Yes indeed, it’s time for the annual tag roundup, where we examine a collection of solitary and lonely tags to… uh… find out just how lame my humor is. I know you’ve been looking forward to it.
To explain for those who have, amazingly, never encountered this blog before: Tags are those little descriptors at the bottom of each post that help people find related topics, unless you’re here, and then they may also be snarky commentary. They’re just one of the many ways that I enhance your Walkabout experience, like little ant-infested mints on the pillow. Actually, do hotels still do that? Or did they ever? I’ve never seen it personally, but then again, I won’t pay a week’s salary or better for the use of a bed and shower, cheapskate that I am.
Enough stalling! Read onward…
vanilla rain – I can’t believe I haven’t featured this ancient one before.
couldn’t get away – Also, ‘eighties hair,’ ‘where are they now?’ ‘a squabble of seagulls’ (which is the proper term,) and ‘you’ve got that song going through your head now haven’t you?’ Getting to know me?
definitely changed the ambience – Also, ‘mother nature’s sense of humor.’ All true.
ironic reflection of the gestalt within neo-impressionist spirituality – Oh, absolutely.
not the mamma – Nowhere near as cute as the reference, if you get it…
let me see the chisel Doc – Also, ‘you may have already won,’ and, ‘explains a lot.’ What can I say?
tap tap tap tap tap clunk – You’ll get it eventually…
there’s probably a foreign term to describe it that sounds sophisticated solely because it’s foreign – Something like, “ne quittez pas votre travail de jour…”
it was planned I tells ya! – Also, ‘yeah once,’ which is a direct connection to the title, but that might be a little too obscure, so I provide this helpful sound file, revealing as I do so that I misquoted it anyway. Damn.
The Simpsons sound bite
kill the safelight I gotta wee – Nothing to add to that.
sand – it gets everywhere – I was far too happy with myself over this one.
“Fascinating” said both Spocks in unison – As well as, ‘barbecue goose with soya sauce ginger and spring onions,’ ‘laughing your ass off,’ and, perhaps appropriately, ‘you had to be there.’
bukkaked by an oyster – Maybe there was a reason I skipped this one for years…
what is this – a pool for ants? – The mark of a refined intellect is the quality of its classical allusions.
not unless ’round’ is funny – Also, ‘just circular.’ See above.
not a plane or superman – So what’s that leave? And the lack of capitalization implies there’s more than one I think…
I did you a favor, there’s no reason to snap at me – With, ‘a cross between Harry and Voldemort.’ Since commas are separators among tags, you can’t have one within a tag, so that first one is actually two – the planning that has to go into this is exacting.
what a friend we have in Yuri – My easter post last year.
they’re saying “Boo-urns” – coupled with, ‘wallow in my own crapulence,’ which is far more help than you should need…
stolen from the cow’s OnlyFans site – as recent as you can get and still count as 2020.
Here she comes now singing “Mowny mowny” – I get earworms far too often, so I’m always happy to induce them in others.
But that one is, in fact, a holiday, so we segue off into the list of holidays that we all celebrated without restraint in 2020:
Retro-Amphibian Day and Dig Out An Old Photo ‘Cause Yain’t Postin’ Shit Day, January 22nd
Annual Contest Submission Day, February 29 (which, by the way, I ended up missing the deadline of)
Revisit Old Content Day, March 1
Find Out Just How Many Green Treefrogs There Are Around Your Place, April 20
Lack of Ambition Day, May 31 – you notice how late in the month this falls. Also tagged with, ‘they tried to make it an acronym of LAZY but gave up,’ and, ‘actually I think it was yesterday’
Throw Down The Gauntlet Day, June 26 – he should know better…
Celebrate World Snake Day Three Days Late, July 19
Get Up In Phymata’s Phace Day, August 28
Skunk Ape Day, September 24 – tagged with, ‘no smoking matches or open flames,’ and, ‘I think you’ve had enough’ – another classical allusion. Funny how many holidays fall on this date…
Get Unnecessarily Defensive Day, October 31 – though I never celebrate this one.
Desaturate Day, November 7 – Tagged with, “met a pieman,’ and, ‘Shipwreck Mazuma,’ a reference so obscure that if anybody gets it and can provide an alternate gawks’ version, they deserve a pair of free prints.
