Category - Blogging

For the past five years, this blog has served as my personal journal, among other things. But I've been writing in journal-like settings for longer than that. Probably starting around first or second grade, I would have to write about a certain topic each day in a "journal." The golden age of the journal seemed to be around third grade, which is when I would have to write about things like "How I'd get my cat down from a 10 ft. tree" (February 19, 1998), "My Amazing Machine" (March 30, 1998), and "I Like Being a Boy Because":

I was pretty bent on preserving those editions of "Jordon's Journal," judging by the handwritten alphabetical index of titles I added to the end of each volume. But over the years, my elementary and junior high teachers required less and less journaling. I must have found the practice interesting enough that I decided to keep a real journal for myself.

The book itself is a small notebook that, as I recall, had come pre-packaged with a larger one that I used for school. I had previously used this small notebook as a stick-figure flipbook, but I covered the front cover with paper, leaving a window for the words "The Stick Flipbook," so it would read:

In the first entry, written on the evening of Wednesday, February 24, 1999, I briefly described a few things that had happened that day, including my first encounter with the 50 State Quarters series. I wrote that I had argued with my sister and my friend Sean, and that my friend Reid was "his usual." Such is the exciting life of a nine-year-old. Other entries were equally banal. "Dear Journal," began an entry written three days later,

I wrote about everything interesting that happened, including field trips. ("Dear Journal, I went to the Seaquarium yesterday and found that Flipper is still alive.") Soon, I was writing mainly about interesting things and ignoring the boring days. I would bring my journal on every family trip and chronicle it in detail. The most significant of these was a two-week car trip to Pittsburgh that July, which remains the longest vacation I've ever been on in terms of time as well as distance traveled... probably.

For the duration of the trip, I had Pennsylvania-mania (a term that, while cheesy, cannot be found in the journal). I would write a Pennsylvania-themed trivia question at the bottom of each odd-numbered page and the answer on each even page. I would keep track of our mileage between stops and some of the places at which we ate each day, as well as all the things we did and what time we entered each new state. A typical entry:

The answer is the Pennsylvania Turnpike. At the end of the trip, I had gathered these fun facts:

• We drove 3,353 miles.
• I estimated that we used 134 gallons of gas. I wonder where I came up with the figure of 25 MPG. I probably asked my dad.
• We saw 72 deer. That's kind of a big deal since we don't have them in South Florida.
• We used 10 rolls of film. I estimated this to be 240 pictures.
• We drove through the states of Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Maryland.

In 2000, I wrote about a cruise to Cozumel in March-April and a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains in October. I also wrote about starting junior high school, mentioning my 22-year-old homeroom teacher, who was "SO HOT!!!" (I'm not going to lie. She was an attractive woman. She probably still is. And dang if I'm not almost as old now as she was then.) I also wrote about the antics of my science teacher, Mr. Tuttle:

There were more excursions to write about in 2001. I covered a trip up the east coast of Florida in April and a wedding in Charleston, South Carolina, in June. I recorded the last entry in the journal on pages 72-74 on Saturday, August 4, 2001. I described my experience at summer camp up to that point and my attempt to start a band with my friends:

Days later, almost on a whim, I would get my first guitar. It was a pivotal moment that helped shape the person I am today. And only 20 months later, I started The World of Stuff and took up journaling again, this time for the world.

And today, I am a Macho Nacho.

To my surprise, the Esperanto article I was supposed to be interviewed for was published today. The reporter interviewed my friend Andy at my suggestion and never got back to me. I'm glad for him, anyway. Plus, our hopefully-soon-to-be-launched Esperanto club got a mention. From the article:

Here's the full article: Esperanto fans in S. Florida cling to idealistic language.

Okay, this is something I really can't figure out for the life of me. Why do a few of my blog posts attract so much comment spam? This old post, "Where's my trailer?", gets upwards of hundreds of spam attempts a day. (No comment spam actually gets through thanks to the two anti-spam measures I've had in place for about a year.) "Really bad Rita" is another eternal favorite for spammers, as are "Where's my trailer again?", "Tornado waste of time", "Here's to 16 more", "From the song files of Jordon Kalilich", and a few others. I find it interesting that they were all posted in 2005. Other than that, I can't find a common link. I haven't done a word analysis of those posts, but it's not like I'm talking about mortgages, ringtones, gambling, World of Warcraft gold, or prescription drugs. (Am I asking for it here?) What's the deal? I challenge my other blogging readers to find (if possible) their most frequently spammed entries. What do they have in common that's so attractive to spammers?

