April 8, 2002

  • Blog-watching...Today:


    Just sitting, hitting refresh, watching the Newly Updated  update.  There was a time a little over a year ago, when you could check out the Newly Updated , recognize the names of at least half the bloggers, and sit in real time not just watching, but reading and commenting on every post as it arose.  Never again!  Here at 5 AM, I just watched a hundred posts hit the Xanga server and had a knowing recognition of 3 and a faint recognition of only 2 others.  A hundred posts at this early hour in about half an hour and 95% were unknown to me—and essentially unknowable unless I were to spend several hours just catching up with all of them.  And during those several hours, how many new posts would there be?  400?  500?  More?  And of those, how many known?  And if I were, in turn, to try to catch up with all of them...?


    No, it’s virtually impossible anymore to keep up with it all.  The frontier trail that was Xanga has vanished.  It’s now more akin to a large airport terminal with who going which way and what happening everywhere.  Yet it still remains fun at the airport terminal to occasionally run into somebody that you know.  And it always remains interesting, here and there, to tap into this strange energy that forever onwards towards an unstated destination flows.


    And One Year Ago...


    like a benign yet mounting alien invasion
    last night I sat with a cup of coffee
    and watched the astonishing influx
    of the second wave—the Angelfire arrivees!

    The thrill I got in greeting them
    was akin to watching the birthing of a baby
    or partaking man first landing on the moon
    I sat there nothing to them…
    yet they were a spectacle to me!

    so now a melting pot have we:
    Xanga like the promise of early America
    avails itself of all who journey forth
    as Bianca, our statue of liberty
    waves her torch!


    Statistically Speaking...


    If you take a random sample of larger than 30 from a fairly large population, you can infer about the population with a high probability of accuracy.  As an addendum here, I just visited 50 random sites using the random link on the Xanga portal page.  Of those 50,


    I recognized 3 names--6 % ! 
    Noticed that 20 had posted this weekend or today--40%
    Observed that 27 hadn't received any props or comments--54%
    12 had received 1 or 2 props/comments--24%
    11 had gotten more than 2 props/comments--22%


    My overall impression: the real Xanga taken at random is Unknown (and due to its immensity, Unknowable), largely Unpropped, yet Current.  


    Now don't forget: to love the one you're with

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