This is not a library.

Is it just me, or is all of blogland kinda... quiet? Is blogging dying or is this a slow time? I just don't remember it being so quiet here, and it's really quiet in my feed reader too. I'm slightly disturbed at everyone's quietness.

d'accords

It amuses me to no end that I leave comments on other people's blogs and then other commenters write "I agree with Poppy." It happens a lot. It's happened 3 or 4 times this week already!

I had no idea I was so ... um, agreeable!

Websites as graphs and handwriting calculators

Map out your blog into a pritty pikshur:

Everyday, we look at dozens of websites. The structure of these websites is defined in HTML, the lingua franca for publishing information on the web. Your browser's job is to render the HTML according to the specs (most of the time, at least). You can look at the code behind any website by selecting the "View source" tab somewhere in your browser's menu.

HTML consists of so-called tags, like the A tag for links, IMG tag for images and so on. Since tags are nested in other tags, they are arranged in a hierarchical manner, and that hierarchy can be represented as a graph…

I found this over in Joe's archives (the correct visual representation of his blog is here) and thought I'd try it on my own blog:



Apparently I'm a ginormous dandelion. Or my blog is. And it has ripped through the very fabric of the space-time continuum to create a black hole. ... Hmm.

On a completely different note, you know I love handwriting samples and you know I love vlogs but it never occurred to me to combine the two!!!:



Mesmerizing... :)

You've got fan mail!!!!!

I just got my first piece of fan mail! And it made me realize, how come I don't get more of that? You all should be emailing me how much you love my blog. Shouldn't you? Okay, maybe not.

Thanks, Dan. :)

Vampires for Jesus

When I was having cake with my co-workers on Thursday they happened to randomly mention that Anne Rice is now a fundamental Christian. That's not quite exactly what she is, but it got the point across and made me sick to my stomach that I needed to quick-hurry-up-and-edit-the-blogroll. And then I did what I normally do when I trust my brain rather than writing things down -- I forgot.

Just a moment ago I was watching Letterman and something triggered my memory of this conversation about Anne Rice. You know, this is what I get for not paying close enough attention to the world. It's not like she just resurrected her Catholicism on Tuesday. In fact it was almost 10 years ago, according to the Wik:

In 1998, after spending most of her adult life as a self-described atheist, Rice returned to her Roman Catholic faith, which she had not practiced since she was 18. In October 2005, as she reaffirmed her Catholic faith, Rice announced in a Newsweek article that she would "write only for the Lord." She called Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, her first novel in this genre, the beginning of a trilogy that will chronicle the life of Jesus.

Time to edit the blogroll. If I can find her.

I like Jesus, he's a lot of fun at parties, but I just don't think I want to be told by Anne Rice about his life.


(Have I ever mentioned my religious non-affiliation? Yah, total heathen. Except for my Buddhist tendencies, like doing good just for the sake of doing good not coming back in my next life as a cockroach.)

I have 154 new Yahoo messages right this very minute, yet I still have not learned my lesson that I shouldn't email subscribe to comments on my favorite blogs which offer that service.

I seriously need a personal assistant...

Reality virtual

This post is probably quite clearly the result of me pouring through all the blog posts and comments about Dawg and Puppy Monster.

Why is it so much more accepted as valid to have been in someone's physical presence and formed a friendship versus having met online, shared each other's deepest hopes and dreams, and realized you want to be each other's friend?

I'm doing a count in my head and telling you that every single one of the friends I am close with except two are people I knew from the internet first. They became my friends there first. I didn't have to meet them to know how incredibly amazing they were.

And for anyone who argues that meeting someone in person gives us a better sense that the person is genuine: Is that really true? We all get tricked by people in our physical lives as well, from time to time. We all think we know people and then realize we don't know them as well as we thought. That's life.

I think Amy, creator of the graphics for the Puppy Monster memorial, says it best:

"Can you believe this? I've never been so proud to belong to a community before in my life. It's one thing to say you have friends, but it's another thing when the chips are down to see who really stands by you - no matter how far away, how well they know you, or if you've ever met face to face."