As I was writing this, I heard a voice call out in the hallway. That's funny, I thought in italics, that sounds like Shannon, our RA from last semester who has since graduated. Then I heard another voice: "Shannon!"

It was Shannon indeed. She was her same old bleach-blonde self with her same old Midwestern accent, though she was looking tanner than ever. She's been applying to moderately prestigious law schools throughout the country, but, frustratingly, she's been waitlisted by most of them. Since moving back home to Chicago, she's been thinking about retaking the LSAT, and she's gotten a job (at a tanning salon). She said she's here in town with her friends till Saturday, and that she'll be around to hang out with her (not so) old floormates.

And now, the links.

Read about the Curious Histories of Generic Domain Names.

Dot-com days are here again? Check out some Web 2.0 Workplaces.

In this quiz, you're presented with six paintings. You have to guess whether each was painted by an artist or an ape. My roommate got four right.

I am sick, so nobody can kiss me today. Sounds like it's time for some stream-of-consciousness action.

I had some tests over the past few days. Last Wednesday, I had a test in my biology class and I did well. On Friday, I had a test in differential equations and got a pretty good grade. On Monday, I had a test in physics, and, well -- it counts as a C on their own special grading scale. Let's leave it at that. (Leaving it not at that, I just want to say that I'm glad that a B+ is between 80-90%.)

I've actually been sick since I woke up Monday. (Great way to start a Monday, isn't it?) Monday and yesterday it was a throat thing. Today it was a nose thing. There are no more tissues around here.

Random thought (I'm writing stream-of-consciousness-ly, so I'm allowed to inject random thoughts): If this is my fifth "Stream of Consciousness" post between November 18, 2005, and today, and the Super Bowl has occurred annually since 1967, then in what year will I write a stream of consciousness post that has the same Roman numeral as that year's Super Bowl? Express your answer as a year in Roman numerals.

(Note: I just want to test the idea that if a site has a sufficiently large fan base, then its loyal and devoted readers will do anything you ask them to. Or, at least, one of them will, anyway.)

How about that Super Bowl, anyway? I had an inkling that it would be the most-watched Super Bowl ever, and I was right. In fact, it was the second most watched TV program in American history, behind only the last episode of "M*A*S*H." (That's fun to type.) But anyway, I knew it would be an exciting game, no matter who won. What an upset for the previously undefeated Patriots. They'll be talking about that one for years to come. (And my poor roommate, who's originally from Massachusetts, wasn't very happy.)

Speaking of roommates and rooms, today was my day to sign up for housing for next year. I decided to stay in Hume Hall, and luckily, I won the lottery to stay. I even got to pick what room I could stay in (from a selection of a few). I chose a room on the opposite side of my same floor. I like being on the second floor. I don't have to spend too much time walking up and down the stairs.

Ah, there's nothing like a detailed entry about your web host's new bandwidth pricing policy to attract zero comments from readers. I'm starting to feel the savings now, though. I can actually watch my bandwidth costs go down. $0.9837 per gigabyte and falling, baby!

My sister's going home for the weekend, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. Well, for one, I go away a lot as it is, and I think it's important for me to spend time here and socialize with my dorm-mates. Also, since I'm paying $tons to stay here, I might as well get my money's worth. On the other hand, it is nice to see my family. I'll probably still be sick on Friday, so I don't think I'm going to go home. (It's bad enough being sick and feeling awful, but being sick and feeling awful in a car for five hours? Bleah.)

And for those of you keeping score at home, this is my 899th post.

I guess the Oscars are coming up or something, so read about 6 Odd Moments in Oscar History.

More about that friggin' Super Bowl: If you watched the Super Bowl (I accidentally typed "bowel" there -- good thing I allow myself to correct typos in these kinds of posts), then you probably noticed a lot of advertising from Bridgestone, the tire company. Well, it turns out they're just trying to clean up their image in the face of a human rights lawsuit.

Science education in Florida's schools rather sucks. I should know because I was subjected to it for a few years recently. Okay, my school in particular wasn't so bad, but it could have been better. Anyway, there's a petition you can sign that aims to change that.

Now, time for some hot soup (of the ramen-like variety) and probably some rest. Ah, that sounds good. Oh, and a hot shower, too. Yeah. But not in that order.

