No Time for Blogging in a Dungeon

Blogging?

I don't have time for blogging!

I have a dungeon to create!

Game time in 29 hours (by the time this posts.)

Can't be spending my late-night creative ergs on blogging when there's danger to summon!

What Gets You Angry Politically?

What Gets You Angry Politically?

A couple weeks back, I posted a blog entry on a political topic.  Political entries are infrequent in this blog, and of those political entries, this was even more unusual because I was quite strong in my opinions and harsh in my language.  It’s unusual for several reasons, and maybe someday I’ll write about why it was unusual, but today I am more interested in examining the reason I wrote so strongly.

And the reason was because I was frustrated, and that frustration pushed me to anger.  When I am angry, and I decide to “pick up a pen,” well, that’s the sort of thing I can write.

So, what got me frustrated?  Let me tell you a story.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

I was recently a dinner guest at a fancy meal, hosted by a wealthy business associate, whom I will call X.  I had been warned that X liked to talk politics, even though the meal was supposed to be a business meal.  But it was at X’s property (a beautiful, old mansion – the one X uses for entertaining, not living in – comparable to the Plummer House here in Rochester) and X also viewed these meals as a chance to get to know one another. 

During the course of the evening, X made frequent comments which made it clear that X holds very strong conservative views, and watches Fox News frequently.  So, I knew I was in for an evening of having to hold my tongue.  You see, X is a customer, it was a business function, and getting into an argument over politics would have been detrimental to the business purpose of the event.  Plus, I think it’s generally uncouth to argue with your host.  In fact, I think it’s dangerous to discuss politics at an introductory social event at all, because arguments are so easily begun.

Well, during the evening, X brought up the topic of extending unemployment benefits several times, and each time X talked about not wanting to support “drug addicts and alcoholics.”  There were other similar remarks in a very conservative vein, and each time X made the comment, it was accompanied by “you know what I mean?” or “right?”, plus a look around the table to see who agreed, as well as a hand that reached out to pat my arm in an attempt to get my assent.

Here is what that felt like to me: X believed that the people receiving unemployment benefits are “drug addicts and alcoholics.”  Every time the people were mentioned, that phrase was used.  Now, perhaps that is not exactly what X meant, but X was clearly opposed to extending the benefits to all unemployed people, and the reason seemed to be these “drug addicts and alcoholics.”   

That made me angry.  Now, I do realize that some percentage of unemployed people have a substance abuse problem, and I know one way to characterize that set of people is “drug addicts and alcoholics.”  But they are not all “drug addicts and alcoholics.”  I have since done some light Internet research, and the percentage seems to be about 1 in 6 (or 17%).  But I did not have that information on that particular evening. 

What I did have was personal relationships with people who were, or had been, unemployed.  And of the people I knew, zero of them were “drug addicts and alcoholics.”  Wait, strike that.  First, as far as I know, none of them are drug addicts.  And, as far as I know, one of them is a recovering alcoholic who has not had a drink in over 15 years.  But I do know that none of them were unemployed because of substance abuse.

So, here was a person, upset that their tax dollars were going to be used to help “drug addicts and alcoholics” when, in my experience, the people who needed those benefits were out of work because of corporations reducing the size of their work forces, and because jobs were/are hard to find.

Now, perhaps at another time we could have a discussion about whether people who are “drug addicts and alcoholics” deserve our help via programs paid for by our tax dollars.  But that’s not the discussion X seemed to be having.   X was opposed, strongly and vocally, to the extension of Federal Unemployment benefits to the long-term unemployed because it would be used to help “drug addicts and alcoholics.” 

And this makes me angry.  Politically, I don’t get angry about much, but this is the sort of thing that makes me angry.  X decides that some people do not deserve help (the “drug addicts and alcoholics”) and so, therefore, no one should get it.  Why?  Is it because all of the recipients are “drug addicts and alcoholics?”  Well, the way X talked, that’s how it seemed.  But even if X were willing to admit that the “drug addicts and alcoholics”  are only part of the population receiving benefits, X is still willing to withhold help from those who are not in the offensive subcategory.

So, the evening ended.  I kept most of my political opinions to myself and I remained tactful.  But in the end, I was frustrated.  And when I told family and friends about the experience later, that frustration colored my description about the event.

