Nica Blog

So we are off to Managua on Monday morning -- very exciting!  Laura Jean and I will be doing a joint blog during our time in Nicaragua titled On A Journey.  The plan is for that blog to be our main space for posting stories and pictures about our time there.  I'll still be posting here on Goats Reading Books on non-Nicaragua themed stuff, but I expect the volume will be reduced. 

Anyway, if you're reading this, I hope you'll check out the new blog.  (RSS feed here, or you can do the google Follower thing by clicking on the link on the right-hand side.)

New Look

The old blog theme seemed kinda stale, a bit 2005-y, shall we say. Plus, blogger has some fancy new templates and features, so it seemed like time for an upgrade. What do you think?

Geeky Public Service Announcement

I found a way to link my various status updates together (Gmail Chat/AIM >> Twitter >> Facebook) and thought I would post it here in case anyone else might find it useful.

1. Set up an account on friendfeed.com. You can use this site to grab a feed of your Gtalk/AIM status messages and export it as an RSS feed.
2. Set up an account on twitterfeed.com (login using OpenID). Feed the above RSS to this site, and it will automatically update your twitter account.
3. Finally you can use the twitter app to automatically update your Facebook status message.
   

Now you never have to think about it again! Might not be the most elegant method, but it works. Improvement suggestions welcome!

One bummer is that this only works in one direction. This is fine with me since I'm constantly logged in to Gmail, but only periodically check Facebook. Second bummer is that Google status messages are stamped with "(via Gmail/Google Talk)"

This post mentions you can use Yahoo Pipes to edit your friendfeed and strip out the message stamp (among other things). And this works fine, but for some dumb reason, Yahoo Pipes is currently blocking twitterfeed's IP (at least according to the help page). So that's unhelpful. But if that problem ever gets solved, it would make the whole project a bit more nifty.

Blog Traffic

So this is odd. This blog normally gets somewhere around 10 visitors per day -- mostly friends and family plus a few other folks (hi yall). But then last month I got a sudden upsurge of visitors -- 185 on September 8 -- before it tapered back down to the normal level.

What's more, all of these new visitors were looking at one page (this post from 2006 on the seasonal distribution of birthdays) and had been directed from a website called ravelry.com--which is apparently an online 'knit and crochet community' (and how awesome is that!). Perhaps this is the knitting equivalent of getting farked? I have no idea why knitters are suddenly interested in birthdays, but welcome!

[Actually that birthdays post has popped up a few places on teh internets - for example, here. Also: not to completely geek out, but I spent far too much time in grad school staring at plots like the one above (or this one) not to instinctively calculate the signal-to-noise ratio (it's 20.6). HETE-2 would totally get a decent localization on this one.]

Cell blogging

This has been a test of the cellphone blogging system!

UPDATE: The pictures from my phone don't seem to be going through. Hmmm. Maybe I'll give it a few days and try again. And, in case you're wondering, yes, this is because they don't have wifi at the hospital :)

UPDATE 2: To clarify, this was only a test. If it had been real there would have been, you know, baby pictures and everything.

Briefly Noted (Tricknology)

New blog feature! At the top of the right column is a feed of interesting articles or websites that don't quite merit a full blog post of their own, but that I found interesting/funny/inspiring and wanted to pass along. (Powered by del.icio.us)

And since I can't resist elaborating on one of them, here's the actual video evidence of the guy who skipped a stone 51 times. Amazing! 10-year-old kids of all ages the world over salute you, sir!

Ahhhhhhh

So, we're moved into the new place and finally the DSL is turned on.

Blog Day (observed)

Apparently August 31st was Blog Day. As I understand it, Blog Day is a chance to hype other blogs and get your readers to check out some cool stuff. So, with much delay but no further ado, you should all check out these 5 blogs.

• Science: Angry Toxicologist -- Want to know why green tea supplements are bad for you and why nano-sunscreens probably aren't? Then this is the blog for you. Straight up science of toxicology with a decent sense of humor = Good reading.

• Humor: xkcd -- As it says: a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language. Not technically a blog, but still the most consistently amusing thing I find in my inbox.

• Politics: Baghdad Burning -- An anonymous young Iraqi woman blogging from Baghdad perfectly illustrates the power of teh internet to bust through the media filter (if you know where to look). Actually, it's not clear if 'River' will continue to post, as her family has apparently decided to leave Iraq due to the chaos of the situation, but the archives will still stand as an alternate history of the war.

OK, so the point of this exercise was actually to find five new or little known blogs. Since I clearly didn't do that let me at least give props to two friends who have started blogging fairly recently:

• Eugene at When In Doubt, Do
• Sarah at Alteritopia

Here's to their long and fruitful presence in the blog.

1100100

Hey- this is my 100th blog post!

New Look

I've switched over to the new beta version of blogger, which is why things look a little different. Apparently the beta version is much fancier and allows you to reconfigure your layout using their HTML editor. For the old version of the blog I did several HTML things by hand and all of those got clobbered when I switched over. Oh-well. Anyway, I'll probably be tweaking the look of things a bit in the next few days. Let me know if anything looks cool.

Goat-Related News

Apparently someone is compiling a list of "goat-related science fiction/fantasy works." A noble cause, no doubt. Neil Gaiman provides some help. To this goal I would also recommend goats.com -- fine example of goat-themed sci-fi (er, sort of). And I'd be surprised if someone hasn't written a story involving fainting goats, because that's just too weird to pass up.

