This week is just a "quickie" because I have been pretty busy with Anzac posts: first, second, third, fourth, and fifth - more than enough to keep you all occupied.
On the other hand, I was too slack to do one last week so I feel a bit guilty....
First site for review is Simon World. Simon has some good stuff on the right hand side in the 'Information' section, starting with About Me. I have to draw this to your attention because of this post :-). Simon runs a pretty good line in sarcasm, and humour with a great sprinkling of local stories.
Second site is LOL. Being a joke site, it contains mainly jokes (who would have guessed) but Rofl and I did a joint post for Anzac Day. What is interesting is that some of the readers provide better punchlines that Rofl does (see this story and the punchline by Ravages in the comments).
Next up we have Paul and the very interesting question and answer session. In fact it was so interesting that I am tempted to try it. Go and read Paul's post (the original with the questions is here) and then leave your questions in the comments of this post :-) Paul, like Simon, has a comment on the Hamas leadership. In another amazing parallel, he also posts about Hong Kong.
The next random draw is GRRR be afraid who has just moved up the Ecosystem (congratulatory comments would be appreciated). TL now has a theme song and a number plate but she still has decided on whether to leave the dark side and come across to munu.
Finally we have Beyond the Black Hole which a multi-person animal blog. There is Miss Kitty (who I suspect has a crush on Tiger), Mr Mouse, Bird Brain, and Bill Bulldog. Talk about a confusion....
On a completely unrelated matter, happy (belated) birthday Tiger.
Blogroll Checklist
==============
G'Day Mate - Archive (SELF) AOK
G'Day Mate! (SELF) AOK
The Gray Monk AOK
LOL: Laughing Out Loud AOK
The Postulate AOK
Another Day Dawns AOK
Munuvian - Blog Roll AOK
G'Day Mate! - Blog Roll AOK
Note: There were 1565 possible links to consider (0 unresolved).
TOP 15 Sites
============
1: LOL: Laughing Out Loud (135)
2: The Gray Monk (55)
3: Dusting My Brain (43)
4: On The Third Hand: More fair and balanced than Fox News (30)
5: All AgitProp, all the Time... (29)
6: Read My Lips (27)
7: Ramblings of SilverBlue (24)
8: Another Day Dawns (21)
9: The Postulate (17)
10: Interested-Participant (17)
11: CynicalCyn.com (16)
12: Aussie Courier (14)
13: DramaQueen (13)
14: Da Goddess - Friends are like bras, a good one never lets you down (13)
15: Kingsley 2.0 (12)
Random 5 Sites
==============
Simon World (9)
LOL: Laughing Out Loud (135)
All AgitProp, all the Time... (29)
GRRR be afraid (11)
Beyond the Black Hole (10)
You all know me. I just have to fiddle with things. I can't let well enough alone. Take funny coloured comments as an example. Did you know that I can actually make all the munuvian comments a different colour? It worked bu the colour clashed and being colour blind I have a lot of difficulty once I step outside the base colour set (which I got off some web site somewhere). Anyway, back to the point - I was running the top10 and thinking that all the blogs look pretty much the same as usual. Which is strange because of all those new munuvians that have arrived via Ellis Island. Hmmm. Must be something wrong with my code..... time passes..... blowed if I can find it. Let's do this the slow way.... wget the page.... look at the source.... where is the blogroll.... ohhhhh. It isn't. What you think is a blogroll is really just a javascript. The javascript sort of fakes the blogroll on demand. Hmmmm. I went with php include files instead (generating them is done once at rebuild time instead of every time the page is loaded). The advantage of the javascript is that is is updated every time it runs, the disadvantage is that it gets updated every time it runs. More importantly, when you look at the source code of the page (which is effectively what top10 does) all you see is the script instructions without the actual blog names. Ahhhhh. Bother. Grumble..... Grumble..... Fiddle.... Fiddle.... Why don't I ask Pixy to change it? Nah. That will stuff it up for those who don't use php.... *lightbulb* why not just chuck the javascript directly into the program (as it was a web page). The code is looking for "a href" and they will appear in some form in the javascript. Bingo. Apart from a bucket load of errors (as yet unidentified blogs) it worked and according to the code there were 1,388 links to check which means that the top linked blog (LOL) is only worth about 7% of the total.
