Rising Nucleotides

Nucleotides Rising

I'm not dead, I don't want to go on the cart, and I have created yet another thing to add to the list of stuff to update. I bring you: Nucleotides Rising, which is a fairly easy to remember name, being, like Rising Nucleotides backwards, and stuff. Makes my new comic sound like a powerful force, that just levitated out of the ocean, and that seems like a good image to project.

Click, for a notably larger version, suitable for being twice as large in both the X and Y dimensions.

Entry-level jobs are called "entry-level jobs" for a reason. You need to start somewhere-- unless, of course, you never start at all.

Coming Attractions

I'll be away for a few days (starting fairly soon), and I may even be completely unable to access the 'net. Since I don't have time to do one of my long, fact-ridden articles, it occurred to me to do something that I haven't done before. I'll tell you what's on my slate for the future of the site. Not that people use slate anymore, but a Notepad window makes a fine substitute.

You may have noticed that I will often end an entry with an allusion to future scribbling on the subject. I haven't been kidding about that; there are notions simmering away for all of them.

Something that I have wanted to do since the beginning is pure science education. The first in the queue in that genre is a condensed course in genetics-- from the DNA strand to the organism-- which will no doubt be broken up into several lessons. I will then study commas, in order to divine whether I should have used such devices in the preceding two sentences (just kidding).

I have at least two articles in the hopper that are of a controversial nature. I am not afriad of controversy as such, but I refuse to make a spectacle out of it that is all sound and fury. I yearn to share knowledge with others, out there in the marketplace of ideas, so it would be foolish to scare my customers away via gratuitous... there must be a word for it, but I can't think of it. Anyway, those two are being handled gently, becuase this is a rational place-- not the Jerry Springer show.

Since it appears that there are (roughly) 524,288 excellent blogs in circulation these days, I will endeavor to link to some of them when it is appropriate to the subject matter. Why, I might even try to open a debate with another blogger at some point. (Yes, I have an idea.)

Let's see... ah, yes-- fiction. I may not read as much as I would like like, but books and other sorts of fiction will need to have their virtues and vices extolled. Bonus if I also manage to find non-fiction somewhere.

My coverage of space exploration and its attendant technologies has been pathetically little-- especially when contrasted with my large enthusiasm for the subject. I feel that my space proposals are both grand and reasonable, but I may not be the most impartial judge of that-- so that's where my highly objective viewing public comes in.

I reckon there's enough things to talk about to last a very long time. Just to use genetics as an example, once I explain the basics (unless you already know the basics), there are all sorts of neat things to discuss. Disease-causing bacteria, housecat coat patterns-- and you'd never guess how downright interesting fraternal twins in cattle can be. And then there's politics, which will no doubt always be a distraction. At any given time, there will be someone in a position of power doing something stupid. It's probably encoded in their DNA.

Surprising the Clueless

Though success is not always attainable, I try to keep up with all of the sites on my blogroll. I was reading Steven Den Beste-- of USS Clueless-- yesterday, about how he had redone his blogroll again. He does this every four months or so, in order to give exposure to underexposed blogs.

I recalled the previous blogroll revamp at the Clueless, and a little corner of my heart jumped at the thought that I might someday be picked. Not yet, though. No, there was no sense in getting my hopes up right now-- but, with work, I could aspire to be on the short list next time around.

I didn't check the new blogroll until I had read the entire article. Only one of the links was purple, indicating that I had visited it. My curious eyes zeroed in on that one, and then my thoughts were flash-frozen.

Oh... my... Goodness! It's... me!

Well! That rather changes the situation. As is the way for largely unknown bloggers, I have been fretting that rather few people were reading my work, regardless of its quality. This, however, is a gold-plated golden opportunity. People will come, and they will read at least a little. If I fail to produce, though, then those people won't be coming back. Mr. Den Beste provided a stroke of luck-- but from here on out, it's all merit. Fair enough.

