Dr. Free-Ride and Liz Ditz remind us that this is National Delurking Week. It seems to come earlier ever year, doesn’t it? In fact, here at CRN we celebrated it in September in 2005, and then in 2006 it came in April.
But who am I to argue with the experts? Besides, what with the flu thing I could use the excuse to lay off and let CRN readers say something. And I know there are more of you since the last time: my traffic has doubled since then, more or less.
So speak up, silent lurkers. Say hello! Tell us who you are. Or at least as much of who you are as you generally reveal online. No salesman will call.
Hi there. I enjoy your writing, and I am glad you resumed blogging.
Delurking to say I too am glad you’re back to blogging. I came for the Zeke posts, I stay for the impassioned environmentalism.
I’m here for the great writing, about anything really.
I’ve been reading your blog for quite a long time (at least a year, maybe more) and I enjoy everything I see, from the posts about Zeke, to the ones about climbing Diablo, to the ones about feminism. I just enjoy… well, reading and thinking.
So here’s hoping your tales about the desert will keep me warm here at home (it’s about -30 degrees Celsius (-22 F) here) for many days to come.
Delurking; I arrived at your corner of the blogosphere via links from Pandagon, Punkass, and others. Your posts about Zeke make me cry, your posts about nature make me think, and your posts about politics make me go, “Right on!”
As a semi-lurker, I’ll accept the invitation to de-lurk and comment that I only recently became aware of your blog. Now I seek the faultline almost every day and really enjoy it. Your writing is often transcendent, and Zeke, well, Zeke is beyond words.
I do have one question that you can ignore at will—does the raven have particular significance for you?
Well since it is National Delurking Week…. I found you through PZ at Pharyngula. I stayed for the great and always well thought out writing. And as a hiker and nurseryman how could I resist the pure expression of what I see in my life as well.
I’ve hooked up many of my friends to you as well and now they are fans.
And of course Zeke. Such a true companion.
Thank you for sharing. We all are better for it.
Thanks for the invitation to delurk—just needed that extra impetus to actually get me to type something. Every Zeke post makes me want to post a virtual ear-scratch “(*such* a good boy! mmm-wah!) but, um, that’s kind of embarrassing for a first post from an unknown…
Arrived via Making Light (I think) a year or so ago, and of course immediately fell in love with Zeke, but he’s not the main reason I stop by every day. Your words have moved me to tears and/or joy more frequently than I’d have believed. Many thanks.
OK, Bev W’s mom, we know you’re here. Say hello.
embee, Zeke ear-scratches are perfectly fine delurking gambits.
And I’m having fun checking out the sites some of you have linked to! (That’s a great Sanrioanarchist icon on your LiveJournal, sabotabby.) Come on, folks: step up, out yourselves, flog your own blogs.
Oh, and lemme think on that raven thing, blondie. It’s a complex answer.
that’s kind of embarrassing for a first post from an unknown
Embee, jaded battle-scarred men weep openly here. Embarrassment is meaningless on this site. Just avoid calling certain thin-skinned webhosts “Hotty McNaturepants” and everything will be fine.
I read anything that meanders on about dogs or crows… Your site gentles my mind.
I might have commented once or twice before, but mostly a lurker. Love your writing.
I’m not a total lurker, having posted once or twice before (and stimulating an avalanche of animal call related poetry in the process) - but mostly a lurker. I read the blog every day - keep up the good work.
Sean
I’m not a total lurker, but my comments are infrequent. I’ve been reading for a couple years now. I enjoy the writing and the perspective. I hope someday to be able to submit something titled “EIJ.doc” for you to lose on one of your hard drives.
I have commented once before. I am totally smitten with Zeke. A member of the pet diabetes board turned me on to you (Zeke again) but your politics are too left for her. Not for moi. I am also enamored of the desert and prefer the uninhabited grandeur of the Sonoran Desert of Baja California. The desert sea, you know, is a juxtaposition which is no less than stunning. Awesome in the true meaning of the word. I like camping in all deserts so like reading your musings. I’m really jonesing for a dose of Zeke though. I think he’s a wizard.
Hi Chris,
driftglass sent me a while back to read some good writin’ and here I occasionally be. Missed you, glad you’re back.
I admit it, I’m a lurker. But I wouln’t be luking if I didn’t like the writing.
You write beautifully about important things. I’m a bit in awe of that.
I don’t lurk here nearly often enough. New Year’s resolution: more lurking here.
Thanks for your writing, Chris, whether it’s crazy-funny, sad and even bitter, or ruminative. *Zeke ear scratch*
Delurking.. *waves*...
Good stuff.. you’re in the “Literates” section of my feed-reader ;-)
I wasn’t trying to pry, unduly, but was just wondering if you had some eloquent things to say about ravens.