National Fail To Produce a Necessary Illustration Day, December 30 – Tagged with, ‘I could not shoot it within the day – I could not shoot it any way,’ ‘a certain part of this is true,’ and, ‘really reaching again.’ Notably, I still haven’t gotten the conditions needed, and have been contemplating how to switch ideas.
I set two blog records this year, with the number of posts (233) and the number of images uploaded (1,037.) Not too shabby, especially when you consider that the only trip we took was a brief weekender, and it’s the trips that usually contribute the most to the images. I doubt I’ll be breaking that barrier anytime soon (well, it couldn’t be before next January anyway, but you know what I mean.) The word count was not among the records, rolling in on the high side of 173,000 within the year – there appears to be some slop in the plugin I’m using to calculate this, but close enough. That brings the lifetime total (within the blog) up to the 1.73 million word mark, which isn’t competing with, like, Why Evolution Is True, but I’m still cool with it. A graphical view:
There appears to be little correlation between image and word count, though at the monthly level there is enough of one, easily explained by the fact that I usually expound upon the images, rather than them replacing text content. The past couple of years at least, there have been fewer long-winded philosophical posts, I suspect mostly because I’ve been reading fewer posts on other blogs, the kind that often spark such treatments. Whether this is good or bad is up to you.
This year was also pretty sparse (again) on podcasts, which I’m attempting to correct, but there will almost certainly be more videos coming along, since those are goals of mine. I’m hampered a little by the requirements, which is an additional bank of accoutrements, and there’s only so much that I want to carry at any given time, but not carrying it means that I don’t have the equipment along to do such subjects justice, should I stumble onto them. Still working this out.
By the way, if you have the interest, here’s a list of the ten longest posts since the inception. None of them are from this year; in fact, none of them are less than four years old. I was doing more long-form stuff then, it seems.
All out of ifs, May 2015; 6,965 words – The most recent and media-hyped claims about where Amelia Earhart ended up are, to be blunt, horseshit, and this goes into why. Despite the length, it seems to flow along.
Seneca Falls, we have a problem, August 2012; 5,592 words – I am strongly in favor of equal rights; I am not a fan of feminism. While it remains a poorly-defined term, this covers the differences to some degree.
Book and theory review: Chaos, January 2016; 4,380 words – Chaos theory yet remains not at all impressive to me, and the named book even less so.
But how? Part four: Religious belief, July 2011; 4,275 words – My own examination into why so many people in the world are religious. I may have refined these thoughts a little over the years, but they still hold strong to me.
But how? Part 14: Atheology, April 2014; 4,240 words – While I am not very motivated to convert anyone, these are some of the logical arguments in support of atheism.
You telling me or asking me? May 2016; 4,230 words – Religions are so good at fostering mindless assertion…
Nuclear whoas, April 2011; 4,185 words – Nuclear power isn’t going to solve any of our energy issues, and it’s already created too many.
Personal god, March 2012; 4,169 words – About using religion for self-indulgence and believing this counts as guidance.
Too smart to be intelligent, August 2012; 4,056 words – Wholly deserving of the ‘worthless philosophy’ tag, but it also deserves a ‘pompous nitwit’ one too.
But how? Part 15: Benefit, July 2014; 3,986 words – Credit where credit is due – only.
And I suppose if I’m going to do that, I might as well include the ten shortest posts too. Counting down:
This one goes to twelve, 16 words, and still a favorite.
Grand Theft Aqua, 12 words
You! 8 words
Daily Jim pic 35, 6 words
Just lizard things, 5 words
High hopes, 5 words
Just because, part 11, 4 words
Daily Jim pic 34, 3 words
Nuh uh, you are! 3 words
The shadow knows…, absolutely no words. Go nuts.
And just so you know, this is the seventh year for the ol’ tag roundup; the previous years can be found below:
2015: Tagged
2016: Tagged again
2017: Papa’s got a brand new tag
2018: So what did 2017 hold?
2019: Do not read tag under penalty of law
2020: Tagginses! We hates it forever!
I think that’s long enough; you don’t want to know how long this takes to put together. In closing, and to recognize one of the two species that contributed so many poses to the past year, I’ll close with one of the unused images still sitting in my blog folder, a juvenile green treefrog (Hyla cinerea) recently emerged from the water and tadpole form, hanging out on the edge of the nearby pond – I like the translucence of the skin, like that Slime kid’s toy from some years back. More stuff on the way…
