Stuff and things and Stuff

Do any of you have any favorite entries of mine that you think would be worthwhile to include in a small collection of things that I’ve written?

I’ve been putting together a portfolio of writing samples for this fellowship thing. I’ve had some real success getting freelance gigs, writing articles and blog posts for other people, so I’ve been in the mood to make some progress writing wise. I’ve just also been exhausted from some combination of colds, migraines, nausea, and boring job syndrome, which makes that difficult.

Maybe I’ll post some poetry from when I was in high school! Or some essays I wrote for college… Free Content! Already written. Maybe I could do “This day in history”s with my old blog.

Or not, since my taste for public humiliation is somewhat limited. Somewhat.

Someone do something to piss me off so that I’ll have something to blog about already. Jeez.

Stuff and things and Stuff
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2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

Featured image

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 79,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 3 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 191 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 307 posts. There were 133 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 38mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was May 10th with 10,467 views. The most popular post that day was My Dinner Date with PZ Myers.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were scienceblogs.com, Google Reader, accrispin.blogspot.com, facebook.com, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for alexander mcqueen, otters, fernando muslera, alexander mcqueen dresses, and eddie kritzer.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

My Dinner Date with PZ Myers May 2010
56 comments

2

Skeptiathiesm: The Solution November 2010
105 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com

2010 in review

65 Books of 2010; 75 Books 2011

I don’t know if I can actually get to 75 books in one year, but I’m thinking it’s possible — I definitely can do 50 again, but I’ve got some longer books on my list than the discworld books were. Below are two lists — a recap of 2010, and a goal list for 2011. Books from 2010 will get a grade: A for OMG READ, B for Pretty Solid, C for readable, D for barely readable, and F for STAY AWAY

65 books of 2010

1. A Religious Orgy in Tennessee – HL Mencken – B
2. The Scopes Monkey Trial Transcript – C
3. The Colour of Magic – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
4. The Light Fantastic – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
5. Equal Rites – Terry Pratchett, read by Celia Imrie – A
6. The Porn Trap – Wendy and Larry Maltz – F
7. Mort – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C-
8. Sourcery – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C-
9. Wyrd Sisters – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B+
10. Pyramids – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – F
11. Tricks of the Mind – Derren Brown – B+
12. Guards! Guards! – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – A
13. Faust Eric – Terry Pratchett, read by Tony Robinson – C-
14. Moving Pictures – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
15. Reaper Man – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C
16. The Ordinary Princess – M.M. Kaye – B
17. Snow White, Blood Red – Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling – C+
18. Witches Abroad – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – A-
19. Small Gods – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B-
20. Lords and Ladies – Terry Pratchett read by Nigel Planer – A
21. Godless – Dan Barker – A-
22. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
23. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice – Laurie R. King – B
24. A Monstrous Regiment of Women – Laurie R. King – B
25. The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ – Philip Pullman – C
26. Soul Music – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C
27. Interesting Times – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C-
28. Maskerade – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
29. Asimov’s Guide to the Old Testament – Isaac Asimov – B
30. Feet of Clay – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B+
31. Hogfather – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B+
32. Jingo – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C
33. Last Continent – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – C-
34. Carpe Jugulum – Terry Pratchett, read by Nigel Planer – B
35. Dealing with Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede – B+
36. Searching for Dragons – Patricia C. Wrede – B
37. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee – A+
38. The Prop 8 Report – David Fleischer – B+
39. Flim Flam! – James The Amazing Randi – B-
40. The Fifth Elephant – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
41. The Atheist’s Introduction to the New Testament – Mike Davis – B+
42. Lyra’s Oxford – Philip Pullman – C-
43. LSAT Logic Games Bible – David Killoran – B
44. The Truth – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
45. Thief of Time – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
46. Right Ho, Jeeves – P.G. Wodehouse – B-
47. The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
48. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – A+
49. Soccernomics – Simon Kuper and Stefan Syzmanski – A
50. Night Watch – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – A
51. The Wee Free Men – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – A
52. Monstrous Regiment – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
53. A Hat Full of Sky – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
54. Going Postal – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – A
55. Thud! – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – A
56. Wintersmith – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
57. Making Money – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
58. Unseen Academicals – Terry Pratchett, read by Stephen Briggs – B
59. Coraline – Neil Gaiman, read by Neil Gaiman – B+
60. Good Omens – Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, read by Martin Jarvis – A+
61. God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens, read by Christopher Hitchens – A+
62. QI Second Book of General Ignorance – B
63. Book of General Ignorance – B
64. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot – A
65. The Nuremberg Trial – John and Ann Tusa – B

Stats:
16 Nonfiction/49 Fiction
15 As/36 Bs/12 Cs/2Fs
37 Discworld/28 Not Discworld
4 Rereads/61 New
40 Audiobooks/25 Hardcopy
10 Children or YA

75 Books of 2011
1. Mark Twain’s Autobiography Part I
2. Demon Haunted World – Carl Sagan
3. Asimov’s Guide to the New Testament
4. A Festival of Skeletons – RJ Astruc
5. The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
6. Atheists Guide to Christmas
7. I Shall Wear Midnight – Terry Pratchett
8. Gulliver’s Travels – Jonathan Swift
9. Biblical Nonsense – Jason Long
10. Disproving Christianity – David McAfee
11. God Hates You, Hate Him Back – CJ Werleman
12. Hitch 22 – Christopher Hitchens
13. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell – Clarke
14. Inkheart – Funke (2 sequels)
15. Artemis Fowl – Coifer (5 sequels)
16. Lightning Thief – Riordan (3 sequels)
17. History of Britain – Schama (2 add’l volumes)
18. The Age of American Unreason – Susan Jacoby
19. The Female Brain
20. Evil in Modern Thought – Neiman
21. Law 101
22. Columbine – Dave Cullen
23. A History of England – Wilson
24. Nixonland – Perlstein
25. Tales of the Black Widowers – Asimov
26. The Story of English
27. Creationist’s Trojan Horse – Forrest
28. Good Natured – De Waal
29. The New Atheism – Stenger
30. The Neverending Story – Ende
31. The Brethren – Woodward
32. The Family – Sharlet
33. Innocent Traitor – Weir
34. Lady Elizabeth – Weir
35. The Professor and the Madman – Winchester
36. Let the Right One In – Lindqvist
37. Emerging Epidemics – Drexler
38. Irreligion – Paulos
39. Heartsick – Cain
40. The Stranger Beside Me – Rule
41. Earth – The Daily Show
42. How the Scots Invented the Modern World – Herman
43. Letter to a Christian Nation – Harris
44. The Moor – King (~7 sequels)
45. Book of Three (4 sequels)
Jane Austen Novels
Sherlock Holmes Novels

65 Books of 2010; 75 Books 2011