Thursday, January 12, 2006

Delurk, delurk, wherever you are


Apparently, it has taken until Thursday for me to find out that the blogosphere is celebrating International Delurking Week!

This is the time for the great phalanx of my silent fans to come out of the woodwork and tell me that they love me. Although, according to the keyword stats on BlogPatrol, they're more likely to tell me that they have no idea how to build the Alve bureau. Sorry guys. I'll let you know when I've built it.

In the meantime, I am going to contribute to my brand-new Great Procrastinational Project 2006 by borderline-spamming all of my favourite blogs. In the meantime, delurk. Sure, I know you have to do that letter-recognition thing to post a comment, but you love these little puzzles, don't you? Say hello. Confess your sins. Wear your activism or curmudgeonliness or misanthropy with pride. Write a haiku. Shamelessly flog your own blog, unless it sells investment property in Spain or substances which augment body parts, in which case I will relurk your ass. C'mon in ...

13 comments:

jo(e) said...

Okay, I'll delurk.

Hello! Hello! Hello!

Xtin said...

Hello jo(e)! Wow, you're like, totally famous! People covet your mind all over the blogos! I'm so flattered ...

Pluvialis said...

Hello Xtin! Lurk lurk lurk. I have been lurking in the Scott Polar Research Institute today, looking at scraps of tent-silk and stuffed penguins. And I think I may have, kind of, sort of forced one of my students to work on something she didn't really want to work on. Question (to everyone): is this a sin?

Xtin said...

I'm too scared to answer that question after reading this.

Here's what I think. If it were really true that student wants Topic A and you railroad her into Topic B, that's a sin. But what really happens is that student has NO TOPIC of any sort and is rambling like an eee-jit, pinging off the intellectual walls like so much wasted biomass, and you railroad her into Topic B. This is not a sin, it is a public service.

So sayeth The Xtin.

Heidi the Hick said...

It's me, who rarely lurks but I couldn't live with the thought of not commenting today! What a great concept. And tell Pluvialis to write something again, although I suspect maybe you two plan to take up each other's slack??? Oh and also Xtin, what's a meme? Do I pronounce it meem or me me?

Xtin said...

Yo, Pluvialis! Get thee to your blog and publish some of your cool thoughts.

Heidi, "meme" pronounced "meem" (rhymes with "beam") -- Richard Dawkins a famous evolutionary biologist, came up with this word to describe bits of cultural stuff that were passed around in society akin to the way that genes get passed around biologically. This idea has generated a huge literature and associated debates. There's an OK Wiki article here. Now the word "meme" gets used in the blogosphere to describe the sorts of things that suddenly whip through the community as though it's catching ... the quizzes, the lists, the jargon, etc. Rambling now ...

Yankee, Transferred said...

delurking

Xtin said...

Greetings, Yankee Transplant! I *love* your blog. I have fantasies about making you and the Bleeding Heart Attorney my famous mushroom and mascarpone pasta and drinking lots of semillon sauvignon blanc.

Pluvialis said...

I'm having trouble with my Alve Bureau. Do you have any hints and tips on self-assembly?

Xtin said...

You're holding the allen key backwards.

Scrivener said...

I can't possibly count as a lurker, since I've been leaving you comments since the first day I found your wonderful blog. But I still wanna say hi! *waves!!*

I like the zany images you link to along the way. It's a comic style that just works really nicely. I like lots of other things about your blog, but that's just the one that I'm least likely to remark on elsewhere.

Phantom Scribbler said...

Scrivener sent me! He twisted my arm! Ow! Stop it, Scrivener!

(Shakes arm free. Looks around.)

Hey, nice place you've got here.

Xtin said...

Hey, PS! Thanks, make yourself right at home. Scribble on the walls. I haven't yet delurked over at your lovely place. If one confesses on one's own blog that one is lurking on some other blog does that count as a semi-delurk?

Scrivener, thanks for the prop. I feel like I'm having a performance review. Gold stars for me!