Plus, I’m pretty dumb about birds. (Somehow I have survived to this point with great gaps in what I know.) Birds used to freak me out intensely (snakes, too, but that’s neither here nor there; I’m a mammal fan). So I’ve just recently become aware of how intelligent some birds are, like parrots, starlings, and crows. And I don’t even know the difference between crows and ravens. But I started losing fear/gaining respect for birds after reading a book called ... something like Surrounded by Ducks (but I think that’s the wrong title, because I can’t find it on the tubes right now).
Enough streams of whatever from me…
Sorry for my earlier laziness, it’s called Enslaved by Ducks.
Ramona here, By way of introduction I am a woman in her mid forties who currently lives in the midwest, Northern Illinois to be presise.
A lover of nature and caretaker of five geriatric animals. Three pugs,and two cats all betweent he ages of nine and sixteen. Life with older animals can sometimes be unpredictable. While most people spent their New Years eve blowing noise makes and the like, I found myself blowing down the nose of one of the pugs as he unexpectantly inhaled his own saliva and stopped breathing. Everything happened so quickly, by the time I noticed that my lips were salty, I looked at my husband standing there bug eyed,hands clasped over his mouth asking him what just happend? Everything turned out ok needless to say and we can laugh at it now.
Aside from from reading other peoples love for their animals I too am in love with nature. Growing up with eight brothers and sisters, I learned from and early age that the only way to escape the madness was to head to the woods and have been going there ever since.
Thanks for being such good company, Ramona
Accolades and scratches to Zeke who deserves some credit for CRN. I come for the Zeke and stay for the wonderful writing. From the stories you tell I think Zeke has been a big help to teach you not how to have a good dog, but how to be a good man. And lucky for us that you are a slow learner because Zeke doesn’t feel he can leave you yet on your own.
I found my way here a few months back from DoggedBlog. So very glad that your winter break was short and I can read you every day again.
I’m a semi-lurker, having posted infrequently in the months before you took a break. I’m glad you started it back up again.
De-lurking to encourage everyone to nominate The Love Song of J Edgar Goldstien for a “Most Humorous Post” Koufax
Hey Chris.
Decloaking as requested. Another reader who found CRN from Pharyngula.
Very well written stuff. The Zeke saga is lovely but also sad. Since I also invest a lot of emotions in pets, it hits home.
And isn’t “Creek Running North” from a poem? I want to say Frost, but can’t dig it up.
Greetings Chris,
C’est moi, votre bon ami from Le (défunt) Blogue Bérubé.
I would like to say that this is one of my first times reading your blog. I know it only through rumor and innuendo, but it seems pretty cool. Nice color scheme and bird on the cover!
Say hi to Zeke for me, though I (like Kirby Olson) am a cat person more than a dog person.
De-lurking to encourage everyone to nominate
Thanks, funkyboss, but it’s been nominated already! And re-nominating a site or post just makes MB’s life harder.
Let’s save that thoughtful generosity toward yours truly for the two rounds of voting.
cory, it may well be that “creek running north” echoes a line of poetry I read once, but my reason for naming my blog thusly is that Pinole Creek runs north, more or less, into San Pablo Bay. More expounding on that can be found here.
I’m willing to stop lurking, but it will cost you $100.
hiya - this is a different connie - I think I delurked the last time it was appropriate to do so. I’m a daily reader, don’t remember how I came here - maybe through dangerousmeta? I send Reiki to Zeke multiple times a day. Would love to here from Becky once. Hugs from PA
Hi Chris - this isn’t actually a delurking here, since I’ve posted once or twice before. But I have to say that I do not like the very recent style update to the blog (as in it wasn’t like this about a week ago).
Why? Because there’s now no good way to scroll backwards (or forwards) through the posts-with-comments, whereas before, at the bottom of each set of comments, there was a link to the next entry and to the previous entry. Thus these are now less convenient to read through on my weekly or two-weekly visit… and I’d hate to have something instituted that makes it less easy to read through great chunks of your writings.
Dave, pining for a fjord
I’ll fix that, Dave. Thanks.
Chris! Greetings across the frozen bay.
I missed your link to me.
Sorry you were laid low with the noro—it has hit the elder communities around here hard.
I’ve been shlepping warm (ie, 50 degrees +) water to the equines, flavored with cheap maple flavoring, to encourage them to drink.
Oooo… Aaaah. <settles in to read through more entries, runs into lack of entries due to virus in next-but-one entry, emits puff of good wishes>
Shit, I forgot to delurk during the week. Does this mean I don’t exist?
Chris, I admire your writing and love to read anything about birds, wild or caged. I wrote “Enslaved by Ducks” about my experiences with ducks, geese, parrots, doves, turkeys, starlings, and other birds.
The saga continues in “Fowl Weather,” which emphasizes bird rehabbing ever so slightly more.
Thanks for a great blog, and please keep the insightful postings coming. (And thanks to Blondie for mentioning my book.)
Hey, welcome Bob! I read Enslaved by Ducks a few years back, and quite loved it. (Every time I’m tempted to complain about our rabbit Thistle misbehaving, I think about your guy Binky and tell myself “well, he hasn’t burrowed into the walboard yet.”)
I’ll have to find myself a copy of Fowl Weather.