Blogiversary

Oh man, I missed my own first blogiversary - now I'm in trouble. 1 year and 13 days ago I decided to blog and this marks my 78th posting - roughly 1.5 a week. I'm a tad surprised I actually stuck with it, although I have decided I rather enjoy blogging. I certainly have more ideas for posts than time to write them, which is good and bad, I guess. Onward into the 2nd season...

I have a blog now.

So. I have a blog now. I have to say I'm a little dubious that I'll be a religious and consistent poster, my life thus far is strewn with journals and diaries begun and quickly orphaned after a few days or weeks of zeal. On the other hand I do spend a fair amount of time in front of a computer and tend to procrastinate by reading blogs, so maybe there's hope. Plus, I do love to write and it will be nice to have a place to collect what I do write and make it accessible to anyone who might be vaguely interested in what I have to say.

You may be wondering about the name: Goats Reading Books. The name actually came from Laura Jean and it was her idea to use an alternate phrase that shares the acronym for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which is what I spend a fair amount of my time studying. Also goats are somehow inherently funny. Example given, this article from our friends at The Onion; not only is the picture of the goat really cute but the article pretty much killed me when I read it. I suppose GRBlog would have been a good choice too, but it's already been taken and put to excellent use.

What sealed the deal was a Google search on the keywords "goats reading books", the second hit from which was an amazon.com listing for "My Pet Goat". Unintentional, but pretty awesome.

I tend to think a lot about science, culture, politics, activism, movies, music, friends and a fair bit of silly stuff thrown in, so I'm sure all that will come rushing out in my future posts. Stay tuned...

Quotes

Here's an archive of quotes I've had up on the blog over the years.

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. --Rabindranath Tagore, "Fireflies" (4/30/09)

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1/19/09)

You gotta feel it Yes, you gotta feel it To get it right, even one time You gotta feel it Don't take notes Just clear out your mind Let go your pride Feel it inside -- Spoon (10/19/08)

I'm knocking on the doors of ya hummer hummer. I'm knocking on the doors of ya hummer hummer. -- M.I.A. (6/15/08)

We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product. For the Gross National Product includes air pollution, and ambulances to clear our highways from carnage. ... It grows with the production of napalm and missles and nuclear warheads.... And if the Gross National Product includes all this, there is much that it does not comprehend. It does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. ... It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile, and it can tell us everything about America -- except whether we are proud to be Americans. -- Robert F. Kennedy

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain, Wheat that in the dark earth many years has lain; Love lives again, that with the dead has been: Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green. -- John Crum

Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That's how the light gets in -- Leonard Cohen, 'Anthem'

You know you're my cookie baby and you're too smart I can see it in the lines of your school art True heart, I mean courage, expressed with care Go on draw them superheroes with the curly hair You're my daughter, my love, more than kin to me This for you and the woman that you finna be Tell that boy he's wrong Girls are strong Next time at show-and-tell play him our song -- The Coup, 'Wear Clean Draws'

Please, please, kids, stop fighting. Maybe Lisa's right about America being the land of opportunity, and maybe Adil's got a point about the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers. -- Homer Simpson

Oh-oh-oh come take my hand, We're riding out tonight to case the promised land -- Bruce Springsteen, Thunder Road

Starvation is the creation of the devil. a rebel, I'm bringin' food to the people like a widow bringin' flowers to a grave in the middle of the city. Isolation is a riddle to be surrounded by a million other people but to feel alone like a tree in a desert dried up like the skin of a lizard but full of colour like the spots of a leopard drum and bass pull me in like a shepherd scratch my itch like a needle on a record full of life like a man gone to Mecca sky high like an eagle up soaring I speak low but I'm like a lion roaring baritone like a Robeson recordin' I'm givin' thanks for bein' human every morning. -- Michael Franti, Stay Human

And it's so sad to see the world agree That they'd rather see their faces fill with flies All when I'd want to keep white roses in their eyes -- Neutral Milk Hotel, Holland 1945

They hang the man and flog the woman Who steals the goose from off the Common, But let the greater criminal loose Who steals the Common from the goose. -- Traditional (English)

A long time ago, I left my home, For a job in the fruit trees But I missed those hills with the windy pines, For their song seemed to suit me. -- Gillian Welch, "One More Dollar"

It's all about strikes now, so here's what's striking me That some punk could argue some moral ABCs When people are catching what bombers release. Well I'm on a mission to never agree... ...here comes the argument. -- Fugazi, "The Argument"

Facts are simple and facts are straight. Facts are lazy and facts are late Facts all come with points of view. Facts don't do what I want them to -- Talkingheads, "Crosseyed and Painless"

An inter-stellar burst! I am back to save the universe! -- Radiohead, "Airbag"

Godspeed to all the bakers at dawn, May they all cut their thumbs and bleed into their buns, 'til they melt away. -- the Shins, "New Slang"

On the margins, in revisions, where we both first learned forgiveness By the moonlight, in the forest, where our laughs spread out before us It was always ever gonna go too far, til someone turned the lights out at the bar Accept no imitations, baby, catch a collapsing star, but it's our limitations that make us what we are -- The Mendoza Line

When I heard the learn'd astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick, Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars -- Walt Whitman

If the children don't grow up, Our bodies get bigger, but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causin rain storms turnin every good thing to rust. I guess we'll just have to adjust. -- Wake Up, The Arcade Fire