And I was still frustrated when – lo and behold – that video from Jon Stewart appeared on my facebook feed.  And there it was again – another instance of people making me angry, politically.  It was Food Stamps, not Unemployment Benefits, but the similarities were there.  And, since I had bottled up all my rhetoric when I was listening to X, I decided I would write something about this video.  And I did.  It was not as balanced as I usually try to be.  I was angry, so I was writing angry.

And later, I sorta regretted it.  I prefer to remain balanced.  I live my life that way.  Some of it is my approach to life, but some of it is my comfort zone.  Anyway, I sorta regretted it.  But I also started analyzing the situation.  After having “blown up” and cooling down, I tried to put some perspective around the entire sequence. 

End of Story – Beginning of Analysis

- - - - - - - - - - - -

There are many facets to a person’s political viewpoint.   A facet exposed by my reaction to the “Dinner with X” is this:  What makes me angry? 

I am not a liberal because I choose to be labeled a liberal.  (And I am not as “liberal” as the label would make me seem.)  I am a liberal because it angers me when I think someone is trying to blame the people who need our collective help for needing that help.  And it angers me when I think someone is arguing to withhold help from those who deserve it, in order to prevent the undeserving from receiving benefits. 

Conservatives are brought to anger by different things.  (And, yes, I realize I’m generalizing here. That’s what happens when we decide to use labels.)  My perception is that conservatives get angry when they think someone is doing something wrong, and the government is allowing/encouraging/facilitating/perpetrating that wrong-doing.  In the cases involving tax dollars, they get angry if they think people are getting tax dollars (your tax dollars, their tax dollars, our tax dollars) when they don’t deserve them, or when they will misuse them.

Put in that context (and I realize, I created the context – I didn’t ask a conservative for the context) I can understand why that would get some people angry.  I really can.  It’s just that, given the two sources of anger, the former cause for anger – the liberal one -- means more to me personally than the conservative one does.

There are more aspects to one’s political viewpoint than anger.  But I finally have spent enough time thinking about the topic, writing about it, editing what I wrote, and reading it again that I finally feel like I can post this.  This is not the end of my thinking on the subject, but it’s the end of this entry to Snippets and Wisps.

======

Artwork-related P.S. - To get an image for this post, I used Google, and found the above image accompanying an article entitled "What Would Scooby Doo?: What marriage counseling can teach liberals and conservatives" by Shankar Vedantam.  I like the art, and I can't find any other way to give attribution.  So, there it is.  And the opinion piece is interesting, too.

When I Don't Blog ...

When I don't blog, people still end up coming to the blog.  This no longer surprises me. 

It used to surprise me -- a few years ago before I understood that a great deal of blog traffic is driven by searches. 

But, when I have been absent, or when I have blogged infrequently, I sometimes check to see what blog posts have been getting read.  Often, among the blog entries is the Castle is a Gem post.  I don't quite know why.  But this time, it appears my travels to, and photos from China are being found more than other posts.  This is great -- but I wonder how it happened.

Oh, and you will see another post which seems to show up quite frequently on the list.  That Dinosaur Attack WIN entry.

Anyway, I hope to get back to posting more regularly in the near future.  But meanwhile, some people still seem to be finding my words -- and photos -- here.

Glad to have them!

Where in the World Were My Readers Last Week?

I just checked my most recent traffic for this blog.  There is a view which shows me the countries from which pageviews are made.  Check it out.

I have been to France once in my life, for two days.  Sherry and I really want to go -- Sherry needs to add Paris to the list of Fashion Capitals she's visited, and I've seen photos all my life of the beauty there.  But I am intrigued -- how does France have so many readers of a blog like this, with my varied topics?  Perhaps the French like anniversaries, and since we celebrated one last week, the blog got hits?  [The anniversary post got 100 views, so it's a correlation.  Not a proof, but a correlation.] Well, if you're from France, and you're reading this, put something in the Comments.  I'd love to hear from you. 

Latvia?  Well, Sherry has a friend in Latvia.  We have not heard from her in a very long time.  Perhaps there is a connection there?  Ilse, is that you?


You're all welcome, of course.  I am merely interested.  Have a great week, whereever you are in the world.

