Who wants me to write about John Galt?

It's fun to see the search queries people use to find your site. Here's two from probably the same person: ""babes on broadway" publicity still spanked" and ""bright eyes(1934)" spanking". Spanking scenes from old movies is one very specific fetish that I'm unable to cater to. Shirley Temple movies particularly so.

Then there are the automated search queries, set up by people who want to follow blog posts about a particular topic. When I review books, I often get a hit from the author's name the next day. I actually do the same thing myself, in order to hunt down and ridicule anyone who says anything bad about me.

But here's one that baffles me: "site:bearstrong.net "atlas shrugged"" What makes it odd is that this query has given me regular hits for over a month.

Somebody wants to be notified immediately the next time I write about Atlas Shrugged. Don't ask me why. Fetish queries ("site:bearstrong.net "atlas shrugged" spanking") I can understand. This, less so. It's a bit passive aggressive. "Hey, it's your blog and you write about whatever you want to. I just want you to know that if you ever do write about this book that I love/hate, I'll be there immediately to read it, because that's how much I care. But hey, you know, whatever."

So I'll make a deal: If whoever is doing this explains why they care, I might write a post about Ayn Rand.

Also, my deepest apologies to all Ayn Rand spanking enthusiasts I've now accidentally led here.

Bloggerne tviler seg til valgurnene

Når vi leser de valgvurderingene norske bloggere har lagt ut i det siste ser vi hva samfunnsdebatten går glipp av, når kommentatorene ikke vil røpe sine partipolitiske sympatier.

Abre har ikke bestemt seg helt, men dras mellom SV, Ap, Venstre og Miljøpartiet De Grønne.

Virrvarr har brutt med Rødt, men ender opp med å stemme på dem allikevel.

Det gjør Esquil også, hovedsaklig pga Afghanistan-krigen.

Og Pleym stemmer Venstre, hvor han havnet etter å ha mistet troen på FrP. Liberaleren-kollega Bjørn Magne Solvik stemmer derimot Høyre, og Mosfjell DLF.

Det som skinner igjennom i disse tekstene - og i det Mihoe, Hjorthen og jeg har skrevet på dagbladet.no - er hvor normalt og sunt det er å tvile. Ingen er skråsikre på valget de eventuelt har gjort. Alle har gjort kompromisser, og begrunnelsene de leverer belyser norsk politikk på interessante måter.

Når kommentatorene i de etablerte mediene nekter å levere slike analyser, er det kun de skråsikre vi får høre fra. Partitalsmenn og andre aktivister, som først og fremst har som jobb å selge et budskap, ikke å tenke. Velgerne kan få inntrykk av at skråsikkerhet er et ideal. At desto mer opplyst du er om politikk, desto sikrere blir du på at ett parti sitter på alle svarene.

Jeg tror det ofte er omvendt. Iallefall trenger vi de perspektivene også. Og de får du i dag kun fra bloggere.

The 64 kiloword event

Here at the Max 256 blog we don't celebrate anniversaries, only multiples of 256 and other round numbers. This is entry number 256, which means there are currently no more than 65 536 words (or 64 kilowords, for certain definitions of "kilo" and "word") in the blog. Who else can say the same thing with such precision?! Amazing.

Best of all, this is only the first out of many magical number events you have to look forward to over the coming years, such as the 128 kiloword event next year, the 256 kiloword event in late 2011, the megaword event in ca 2021, and the gigaword event some time around the year 15 989. That's a party you don't want to miss - tell your children to tell their children! (This year's celebration, however, has been cancelled to avoid sending the wrong signals in this time of economic hardship.)

What can you expect from the next 256 entries? Ideas in the planning stage include: A dictionary marathon, lolcatz (cats with funny captions!), anthologies of my favorite Twitter messages, a pictorial series on the growth of the grass outside my window, and fashion advice. Enjoy!

