Once again, attending a camp for swingers

Tomorrow night I’m heading off on a plane to once again attend a camp for swingers.  As you can imagine, posting on my blog and sorting through my t-shirt drawers will be far from my mind. ;-)

Take THAT, Lisa Barrone :-P

Anyway… if you’re interested in all the details (including lots of photos!), visit Swing Out New Hampshire’s Web site.

See y’all in a week or two :-D

[Added to reduce chances of some folks having a heart attack:  It’s a swing DANCE camp, people.  Lindy Hop.  Jazz music.  Sheesh… such dirty minds ;-)]

Don't Download This Song! (listen to another gem by Weird Al Yankovic)

Unless you’re a fan of the RIAA or a bitter, clueless artist… I urge you to run, er, click, not walk to go hear Weird Al’s new ditty: “Don’t Download This Song.” [warning: music autoplays].

I’m looking forward to the music video promised for this evening, but in the meantime, you can hear the song in its entirety (and, of course, download it!).

What makes a blog a community? And are such communities indeed highly fickle?

I’ve spent much of this weekend dealing with my blogfeeds.  I have well over 200 (haven’t bothered to count ‘em exactly), and I’m tens of thousands of posts behind.  Some feeds I’ve just had to (often regretfully) unsubscribe from, others I’ve “reset to zero” (admittedly just masking a larger problem), but—most interestingly to me—I’ve become more acutely aware that some blogs have a thriving community and others do not.

Some examples of blogs I perceive to have strong communities:

• Apophenia
• Google Blogoscoped
• Aaron Swartz’ “Raw Thought”

What indicates a strong community on a blog? (I’m not counting “meta” sites like Digg, Slashdot, MeFi, etc., by the way)

• Entries tend to have many comments.
• Commenters tend to stick around over time (there aren’t just a lot of one-off commenters on individual entries).
• Commenters aren’t just “talking” to the blogger, but also to each other.

So what helps establish and maintain a strong blog community?  Some guesses:

• Reasonably frequent posts (2+ a week)
• EASY commenting (e.g., no insane captchas, required registrations, etc.)
• A fixed topic that fascinates a lot of people (politics, gossip, sex, techie stuff, etc.)
• Many readers (though, perhaps unsurprisingly, this is clearly neither necessary nor sufficient)
• Popularity of the blogger in real life (due to career, good looks, large friend base, perceived influence, etc.)
• Popularity of the blogger online.

The last item is complex enough to merit its own subitems ;-).  Popular folks online recursively attract more popularity because:

• Their blogs are linked from many other sites (more traffic, greater perception of “importance”)
• Commenters (rightly) perceive that posting on their blogs will attract attention to *them* (the commenters).
• Additionally, commenters (again, often correctly) assume that A-listers may notice them and think more highly of them, link to them, etc.

Note, by the way, that “compelling, original content” and “engaging writing” don’t seem to correlate with the strength of blog communities.  I have plenty of blogs in my feed list that have amazing content and feature outstanding writing… but are devoid of any measurable sense of community.  Conversely, I’ve seen quite a few blogs (no, not the ones I listed at top!) that tend to offer somewhat stale writing and uncompelling content, yet still feature a thriving community.  I suppose it’s much like the Entertainment world at large, eh?  Popular megab(r)ands rake in the fans and the bucks while many independent artists starve for funds and attention.  But I digress.

*  *  *

I do have a somewhat obnoxious theory, though.  I think about 2% of blog readers account for 98% of blog comments.  The LC:  Loquacious Commenterati.  Often un- or independently-employed, quite often geeky (sitting at a computer all day and often into the night). 

Why does this matter?

