Blogiversary


It’s my blogiversary! It’s been one year since I finally decided to take the plunge and start the blog thing, and to my surprise, I’m still here. I’ve written at least 515 posts since my gloriously inept first post May 2, 2005… every day, sometimes more than once. It’s been fun, and I hope the handful of you that like reading it have dug it.

OK, I stole, then paraphrased, that last paragraph from here, but the facts are correct.

For me, I started rather whimsically one day, seeing whether I would do it the next day. And I did, again and again, 1.4 times a day, every day.

I got to write about JEOPARDY!, starting here, which was a major goal. (That way, when people asked me about my experience, I could tell them, “Go read about it in my blog!”)

I got to write about the small person in my household, something I had promised myself before that, then reneged on it. In fact, the very first picture I ever posted was of…oh, you guessed it, which wasn’t until August.

August was also the time I finally decided to put in a site meter, the 26th; that day, I had 23 visitors. Since then, I’ve had a wide range of folks coming here from all over the world, as few as 20 (on November 11) and as many as 130 (on January 26), but roughly 50 per day. Of course, the ONLY people who would have found my first few posts would have been those people who hit the “Next Blog” button on it and happened upon it.

It only occurred to me in November to ascertain if I could find my blog on Google, and I did. It was #30 when I typed in Roger Green. By the end of December, it was #19. My pathetic plea to you folks around my birthday in March got me solidly in the top 10, and recently I’m in the top 5, wich both pleases and surprises me.

The post that probably generated more hits for over a week was my April Fools’ Day post of nearly 3000 people named Roger.

My favorite post may very well be this one, because I got EXACTLY the response I wanted.

Probably the most controversial post, was this one, based on the comments it generated.

In any case, I wanted to thank a bunch of people, but I always worry about that, because, for instance, shouldn’t I mention Logan, who put something about CONFOUNDING ROGER GREEN in his header for over a week? What about Kelly, who confounds me with her queries? And certainly, I should mention oatmeal raisin cookie-eating GayProf. But would Greg notice if I left him off? Probably. Whereas Mike wouldn’t care, he’d just go off with Swamp Thing.

Two people’s blogs that have generated traffic to this little electronic corner of the world are Scott at Scooter Chronicles and Comic Book Galaxy’s Alan David Doane. It was ADD who once told me: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.” No, wait, that was Rick Nelson. Well, Alan said something similar.
And there are some loyal non-blogging readers, such as ASP, CD, MR, MAK, CD, and TF, who I appreciate, plus many of the folks on my blog roll.

But I do need to thank:

Eddie, who was likely the first person who I had not known previously who let me know that what I wrote could matter to someone else.

Near-twin Gordon, who is the one most likely to reply to my queries, and whose CD in the CD Exchange is most likely to arrive in my mailbox first.

Lefty, who started the music exchange where I met a lot of these weird folk, and who has been someone I can write to about any number of issues.

Well, that’s it. Thanks for coming by.

(I suppose I should mention Tom the Dog, who showed me how to do do this little trick.)

We forget Fred Hembeck! Gee, I’ve only mentioned him a few dozen times (54, by my count) as the person who encouraged my efforts, who has plugged my blog from the very beginning, and who has even allowed me into his little corner of the electronic universe from time to time. Merci, effendi!

The Great LP Theft of 1972


I want to tell you about the great album theft of 1972. Most of my LPs were at my grandmother’s house (except for the few I had at college in New Paltz). I came back that summer to discover that someone had stolen all of the albums alphabetically A-somewhere in the Cs and somewhere in the Ss to the end. All my Supremes albums (Supremes Sing Country, Western & Pop; S Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland, A Little Bit of Liverpool (original source of their HDN version), and Temptations, and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, and Beatles! Fortunately I had all of the Beatles Apple LPs (from the White album forward) at school. It apears that something must have startled the thieves, for there were a couple items that did survive, notably, the Beatles’ Something New.

I never did replace that stuff in its original form, except (no surprise) the Beatles. So, when I went to buy a used Whipped Cream and other Delights, which I owned along with the first three TJB, I was disappointed that it contained Going Places. It WASN’T just for the cover I purchased it, after all.

I also lost my baseball cards, which I collected rather religiously from about 1963 to 1969.

Naturally, it annoyed me no end for a time. Then I got rather philosophical about it; I mean, there’s nothing to do about it.

