The Year of The Blog Blog

Dru Johnston is making a blog a day for the year. He just hit #100. One hundred blogs.

Why the End of the World

Approximately 74% of the people reading this already know the answer but I am going to chat about it anyway.   I am recently started a class at the Upright Citizens Brigade: The End of the World.   It is performing an improv form using the genre of the, well, end of the world. Apocalypses and post-apocalypses.  Alien invasions, viruses, zombies, doomsday weapons, time travel, distopias, reality altering drugs, clones, robots, Revelations, meteors, earthquakes, global warming, the sun dying, nuclear war, 2012, genetically altered animals, mutants, the Antichrist, and on and on.

If you know me at all, you know why I felt like this class was something I needed to participate in. Hell, I toyed with the idea of asking if I could be unpaid TA if I didn't get in the class.  The whole concept fascinates me.  It is both epic and personal, and usually slapped with a great big moral message. What also fascinates me is our (has a human race) fascination in it.  We just love  (and apparently always) be unable to not think about the end of it all.  How will we, has a race, meet our final demise?  With a bang or a whimper?  Usually it is our on hubris, especially since the start of the 20th century.  And that alone is a testament to our own hubris: We are very convinced  that our own ability to play god will be our own destruction.

Also it is just damn fun to do.  Seriously.  It is like an excuse to initiate all the crap that usually occurs to me.  Crazy scenarios, themes that hit you like a 2x4, the type of broad characters that I am nervous to break out in any other impov form.  I am like a kid in a candy shop.

Anywhozits, that is why I am using it to write short stories.  Apologies to Douglas Adams and the original conception of what eventually became Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  I will probably run out of steam at some point (heck, I am behind now).  If you have any suggestion, challenges, ideas, whatevers... feel free (read: I beg you) to post them in the comments.  I will do my best.

Stuff

I needed to get the last post off  the top because... well, just too sad.

Anyway, there is more of the story coming.  I have a bunch of stuff... I'm just trying to juggle the pieces.  And there as been other more important stuff that has needed attention.

Also, I don't know if you noticed, but I have added a ton of new links.  Which is not that exciting but you should explore them.  I think my favorite new find has been Cook to Bang, which is perhaps the greatest idea for a site ever.

Post 1000

Yep.  1000 posts.  Crazy, huh?

I thought about a lot things I could do here in this post.  Writings something about how much I've changed (or not) since this blog started.  Or perhaps just get very personal.  Or a best of list.  

What would have been great would be to start posting the novel I wrote back then.  I almost did.  But I am rewriting it (again).  It is in a pretty good state but I am also going through and changing some names and such.  (For example, the dating site in the book is called "atwitter.com" which made sense three years ago... before people twitter.)

So I decided to write something new.  Totally new.  It is an old idea of mine that loots from a bunch of other old ideas I'd had.  I have no idea where it is going to go or how often I'll managed to add chapters.  But I am going to just try to write from the gut without thinking too much about it.

And no editing... so, yes, it is going to be rough.

I hope you enjoy it.

The Room to The Other Whens.

(Note:  I also re-organized my links.  Mostly to highlight my friend's stuff more.)

New and Improved Twang of the Void

No, I'm not leaving this site.  But if you want your TotV with a bit extra this is the place to go.

(via Nicole)

Wordle

Here's a Wordle of my blog.  Or the first page of my blog I quess.  I need to find out if there is a way to do the whole blog because this is boring... and proves that I steal from Boing Boing a lot (although it helps that every time I mention Boing Boing the word gets written twice... this post alone has messed up the stats).

Cleaning up

I'm going through the "What I'm Reading" (my blog rolling list) and removing some that haven't been updated lately (as in months). I am trying to add new ones I'm following. Nothing to exciting. I apologize to those that got the boot. Nothing personal.

To keep you entertained, here's a video of a pig doing stuff.

Analytics

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I was linked to to a few popular sites. First was Fark.com. From that Preston and Steve and then Boing Boing. Getting linked by Boing Boing made me particularly happy considering the amount of stuff I get from there. Yes, it wasn't for anything I wrote or created. It was a video of a crab riding a jellyfish. But traffic is traffic.

Looking at the stats are a bit depressing.
It looks like the blog didn't exist before Tuesday. 40 to 80 hits a day get a bit washed out by the 11,000+ hits. And of course very very few of the visitors looked at any page beyond the crab/jellyfish. Over the last three days, A Crab Riding A Jellyfish has been visited 15,263 time. The main page has been visited 404. Needless to say I'm expecting to be back o 40 to 80 visits by the weekend.