Too Busy Writing to Write

I claim to like writing.  It's one of the reasons I started this blog.  In fact, that single claim drives several reasons I started this blog.

1. I enjoy the process of writing.  Create or develop a thought.  Figure out how to express it.  Craft the expression.  Refine, revise, and publish.  It's rewarding, in and of itself.
2. I like the idea of my written thoughts affecting the people who read them.  It's part of my "ego" if such a thing can be said to truly exist.  So, in that sense, I enjoy the potential result of my writing, rather than the writing itself, but it contributes to the reasons I like to blog.
3. Finally, if one wants to be a writer, or thinks one does, one is told over and over again that one must write.  So, blogging "forces" me to write, which supposedly will help if I ever really truly want to write something more substantial.  (Mike keeps encouraging me to.  I resist.  Different topic.)

The problem, of course, is that I don't write.  Or, perhaps more to the point, I don't Write, with a capital W.  I find it hard, in fact, to write this blog as frequently as I used to.

But see, the thing is, my reason for not writing is not a lack of writing.  It is, in fact, the opposite.  I write so much that I just can't write any more.

My primary means of communicating my ideas these days seems to be through writing.  It's just not the kind of writing which goes here.  It's business.  It's e-mail.  And it's freaking constant.   Sometimes I tell people how much e-mail I get on an average day -- not including spam or notes which I can just delete. I tell them 100 per day.  That's the number I am expected to read to handle in some way. Some people are incredulous.  A few try to top me, without thinking about what it means.  And, yes, a few can top me, for real.  (Alison, my friend, I do not envy you.)

Calculate that out over an 8 hour day.  (Yes, yes, I know.  8?  Bear with me.) That's reading and dealing with each e-mail in under five minutes, if I do absolutely nothing else.   Adding in instant messaging (which is the primary means for a large percentage of communications today) would make the numbers worse.  But let's not muddy the waters. [A short aside: if you do NOT treat writing instant messages as you would treat writing an e-mail, I can practically guarantee you that you will make a mess of something, often without realizing it.  And if you don't treat writing an e-mail as you would treat writing a short article, you are inviting trouble, as well.]

Let's suppose I have to reply to only 25% of the "real" e-mails I receive.  This is probably low, but let's start there.  That means I am writing an e-mail every 20 minutes, while reading 4.  This means I am in an almost constant state of reading and then writing.  And that's just from e-mail! I do far more than just e-mail, but I still have to get that e-mail done, among the other writing and non-writing I do each day.

Is it any wonder my mind and fingers are tired of writing by the time I set myself to the task of blogging here?

Sometimes I think if I took a sabbatical and did manual labor 8 hours a day for a couple of months, though my body would be worn out at the end of a work day, my mind and fingers would be itching to write.  Because, strangely enough, I do get some of the enjoyment of Writing from the e-mail writing I do.  I have to develop a thought, figure out how to express it, craft, revise, refine and SEND in the very few minutes I have.  It's like sprinting, all day long.  And yet, I seem to enjoy it.  So if I spent a few weeks with work days which did not include writing, I suspect I would crave it.

This post borders on talking about work.  But not really.  I suspect many people in today's world are set upon by very similar issues.  Being able to communicate well through writing is a skill, and I can assure you that it is a very valuable skill.  Those of us who have the skill often find ourselves in jobs where we are required to use that skill for much of our work day.   And that leaves some of us, well, at least ONE of us, a tad unmotivated when it comes time to face some Real Writing.

This is not whining.  It's not even an excuse.  It's therapy.  It's introspection, disguised as a wordy essay. 

And it has kept me up past midnight.  Time to get to bed.

I have e-mail waiting for me in the morning.

Dealing with my Split (Social) Personality

As I have written many times, I don't blog about work. (Here.)

But today I have a topic which touches a bit on my work life, so the wall between the two aspects of my life in social media will crumble a bit.  And that, as it turns out, is the point.

Which of these people am I?

 

OR

The guy on the left is a leader in part of the technology industry, but to read this blog, you'd never really know that. That's how I intended it. From the beginning, Snippets and Wisps was meant to be a place where I could write about the parts of my life which are not related to my job.

The guy on the right is a gamer, a sci-fi fan, a lover of Great Courses and movies.  And of course, the guy on the right is also this guy:

(I enjoy finding an opportunity to put a photo of my beautiful wife in this blog.)