How does the link count work? Well it is a bit complicated but I'll try and explain it briefly. Effectively a link (the thing inside the "a href") is classed as one of four things: invalid (meaning it is not a blog), redirect (meaning it is an alternate link for a blog), self (meaning it links to a page of mine) or normal. The invalid feature takes care of links to quizilla or a news service like the Sydney Moaning Herald. The redirect allows be to define a canonical url for each blog but link variations to that blog so that the counts get added correctly. An example of this would be a blog that responds to having a www added before the blog name. On the off-chance that "www.blogname" appears it would be redirected to just "blogname". A self link counts to the person who does the linking not to me (hence my own blogs are excluded). This really only benefits those blogs which are actually scanned (see the extended article for the details - effectively my blogs and any blogs I host) but the intention was always to expand* that list (maybe to include the top 15 sites or maybe all of mu.nu).
What was the point of all that? Well it explains why I am so late with this roundup but it also explains where the heck Backstage comes into the picture. Seriously the chances of a blog with only one link seem pretty tenuous but this is a random system and such things must happen sometime. The first thing to note is that I know nothing about the world that this writer inhabits (i.e. backstage) but by golly, the problems sound familiar - bad specification, trapped between clients and suppliers and projects going over time (and over budget as well). Actually reading this I figured it seemed like a match for Mookie RIffic and sure enough, she is listed in the links.
Another candidate for the munu move was kingsley.blog-city.com (I recommended him) but his blog appears to have fallen into disrepair between the last time I checked it and the recommendation because it just has this banner and no posts. Since then I received a tip-off to suggest that he has moved himself over to Kingsley 2.0 which bears all the signs of being an MYT installation. Looks like I need to go fix some more redirects....
The random number generator seems to have been working overtime because the next blog is also a new munu blog: Beyond the Black Hole. Now I have to say, that with a name like that, I was expecting a SciFi type blog (and if that is what you are expected, go click on the link before you finish the review). It isn't. Instead it is written from the perspective of a dog, a mouse and a cat. Check this post by Bill Bulldog and this one by Miss Kitty. Given the editorial addition, it looks like the mouse is in charge of the blog and he has posted a joke he got from a church mouse.
Finally for this week, we have two links to All AgitProp, all the Time.... Paul has been ranting for a while now on the media bias when it comes to dealing with terrorist scum freedom fighters. Especially those misguided teatowel wearing lunatics adherents of the Religion of Peace. In his latest broadside ne notes that the correct terminology for "miserable criminal kidnapping terrorist scum" is apparently "daring rebels" (in the Star Wars sense). Mind you, the terrorists are not the only ones facing a barrage of common sense - take the whining 11/9** relatives and this very quotable comment directed at Bob (who was complaining that the government did not apologise to him):
Look, Bob, seriously, has it occurred to you that maybe, if anyone owes you an apology, it's Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda?
Hear! Hear! I have asked a similar question when confronted by Aboriginal activists trying to get me to sign petitions - ever think of asking the English government (instead of the Australian government) for an apology? My ancestors had as little choice as yours..... Finally, even if you have not clicked on any other links in this entire review, you MUST go and read this post where Paul talks about balanced perspective - what if the pope was encouraging terrorism and Catholics were crashing aeroplanes, blowing up trains and basically acting like the followers of the Religion of Peace. As Paul asks:
Would anyone on this planet (including those of us that live in the Free World) be terribly preoccupied with the "root causes", engaging in interfaith dialogue, or chalking this sort of thing up as a "cultural / language thing"?....Yet, oddly enough, when someone (like Charles at LGF) points out just what is going on in the Islamic world these days (and what the members of the lunatic fringe seem to have in store for us if things go their way), he's a "vehicle for hate speech"?
Go read (and comment).....
[* If you would like your blog included directly (i.e. scanned weekly), let me know. Currently the caching is turned off so it may result in more than one hit and the hit will appear to come from a spider which will only take your index page without any associated images or following any links - hence the load should be minimal.]
[** Dates (according to international standards) should either appear as YYYY/MM/DD or DD/MM. Only Americans use the weird MM/DD format. FOr a long time I assumed that Americans referred to 911 because that is what they dial in an emergency rather than as a date - the 9th of November]
Blogroll Checklist
==============
G'Day Mate - Archive (SELF) AOK
G'Day Mate! (SELF) AOK
The Gray Monk AOK
LOL: Laughing Out Loud AOK
The Postulate AOK
Another Day Dawns AOK
Munuvian - Blog Roll AOK
G'Day Mate! - Blog Roll AOK
Note: There were 1388 possible links to consider (0 unresolved).
