What my internet looks like

A puzzling question posed before the browsing public has recently startled me when I displayed the usual search page in my browser. What does your internet look like? Indeed, what? Seduced into responding the twenty questions of a Webify Me quiz, I hereby enclose its result - a picture of what my internet looks like. Allegedly showing how and what I use the internets for. Doesn't seem too graphic... just the everyday stuff, really. I don't understand how a bottle found its way there, though.

P.S. I'm noticing my style tonight seems strangely influenced by the baroque (click at your own risk - I've just had a warning page displayed about malicious infectious content within it, first time ever in years of visting) newyorkshitty blog (a.k.a. thatgreenpointblog, coming "to you from the garden spot of the universe") No clue as to why, either.

Perhaps not a good day for linking to that particular blog... I really had nothing to do with infecting it with anything, folks. I sincerely hope Miss Heather has her blog cleaned up and lets us savour her writing (and photography) again soon!

Wow. Madame Miho has added a translation feature to her blog. How exciting. I finally got to know what she's writing about. Although the translation is quite imperfect. For instance: "It is the best favorite in the echinacea that exists in the balcony. It is an adult color and a congenial atmosphere with a jerk." "The balcony is after a long time and comfortable." Puzzling. However it's good to see some variety names of the plants she uses. She must be spending a fortune on them, there seem to be so many.

Mislabeled Rembrandt tulip

I bought these last September labeled, no less, as the gorgeous purple flamed white tulip Zurel. There were only two or three packs left on the store rack and I took two of them - ten tulips. I was really excited because I had not expected I'd find this relatively new variety locally, and I've continued to look forward to finally seeing them in my own garden for months.

And what do you know. For the past couple of days I've been waiting for the purple to show because I noticed the flowers were just about to open. Something only seemed to be wrong with the leaves, namely their white edge, which I didn't think belonged to this variety. Alas. This morning, while taking pictures to document my tulips before they fade, it finally struck me that these are not Zurel. There is no bold purple flame, there's only a red and very delicate one. Combined with the white variegation on the leaves, it can only mean one thing. They are Happy Generation. How disappointing. Especially that I already have a bunch of Happy Generation growing merely a few yards away, where I planted it two years ago.

And I bought these tulips from one of the most respectable suppliers in town. Frankly, I didn't expect they'd sell mislabeled bulbs. It's the first time ever I've had what can be called a bad experience with them.

I'm still on the lookout for the glamorous Zurel. I've just checked madame Miho's blog and discovered that she also planted them this year (either that or in 2007, I can't be sure because her blog is in Japanese). Clearly got more lucky than I did. I can't link directly but see pics in her Garden Diary under April 30th, 2009. I think she has them planted with Arabian Mystery (also a very appealing tulip, albeit on the short side) and Black Hero, which I mentioned in my previous post. Check out how gorgeous they look. I'll definitely be buying them again this fall.

Dream stuff

like shirtless Fuzzy in blue sheets and D. Monkey outdoing B. Pitt - and much more - is where I've been today. Relaxing because I'm sick. I spent the day on the internet watching the boys' videos which for some reason I hadn't been able to comfortably watch before due to transmission delays. I have no clue if it's because of the Easter holiday and people being away from their PCs or my watching the videos directly at vimeo but I managed to actually see and hear at least 95% of the content of each. I had a great time.

I much needed that time out. I had loads to do at work in the week before Easter, and came home exhausted practically every night. Then, although I did start the weekend on Saturday, I also wanted to clean up the garden at least around the entrance to the house to make it look welcoming for the holiday. It took me all Saturday. I dragged bags of soil to less visible spots, I raked, swept, and finally cleaned out two large pots and planted some pansies. I barely noticed that, although sunny, it wasn't all that warm outside, and I did start out with my hair completely wet from the shower. When I finally sat down after dark, I realized that not only my back was hurting so much I almost couldn't move, but suddenly my nose was also running. A lot. It really went downhill from there. I spent Easter Sunday first recuperating from all the effort and then, towards the evening, developing a fever. Consequently, today I had to stay inside trying to get rid of it. Except for enjoying the videos and pics I didn't have much fun, drinking hot tea, a calcium solution with vitamin C and blowing my nose all day. I couldn't even eat. I am feeling slightly better by now, though, so hopefully I'll be back on my feet tomorrow.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Friday, 3rd week, last day of voting

The night brought 23 more votes for st3 and 5 for amtr. Yesterday st3 received 97 votes then, which is the highest number ever for them so far. The shares have not changed, st3 are leading with 33% while the boys are at the fourth position with 15%.