Well, obviously, I am both of these people.  For various reasons, I have kept them separate when it comes to social media.  This blog and my Facebook account have been devoted to my personal life.  Meanwhile, the blog I write for work never talks about the movies I like, games I play, etc.  And rather than using Facebook, I use LinkedIn as the "social" means to connect with people for business purposes.

Then there is Twitter.  When I started using Twitter, I created @Steve_Will and decided to let that be the "non-work" me -- that's the Twitter ID I use to advertise Snippets and Wisps, and the ID I use to follow celebrities and a few friends.  (Very few of my friends use Twitter, as it turns out.  [Welcome to the Twitterverse, @MichaelHacker58.]) I use a different ID for information I want to share about technology/work topics.  As social media has grown, it's been harder to keep that separation, but I've done it pretty well so far. 

Well, the wall I've built over the past several years between these two parts of my social life is showing signs of cracking.  I am receiving more and more Facebook "friend" requests from people who only know "of" me.  They have heard of me through work, and they might even be friends of people who are Facebook friends of mine, but they are not friends of mine.  To this point, I generally just leave their requests alone.  And perhaps I will continue to do that.  And my personal Twitter account has many followers who are clearly finding me because of my job, so I just let them know that they should probably be following the other ID.  But I've begun to feel a bit constrained by this.  If someone is following me expecting news about the operating system I represent, what will they think getting directed here, to this blog?  Do they really want to know what music or Great Course I am listening to?  Worse, if I express a political or religious view, will people get angry or upset with my company or our products?  These give me some pause.  And the situation is about to compound on itself, I think.

Soon, my work organization will be using Facebook for a "Big Thing." I am heavily involved in that "Big Thing" and I am personally very passionate about it.  I am pretty sure this particular business use of Facebook will cause my Facebook presence to become even more visible to customers, business partners and so on.

So I am reevaluating my social presence.  Professionally, I need to be active in social media, and I cannot have the things I do for personal expression negatively affect that part of my job.  At the same time, I really enjoy blogging here, and while Facebook does have its issues, I definitely like it for keeping in touch with most of my family and most of my good friends.

If any of my readers have some experience keeping personal and professional life separate in this age of social media, I would be happy to hear your stories and advice.

But I have to admit, no matter how well I am able to manage these two sides of my social networking life, I am always going to envy how this guy does it.

.

Nathan Fillion is amazing. I'm just sayin'.

Dominion Fever

Ahh, gentle readers.  You will have noticed a pattern in my behavior over the years.  That pattern is this: I will find a game, I will like it, something will allow me to spend more than a passing few moments on it, and I will be hooked.

It's happened with video games (like the Link/Zelda games,) with board games (Ticket to Ride, anyone?) with computer games (Get behind me, Civilization!) and of course with card games (Magic, I have strayed from you for too long!)

Well, over the recent past, the game which is consuming me is Dominion.

I wrote about this game once before, so please go read that entry if you want to get a feel for the game.

The point of this post is to lay a third thing down as a distraction from writing blogs.  Dominion has become a once-a-week (or more) game I play over the lunch hour with two of the Dudes.  It has become a game I invite the Dudes over to play, just because I am itching for another game.  And, oh my oh my, it's a game which is now available to play on-line!  For absolutely no money at all, you can play the base set of cards with your friends, or you can choose a solo game which allows you to play against one, two or three AI bots.

Like the computer version of the "Ticket to Ride" game before it, having access to an on-line version of Dominion has been wonderful, and awful.  I can play a game in 5-10 minutes.  And I do.  Over and over.  While I cannot write a blog while watching The West Wing or Battlestar Galactica, I most certainly can play a few seconds of Dominion while the action on the TV show switches from one scene to another.

So far, I have refused to pay money for any of the add-on sets on-line.  I'm holding off because I really don't want to spoil the anticipation I feel when I consider how much fun it will be to play the game IRL (In Real Life) with the Dudes.  I have already experienced a lessening of a desire to play "Ticket to Ride: Europe" IRL, now that I have (over-)played the computer version.  I do not want that to happen to Dominion.

So, folks, chalk this up as the third thing which helped me go silent for a while here.  What a fun game!

