She Wields The Great Sword Of Linkage

One of the difficulties of publishing a weblog when you constantly travel is finding the time to post, or on some days, even check your site (or sites). Yesterday was just such a day, so imagine my surprise when I call Michele today and she asks how much traffic she sent my way.

Huh?

Apparently, Michele saw fit to write this:

First, let me thank James. For most of the day yesterday, he had no column on The Bleat and just a link to the Voices project. More than a thousand readers came from that link. More than a thousand. Oh, to have that kind of power. Well, not really power, but people taking your word for something. See this link here? Go there. And then thousands of people go, because you said to and they all trust your judgment. If I had that power of suggestion I would wield it like a Sword of Linkage and soon everyone would be enjoying Acid Keg or reading the blogging perfection of Avocare.

”Blogging perfection?” High praise indeed, coming from the woman who brings the world A Small Victory and TROOPTrax and Voices and Four Color Hell and (with yours truly) Command Post.

So thanks, MC … yes, you sent a whole host of new readers this way.

To those new readers, here’s the basic premise: I’m a professional who travels with great frequency, I enjoy passing along items of interest to others, I like the weblog medium, and this site is the intersection of all three. Each post notes the location from which it was published, and for locations that I visit frequently or that might be particularly interesting, I link to a webcam of that location as well (click the camera icons to see the cams). I try to maintain semi-anonymity throughout, for no reason other than a hope to maintain a reasonable boundary of privacy. Michele’s kind words notwithstanding, it’s not perfection, but I hope you enjoy the site.

That said, I write today from Hollywood, Florida, which for all intents and purposes is Fort Lauderdale, which has become for all intents and purposes North Miami. I’m here for business, and while I won’t get to enjoy the beach, I did enjoy lunch today by the ocean (and shared the sounds of the waves with Wife and Michele via cell phone).

People here have already begun the emotional preparation for Isabel, and today for the first time you can feel her influence as the sea is distinctly up. Should she make landfall near here, my lunch spot will certainly be underwater. Today, though, is beautiful (and yes, this actually is the view from my hotel) …