There's only one more day left to go, voting closes today at midnight Pacific time USA.

Update 11:00 p.m. CET/6:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. PDT:
Amtr counterattacked with 107 new votes, vs. only 18 votes for st3. Unfortunately, amtr remained 56 votes behind the leading st3 - 16 votes farther than they were on Sunday, March 15th, when they first generated a huge number of votes in an attempt to take over the lead. See below how they were trying to move up to the first position.

Another observation at this time would be that the number of voters for the best video blog displayed on the Lonely Planet page does not exactly equal a sum of votes for each of the blogs. While it used to. See that if you add the votes, you'll get 2,119. While they are displaying 2,118 voters.

I checked the totals for other contesting groups. They're off for five other categories:
expat - 1,018 more voters than votes (shares add up to 73%, 27% are unaccounted for),
Podcast - 844 more voters than votes (shares add up to 76%, 24% are unaccounted for),
consumer travel - 3 voters less than votes,
travelogue - 2 voters less than votes,
non-English travel blog - 1 voter less than the number of votes.

I am puzzled as to why.

Update 2:00 a.m. CET/9:00 p.m. EST/6:00 p.m. PDT:
I have just discovered that the voting closed at midday today, and will not close at midnight! So I've been looking at the results. Quite unprofessional of the authors to specify the closing time in such a way that it can be interpreted as either midnight or midday. I only noticed now that is has been corrected to "midday". LOL. I guess this saves me a post tomorrow morning.

So.. It's been a pleasure, guys. Apparently, Scenic Boys scored 3 points out of 10 possible from public voting. I hope they will keep everybody updated on the final results of the best video blog contest.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Thursday, 3rd week of voting

During the night, amtr received 22, i.e., three times as many votes as they did during the day, while st3 received 18 more and grew to 31% share. Yesterday was the worst voting day ever for the boys, as they only received 1 vote and their share dropped to 16%. They are 90 votes behind the preceding blog (2guys).

While one might agree that the votes for st3 are spread more or less evenly throughout the voting period, amtr began receiving significant numbers of votes as of last Sunday, that is, in the last week of voting. I have no idea where they are taking these votes from but certainly they must have helped them along. An option that the votes were withheld for verification seems unlikely. Also st3 have been receiving higher numbers of votes since Sunday, as I said, as if they were making sure they will stay ahead of amtr and keep their leading position. If it's not cheating, it certainly is assisted voting. I guess this counts as a normal practice, though, convincing people to vote for you so that you win.. As long as all those votes were not cast by a small group of cheaters, I think they will remain valid and the results of public voting will not change.

Update 12:20 p.m. CET/7:20 a.m. EST:
New votes are coming in: st3 - 7 votes, amtr - 2 votes.

Update 11:00 p.m. CET/6 p.m. EST:
Nothing new. So far, the total of 19 votes for st3, 16 for amtr, and a few votes for the other blogs.

Update 30 minutes later:
Another 14 votes came in for st3 - they now have 33 new votes vr. amtr's 18.

Another 30 minutes later:
I am waiting for the washing mashine to finish the cycle - I ran out of clean shirts - that's why I'm still here. 6 more votes for st3, i.e. 20 during the last hour... Vs. 3 for amtr.

Update 2 a.m. CET/9 p.m. EST:
Watching TV. Just turned the heating off for the night. Votes are zooming in for guess who. Yes, it's st3. By now, they have 71 new votes - over 50 of those have been recorded in the last three hours - and amtr only 32. In fact, new votes are being recorded for both blogs - not for the others - but more are coming in for st3. They've already received their highest daily number of votes ever and the night has barely begun. How many more will there be? Their share has gone up to 33% (633 votes), while the boys lost another 1% and currently have 15% (297 votes, 97 votes behind 2guys).

