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January 25, 2004
In Serious Violation of Standards
I like to give credit (for links) where credit is due, but have no idea where I first saw Piled Higher and Deeper, a grad student comic strip by Jorge Cham. Pretty sure it wasn't at Comics Sherpa, I never use that thing. . .
Realized at one point yesterday that I'd mentioned The Dark Crystal, a children's film, and in the same entry linked to an interview at a porn site.
I'd feel worse about this, if Michele hadn't trackbacked (that's. . . not a word, is it?) to that entry in one where she mentions Neopets, a site/activity for children. . . and also linked to the same interview at the porn site.
Unlike her, I don't have any children for DCFS to take away, though.
There's a review of the new DC DVD over at PopMatters, by the bye:
Crystal's ability to inspire terror is indicative of its creators' amazing craftsmanship. Jim Henson and Frank Oz, of the Muppets, with the help of artist Brian Froud (credited here as a "conceptual designer"), created a live-action fantasy world without any human characters. Instead, this world is populated by the hobbit/elf-like Gelfings; the numerous birdish Skesis; the gently lumbering Mystics; and assorted creatures more menacing than not. Amazingly, all of these characters are puppets, often elaborate. Only the occasional human stunt double can be glimpsed. These technical specs alone make Crystal a rare cinematic achievement, a feature-length puppet show.
If I was feeling all feminist analysis, I'd mention that Kira does most of the heavy lifting in the film, which is why she's later promoted to Major in the Bajoran. . . ok, if you even started laughing at that, you're a geek.
What else? Looking over papers at the temp job at Northwestern gave me a few ideas for entries, like the one on Self-Esteem and External Validation. Half-formed notion about linking/traffic as providing the latter, and feeding into the former, for people maintaining blogs, but like I said, half-formed.
Title inspired by an entry at Mac-a-ronies "describing ways bloggers can produce more reliable and credible weglogs," which is actually taken from an entry at Radical Rejection, which was itself inspired from an entry at. . . oh, you get the idea. One of 'em I strongly disagree with is:
Title - Every entry should have a title that is descriptive and topically singular. Its the easiest way to distinguish an informative weblog from an online journal. If mulitiple topics are covered in the majority of posts, then the web log probably isn't a reliable source for information. An exception would be a "what i've been reading" entry that is identified as more of a bibliography than a commentary. But, in general, posts that cover multiple topics leave the reader prone to confusion and allow the writer to make off-the-wall connections by jumping topics.
I'm all about the off-the-wall connections. Reader confusion is assumed.
All of which might, possibly, have something to do with the Technorati beta, or maybe The Truth Laid Bear: Weblog Traffic Rankings. Or not. Half-formed, remember?
The latter depends on Sitemeter for stats, so a blog that doesn't use their system (or doesn't make the stats public?) isn't included. As of this writing, Daily Kos has passed Instapundit, and I vaguely remember someone writing about this, but again, have no idea where that was.
Bringing us full circle -- my memory sucks.
Posted by Aaron at January 25, 2004 01:10 PM
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Comments
A friend of mine recently added their blog to the Truth Laid Bear's New blog showcase just for fun not really knowing much about it. The first red flag that perhaps this was kind of dodgy was the fact they only use Site Meter. The second red flag was that many really *good* blogs are not listed in their 'directory'. But the main thing that occurred to us after about a week of investigation is how bloody right wing that place is! They've got this "Alliance" with its fascist logo of course but then most of the members of the whole thing seem 1) male 2) right wing to centrist 3) white. That all adds up to a kind of frathouse atmosphere. Granted there are a few really good blogs in the mix, people who like my friend just sort of stumbled in because it looked cute. But what bothers me the most about it all is it creates a false measure of worth through the status of linking and the linking process is totally contrived (if you're a member of that alliance you appear on the blogroll and thus get a link on every other members site). And this kind of artificial merit system is also the opposite of a community-oriented blogging hierarchy which is based on the participation and value of contributing members. When I scroll down your link list here I see a diverse mix that seems based on a lot of different measures of quality and interests. I admit, I'm new to blogging but I'm not new to sniffing out right wing bullshit and calling it when I see it. So I was happy to see your curiosity about the TLB system. I have yet to see the thing revealed for what it is.
Posted by: M at January 28, 2004 08:25 PM