1. Blog communities are likely to be less diverse than one might wish.  My very-smart-and-interesting parents, for instance, do e-mail, send IMs, read newspapers and look at photos online, but I am fairly certain they’ve never commented on a blog.
2. Blog communities (like any communities, I suppose) can be fickle, both due to selfish reasons (A-lister no longer works for Impressive Company, cute blogger is no longer single) or more extrinsic reasons (commenters get demanding full-time jobs, start getting laid, start having families—though not necessarily all at once!)
3. Blog communities can pressure bloggers to alter the frequency, topical focus, transparency, monetizeability, and other aspects of their blog, even when such modifications are not necessarily in the bloggers’ interests.

With all of that said, I must nonetheless insist that I am not attempting to denigrate all LCs (of which, admittedly, I am often one myself).  Many are my kind friends, colleagues I greatly respect, and so on.  But in the aggregate, I still find the seeming-capriciousness of blog communities and LCs to be both fascinating and occasionally disconcerting.

*  *  *

So now, in a rather ironic but not-unexpected twist, I welcome your comments below.

• Why do some blogs boast a thriving community, whereas others are commently-baren?
• If you’re an LC, what motivates you?  Do you feel that motivates most LCs?
• Are blog communities and LCs really as fickle as I suggest?  And if so, is that even a bad thing?

T-shirt stats

So, what do you do when you’re home alone on a Saturday night, you don’t feel like going out, and you also aren’t in the mood to be very productive?

No, not THAT ;-).

Why, you optimize your t-shirt drawers, of course.  Exactly!  And so far, I’ve determined that I have:

• 13 Google t-shirts (fewer than half gotten since I became a Googler, interestingly enough)
• 13 dance-related shirts
• 13 other somewhat-decent shirts that I may actually wear (okay, this is weird… I had no idea my t-shirt collection was so bad-luckedly symmetrical!)
• 5 [whew!] remaining t-shirts that I don’t want to be caught wearing, so I’ll donate these to Goodwill (:cough: unoriginal and oft-oversized swag)

A sampling of some of the stranger ones:

• “Got Blood?” with a full-sized mosquito featured.  This was a birthday gift.  I think it’s a rather neat shirt, and I love my parents, but sometimes I wonder about them :D.
• “Sleep with me” with a domain name that unintentionally (in English) sounds somewhat similar to a sexually transmitted disease (but yes, S, I still like and wear this… I just have to deal with a few puzzled looks!)
• “Dance Your Pants Off!” featuring SpongeBob SquarePants (I admit it, I bought this off the clearance rack at Target.  And a rather concerned bakery proprietor once seemingly-seriously urged me… “I ask that you keep your pants on in here, please!”)
• “Single Red Alien Seeking Portly Humans”—a rather humorous 24Hour Fitness (gym chain) shirt.  The corresponding billboards added, “They’ll eat the fat ones first.”

...plus a mock fraternity shirt, a BIIIIIIG cartoon frog, a fake Mastercard commercial (”...priceless”), and more.  Sadly, this doesn’t take into account the 20+ t-shirts I had that were stolen from me about 6 years ago.  So many college-memories-in-fabrics, lost :-(

Hmm… now that I think of it, the first four could be strangely (albeit sickly) tied together.  Odd.

*  *  *

So now the questions for YOU!
1) What do YOU do when you’re feeling down / unproductive / anti-social?
2) What kind of t-shirts do you have, and what are some of the stranger ones?
3) Is this as bad as a cat-eating-a-cheese-sandwich post?

*  *  *

And now… a little something for those of you still bravely (or boredly) reading:
A friendly Googler fellow gave me some cool (“Up and to the right!”) Google Analytics t-shirts (size: large).  I’m offering one of them to a humble (and limerickly talented) BLADAM reader, and yes, I’ll pay to ship it anywhere in the world for you :-D. 

Just two key stipulations*: 
1) You have to write an entertaining geek limerick below (doesn’t need to be Google-related!)
2) You must do so when signed into your BLADAM account.

Please *do not* post your address publicly.
I’ll mail the winner in a week or so and get the info then. 
(By the way… I *was* going to throw in Google Analytics and Writely invites, but the meanies that run those services went ahead and opened ‘em up to the unwashed masses before I could use those perks as additional prizes.  Curses… foiled again!)

