Category: Blogs & Blogging

Urban Dictionary for $2000, please | dooce®

Typical of the comments you don’t get to see (the spam):

“I am from Germany and know bad English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: ‘The dealer will practise two casinos to you and two hands to the dealer, blackjack.'”

“I am from Mexico and , too, and now am writing in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: ‘Blackjack, nonchalant hcl types and articles.'”

“I am from Kyrgyzstan and also am speaking English, give please true I wrote the following sentence: ‘Whether the counting is to deal n’t in as supervisor pair or to find a unavoidable bankroll of round, the addition should get how you allow the card, blackjack.'”

All this morning from the same IP address.

The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America.

Late last night after four days the iPhone came back to life. Today it has returned to nearly normal. In fact this post is being written on it.

I, however, am busy with other stuff so posting will remain light.

I got nuthin’.

“According to research conducted by the Nielsen company (you know, the TV ratings folks), the average internet user now spends 68 hours online per month.”

Lifehacker

68 hours per month. Shoot, I spend 68 online per day.

Yes, you are in the right place for NewMexiKen. This is an experiment in change.

From 1732-1758 Benjamin Franklin published annually Poor Richard, An Almanack. Richard — Richard Saunders — was, of course, a pseudonym for Franklin himself. “Poor” in the context of 18th century publications promised silliness, perhaps even vulgarity.

After six years and two months of publishing NewMexiKen — and more than 16,200 postings — I wanted to try something a little different. I doubt there will be much change from NMK — it’ll still be half wisdom, half whimsy and half wit — but maybe out of respect to our inspiration this site will improve without really being different.

And didn’t Franklin preach self-improvement?

[Note: Poor Kenneth was consolidated back into NewMexiKen on February 12, 2010.]

“Violations of the proposed ethical standard will cost wayward bloggers an $11,000 fine. That’s roughly 22,000 years’ revenue for the average blog.”

Tom, who also says, “I Would Enjoy It If Someone Tried to Corrupt Me, but No One Has.”

His context is the Federal Trade Commission’s intent to regulate blogging. Not drug ads. Not beer ads. Not smoking by characters in movies (or possibly not until lately, I forget). But bloggers, hang ’em high.

For six years I’ve agonized about this weblog, how to make it better, how to attract more readers, whether I should give it up. Then, out of the blue, Ephraim comes along in a comment and gives me the very idea I’ve been searching for.

This year the New Mexico Quilters Association balloon fiesta raffle quilt was designed by Norma Jean Koelm, the same woman who won best in show at the State Fair this year. The raffle quilt was made by members of the quilt association including my wife.

Every year a quilt is made by the association and raffled to benefit the quilt association.

If you go to the fiesta stop by the Association’s booth and take a look at the quilt and maybe buy a chance on it. They’re only $2.00. It’s a beautiful quilt. You can see a picture of the quilt in Oct. 3rd’s Journal Balloon Fiesta section.

Mary made the largest balloon in the upper left quadrant of the quilt. It was made by piecing together what seemed like 100 tiny pieces of cloth. FYI all the balloons shown are images of actual balloons and individual permission was obtained from the balloons’ owner.

That’s it! NewMexiKen: Half Wisdom • Half Whimsy • All Quilts

“This is post number 800 for Burque Babble. Compared to many blogs out there, no big deal (how many does NewMexiKen have at this point, 4.2 million?). But I’m an obsessive counter, so reaching another hundred gets inexplicably ‘celebrated’.”

‘Burque Babble

Thanks for the shout Scot and congratulations, 800 substantive posts is better than 4.2 million trivial ones any day. And I’m looking forward to the 2009 version of your annual post on the Balloon Fiesta.

… quit blogging in 2005 and still get the same number of page views every day.

Top searches:

largest college stadiums, omarosa nude, ron howard’s brother, 58 national parks, list of 58 national parks

Don’t forget to check out the latest from Dinner without Crayons.

Yours truly is going to be traveling the second half of August — I’ve got places to go, Sweeties to see — all six at once for the first time in fact. I’ve decided to take that time off from here.

I will still be posting the rest of this week.

When I resume in September I’m considering starting over with a new blog and maybe even a new name. No doubt the same old stuff, but maybe a new feel and look (and a faster loading home page).

Will you still love me even if I get a makeover?

As a temporary experiment I am going to take items out of the sidebar and see if NMK loads faster.

As it generally loads fast for me, I have no way of testing the results. I would appreciate it if those who see any change could take a minute to add a comment to let me know. If I get any feedback, I may try restoring one or two items at a time to see if there is a particular culprit.