Not a rip-off

One of the bloggers I read almost seriously complains that he has been ripped off the idea of portraying himself kissing his own reflection in the mirror. The copycat has gone so far as to put the stolen idea on the cover of a magazine. Come on, dude, I know you are kidding but somehow it doesn't make me laugh. The act had already made it to the covers of ancient Greek magazines, and more recently was featured in, umm, a blue movie way back in spring 2004, allright, and done by a guy I find hotter than yourself. One can be very vain indeed.

I like him but sometimes his self-absorption goes too far for me.

Although I admit that the pics he took of himself are hotter than what found its way to the magazine cover. But then what else would you expect.

Then again, I think sometimes I take things much too seriously. He's probably sharpening his pen before April Fools' day, or he's just celebrated it..

Scenic Boys need your vote - Wednesday, 3rd week of voting

Picking up where I left off last night: another 10 votes came in for st3 while I was asleep and only 3 votes for amtr. This means Tuesday ended with st3 still leading the race and distancing themselves by further 20 votes - i.e., the total of 60 votes - from the chasing amtr blog.

All other blogs received a tad more votes than usual but nothing sensational. The boys are an exception, they only received 4 votes, so their daily number of votes remains on the decline. They would now need about 80 votes to move up to the third position, occupied by 2guys.

Update 4:00 p.m. CET/11:00 a.m. EST:
Strange... As they say, cicadas chirping, folks. Only 1 vote has been recorded for each of the competing blogs since noon.

Update 8:00 p.m. CET/3:00 p.m. EST:
So far, the total of 10 votes have been cast for st3 and only 2 votes for amtr. Along with a few votes for the other blogs.

Update 12:00 a.m. CET/7:00 p.m. EST:
Votes have been coming in for st3, particularly towards the evening. They have 24 new votes today against amtr's 4 - the blogs are now 78 votes apart. St3's share grew to 31%, while amtr's went down to 26%.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Tuesday, 3rd week of voting

Having seen amtr jump up to the second place on Sunday, dangerously close behind them, st3 immediately took action and generated 54 new votes to distance themselves from their competitor. In response, amtr did not rest, either, but unfortunately only managed to produce 45 more votes, so the blogs did not trade places and the distance between them grew slightly.

No other unexpected votes were cast yesterday. The boys remain at number four, 67 votes behind the preceding blog (2guys), and only receive ca. 5 new votes per day, so they don't seem to stand a chance to move up.

Voting will continue for four more days, closing this Friday at midnight U.S. Pacific Time.

Update 4:30 p.m. CET/10:30 a.m. EST:
The race continues between amtr, aspiring to take over the lead, and st3, determined to prevent them from doing so and remain at the first place. Each received 10 new votes during the last five hours :-)

Update 1:45 a.m. CET/8:45 p.m. EST:
During the day, more votes were coming in for the amtr blog, which until about 1 hour ago had 21 new votes vs. st3's 15. Right now, however, new votes have begun appearing every other couple of minutes for st3, who not only evened out the above difference but also already exceeded amtr in the number of votes recorded today. With 10 new votes received during the last hour or so, they now have 25 new votes against amtr's 21. It certainly does look as if these votes were cast for the sole purpose of st3 staying ahead of amtr... The boys' share is down to 17%, only 3 new votes for them so far today.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Monday, 3rd week of voting

To learn about the recent dramatic developments in the course of voting action, read yesterday's post.

Having slept through the night, which means another 8 hours have passed, I woke up to 60 more votes recorded for amtr. Sunday ended then with amtr outdoing st3 by as much as 81 votes on the highest daily number of votes, growing to 25% share and moving up to the second place, only 40 votes behind the leading blog (st3). At this rate, it will take them only slightly over 4 more hours to become the new number one blog.

As a consequence of amtr's growth, all other blogs except the last one (gHtv, who only have 5%) lost some of their shares. The boys are down by the further 1%, i.e. to 19%, and remain at number four.