Good luck, and have fun!

*  *  *

* Obligatory disclaimer and contest rules:
I work for Google, but I have nothing to do with Analytics or Writely, nor is this high-stakes contest in any way endorsed by Google, other Googlers, any specific Google fans, or any of my sane or insane friends.  Contest not open to Googlers or their immediate families.  Void where prohibited.  Do not give t-shirt to infants or children under three, as suffocation may result.  Bearer does not inherit the ability to fly or garner unusually high values of PageRank.  Do not taunt happy funshirt.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Shirt is not meant to discriminate against liberals or those who are left-handed.  Not waterproof, fireproof, or catproof.  Do not ingest.  Remember, in an emergency, your nearest shirt may be behind you.  The answer is 42.

Brave Combo rocks in countless ways. Here's why you will love them, too

Brave Combo is 26-year-old (!) “hot jazz quintet, a rollicking rock’n'roll bar band, a Tex-Mex conjunto, a sizzling blues band, a saucy cocktail combo, a deadly serious novelty act, a Latin orchestra, and one of America’s dance bands par excellence.”  [see their bio page] But they kick ass for many other reasons, too.

For those of you with short attention spans, fine… you can skip the rest of my brilliant commentary and go directly to Brave Combo’s music. 
A variety “dozen sampler”(tm) I recommend:  Breslau, Canto a la salsa, Down at the Friendly Tavern, High Bounce Polka, Hokey Pokey, My Tears are Nothing, No Work Today, Spaghetti Twist and Twirl, Swing it Baby Swing, The Hustle, Three Ducks Ondo, Waltz in C Minor,

Aside from the fact that this band is made up of great musicians that play a huge variety of contagiously fun music, it’s damn cool that they’ve made decent-quality one-minute segments of a ton of their songs available on the Web, no?  In fact, their Web site is informative, entertaining, and pretty comprehensive—a sad rarity for band sites, IMHO.

Here are other things that highlight why Brave Combo is an amazingly kick-ass band:

• They were featured on The Simpsons and have also won a Grammy.
• They have made their full songs available online… from Yahoo Music Unlimited (172 songs!) to iTunes to emusic (live performance: 25 downloads free*!).
• Their live performances are a hell of a lot of fun (and affordable: under $15!), but surprisingly their CDs manage to capture much of the energy and enthusiasm.
• At the risk of being poo-poo’d by cynics, they honestly believe that spreading good music around can contribute to world peace.
• They love dancers and they do a fine job encouraging people of all ages to get up and shake their booties.
• They’re nice, unpretentious folks who clearly appreciate and respect their fans.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to tour that extensively outside of Texas [see their itinerary]... but if you can possibly catch them live, do!

Edited to add (a few minutes after posting this entry):
emusic… great idea, noble quest (catering to independent bands and the smart folks who love ‘em)... but dudes, what’s with the “We won’t show you our catalog until you sign up.”  I understand your motivations, but that’s still just rude.—-
One of my favorite Brave Combo songs is “The Mystery Spot Polka”... but alas, it’s not on their music clips page :-(.—-
* Credit card / trial required.  Yours truly, a sincere but selfish bastard, get free downloads if you sign up :-P

Why Snakes on a Plane makes me sad

I grew up with snakes.  A Burmese Python named, appropriately enough, “Julius Squeezer.”  Lots of harmless king snakes and gopher snakes and more.

You see, my dad (a biology teacher) was friends with a herpetologist, and the two of them would often conduct hands-on educational seminars around the area to help people understand that snakes are our friends, not something to be feared nor chopped up with a garden shovel.  My dad and his friend also helped out the local sheriff by being part of what I called “The Snake Patrol”—comprised of environmentalist folks who’d go out to a house where some person—who had moments ago called 911 or whatever screaming incoherenantly about a deadly snake—was about ready to take drastic, lethal action against a harmless baby king snake or whatnot.  My dad would go out there, put the snake in a pillowcase, and release it into the wild. 

