12.31.06 |Permalink|Comments Off on Year End Melange
Well, 2006 is gone. History. It went by in a flash for me.
Instead of doing a lame year in review post, I decided I’d simply do a little stream of conscious writing on this last day of 2006. I’ve been keeping stats on this blog since August 9, and as of yesterday, over 100,000 visits have been recorded. I don’t know who all of you are who read this, but I guess there’s something entertaining or you wouldn’t come back for more…Thanks for dropping by and reading. Hope you’ll continue to do so in 2007.
Which leads me to question, what exactly have you all been reading? Here are the top 10 resources accessed:
These are somewhat biased toward older entries, but I have to say I was surprised that not one Ohio State Football, Innovation, Energy, Business, or Commentary entry made it into the top 10 entries. Just goes to show you that the silly stuff is sometimes the best (most of the top entries fit that bill.) Another way to look at this is how the categories shook out, here are the top 5 categories:
The category ranking makes a bit more sense, you can see in the right column all of the categories with the number of entries per category. If there was one surprise to me in this list, it was that Music was #2 with a grand total of 3 entries. I’ll take that as a clue and will endeavor to write a little more content on the subject of music going forward.
Many readers made it here after performing a search of some sort. A while ago, I did an entry on the top 10 silly search terms I’ve seen in the logs. The following list is simply a straight-up top 10 listing of search terms recorded:
pet rock
bed bug
Montara Ventures
Mike Harding blog
Ohio State Football
award scam Tom Reynolds
weird collections
Peabody ducks
smart hat
Mentos
Since I’ve cataloged many images on the site, pet rock and bed bug are unsurprising because they’re images (and also parts of entries.) None of the other terms are particularly surprising.
In this year of transition, writing a blog has provided an outlet for – I don’t know exactly what, but an outlet. Of the 246 entries, here are my favorites for the year in no particular order:
Security Theatre Response to the foiled “liquid bomb” threat and following ban of liquids on flights in and to the US
Renewable Energy Another series of entries on the state of renewable energy in the US
National Leadership Award A look at “creative” fundraising, well, OK, a scam run by Representative Tom Reynolds (who unfortunately kept his seat. If he’d lost, I had a special award lined up for him…)
OPEC, cartel extraordinaire Demystifying OPEC and suggesting a way to break the cartel’s influence over the US
Well, once again, thanks for dropping by and reading this content. If you like it, come back and bring a friend. If you don’t, I’m sure there’s a place out there that has content you will like, search on. Expect more entries in the energy vein in 2007, more silly stuff, more music stuff, and of course, things that I can’t help but comment about. Happy New Year!
12.29.06 |Permalink|Comments Off on Anatomy of a job search
Despite the upturn in the economy around Silicon Valley, it can still be tough to secure employment. A colleague shared the statistics of a job seeker he knows with me, and I thought I’d share them with you:
So while things can and do improve, it can still be a tough road out there to find employment. If you’re looking and ever feel discouraged, check this list out again;. it is impressive.
12.27.06 |Permalink|Comments Off on What a storm! (Updated)
We’ve had escalating wind and waves all night long, the plots from NOAA buoy 46012 are displayed below. Wind gusts to 50mph and wave heights now at 29.2 feet with a 13 second dominant wave period. Suffice to say, it’s a little noisy here on the coast today. And, knock on wood, we’ve still got power AND internet. Normally at least one would be down right now…(New, there’s a small video I hacked together below.)
Well, it’s the day after Christmas and all through the house the creatures created a mountain of trash…and my poetic aspirations are now dead. I never fail to be amazed at exactly how much rubbish is part and parcel to the holiday season. We have many relatives and friends far, far away who have sent us numerous thoughtful items (for which we are very grateful) that generate shipping trash, we ourselves have ordered things that have come from far, far away which also generates shipping trash, then there is the requisite wrapping trash, and finally, the most insidious and indeed, unnecessary trash of all, the toy package trash.
To my knowledge I’ve never met a toy package designer and it’s not likely toy package designers read this blog, but I’ll give it a shot anyway. Toy package designers, hear my plea, get help, fast. It is neither necessary nor helpful to layer a $20 toy with “plastic defense in depth” – it’s the parents you’re killing (i.e. broken toys due to impatient extractions from the mummy-like layers of crap surrounding each toy.) The joy of having to get a knife and clipping shears to even think of freeing Barbie from the evil clutches of her container. Untwisting the 900 wire ties securely lashing My Little Pony to a cardboard backing where the ends of course are buried in superglue adhesive tape. You’d think a Care Bear might be immune, but no, it’s not only twist-tie lashed and plastic wrapped with multiple layers, it’s also vacuum packed.
Aside from the endless aggrevation this packaging madness inflicts on over-tired and over-sugared parents at a time of stress, it’s also the source of 50% of all post-holiday trash. Those layers add up and they can’t be good for the environment. The thing that puzzles me about the toy wrapping phenomena is that you’d think there was something valuable in the package to go to that much effort to prevent easy opening. It’s not about protection of the toy, that’s for sure as it’s very easy to damage them even with patience and care. Oh well, stop the madness. How about a simple box next time? Keep your plastic, vacuum packing, wire ties, and super-glue tape. Free the toys!
