In case you thought this year would be different

Luther M. Siler3 Comments
Yesterday
Today

So far 2021 has featured an ice storm and a power outage that is about to reach its 24th hour. We have booked a hotel for tonight and I’m writing this on my phone at my dad’s house.

Happy Same Fucking Year!

A brief first day report

Luther M. Siler3 Comments

Odd fact: when going through previous posts for posts about teaching to possibly include in Searching for Malumba, I discovered something interesting:  I have not talked about the first day of school on most of the first days of school since I’ve been blogging.

Possibly because I get home and I am too tired to qualify as a living thing.  So, the short version: my homeroom girls are nice.  Scary nice.  Like, “I don’t believe you, and we’ll see what I think of you in a week” nice.  My afternoon kids… well, let’s just say that class is still in flux, because that’s where my special education kids are going to end up and we’ve not finalized class lists yet.  “In flux” sounds like a fair way to put it.

So… what is that?  Cautiously optimistic?  I’ll go with cautiously optimistic.

Posts of the Year: 2014

Luther M. Siler8 Comments

2014Despite the weather today– fifty freaking degrees!  Sweatshirt weather!– it’s probably about time to start doing some retrospective posts on 2014, and I figure I’ll start with Posts of the Year, since it doesn’t seem super likely that anything will be changing positions between now and January 1st.  Here is last year’s edition; the rule for this year was that you had to be acquire the traffic after last year’s list to count for this one.  There are a couple of posts that would be on both lists, namely In Which I Hurt Myself and Acquire Toys and The 10 SF/(mostly) F Works that Meant the Most to Me, but this post is all stuff that’s new since I wrote the last one.

Also, we’re doing a top 11, not a top 10.

  1. MOAR BUTTZ, a tale told with pictorial accompaniment:  January 16, 272 hits.  This post is why this is a top 11; this is probably my favorite post of the entire year– I spent the entire time during the events this describes planning the blog post, and I was literally laughing myself to tears while I was writing it.  I love this post.
  2. In which I am still a bad student (pt. 2 of 3):  August 2, 2013, 286 hits.  This one’s interesting, and I had to think hard about whether to include it– because  technically I wrote it in 2013, but it didn’t catch on until 2014.  This is also the sole teacher post on the list, and is part of a three-part series on determining teacher quality.  It’s one of my more thinky pieces.
  3. Creepy Children’s Programming Reviews: Super Why:    March 6, 299 hits.  True fact: at the time I wrote this, I was unaware that future seasons of Super Why actually added a talking dog to the cast.  I have nearly revisited this post on any number of occasions, because the talking dog took a show I already hated and catapulted it somewhere… else.  Somewhere darker.  “Hate” isn’t even the word anymore.
  4. In which my kid is weird as hell: October 13, 316 hits.  There are a fair number of posts on this list that are generated somehow by my son; this one details his obsession with kicking hats that took over his life around Halloween.  It’s fun.
  5. And none could say they were surprised: on #Ferguson:  November 25, 331 hits.  I’m very gratified that this post has gotten the attention that it has.  It’s the newest post on the list, too.  I’m rarely completely serious around here; this is one of those times.
  6. On “awareness,” with swearing:   May 9, 367 hits.  I have a theory that the angrier I am and the more times I use the F-word in a post, the more popular the post is destined to be.  This one’s a little… intemperate.  It’s about slacktivism!
  7. Creepy Children’s Programming Review: Color Crew: February 16, 480 hits.  The other thing that I need to do a lot to generate traffic?  Review stuff I don’t like, as you’ll see below.  I don’t dislike Color Crew as much as I dislike Super Why, although it’s a much, much weirder show.  Interesting fact:  all four CCPR posts (the other two are Peg + Cat and Curious George) are in my all-time top 20.
  8. The Top 10 new (*) books I read in 2013: December 17, 2013, 577 hits.  This is another one that was technically written in 2013 but was written after the top 10 posts list, and therefore it got nearly all of its traffic in 2014.  The sequel to this is coming soon; right now my shortlist for my top 10 is 16 books long.  That’s too many.
  9. This one has some bad words in it: September 5, 2013, 852 hits.  The third and final 2013-blew-up-in-2014 post; I got this one linked prominently in the comment thread on a Scalzi post, and it got a lot of attention.  I’m not entirely sure it deserves to be here; it just happened to have a section that was perfectly relevant to the conversation going on over at his place, so I linked and got lucky.
  10. Think before you post: February 16, 930 hits.  This post combines lots of swearing and anger with a direct attack on a common Facebook meme, and ended up with a pretty high number of Facebook likes for one of my posts.  It got linked all over the place and still picks up little surges of hits every now and again.
  11. SNOWPIERCER: I hated, hated, hated, hated, HATED this movie.: August 5, three goddamn thousand three hundred and seventy-one hits.  And, surprising absolutely no one, number one with a bullet, the goddamn SNOWPIERCER review.  I am actually tired of this post, if I’m being honest.  I hated this movie, although I enjoyed reviewing it, I haven’t come around to liking it since I reviewed it, and this post appears to have become home base for everyone on the Internet who sees this terrible, stupid little movie, wonders why it got such great reviews, and goes onto Google to search for like-minded individuals.  Its popularity blows away anything else I’ve ever written– note that this is one of the newer posts on the list– and it’s still a rare day that it isn’t my most popular post of the day.  I finally had to close the comments on it last week; people were starting to fight with each other and I am heartily tired of monitoring it.  Stupid post.  Stupid movie.

