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Rutabaga

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Posts posted by Rutabaga

  1. Chapter 9 --

    Freddie is kind of a tease in that rather cerebral conversation he has with James in the bedroom.  But it seems that the outcome was a good one.  There can be little doubt that the two will be good for one another, filling holes in each one's respective life.

    I remember having an American Flyer "S" gauge train set when I was in elementary school.  My dad built a kind of Murphy bed arrangement on one wall of the bedroom I shared with my next younger brother, with a big sheet of plywood hinged on the bottom so it would swing down to reveal the train set mounted on it.  When it was in the up position, the bottom of the plywood that showed was painted with chalkboard paint so my brother and I could write and draw stuff on it.  We took the train set along when my family moved back East during my third grade, but I can't remember ever setting it up again.  Last I knew it was in a box in the basement.  

    Meanwhile, the end of the chapter had me wondering:  Does anyone actually count sheep in order to go to sleep?  I'm not even sure how to do that.  Wouldn't the concentration on that activity keep you awake?  I don't normally have trouble falling asleep so I'm not well acquainted with the methods some people reportedly use.

    R

  2. John and I have been developing ways to measure site activity, but we're still exploring what can be measured and how best to measure it.  

    Our newest stories have code embedded that tracks the number of times a page is viewed.  While the method is not foolproof, it's likely to be fairly representative.  Here is a graph showing clicks on the index page and the individual chapter pages of Cole Parker's current serial story, "Two Part Harmony":

    TPH-2-28-to-3-26-2024-03-26-073444.png

    The graph begins at February 27, 2024 and goes through this morning, March 26, 2024.  The top line is the index page for the story, which is where the home page link directs people.  As of this morning there are 4,994 clicks on that page, and you can see little hills in the graph every few days when a new chapter posts.

    The lines underneath are for each individual chapter, of which eight are live as of this snapshot.  Not surprisingly, the oldest chapters tend to have the most clicks.  It's interesting to see the bumps in each chapter when it goes live, which correspond to the bumps in the index page.  For some reason chapter 6 has more clicks than chapters 4 and 5 as of this morning, so its graph shows higher in the listing than those two, because they are listed in the order of how many clicks were received.  (The number of views is shown as a number in the far left column.)

    Our web host spits out detailed logs of every single transaction carried out by the server, and looking at the raw logs is like reading a telephone book.  Human beings need to use analysis software to extract information from these logs.  Here is a monthly summary of site activity to date since we opened the new site in January, produced by the AWStats program:

    AD-monthly-2024-03-26-075023.png

    As of this morning, here are the most popular pages (note that the very top line is a sitewide total):

    AD-Most-Pop-2024-03-26-075817.png

    On the search side, Google reports the following overall search activity (note that "impressions" means that one of our pages appeared in search results, and "clicks" means that the person actually clicked on a displayed link):

    AD-Google-chart-2024-03-26-080548.png

    Here are the most frequent search terms entered (again remember the meaning of clicks and impressions):

    AD-Google-detail-024-03-26-080459.png

    Of course we have no access to comparative stats from 2023 and earlier, since we lost all ability to connect to the previous host.  These numbers seem fairly respectable to me under the circumstances.  

    And, in response to your last comment, I would say it's "our" baby.  It all starts with the folks who write and submit stories for publication here.  John and I and the others who contribute behind the scenes have a common objective of providing a good reading experience.  For better or worse, our technical platform and the existing standard for preparing and displaying stories will not accommodate a "like" function on the actual story pages, so this forum is the place for people to express appreciation.  Or they can email the authors directly in many cases (some of the oldest stories no longer have functioning email links).  We could consider putting legends at the end of stories to encourage people to visit the forum and post their comments, although my read of things is that the vast majority of stie visitors are bashful and would rather lurk than post.  Too, we have still not figured out the best long-term plan for this forum and its hosting by Invision in the aftermath of Mike's passing.  John and I hope to make progress on that in April or May.

    Anyway, your suggestions are and will be appreciated as are your contributions as an author.  

    Cheers,

    R

    • Thanks 2
  3. 1 hour ago, Altimexis said:

    I have all of the Beatle's albums in high-res audio. The originals have some of the worst stereo mixing possible, with the voices coming from one speaker and the instruments from the other. Imagine that - playing guitars on the left side and singing on the right?

    Back in 1962 when the Beatles first began recording, the final product was always going to be monaural.  The fact that two-track masters still exist is somewhat of an historical accident, but there was never an intent to release those as stereo recordings per se.  It was not until later in the 60s that the idea of stereo record releases really took hold at that level.  Before that, the two tracks were used so that the vocals could be overdubbed, or tracks could be bounced so that other changes could be layered on.  It didn't matter what was on which track because it was all going to monaural in the end.

    R

  4. 53 minutes ago, Altimexis said:

    It seemed pretty obvious from the beginning that some of Ross' friends are full of themselves and not worth having as friends.

    I found the persistence of this hostility a bit hard to believe.  It makes me think there must be some underlying issue with the tormentors that causes Parry's mere presence to be a threat to them.  What are they so afraid of?  What are they trying to prove?

