Stray Hawkeye

So for the past two anniversaries of starting my blog, I got my blog makeshift cakes to celebrate.  Well, this year I couldn’t think of anything funny in terms of semi-cake-like food that comes in packs of 3, so I’m going a different route.

I looked up what the traditional anniversary presents are for each year.  It turns out I actually managed to do the first one right, as the traditional one year anniversary present is paper, and the birthday Combo was sitting on a piece of paper.

The second year, I didn’t get so lucky.  As it turns out, the traditional two year anniversary present is cotton, and as far as I know, my dueling Swiss Cake rolls did not have cotton as an ingredient.  (Maybe the candles did in the wicks, but that doesn’t really seem like it counts.)  So, to make up for it, I’m retroactively getting my blog a 100% cotton t-shirt, and half a bag of cotton balls:

Hooray!!

I also have the magnet version of that shirt.  Thanks Laura.

Having corrected last year’s slight, I then looked up what the traditional anniversary gift is for the third year.

Turns out it’s leather.

I have no idea who comes up with these traditions.

Yep, I gathered up a couple things I had laying around the apartment borrowed a variety of items from a large number of my more unusual friends who happened to each have a couple of leather items on hand.

Also, look forward to next year, as the traditional anniversary present for the 4th year is handcuffs.

Nah, just kidding, it’s flowers.

And now ladies and gentlemen, it’s that time of year.  The time where I request any feedback you might have on the blog.  Things you want to see more of?  Things you want to see less of?  Things you love?  Things that make you punch your monitor, not realizing that doing so only destroys you own property and has no greater effect on the internet at large?  Things you’d like to see turned into series?  Potential plot lines for the dino saga?  Other random musings?

Make a wish...

My blog turns two today and I’ve upgraded a bit from last year’s birthday combo – this year, I sprung for birthday Swiss Cake Rolls- extra convenient as they come two to a package.  And just what we need, a two year old toddler of a blog all hyped up on sugar running around biting people.

I kind of feel like I’m supposed to say something sentimental here, but sentimental just isn’t something I do real well.  Mostly, I’ve enjoyed sharing stuff that I think is cool/interesting/novel/insightful/clever/etc, and it’s gratifying to know a bunch of strangers out there (and a few people I know, too) stop by now and then and take the time to read what I’ve put up.

So, in the interest of keeping things, well, interesting, it’s time for my annual appeal for you to chime in-  What do you like around here?  Which posts make you go “dear god not this again”?  Favorite topics?  Favorite formats (list of links, link and commentary, two random things that are related in my mind, pictures, stories, musings, etc, etc)?  Things you love seeing links to?  Things you love reading commentary about?  Things you hate reading commentary about and would just prefer the link and get out of my way thank you very much?  Preferences for videos, music, short articles, long articles, reference to whole other sites, etc?

It’s not that I’m going to completely re-formulate the site to be all lolcats all the time, or to be a series of in depth articles on the role of Constitutional law in modern political dialog (though don’t be surprised if either pops up from time to time).  But, at the moment I have so much stuff bookmarked and little notes scribbled down of things to write about that I’m pretty sure I could blog as a full time job for the foreseeable future (aside from that no money part, and who would buy my blog Swiss Cake Rolls then?) and not really run out of material I’d like to post.  So, I don’t have any problem with giving priority to any given realm, topic, format, etc when things are slow.  You’ll still be getting whatever I happen to find interesting that day, but it’s a chance to influence which one of the 10 interesting things that I come across that day I blog about, and which 9 I bookmark to blog about later.  If you’re new around here and you’d like to get a feel for the place, there’s a little over 450 posts in the archives now, and the tags are a fairly good way to get a flavor of what I tend to post a lot about.

Also, for some of the ones people have mentioned as liking in the past, I have a vague idea for the next post in the Dino Saga, but I need to come up with a bit more of a plot wrapper around it before I start really putting it together.  Also, Free Idea Friday will be making a come back at some point here, I just need to get around to writing up a couple of them in a form other than the jumbled notes I scribble when they occur to me.  I’ve also been waffling a bit on a few of them on whether to write them up, or actually just take some of the time I’d spend blogging about them and actually do a couple of the smaller ones.

Anyway, thoughts, suggestions?