It’s January, it’s cold, everyone (in the northern hemisphere) is cooped up inside, and to top it all off, we’re back with the tag roundup – death and tags, you can’t escape them. And while you think you know what tags are and what they’re for, here on the ol’ Walkabout blogaroonie, they’re also irreverent and uncouth comments on the content, and since both the content and the snark are all ours, this says something that a therapist could probably have a field day with.
Now, there are 7,890 tags on the blog now, and a whopping 5,125 of them have been used only once, which is disturbing even to us – we’re gonna have to spay them or something. But before that happens, we’ll examine a few of the more… um… we’ll examine a few of them.
ha ha ha urk! – We’re attracted to bright colors – there’s something hinky going on
are nature photography groupies a thing? – One can hope, but I think accountants stand a better chance. A shameless method of linking to some photos, though, one of which immediately became the backs to the Gnomon Deck, which wasn’t ultimately my decision – I’d forwarded something like 26 options for that…
voted Most Likely To Pee On The Carpet – The Profiles posts remain mines of questionable humor, and no, they’re probably not over yet
potato-nosed ghost of Shouerst Hall – As well as, “but what’s that behind him?” and “MetamucAl.” One of several holidays that will appear, but this one had me befuddled for a short while, because I knew that Shouerst Hall was probably a pun though I couldn’t immediately place it. Just had to sound it out properly
I’d vote for the monkey – I mean, we have done worse, despite the similarities…
later found to be stuffed with jewels from a failed heist – That would explain it
spider beer goggles – You know you want to click
schmuck in action – Sitting on his ass of course
Paranoia cannot die – As well as, “Chaos was attending.” An oldie but a… an oldie, anyway
oh he’s just yakkin’ on a bone – Points if you can name the movie. That the tag’s from, I mean – I don’t think they’ve made a movie about the post, though the income probably wouldn’t change…
boys will be boys – Followed by, “toys will be destroyed.” Even older. I spoke with my brother not too long ago, who had similar memories
it’s wide-angle distortion yeah – That certainly explains it
good for whacking dogs when you try to pet them too – Versatile in their worthlessness!
kaboom! – No, not the cereal or the video game, but just as misleading
“hero” is too strong a word – but not by much – Well, okay, if you insist
goddamn spiderwebs – It actually took a while before the tags started getting snarky, and this is one of the first, even though it’s also pretty appropriate.
And naturally, we need to look at the holidays we celebrated enthusiastically and religiously this year:
Bumfester Chugtrollop, the inventor of the photographer’s vest, January 19
MacArthur Muzik Day, February 24
‘Fess Up Day, March 2
Encounter Extraordinary/RottenLuck Day, April 8
National Where The Hell Did This Come From? Day, May 24
Prove That You’re Not Dead Day, June 24
Nature Boi Detective Day, July 28
Don’t Make The Big Change You Were Planning To Make Because Of A Pond Day, August 29
New Walkabout Estates, September 24
Patois Ferndiddler’s birthday, October 29
Do The Same Stupid Fucking Thing Again Day, November 26
Get Around To Planting Those Damn Things Again And See If it Works This Time, December 21
And the previous tag roundups – man, we’ve been doing this for a while:
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!
2021: Tag ’em and bag ’em
2022: I don’t mean to tag, but…
2023: Tag me with a spoon
2024: You’re a Grand Ol’ Tag
The statistics for the site for 2024 aren’t impressive at all, indicating a slow decline over several years. While the oppressive heat and being involved with the move had more than a little to do with it this year, it doesn’t explain the trend over several years (well, the heat may be a small contributing factor.) There’s also the ugly truth that we haven’t done anything more than a couple of weekend trips since 2021, and this year isn’t looking too promising either – we’ll see I guess. There was the eclipse trip last April, but let’s be real: the photo opportunities primarily lasted three minutes.
Mostly though, we kind of expect to see a peak right around where it is, because time and subjects and so on limit how many posts are actually going to appear, so there’s no expectation that these will continue to go up at least, but hovering in the same general region would be preferable.
The numbers, just for the sake of it. Post count was 221, down from 252 last year. Word count was 143,160, down from 157,163 last year, totaling 2.4 million over the life of the blog. And there were 737 images uploaded, which hasn’t been that low since 2018 – slackass. The new location may help this a lot – several new species have been spotted already, and we’re expecting spring to put on quite a show.
We’ll close with an image that’s been sitting in the blog folder for over a year now, from a trip that helped boost the numbers for 2023 right at the end of the year – redundant then, so it’s being put to use now. The sun’s coming out; maybe we’ll try for some more subjects…
