A Search Term Puzzle…

Today, I found a strange combination of search terms. I often do, to tell the truth. But this time, “Cuttlefish tattoo” made perfect sense. “Freethought blogs” as well, and of course “digital cuttlefish”. A bit less obvious, but still fine, were “let’s have a moment of silence” and “pun of the day“.

I won’t get into “do mermaids eat cheese?”. Frankly, it frightens me.

But.

Two different searches (maybe the same person, but by the time I looked it was too late to trace), one for “dance naked at my funeral” (which I can understand), and the other “dance naked at my funeral author”… which is another thing entirely. Is my funerary verse out there somewhere? (duh–of course I looked, but found nothing). If you are the searcher… what gives?

Seriously… who is looking for “dance naked at my funeral”?

Cuttlefishism II

Some of you may remember the discovery of the Cuttlefishism religion; I am happy to report that the founders have noticed our attempts at exploring their delightful playground. In a comment here, the original admin says:

I’m the original admin for the site. If there’s enough interest I’ll go in and redo the site to make it more modern. It’ll be in free time, so it may take a while though.

A kind and generous offer, and probably a bit of work, so I am asking here whether there is enough interest. I’d hate for someone to put in some effort, even on free time, if no one is interested. So, let me (or rather, them) know in the comments here.

As for me, I think it’s pretty cool, but that’s all I have to say right now. I have a stack of papers in front of me that should already be done, but for a surprise conference last Friday (which I found out about on Thursday, but which was worth every moment). So it’s radio silence for me for a bit. The comments are yours.

Perspective

So yesterday was my biggest day (in terms of hits) since I have been here at Freethought Blogs.

Because I wrote a particularly moving verse? No. Because my satire poked a hole in the festering blister that is politics? No. Because the pope finally noticed me and sent his minions to… nope. Because Gilbert & Sullivan fans the world over have united in… nope.

Because I showed a video from Bill O’Reilly.

lots more, and Tim Minchin video, following the jump: [Read more…]

My Interview!

It’s not that I didn’t expect this–it’s just that I didn’t expect it so soon! See… I bought a new mic, thinking I might want to get into podcasting. But I know nothing about podcasting, nor how I might stretch my silly verses into something worth actually saying out loud and at length. So… I asked my best friend Kylie, who already does that sort of thing. She offers to show me the ropes, and we do an interview. I expected it to come out sometime in a couple of weeks; I was thinking of how quickly *I* get things done, not how quickly Kylie gets things done. So it’s up already. But it was easier than I thought, so maybe I’ll start posting some of my verses with audio versions as well. In the meantime, you can hear me over at her place.

Best Of?

Ok, so I just noticed something. Some, though not all, of my FtB cohort have a widget of sorts that directs people to some of their “must read” posts from earlier months or years. This being the internet, pretty much anything that is older than a week or so tends to get lost, unless it happens to hit on a popular search term, in which case it will never die (that post was in my top five for every month on the old blog, with a handful of hits every day, each time from a separate search of the… obvious keywords).

So I’m thinking it might be a nice idea to have a side widget, maybe a pull-down so it doesn’t take up an internet mile, with some sort of “greatest hits” or “best introduction” or suchlike (it pleases me to see that “suchlike” is accepted by my spellcheck). I mean, I have over 1300 posts (true, some are re-posts); where is someone supposed to start?

I also am thinking that I have turned out to be a very poor judge of what people like. Things I am proud of are ignored; things I threw together in 15 minutes get lauded. As Linus Pauling would have said if he had talked about poetry, the best way to write a good verse is to write lots of verses. I may not be the best at what I do (I personally know at least three–perhaps four–better, one whose birthday is tomorrow), but by damn I am the most prolific.

I need your help to winnow the wheat from the chaff. I have no idea how many I will put in this sidebar thingy (it will depend on whether I can do a drop-down menu), but not a lot. So… which are essential? If this is the bare-bones (bare cuttlebones?) introduction, what do I include? Is there anything you printed out and tacked to your door at work or your fridge at home? Tattooed on your newborn?

What are the “Best Of”? (and yes, quit lurking and put your two cents in!)

A Question For Stephen Fry

Like pretty much all of us, I just love Stephen Fry. And no, I am not going to attempt to laud him in verse or song—that’s been done, and wonderfully, and in person—but rather, am hoping to use his expertise. You see, he wrote the book. And some day soon, I am going to have a long post (or series) here singing its praises.

I heard Susan Blackmore, at some conference, say something to the effect of “if you want to learn all about something, write a book on it.” She was speaking of consciousness, and her journey led her to write, now, several books on it. But that’s not what I need help with. I need to know if I have, as I suspect, come up with a brand-new verse form worthy of its own name and everything. It has structure. It has rules. It has examples. What I don’t know is, has it already been done? And who better to ask than Stephen Fry, the man who wrote the book?

Dear sir: I am not a real poet, and know it,
I read lots of stuff, and I comment in verse;
It’s not that my words are much sweeter in meter
And rhyme, but the truth is they can’t be much worse.
Because my obsession’s impassioned, I’ve fashioned
A form that, as far as I know, is unique;
I missed, though, some critical knowledge from college,
So yours is the expert opinion I seek.

I hope that a simple example is ample
To show you the structure, to help you decide;
I’ve other ones, too, that I’m thinking of linking
In lieu of some sort of a technical guide
The scansion is simple, both rhyming and timing
With eight lines per stanza, two stanzas in all;
But that’s all I’ve got; it’s still nameless—but, shameless,
I’m hoping you’ll help me, and answer my call.

(by the way, this is probably the clunkiest example of the form, but once I decided to ask Mr. Fry, I couldn’t help myself… nor could I wait and edit it until I got it just right.)

A bit more, and links to many more examples, after the jump: [Read more…]

Canadian Intelligence Performs Miracle

No, really! Jason Thibeault, the Lousy Canuck, has worked magic. I had been trying for months (ok, trying for 2 months, and then had given up for 2 months) to get my old blog migrated to these here new digs. Impossible. Initially, I could not even download my old blog to back it up–the file did not exist.

Liars. The file existed. It just couldn’t be translated to the new site. Such is life; at least it was backed up. Mostly in theory, but backed up nonetheless.

Enter Jason. Long story short, I have a new hero, and this blog now has posts that hearken back to 2007. Take a look! See if your favorites made it over safely; see if I’ve written something on your favorite topic. Take a look around; put your waders on and slog back in time–let me know if anything is missing or screwed up. Have fun.