TOP 15 Sites
============
1: LOL: Laughing Out Loud (98)
2: The Gray Monk (53)
3: Dusting My Brain (45)
4: On The Third Hand: More fair and balanced than Fox News (27)
5: Read My Lips (26)
6: All AgitProp, all the Time... (25)
7: Ramblings of SilverBlue (24)
8: Another Day Dawns (20)
9: CynicalCyn.com (15)
10: Aussie Courier (14)
11: Da Goddess - Friends are like bras, a good one never lets you down (14)
12: DramaQueen (13)
13: The Postulate (12)
14: Accidental Verbosity (11)
15: GRRR be afraid (11)
Random 5 Sites
==============
Backstage (1)
kingsley.blog-city.com (10)
Beyond the Black Hole (3)
All AgitProp, all the Time... (25)
All AgitProp, all the Time... (25)
The first blog this week is one of those unidentifiable connections. I guess the author of Cop Talk either left a comment or someone bounced from there to here which looks like a referral. I looked through the blogroll and they are all strangers to me (but look worth investigating). In the meantime, the blog appears to be from the perspective of a cop (who would've guess that from the title?). I particularly liked this picture of the rollercoaster highway and this story points out that there is more to public nudity than you might expect. Finally, I really liked tihs ertny.
Coptalk mention a kids party which is a good lead in for Ramblings of SilverBlue who has 7 reasons not to mess with kids. This was the first place I saw the new security arrangements for us aliens. I would not be thrilled to be fingerprinted - feels like a lack of trust really. Finally, I think I need to include a picture for the ladies.
Now this next blog should not actually have come up in the list. You see The Accidental Jedi is now a dormant blog. The author has merged with blogs (in more ways than one) and the replacement is Accidental Verbosity. If yours truly had been on the job, this would not have occurred because top10 has a mapping table for changes in domain names. Somehow I missed mapping the old onto the new domain..... Anyway, instead of reviewing a dormant blog, lets go and have a look at Accidental Verbosity instead. Jay (the other author) has an interesting anti-moonbat post that is almost entirely written using images. Worth thinking about. There is also an interesting grammer quiz which I reckon I could fail next weekend. Finally the best possible news is that the recent marriage is producing something even more special than a new blog.
Speaking of such events naturally leads to Simon World - another blogger expecting (well actually his wife is doing the expecting). There is even a poll on the main page to pick boy/girl and early/late (Girl & Early is currently the top choice). I stumbled over this blog when the author welcomed me to mu.nu and I have enjoyed reading it. Simon is (AFAIK) an Aussie living and working in Hong Kong (something I came close to doing a couple of times - given the family connections). This gives an interesting perspective on events. The only down side is that the posts are scrolling off the main page too fast :-)
Finally (on a much sadder note) Dusting My Brain has stopped dusting (in fact that link probably won't work). There is a final message to her audience here but all the old archives and everything are locked away. Major downer. Personally, I think it was because of the recent birthday party and the drunken Aussie comments :-) Hey squip, couldn't you leave the archives for us to browse?
Well, despite my Friday 5 intentions, it looks like nothing really got done except for this Roundup. Next time you are feeling down, just remember that I put your viewing pleasure higher on the to-do list than all those activities :-) Mind you, I did spend a fair bit of Saturday wearing a "skirt" (as my daughter calls it). My wife kept saying it was hot but I felt fine until I had to put my trousers back on (to go to church)......
TOP 15 Sites
============
1: LOL: Laughing Out Loud (108)
2: The Gray Monk (76)
3: Dusting My Brain (57)
4: On The Third Hand: More fair and balanced than Fox News (47)
5: All AgitProp, all the Time... (45)
6: Read My Lips (40)
7: Ramblings of SilverBlue (26)
8: Da Goddess - Friends are like bras, a good one never lets you down (23)
9: CynicalCyn.com (23)
10: Aussie Courier (22)
11: DramaQueen (20)
12: Another Day Dawns (20)
13: GRRR be afraid (19)
14: Interested-Participant (17)
15: PD: You ... relax. (16)
Random 5 Sites
==============
Cop Talk (2)
Ramblings of SilverBlue (26)
The Accidental Jedi (4)
Simon World (3)
Dusting My Brain (57)