I wonder what the judges will think of bloggers who decided to take voting results in their own hands. Will they be perceived as possessing entrepreneurial spirit or cheating? Will what they are doing even affect the judges' decisions? Will we - the spectators - ever learn? I kind of hope Matthew, the Lonely Planet author, will drop a comment or two after voting is closed.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Sunday, 2nd week of voting

And just when everybody thought that the same old boring voting is going to drag on until Friday, the amtr blog acted up. Man! When I left for work this afternoon, they still had 236 votes, 17% share, and had been stuck at the humble fourth place for the entire week. Not anymore! When I got home 8 hours later, they had 306 votes, i.e. 70 new people voted for them, and now, only 1 hour later, they already have 319 votes (i.e., 83 new votes today) and a fat 22% share. While their highest daily number of votes ever used to be 14, which they received on Monday March 2nd, and recently they were getting 1 to maximum 6 votes per day... Apparently fed up with this situation, they have now arranged to move up, so far to the third position, pushing Scenic Boys down to number four with a share of votes shrunk by 1%, i.e. to 20%.

In the light of these events, I think it isn't unreasonable to assume that on Friday March 20th the winner of this voting competition will turn out to be... the gHtv blog! LOL. Their supporters are only waiting for the right moment to cast their votes, folks.

This is fun. I can only imagine the Lonely Planet people laughing their backsides off. There is also the cursing IT guy in the background, whose job is to verify the votes.

Apparently, the Awesome Prize is much lusted after. And I'm not saying this to discourage anybody from competing cause it might be worth it! I'm very curious what the prize is. You go, guys!

Above, results in the wee hours of Sunday (12:07 p.m. CET/7:07 a.m. EST)
Below, results 8 hours later (11:40 p.m. CET/6:40 p.m. EST)

P.S. And the votes keep comin'! At 30 mins past midnight, amtr have 322 votes and 22% share.

Update 1:00 a.m. CET/8:00 p.m. EST:
Another 30 minutes and only 1 more vote for amtr. We seem to be enjoying a brief pause from all the excitement. Let's sum up: today, in the new record-breaking voting frenzy, amtr have outdone st3 on the highest daily number of votes by - so far - 18 votes. But is it over yet. We'll see what the morning brings.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Saturday, 2nd week of voting

Friday turned out to be a slow night for all competing blogs. Only 25 new votes were cast, which is the lowest daily number of votes since voting began. Again, the leading blog, st3, received twice as many votes as the blogs occupying the second and third place. The boys remain at number three with the total of 281 votes and 21% share.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Friday, 2nd week of voting

No major changes. Yesterday was a slightly better day for the boys, as they received the second highest number of votes - 11. However, st3 received over twice as many. They gained 1% share (30%) and are 112 votes ahead of the boys. The blog in the second position, 2guys, lost 1% share but it still remains 51 votes ahead of the boys. The boys are not threatened by amtr, who are 43 votes behind them. On average, these four competing blogs are at a 50-vote distance from each other. Considering that about 50 new votes are also cast per day for all blogs combined, we are unlikely to see them trade places.

We are already past two-thirds of the allotted public voting time. Only 8 more days remain to the closing date on Friday, March 20th.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Thursday, 2nd week of voting

The recent trend continues. Again, many votes for st3 yesterday - another 12 have been cast during the last 8 hours or so, which adds up to the total of 35 votes. It is the second highest number of votes they've received after the record-breaking 69 votes of last Thursday. They remain at number one, 97 votes ahead of the boys. This situation is not likely to change, since the other blogs tend to receive merely below 10 votes each. The shares remain the same, except amtr lost 1% and now has 18%. The boys (third place) are receiving fewer votes than 2guys (second place), so the distance between them keeps growing, if ever so slightly. Luckily, amtr is receiving even fewer, so they are not likely to take the boys over. It seems like the boys are stuck at number three for good.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Wednesday, 2nd week of voting

Little has changed since yesterday. The boys remain at the third position with 22% share and only 6 new votes received yesterday. The now leading st3 blog received twice as many and its share grew by 1% - they now have 28% and are 67 votes ahead of the boys and 15 votes ahead of 2guys, who remain at number two with an unchanged share of 26%. The boys seem to be safe from the competition of the amtr blog (at number four), who have been receiving only a couple of votes per day and remain 35 votes behind them with 19% share.

Update 1:50 p.m. CET/8:50 a.m. EST:
10 new votes for st3 during the last 3,5 hours.

