Tag: writing

celebrating 20 years of blogging, pt 2

Here’s part two of our look back at 20 years of Buffet o’ Blog.

Part one listed the top posts according to pageviews. Another way of measuring popularity is by how many comments a post gets. There used to be a lot more community engagement here. I don’t know if the regulars are all too busy with life now or if internet culture has just changed in that regard, but there just aren’t as many comments as there used to be. But I digress… Here’s some of the posts with the most comments:

king of the blog — I hesitate to bring attention to this post, knowing what it might start, but it has the most comments, with 140 at the time of writing. Ironically, it’s one of the dumbest posts here, yet the comments are a lot of fun. It shows how community can make it better.

caption contest: guy on moped with ducks — This one also has over 100 comments. I suspect it’s because AFLAC made ducks more popular for a while, but there are plenty of pun opportunities here too.

a man who likes flowers — This is a recurring theme here. A certain regular here was accused of liking flowers a little too much, and he protested rather too much. He’s also named after a flowering fruit tree, which may or may not be a coincidence. We report, you decide.

pickles are evil — The title says it all… for the post, which is quite pithy. However, the comments went off the rails immediately, with the PETP (People for the Ethical Treatment of Pickles) making a stink, then being put in their place. Then the two mad scientists who often comment here started arguing about “time-honored traditions” like whether their inator should include a big red self-destruct button. This is one of my favorite posts because of the discussion.

new story #1: Burford’s Weekend — This is the first free-for-all story on the blog, and it’s fun. These stories are so unpredictable and random. If you like randomness, I highly recommend reading them all. Here, Thomas Wayne and Burford go on an adventure, which leads them to some very unexpected encounters. Somehow the Important Evil Genius got into this one, so part of his story is here.

get your super-powers here — I’ll admit this isn’t one of the best posts or discussions, but the idea is fascinating. What superpowers would you want if you could be granted one? Some say we all have superpowers, and while that depends on how you define superpowers, we definitely all have innate powers that we should use to make the world a better place and to fulfill our destiny. (So discover yours and use them!)

new story #2: Explorers Extraordinaire — Our second free-for-all story made the list. Three guys got a budget for a TV show about exploring nature’s mysteries, so they decide to hunt for the Loch Ness Monster. What they find is even more elusive and sought-after, and they solve one of history’s greatest mysteries. Whether or not this counts as fine literature depends on how discerning your tastes are, but it is funny and random, so I think it’s worth reading.

dangerous secret lair discovered — Here’s a news release about the Important Evil Genius, which is both satire and parody. In the comments, we learn more of his backstory, we witness a power struggle between truth and paid-off news reporters (in a funny way), and we meet the alien Xangrilah race. I doubt there’s another post like this on the internet.

The next several posts on the list are caption contests, which are like memes (before they were popular). I’ll list them here, since the ones with the most participation are often the most fun to read: man with fire behind him, two people with phones on head, weird robot costumes, superhero with phone car, people on porch watching wildfire, man with holograms at old computers, golfers with bear, two fat guys.

Remember, you’re welcome to add comments to any of these. People still find these posts via search engines, so you’re contributing to the awesomeness of the internet.

I have one more metric of measuring memories to share, and it may be the best one, since I’ll be choosing some of my favorite posts. Look for it in the next post.

celebrating 20 years of blogging, pt 1

I recently realized that Buffet o’ Blog has now reached 20 years of blogging. That’s a long time in internet years, about the same age as YouTube. We’ve had almost 1.2 million pageviews, with over 194,300 unique visitors. That’s a lot of people to see my ramblings! That’s hard to grasp. Hopefully some of them were amused.

There have been over 1200 posts. That’s hard to believe, too. And I still haven’t run out of ideas. I can’t guarantee they’re all great ideas, but there are ideas.

There might be the slightest bit of embellishment here, but you get the idea. I don’t always dress like a ninja, but I must conceal my superhero identity.

If someone has read all 1200+ posts, there should be some type of award or certification for that. There isn’t, but there should be. 🙂 Although there may not be anyone that qualifies other than me, and I shouldn’t count since I wrote most of them.