OK.  That's four blog posts written now.  I think I owe myself another episode of The West Wing.  Or two.  And some Dominion.

Waylaid by Learning

Yesterday I put some of the blame for my recent dearth of posts on a TV show.  Today, I am going to add "learning" to the list of things which distracted me.

You see, of all the blog entries I had been writing in recent months, it was the "Knowledge Series" which was taking more of my attention than anything else in Snippets and Wisps.  If you'll recall, the Knowledge Series started as a way for me to synthesize many of the things I had learned while listening to many Great Courses (from The Teaching Company.)

Well, two things happened related to Great Courses and Learning in general which sidetracked me.

First, at around Christmas time, I completed two courses which were both, roughly, on the topic of Psychology.  These were the first courses I had taken on this topic since an Intro to Psych course back at Luther.  They were excellent.  But I haven't yet written "reviews" of them for Snippets & Wisps.  I didn't write the first review because I wanted to have heard both courses before I wrote either review, so that I could compare, contrast and synthesize.  I didn't write the second review because, hey, it was Christmas break, and I don't push myself to blog while on vacation.

Unfortunately, that put me "behind" in writing Great Course reviews.  This would have been OK, except, well, I started another course and it forced me into a second detour.

Second, I started listening to  "Philosophy of Science."  Oh. My. Word.

Many of the things I was writing about in the Knowledge Series are directly related to the material in this Great Course.  And it's 36 lectures long!

I simply could not make myself continue the Knowledge Series without first having some of this new material in my head.  And I could not force myself to go back and review the Psychology courses -- when I write my reviews, I always return to the course books so that I can do justice to the material in the course, and so that it gets better "set" in my memory.  No, I could not go back to another course -- not while the Philosophy of Science was filling my brain.

So, you see, I was unwilling to continue to put my collected thoughts together while they were in the process of being updated by new information.

I am currently on lecture 35 of that Great Course, though (at the time of this writing, not at the time of your reading) so I anticipate I will be able to move on to some of the next points I need to make in the Knowledge Series soon. Perhaps by this weekend.

I must admit, of the "excuses" I'm giving for my blogging dry spell, this one feels least like an excuse, and more like a reason.  It's also quite satisfying.  Putting off talking while you're learning something?  I think that's generally a good idea, if I do say so myself.

The West Wing - Re-Impressed

I may have mentioned before the break, but I have started watching The West Wing again.  In case you didn't know, it's one of the many TV shows you can stream on Netflix.

One of the reasons I stopped blogging for a while is because this show, and Battlestar Galactica, are too engaging.  You see, while I sit home alone (or, before Sherry was in school, while I sat home with her) watching TV, I could compose the first drafts of many of my blog entries.  Most TV does not take up my full attention, so it's quite easy to start a topic and just keep rolling as the TV show entertains part of my mind.  Typically, blog entries which are written in this manner require some editing, but they are still mostly-written, and that's progress.

The West Wing, however, is too engaging, as I said.  I remember loving this show when it first aired, of course, so I expected to like watching it again.  What I had failed to factor into my blogging schedule, however, was how important it was to pay close attention as the stories unfold.  No, wait -- "unfold" is not the word.  Aaron Sorkin's writing does not "unfold" - it flows like a river swollen from a good spring rain.  The dialog is so fast-paced, but so wonderful, that I feel a need to immerse myself in it.

I am reminded once again of why I waited with such anticipation between episodes.  And, since I am streaming it, all by myself, I typically don't force myself to wait.  I move from the end of one to the beginning of the next with as brief a break as possible.  This has meant very little time for any sort of serious brain work, once the show starts streaming.

I suspect over the next several weeks, I will have more than one post dedicated to aspects of this remarkable show, and what I appreciate so much about it.  But for now, let me just say that one of the causes of my month-plus absence from Snippets and Wisps was this wonderful show.

I'm not sorry.  At all.

Returning

I took a month off.  From blogging.  Here, at least.  Did you notice?

I hadn't intended to, but it happened.  Then, over this past weekend I wrote a nice long explanatory post about how it happened and why.

Now I cannot find that post. I'll take it as a sign: who cares?

There were a couple of points in the post, but they will appear as I write other things.  Meanwhile, it's time to write a few things down.

But I won't leave without a picture.

