Look at that fog rollin' in... great pic. Not sure what city that is, but it's kinda cool. I suppose I could tie it in somehow with my current mood, if I was feeling particularly clever... but I'll spare you the attempt.
Stats Talk:
OK, so I was looking at the built-in stats page for this here blog, and the data is strangely fascinating. Check this out...
I have 5 posts in this blog's history that are over 1,000 specific page views (#2, #3, #4, #5, #6)... that's where people pull up just the post, not the blog itself... and I have one post that has over 2,000... it has 2193 at this moment... and you'll never guess which one it is...
It's a post I made on Feb 22, 2011, and it was called Present Tense For the Tense Present, and I just riffed a while about hanging out at the mall, and weird people I saw, and different stores I wandered into. It was mostly fiction, obviously, because of the absurd nonsense I liberally injected into it... but there doesn't seem to be any logic behind people ending up there in such numbers. I mean, this week alone it had 42 specific, unique visitors. It's just a nonsense post, really.
Well, I dug a bit deeper into the ways people are coming to the site, and actually, I get most of my traffic from Google Image Search. I used a photo in that post of a Husky making a weird face...
... and another photo of a monorail cat...
... and apparently, these two photos bring a ton of people to that particular post. Isn't that odd? So people looking for funny animal pics are my main source of visitors. In fact, the top all-time search keyword that bring people here is the phrase "funny animal pictures"... the rest of the top five include: "twilight humor", "cat taco costume", "bacon flavored ice cream" and the direct URL to this blog. Lol, yep, the phrase "cat taco costume" has brought 168 people to this blog...
If you look at the sites that refer people here, most are Google sites from various countries, and one is Facebook. Beyond that, the only other interesting referral site is Mattson Tomlin's blog, believe it or not. Also in the top ten is a blog called "Confessions of a Compulsive Liar" by a lady named Meg... Here is her link, just so I can return the love I didn't know I was getting, lol... she hasn't updated in about 6 months... not sure why I'm getting so many referrals from her blog - it doesn't seem to get much activity...
Anyway... the month with the most page views all time is March of 2012, with April 2012 (the A-to-Z Challenge) coming in a very close second (5,866 in March, 5830 in April). And other than the US (easily first), the other countries that send the most eyes here are: UK, Canada, Germany, Australia, Netherlands and Russia.
So that was interesting to me today... I guess it makes sense that most of my traffic comes from image searches, since I use a bunch of them... and Lord knows, people don't come here for my dry wit, lol.
Video Challenge of the Week:
OK, this week's challenge is... see how many of David Caruso's corny one-liners from the recently-cancelled CSI: Miami you can make it through before pulling your hair out and breaking your mouse... check your score afterwards...
Your Score:
0-1 minutes: Sorry, you're a pansy
1-2 minutes: Weak stomach, loose bowels
2-3 minutes: Not bad, don't be ashamed
3-4 minutes: An honorable breaking point, though you'll still have bad dreams tonight because of this
4-5 minutes: The patience of Job
5-6 minutes: Nerves of steel and a constitution of iron
6 min - end: You're either a die-hard fan or your brain froze. I'll notify the mortician.
Game Playing:
So I know you're dying to know what I've been up to lately, as far as gaming. Check this madness out. I bought Diablo 3, installed it on the 16th and haven't played it yet. I finally installed a game I bought last Thanksgiving called Batman: Arkham City, but haven't played it yet. Instead, I've been playing Battlefield 2 a lot, offline since when I attempt to go online with it, it crashes to desktop. I doubt you realize how odd that is, me playing a 7-year old online game "offline" while the most anticipated game of the past decade is on my computer, ignored, and I went to the trouble of downloading and installing a game I got half a year ago, and then promptly avoided it.
Oh, never mind... I better post some funny animal pictures, since that's what everyone wants anyway!
Would that be considered "specism"? Here, lemme grab another one...
"Pleeeeeaasseeee!!!!!!
Theology Corner:
So we had an interesting discussion at the Wednesday night prayer meeting at Stan's last week... it is Stan's assertion that people are fundamentally driven by one of three things: emotion, intellect or will. Not that we only have one, but that in each of us, one of them will override the other two and dictate our behavior. It was an interesting discussion, because Stan was one type, I was another and my brother John was the third one, so we all kicked it around a while.
