearance) by telling her not to flatter herself, I thought, “heaven help us, that’s positively delusional.”

And then when I got word that the tenured law professor had upped the ante by insisting that the young feminist’s blog was “one of those blogs that are all about using breasts for extra attention,” I thought, “good grief, wait until the poor clueless dear hears about the talented young feminist writers who work at Bust magazine. She’s liable to blow a gasket, she is.”

Continue reading from Le Blog Bérubé.

Redecorating

NewMexiKen is thinking it’s time once again to change how these pages look.

You know how it is when you want to redecorate, right? You ask everyone’s opinion. Truth told, you don’t really want their opinion, what you really want is validation for your own opinion.

That may or not be true of me here (probably is true) but at least I’m going to let you have a say up front BEFORE I make the changes.

Below is a list of “themes.” Except for “NewMexiKen,” which is the name of the theme I’ve been using, the themes in the list are generic. That means that some of them won’t even have the title NewMexiKen show up on the pages. Many will use their own art. None has The Sweeties!

Some will look fine, others confused. Still, they give you some idea of possibilities. And the posts you see will be NewMexiKen’s own.

Once you chose a theme, it will stay with you each visit via a cookie until you chose another theme (or I delete your choice as part of this process).

Remember its just a test, so don’t worry about the messy or missing stuff.

Let me know what I should think. Have fun.

[Update: Theme Switcher removed.]

Update September 18: The Sweeties will be part of NewMexiKen in any redesign. They just aren’t part of the generic sampler.

You know what’s really sad?

Seeing that as of this moment there have been 2,562 comments at NewMexiKen (since March 2004) and knowing that there have been 1,453 spam comments in just the past few months.

I should just turn off the filter and post the spam.

1000 days

Today marks the 1000th day that something has been posted at NewMexiKen.

Hmm, that’s a nice round number.

Places to go, people to see

NewMexiKen will be away for the next several days, hanging-out with a couple of The Sweeties, camping, sight-seeing, playing Chutes and Ladders. I will try and blog when I can, but instead of the usual half-wisdom, half-whimsy, half-wit you get around here, it may only be one-eighth.

While I am gone Hannibal Lecter will be house-sitting at Casa NewMexiKen, along with my pit bulls, Attila and Genghis. The recent rains (again, big-time last night) have raised havoc with the rattlesnakes in the backyard. I think they have moved inside and resettled among the wires and cables behind the television and surround sound.

Anniversary Blog-In

Thanks to all those who participated in NewMexiKen’s anniversary Blog-In. I’ll do it again next year.

By the way, today, August 4th, was the 984th day during the past 1,097 that I posted something — 89.7%.

I really should seek intervention.

Detentions forthcoming

I don’t know about you guys, but back when I went to school and a member of the Gestapo in religious habit gave us an assignment we didn’t think we could get off by saying, “Oh sister [or father or brother], we just love coming to your class and it’s my favorite class and happy anniversary.” We might try that too, but we did the assignment.

Happy Anniversary NewMexiKen

NewMexiKen began three years ago today. Who would have thought obsessive-compulsive behavior could be sustained¹ so long?

Because of changes in software and hosting services I have lost count, but I think there have been at least 800,000 visits and way more than a million page views. There are 8,624 posts (and scores have been eliminated along the way).

Phew! I need a day off.

So here’s the deal. Today, on my anniversary, you blog, I comment. Send me your story, link or NewMexiKen type content.

Email it to newmexiken at gmail dot com. Tell me if you want your name posted or not.

Really! If you’re a regular reader (and there are a few of you), it’s your turn. And no boring stuff — it’s got to be Wise, Whimsical or Witty (or at least half-witty).

¹ OK, OK, so there have been a few meltdowns along the way.

Be sure not to miss

The report on the 9-11 tapes mentioned Wednesday and NewMexiKen’s review of Remember Me posted late Tuesday.

All about bloggers

Related surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that the blog population has grown to about 12 million American adults, or about 8% of adult internet users and that the number of blog readers has jumped to 57 million American adults, or 39% of the online population.