Castle Gets Traffic

 If you've read this blog for long enough, you've seen me write about many movies (I do have that "Movie Micro-Review" series that has reached its 90th edition, after all) and several TV shows.

Of those TV shows, I've probably written about Star Trek most -- in one form or another.  But the TV show which receives the most traffic on this blog is:

Castle from ABC.

You might be surprised.  I know I was.  But every time I go check the statistics which Google keeps for this blog, there is one post which shows up on the list of "Top 5 most recently viewed."

Castle is a Gem from October 17, 2011 is, by far, the post from this blog which has been hit more than any other.  It's not even close.  And it seems like when I post a review for one of the "Castle-written" Nikki Heat books, and tweet about it, I get more readers than any other book review.

Blogger (Google) also provides information about what directs people to find this blog, and most of them are Google searches with "Castle" in them -- whether people are looking for character photos, or specifically looking for one or more of the characters, the"Gem" post has them.  For some reason, Google presents that "Gem" post quite high when people search on those topics.  And that means SnW gets hits.  It feels pretty cool thinking all those people see something I have written.

I'm not going to turn this blog into an "All Castle - All the Time" thing, but I certainly admit that I love the show, so it's easy to talk about it.  This season, the main characters have moved into a new phase of their relationship, which has been written exceptionally well.  But while Castle would not be the show it is without the relationships, it is about more than that -- the mysteries are very well done, and the ensemble cast is remarkable and has great chemistry.

Speaking of the ensemble, I cannot end this particular post without mentioning one of the other characters - a character I left out of the "Gem" post because of her small role in the episodes I had just seen when I wrote it.  Tamala Jones plays Lanie Parish, a medical examiner for the NYPD, and true friend of Detective Kate Beckett.  She is smart, confident, and plays a great role.

So, dear reader, while I will still be talking about Great Courses and Movies and Knowledge (new post tomorrow) and Games, people will be finding their way to this blog because "Everybody Loves Castle (and Beckett)" -- that's just the way it is.

There it is!

Yeah, so, ummm --- last time I wrote about not being able to find a video.

Sarah found it.  (Thanks, Sarah!)




Love the math.

I Ask You: Echoes from the Past

Many of you might never have noticed, but shortly after I created this blog, I created a companion blog called "Echoes of Snippets."  The intent of the companion blog is to capture the posts from this blog which deserve to be reprinted -- which are worthy of echoing.

I recently noticed that I have not added a new "Echo" for more than a year.  So now, I am considering my options.  And I thought I'd ask for your help.

What do you think? 

Do any of you remember reading anything on "Snippets and Wisps" in the past couple of years which struck you as worth a second read?

I will make one selection, so you don't need to suggest it - the entry for Maya will definitely be in Echoes. 

I welcome any suggestions, nominations or thoughts.

Stats as of March 25

The numbers are so -- even -- maybe I should have stopped right there?

What I've Been Writing

[Warning to the reader: This is a very strange entry today.  Too many thoughts.  But it's how my Muse was pulling me late last night.]

Slow days in "Snippets and Wisps" lately.


I have written a lot lately.  Just not here.  My material has mostly been:

1. Stuff for work (but I don't blog about work [not here in SnW, anyway].)
2. Discussions, Essays and Devotional material about Christianity and Faith (and you've seen a portion of that here)

... but primarily I've been writing ...

3. The Dungeons and Dragons campaign my groups are playing.

So, the work stuff is right out.  And I can't very well put that DnD stuff in the blog, can I?  I mean, my players don't all read this, but some of them do.  No spoilers here.  [Just a teaser.]

So, if you see a few faith-based entries here in the days to come, just realize that it's about the only thing I've been writing which even remotely fits into this blog.

I can hear some of you now:

"Wait, Steve, does that mean that some of what you publish here has been used somewhere else?  Some of the things I read on 'Snippets and Wisps' were not solely for your 'SnW' audience?"

To which I reply, emphatically:

"Oh.  My.  Yes."

In fact, I try very hard not to write the same thing twice, but I often think the same thing multiple times, so it's not hard to imagine that I might write about the same thing multiple times.  But, if I've written it once, I try to use it again, if the topic needs to be addressed again.  I do it at work:  All.  The.  Time.  [Are we all tired of that rampant idiom yet?  So.  Over.  Used.]   I suppose "SnW' is the writing venue where I do the least re-use of material, but I certainly re-use when it makes sense.

