• blogstrapping – Blog Strap Ping
  Subscribed.
  Tags: apotheon blogstrapping
• Keeping the client relationship fresh | IT Consultant | TechRepublic.com
  Fresh, not on ice.
  Tags: consulting techrepublic
• blogstrapping
  The Virtues of Lump
  Tags: apotheon cms blogging larrywall programming

• That Buzz you heard was Google zapping your posts
  If you want something hosted right, host it yourself.
  Tags: geeksaresexy google socialmedia twitter leolaporte blogging microblogging
• New York Times Bestseller Seth Godin to No Longer Publish Books Traditionally – mediabistro.com: GalleyCat
  Papyrus, parchment, then paper. A millennium later, it's time to move on.
  Tags: sethgodin publishing
• Commandments for Distributed Collaborative Development | IT Consultant | TechRepublic.com
  10 of them — count 'em, 10.
  Tags: techrepublic consulting versioncontrol dcd development remote

• Rump gets more CRUDdy — Chip’s Tips for Developers
  … and doesn't everyone want a CRUDdier rump?
  Tags: chipstips ruby rump blogging
• How to be a worse programmer | Web Builder Zone
  To be a worse grammar is a good start
  Tags: dzone programming humor
• Guidelines for formulating an RFP response | IT Consultant | TechRepublic.com
  … other than the obligatory Bronx cheer.
  Tags: consulting techrepublic rfp

• Google Releases Command-Line Tool for YouTube, Calendar, Docs, and More
  Nice to see Google recognize the value of the command line — and it's already in FreeBSD ports.
  Tags: google commandline googlecl
• Preview your Rump before posting it — Chip’s Tips for Developers
  Always a good idea.
  Tags: chipstips ruby blogging vim
• Rump – Ruby Upload Metaweblog Post — Chip’s Tips for Developers
  Goodbye, Windows Live Writer.
  Tags: ruby blogging metaweblogapi vim

Yes, it’s my bloggiversary today – four years since the first post here on Chip’s Quips.  While I’m not as ancient and established as some of my fellow bloggers, 48 months exceeds the longevity of the majority of blogs.  It’s as long as the term of office for the US President, which prompts the question: “would you re-elect this blog?”  Sorry, I don’t have any bribes or promises to fix all the country’s woes with which to gain your vote.

Only 191 new posts graced this space over the last year, down from 321 the year before.  Only 42 of those were more than just link posts, so well under one per week.  I’d like to post more, but I’ve just been far too busy with work and other stuff.  I’m not going to beat myself up about that, though.  I write here because I love it, and I don’t want to smother that love with the pillow of obligation.

Despite my reduced posting, our conversations here have generated 743 comments (not counting spam, which was about an order of magnitude greater).  Thanks to all my readers for not giving up on me.

Here were the five most popular posts for the last year, measured in page views:

1. You can’t handle the truth
2. My Dad, the phone phreaker
3. Extreme Snakes and Ladders
4. I’d add more, but the web already has too much ADD
5. Backstage humor

And here are my personal favorite five:

1. Thanks, Wally
2. The winning season
3. No harm
4. Thoughts on MLK day
5. Newspaper obituary

As you can see, I lean towards the more emotional pieces, even though I’ve been accused of not being in touch with my emotions.  Perhaps that’s why.

Here are links to the three previous annual celebrations.  Onward, into year five!

• Competing motives for an IT consulting engagement | IT Consultant | TechRepublic.com
  Spend more money, or hire someone who's never around?
  Tags: techrepublic consulting
• Intellectually Violent Blogging – The RSS Blog
  Randy lays the BRA on IVB.
  Tags: acronym randymorin blogging
• U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
  The most depressing way to watch the clock.
  Thanks, head lemur.
  Tags: economy politics debt taxes budget debtclock

• Chip’s Tips for Developers (Kindle Edition)
  In case you don't have a real computer handy when you're facing a programming issue.
  Tags: amazon chipstips kindle
• Chip’s Quips (Kindle Edition)
  In case you'd like to pay $2 a month to read my free content.
  Tags: chipsquips amazon kindle
• Make You Go Hmm blog added to Kindle Store and you can add your blog too
  I have also published my blogs for Kindle — I'll put up the links when they go live.
  Tags: blogging amazon kindle tdavid

• Robot Makes Scientific Discovery All by Itself | Wired Science from …
  Adam and Eve partake of the fruit of knowledge.
  Thanks, Paul.
  Tags: robots research technology ai intelligence science
• TR Member Spotlight with PMP’sicle | TechRepublic Out Loud …
  Interview with Glen Ford, who had some nice things to say about yours truly.
  Tags: techrepublic consulting glenford
• My initiation into the blogosphere.
  Bill has a blog! Watch for falling Billisms!
  Tags: blogging synergex

February 12.  I meant to write about the simultaneous 200th birthdays of Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln.  But not even the fact that it was also Halley’s fourth birthday could drag me away from work long enough to hum a few bars of The Birthday Song.

February 13.  I could have written more about my grandmother, who would have turned 106 that day.  Or I could have explored the subject of triskaidekaphobia, especially since it was a Friday.  Somehow I never got around to either one — perhaps posting on that day felt unlucky.

February 14.  For Valentine’s Day I considered an essay on the subject of love, which brought to mind Ambrose Bierce’s definition:  “A temporary insanity curable by marriage”  (Some patients have reported side-effects such as children and other contractual obligations).  Actually, I did write something for that day — a sonnet for my wife:

Westward towards the setting sun they sailed
Your mother’s parents, and your father too
From Sicily and Hungary they hailed
Two families joined in Jersey to make you

Westward towards the setting sun we two
Each drove to California all alone
What we’d find there, neither of us knew
Reaching for a new life on our own

And now the western sun has brightly shone
Upon us fourteen times on Valentine’s
As together our two lives in love have grown
And within our children beautifully combined

They’ll bear our love to generations yet
To shine beyond the time our sun has set

February 15.  The birth of Wirth – who is now 75 years old.  Not to mention the birthdays of Douglas Hofstadter, Galileo, Praetorius (who also died on February 15), Susan B. Anthony, Cyrus McCormick, Ernest Shackleton, Matt Groening, Chris Farley, and YouTube.  I didn’t even have time to post clip-art of a birthday cake, because we were too busy rearranging my daughter’s room, breaking furniture, and shouting.

February 16.  President’s Day (or Presidents Day, or Presidents’ Day, depending on what or whom you’re celebrating).  Originally a celebration of Washington’s birthday, now that it’s established on the third Monday in February it can never fall on that great man’s actual date of birth (February 22).  How fitting, since subsequent presidents haven’t quite reached his magnitude.  Taken as a celebration of all US presidents, all I have to say is: good luck to anyone who finds their butt in that hot seat!

Cooper tagged me with the Your Blog is Fabulous Award/Meme, even though I don’t look a bit like the picture shown thereon.  I never, ever wear a yellow dress.  OK, maybe I do look a bit like the dog.

First I am bound by the terms of this meme to list five addictions.  Is one of the qualifications for this award that you’re a psycho sicko?  I mean, five addictions?  Isn’t that a little over the top?  Let me see…

1. Coffee.  Cooper already used that one, but it is my one true addiction.  I have quit coffee at least twice in my life, only to take it up again with the vengeance of a long physical deprivation.  I try to keep it under four cups a day now, but at one time I drank more than 20.  My mother got me started when I was only three, although that was watery Maxwell House overloaded with milk and sugar.  These days my wife brews it strong, and I take it with only a little whole whipping cream.  We used to go for Seattle’s Best or Tully’s, but the recession has coaxed us into Costco’s Kirkland brand — which isn’t half bad.  It’s certainly better than its price suggests.
2. Walking.  If I don’t get my daily walk outdoors, I’m not right all day.  It’s not only the physical exercise that gets my brain going, it’s also having some quiet time to myself that isn’t dedicated to any particular topic.  That’s when I have my best insights — or at least, the ones that seem best to me.
3. Reading.  I especially enjoy the classics, and I’m currently working my way through Shakespeare’s complete works.  Cooper mentioned War and Peace — that was probably my all-time favorite novel.  I like to read each morning while eating breakfast, which leads me to:
4. Eggs.  My wife tires of eggs quickly, but I could eat them for every meal.  Sunny-side up, over easy, scrambled, omelet, or something completely crazy — as long as it has eggs in it, it’s good.  Especially if it is loaded with hot peppers.  Habañeros are my favorite, but jalapeños will do.  Even red chiles are better than nothing.
5. Writing.  Especially blogging.  If I only had more time…

This is kind of a strange award for a guy to pass on.  But I’ll single out Teeni.  Not only is she an entertaining writer, she has also created a whole little social network over at the Vaguetarian Tea Room.  And from what I see, she’s still getting better.