Update 11:00 p.m. CET/6:00 p.m. EST:
And 13 more votes for st3 during the last 9 hours. The boys lost 1% share to them. St3 upgraded to 29%, the boys went down to 21%.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Tuesday update

A major breakthrough has occurred - since yesterday, st3 have been leading the race. They have 27% share and 314 votes and are 11 votes ahead of 2guys (26% share, at the second place) and 60 votes ahead of the boys (22% share, at number three). Unfortunately, the boys have been receiving fewer votes each day since Wednesday, i.e. for almost a week. If this continues, they will not be able to advance themselves from the spot they currently occupy. Same seems to be true for 2guys. While it is still early to declare so, as there are two more weeks to go, can it be that we are already looking at the final results of public voting: st3 10 points, 2guys 7 points and the boys 5 points?

Scenic Boys need your vote - Monday update

The boys are at the third position with 22% share and 245 votes, the amtr blog now follows them with 216 votes and 20% share. Fewer votes were cast during the weekend for all blogs except the st3 blog, which is getting close to taking over the leading position. At the moment, they are only 4 votes and 1% share behind the leading blog (2guys). On the bottom chart, see how some of their votes seem to come in in an organized manner from groups of people rather than scattered individual voters.

Update 11:00 a.m. CET/6 a.m. EST:
And, all of a sudden, the missing 4 votes for the st3 blog miraculously appeared during the 30 minutes while I was writing the post. Just like they used to appear towards the end of last week. Now st3 moved up to number 1 with 26% share and 292 votes, which is identical to what the formerly leading blog (2guys) has received.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Sunday update

During my routine morning peek at the results page 30 minutes ago, the voting trend looked identical as it did last night. That is, throughout Saturday, the boys received the highest number of votes, 17, then the leading blog (2guys) received 11 votes, and the remaining blogs only 1 vote each. Consequently, the boys' share grew to 22%, while the amtr and gHtv blogs lost 1% each. But that was 30 minutes ago. Right now I am seeing 3 new votes cast for the st3 blog! Can you believe it? What are they up to now?

Update 3 p.m. CET/10 a.m. EST (the US switched to daylight saving time last night):
Sunday. The US East Coast is slowly waking up, while most of the West Coast is still sound asleep. Since this morning, 8 new votes appeared for the st3 blog (the first 3 are actually listed under yesterday's date on the above charts because I hadn't taken a screenshot of the results page when they still weren't there). All those votes were cast in a short period of time before noon. This seems to be an emerging pattern for that blog. Might the st3 guys be travelling from one internet café to another? LOL.

3 new votes for the boys, 1 for the leading blog (2guys), 0 for the others. In other words, voting is happening normally for everybody except the st3 people, who appear to continue their lobbying and/or generating extra votes for their blog.

P.S. I've just discovered that the announcement on when the voting will close states that March 20th will be Wednesday. Dang, every way I look at it, it seems it will be Friday! I checked the computer calendar. What's up with that?

I think it's a typo, and it should say Friday. If they plan to hand the prizes on the 26th, people will need more than one day they would have left since Wednesday March 25th to take time off work and book their flights..

OK, I've checked. They told people to book March 26th in SF back in mid-February. Obviously. They are actually giving themselves time to award points and calculate the blogs' scores, and voting will close on the 20th. Which is a Friday.

Scenic Boys need your vote - Saturday update

Better news this morning, the boys are back at number three, having received the critical 1 vote which let them pass the amtr blog. This, of course, is subject to immediate change, since the distance between them is very small.

As far as the current trend is concerned, the boys received fewer votes in the last two days than they were receiving towards the beginning of the week. Is Friday a night out for their readers? Let's hope so, and let's hope their supporters will be back at the keyboards come, umm, mid-day Saturday.

I'm thinking where the boys could do that group presentation ending with the entire audience voting for their blog, LOL. I'd kind of rule out a classroom.. but perhaps a local club or a bar on a well attended night? How about a banner bearing the blog's address on the wall and a small presentation over the microphone? Printing and handing out the slips with the blog's address and encouraging people to take a look and vote when they get home? Inexpensive and might just bring some of those much needed clicks..

Update after migdnight CET/6 p.m. EST:
Today, so far, 9 new votes were cast for the boys, 4 new votes for the leading blog (2guys) and only 1 new vote for each of the remaining blogs. And the vote for the st3 blog came in last, or next to last, which seems to confirm that they are not as popular as they would like to see themselves be. While the boys continue to receive a steady number of votes daily. That's what popular means.

The shares remain the same as they were this morning.