Anyway, that’s it: my 11 most high-traffic posts of 2014.  I will have to come up with new rules next year to disqualify the Snowpiercer post, as I’m sure that it will still be tops on the list.  It’ll be interesting to see what’s blown up in the meantime.

Anything that ought to be on here?  Feel free to wander through the archives all day.  🙂

Posts of the Year: 2013

Luther M. Siler2 Comments

UnknownBeing a bit presumptuous in assuming I’ll still be here in a year, but hey: goals.

As of right now infinitefreetime.com has 234 posts.  The following are my ten most popular/high-traffic posts for 2013; in other words, for the entire lifespan of the blog.  Some of them are well-written and/or interesting and/or clever and/or funny.  Some of them confuse the hell out of me.

(And ten is a good number to have chosen, because after ten we start getting lots and lots of ties.  These stood out.)

  1. In Which This Isn’t Quite What it Looks Like (part 1 of 3):  July 5.  Which happens to be my birthday.  I’m glad at least one Serious Post made the list; this post, and the two that follow it, go into some detail as to how I think educators, schools, and students should be evaluated in the age of “accountability” and corporate reform.  You really actually should read this.
  2. Because God Forbid I Don’t Double-Post on Friday:  November 8.  Other than the picture being entertaining, I have no idea.
  3. WHERE THE HELL IS MY STAPLER: September 10.  I actually honestly wish this one wasn’t on the list, and it still gets several hits a week– in fact, pretty much all of these posts are still getting a few hits a week, and the top several are still getting hits every day.   I was in an incredibly bad mood and had had an immensely bad day when I wrote this; I wish I hadn’t.  But it’s on the list nonetheless.
  4. In which something entirely unexpected happens!: October 18.  This, and the post that immediately preceded it, I’m in this job for the paperwork, are both Teacher Posts, and both on the “serious” end of the spectrum.  This one is also one of my ragier ones but unlike “Stapler” a minute ago I’m still willing to own it.  I was at least trying for funny; hopefully I didn’t miss by too much.
  5. Don’t read this if you respect me: September 20.  In accordance with prophecy, one of my most popular posts; I have a misadventure with a new pet.
  6. In which I fail at baking again: July 17.  One of the popular “I screw up; it entertains you” series; I try to make an apple pancake cookies.  I, well… I still do not end up with an apple pancake.
  7. I’d part with my childhood but no one wants it:  September 12.  The popularity of this one, which is basically just me whining about being too much of a nerd, fascinates me.  I thought of it mostly as a throwaway post when I wrote it, because I hadn’t had any better ideas.  Still haven’t sorted the damn books.  Gotta get to that this weekend.
  8. In which TMI for serious:  October 14.  Another post that I knew would be popular from the jump because it involved me humiliating myself.  I am a vegetarian for a week.  There are… consequences.
  9. In which I hurt myself and acquire toys:  November 9.  This post has sixty-seven more views than #3.  It’s had three today!  I have no idea why.  It’s a mild Facebook rant.  Also I brag about buying housewares.  I don’t get it.  It’s also the newest post on the list, which makes its popularity even more bewildering.
  10. The 10 SF/(mostly) F works that Meant the Most to Me:  October 15.  This post has (whoa, weird) 67 more views than #2 does, which means it has 134 more views than the third most popular post.  250 total.  It still gets multiple hits every single day and currently has 30 Likes and fifteen comments.  I’m convinced it’s directly responsible for a dozen or so followers as well.  Now, this makes me happy, of course, but I have to admit I do sorta wish my most popular post wasn’t directly cribbed from John Scalzi, especially if it’s gonna be number one with a bullet the way this one is.

And there you have it:  my ten most popular posts for 2013.  Go ahead, troll the archives:  anything that should have been up here?

EDIT:  Now that I’ve said that?  I’m putting “On fathering” (June 16) on here.  Call it honorable mention; the site wasn’t very old when I wrote it so most of you have never noticed it but it’s probably my favorite piece that I’ve written for the site.  So now it’s eleven.  Pbbbt.