For example, these days when I get into an extended "conversation" with someone on Facebook, I often think "This would make a great blog someday."  So I try to capture it for later re-use here.

The thing is, long discussions on Facebook are most often about religion and/or politics.  So if I re-use my thoughts from fb here, they will almost certainly get into one or both of those topics.  [For example, I would gladly join a group of "Liberal Christians Opposed to Rick Santorum" but according to his 2008 interview, he wouldn't believe we existed.]  And once I get started down that road, this blog could just turn into another politics blog, and there are too many of those around, don't you agree? 

Plus, to be fair, politics doesn't interest me enough to think about it often.  [Games do.]  And my belief in Christianity, while it does interest me quite a bit, is among the least-read topics when I post here.  [But when I mention "Castle" or "X-Men" or put up a great photo of one of the beautiful women in my life, I get more traffic. Go figure!]

So, all this is to explain why there has been a relative dearth of material here lately.  And it might continue.

But hey, it could change!  I am very motivated to make people happy.  I love knowing I have an audience.  I'd be happy to write about specific topics, if requested (and appropriate.)  I've solicited topics from readers before and gotten the proverbial crickets chirping in response.  So, I reissue the offer.  If you really wish I'd write about one of my many topics, drop me a line or write a comment.

And now, just to prove my point [well, one of my many points] I will put in a photo of Stana Katic as Detective Kate Beckett and Nathan Fillion as (the "ruggedly handsome") Richard Castle.  My hit rate will quadruple.

[I am two episodes behind on watching this wonderful TV show, by the way.  Why?  Three consecutive weeks of Dungeons and Dragons.  Fantastic.  Gotta love it.  And thank goodness for "On Demand" viewing so I can catch up.]


So, that's all for today.  Maybe, after seeing "Gone with the Wind" and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" this past weekend it's about time for another edition of Movie Micro-Reviews.  That's always good for a quick blog.  [Teaser: One of these movies is much, much better than the other.  And we all know which one that is.  So really, it's not much of a teaser, is it?]

Tweety Night

Twitter is called (in social media circles) a tool for micro-blogging.

With that in mind, here are my microblogs since my last real "Snippets and Wisps" blog entry.

That top one -- What do you think?  I mean, maybe you don't listen to as much Christmas music as I do, but think about it ....

If a music artist has a Christmas CD, what is one song you are almost guaranteed to find on their (first) Christmas CD?  "Silent Night."  And when it's there, doesn't it always seem they do an extraspecial job making it beautiful?

Of course, some credit must go to the song itself.  "Stille Nacht" is a masterpiece.

NaBloPoMo No

I suspect that no one has noticed but ....

NaBloPoMo -- National Blog Posting Month -- is November.

I participated in writing daily blog postings each day in November in 2009 and 2010.

But not this year.

Three basic reasons:

1. I have been busier this year than in previous Novembers, largely because of work.  (But I don't blog about work, at least not here in Snippets & Wisps.)  This has left me precious little time for relaxation and creativity.  Despite what it might sometimes appear, this blog does take both time and creativity. {Self-Deprecating Compliment Fishing Alert!}
2. My creative efforts this fall have been devoted to other things, most notably a Dungeons & Dragons quest-based campaign I've been writing and running and using my cool tablet to draw maps for.  {Sentence-Ending Preposition Alert!}
3. I truly like to blog with positivity.  There has been some less-than-positive mind-mud clogging up my creative gears of late.  When I sit down to blog, I get all serious.  Serious is not inherently bad -- some of my best Advice and Small Sermon writing is serious -- but when clogged with negaslimeocity, my "serious" comes out negative.  {Invented Word Alert!}  So rather than write negative, I choose not to write.

I ought to point out that there is one reason which is categorically not the reason I am skipping NaBloPoMo this year.

That non-reason?

• It's for girls.

Just setting the record straight.

Six months of nothing?

Not that I am saying my blog should be one of Blogger's Blogs of Note, but honestly, if a particular blog has not been updated since January 4, why is it a Blog of Note on July 6?

That's six months of NOT blogging.