One time, alas, it was too late.  The frantic woman, who had spotted what she KNEW was a deadly snake outside by her trash cans, could hold off no longer.  About ten minutes before my dad arrived, she had repeatedly bisected the critter.  The purely rubber critter I might add.  Methinks that snake wasn’t posing all that much of a threat, eh?

As part of all these efforts, my dad would sometimes temporarily bring snakes to our home, where I got to hold them and learn that they weren’t slimy or (generally) deadly or even venemous.

Plus snakes eat things like wild rats, which are generally NOT our friends when they’re carrying diseases into our homes.

Anyway, this brings us to why movies like Snakes on a Plane and those films about deadly spiders or any other fearful-animal-de-jour make me sad.  They undoubtedly result in not only a rise of fear but also an increased level of senseless animal killings.  In a broader sense, they contribute to a dystopian view of nature as something to be feared, coralled, and conquered.

You might think I’m overreacting, or you might argue that people are smart enough to know the difference between Hollywood and real life.  I, regrettably, beg to differ.  As a human race, we haven’t shown a very good ability to either assess comparative risks (say, the likelihood of a plane incident vs. the chances of dying in an auto accident) or live in harmony with nature.

True, at the core, it’s pretty much just one of a zillion stupid movies that people flock to see.  And I suppose there’s something to be said for lame escapist entertainment.  I just wish it didn’t use nature as a scapegoat.

[Photo] And when they land, they'll do so in an organized fashion

A comparison of dark chocolates from Trader Joe's

Methodology
I took a bite of the famed whole-wheat Ak-Mak cracker and sips of orange juice in between chocolate nibbles.

Goal
Vital learning in the name of science, with an aim to provide thoughtful, unbiased info to my fellow dark chocolate lovers.

Grand summary
- Villars - Swiss chocolate:  Sharpest (along with Trader Joes)
- Valrhona - French chocolate:  creamest, sweetest, with a noticeable but mild afterbite, fruity
- Guaranda - Equadorian chocolate (strangely labeled “European chocolate”):  smokey
- Trader Joe’s Pound Plus (“TJ”) - Belgian chocolate:  thickest of all, tied for sharpest with Villars, faintly fruity, hardest, least creamy initially

Relevant notes

• All the chocolate bars boasted a chocolate percentage ranging from 70-72%, and contained the following ingredients:  Cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa butter, and soy lecithin (as an emulsifier).  Additionally, the Villars contained “flavours” and the Valrhona was “flavored with natural vanilla.”
• I conducted three ‘rounds’ of testing.  In one of the rounds, I simply ate a small piece of chocolate from each bar one after another.  In the other two rounds (with differing sampling orders), I ate a piece of Ak-Mak wheat cracker and sipped some orange juice in between chocolate pieces to cleanse my palate.

My observations

• Since the TJ was at least twice as thick as the others, it was hard to compare the mouth-feel.  Since, for instance, thinner chocolate will naturally melt more quickly in the mouth, this significantly alters the perception of creaminess.
• Sampling 12 small pieces of chocolate wasn’t as enjoyable as I imagined.  I felt somewhat unpleasantly full, even after eating less than one bar total.  Note that the testing was done after a sizeable lunch, however.
• The Villars and TJ tied for sharpest / most-bitter… but not unpleasantly bitter.  All the chocolates, at least by my tastes, were amply sweet.
• The Valrhona was the creamiest and sweetest, perhaps due to the added vanilla.
• The Valrhona and, to a slightly lesser extent, the TJ had a mildly fruity aftertaste.  Though Scharffenberger chocolate was not included in this test round, I distinctly remember that particular brand having a comparatively much more powerful—almost overpowering—fruitiness to it.
• The Guaranda had the most unique flavor, both initially and lingering.  The wrapper describes it as “...exotic wood nuances”... but, before reading this, the first word that came to my mind was “smokey.”  Not in a bad way, and it was very subtle, but still noticeable.  This wasn’t surprising to me, since I had eaten roasted (unsweetened) cacao beans… and they do taste woodsy/smokey to me.