These are some of the key findings in a new report issued by the Pew Internet Project titled “Bloggers”:

• 54% of bloggers say that they have never published their writing or media creations anywhere else; 44% say they have published elsewhere.
• 54% of bloggers are under the age of 30.
• Women and men have statistical parity in the blogosphere, with women representing 46% of bloggers and men 54%.
• 76% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to document their personal experiences and share them with others.
• 64% of bloggers say a reason they blog is to share practical knowledge or skills with others.
• When asked to choose one main subject, 37% of bloggers say that the primary topic of their blog is “my life and experiences.”
• Other topics ran distantly behind: 11% of bloggers focus on politics and government; 7% focus on entertainment; 6% focus on sports; 5% focus on general news and current events; 5% focus on business; 4% on technology; 2% on religion, spirituality or faith; and additional smaller groups who focus on a specific hobby, a health problem or illness, or other topics.

… Some additional data points from the Bloggers report:

• 87% of bloggers allow comments on their blog
• 72% of bloggers post photos to their blog
• 55% of bloggers blog under a pseudonym
• 41% of bloggers say they have a blogroll or friends list on their blog
• 8% of bloggers earn money on their blog

Top ten supplemental blogging apps (Mac only)

From The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW), some more good Mac aps.

Frenzied Interactivity

Joel Achenbach has a terrific column on the blurring of lines between journalism and blogging. He begins:

In the news media there is much talk of “interactivity,” of breaking down the wall between journalistic producers and consumers. No longer will the news be proprietary to a professional elite that attempts, in an Olympian voice, to speak down to the unwashed masses. Instead, everyone will be an equal, fully respected partner in the news process, including nitwits, fanatics, the extremely daft and the recently straitjacketed.

NewMexiKen

… is getting tired of politics, sports and Ron Howard’s brother. I’m thinking of making the site into something more like this.

New host

NewMexiKen is moving. Ultimately this should be transparent to you.

NewMexiKen may be unavailable briefly while the domain is transferred. Do not fret. Like MacArthur, NewMexiKen shall return.

When this entry is no longer at the top you will know you are at the new server. It may be a day or two or three.

In the meanwhile, everything works fine including comments.

New hosting service needed

NewMexiKen is tired of what appears to be inconsistent service from my host provider.

Anyone care to recommend another provider?

(For those who don’t know, the host is where the files and database that generate NewMexiKen reside.)

OK, now what?

Some of my six or seven loyal readers tell me they care.

OK, prove it.

First leg completed

NewMexiKen and Dad have arrived in northern Virginia to visit some of The Sweeties. We will remain here for a few days. During that time I will try and catch you up on some of the other sites we visited along the way — and, maybe, do some regular-type blogging. You know, stupid stuff.

Outta here

NewMexiKen is taking a couple days off. No computer. No blogging.

Back Sunday or Monday.

Blogging 101

The theory: There are two kinds of bloggers, referential and experiential. …

The referential blogger uses the link as his fundamental unit of currency, building posts around ideas and experiences spawned elsewhere: Look at this. Referential bloggers are reporters, delivering pointers to and snippets of information, insight or entertainment happening out there, on the Intraweb. They can, and do, add their own information, insight and entertainment to the links they unearth — extrapolations, juxtapositions, even lengthy and personal anecdotes — but the outward direction of their focus remains their distinguishing feature.

The experiential blogger is inwardly directed, drawing entries from personal experience and opinion: How about this. They are storytellers (and/or bores), drawing whatever they have to offer from their own perspective. They can, and do, add links to supporting or explanatory information, even unique and undercited external sources. But their motivation, their impetus, comes from a desire to supply narrative, not reference it.

There’s nothing here to imply that one type of blogger is better than the other. There are literally thousands — OK, hundreds… OK, at least a dozen — of both kinds that are valuable additions to the on-going conversation/food-fight/furry-cuddle that is the Internet.

Greg Knauss writing at kottke.org.

PC, if you must

Walter Mossberg has a PC buying guide. Key points:

• I believe every mainstream consumer doing typical tasks should consider the Mac. Its operating system already contains most of the key features promised for Vista.
• If you want a new Windows PC, my best advice is to wait until January and buy one with Vista preinstalled.
• Running Vista with all its features enabled will require a major increase in hardware power, and that means a costlier PC.