As I write this, my bandwidth is now $0.9829 per gigabyte.

I've known about geocaching for a long time, but until recently, I'd never actually done it. Basically, geocaching is where you hide a small box with little things in it and post its coordinates on the Internet so people can try to find it. People who find your cache can sign a log in the box and swap out whatever little trinkets you have in there. It's for people who like treasure hunting and going out into the wilderness and things like that.

My suitemates Adam and Cameron recently found out about geocaching, and one of the first things we did together when we got back from winter break on Sunday was to look for some caches in the woods next to our dorm. Cameron had seen on the geocaching web site that there were two there. With their coordinates programmed into his GPS, we set out to find them. Adam found the first one in a tree that had fallen over. That one was pretty easy. Searching for the next one was pretty interesting because it took us to an area we didn't even know existed; it was pretty scenic, like a park.

The spot where the cache was supposed to be was near a boardwalk, so we looked over and around it and in the surrounding woods, but to no avail. Finally, Cameron found a hidden container with a few things in it -- but it wasn't a geocache. It was a letterbox; letterboxing is similar to geocaching, but this wasn't the cache that Cameron had found out about online. The notebook inside indicated that it had been placed earlier that same day.

So the search continued. Eventually, I found a box that was hidden along the side of the boardwalk; it was the same color as the wood, so it was camouflaged very well. That was the geocache we were looking for. According to the log inside, numerous people had found it over the past few years.

It only goes to show how popular geocaching and letterboxing are. Maybe I should get into it. I do have a GPS receiver at home that I never found much use for. And if we were able to find two (actually three) caches in such a small area, I can't even imagine how many there must be all over town. (Actually, if I went to the geocaching web site, I could look it up, and then I would be able to imagine it.) And, of course, it would be cool if I hid my own cache somewhere and checked back to see if people had found it. It's a cool idea.

Buying textbooks is kind of crazy. Luckily, my purchases were covered under my financial aid, but that doesn't mean that things had to go smoothly. As I picked up my order from the bookstore on Monday, they gave me the wrong Physics books; I was supposed to get parts 1 and 2 of the textbook when instead I got parts 3 and 4. Unfortunately, I didn't notice till I had gotten back to my dorm, so going back and trying to explain the situation was a big hassle. I got the books I needed, and to give back the ones I didn't, I was redirected to the return and exchange line, which started outside the door of the store. My new books set off the anti-theft alarm. Lovely, right?

So I'm trying to explain to the security guard why it seems like I'm stealing these books. I don't think he really suspected that, but when you have a store security guard saying "Let me get this straight..." to a long-haired college kid in a Rolling Stones t-shirt, it tends to look suspicious. Once I managed to explain that I paid for parts 1 and 2 and needed to return parts 3 and 4, they held the new books for me (standard procedure, y'understand) while I waited in line to give back the books I didn't need. Finally, when I got the cashier there to understand what was going on, he deactivated the bar code on my new books, which a staff member had brought over, and took back the books I got by mistake.

I should have kept them for next year.

I haven't had much luck selling my books. I managed to unload my chemistry book, but my calculus book is now out of date, and nobody wants the old edition. I did sell my course pack for Social Geography, though; I pulled it off by standing outside the class as it got out on Tuesday and asking if people wanted to buy it. I was asking $50, but the guy I was talking to only had $45, so I took that. Not bad for a $63 book.

New feature: when comment on a post, you can now choose to be notified of future comments on the post via e-mail. I've tested it out, and it seems to work, so give it a try. With each e-mail, you'll be provided a link to manage your subscriptions and even change your subscription e-mail address. As usual, your address is safe with me; it won't be given to anyone ever in any way. I enjoy this feature when it's employed on other blogs (such as mcgees.org and now All About Me - And Then Some), and I think you'll enjoy it on The World of Stuff. Hopefully, it will encourage commenting, discussion, and "first post" comments. That would be awesome.

If passed by the House of Representatives, H.R. 888 would be a grave insult to non-Christians and everyone who cares about separation of church and state in America. Joshua McGee says it better than I ever could.

Diamond-encrusted gadgets are always tacky. Here's Wired's list of The Worst Diamond-Encrusted Gadgets Of All Time.

Here's a pretty cool periodic table.