As far as I know, there’s no award for a website reaching 20 years, although it is probably a rare occurrence. But we should celebrate anyway. Although there’s no budget for a party in real life with all subscribers, and there’s not even enough budget to send all subscribers a box of cookies. So I suppose the best option is to have a look back at the highlights. (It’s even better if you eat cookies while perusing the links below.)

There’s several ways to measure highlights. Let’s start with some of top posts in terms of pageviews:

random Monday quotes: 104,442 views — Monday is the most popular topic here, because Mondays are the least popular day. (Wait, does that make sense? People are interested in reading about things they aren’t interested in? Just kidding. I get the allure of quotes about Mondays.)

funny pictures, episode 5: 49,915 views — There are many posts here with funny pictures, and I’m not sure why this one is ahead of the rest.

Man vs Food — Carnivore Pizza Challenge: 29,645 views — I understand why pizza is popular.

funny quotes about Mondays, part 2: 27,956 views — More Monday content.

caption contest, unfair sumo wrestling match: 21,803 views — I enjoy the caption contests. FYI, you can still comment on old ones — your comments will show up in the sidebar (on desktop anyway), so they will still be noticed.

Dr. Bunsen Honeydew & Beaker – top boffins: 21,531 views — It’s humorous that a serious science event choose the Muppets scientists to represent them. Their experiments fail rather often, but that makes them more funny.

I want a tank to drive around town: 20,571 views — This is both a great idea and a terrible idea, which makes it fun to think about.

new Pizza Hut crusts, plus our ideas: 15,021 views — More pizza in the top list. But I still haven’t heard of anyone using our idea of putting bacon in the edges of the crust. Why not make it more awesome?

some random quotes for your Monday morning: 13,414 views — These aren’t about Mondays, but apparently including Monday in the title was enough to make it popular. Hmm…

Are dinosaurs extinct because of their farting?: 12,212 views — I don’t know how many people care about this hypothesis, but dinosaurs are popular and farting is popular, so maybe combining them adds to more popularity.

I’m going to split this look back up into several posts, because this has become rather time-consuming — partly because I’m enjoying looking back at the highlights. So I’m going to continue the celebration in the next post.

you are the author of your life, so what’s next?

I’ve recently been thinking about writing short stories, and I also recently wrote about eating cookies to make your day better, and I combined those thoughts for the perspective of how you are the author of your own life.

Imagine your life as a story — which it is, except no one is writing it all down. Humans have used stories to remember history for as long as there has been history. You summarize your day into stories based on expectations and your worldview, some of it subconsciously, but it happens.

Now consider your day, maybe it’s a less-than-pleasant day. You wouldn’t think of it in short story form, but for the sake of this exercise, let’s try it:

Burford was late to work due to bad drivers and a traffic jam, and his boss gave him a glare as he walked in, so he wondered if that will affect his reputation and future raises. His boss doesn’t seem to recognize his value to the company. He did his daily work the best he could, but got sleepy in the afternoon because he didn’t get enough sleep last night. His lunch was boring. Leaving work, he was frustrated because there’s so much to do and there’s simply not enough time for it all. He sighed as he got into his old car that he would like to replace but can’t afford to. He was glad that work was through, but not excited about the rest of the evening.

It hasn’t been a great day for poor Burford. But what happens next? Does he let the rest of the day be “blah” or frustrating? Or does he change the script? What happens next hasn’t been written yet. There might be some required activities to do later, but what can he do to make his day better?

So many of us get into a routine with our daily habits and just let life happen to us. But you are the author of your life. What can you do to make your day better? Eat cookies. Drink sweet tea. Get outside to walk or play a sport. Listen to your favorite songs. Read something funny. (You could subscribe to this blog if you haven’t already). 🙂 Sit down to do absolutely nothing for a few minutes to clear your mind and relax. Text a friend who is funny and/or encouraging. Listen to a podcast about self-improvement. Pray. Whatever it is, there are options you can do to make your day better. And wherever you are right now, you get to write the rest of today’s chapter. What will happen?

Being outdoors in nature helps. Studies have shown that even just a couple of breaks in nature per week affects your mood the whole week. Take some time to be alone with your thoughts and be present where you are, with no distractions. Ignore your phone for 30 minutes.