The One With Aldacron

The first post on this blog is dated January 15, 2006. At the end of the first year, I posted a retrospective, fully intending to make it an annual event. But the second and third anniversaries passed by without any comment. I had so much going on on both occasions that it completely slipped my mind. This year, I remembered. I was going to post this on the 15th, but got a little sidetracked in a bar.

A lot has changed since that first year. For one, I don’t post as much on politics and religion as I once did. Not because I’m no longer concerned about either topic, but because I just don’t have the time that I once had to keep up with all the latest news. My teaching schedule has been consistently busy for the past year, plus I go to the gym regularly and spend more time doing activities other than sitting in front of my computer. That has also affected my post frequency, of course. I used to post three or four times a week. Now, it’s usually once every 10 days or so. Hopefully, I’ll be able to rectify that when I get an iPhone, since I can use a WordPress app and post from anywhere, anytime.

OK, now for some stats, from Jan 16 2009 to Jan 15 2010.

Top 10 Posts

These are the posts with the most views over the past year. Interestingly, none of them were posted during that period. Several are from the first year. It seems the majority of these were viewed not because they have compelling content, but because of search results. Now, I’m regretting not having kept up with this for 2007 & 2008. I could dig through the server stats and come up with something if I really wanted to, but I don’t think so.

1. Why There’s No Such Thing as a Fundamental Atheist Why charges of ‘atheist fundamentalism’ hold no water. If I had done a 2007 retrospective, this would likely have been my choice for the most meaningful post. Though if I were to write it today, it would take a bit of a different tack as I understand how to better explain my position now.
2. Regcure Key This was number 2 in the 2006 retrospective. I suppose it would have been in the top 2 in 2007 & 2008 as well, given all the pirates coming here looking for a free key for RegCure.
3. Pattie Boyd & Eric Clapton A review of 2 related autobiographies, and the only book review on this blog that consistently gets hits thanks to all the searches for the two subjects.
4. Chrome Dump My opinions on Google’s Chrome browser and a utility that can be used to enhance it. A bit dated now.
5. Sampoong Revisited About the 1995 collapse of Seoul’s Sampoong Department Store. Posted after seeing a documentary about it on the Discovery Channel.
6. RegCure Key Morons Another pirate magnet. Number 3 on the list in 2006.
7. Permanent Residency in Korea My account of how I finally obtained permanent residency status here in Korea. What a relief that was.
8. Korean Movie Set in Vietnam War A review of one of the few Korean movies I’ve seen in the cinema. It was a good one.  I still need to buy the DVD.
9. Bobby Jindal: Not White but Apparently Republican to the Core My thoughts on Bobby Jindal shortly after he was elected governor of Louisiana. I caught a bit of flack in the comments for this one.
10. McAfee Auto Renewal A post resulting from my frustration with McAfee’s auto renewal policy after I stopped using their software.

Top 10 Posts From Year Four

I would assume that the main reasons there are no posts from the past year in the list above are that I didn’t post as frequently over the past year and that the majority of my posts were not very search friendly, being more on personal topics than current events.

1. A Korean Driver’s License An account of my experience in getting a Korean driver’s license. This just missed the list above, coming in at #11 overall. And it got way more views than the other posts on this list.
2. Apartment Security in Extremis My annoyance with the security for a tower apartment where I frequently teach led to this post. I can say that since then, I’ve had a change of heart and follow their policy.
3. An Uninformed Public What I think is one of the biggest problems with American voters. One of the few political posts I did last year.
4. Creative Works, Greed and Free Information Pt. 1 The first of a three-part series attacking a couple oft-cited reasons for digital piracy. There was going to be a fourth part, but I never got around to it.
   
5. AnchorFree About a nice little piece of software that helps get around the frustrating practice of Geoblocking.
6. Cell Phone Lost How I lost my Samsung Haptic 2 cell phone, the first of three devices I lost or ruined in 2009.
7. Roh Moo Hyun’s Public Funeral My thoughts on how the former South Korean president’s funeral was going to disrupt my day. Before I lost my phone.
8. Pre-WWW Online Newspapers A video clip of a 1981 news segment about online newspapers. Fun to watch.
9. The Oklahoma Legislature — Backward and Ignorant About the OK legislature’s resolutions condemning Richard Dawkins & evolution, and their investigation of the university where he gave a lecture. Includes video of his opening remarks from the lecture where he takes a few jabs at them.
10. Shampoo, Guns, and the American Way Some thoughts that coalesced after a comment from someone I teach, who found it incomprehensible that Americans can casually go about their lives while people frequently get shot to death around them.

Most Meaningful Post: And So it Goes

Despite the smaller number of posts over the past year, there are several that I’m rather proud of. But none are as meaningful as this one, written shortly after the death of Michael Jackson. His music had been a part of my life since I was a kid. His death, as unexpected as it was, struck me like a brick and turned my thoughts to human mortality. It dawned on me then that my attitude toward death, and life, had changed quite dramatically since my teens and twenties, without my having noticed. This post is a result of that self-meditation.

My primary goal for the fifth year of The One With Aldacron is to get my post frequency back up. Additionally, I want to try to post more on current events like I did over the first three years. This blog is great for venting, sometimes, for organizing my thoughts. I never imagined it would be so satisfying to maintain a blog, but now I can’t imagine not having it. Thanks for reading!