I can believe it, I'm so happy that there are truly good people in the world, and that I get to be a part of a truly selfless act for an incredible person. I'm also really happy that, much to his chagrin, Avi's reputation as a total asshole has been completely and utterly and irrevocably decimated. Sorry, sweetie, your teddy bear heart is shining through. And so are those of all the people who are showing Dawg support monetarily and through kind words. (But, Avi, scooch a little closer for a sec: If you make that kitten killing video you [I HOPE] joked about in order to get your reputation "back on track" I am not kidding about turning you in, so DON'T. DO. IT.)


To Helen and B and any of my other readers who may have quietly purchased graphics, thank you so very, very much.

Best of

I will be posting another entry about Avi very soon because I :pinkpuffyheart: him and have something to announce, but I want to draw your attention to his post today which reveals that on Monday it was his 3-year blogiversary.

I didn't start reading Avi's blog regularly until 2006, but I've periodically spot-checked the archives and they get a double thumbs up by me. His earlier stuff actually shows you a lot more about the real man behind the curtain, if you're interested in getting to know him a little better.

Go visit, leave him lots of comments in his archives (after reading the posts, of course), then call him up and wish him a happy blogiversary! His number is slutted all over the internets, so I'm sure you can find it.


In case any of you were wondering, the post about NYCWD's son is not the other post I was alluding to here. I am horrified that my mind keeps thinking anyone would think this. No one has asked me about it, but I want to clear this up before anyone does get the wrong idea. It is complete coincidence that the very next post had anything to do with Avi.

Virtu(al)osity

What I think about when I'm mowing the lawn: Bloggers.
What I think about when I'm weeding the gardens: Nothing, I'm in the zone, leave me alone!
What I think about when I'm riding in the car: Bloggers.
What I think about when I'm eating: "Mmmmm, this tastes soooo good! I bet [any given blogger] would really like this!"
What I think about when I'm drinking "the alcohol": Bloggers. Definitely bloggers. And sex. But not sex with bloggers. Because that's dirty. *looking around* Ahem.
What I think about when I'm drifting off to sleep: Bloggers.
...and when I'm waking up: Bloggers.
What I think about when I'm in the shower: Work.
What I think about when I'm dreaming: Work.
What I think about when I'm in work meetings: Bloggers. Or how hot all the boys around me are. Because effing a, I appreciate a fine geek.
What I think about when I'm visiting family: Bloggers.
What I think about when I'm visiting friends: A tiny bit about bloggers, but mostly about what an awesome or not awesome time I'm having with my friends.
What I think about when I'm watching movies at home or at the theater: Bloggers. Especially if a blogger recommended the movie.
What I think about when I'm watching Top Chef: RW. :P And B. And how fucking hot Tom and Padma are.
What I think about when I'm coding web pages: Bloggers.
What I think about when I'm doing a work project: The project.
What I think about when I'm staring into Hay's eyes: Hay.
What I think about when I'm hugging my kittos: My kittos.
What I think about when I'm [ ...censored... ]: [ ...no comment... ]


Conclusions:
1. I am AD[H]D. Seriously. Just undiagnosed.
2. I think about you all a lot.
3. I like it that way.
4. Avi needs to hurry up and get his shit together so I can post about him again. (A random conclusion not exactly based on the list above.)

I've lost my muse.

I don't know who my muse was but she left the building.

I've started and stopped several posts this week alone. I know it looks like I'm posting a lot still, but there's no Poppy Passion behind them.

So. Maybe move along to:

1. NYC Watchdog's Rice Krispies Cereal Wednesday
2. ACW's May Baltimore blogger event
3. Avi's dinner vlog
4. SkeeterB "quits" his job
5. Crys! goes to Iowa with her husband and screams the entire way there
6. Heather does some blunk drogging on the road with her mom and Nabby
7. SourPuss shows you the cutest puppy picture on the planet


There are other awesome posts but 7 is a good, solid number.

Thursday wondering

Monsieur Spéncèr Pâtton sent me this image last night:


(click to see the full photo)

... which triggers us both to wonder:

A. Why is the US Immigration and Naturalization Service reading X-Rated Material on their business computers?
B. Why did they choose Spéncèr's blog to visit after visiting mine? (Is it because of the accents on his name? :)
C. Why did they spend oodles of time poking around his entire site after? (Not represented in the image.)