I'm home again for the long weekend. Ubuntu has been giving me problems. I thought Compiz was stable on this computer, but it's actually less stable than Beryl was on Feisty. If I had wanted my computer to freeze and shut down at random times, I would have stuck with Windows 98. So I've switched back to Metacity, the default window manager. The screen brightness changes when I don't want it to and doesn't change when I want it to -- unless I adjust it myself. Plus, I once again have to enter a password to use the Wi-Fi at home; the fix I used before is now ineffective. Other than that, everything is fine. (If you didn't get that, here's a summary: the computer's slightly wonky but mostly hunky-dory.)

I've often wondered how many words I've written in this here bliggity-blog. Of course, I could copy and paste the text of every post into a word processor and have it determine the total, but that's not how I roll. No, instead I decided to write a quick JavaScript script that would count the words in the 869 entries I've written before this one. It's not a perfect script, of course; I think it tends to overestimate slightly. But its result is telling: the previous 869 posts contain about 470,264 words. Remember that time I tried to write a novel? How about that other time I tried to write a novel? If this blog were published, it would be the length of about 9 novels. Whoa. How many volumes could you split that into? Samuel Pepys, eat your heart out.

A few weeks ago I was tossing around the idea of selling World of Stuff t-shirts through a site like CafePress. I even made a mock-up design. Imagine this emblazoned across your chest:

Apparently, the design can only be as wide as 10 in. So on a large t-shirt, it would be rather small (some might say discreet). On smaller shirts, however, it would look just right. The solution is obvious: I have to get lots of girls to buy and wear these shirts. If I decide to sell them.

Okay, let's have a poll. Would you buy this shirt?

Are you a web lingo expert? Apparently I'm not. I only got 70% of the questions right. I think some of those abbreviations have never been used by anyone ever.

A collection of your favorite Internet phenomena set to an infectious tune: The Internet Stars Are Viral.

Here are some fascinating facts about food coloring!

In school politics, the Gator Party swept this week's elections, winning 44 of the 47 seats that were up for grabs. Someone told me they usually win more, which just goes to show the kind of influence they have. They have a lot of money, I think it's because the fraternities endorse them. They're probably good chums, the Gator Party and the frats. That's a great reason to vote against them. But anyway, the Progress Party candidate running to represent my dorm won, so did vote for a winner.

The referendum-type things were a little more disappointing. One question asked whether a non-profit, student-run café should be built on campus. The other asked whether the university should build a homeless shelter. The café was approved, and the homeless shelter was rejected. Methinks those results paint a sad picture of UF's student body. While I can't speak for everybody, it seems that in general, they care more about their caffeinated drinks than about the destitute people living around them.

Anyway, my sister and I have come home for the weekend, but my parents are away because it's their anniversary. We've been hanging out with friends, which is cool, but I'm really looking forward to watching the UF-LSU game tonight on our ginormous TV. The kickoff is in a few minutes.

Here's an individually wrapped edition of Ask Jordon.

Peter: How do I keep up my motivation to blog, especially when I'm very busy in life?

I love to inform and entertain. I have a readership that likes to find out what's new in my life, so I write for them. If too many days have gone by, I feel that I need to blog if only "for the record." Sometimes, when I'm letting off steam, I write for myself. Even if I don't intend to let off steam, I still end up feeling better now that I've gotten my feelings into words and shared them with other people. If you have one dedicated reader, you have an audience to write for. And hey, I'm a dedicated reader of your blog. I noticed you haven't written anything in a while. What do you have to say about that? Write about it in your blog. That should get the ball rolling again.

Here are some of The World's Ugliest Cars (although, to be fair, many of them are simply listed because they were pieces of junk).

For those of you interested in moving to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, read 20 Reasons Not to Move to Dubai.

Student Government elections were yesterday and today. Exciting. I didn't really know much about the elections until recently... like, yesterday, maybe. Apparently there are these two parties, the Gator Party and the Progress Party, and they were running candidates for the Student Senate or something like that. Anyway, people from each party have been making sure you go out and vote for them. They've been bothering me since yesterday, so I voted today. It wasn't just so they'd leave me alone, but because I wanted to have a say in the democratic process and other things like that.

It wasn't as easy of a choice as I thought because it wasn't like the two parties were for or against things. They just had their own different ideas. But the Gator Party wants to produce "tangible benefits for students" (as my dorm's incumbent SG representative said to me in a harangue that was given in one breath) or "do stuff" (as my friend Luke said when I showed him their platform). The Progress Party seems more concerned with fixing Student Government so that it can "do stuff" in the future. They had less money and less of a visible presence than the Gator Party. I voted for them.

