100th POST: A Chat About Our Blog / Our Clip Show

This is our 100th post in 39 or so months of doing this little blog.  We have fun.  It works for us.  We do not work for it.  Nearly no one reads it, but that's cool.  We enjoy it anyway and it keeps us sane.

So, to mark our 100th post, Dave and I chatted about the blog and our favorite moments and memories.  Is it like those terrible clip shows everyone hates from random 80s shows?  Yes. Yes, it is.  But, we are children of the 80s and that's how we roll.



So, without further ado, we present, the 25booksayear "best-of" post!

Joe: 100th Post!  What is our ratio?

Dave: 60/30 you. (*presuming 10 percent by Alan and James)

Joe: I mean per year/month/week/whatever.

Dave: oh.

Joe: We need to calculate our per month ratio.  Why?  Because numbers.

Dave: uhhhh....3 a month?

Joe: See... now I have to look... I can't even blame you because I brought it up.

Dave: looking... Well, this is the 39th month of the blog, so roughly 2.5 posts a month.  NUMBERS!



Joe: Jan. 5, 2010 was the first post.

Dave: That was a good day....in that I can't remember anything bad that happened that day.

Joe: Well, you made a blog post.

Dave: Okay, okay, one bad thing.  By the way, we are on pace to make this the most postingist* year ever. (and by that, I mean we might hit 50 posts this year).

*Joe note:  This is not a word, but I get it.

Joe:  Whatever pace will make us hit 50... that must happen.  We have like no audience, so we're double producing for no eyes but our own!  But, I do think this blog has contributed to a significant delay in me going nuts.  It has been fun writing for no one in particular and generally emptying my head of clutter.

We're like Homicide on NBC, which TV Guide declared the best show no one watched on TV.

Dave: We might be the best blog that nobody reads.  That's a lot to live up to, and I now am too nervous to post anything ever again. Thanks, Joe.

Joe: Did I give you stage fright?

Dave: Although, judging by where Blogger says our audience comes from, Russia is into us. We get a lot of views (relatively) from Russia.

Joe: That's Dima! Dima reads us.

Dave: Wait, that's actually somebody?

Joe: Yup!  And he borderline beat me up for trying to stop him from drowning me in vodka. He does drink it straight.  It's impressive. Shout out to Dima!

Dave: They're overachievers, comrade.

Joe: OK, so...  Speaking of Russia... what are your favorite posts?... I have to say the high point was the last time we did a chat transcript about our favorite Russian author Tolstoy.

Dave: That was a good post.  (here is the link: Impromptu Conversation).

Joe: Really, the entire War & Peace series ages well.  Ages like Vodka stuck in a Yankee liver unaccustomed to Vodka.

Dave: That was a great series.  That's probably why we should force ourselves to read books at the same time, because when we can riff off each other, it's much better.

Joe: We had like 6 W&P posts.

Dave: And all the WP posts were really good.

*War and Peace posts here: Here; Here; Here; Here; and Here.

Dave: So, next year, we read all the Twilight books together? AmIright?

Joe: Or we could text riff like Alan did... I will not read Twilight.  We do not want another constitutional crisis.

Dave: You are like South Carolina. Every time something comes up in the blog that you don't like, it's all "I secede! I secede!"

Joe: You know what's fun? Seeing which posts had the most hits.  I think there are random titles or other weird things that trigger googlebots or whatever and distort the numbers.  For reasons I cannot explain, my Lincoln movie post has by far the most hits. 92!  Why?  No clue.

Dave: Probably because you posted it right before the Oscars hit.

Joe: I posted it a day or so after seeing it after it opened... near your birthday

Dave: My numbers are helped by putting the jump in, which forces people to click on my posts to read the whole thing.

Joe: I have slowly started doing that... but often forget to.

Dave: I have to say, my favorite post might be the one you wrote about being at that conference in the mountains. That was a great post. (See that post here: Clattering Hordes)

Joe: Didn't that one get me in semi-trouble at book group for going to Vail instead of the meeting? I do not like stuffy gatherings, and that one was (in Vail).   ... Technically we have 7377 views... which is like nothing over 39 months... (actually 190 a month... but like 180 of those are just us).

Dave: You ended up not going to that meeting.

Joe: I am deciding between a few of yours... which is best?   War and Peace was really good.  But, honestly, the 50 shades one has to be your winner. (See Dave hate on 50 Shades here: Hate).

Dave: War and Peace was really good. Of my posts, I think my favorite was when we went to B&N to find my romance novel. (See Dave pick a romance novel and read two here: Tee and Hee).

