Chew Your Soup: A selection of "Most Popular" entries, 2007.
This is the stew you enjoyed, these are the bones you choked on over the last year, as tabulated by Google Analytics.
I attended two local meetings to oppose oil drilling in Santa Fe County. Part One, and Part Two. Both authored in November, 2007. 'Split Estate' is a huge issue in the western US, and major media organizations need to aggregate and report on this form of 'representation without taxation' (as pointed out by one protestor, during one of these meetings).
The most infamous and most popular entry from 2007, is when I upgraded from using open-source equivalents to the Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection. Apparently, thou shalt not even hint that open-source alternatives might be less capable than for-profit alternatives.
In May of 2007, I spent the weekend in Boulder, Colorado, and was mightily impressed ... and shocked at housing prices.
February 17, 2007, and the "Edwards Bloggers" made controversial statements, and then panicked and purportedly erased their archives. Someone from the 'old school' needed to put up a reasoned, calm response.
I ventured back east by car for the Xmas holidays in 2006/2007, and on my return, offered a very long post on my experiences during that journey.
California was suffering a heatwave in July of 2006, and I offered some 'hot tips' on staying cool.
On June 23, 2006, I reviewed "An Inconvenient Truth".
Comments on the "10-20-30 Rule of Powerpoint", January 5, 2006. Guy Kawasaki gives speaker support recommendations on his weblog, and I counter with a slice of practical A/V technician knowhow, from 13 years' experience backstage.
Inauguration Day, January of 2005, I posted a selection of quotes. Frankly, I'm surprised this was popular. Everything old is new again, though, and nowadays every new generation of webloggers measure the world by their own yardstick, so the same content gets recycled over and over and over again.
Why Clark? Authored January 10-11, 2004. Many of the general political arguments here are still valid.
On the eve of war in Iraq, I let my readers know my opinion via three quotes, in the middle of my page from March 19, 2003. I remember being concerned, but ultimately doubtful, over the WMD threat ... which was the only threat being discussed at the time.
On Saturday, February 1, 2003, Columbia disintegrated over New Mexico and Texas.
On December 7, 2002, the day Iraq filed its 12,000 page declaration on weapons, I was busy feeding random Xmas shopping links to my readership. This gives you a flavor of linkblogging during its heyday. At the height of my linkblogging, I was fielding upwards of 40 posts a day.
All webloggers who were online in 2001 wrote and reported on 9/11. Here are my posts. I'll include 9/10 for comparison. Remember to read bottom to top, in chronological order: 9/11. 9/12. 9/13. 9/14. You can dig through other entries in the September archive section, here. What surprises me is how hard I tried to put up 'normal' links during this chaotic time.
The following are not as popular, but given that most of the above reflect a very small scale, personal history of weblogging, I thought these posts should be included to round out the journey:
"Behind the Curtain" was arguably the first "24 hours in the life of webloggers" event, mixing weblogs and photography. It started here, with a single entry, on September 9, 2000. I have preserved the site throughout the intervening years, converting it from Zope to static HTML, so you can visit BTC and read about the event. Many links are dead, but the main navigation links are still 'live' and as they were in 2000.
Weblogging the Cerro Grande fire in May of 2000. I garnered a bit of attention in the early days for being johnny-on-the-spot and reporting details of the catastrophe. My site was off the air due to an online controversy, but I corresponded with Craig Jensen of Booknotes, and he posted two of my 'reports'. One, and Two. Once I got my site back online, here are two more entries that remain popular ... Three, and Four. [The photo links are busted, I'll see if I can restore them.] Given my attempts to report first-hand, I thank the gods that podcasting didn't exist. I would be trying to rationalize and excuse a melodramatic "Hindenburg disaster" podcast here, instead of just pointing to these pieces.
January 5, 2000. Is Manila the VisiCalc of the Web? The first of my weblog pieces that ever got widely linked. Apparently it is still circulating in the backwaters of the internet. Trade "Manila" for "weblog/CMS software" and it still holds largely true.