For me, things have to make sense, or I'll drive myself crazy thinking about them (which is odd, for such a fan of absurdism, eh?). I tend to go with the logical choice even if my emotions are screaming for me to do something else... although I have to wonder about my gaming choices, as detailed above (Diablo/Batman/BF2). Nothing logical about that... maybe I'm full of crapola, eh? Maybe a better way to say it is that I prefer to think about stuff rather than actually do stuff... The idea of something being more appealing than the reality, perhaps.
I suppose the will-driven person would decide what he or she was going to do and do it, whether it made sense or produced a desired emotional result or not. And the emotion-driven person would (I assume) float around almost on whim, based on how things were making him/her feel.
Of course, I may not have thought all three types through fully, which is why I'm mentioning it here... do you think those three types of personalities are right? Is there a fourth I don't know about? Are you one of those types? If so, which one? I suppose it ultimately doesn't matter, since regardless of the type of person we are, if we are a Christian, we need to learn to submit to God in our decision making anyway...
Do you think people *really* want to get to where they go to God with every decision? Or is that just something we say because it sounds good? Is it practical at all? OK, if you're a Christian, think about what you're doing right now... did you ask God if you could come read this? What if you did and He said "no", what would you have done? What about what you'll do after you leave here? Do we *really* want to ask God about everything? And more importantly, does He really want us to ask Him about everything? How on earth could one Entity "control" (for lack of a better word) so many zillions of people's every move... or even want to do such a thing?
The whole thing makes my head hurt...
What the Heck Am I Reading?
Yay! I finally found a great book! I've been slogging my way through free book samples and false starts, looking for a good-to-great read, and I found it... it's called The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, and it is really well done. He has such a fun style, quirky almost. I find myself smiling as I'm reading, which doesn't happen often. And here's the capper.... I bought the paperback a few years back, when I was just starting to read fantasy novels, and it's been on my bookshelf ever since... so after reading the free sample of it on my Kindle, I decided to grab it off the shelf to read it (instead of spending $10 on a digital copy), and as I held the paperback in my grubby little hands, I tried to remember the last time I actually read a physical book... I've been digital for so long... it must be over a year. I think Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell was the last physical book I read, back when I had jury duty in March of 2010.
Actually, I just checked my book reviews page... I read The Red Wolf Conspiracy by RVS Reddick in June 2010. That was the last one.
Anyway, I'll review The Dragonbone Chair for sure, once I finish it... if I remember how to read a real book anymore, that is...
So my sweet Oldest Daughter is getting married sooner that I anticipated. The glitch is that the branch of the Navy that her fiance Paul is going into will require certain security clearances and things, and thus the rules are much stricter than normal. They need to be married before he even signs up to join the Navy in the first place, otherwise he can't join that route... they must marry, and soon, if he's to sign and depart in September for boot camp, as planned. So, they are going to the court house on June 8 and they're gettin' hitched. Then he'll sign and get the ball rollin', and then we'll have a small ceremony in late August for immediate family and a few close friends, where they'll do the tux and dress and "i do" thing, with a pastor and flowers, etc. Extremely minimal. I'm torn about it, of course. She's my sweetie, and I wanted to give them a proper wedding at a big church, etc., but this is what they want to (need to?) do, and they're thrilled about it, so who am I to stand in the way? I wish them every happiness, of course.
I'll end this post with an Inspirational Video for you...
Wow. That's all I can say about that.
Well, another mellow, barely-interesting blog post coasts to a stop. If you made it this far, thank you from somewhere near the bottom of my heart, that sort of thing.
Have a great week.
Dave the Placid
12 comments:
When the Apocalypse comes, it will look like that city shot. ;)
3 min and 40 seconds.... yikes, that was funny for the first minute and then I was kicking myself for not counting how many times he said those lines while putting on his glasses :P at least 50%, if not 75% :P lol!
Thanks for the stats too! very interesting :) of course i had to go back to see what that post was. I do remember that post :) very nice!
Didn't quite register what the time chart below the CSI clip was for before starting the clip, and at under a minute I started getting bored and slightly irritated. Ready to move down the blog, and not wanting to hear his voice play out, I hit the pause button and realized what it was for! Good laugh.
Beth
Man oh man am I going to miss Horatio Caine. Greatest CSI detective of all time? Yeah, probably. Thanks for the awesome find! You rock...
The way my mind works is that as a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. We are to be led by the Spirit, and being led requires reading the Word to have our paths lit up. It also requires praying and being in a relationship with God through the Spirit and allowed by the Son. Is what I'm doing right now in God's Will? Absolutely, because what I'm doing is following Jesus's commands to love God and love my neighbors, and doing that involves relationships.