I check out the Blogs of Note occasionally, to see if I can find other cool blogs.  I've found several that way.

But if I'm going to check out a Blog of Note, I want to know that the blogger responsible for it is at least actively blogging!

Later, they can fizzle out, or leave blogger.com for greener pastures, or whatever.  But on the day they are named to the Blogs of Note list, they need to be active so they can post something like

"OMG! I just saw the traffic to my blog spike so high, I thought I was being spammed!

But I'm today's new blog in the Blogs of Note.

I'd like to thank the Academy ..."

OK, that's out of my system.  You can all go back to what you were doing. 

Move along.

There's nothing to see here.

Really.

I mean it.

Still here?

Why?

You think by sticking around I'll give you something, don't you?

Well, aren't you persistent?

OK, then how about this?

Surprising Statistics

I was curious to know what sort of posts drove people to my blog.  Well, blogger.com has some of those stats, and I found some statistics which surprised me.

My most viewed posts:

#5 - 39 pageviews - Review: Babel 17

#4 - 41 pageviews - What Influence Reviews? Shall I see "Sucker Punch?"

#3 - 48 pageviews - Netflix TV Does It Again - Big Bang Theory

#2 - 49 pageviews - Catcher in the Rye -- Yeah It's a Classic but ...

In every case up to now, I can imagine that the reason for the high number of hits -- hits from outside my circle of friends and family -- would be specific searches for specific topics mentioned in the title. Someone searches for "Babel 17" and gets to me, for example.

But now we get to the single most viewed post ever in Snippets & Wisps. And it's first by a LONG way.

#1 - 202 pageviews (1) - My Life's Soundtrack - Part 1 - Secular List 1

This one is shocking, to me. Yes, I talk about a few songs in here -- songs that people might search for. But to have it get viewed four times more than the #2 post? Strange.

Hmmm, after this analysis, maybe I should do another post like that!

networkedblogs.com sends most of my traffic to me - 1185
google.com is next on the list with less than half of that - 493

And I have had 33 pageviews from Iran, and 34 from Malaysia. 

OK, well at least I found it interesting.

You all go about your day and have a good one, K?

Springing into Travel

Already this year, I have traveled to Chicago and Wisconsin for work.  Next week, I travel to Prague (I hear good things -- I hope I get to see some of it) and shortly after that, I travel to Orlando, then Minneapolis (I know, not much of a trip, but I don't even get to go home between the two), then a couple weeks and I'm off to Milan.  And just a couple of weeks after I return from that, we head to California.

Something about traveling causes stress long before I actually hit the road.  And when the number of planned trips increases, the preparatory stress increases exponentially.  I think it's because each trip generates a long mental list in my head (things to do before I go, reservations which must be made, things to take, etc.) and having multiple lists generates a meta-list -- check the "Prague list," then check the "Orlando list," then ... oh wait, the "Orlando list" needs to have some of the "Minneapolis list" on it!

I am sorely tempted to try my new "vacation blog" plan.  What's that, you ask?

The charter for Snippets & Wisps contains the phrase "I post every weekday when I'm not on vacation" but I have noticed that readership drops when I go on vacation (makes sense) but doesn't pick up again for a while after (also makes sense, but it wasn't obvious to me when I made the charter.  Live and learn.)  


Some of my favorite blogs (or "columns" to use the old print term, for those blogs which really started out as on-line versions of print media) don't go silent when the authors are on vacation.  Instead, they "re-print" entries from the past.


"Hey," I thought recently, "I could do the same thing.  After all, I have several years worth of blog material, but many people have only been reading me since I started publishing to Facebook.  Maybe some old posts would be worth re-printing ... errrr ... re-posting."


So, I had begun poking around my old stuff to see what I might re-run.  On vacation.  And now....


Instead of vacation, I am thinking about using it to fill in when I will be traveling.  Why?  Traveling takes so much time!  Connection to the internet can be so unpredictable while on the road.  And, very importantly, I sometimes have absolutely nothing in my travel days except work, and since I don't blog about work (here) there is often nothing to say.


This is all a preface to this final warning, dear readers.  You might feel a bit of deja vu soon.  If you visit Snippets & Wisps and you think you've read something before, you just might be right.


Or else I'm getting repetitive.


And saying something again.


More than once.


Too.