On the positive side, this meta post doesn't use a certain word that begins with m

Some blogger named Arianna Huffington went on the Daily Show this week to explain what "blogging" is, (it's not just for cat pictures any more!)

"Blogging is not about perfectionism. Blogging is about intimacy, immediacy and transparency."

Yes, that's what blogging is about, and that's why blogs are so bad. Here's my philosophy:

- Blogging, like all writing, should be motivated by perfectionism. What you write doesn't have to be important, and it doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be as good as you can make it. If not, what's the point? Where's your pride? If your hobby is to paint or sing or play sports, you try your best. Trying hard and getting better is what makes it fun. Why should writing be different?

- Intimacy should be used sparingly. If you're always intimate, you become just a reality star, but with fewer onlookers. Intimacy works, but it might be bad for you. Use it for the few parts of your life that are genuinely interesting or exceptional.

- What happens right now is overrated. Write about things before everybody notice them, or after everybody has forgotten them. If it's happening now, you're either too late or too early.

- In short, blogging should be a performance. Make it a good one.

Arianna's advice is good for frightened newcomers. When you want someone to sing for the first time, you encourage them. Tell them nobody's going to laugh. But when they're no longer afraid, you tell them how to get better.

Bloggdagen derpå

Etter gårsdagens vellykkete bloggdag-feiring, innfører jeg herved bloggdagen derpå, en dag til stillhet og ettertanke for alle som i ivrig bloggrus har begått en bloggutskeielse som de senere angrer på. Det kan være noe personlig du ikke skulle ha brettet ut for omverdenen, det kan være et raseriutbrudd i en bitter bloggkrig, en flau naivitet, eller en skråsikkert framsatt oppfatning som alle nå skjønner var feil. Kanskje har du uten å tenke alt for nøye gjennom det gitt alle dine framtidige potensielle arbeidsgivere inntrykk av at du ikke eier arbeidsmoral, dine potensielle partnere at du synes det er greit å være utro i blant, og dine framtidige svigerforeldre at du egentlig har litt sansen for Vigrid. Slik en blogg kan favne alt av gode ideer og vakre tanker, er det heller ingen grenser for hva slags nedrigheter du der kan begå foran omverdenen og ettertidens falkeblikk. Det er for disse triste gjerninger og tilhørende skamrødme at bloggdagen derpå er til.

Mens bloggdagen er en dag for å fremheve det gode, er bloggdagen derpå en dag for å glemme og holde skjult. Du skal derfor ikke legge ut noen linker, og du behøver heller ikke skrive noe. Bloggdagen derpå er dagen for bloggangst og bloggtvil, og for modige løfter om "aldri mer!" Det er dagen for å meditere over alt du skulle ønske du kunne slette, men som Nasjonalbiblioteket har kopi av. Man ønsker ikke til lykke med bloggdagen derpå - man gir et klapp på skulderen og ønsker god bedring.

256 words or less (or else!)

Now that the Google has turned your brains into mush, (something Microsoft never managed), bloggers have only two (yes, only two - don't question me, just read and believe) options: We can try to retrain your brains by writing long, difficult essays, or adapt to your short attention span by writing short, superficial blog entries. (For you youngsters out there, a blog entry is sort of like a long Twitter message, a maxi-twitter if you like - we used this in the old days back when horse-carriages roamed the world.) Not being quite sure which strategy will work out in the long run, I'm going with both. Long essays go there, while anything I write here is guaranteed to be 256 words or less. I can offer this money-back-guarantee because you're too lazy to verify it, and if you do verify it you're too polite to complain. Also because it's fun. As Shakespeare once said, the old-fashioned art of selecting your words in such a manner as to have as few of them as possible without loosing any meaning, is the very central characteristic, the essence if you like, or at least the foundation, of the practice of writing in a manner that many people will find poignant, enjoyable and educational, ie. not a waste of time, (though of course this does not guarantee quality as such, and there are plenty of other important caveats, such as the author's writing ability, but you get the drift). And that clocks us in at exactly 256 words, hooray!