Well, of course

… it was just an April Fool.

But I did go to Durango, Colorado, for fifteen minutes (figuratively) over the weekend, and left all computers behind. (Well, not really, I did check my email at the hotel business center.)

Colorado Luis

Colorado Luis has decided to close up shop. Luis has been a NewMexiKen favorite for two years (which is forever in blogdom). His acute and informed political analysis will be missed.

Fortunately, Luis promises to return in some way sometime in the future. We can all look forward to that.

NewMexiKen

The URL newmexiken.com is two years old today.

Our heroes

A couple of blogging heroes — together: Jason Kottke (kottke.org) and Heather Armstrong (dooce).

Kottke has been at this eight years!

NewMexiKen

… is away being a full-time grandpa. There may be sporadic posting these next few weeks, but real blogging, such as it is around here, will return on or about April Fool’s Day.

Feel free to comment among yourselves.

In the meanwhile, here’s a good line from Conan O’Brien:

“The makers of ‘Sesame Street’ have decided not to have Russell Crowe on as host of the show because he is not a good role model. Crowe was disappointed because he wanted to host an episode that was brought to you by the letters F and U.”

Oh, and Justice Antonin Scalia is 70 today, and NewMexiKen’s one-time boss’s boss, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, is 52.

Thinking about linking

According to some, there are two types of bloggers — linkers and thinkers.

NewMexiKen is primarily a linker’s blog. I find it. I think about whether you might find it interesting. I post it.

Hey, it worked for Reader’s Digest.

And there were 31,345 visits to 137,912 NewMexiKen pages during February, so I guess it’s working here, too.

Ad update

$60.05 in three months including the Christmas shopping season.

You sure the web is the way to big bucks?

I’ve noticed

The audience for Web-logs, or “blogs” had an auspicious start, going from practically zero to almost 20 in a very short time frame (20 being the percentage of Americans today who report reading blogs on at least an occasional basis). However, according to recent Gallup data, it seems the growth in the number of U.S. blog readers was somewhere between nil and negative in the past year.
…

To put blog readership in context, the December survey found that checking online for news and information is done regularly by 72% of Web users. Fifty-two percent regularly shop online, 40% pay bills, and 28% play games. At 20%, blog reading is on par with downloading music and participating in online auctions such as eBay.

Gallup

Weird

The hottest search term here in the past day has been variations on “Isabelle Dinoire.” More than 300 visits to NewMexiKen have originated with searches on her name. Ms. Dinoire is the Frenchwoman who had a facial transplant. NewMexiKen linked to the first photos last week.

The weird part is that about 10% of the searches were for “isabelle dinoire labrador.” It’s Ms. Dinoire’s Lab that attacked her and caused the injuries that led to the surgery.

Here’s a link to an article in yesterday’s New York Times covering Ms. Dinoire’s press conference � and yes, there are photos.

But none of the Lab.

Functional Ambivalent

Functional Ambivalent has a great new look — and last night’s entry promises more changes and has a wonderful image of a vintage television test pattern.

Blah Blah Blah

I think I’ll take the day off and go get my throat blessed.

NewMexiKen

There were 38,167 visits from 21,197 unique IP addresses viewing 150,906 pages at NewMexiKen in January.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

NewMexiKen needs to be away for a few days. The computer and I have decided to use the period as a trial separation.

(I think the Toshiba laptop knows there is a new iMac about to enter our happy home.)

Blogging, such as it is, should resume by Monday, January 30.

The Bloggies

You won’t find NewMexiKen or any of the fine blogs I nominated among the finalists (sigh), but take a look anyway — and vote for your favorites — for the Sixth Annual Weblog Awards — the Bloggies.

Best line of the day, so far

“Blogger. n. Someone with nothing to say writing for someone with nothing to do.”

Tagline for Let the Good Times Roll by Guy Kawasaki. Link is to a nice piece by Kawasaki on how to get a standing ovation (when giving a speech).