Still, when I go to a record show, I sometimes say: “Best of ’66 – I used to own that!” Or when I’m at the Baseball Hall of Fame, I’ll see cards that I once collected. I don’t go out and BUY them, I just feel a little…wistful.

The move at work


We’ve been told that we are moving our offices (O.K., movers are coming) on May 12. Having been around for a few years, I would not be shocked if this actually took place a day or two earlier or a couple days later.

That said, my new mailing address will be:

NYS SBDC
SUNY Plaza
Corporate Woods Building, 3rd Floor
Albany, NY 12246-0001

For deliveries from FedEx or UPS or other vendors the actual physical address for the new location will be:

NYS SBDC
22 Corporate Woods Blvd., 3rd floor
Colonie, NY 12211

If you are mailing anything to me, I’ve been told that the items will be forwarded. Still, you might consider NOT mailing anything that won’t reach me by May 8 until after May 15.

I usually give out my work mailing address for packages. It’s not a matter of privacy. It’s the fact that we don’t have a mailbox at the house, we have a mail slot, and a small one at that. Often, packages are left on the porch.

I’m supposed to have the same e-mail address at work, but it will be disrupted at least temporarily at some point. You may wish to e-mail me at home pretty much from May 10 to May 16 if you really want to be sure that I read what you sent in a timely fashion. I tend to look at my work e-mail more, but I will make a concerted effort to pay more attention to the home e-mail that week.

Also, the main phone number, 518 443-5398, will remain the same, but I BELIEVE I’ll have a different exchange, or totally separate number in the new place. Details on this, like so many other aspects of this move, are sketchy at best.
***
I was up in the attic bring down stuff we were going to pass on to friends of ours, parents of a daughter about a year younger than Lydia, when I came across a file with newspaper clippings. To my surprise, there was one I missed (!) when I wrote about it recently, the August 14, 1998 item. If you wish, you can answer here the question that the newspaper writer asked, which was about the worst TV show ever.
***
A couple interesting posts I read this week both about youth and class distinctions:

Rethinking … The Emerging White Underclass

The TV show My Super Sweet 16, something I wrote about myself last October. Apparently, it’s as obnoxious as ever.

Teaching the Bible in the School


There was a piece on ABC News a couple weeks ago about teaching the Bible in school, not in an attempt to convert, but rather as teaching about a book (or a Book, if you prefer) that has had great impact on American society. I found a 1974 article here suggesting that the Supreme Court rulings in the 1960s did NOT prohibit teaching about the Bible in school, only limited the manner in which it could be taught. This piece lays out the limitations as well.

There are a couple book publishers that provide textbooks for this purpose. This one has a self-proclaimed conservative agenda, while this one claims to be fair-minded.

So, being the curious librarian that I am, I was hoping that you can answer a couple questions for me:

1) Should the Bible, or Christianity, be taught in public schools?

2) Can the Bible, or Christianity, be taught in public schools objectively, without trying to “convert” the students?

3) What else should be taught in public schools? The Koran? Islam? Maybe some comparative religions course?

Downtown


(Pet Clark in my head.)

I’ve been working in downtown Albany for the past 13 years. This is what I’ll miss:

* Lunch with friends
* The variety of places to go out to lunch with friends: sandwich shops, Chinese restaurants, pizza places, diner-type places, bar food type places, the new sushi place, the place that sells gyros (a Greek woman I knew preferred the 2nd or 3rd pronunciation of the 2nd definition). That doesn’t include the street vendors up by the Capitol half the year, with even more selections.
* Shopping at Lodge’s, Albany’s Oldest Store.
* The Farmer’s Market, about 1/3 of a block away in the good weather, indoors and just up the hill in the winter
* Riding my bike to work when Carol’s not teaching (and she takes Lydia to daycare)
* The gaudy Christmas lights on the State Street median
* My bank and my credit union a block or two away
* My eye doctor and my dentist a couple blocks away
* The vendors in the stores I got to know
* The buskers on the corners
* Watching the folks go to the nearby Arena and try to guess what event they were attending, strictly by the age and apparel of the attendees
* Donating blood every eight weeks, and at a place where everyone DOES know my name, such as Shirley, who runs the canteen
* The easy access to the walking/riding path by the river
* A quick bus trip to my doctor, Lydia’s doctor, or Lydia’s day care
* Several bus options home, rather than one
* The ability to stay later because I had so many options home, rather than one

There are probably more, but that’ll do for now.
***
Akeelah and the Bee opens today. It’s on my list of films to see.

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial