The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
About 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year. This blog was viewed about 340,000 times in 2012. If it were Liechtenstein, it would take about 6 years for that many people to see it. Your blog had more visits than a small country in Europe!
Click here to see the complete report.
At Least SOMEBODY is happy for me
Every now and then someone suggests to me that my life would be better if it were more normal. If I spent less time on Twitter. If I had a “real” job. If I were more of a generalist, and focused less on WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and hackers. Maybe do some fashion blogging, try out some AdSense. You know, normal stuff, stuff that is not so…badass.
Keep Calm and FUCK YOU WITH A CHAINSAW!
I know you all mean well, but since when has “normal” ever been normal for me?
So there I was the other day, hanging out on Twitter and watching my timeline, which has become much bloodier than anything you’ll see on CNN lately (since I weeded out all the “social media gurus” and “marketing inspiration artistes”), and I saw something amazing and, without waiting for an editor to assign it I went ahead and Storified it, which is basically putting the tweets in order so that they form a story. Alas, as I mentioned earlier, I can’t embed it here in any form that will work, but I can link to it and to the full story I put on the website and I can tell you that there is more on this story coming Monday. And maybe more after that, if Kylie will talk to me.
And how does this heartwarming story of Anonymous and others coming to the rescue of a suicidal teen come into Operation Global Media Domination? With a hell of a bang, that’s how.
57,000 upvotes on reddit
105,606 views of the Storify
44,000 views on Jezebel
110,000 reads over the past two days
2,600 Facebook likes and shares
508 tweets
77 G+1′s
76 notes on Tumblr
covered in the Province
And even four comments.
Your International Spy Name is Countess Moonstone |
 Your Code Name: Clam ChowderYou Reside in: Paris Why You’re a Good Spy: You have total recall |
So, what have you been up to lately? I have been recovering from some weird stomach bug and going deep into the world of hackers, leakers, whistleblowers, spies, and Anonymii. On the one hand I have about a hundred pages of raw notes (only a slight exaggeration). On the other, wrestling this all into neat, linear narratives is easier said than done, even if you think “linear narratives” is easy to say, and if you do you’re either a voice coach or a pretentious twerp.
Not that we have anything against either of those.
In Operation Global Media Domination news, things have been progressing moderately well. Still not published in the Guardian, having to take yet another whack at the story, but having given up on getting a quote from the Minister in question, I’m just going to write around her. She will awaken in the morning completely surrounded by exclusive, internationally famous quotes from an angry and outraged citizenry. Some times “no comment” says volumes.
Was at the 100th anniversary of the Bunker Project, Canada’s #1 social media podcast. I’m very proud to have been singled out as the one who got them censored on iTunes, and I DIDN’T EVEN DROP ONE F BOMB THIS TIME! Mother would be so proud.
Flamed out on my audition to be part of a panel for CBC Radio’s On The Coast, discussing the week in BC. Reasons:
Oh well, should, say, the morning show ever need to do an in-depth investigation of government corruption and CSIS, for instance, they know I’m their girl. Now to get back to emailing hackers for interviews and checking for a reply from the Department of Homeland Security…
Julian Assange by Cara Spoza
Some people wonder why I like fangirl sites. Read this and wonder no more.
Bathtubs of Glory
One hates to begin a blog post on a tangent, particularly when it is a blog post about one’s self, but sometimes one’s self’s gotta do what one’s self’s gotta do. In this case, one’s gotta point y’all to the amazing web ad copy for this loverly, New Agey bathtub, for lo, it is a thing of beauty and a joy forever, unless you like the English Language, that is.
The Florentine company realizes, thanks to skilled craftsmen, the tanks that are works of art to decorate your bathroom with a unique touch.
Baldi, the company made in Italy, proposes luxury furnishings in addition to producing high-value and visual impact has also introduced some time to create baths that are sculptures. Built from blocks of precious rock crystals found in the Amazon, the ultra-luxury tubs signed Baldi become protagonists of the bathroom and create a refined and unique moments of relaxation.
“Protagonists of the bathroom.” I’m pretty sure that was a scene in the Satyricon, wasn’t it?
Where was I? It was a blog post about me, wasn’t it? Oh, right.