Mel, did you send them over?! ;)

DC -comics +yummy

Remember when I said The Daily Crush had gotten out of hand? I wasn't kidding:



Those are my StatCounter hits for the last eight days. I've added four authors to compensate. Thanks to Avi, B, Mel, and Molly (in alphabetical order, not in order of love and devotion :) for agreeing to post on occasion. It's a lot more fun there to arrive to crushes I didn't put there. I *love* surprises. :) (Did I mention my affinity for surprises just now? Because I really really really really enjoy them.)

If anyone is super sad and offended that I didn't ask you to be an author then send me a comment or email and I will consider your petition. :) There are two other people* I considered adding to the mix but didn't send invites to for fear of rejection reasons more than anything. I'm sorry to you both, and if either of you says "yes please" without me asking then you're definitely in the club.

*One person figured out I was talking about her. Thanks to SourPuss for also agreeing to crush with the cool kids. ;)

And thanks to Spéncèr for also authoring, I now have seven authors! We aren't restricting ourselves to one author per day of the week, but we could. :P

The day has arrived

Today is the first day in existence where my Daily Crush blog is receiving more hits than my Poppy blog (where you are right now). This truly is bizarro world. I haven't even posted to Daily Crush yet today and it's already received 146 hits. Craaaazy.

Oh. Wait. Actually, yesterday was that fateful day. Crying out LOUD, DC received more hits yesterday than PC ever has! Que la?


First column of numbers represents today's hits, second column is yesterday's hits.

Observations

Cryptic: Sometimes even I don't catch on to the obvious. Although, to be fair, it wasn't obvious to anyone else either. Nice job, clever beetle. :)

Confused: I received 432 hits to my site on Friday. I cannot for the life of me figure out why. I poured through my keywords, through the 7 pages of visitor activity, and I just don't see a common theme. How is it that I only received about 10 comments yesterday if 432 people visited my site? STOP LURKING, EVERYONE! I LIKE YOU. :)

Calls: New Jersey, Idaho, and Georgia call us a lot. Oddly, we know no one in those states. Stop calling? Or leave a message. Seems simple...

Cacophony: It is easier for me to do my work if I am listening to or watching things. Today I have listened to the morning purchase of Don't You Fake It by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, watched two episodes of Veronica Mars season 2 (OMFG, WTF IS GOING ON?!??! SO RAWKS! MY EYES BUGGED OUTTA MY HEAD FOR THE BUS SCENE AMONG OTHER THINGS), and I stupidly watched two videos (whose content I shall never. speak. of. because it's waaaaaaay too disturbing) which are posted on a blog I reference way too much (Mel and Molly, have you watched the videos? gak.) In the process of watching and listening I have managed to edit all the articles for the newsletter I am to publish, although I have yet to write the final article I have charged myself with writing. And it's the one that should be the easiest but it's the one that's giving me the most grief. Perhaps I should pull out one of my favorite movies from the movie cabinet and try that for noise?

Convenience: Where a sandwich shop used to be inside our local gas station is now under construction but soon to become walk-in cooler space. Hay wondered aloud what would go there. I bet him it would be a liquor store because there was only one door so far and it looked like an actual door to walk through. When I bought breakfast drinks I asked the clerk if the area under construction was going to be a liquor store over in the corner and she said yes. But then she realized she didn't mean yes, she meant no, it will be for beer. Just beer. Funny thing is that there is already an entire wall of coolers dedicated to beer. Soooo, now there will be a walk-in cooler of beer plus an entire wall of beer? That's a lot of beer for a town that is in the middle of vitalization but isn't there yet. If they want to sell my favorite Belgian beers I will gladly shop there for more than just Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks mocha frappuccino drinks.

Cats: When I sit in my office Georgie sits underneath my chair, Ripley sits on my papers, and Allie sits on the couch behind me. When I sit downstairs they all pretty much completely ignore me. I should be in my office more often.

Honestly?

I was visiting Molly and she posed a question she found at Snay's site:

"So here’s my question to you: if you had to rate yourself, how closely does your personality which appears through your blog reflect on you?"

