Category: Blogs & Blogging

Best line of the day, so far

Comments are critical to blogs. They are the number one distinguishing feature that separates them from websites, those static billboards on the web. It is through this interaction that blogs continue the conversation started by the author. Feedback, input, advice, answers to questions, questions needing answers, all enrich the dialog that makes blogs blogs.

Lorelle on WordPress

New features

We believe strongly in customer service here at NewMexiKen. Along that line we’ve been adding new features.

There’s the polling (which I can delete at any time if the results continue to run against me).

There’s the Astronomy Picture of the Day on the far sidebar. [Update: APOD ocasionally hangs up the loading of NewMexiKen, so I have removed it. Sorry.]

And the comments, few as there are, can now be opened up inline. That means there is a little link at the bottom of each post that, when the post has comments, says “Show Comment(s).” Click that link to open the comments right on the front page. You can even add a comment from there.

Update: There is also now a printer icon. Click it to view (and print) a plain vanilla version of the post.

Feedback Time

While fixing the bug in NewMexiKen, I decided to just go ahead and redo the whole site.

{democracy:2}

Polling mechanism supplied by Diebold.

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

Last 100 Visitors

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