The Strange Tao of Blogs

 

I’ve been thinking about blog posts.  I write most things on this blog for myself.  I’m not trying to reach an audience or convince anyone to change their ways.  I activated a “Top Posts” widget on my blog a little while ago.  It’s strangely fascinating to watch posts rise and fall in popularity.  the first post I ever wrote is the one that gets the most hits, even 2 years later.  I happened to think of a quote from Confucius to name the post.  Little did I know that a steady stream of Internet users search Google for that quote every day.  A river of consciousness that gives me about 10 hits every day.  I don’t want to disrupt my Google mojo by repeating the quote here.

 

Then there’s the case of the Monkey’s Fist.  I’ve had a knot tying book for about 20 years.  I like to tie key chains, dog leashes, things like that.  I decided to take pictures of each step involved in tying a Monkey’s Fist knot.  I posted it on Flickr here.  There is steady interest on Google about this knot.  About 5 people decide to tie a Monkey’s Fist each day.  That’s the thing I find fascinating.  How is it that a new batch of 5 people want to tie this knot using my instructions every day?  Another current in the Internet, I suppose.

National Geographic

I took this picture on the Lehigh Valley Trail, a converted railroad right of way. the honey bees were swarming the bush, but didn’t seem to mind my intrusion at all. They scattered briefly when I set up my tripod in the middle of their bush, but quickly went back to work. At first, I tried to follow individual bees, but eventually decided to pre focus on a flower and wait for a customer to come by.

I came across a site at National Geographic that accepts amateur photographs. An editor picks twelve per day to post on their site, and two of those get published in the magazine.  The “Your Shot” page also has some amazing photography on it.