Wonderments

[pecunium]

The world is a small place, and everything is contingent.

The degrees of separation are scary. Without too much work I can get to a host of people, living and dead, in the past two-hundred years. I am three degrees from the present pope (parish priests, to my Cardinal, to the Pope) which puts me only five degrees, at most, from John XIII. I can get to Churchill in four, which gets me to Hitler in six.

I can get to Elizbeth II in three, which gets me to Queen Victoria in five.


Be Bothered is a blog which lists a whole bunch of people, it is; in fact, a blogroll, and not much else, listing what the owner thinks are progressive and interesting blogs, speaking to current events.

How I was found, and then selected for inclusion, I don't know.

Is the "Indie 500" the big leagues? No. At most I'm in AA ball. A minor leaguer. I don't craft well enough, I grind this stuff out on the fly, and so typoes and punctuational oddities appear. I have a small readership (though when I ponder that about 250 people pop in to read my musings, well that's nice). I've had larger readerships, and smaller.

This one is funny though. Those other readerships, they were either captive (I wrote for a paper, they took that paper, for whatever reason, ergo they got my stuff), or they were joint... a sort of conversation. To stay in the membership, one had to contribute.

But that doesn't change the odd thrill in finding people who actually read this thing. Nor does it answer the question of why somethings get comment, and others just sit there. Since this is more for me, than for the audience, I don't see that changing what I choose to write about, much.

Here the readership contributes, in part (and no small part) by giving me incentive to write. Making my passions, the fleeting and the abiding, worth committing to the page. Keeping a 20 year practice of venting my thoughts in public, and now I get to collect them all in a place.

But I wonder how people find me. I have my champions, and I know who some of you are, but that can't be all of it. I get the odd troll (most don't stop to read the rules and so they die a-borning) but mostly I just get to know that some people actually care about the way I write about things.

Thanks.

Comments

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

I thought you were interesting over on "Making Light" about interrogation.

[ckd]

I probably found you through akirlu's LJ, liked what I saw, and started reading.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

That would be one of the "abiding" passions.

And I know where some of my readership hails from (I can blame it all on akirlu if I want. :)

It's more the invisible ones, the people I discover when I do a vanity search on my name in Google; or see who Blogshares says have linked to me which just croggles me.

Oh, BTW, and apropos of nothing, I have jonquils coming up. Bought the bulbs because of you.

TK

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I've refernced you (IIRC with your permission) on various blogs when talking about interrogation, but I've never linked to you. I think I ran across you on Making Light before the interrogation talk, but I can't remember when.

Your cookery blgging, BTW, is just as compelling as your political blogging, of not moreso, because it's less hesitant. You speak with authority about food.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

< toe digging > aw, shucks < /toe digging >

I was unaware of hesitance in my politiblogging. I think it the attempt to be polite enough to keep those who disagree from disregarding me altogether. I am certainly not reticent in person (as <lj user =akirlu. once pointed out when I was explaining by relief at never being near a specific politician because I'd be hard pressed, in light of all the ills I saw him doing, to refrain from inflicting bodily harm, "That's what wrong with the American military today, the unwillingness of it's members to speak their mind). Some of it may also be the odd contraints on free-expression of all I think, because of being in uniform. TK p.s. this is an open forum... feel free to link to any of it.

[geekchick]

But I wonder how people find me.

I think I found you on my "friend of" list. ;) How you found me, I have no idea; friends in common, maybe?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It was from a comment in a common "friend"

And I have been prone to follow such links when the post was interesting.

TK

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

I read you in Making Light, and then jonsinger mentioned meeting you in Seattle and that you had interesting, insightful, and worth-reading things to say.

No more need be said. I added you just about instantly.

I like your viewpoint from places I am not (soldier, Catholic) and your viewpoint from places that I am (open-minded, foody).

I don't know if you've tripped across this http://slacktivist.typepad.com/ (http://slacktivist.typepad.com/). The author is an Evangelical Christian who comes at the goings-on of today from a viewpoint that I can agree with.

[crisavec.livejournal.com]

I found you via ginmar, when you defended her against moderndayknight when he was claiming she was nothing but an REMF and not worthy of breathing(or something like that)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Well... I'll have to thank jonsinger sometime.

Yes, I have read Fred Clark He's on my list (perhaps I ought to make a Blogroll Post) of regular reads.

TK

[lisajulie.livejournal.com]

And jonsinger will look at you and say something to the effect of "what's not to like?"

He revels in connecting people.

I'm just glad that he did so with us...

Should you be on the East Coast, Washington, D.C. area (should I say exiled?) do ping us. We do food. Plants are also done. And socializing is always available!

[jesurgislac.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I'm three steps from Tony Blair, which puts me four steps from George W. Bush. I find this extremely weird, when I think about it, which I try not to.

I found you via Making Light.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Hrmf... I'm three steps from Tony Blair, by way of George Bush.

:)

TK

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

I'd ascribed your sometimes-hesitance in politiblogging less to politeness than to an attempt to avoid the kind of Certainty that can so easily be fatally destructive. I don't see that taking care to distinguish between Facts and Beliefs should be considered a flaw. nor that hesitance should.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

The degrees of separation don't seem to mean much when I've met Jon Singer and Paul Williams, my paternal grandfather was acquainted with Henry Ford & Joe E. Brown, and my mother met Mark Twain. Not to mention having been worked-on by a horrible dentist whose waiting-rooom walls were covered with photographs of him posing with various (Republican) Presidents.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Hey - checlk me out - honest :-)