Joe: Either that or 50 shades, which are different shades of the same thing... female porn.

Dave: The 50 shades one was probably the best, if only because I didn't write that one to be high-minded or thought provoking. It was basically me yelling at the computer screen for a few minutes.

Dave: Which, I've been told, is a good style for me.

Joe: It works.  BTW, my best one in your mind (Clattering Hordes) had 4 views!

Dave: One of those was mine.

Joe: That's 1/4 of all its views!  I would have to say I most enjoyed writing Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Dave: That was a good one. I remember that day. Strange day.

Joe: Should we put links to the references?  That would take effort.  Damnit... what did we get ourselves into?

Dave: I also like the one I wrote about Tom Piccirilli. (Here: Effort).  I liked that post, and again, wasn't trying to be high-minded. I think I've figured out what my problem on a lot of posts is.*

*Joe's Note Dave ended this sentence with a preposition, which they say is OK now. I do not say that.

Joe: Yeah, that one was good.  And you get to read him again this year!  I wouldn't say there is a problem.  The topic dictates the style.  You can't force an angry yelling on all topics.

Dave: You can angry yell about anything.  Glenn Beck does it and look at how many people read his posts!

Joe: Dave... You aren't going to try to sell me on hoarding Gold as my retirement, are you?

Dave: THAT WAY THE GOVERNMENT CAN'T GET TO IT!

Joe: Most controversial post? 50 shades?  Romance novel experiment (because of your blatant use of porn as an example)?

Dave: Have we had a controversial post?

Joe: Maybe not. Nevermind.

Dave: That's one we need to do this year. A controversial post.

Joe: You did go through a kick of highlighting very ... um... flowery descriptions from older books.

Dave: I think that was awesome.  Wait, which one are you talking about?

Joe: The Most British Letter ever... and Submerged. (Here and Here).

Joe: Your post called "Throwing to Myself" was good and also got only 4 views! (Football)

Dave: It was a football post. the small audience we have doesn't want to read football posts.

Joe: Although your Buffon post was good even though I had to watch that Italian A$$h*** wink at me. (here: Sabbath's Theater). I enjoyed flushing out my 20 best of all time (Top 20)... you never did that, did you?

Dave: Yes, I did. It's called Ranked.  How dare you. Now I'm mad.

Joe: Yeah, I remember now because number one was Team of Rivals. Couldn't find it. I knew I wasn't dreaming it... if it weren't titled so obscurely... uh... yeah, I got no excuse.

Joe: OK, so I say we keep on just doing this for fun and not numbers.

Dave: We do need to find excuses to come up with more lists. Maybe a best sports book.

Joe: So, we have identified highlights dealing with all-time book rankings, W&P marathons, no controversy, a slew of fun posts and basically self-deprecating shots at our readership. Am I missing anything? ... And I approve of the best sports book list.

Dave: Here's one...JOE, why big books?

Joe: I think you already know why.

Dave: Tell the audience. (winks)

Joe: Well, the reason I can give in public is that I got tired of putting off books I wanted to read for the sake of keeping pace to hit my goal for number of books read.... and it is a true reason... But, to confirm some sort of suspicion I believe you have (or to at least make you think I am confirming your suspicion), I also want to have a built-in excuse for reading substantially less books than you. And... I want to read DFW because I apparently do not like comfort or ease of mind.

Dave: I don't have that suspicion. Or, I didn't.....

Joe: YOU DID. AND DO.

Dave: Okay....maybe

Joe: So, at this moment I am reading three separate 1000-page plus books and have myself all turned in circles.  Do you know how hard it is to leave Infinite Jest for more than like a day and get back into it without being totally confused? I didn't think this through, but I'm all in.  BIG BOOKS!  I do see that you are preparing your defenses early by logging an obscene number of short books to pad your lead while I lumber through my big books.  Well played, Dave... well played.  But, I will not be drawn out into the open like General Pickett! (I wonder what Shelby Foote will say about General Pickett...Hmmmm... Shelby Foote... It's right there... I bet it'll break into your top 20... is it calling to you in honey-dripping drawl?)

Dave: Shelby is calling, but to be fair, I have more than a few books calling. And I will be drawn out into the open...OBSCENE NUMBER of short books? Really?

Joe: I've been writing on this blog for 39 months and NOW you see that I can exaggerate?  Don't worry, I'm sticking with 25.  BIG BOOKS!

TUNE IN NEXT TIME WHEN WE CHAT ABOUT THE GAME OF THRONES SERIES!!!