Ah, the internet.

Well, hello fark

I used to go Fark all the time. For some reason I stopped.
Well, this morning I suddenly notice a tiny jump in traffic. You know, the standard 80 or so hits a day jumped to a thousand.

Things that have driven traffic here in the past:
• The phrase "scrotal suspension."
• The M.I.T. Triforce hack.
• Mentions of Mythbusters slash fiction.
• Any mention of Gordon Freeman.
• And now, a crab on a jellyfish.

I get very few hits from talking about improv or politics.

Edit: Because of a nice comment, I double checked the analytics and, yes, I am also getting a ton of traffic from Preston and Steve. The fact is, everyone loves animals riding on other animals. Cat on a dog. Mouse on a duck. Monkey on frackin' anything. Why is that?

Slow

I haven't been blogging with my usual vigor. Part of that is due to the fact that I've been busy like a bee in a poppy field, but also because the internet has not been feeding me with wondrous things to re-blog. I think I need to expand the sites I go to.

I do enjoy playing with SpeechWars.

It might be that this country is in the midst of a hard election fight AND trying to recreate its entire banking system. It makes blogging about robots or giant tacos difficult. Every time I try to write something about the elections, I end up with a mindless rant about how deception is so easily believed and so hard to refute. Okay, it's easy to refute. It's just that people tend not to listen. On The Media had an interesting piece about just that this weekend. The fact is that often refuting a distortion or straight out lie makes people believe the distortion or lie even more.

It is making me very frustrated. I am such a believer in the role of the press. I have been heartened by the general feeling in the press that they straight up dropped the ball in the lead up to the war in Iraq and I feel like they are actually doing a really good job in this election... on both sides. But I fear that they are being lost in cries of "The press is evil!" Just yesterday (I believe) someone asked McCain at a town hall type thing, "Why does the press keep picking on Palin and bringing up Bristol." Really? I have not seen a single article about it since shortly after the convention. But if you keep saying that is what the press is doing then folks believe it.

I was going to write about how I don't like do meander and how I don't like talking on the phone. That was why I titled this "Slow." But I ended up ranting.

I'm going to look for something about robots.

Issues of Blogging

This is a somewhat pointless post since it is about not posting.

There are a handful of things that I would like to write about but can't. Well, I can but they are personal. Hell, I have no problem sharing things about myself but these are things that, one way or another, involve other people.

This is one eason I don't write 95% of my thoughts on improv. I have TONS of thoughts on shows I done and scene and on classes I'm taking and and on being on teams and on the improv scene in general... but they aren't all positive. In my brain they are interesting thoughts/observations/questions, but other people connected to them could very well fell, well, annoyed. Besides it feels icky to very publicly crap on people who are doing something for zero to negative money but are doing it for just the love of it. Not that I think my thoughts are "crapping on." I just like analyzing things. I like to think about why things work and why they don't.

But the fact is there is no point to blog about them just to hear myself pontificate. (Buy me a drink or two and I share my views pretty openly.)

Then there are juicy topics of sex and relationships and all that steamy jazz. These were easy to blog about when I'm not involved. Heck, there are plenty of times that I have hidden "super secret messages" (to quote Alan K.) in these posts. Messages to women I've had crushes on (from "mild fleeting crushes" to "why can't I get them out of my head crushes"). I try, when I can, to get away from the specifics of any particular situation and post about my feeling on a broader issues. But that's not always possible. For example... actually I can't give a good example with out revealing too much.

So I am stuck with wanting to rant about Sarah Palin... until I remember that I wasn't going to vote Republican anyway and she is just the VP candidate.

A couple of days ago I mentioned a class I wanted to take. Well, I was accepted. It's not a huge deal, but I had a weird hang up since I was rejected from taking the last three advanced classes to which I applied. I am excited though. I'm excited about learning something new and working hard with new people to create something specific. So "yay" for me.

Website of the Day

FiveThirtyEight.

FiveThirtyEight is a bit of a Presidential polling mash-up. I have a love/hate think with polls. I think they are meaningless this far away for election day. They emphasize the horse race aspect while folks show vote for who they believe will be the best for the country. They often are biased in the way they ask questions and their numbers can be manipulated. As we have seen in the past, "margin of error" is a meaningless phrase. I also love numbers.

