Steel Kaleidoscopes

Top 10 Blog Posts

It's been almost nine years since I started blogging. These are the top 10 posts based on page views. Most of these I understand. But the Bermuda Triangle and Foster's? It's a crazy world out there.

1. Top 15 Emotional Songs (06.06.07)

2. Woodstock '94 (08.13.04)

3. The Bermuda Triangle (07.14.05)

4. 10 Rules of Airplane Etiquette (12.01.03)

5. Foster's (08.21.07)

6. Top 10 Concerts of All Time (09.06.05)

7. Top 10 Rock Performers of All Time (09.14.03)

8. Top 10 Rock Drummers (06.14.06)

9. Top 10 Album Covers (02.03.05)

10. Whatever Happened to ... Shaun Cassidy? (01.07.09)

Blog Comments

If you're reading this, you either know me or randomly stumbled upon this post.

If you've been here before, thanks for visiting again. If you're new, welcome.

That said, the blog hosting software I am using (Typepad) recently made changes to comments for additional security. If you'd like to post a comment, you'll need to clear your cache (browsing history). 

If you don't do this and try to post a comment, the site just hangs.

As always, I appreciate your visit and comments.

Enjoy your day.

Social Media Quagmire

Has social media made us more productive or more distracted?

Ten years ago, you checked your email when you got home from work to make sure nothing imploded back at the office.

Now, there are so many more plugs in the outlets.

There are three more friend requests on Facebook. And, if you're like me, you don't just allow someone to friend you haphazardly. If he or she is truly a friend (or, at a minimum, someone you once worked with), I write a little note asking how they're doing. If they don't have time to respond to a simple "what's up," are they really a friend?

Another LinkedIn request. Someone else asks for a recommendation. Someone is looking for a marketing director. Do I know anyone?

What's so-and-so tweeting about? Is it worth a retweet? Now I have something to say.

Back to email. My work account. My personal account. My other personal account.

What the hell is this Google Buzz? More commentary.

Oh, and now to check out those videos that were sent around the office today. Over to YouTube.

Damn, I haven't blogged in two days. What can I write about? What's on my mind?

I look at the clock and an hour has passed.

So much for just checking my email.

The Blogosphere

Blogospheres, blog rolls, essential blogs — whatever you call them, are a tricky thing.

It's the blogger's address book made public, an online Rolodex of virtual contacts.

You usually find these in a blog's sidebar, a directory of wacky titles that provide little to no insight of what you'll find inside.

The conundrum is the maintenance of this list, as your blogosphere is reflective of your personal tastes and relationships.

Many times you'll add links simply for reciprocal purposes — someone has added you to their blog roll, so you add them to yours. Other times it's a personal contact you've met in the real world. And sometimes you simply stumble across a blog you truly enjoy for its voice and content.

In the end, your blogosphere is part of your content and is reflective of the brand you're building. It is essentially your template's wrapper, complementary content with your certifiable stamp of approval.

This is where it gets tricky. What do you do when someone stops writing? Do you link to a blog that hasn't had a post in three months? It's akin to having wilting plants in your house that haven't been watered.

Bad Feng Shui.

What do you do when someone steers uncomfortably to the religious right or starts posting numerous pictures of their kids on every post? And what do you do when someone puts user-unfriendly entrance criteria (registration, log-in, passwords) that makes it difficult to interact?

What do you do when someone never responds to your posts, even when you clearly show an effort to engage on their blog? Blogging should be, in spirit, two-way symmetrical communication.

That's when you need to make some tough decisions, altering your blogosphere landscape to be more reflective of your personal brand.

The blogosphere, after all, is your universe.

Bridge Collapse Photos

For photos from Minneapolis and St. Paul residents, check out this flickr blog post.

Sad.

John Henry Bonham

A little more than a year ago, I put together a list of the Top 10 Rock Drummers.

It's one of those pieces of content that struck a chord with music aficionados, and they have not been shy about telling me how right or how wrong I am. As of this morning, the post has received 69 comments, many of which are detailed diatribes about rock drumming relevance.

The one common thread that appears over and over is the groundbreaking innovation of Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, who sadly passed away in 1980.

