On Signing Petitions (via Margaret Atwood: Year of the Flood)

I rarely sign petitions myself. I tend to have the opinion that they accomplish nothing but demonstrate a bunch of people (but not enough to make an impact) cared enough to sign their names to a piece of paper (and sometimes not even that much… http://www.petitionspot.com/ anyone?).

Nevertheless, I also can be influenced by individuals whose opinions I respect. And I did type my name on the petition Margaret Atwood mentions in her most recent post, one which like every other piece of writing she creates made me chuckle, smile, sympathise and sob. Ok, I didn’t really sob, but I could have.

So, I walked into The Office of O.W, Toad Ltd., where the usually smiling staff (two in number) who attempt to run my life with whips of steel were giving me the frowny treatment. “You’ve been signing petitions again,” they said. “Naughty Margaret! Don’t you remember that you promised not to do that?” I knew it would be pretty feeble of me to protest that signing petitions was something anyone in a democracy should feel free to do. That would be … Read More

via Margaret Atwood: Year of the Flood

By the way, should you be interested in a bit of Q&A with my favourite author, check out Sept 20 – 24 on here.

The post popularity contest

Each day I log on to the dashboard of my blog, on which show daily statistics of which pages and posts were viewed.  It also shows on which, if any, off-site link was clicked that referred someone to the blog as well as any links in my posts that were clicked on.  What I’ve noticed are some interesting trends:

1) The most consistently viewed posts, by far, are from last December.
Apparently the majority of viewers (on average 20 per day) are music lovers.  All my album countdown posts continue to get the most views, with Macro to Micro:  10 Most Definitive Albums of My Decade being by far the most popular, even now, in July.  Although I loved making those countdowns, I never expected their shelf-life to last this long.  I wonder, when I do them again this December, which ones will win?

2) Nudity does get noticed.
Ok, ok.  Calm down.  In Wii Me:  Week 7 I didn’t actually post photos in the buff, but a couple before and after photos of my torso, halfway through my weight-loss challenge using Nintendo’s Wii console.  Interestingly, this post has seen an usual rise in views during the last month.  Consistent views.  Curious.  (Let’s see how many more views it gets now that I’ve made a point of mentioning it.)

3) No one clicks on anything.
I usually try to provide fairly dynamic content in my posts:  photos, video and links to other places of interest.  Regardless, maybe 1% of those links ever get the pleasure of your click.  Don’t worry though, I’ll still put in the effort because I like having the option even if I don’t partake either.

Courstree blog & website

I spent much of my long weekend redoing Coursetree’s website.  Although I loved the design Ian did for the first version, the graphics just didn’t seem the most effective for the content of the page.  I felt that a more serious design (and readable) was warranted for my potential customers.  As a result, I went for a newspaper or blog-style approach.  Please take a look at version two here.

Additionally, I’ve wanted to participate in the ESL blogging world like so many others I follow on Twitter.  Plus, there is a lot of detailed information, like the About Us section of the website, that I felt was too much text for the homesite.  So, Coursetree Blog came to be.  Please check it out for ESL-related materials.  🙂