*  *  *

The bottom line

All of these chocolates are delicious, and—sans the “Pound Plus” TJ wrapper—I’d be proud to serve any of them to guests.  I do wish the TJ was less thick (sliced horizontally down the middle in the pack would be perfect!), but overall, it’s an extremely good buy given the price! (around $4.50 as of August, 2006).  In particular, I’ve found that combining a handful of mixed nuts with a single thick piece of the TJ chocolate makes for a wonderfully delicious snack… and—given the mix of fats, proteins and antioxidants—a rather filling and healthy one, too, in moderation.

For pure sampling / eating right out of the wrapper, I’d probably go with one of the non-TJ chocolates, but couldn’t state a preference amongst them at present.

*  *  *

Hope this has been helpful, or at least blissfully insightful.  Any other chocolate lovers out there?  :-D

Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006 plus more details of my past and upcoming weeks

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, and—as always—I have so much to say.  I’ll use my recent and upcoming schedule as a crutch for providing some musings and commentary :-D

Last week:

- Monday:  Special Google Event and Hakone Gardens private party.
Early in the day I got to test my Event Planning mettle.  It all came out okay!  No one was electrocuted.  No one went hungry.  No one fell or was thrown off of large balconies.  Reviews were good, and I wasn’t fired.  In the evening, I joined a friendly group of geeks at a private party at the beautiful Hakone Gardens in Saratoga, California.  Free sushi!  Company presentations in the blissfully short form of one haiku each!  Plus prizes, a Futurist presentation, and much more.

- Tuesday:  The Fifth Annual Google Dance and included “Meet the Engineers” event
I was responsible for planning this year’s Meet the Engineers event upstairs during the Google Dance, enabling lots of Webmaster’y-type folks and Googlers to chat informally about largely search-focused ideas, questions, and more.  Overall, it seemed to go pretty well, though I certainly got some good feedback to improve the event for next year :-) (feel free to add more feedback in the comments below if you’d like!)  And in the general party there were battling robots, lots of cheese, wacky green-screen dancing karaoke, demo’ing and dunking Googlers, and lots and lots (thousands!) of geeks in various stages of buzzed revelry :-D

- Wednesday:  Search Engine Strategies Conference (continued from Tuesday) and yet more geek parties
The Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose, California is one of the largest events of its kind… four solid days of learning ‘n’ camraderie in the Web Marketing / Search Engine Optimization space, with four evenings of networking, drinking, and playful debauchery.  My colleagues sumo wrestling!  Geeks Gone Wild on the dance floor!  And, on a serious but equally important note, it was a great chance for me to meet some fascinating heavyweights in the industry and for me to do my best representing Google… answering questions, gathering thoughtful bits of feedback, and happily putting names with faces (“Ah, you’re THAT blogger…”).

- Thursday:  My first speaking engagement on behalf of Google!
My boss, Matt Cutts, is one of the most articulate and likeable fellows in the search engine realm.  When he speaks, people listen!  When I speak… well, I really hadn’t ever publicly spoken on behalf of Google before, so as you can imagine, I was a bit apprehensive and also quite excited.  Making matters even more interesting was the fact that all of my fellow panelists (from Yahoo, MSN, and Ask) came prepared with Powerpoint presentations and I came prepared with… nothing.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  I had spent quite a bit of time thinking about the subject at hand (how Google looks at links on the Web) and was pretty confident about my ability to answer questions… but I certainly hadn’t thought of making an opening statement.  It was a “Q&A” session, after all!