    R

    • Like 1
  5. 26 minutes ago, Altimexis said:

    I know for a fact that serialization started because most authors posted chapters as they wrote them - and it showed.

    This is painfully obvious on Nifty, but people going there know what to expect.  Well more than half of the stories there start out with a burst of energy and then peter out when the author has no idea what to do next, or just loses interest.  Mostly this happens when the author doesn't really have a story, but only has a premise.  Occasionally we see the opposite phenomenon, when it is obvious that the author can't stand to end the story and keeps coming up with more and more contrived events and circumstances to keep the saga going.  

    I would just add that nothing like this will ever happen unless someone new steps up to handle it.  John (@Alien Son) is already at or beyond capacity and in danger of burning out.  There is only so much I can do from the opposite hemisphere to help him.  It's remarkable how much housekeeping this site requires, and he is bearing the brunt of it.  

    Cheers,

    R

  6. I, too, do not like raw tomatoes.  I can't explain why.  I'm not allergic or anything; it's just that something about them is off-putting.  I completely understand Cole's attitude toward them.

    I grew up surrounded by rock, jazz (some), and big band music.  I played drums in the school jazz band from 7th grade onward and learned a raft of standards.  It wasn't until I was I my 30s that I decided to learn what classical music was all about.  In typical fashion for me, I bought a couple of encyclopedia-like classical music guides, and started working my way through composers.  I was blown away.  I discovered that my all time favorite piece was Beethoven's 7th Symphony, especially the second movement.  But I came to love Mozart, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and many others.  Bach I liked but it did not move me as much as later composers.  And after I watched Leonard Bernstein explaining Debussy on a TV program, I became a fan of Debussy as well.  And I am now familiar with a number of mainstream operas, and even had season tickets to the L.A. Opera until the price went clear up to the stratosphere.

    But I still like popular music in its many forms.  On the occasions when I turn on the radio in my car, I tune to stations that play pop music (oldies, typically).  I grew up with those songs.  I remember listening to "Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley when I was 5 or 6 years old and had put on the radio to help me get to sleep.  Or "Witch Doctor" by David Seville.  (As a youngster I loved the novelty songs.)  

    Now, getting back to the story:  Hopefully James's mom is on the title for whatever car she wants to sell, because otherwise she may have difficulty transferring title to a buyer.  At that point they only know that Frank has disappeared earlier that day.  I share Altimexis's puzzlement as to how Frank could have developed into such a POS.  How fortunate for James that he had a Mrs. Ford to turn to in times of need.

    R

     

  7. 2 hours ago, Altimexis said:

    Just remember that some of the greatest classical musicians record popular music too. I’m sure the folks who shell out major bucks to attend a pops concert don’t consider it ‘that stuff’.

    Indeed -- a lot of the strings and woodwinds on classic Motown singles from the 60s were provided by moonlighting musicians from the Detroit Symphony.

    R

  8. 7 hours ago, Cole Parker said:

    I was in high school when the Beetles became a smash in the country.  I never could understand why.

    I was in 8th grade.  I don't think I watched the Ed Sullivan show when they appeared, but I have a distinct memory of the boys in my Phys Ed class the next day all wanting to grow their hair long like the Beatles did.

    R

  9. James ruminates:

    Well, what he needed to remember, was that he didn’t like Freddie. That’s what he needed to concentrate on. Keep that thought in the front of his mind, a reminder to himself. The kid wasn’t serious, wasn’t dedicated to the horn. Freddie wanted to swim and play badminton—badminton!—more than he wanted to play music! And he was laughing with those girls! That’s what James needed to remember. He needed to push all those other thoughts right out of his head.

    Sorry, James, but I don't think Cole is going to allow all that to happen for you.

    R

    • Like 1
  10. Thought I should bring folks up-to-date on this.  I heard back from Driver and we have been corresponding.  He has granted permission to keep both this and one other story of his posted at Codey's World.  

    A significant piece of information:  He says he rarely checks his mail at the hotmail/outlook.com address that is published with many of his stories.  That is why it took a while before I heard back from him.  He has given me permission to share that the address he regularly checks nowadays is his Gmail address:  driver.nine -at- gmail.com (fill in the @ sign where it belongs).  That's the one to use should you wish to get in touch with him.

    Cheers,

    R

  11. Has anyone noticed that we have at least three stories entitled "Oliver" ?

    Oliver by Cole Parker

    Oliver by Richard Norway

    Oliver by Alan Dwight

    There may be others lurking in the listings that I overlooked.  These three are all quite different despite the identical titles.  

    Seems like Charles Dickens was on to something . . .

    R

  12. It seems obvious that fellow student Perry will take on significant importance in this story.  I found myself reflecting on whether I had encountered anyone named Perry in the past.

    The answer is yes:  Once.  During and after college, when I worked in broadcasting, there was another engineer named Perry.  I later discovered that Perry was a nickname for Peregrine, which I could see on his FCC license (we all had to post ours, and there was a wall of them).  That must have made his early school days fun, if the other kids found out his real name.

    But the real kicker was that his last name was White.  Perry White.  Can you imagine giving your kid that name?  

    R

    • Haha 1
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