I have Bonham third on my list, behind Neil Peart and Ian Paice. Peart, to me, is on another planet when it comes to mastering the drum kit, and no one hits the skins faster than Paice in what was arguably the most talented rock lineup ever assembled in 1970s vintage Deep Purple.

My friend Scott used to tell me Bonham was the best because of his ability to create dynamics with his use of brushes and his hands. And my friend Mike told me Bonham was brilliant because of the difficult arrangements he anchored while always keeping the beat.

I always appreciated Bonham as well, and was amazed about how it sounded like he was playing the drums backward on "When the Levee Breaks." Really, it's a reverse time shuffle beat that is mindblowing to listen to when you isolate the drums.

A recent comment by Jerry, a drummer, tells me he still can't figure out how to play "Fool in the Rain." I immediately grabbed my copy of "In Through the Out Door" for a fresh listen and would have to agree with him. How does he do it?

John Henry Bonham was indeed an original and worthy of the No. 3 spot. But do I put him above Peart and Paice? Perhaps, but I'm still not convinced. 

What these comments have accomplished is giving me pause to think.

Bonham was damn good.

Blogging Governance

Can bloggers really create a formal code of ethics?

Is it too late to bring civility to the Web?

The conversational free-for-all of the blogosphere can be a scary place at times. This is what has promoted a few high-profile figures in high-tech to propose a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse.

Earlier this month, Tim O’Reilly, a conference promoter and book publisher who is credited with coining the term Web 2.0, began working with Jimmy Wales, creator of the communal online encyclopedia Wikipedia, to create a set of guidelines to shape online discussion and debate.

The major recommendation is giving bloggers the ethical OK to ban anonymous comments left by visitors to their pages and to be able to delete threatening or libelous comments without facing cries of censorship.

Since the inception of blogs, it has been an unwritten rule that a true blog is a symmetrical two-way conversation. If the blogger doesn't appreciate a comment, he or she just can't remove it.

But what happens when people are downright nasty, leaving threatening or obscene messages?

O'Reilly and Wales are saying it's OK to delete it. Then again, who makes the decision on what is an acceptable or unacceptable comment? Should a blogger be his or her own gatekeeper?

Here are Wales' proposed guidelines.

Got a Light?

Fellow blogger Basic Juice, who writes a wonderful wine blog, isn't doing a lot of swirling these days.

Photo courtesy of Basic Juice.

The 1,000th Post

For what it's worth (with a nod to Stephen Stills), this is my 1,000th blog post.

It's a milestone, I guess, tangible evidence that I actually do get up at an insane hour or stay up late to say something, anything, even if it's sharing a quote, song lyrics or a photo.

My first post was Aug. 25, 2003, and I received a comment from blue-chip blogger Dr. Dave Weinberger, the co-author of Cluetrain and Small Pieces. That was kind of neat.

So, if you do the math, there's an 83 percent chance I'll post something new every day. Or, simply put, I'll share something in this space close to six days a week.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

If Dave Tomlinson wasn't away on business this week in South Africa, I'd make a toast.

Ben Roethlisberger's Blog

A lot of entertainment and sports celebrities have blogs, but you have to wonder if they're really doing the writing themselves (and, if they even realize they have a blog).

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has had a blog since April 2004 and appears to be somewhat active with posting his thoughts. To his credit, he admits when his agent, Ryan Tollner, actually does the writing, transcribing Roethlisberger's thoughts.

You see, Roethlisberger is very busy this week, preparing for the biggest football game of his career on Sunday.

While you wouldn't consider Roethlisberger a voracious blogger, the insight he does provide is unique. As he prepares for Super Bowl XL, his post from yesterday reveals that "the importance of this whole event will probably set in.  Not that I need to be reminded of the importance of the Super Bowl ...  I've been thinking about it my whole life!"

This is the beauty of blogging and the technologies available in 2006. How cool would it have been to read Roger Maris' blog in 1961 when he was chasing Babe Ruth's home run record? I wonder if Joe DiMaggio would have shared his thoughts during his 56-game hitting streak?

While Roethlisberger's comments are surely tempered, it's still kind of neat to hear from him during the biggest week of his life. His readers think so too, as the hundreds of comments attest.