FiveThirtyEight tried to take all of the polls out there, mix them up and come up with something that might be closer to the truth. This has some scientific basis. (I recently read a story about how if you have a 100 people guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar, there is a good chance no one will get it right. BUT if you take all of their guesses, their average (or median... I forget) will be darn close.) They also give different weight to different polls based on past history and other factors. It's interesting stuff.

Purely for keyword potential

This post is slightly pathetic. But I figure someone out there might search for Seth Lind with This American Life. They might add in Fear of Sleep or Thank You Robot or even The Shining.

If you did and ended up here... hi! You can see Seth and his "comedy troupe" this Friday at Under St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place, New York, NY) at 10:30pm. He'll be doing some long-form improv. So will the teams Jurassic Park and Iron Ruckus. Talk to Seth afterwards about This American Life and sleepless nights. Only $6.

(Yes, this is a plug.)

If you were looking for something else, I apologize. I'm off to eat sushi so yell at me later.

Favorite keyword search of the day...

methodical explanation cryptonomicon penises

Hey, Look

I fixed the damn banner. Got it to fit and cut off my lips. You don't really need to see my lips. That just seems excessive.

I also changed the subtitle (again). Originally it had been "Can I get a sherpa for all of my baggage?" I liked it when I had baggage I was carrying around (and the word "sherpa" is funny), but most of my baggage as been sorted through, boxed up and stuck into storage so that I can can lay in on my kids if I ever have them. Then it was "An infinite pile of crap is still just crap" which originally sounded like a wry commentary of the internet and mass media. But then I realized that it sounded exactly like the standard crap commentary on the internet and mass media. I usually write or post things that make me happy and make the world interesting. Which led to the sappy "Beauty is in the pauses." I still agree with that, but combined with my cutesy picture made me just want to post pictures of kittens. And while I get joy from pictures of kittens, it was all just a bit too dear.

So I settled on "or: How I Procrastinate" which is just accurate.

If you wish to see why it is called Twang of the Void, read the first ever post. You can also tell I had baggage back then.

(I thought about "A fat kid, an albino, an Unitarian and a manta ray walk into a bar..." but couldn't get it to fit on the banner.)

When in doubt, blog about the blog

I have a bunch of things I want to write about, they just aren't blog material. So it's another installment of "Keyword Search."

Things people have typed into google and end up here:

mythbuster slash remains high on this list. I get a dozen hits a month. Almost makes me want to write some... almost. deadlist catch slash is coming on strong. so far no ice truckers slash but now that I've type it, I am sure it will follow.

solutomaattimittaamotulos draws in a bunch of people which surprises me. I suppose it doesn't give a lot of results. Lesson: Have your blog be very specific. And have Discovery Channel sex fiction.

mai tai say that i'm old fashioned or variations of that is popular. That's still from an old post with Christopher Lee singing but while blogging about Dr. Horrible Sing-A-Log Blog I referenced it, realized YouTube had taken down the original video, so re-posted it with a new video. YOU CAN'T KEEP CHISTOPHER LEE OFF HE YOUTUBES!

I have no idea what six gift art is but I assume it is dirty.

"scrotal suspension" still draws a crowd. Some day I'll have to name an improv team after that. Or a child. It's a good boy's name.

duck tales makes the hootie known? I so wish I knew what they were looking for.

paperart + harry potter is probably really cool. I'm going to look it up. If it turn out to be dirty, humanity will loose another 7 points.

sensual. I can't believe that I was in the top 10,000 return for the word sensual. Seriously. I should be.

will hines oklahoma makes me want to see the Will Hines I know play Curly.

whiskey tango foxtrot improve team just has an extra "e."

Blog Rolling

Apparently, Summer is the time to blog. I started up again and so have a lot of folks I know. I thought perhaps this would be a good time to go through my long list of blogs I have listed here (see to the right) and why I read them.

A Revolution of Words
Wolfhaus is a good friend, a fellow Thank You Robot and general a cool dude. Exceedingly smart and funny and shares my tastes in most things.

Adam Bozarth
A talented improviser whose head is filled with a thousand ideas.

Anna's Blog
Anna's sense of humor is sharp like a straight razor. I am also partly responsible for introducing her to pen and paper roleplaying. So I owe her.

Bluvband
One of the most talent young improvisers I know.

Boing Boing
Okay, everyone knows Boing Boing. Probably my personal zeitgeist.

Dan In Seattle
Right know I am enjoying reading about his take on improv in the Northwest. (I was also in a class with him once.)

Diamond-Soled Shoes
Ruby Sneakers and I run very much in the same circles. I count her and Ben Whitehouse as the heart and souls of a certain slice of the NYC improv scene... and heart them both for it. Great friend.

Digsy Has A Blog
He does have a blog. I never followed Marvel comics but he is slowly educating me.

Eliza Skinner
A very talent comedian/writer/director/what have you. Also the teacher who allowed me to feel comfortable during musical improv. For that I'm eternally grateful.

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
Great source for DIY madness.

Faithless Hearts, Faithless Money
Rench introduced me to the Idiotarod and to country hip-hop. His projects (music and otherwise) are always exciting.

Feed Me A Kitten
Ethan is another improviser (or sorts). He has a talent for finding quirky things.

GamePolitics News
Because video games have a cultural impact.

Gizmodo
I like tech.

I'm Learning to Share
I recently found this. There are always great finds here.

Improker
Ben Whitehouse's coverage of improv in NYC. Ben and I are also working on an exciting project together that will either blow your mind or get us sued...or both.

Jill Morris
Funny lady with funny writings.

John Robert Wilson
Another Thank You Robot. JR's brain baffles and awes me. He as an amazing sense of the bizarre. I dare you to dive in.

Kotaku
A video game site that doesn't take t self to seriously but is also not just fluff.

Morrisey and Fist Fighting, Mostly
Chris Gethard is a teacher that did much to make me the improviser I am now and a great storyteller. I can't recommend his Hump Day Stories enough. Seriously, go back and read them all.

My Dick's On Fire
Mike Still is one of my favorite performers right now. He is just some one who steps on stage and makes me laugh.

Neil Gaiman's Journal
It's Neil Gaimen. What else do you want?

Planet Gordon
On my musical improv team (Veal) and great guy. Wrote a book.

Stuck In Customs
Fantastic photographs.

The Perry Bible Fellowship
I don't even know if he is still making strips but you should go browse it anyway.

Urban Prankster
Covers the world wide practice of making the world a more interesting place.

Will Hines
Another improviser/writer/everything. What his stuff. You'll laugh.

Wonkette
Because I'm a horrible gossip and love politics.


So check them out. There is also some fun stuff under What I'm Hearing. Enjoy.

Searches

I of course haven't check the stats for this blog for eons. I just did. Still an odd amount of traffic.

I am happy to say that the top key world search during 2008 has been "push button receive bacon."

The worth of things

I recently receive the following email:

Dear owner of twangofthevoid.blogspot.com,

I noticed that your blog "twangofthevoid.blogspot.com" hasn't been updated for a while. I'd like to buy this blog.

I assume that you are not interested in running it anymore.

I can buy this blog for $150.

What do you think?

I suppose $150 is quite a bit for something I never use any more. Except that it is a bit like selling off my memories. Sure, I could just archive it all... but it's not the same. This blog (like many many other) is a bit me yelling, "Hey world! Look at my brain!" And until I give my body up to science this will have to do.

And I might have more things to say now. So who knows? In a year it might be worth $175.

B-Day Gifts: Art & the amazing Jen Wang

I have a birthday coming up. My parents, being super super thoughtful, gave me a bunch of artto hang on my bare walls.

Eight stills from Bashki's Lord of the Rings that MamaSix found in our old stuff. Pretty cool. I need to group them all together somewhere. I think the yellow room.

A bunch of PapaSix's photos. He's getting pretty darn good. Some amazing stuff. I have no idea where to put them or how to group them. I have hung on over the bed already.

But the most mind blowing piece they gave me has a bit of a back story... a back story very related to this blog. Months ago I made a post about the artist Jen Wang and how much I dug her work. In fact, I even said that if someone wanted to get me something super cool, I would love one of her originals. Well, Papasix contacted her and commissioned her to do something based on the ol' blog. He sent her links to some posts and she also took a gander around. And she settled on one from last February. Well, one sentence from that post:

Going out to dinner with 2 couples tonight. There will actually be 7 people at the table as both women are "with child." Ah, the world of bumps.

And here is the amazing piece she made for me.

(Sorry the picture isn't better. It is already very nicely framed.)

Isn't that just wonderful? I love how the two men are just shadows and how the "bumps" are little hearts... and how the whole composition approximates a heart. Now, I've haven't worn a sweater vest in probably 20 years, but I think it is a good look on me. And, anyway, the look on my face is priceless... and very very accurate.

Again, thank you Papa & MamaSix. And thank you, Jen Wang.

(I also got a Nabaztag/tag. I'm still trying to figure out what it is. It's cool... just weird... and, um, buggy.)