Well, luckily, during the few minutes of the others’ presentations, I managed to quickly shuffle a reasonably organized selection of thoughts into my head and then out of my mouth in a basically impromptu four minute speech.  I even squeezed in a bit of geek humor, specifically a reference to Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” book… which was, to my pleasure and relief, pretty well-received (yay, fellow geeks with good taste in literature!).  I was asked some great questions and had answers for all but one of them, for which I admitted “I don’t know.”

Overall, it was an enjoyable and worthwhile experience, and I look forward to speaking at another industry event.

*  *  *

I spent more of Friday and Saturday doing just laid back things… catching up with some friends, and catching up on sleep.  And for this week…

- Sunday:  10 year anniversary of Lindy in the Park!
If you live in the Bay Area and you haven’t yet been to this event, you’re missing out.  And—since it happens every week (well, in general; not the 10 year anniversary, obviously)— it’s not too late for you to get your hiney over there and have some good, energetic, sunshiney, family-friendly, no-date-needed fun!  From around 11am to 2pm each week, the DJs spin a variety of swing and definitely-not-swing-but-still-danceable music for folks to swing dance to, and there’s a free 30 minute lesson at noon!  Today there were over 250 people dancing away, smiling, meeting up with old friends and making new ones.  I guiltily don’t make it to LitP as often as I’d like, but I always have fun when I do, so I highly recommend y’all stopping by if you’re able to—whether you’re a dancer (yet) or not! :-D

- Monday:  Brave Combo and The Mad Maggies, performing at The Elbo Room in San Francisco
I’m not yet familiar with The Mad Maggies, but I *LOVE* Brave Combo!  They’ve been around forever and recorded quite a diverse bunch of music, but what it all has in common is this:  a sense of playfulness, strong musicianship, and a giddy enthusiasm and often silliness that is immensely likeable.  Polkas and more polkas, funky twists on classical pieces, bright horns and earthy voices.  I can’t wait to see these guys live! (and I’m curious to check out The Elbo Room. too, which is just a couple of miles from my apartment).

- Tuesday:  A chamber music performance at Google
We have a very nice grand piano at the Googleplex, and so I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me that there are relatively informal concerts (featuring my fellow Googlers!) on a semi-regular basis here.  I’m looking forward to unwinding to some good live classical music at the end of the work day… without having to worry about parking, ticket fees, or dressing up :-D.

- Wednesday:  A dance performance—Riptide—featuring my friend Tiffany B (warning: crappy Website.  You may want to navigate from here.)
I’ve known and done swing dancing with Tiffany for years, but I’ve embarrassingly not made it to one of her many fine professional performances yet.  This coming Wednesday marks the first time I’ll see her on stage… finally!  And—fellow Bay Area people—there are still tickets left!  Go, go, go!

- Thursday:  Either collapsing early to bed or attending the amazing 9:20 Special weekly swing dance
In particular, though, I can’t wait to go to this the *next* Thursday, when there’ll be music performed by the lively and talented Lavay Smith and her full band!

- Friday:  The 5th anniversary of Friday Night Waltz
Though I’ll always be a swing dancer deep down, there’s something quite magical and exhilirating about spinning around the floor with various waltzes and partners.  The Friday Night Waltz event (held primarily in Palo Alto and Alameda… most recently, with trial (formal!) evenings in San Francisco) is a wonderful mix of accessible lessons with great teachers, a very friendly crowd, and free refreshing refreshments (fresh fruit, candies, etc.)  Interestingly enough, only about 60-70% of the songs are waltzes; the rest are an ecclectic mix of swing tunes, polkas, Latin numbers, and other danceable songs.  Like with the other dance events I’ve mentioned above, there’s no partner required (everyone dances with everyone else, and folks rotate regularly in class).

*  *  *

Whew!  Now you can understand why I haven’t had much time to be blogging.  It’s all I can do to be getting enough sleep and occasionally calling my family and friends to let ‘em know I’m alive :-D

Still, yes, I know I have a few thousand long-overdue Australia and Singapore photos to post, more (and more interesting :-P) stories to tell, and so on.  I’ll see what I can do to squeeze that stuff in soon!