There were also referendum-type questions on the ballot. One asked whether a non-profit, student-run café should be built on campus, and the other asked whether the university should build a homeless shelter. Well, here's an idea that I should have thought of earlier. We should have a homeless-run café on campus. That should give them a livelihood (or at least something to do). Or maybe a café where people who can't pay can work instead. That's another way to put both ideas into use (not that they're incompatible with each other, of course, but it might be more economical to put them together). Also note that I am only kidding. I voted against the café and for the homeless shelter.

Do you hear that? It sounds like Ask Jordon!

Fabi: This isn't a question, but you should definitely check this out https://payperpost.com/

This may or may not be the same Fabiola I went to high school with. It probably isn't, despite what the IP address indicates. But anyway, Fabs, I've heard of the whole "get paid to blog" thing before. J-Walk of the J-Walk Blog partakes in it once in a while, with fair warning to readers ("I was paid to write the following" or something similar). In any case, it's tantamount to selling out, even if you don't believe what you're writing. I think ads on the Internet are obnoxious, but none are worse than ads that replace content. If I got a few bucks to fill up a post with a review of some amazing web site, I'd have a few bucks, but not much dignity. I'd have sold out, you see. If ever I try to make money from this site, it will be in a more tasteful way.

natasha!: do you know anything about the string theory? if so, could you possibly explain it for me? (the wikipedia explaination is confusing). <3 lotsa love.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about string theory. I had a physics teacher in high school who called it nonsense. Apparently it's very controversial, as most new ideas are. Maybe a reader can help us out. (Brian.)

The 2008 election is a little over a year away, but the primaries are sooner. Here's a handy table to see where the candidates stand on many issues.

Find your birthday star, a star that's as many light-years away as you are years old. In other words, the star's light that reaches Earth was emitted when you were born, and when you're looking at it in the sky, you're essentially seeing it as it was at that time.

All right, I'll admit it: I wear clothes. Inevitably, those clothes get dirty. Ordinarily, it's simple to wash them, dry them, and go on your way. But things aren't very ordinary right now. I've been in college for a few weeks, and after taking my laundry back home to be washed, I came to the realization that I'd eventually have to do it myself. The realization came on Saturday when a simple squeeze of a ketchup packet went awry. It went awry on my pants.

After leaving detergent to soak on the stain for a few days, I finally had some time to do some laundry today. I wouldn't have even known where my dorm's laundry room was if I hadn't passed it while exiting the building when the fire alarm went off. When I got there with my laundry, some detergent, and my homework, I realized that I needed quarters. So I had to go all the way back to the dorm for quarters. I left my keys in there, so when I got back to the laundry room, I couldn't open the door. So I had to go back to my room with all my stuff again. The third time was the charm.

The washers and dryers were pretty simple to use, so that was good. The atmosphere was pretty conducive to doing homework (even though I'm apparently one of the slowest homework-doers in the world). And the ketchup stain on my shorts went away completely. I couldn't even identify the pair of shorts that had been stained. (I wear jean shorts all the time. I have hundreds or thousands of pairs.) Holy stain-fighting action, Batman! This laundry detergent stuff really works. And that's why I think doing laundry will be a (mostly) pleasant experience in the future.

Apparently, someone recently noted how nice it is that I never seem to be lonely. I'm an introvert by nature. I like people, but in smaller doses. I like being alone sometimes. I'm not always lonely when I'm alone, and I'm not always alone when I'm lonely. I've been feeling somewhat lonely in spite of having people to hang out with. I can be with someone, but it's not the same as being with someone. I'm in need of a special kind of company, the kind that... oh, I know what you're thinking. Jordon tried to talk to a girl -- again -- and she didn't give him the time of day -- again! If that was your guess, you're correct.

Okay, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a good looking guy. The face is "eh" at best. No muscles or anything. Lousy sideburns too. (Do the ladies even dig those?) But what do I give off besides being terribly physically unattractive? Or is it just my luck that every girl I want to get to know better is preoccupied with some other guy? What the hell?

