Category: note

I’m alive and well, ladies and gentlemen. After finishing the theatrical release of a major motion picture, I’m slowly finding time to blog – I hope you understand that, faced with a choice between having a life and blogging (because, these days I cannot do both and be happy), I will pick the former every time.

That said, I have two book reviews coming down the pipe: the first is Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and the second is Cathedral, a collection of short stories by Raymond Carver.

I also have a nice batch of photos I’ve taken, so feel comfortable that the future of this blog is not solely text-based.

Regards,

mc

Hello all.

Just a quick note (time, it seems these days, is nothing more than a patchwork of quick notes) to say hello to everyone who’s dropped by this little piece of cyber real estate since its launch in March. Some trivia about the blog:

– Seventy-one posts (now seventy-two)

– Anywhere between 6 and 12 thousand visitors (depending upon how you read those stats and allowing for the opinions of anonymous IT fascists)

– Nineteen original photos

– an excess of verbosity

– a reasonably low amount (considering some of the topics) of whining and solipsism.

More importantly (which I don’t group with trivia) are the comments I’ve received. I don’t have a tally, but that’s not really the point. It’s always good to get feedback, whether it be good or bad (and it’s typically been supportive). Your suggestions are always welcome.

There are a lot of people who consider blogging to be nothing more than a wank-fest extraordinaire; a self-regarding, self-aggrandizing, self-obsessed voyeur’s wet-dream-come-true. And for those who hold this opinion there are certainly a lot of blogs that satisfy this judgment – I won’t lie. But the existence of proof does not deny the existence of alternatives. I am happy to provide what I feel is a constructive alternative. Alternatives, generally speaking, are not cures. They do not prove viewpoints wrong. If anything, alternatives instill the ultimate provable reality: humanity is always more complex than how we consider it in our day to day lives. Like the world around us, humanity is nearly infinitely complex; it doesn’t deny explanation – it actually embraces explanation – but the summary truths of mankind and the world are always elusive. Without answers we must work on voicing the right questions to unlock the glimmering meanings of our existence.

On that note, have a great holiday. Get some sleep. Don’t let the newspapers scare you. Save your strength for the fights that truly matter.

mcc

Disparate notes for today…

First, this blog has hit (and since surpassed) 10,000 visits. I waited until there were at least a few hundred over the mark as I’m sure a lot are due to me being paranoid about spelling/grammar/formatting mistakes. Hoorah for me and, once again, a big vote of thanks to all of you who have passed through – particularly those who leave comments.

Secondly, photographs. Yeah…not many of them lately, huh? The answer is simple: no time, but certainly not for lack of interest and passion. Mind you, this autumn (Toronto at least) has been cold, grey, and wet – generally miserable for a season and a region known for some of the most beautiful autumn vistas in the world. In other words, even if I had the time, my output would’ve been slim (and if not, reflecting the dreary outdoors we’ve experienced since October began). I promise to publish some in the near future, even if they are not “fresh” (which is usually my preference). Thankfully, the forecast for today called for a high of 16 Celsius; I’m hoping we’ll have at least a month remaining of the autumn I’ve come to know, before the snow hits.

Thirdly, still reading Wittgenstein (book review forthcoming). I must say, there are great swaths of it that are about as easy to peruse as electrical schematics. Punishingly arithmetical. Yet, like the sun glimmering through clouds, here and there I happen upon oases of potent contemplation:

5.6 The limits of my language mean the limits of my world

Suck on that for a toothache, eh? Still, after this book I’m going to need an antidote – at this rate Anne of Green Gables will do.

UPDATE (02/11/06): It’s bloody 6 degrees outside…with a wind from the lake no less. Please disregard what I wrote about “hoping to have a balmy autumn”. Christ.

Summer ’06, we hardly knew thee.

Actually, I’m lying. I vividly recall it: hot, humid, and busy. Regarding the latter, you will probably note that I’ve not been posting much lately. This is due to ending my full-time position and going freelance; I have so much to wrap up by Friday, it makes my head spin thinking about it…and then I start another production next week.

However, blog content is coming. Just as air molecules oscillate between compression and rarefaction, it is during those periods where I’m not blogging that I’m able to source the features, take the photos, read the books, and live a life that will inevitably find itself reflected here.

I should make a t-shirt that reads:

Hello all,

I’ve passed the 50-post mark without much fanfare (I’m saving it for the 100^th), and I don’t see Imaginary Magnitude hitting the 10,000 visitor-mark for another couple of months – however I thought I’d just say hello and thanks to all the people who pass-through, whether via BlogMad, StumbleUpon, or any of the myriad ways people find their way here.

This site gets visitors from across the globe – here’s the latest 100-visitor sample:

Sure, a little Ameri-centric, but every visitor counts.

What surprises/impresses me in particular is the number of people who spend more than an hour actually reading the articles I write (either that or staring at the pretty photos…or maybe they just fell asleep and didn’t log-off). From the same sampling, here’s the breakdown:

That’s 17.7% of people spending over an hour here.

On this note, if anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. More photos? More essays? More article/book reviews? Less? Go home? Your blog sucks? Let me know.