Baths. Let’s just say that there was a day last week that was particularly “Fridayish” even though it was not technically Friday. I’d done another of the “stay up all night working after staying up all day working” things that I do from time to time. Like, now. Anyhoodle, I had also gone for a long walk, and was pondering…a bath, certainly. But a bubble bath or a scented epsom salts bath? These are important questions, so naturally I took them to Twitter. One does not make raincoaster soup without adequate research.
To my surprise, the consensus was that both, simultaneously, were not only permissible but positively desirable, and therefore I signed off and took their advice literally, and although it took ten hours for my fingertips to unwrinkle, it was worth every moment. I never used to love baths, but that was before I spent four years in an apartment that only had a shower. I got very good at offering to help around the houses of such friends as had tubs, and availing myself thereof.
A kindred soul is Holistic Sailor, who lives on a sailboat which also lacks a proper soakage receptacle, and who therefore feels my pain. She not only felt my pain, she prescribed for it, and created this fabulous raincoaster bath blend which I intend to try just as soon as I don’t have a mere $1.65 to my name. So THIS, people, is how you make raincoaster soup:
So in honour of @raincoaster’s appreciation for the bath, I offer this aromatherapy blend. Blend the essential oils together first and then add them to 1 1/2 – 2 cups of epsom salts. We all know what happens when you mix water and oil, so add the essential oils to the salt first before adding to the bath.
@raincoaster Bath Blend
- 4 drops lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
- 4 drops rose 10% (Rosa damascena)
- 2 drops jasmine 10% (Jasmine grandiflorum)
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups epsom salts
Enjoy.
Tasty!
In other Operation Global Media Domination news:
Someone wrote a song for me!
My last major article for the Daily Dot, a report of Anonymous taking the Kremlin offline, got retweeted 54 times, including once by the former Ambassador to the UN of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In somewhat more mysterious news, somebody mentioned my ManoloFood blog on the media in New York last Wednesday. Five times the normal hits, all going straight to Manolofood.com, meaning it was on tv, radio, or in the paper somewhere. No idea who said what about me, but I wish they’d held off till I’d gotten some fresher posts up. Ah, well.
And in related and even more dignified news, I was profiled in Ayoudo’s House of Splendour, and you just know I’m all about profile roundups with grandiose nomenclature!
Sure, Bobby Flay AND Angry Bobby Flay may both be evading me on Twitter, but do they live in a House of Splendour? With mysterious media shout-outs? with their OWN BATH MIX?
I think not. I very much think not.
Lorraine, I really like your style, the way you write, the interviews you make are always very interesting and original…..why dont you do a “Greenwald” and move on to a better more well known venue? You’ve got plenty of talent.
Thanks, that’s really kind of you to say. I do have an assignment from the Guardian, but they didn’t like the first draft. I have to raise my game if I want to work for them regularly.
And the people at the Daily Dot are awesome. They are a great team of fun, helpful people all of whom have more pure journalism experience than I do. Much as I like to swear at editorial cuts and deadlines, they are great to work with and I’d miss them if I left.
Also: let’s just say the major news outlets are not beating down my door. Anonymous, hackers and leaks are not mainstream enough to be very marketable, and my style is quirky. But I did have an interview Friday with On the Coast, CBC’s afternoon radio show; if it works out, I’ll be on a weekly panel discussing current events. Hope I was amusing and interesting enough in the interview. Wish me luck.
Lorraine those are great news! I wish you the very best and keep us post it.
Suerte
Thanks!
Besides it’s clear you know what you’re talking about, raincoaster, and this is very rare when speaking of tech stuff/web journalism/hacking communities/Internet dynamics and related arguments.
Maybe you could try the Guardian, they are changing editorial line in these very days ;P
I’m going to put you all down as references, okay? If I ask John Young he’ll just tell me to get fucked, references are lies, resumes are fabrications, etc, etc.
I want to get my big Anon vs Pedo story out before I hit the Guardian up for that. They don’t really have anyone doing Anonymous on a regular basis except Barratt Brown and I can’t see myself knocking him aside
Indeed. RC is more knowleadgeable in these areas than many self described “experts”
Thanks! now, tell all your local and national papers, tv and radio stations.
I will, do you know Spanish?
Nope. I can count to five in Spanish, thanks to Count von Count on Sesame Street, but that’s it, alas.