Personally, I'm an emotional over analyzer with a strong willed monster that wants to be self-satisfying but cannot be fed. I believe some people have more of an affinity to one or the other (or all), but each person really is unique, too, and cannot be simplified into three categories. We're created in God's image, after all, and God is too complex to even remotely fathom. Thus, people in His image are going to be too complex, too.
Great post. Especially the awesome video... ;)
My connection is a bit slow, and that's excuse enough not to brave the one-liner video.
For me, decision making usually starts from "emotion" and ends in "intellect". I wouldn't say either one has a leading role, though my "intellect" does tend to get a wee bureaucratic at times...
So when it gets stuck trying to assert whether it has absolutely-positively mastered the various parameters of the issue, I usually trust that little voice I call "instict" to make the call.
Up until now, it hasn't let me down.
About God's role in all this... well, let's think of him as a father.
It's completely okay, if not compulsory, to ask for a father's guidance regarding serious matters.
What's not, is bugging him about every single menial thing in your life. That probably means he's not a good father.
Now, to find a place in my gaming schedule for Diablo III...
[ checks schedule ] ...Blast...
Rory: Bring it on, I say! How can I be afraid of something that rhymes with "pork lips"?
Abbie: 3:40 is a respectable time, good work. You win 5 Horatio Points.
Beth: You strike me as a person who wouldn't put up with that video for very long... I'm glad you tried it! How anyone can find his acting palatable is light-years beyond me.
Logan: Good input, thx. So do you ascribe to the "umbrella" concept, then? Whereby if you hold to the "big two" laws (love God/neighbor) then the rest takes care of itself? It's all under the blood/promise, so it's all good? Or am I misunderstanding?
Dry: Also good input, thx to you as well. I go back and forth about the "every detail" thing. On the one hand, it's cool to think that God would be interested in being involved in it all, sharing every step of life. On the other hand, it really does strike me as "bugging him" as well. And I never considered the idea of starting in one facet (emotion/intellect/will) and segueing into another... great! More options! I wanted to have it all figured out!!
That last video is amazing. Thanks for sharing it.
Love the post :)
I think that I approach everything from more of an emotional standpoint, as in if it feels like the right, moral, Christian thing to do then that's what I go for. Hubby approaches everything in more of the intellectual perspective irregardless of the way it feels. Maybe this keeps some of our big decisions we make together in check somehow. I do think God likes to help in our big decisions, and maybe doesn't care so much about the little ones. But I do think He is always there gently guiding, and if we are open to His Will we will always be taken care of.
Amazing end video.
I forgot to say congrats to your daughter!
@Dave: I've never heard this "umbrella concept," but I think I see what you're saying. Yes, I believe that the entire law is summed up in two laws, Love God and Love People (simply worded, of course). By wholeheartedly doing these two things, we are following the commands and lifestyle of Jesus. We'll have a passion to help our struggling neighbors or the unemployed friend or the starving child in El Salvador or anyone else. By spreading the love to people, we are showing a Christ-like love, which in turn glorifies the Father.
This, of course, boils down to one law, that of Loving God with your whole heart, mind, soul, body, etc. Loving God will generate loving on people more readily, for God is love. Drawing nearer to Him we will be sanctified and made more in His image, and the closer we get to that image, the more love for others (and Him) we will have.
This will also bring an understanding that God's love is for us and that "the rest takes care of itself" because God is sovereign and in control of it all.
Make sense, or is that merely more confusing?
Michelle: Sounds like you and your husband make a great team. I go back and forth about the "little details/decisions" thing... Glad you liked the end video - I thought it was powerful.
Logan: I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on what you think God's end game is in all this. A kingdom full of people that love and help each other? r does it go deeper than that?
Dana: Thanks for dropping in. Love your blog - lots of great content there.
I dislike that phrase, "what's God's end game in all this?" Using it, to me, implies some sort of malevolence in Him, like He's up to something. But for simplicity sake, I see what you're saying. His purpose is what it has always been: to glorify His name. It's been that since before He created Time, and it will continue to be that long after Time stops. The purpose of my life, of your life, of everybody's lives and every action that ever happens is to glorify God. "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever." (Rom. 11:36) While it's impossible to see how He can be glorified in certain situations, we have to have the faith that He is.
The question arises is are we actively or passively giving God the glory with our lives? Either way He's going to be glorified, and I just pray that my actions are satisfying to Him.
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