Welcome to the eighth edition of "Zero Impact Posts" (ZIPs). If you missed the first edition, you may want to read it in order to learn about the many positive aspects of ZIPs and thus the inspiration for the ZIP series. See the fourth edition for the raison d'etre for the ZIP series.
According to jotter, during the previous week, there were 1250 posts, of which 1209 received recommendations and 758 had more than 9 commenters.
And according to me, there were only 8 posts that had no recommendations and no comments. They had absolutely zero impact, as judged by these measures. See below for a table with these rare and illustrious posts.
ZIPs: April 14-20, 2012
The ZIP list is fairly new and slightly improved! (It's a new marketing ploy: "modest marketing".)
Here are descriptions of some of the more cryptic columns in the ZIP table:
• RE - Flesch Reading Ease (see last week's edition)
• wrd - word count
• cat - category describing the content (see the 2nd edition)
• view - number of views
• ET - published date/time shown as Eastern Time
• post - number of posts to-date by the author
To see the first few words in a post, rest your cursor momentarily over the post title. To see the full name of each category, rest your cursor over the category letter in the "cat" column. In general, wherever you see underlined text, you can rest your cursor over the text for more info.
I am not a sock puppet!
Not that anyone's ever accused me of that. Nor would I necessarily object, for I have a half a mind to become one.
Here's what I was thinking. During various times of the year, there may be stretches of one or more weeks in which I do not have any commentary for the ZIP series, but every week, there are always ZIPs to list. Yet, I don't want my oeuvre (i.e., post history) to be filled with posts containing only ZIP lists.
So, I was thinking I could create a ZIP group and then use a sock puppet (e.g., QuequegsZIPs) to post the ZIP list to that group for those weeks in which I have no commentary to add.
Your thoughts?
(Actually, this would be more aptly described as an alternate pseudonym rather than a sock puppet, since the latter implies deception, as if you're hiding behind another name.)
You are black gold
Hold your head as high as you can
high enough to see who you are, little man
Life sometimes is cold and cruel
Baby no one else will tell you so remember that
you are black gold, black gold
You are black gold
And maybe no one else has ever told you so
that you're golden, baby
your black gold with a diamond soul
Think of all the strength you have in you
from the blood you carry within you
ancient men, powerful men
builders of civilization
They'll be folks hell-bent on putting you down
Don't get burned
Maybe not everyone will know your worth
Here is Esperanza Spalding & The Radio Music Society performing "Black Gold" on Thu, Apr 12th:
You are ..., but you are not ...
You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.
However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.
It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general's head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.
And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.
It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.
I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.
I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman's tea cup.
But don't worry, I'm not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.
Litany - by Billy Collins - American poet born 1941
Here is Billy Collins reciting his poem:
You are not your commercial life
You are not your job
You're not how much money you have in the bank
You're not the car you drive
You're not the contents of your wallet
You're not your fucking khakis
You're the all-singing all-dancing crap of the world
This poem is from the movie "Fight Club" (1999) starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton:
You are not your Kos stats
You're not your TU status, badges, and mojo
your UID and join date
your followers and followees
your tips, recs, and hot lists
your HIPs and ZIPs
You're the all-singing all-dancing stuff of the world
Summary
From the above content, the following questions arise:
• How do you feel about sock puppets and alternate pseudonyms?
• Has anyone ever told you that you are black gold, white gold, or some other variety of gold? How about some other unusually colored precious metal (e.g., periwinkle palladium)?
• Is your lover (or dream lover) the sun? Are you the moon? Or vice versa? Or is there a more apt metaphor for you and your lover?
• To what extent are we defined by our commercial life? To what extent, should we be? How about our Kos life or Kos stats?
Past editions of the ZIP series:
1) Positive Aspects of ZIPs - March 2nd
2) Categories of ZIPs - March 3rd week
3) Unpublished ZIPs - March 10th week
4) Raison D'etre for the ZIP Series - March 17th week
5) Rare Readers & Peculiar Posts - March 24th week
6) Readability & Potential Impact - March 31st week
7) Readability & Writers & Readers - April 7th week
(By the way, I will be out for a couple hours.)