From 1 to 60 in One Blog

Seems I've made it. Big time. Skippy's List dropped a little love on me during what he coined Operation Leafblower.

I went from 1 comment in 3 years to 60 in a couple of hours. And among the more notable comments, I have:

• You might want to see about making posting easier.
  
• I'm going to say that you probably need to write more entries. You've been around nearly three years, but you only total in at 30 entries.
  
• Turn off owner approval for your comments. You can always go back and delete any offensive/spam comments later.
  

To which I'd have to reply:

• I'll be posting more often, and I've made it much easier to post.
  
• Based on the very perceptive comment posted on Skippy's List, to wit: "good gods, his stuff is dry and boring. Maybe a few booger jokes would increase his traffic." Ya think? Which is why I point people towards "Skippy's List". He and his cohorts are far better writers than I. Face it. Anyone who comes up with the list of things they are not allowed to do because they lived it (as opposed to just fantasized about it) is probably going to be a bit more fun than I. Sorry. Besides, I don't know any booger jokes. Would a good fart joke count?
  
• I've now turned off owner approval for comments. They should go directly to the page once you've posted them.
  

And, for the record, yet another comment back on Skippy's site was: "He’s gonna check his admin page one day and shit bricks at all the comments there." Yes. I did. I was actually trying to figure out how to make a simple change to the page using the "poke and hope" method when I clicked on the tab for comments and saw... everything. I thought, "Holy Crap! The spammers have found me!" Then I started reading the comments and realized, "No, these are for real." THEN I kept seeing "Skippy says Hi", and "Skippy this" and "Skippy that".

Didn't take long to realize that Skippy had passed some love my way.

To which I can only reply, "Thanks, Skip. I owe you one."

Okay, one more rant...

I said in my previous post that I'd turned over a new leaf. I was going to simply blog on technical subjects, especially my interest in the scientific programming of Freemat. Unfortunately, I have to break my fast on all things opinionated.

I'm about to start a graduate program. It's been awhile since I was an undergrad, so I need to freshen up my classroom skills. I've been studying probability, and it's led me to remember one thing I truly hated about textbooks. It's that textbook authors have a penchant for using phrases such as, "it's clear", "it's obvious", "it's easy to see", and "it is apparent". Frankly, those words should be instantly banned from any textbook. Period. Knowledge is a journey with pit stops along the way. The path from one stop to the next is only obvious to those who have been down the path before. Authors must always bear in mind that they've been down a particular path probably many times. The people reading their material, most likely students, have not.

The problem I have is that, every time I see these phrases, if I'm having a difficult time with the material, I begin to feel like an idiot. I mean, the author said "it can be clearly seen", which makes me feel as if I'm on the front of the Titanic, the lookout is screaming "Iceberg ahead!", and I can't see anything but water. Why do they do that? Is it easier than actually spelling out that which is "apparent"? Does it give them a feeling of superiority? Both? Neither?

Regardless, I reiterate my belief these phrases should be banned from all textbooks everywhere.

Obviously.

A New Leaf

Let's see. I've been online now for well over a year, and received a whopping 1 comment for any of my articles. The "Hmmm" factor is going gangbusters here. Considering that most of my posts have been political in nature, and considering that I obviously cannot write a well thought out political piece, I'd say that's a wrap. End of story. Full stop. Think I'll simply point people towards others, such as Mike the Marine and Blackfive (for military discussions) and Skippys List (for humor).Instead, I think I'll concentrate on technical discussions, primarily concerning Freemat and its many uses.
UPDATE: Okay, so I can't read a calendar. I've actually had this blog since November 2005. That means that I've been here for almost *3* years, with only one comment to show for it. One.
Sigh.