My rating: 5.5 out of 10. I'm going to need to admit that all facets of my personality are not represented here. The only person who knows the complete and real me is me. Some of you know me quite well, for the sides of my personality I choose to display to you. I've become more blog chatty about my real life this year and revealing with a few blog-found friends, thanks to encouragement from some of you who seem interested in getting to know me better. Still, I'm pretty compartmentally reserved. (I understand that it's really hard for you all to believe that I am more reserved than what I am choosing to say here lately. Trust me, it's true.) Without naming names (because they/you know who they/you are), there are probably 5 people who know me best, but in different portions of my personality. If you all compared notes you'd have a composite of the real me. Almost. :) That isn't to say that if I were asked direct questions I wouldn't tell the truth. You'd just need to know what questions to ask.

How about you?


Oh, and to answer Molly's question, I have only kicked my brother in the groin (I was 10, he was 15.75). But next Monday I will be kicking a cop in the groin! Don't worry, I won't shouldn't be arrested for it. :)

Admittance

Hi. Maybe you weren't around this weekend. If you weren't, please go read this post and follow its instructions. Thanks to Spéncèr, Molly, and Maman for voting. If anyone else voted I thank you as well and you should fess up. :)

Speaking of fessing up, this postcard from PostSecret deserves attention:



I'm sure this postcard was very liberating, but it amuses me to no end that this was posted on a Christian holiday (that'd be Easter). Question: Don't all guys (who prefer or like women) want to have sex with every woman they see? I wonder how hard it is for him to sit through bible study with his teacher. I think if I were in his situation I just wouldn't be able to do it, I'd have to switch study groups. Or, I'd resolve myself to the fact that I won't be learning The Word, I'll just be learning to deepen my crush on the object of my affection. What do you all think?

The final fess up, which is actually just something interesting that has happened to me: I met Bob Keeshan (aka Captain Kangaroo) while he was still alive. Not as nice in real life as he was on the TV. Honestly, who is? I met him a few times, most notably at the wedding of my ex-boyfriend's father to the family friend of Bob. The very strange thing is that Bob gave a really gruff toast directly after the justice of the peace proclaimed that the bride and groom were now wife and husband. We all just looked at each other while we raised our glasses and drank. And then we all watched the bride and groom walk into the kitchen to go get plastered. :)

And yes, one more mini fess up after I promised the previous was the last: I am in fact cheating by posting this on Sunday with Monday's date, but Blogger sucks and doesn't let me hold back posts until their timestamp. I'll make the switch to Wordpress some day... I'm just too lazy and busy to do it today. It's Monday morning, and I'm republishing, so technically I'm publishing on Monday? :)

I can't take it anymore!!!!

Do you know how HARD it has been to NOT switch my blog back ALL day?! Despite all the emails from people crying that they missed my real blog?!

So, if you missed the joke you can see it here.

Thanks so much to Avi for playing along and hosting the css file I totally ripped from a particular blog I found by doing a search for American blog templates so that the look and feel made sense for the joke. PSYCHO LADY, but without her blog I wouldn't have been able to make the spoof so perfect. (I won't be linking to her. Nope, no no no no no.)

How many of you got your brains eaten? Did you notice that anything you clicked on except Leave a reply and the Gabbly Chat ate your brain? Yah, I rawk like that. :)

Ugh. I don't think I'm doing any more April Fool's pranks to this extent ever again. Seriously, the panicked emails made me want to cry, like y'all were trapped in a burning building and I was watching you from the sidelines even though I had the only firehose. ... Yah. Welcome back to the real blog. Thanks for not dumping my blog from your readership because of my joke.

And, thanks to all the random people who visited who didn't email me nasty emails. I don't know who you are because I was smaht and forgot to add my statcounter into the joke blog and then when I got up this morning I decided to just leave it because the count wouldn't be accurate anyway, so for all of today it looks like I've had only 1 visitor rather than a couple to a few hundred. :) Ooooops.

keyword search: you disappoint me poppy

Who keeps doing this search?? What is so disappointing? Inquiring minds need to know.

conceited?

Sometimes I really enjoy reading my own blog archives because it reminds me of the person I am. Sometimes I forget. At first I thought it was because I'm narcissistic, but I think it's because I'm senile.

balloooooon

I apologize for the inflated traffic to my favorite blogs. This morning I switched from Bloglines to Google Reader after finally getting a kick in the ass from Molly. (Thanks, Molly! And everyone else who already told me to DO IT, but I didn't listen.) I think I visited everyone's blog about 5 times this morning while I straightened out the subscriptions, but I love Google Reader. Yay!