Those of you relying on news readers to read NMK — as I recommend to all who frequent the same web sites often — shouldn’t see any changes.

The problems with Twitter did make NMK slow this morning. I am trying to solve the longer-term problem that I had not been aware existed until yesterday.

Top ten reasons to continue NewMexiKen

10. Too late to enter Tour de France

9. Conan has Tonight Show gig locked up

8. Not much use for a grandpa in porn films

7. Need to offset “fair and balanced” news media

6. Domain name (newmexiken.com) cost $10

5. Blogging less boring than playing Freecell

4. Local Wal-Marts not hiring greeters

3. Idea for film “Night at the Museum: Escape from Tinkertown” turned down

2. I’m a natural born citizen

and the number one reason to continue NewMexiKen

1. All the encouragement and help from readers yesterday — Thanks!

NewMexiKen is taking the day off to celebrate the blog’s sixth anniversary.
The posts today are being written by readers just like you. This was from long-time reader Annette two years ago.

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Top Ten Reasons I Read NewMexiKen

10. The now-defunct Week Quiz and its successors.

9. There’s a page dedicated to Ron Howard’s brother.

8. Every day is somebody’s birthday.

7. I’ve been reading for so long I feel like the Sweeties and I are growing up together.

6. NMK is the hippest (and smartest) grandfather I know of.

5. I’m reminded of all the American history I’ve forgotten since high school.

4. NMK reads the rest of the Internet so I don’t have to.

3. There’s always something new.

2. He links to me.

1. Wisdom, whimsy, and wit: three things the Internet needs more of.

Six years. I should have been elected to the U.S. Senate instead.

NewMexiKen (i.e., this blog) began six years ago tomorrow, August 4, 2003. Because of changes in software and hosting services I have lost count, but I’m certain there have been more than a 1½ million visits to these pages. (And more than 800 posts since I last quit.)

As you may remember from 2006 and 2007, on my anniversary, you blog, I comment.

Send me your story, best line, link or other NewMexiKen type content to be posted on Tuesday. The first year I tried this, we had seven or eight good posts. In 2007 just one (thank you, Annette).

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). Email to newmexiken at gmail dot com. Tell me if you do not want your name posted. And I do reserve my editorial prerogative.

Except for a photo essay for the Maroon Bells that I am working on, what you get between now and Wednesday depends on you.

Oh, and tomorrow should be a half-day national holiday. It’s my half birthday. Oh, and President Obama is 48 Tuesday.

Hey, lots and lots of great comments today. I really appreciate it.

And to answer your implied question, yes you can have a ride.

In response to comments on the previous post, which was just a rant of mine with no particular merit, but anyway:

KathyF, yes the personality of the blog is definitely appreciated more if you browse the site rather than the boring RSS interface. And I agree with you about the ads, though it’s really only fair to click on an ad if one is actually interested. I couldn’t do the kind of blog I do here however, if I had to go to 100+ sites one at a time.

Debby and Mrs. A, you may not know what I was referring to because you don’t so far as I know manage a blog. Many to most web sites have Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds. Many of us read web sites only through the feeds because we get everything in one place and the feeds cut out all the sidebars and repetitious blog stuff. Feeds usually consist of just the posts.

The problem I was ranting about arises when the blogger chooses to publish a feed with just excerpts of their posts. We who rely on RSS glance at the excerpt and make an instant decision about whether it’s worth clicking and going to the web browser to read the entire post. It seldom is.

Because, simply put, most bloggers are not good enough writers to set the hook in the excerpt. They would be better off if they think they have something to say, to publish the whole post not just the excerpt. Make it easier for your feed readers and they are more likely to be interested in what you have to say — and much, much more likely to write about what you say and link to your blog.

Unless you’re a site that needs page views to sell ads, excerpting your RSS feed rather than publishing the full post is very poor blog etiquette.

After six years and with over 15,000 posts (and more than two million words), I guess I can claim some sort of senior status as a blogger. And I just don’t read blog posts that aren’t published in full in the RSS feeds. Too much trouble. I am not alone.

I make exceptions for people like Krugman. If you get a Nobel Prize I’ll make an exception for you.

But until then, please fix your RSS feed if it truncates.

In fact, this decision comes after much consideration, and finally polling the most important people in my life – my alternate personalities (where the count was unanimous… well, in response to asking: “Want me to make a positive difference and fight for ALL our future from OUTSIDE this blog?” It was four “yes’s” and one “hell yeah!” The “hell yeah” sealed it – and someday I’ll talk about the details of that…

Or maybe I’ll just take the rest of the day off and float downstream.