I expect big things from this cohort of seventeen blogs. Let's make the best of our newfound exposure.

The Hamiltonian Jeffersonian

Robert Prather (of Insults Unpunished, formerly The Mind of Man) has been on my blogroll since the beginning. He actually believes in classical liberalism, and has an economic head on his shoulders. A follower of Thomas Jefferson, with economics that would make Alexander Hamilton proud. Somebody should convince this man to run for political office, so I can vote for him.

Anyway, over three weeks ago, he posted about going to New Orleans, and meeting with David Frey, of Bowl of Gumbo.

Dave showed up and we had a great conversation, when he could get a word in. He and I have reached a similar conclusion about blogging: we're in it for ourselves. I noted that I recently removed the PayPal button from my site and started writing more on economic issues, because that's what interests me. I get very few comments on those posts, not even people calling me an idiot. Either they're not interested enough to comment or the posts themselves are not interesting. Dave has been blogging about his latest obsession: PhotoShop. He doesn't care if anyone wants to read or not either. It's what interests him.

Funny that he should mention it, as on that very day (October 8th), I met with my mother's financial advisor, and I thanked the knowledge I had gained from Robert's site. Any time you can throw the word mercantilism into a conversation, you have something to be thankful for. :-)

So, I just wanted to point that I find the entries on economics interesting, and personally educational. I don't know jack about economics, really, which is why I don't comment more often. But I've learned enough to feel that I didn't sound like an idiot in front of a guy who manages money for a living. If it worked for me... it can work for you, too.

Server downtime

Apologies most profound for the server downtime. For a slightly more complete explanation, read here but the gist of it is, the computer crashed and there was no one here to reset it, and/or to figure out why.

Playing in Traffic

Way back on Saturday, I dispatched a rather harmless-looking e-mail to His Imperial Snappingturtleness, Emperor Misha I, of The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler. I had spotted an interesting article in the Medina Journal-Register (which is the most local newspaper that money can usually cause delivery of), and it went a little something like this:

"Attempt to simplify citizenship oath thwarted by complaints"

My purpose today isn't to seriously analyse the proposed changes, but anyone who wishes to do so can find the current oath of citizenship on Mrs. du Toit's site. The short version is that I agree with some of the complaints. The current oath makes it clear that you swear to uphold the Constitution no matter what, and that's the way it should be.

As a naturalized citizen himself, it seemed logical that Misha would be interested in any proposed changes-- especially ones which watered down verbiage with regard to the Constitution. While I was correct about that, it seems that he was not only already aware of the changes, but also informed me that the proposal had been defeated. Well, good.

My e-mail had not been informative in the way I had originally intended. What it did do, though, was bring my humble blog to his imperial attention. This resulted in the first plug posting that I have received from a fellow blogger, but the associated increase in site traffic didn't hit until the next day. It seems that Saturdays have exceedingly low blog traffic.

The 21st featured a record 207 hits-- more than twice that of any previous day this month. The statistics for today are so low because the stats page was automatically generated at 6:25 AM. As of that time, I had received a total of 76 referrals from the Rottweiler in the four days since this began-- more than twice as many as the number two referrer for the entire month (which is Google).

In the face of all of this exposure for my site, I had just been saying "Yay for me!" and waving a little pennant. Then John from Opinionination suggested that I ought to post again soon if I wanted my new readers to keep visiting. Oh. Right. Good idea! Glad someone thought of it.

Coincidence Day

Among other things, this post is my mandatory link to Frank J's IMAO. Having checked out IMAO today, I see that I am two years and one day older than Frank.

I find it hilarious that Serenity beat me to having the first TrackBack to Frank's post... because I was adding *her* to *my* blogroll at the time.

Also today, Rachel Lucas added me to her extended blogroll, on account that I actually dared send her an e-mail regarding an absurd coincidence between a thought of mine and a post of hers.

On a more somber note, it is also an important date for the struggling democracy movement in Iran. Serenity and Michele have far more relevant things to say about this than I could.