Lurk: To exist unobserved or unsuspected

It's Friday! Woohoo!

I feel like I've had an unproductive week. And I hate those. I've actually got quite a lot done for the morning job, but almost nothing accomplished for my freelancing. Blegh.

Anyhoo... I have a question that often goes through my head when I'm thinking about blogging (which is often):

Why do people lurk?

I usually come up with a bunch of answers (yes, it's like a little dialogue in my head. And yes, I am fully aware that makes me sound crazy. If the straight jacket fits...). Some of the possibilities I've debated are:

• People are voyeurs. We like to see without being seen, or read blogs without alerting anyone to our presence (I'm using the royal 'we' here despite the fact that I don't actually lurk on anyone else's blog).
• Perhaps lurkers feel no real need to comment. This might be particularly true on a blog that gets gazillions of comments on every post. It's kinda like, "Why should I bother? Everything's already been said." Or on blogs that focus on news, sports, tech or other info stuff.
• Maybe lurkers don't feel their comments would be funny / wise / insightful enough. I know that on some of the blogs I read, there are posts where I don't comment for this reason.
• I guess some lurkers can't comment / interact even if they want to. I know when our internet connection was running at dial-up speed, I couldn't comment on anything becuase it kept timing out.
• And I know that lots of lurkers don't know that lots of bloggers (like me, for example) prefer them to show themselves.

Any thoughts from any of you on lurking? Lurkers? ;-)

Well, have a fab Friday. Let's hope it goes quickly until close of business. Then things can slow down for the weekend.

Have a good one.

PS: See that pretty blue badge on the right for Blog Action Day? Dare you to join! This year's theme is Climate Change. Sign up NOW as it happens next week. Please? And thanks to Damaria for the reminder.

Follow my leader

Question:

How many blog followers do you have (if you have a blog)? And does that figure mean anything to you?


I try really hard not to obsess about how many people are following my blog. I usually fail miserably, even though I tell myself that I would keep on blogging if I had no comments and no followers at all. I do believe this is true. It just wouldn't be quite as much fun ;-)


But then I visit some blogs that I personally think are quite yawn-inducing but seem to have gazillions upon trillions upon zillions of followers. And I have to ask, "What on earth makes people read this blog?"


Now before any of you take undue offence, if I have ever commented on your blog, you are not in the above category. I don't comment on blogs I think are stupid.

And if I have not commented on your blog, it might not be because I think it's dull either. It may be that a) you are a lurker and I don't know you have a blog or that you even exist; b) I have been battling to update my feeds list on my new PC and you are still in my queue of blogs I'm trying to get to; c) your brilliance intimidates me and I lurk on your blog rather than leaving a daft comment that might embarrass me.


With that cleared up... I also ask myself why anyone would bother reading this here blog. I think the answer is the same reason I read blogs... either they're well written or funny or moving or I just like getting a glimpse into someone else's life.


But whatever your reason for reading this is, please hang around - I love having you here ;-)

Questions...

I would appreciate it if you have any of the answers...

• What should I get my mom for Mother's Day?
• If I used my modem to connect to the net at my folks house, why won't it work at my house if my line really is ADSL-ready (Telkom says it is)?
• Why do our office technology issues just get worse (yesterday we had no electricity the entire day)?
• What would you ask Jacob Zuma, South Africa's soon-to-be president, if you had a face-to-face chat with him?
• What's the best thing about winter?
• Are there any good books I should be reading?
• If you're South Africa, did you vote last week? And if not, why not?
• What's the nicest compliment you've ever been given?

Question:

Is it ok that I wrote a press release and some lazy journo copied and pasted it into a publication and put her name down as the author?

That, my friends, just hacks me right off. I know it's merely a press release, but it's not the first time this has happened. Surely it's still my intellectual property? And it's bad journalism!

I don't mind so much if someone posts my press release as it is without naming an author. Yes, it's still lazy, but if that person wants to slack off, and the company I've written about still gets some space, fine.

But, in my opinion, using something I wrote and saying you wrote it is so not ok! Any thoughts on how to handle this? Am I overreacting? Should I ask the lazy little slob to remove her name from my work? She'd probably pull the whole release and I'd get in trouble with Boss Chick for losing our client's space.

Sigh... In other (far more pleasant news), my uncle has recently returned from his trip to Nepal and taken some absolutely AMAZING photos. Check them out here.

K, off to write more press releases for people to plagiarise.

Have you ever wondered...

How people figure stuff like this out? And yes, I tried it, it works for me.

Grab a calculator (you won't be able to do this one in your head).
1. Key in the first 3 digits of your work DIRECT landline phone number at WORK (NOT the area code).
2. Multiply by 80
3. Add 1
4. Multiply by 250
5. Add the last 4 digits of your work phone number
6. Add the last 4 digits of your work phone number again
7. Subtract 250
8. Divide by 2

DO YOU RECOGNISE THE NUMBER?

Supplements

What do you guys think of nutritional supplements? I'd be keen to know. Yesterday I did an interview with a company that makes them for a profile I have to write, and I've never been keen on the things... All those muscle-building shakes and slimming products really gross me out. I reckon they can't be good for you.



But the dude I was interviewing was telling me about the all-natural weight-loss stuff they make that suppresses your appetite because of the juice of some or other cactus (or something else that wouldn't taste very nice if you ate it), and the multivitamins they produce and so on, and I found mysef thinking, 'Ooooh... I should try that.'



Then I remembered he's in marketing. Like me (for example, the profile I need to write), he gets paid to make things sound good. Hmmm... Cactus? Maybe not.

My cuz

Today is taking SO long! I'm editing horrible, boring content that seems neverending.

Somebody save me....

Now I'm going to have the damn Smallville song in my head for the rest of the day. Perfect. I guess it's better than the Fruit & Veg City jingle. Not much of a silver lining.

Here's a question I'd like help answering:
When I got married, except for my immediate family and remaining grandparents, none of my family came to the wedding - not my uncles, aunts or cousins. They all had excuses. We've never been particularly close, but that hurt a lot. Now my cousin is getting married to a dude I've never met, and I'm wondering if I should go. I like her and her dad, but I loathe the rest of the family.

I should probably go though, hey? Eish. Don't want to - it means I have to suffer through hours of boredom and them teasing my hubby (which means hours of placating him afterwards) and stretch my budget (what budget?!) to buy an expensive prezzie. Urgh.

Suggestions, anyone? I guess I could always stock up on rescue remedy and herbal tranquilizers beforehand...