Wonderful Winter, Succulent Summer and a Spectacular Solstice

Today is the Solstice. That means that for me it’s the shortest day of the year. It also means Yule is now, Festivus is in two days, Christmas and Capitalism Day are in four, Kwanzaa and Hanukkah start in five, New Years and Circumcision Day are in ten days, Newtonmas is in two weeks, and Epiphany is in 16 days.Just letting you know that this year I’m boycotting Christmas. Not because of my principles or anything (though that’s what I’m going to claim), I’m just too damn poor to afford anything.

Oh, and this is my favorite sentence today: “What follows is a mathematical proof that 22/7 > Ï€. It is simple in that it is short and straightforward, and requires only an elementary understanding of calculus.”

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Know Comment II

In a previous post, I talked about the various types of comments. Now let’s discuss the various types of responses to comments. Now, there aren’t that many new options, but there are oodles of combinations, so watch carefully:

Technical Options.
Re: Comment. This is where you add a comment responding or reacting to a prior comment.
Example.
Back Commenting. Every once in a while, somebody comments on a comment you made by coming to your blog and commenting on a totally unrelated thing (get it?). It’s happened here before, and I’ve done it before, but it’s not very common because it gives all outside readers only half the story. Which is antithetical to blogging, really…
Example.
(Jammed up under this category, I shall place personal e-mails, snail mail, telepathy, phone calls, and carrier pigeons, as they are all about the same in effect… except there’s relatively less poop via telepathy)
Posting. It is possible, in blogging, to respond to a comment by creating an entire post about it. In the past, I have been partially or entirely responsible for about a dozen posts (Example, example). I’ve also posted in response to comments. In the blogging world, this is high praise (usually).
Example.
Ignoring. You can also simply ignore comments. Depending on the blogger, this could mean everything or nothing. In my case, it doesn’t mean much. The best and worst comments on my blog have not illicited a response by me. In fact, I make it a point to rarely comment on my own blog. I find it much more fulfilling to see “1 new fan!” and know that it’s not me. Sometimes a response is worse than no response at all. For instance:

SxxyGrrrl4003.335m: You are my world.
PixelQywStyx: And you’re a small satellite orbitting me, creating gravitational pull that affects tidal waves and werewolves.

Personal Options.
Theoretically, your responses can be any of the same responses as the possible comments, but practically speaking, only 7 or 8 of them are truly plausible. The simple version:

1. Yeah, yeah, I read your comment.
2. You’re wrong/right.
3. Your mom.
4. What about Bob?
5. Bravo, good sir, bravo.
6. Ehh…/Ehh!!!
7. (advertising… you could do it, it’d just be pointless and assenine)
8. Huh?
9. (practically speaking in a response to a response, 1 [I was here] works as good as 9 [I only responded because you asked me to])

Thus, while a commenter only has 9 possible options, a blog-owner has 4 x 9 = 36 possible options! Though, to be fair, it’s actually closer to 3 (technical options) x 7 (personal options) + 1 (ignoring them) = 22 possible options.

I usually only use four:

1. Ignore (95%).
2. Retort (1%).
3. Joke (3.5%).
4. And on rare occassions, I post about things (38823094.4443%).*

*caution: may not add up to 100% as I never legitimately took Algebra I.

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