Darn it, the Beatles, you've said it for me again. And with that, I'd like to turn our attention to Thoughts of a crazy RedHead, a blog that consists of the thoughts of a 20-something woman in New York City. I've been reading it for a while because it's interesting to climb into the mind of an average (?) woman, and that's exactly what blogs allow for. What's also interesting about this blog is that I'm on "Red"'s blogroll. That's how I found out about her blog, in fact. I wonder why she finds my blog interesting when her blogroll is otherwise populated with names like "Charming but Single," "Persona of a Princess," "New York Moments," "Tired of Men," and "Bridget Jones Has Nothing On Me." If I had to guess, I'd say that she probably feels the same way about me: that it's interesting to see the way a high-schooler-turned-college-student-type-guy thinks. I've tried e-mailing her, but I've gotten no response. Maybe, if she reads this, she can leave a comment here.

Take that: Errors in the Encyclopædia Britannica that have been corrected in Wikipedia.

DRM is bad. The term DRM (digital rights management) refers to access control and copy protection technologies that make it difficult or impossible to make legal copies of digital media. Of course, it's legal (in the US) for you to make copies of music or movies that you own for your personal use; that means it's perfectly fine to convert your LPs to MP3s and put them onto CDs (or MP3 players). DRM gets in the way. Most of the songs that you download from online music stores like iTunes have DRM technology that prevents you from making legal copies of the music you've bought, a right to which you are legally entitled.

Enter eMusic, the #2 online music retailer. eMusic sells high-quality MP3s without DRM. Of course, the major labels don't like it, but in spite of that, the site has thrived, selling music from independent labels. And just because it's not on one of the Big Four record labels doesn't mean that you won't like it. Some of your favorite artists might have albums on eMusic, and the genres are in no way limited to what you'd consider "indie music." I don't know how I got into all of this, but it probably happened the other day when I suddenly decided not to like such dumb music and maybe discover other things.

I asked my friend Luke if he knew anything about eMusic, and it turns out he's a subscriber who can't get enough of their selection of jam bands. There's something for everyone. So I'm ready to sign up for the free trial, and therein lies the rub. You need a credit or debit card to sign up so they know what to charge if you don't cancel before the free trial ends. Since certain people aren't being cooperative, all I have to go by is my debit card that I don't have yet for my new bank account that has no money in it. So it looks like I'm going to have to wait, but I hope it'll be worth it.

I was browsing through some old photos when I found these photos of gas station signs, taken around Pompano Beach, Florida, on Sunday, May 4, 2003. Check out those prices.

Only four years later, prices have broken $3. Another great reason not to have a car.

I got an e-mail the other day from the creator of a new site called We101, which indexes blogs by city (USA only). I decided to add my site to the listing, and I encourage others to do the same. (Most major cities in the US are listed; mine wasn't, so I chose the city closest to me.) There aren't many sites there yet, but it could quickly grow into something useful.

Old Vinyl is a blog that features MP3s and cover art from hopefully out-of-print LPs. There's probably nothing you'd want, but they're interesting to look through.

So The World of Stuff is four years old today. It's pretty odd when I think about it. If TWoS had been in high school when it started, it would have graduated right now. What started as a disorganized collection of random web pages has become a disorganized collection of random web pages with a blog and some readers. Note that I haven't truly been blogging for four years; that would come later when I realized that I would need to have something that would keep people coming back. I guess it's worked, because I've had a small but growing and fairly devoted following, and for your continued readership and support, I thank you.

It's been a good year for TWoS. I've taken up writing Greasemonkey user scripts, shown you how to find the day of the week of a given date, re-released a video and brought you two new ones, and allowed you to give some Russian flavor to your text. It's not much, all in all, but I think it's quality stuff. I'm especially proud of the videos. I should add that Beowulf and Beowulf 2 come to you via the cooperation of my friends. Beowulf 3 is coming soon.

But remember, readers, that none of this would be possible without you because then I would have done all this work for nothing, and that would make me go insane. Something else that almost makes me go insane is trying to figure out exactly how many readers I have. Certain web-based feed aggregators will tell you how many people are subscribing to your feeds when they request them. Of course, it's impossible to gauge readership accurately by this method, because not everybody uses a web-based aggregator to read blogs -- I don't -- but the information is enticing nonetheless. For example, I know that this site has 5 readers using Google Reader, 5 reading with Bloglines, 1 with NewsGator, and 1 with Rojo. So, the question remains... who are you? If you rarely or never post comments, I'd like you to post a comment introducing yourself. It's just one of those things that a blogger likes to know, especially a small-time blogger like me.

I've enjoyed maintaining The World of Stuff for the past four years, and I hope to do so for many more. Viva la Stuff!