I was hoping to do a bit of an End of Year review for the blog with the top posts of 2012. Unfortunately, blogger does not seem to be able to provide annual stats - it's limited to the last day, week, month or all time. Google Analytics is more useful but, unfortunately, I only set it up on the blog in April so I cannot use that either. Instead, here are the top six posts from 2012 based on all time stats at the beginning of January:
So, what have I learnt from this year's blogging?
✏ People like wine. (OK, I already knew that.) Although I do not really consider The Cabbages of Doom to be a "science blog" per se, I am a bit disappointed that the
science posts have not rated higher. It's especially embarrassing to see a
wine post top the bill as I don't really know much about wine and the posts show that! (They're really just for me to keep track of wine I like!)
✏ Sex, celebrities and kittens sell. Also not really surprising, I guess - this
is the internet - but three of the top six feature
sex,
celebrities and
kittens. Not things I blog about often but good to remember if I ever feel the viewing stats need a boost!
✏ Education, education, education. I've blogged before that
Education is the key to impact and it seems to hold true for blog posts too - mine at least. The top
science post was the education-related
How to root a phylogenetic tree and the second also stemmed from a lecture. Still, good motivation to blog some more lecture-related material when I have the chance.
✏ Blog what you like. The philosophy behind my blog has always been "because the internet has a better memory than I do". I don't think it is easy - or that healthy - to try and predict what other people will be interested in and write about that, unless you are trying to blog professionally, of course. Given that I do not think I would have predicted any of the above as top posts, I think this is a good philosophy to continue.
✏ It doesn't have to be fresh. Especially with science, it sometimes feels like a race to "get in on the action". The more I blog, the more I feel it's best to leave that to the pros. There is something nice about returning to the scene after the dust has settled and there's less pressure to try and be original.
✏ Quality not Quantity / Fun not Frequency. There was a period when I got a bit obsessed about trying to knock out one post a day. It did not last too long and it killed some of the fun. One of my favourite blogs,
coelsblog, probably posts one or two times a month on average. This is a hobby, not a job, so it's perfectly OK for it to be sporadic.
✏ Comment on other people's blogs. I don't mean leave snarky troll comments all over the internet but making positive contributions to other people's comment threads is a great way to get a few extra page views heading your way from those with similar interests. Even without the carrot of extra page views, I still recommend leaving comments that encourage posts you have enjoyed - as a blogger, I know how nice (although sadly rare for me!) to get them. (Desire for feedback is also part of the point of blogging.) Such conversations can also provide good inspiration for future posts. (On the subject of other blogs... more end of year blogging wisdom can be found at
Under The Banyan.)
✏ Be polite. Attack the idea, not the person. Or, better still,
question the idea. (Usually,
the best defence is not offence.) Both when blogging and commenting, always remember than you are effectively self-publishing to the world. I'm sure I don't always get it right but I try to stay mindful of (and avoid) anything that might come back and bite me later, hence my blog disclaimer: "Any unsourced opinions on this site are my own. I sometimes get things wrong and will be happy to amend my position in the light of new information."
Another one of my Christmas presents this year was a packet of Jasmine Pearls teabags (or "tea temples") from teapigs. I am a big fan of jasmine tea and I have to say that the teapigs variety is very tasty indeed! It looks pretty too: a little pyramid of tea. 
Having a waited almost a year to blog praises of one of last year's Christmas presents (my Urban ears headphones, which (ironically) have just broken and need fixing/replacing ☹), I thought I would be a bit quicker off the mark this year!
My initial reactions are good and they work really. They're definitely not as responsive as naked flesh but then you wouldn't expect them to be. I think this is in part you cannot really feel the contact in the same way as you can with exposed fingers, so you cannot rely on touch when typing, for example, to know that your press has registered. Your fingers are also obviously fatter in gloves, so you cannot be quite so sure that you are pressing the desired buttons. As a result, you have to rely more on sight, which slows things down a bit, but I have not experienced any frustration due to my touches failing to be detected. 
I was hoping to do a bit of an End of Year review for the blog with the top posts of 2012. Unfortunately, blogger does not seem to be able to provide annual stats - it's limited to the last day, week, month or all time. Google Analytics is more useful but, unfortunately, I only set it up on the blog in April so I cannot use that either. Instead, here are the top six posts from 2012 based on all time stats at the beginning of January:
Jealous, that is, until the camera panned across said crowd and revealed all the upturned faces, staring into the LCD screens of their cameras and smartphones. 
Is the memory of the 21st Century human really so bad that we have to try and capture every event and every moment on a digital device, however inferior that would be to the experience itself? (Even the best camera equipment is not going to have a dynamic range or field of vision to challenge the Mark I human eyeball.) I could almost understand it if the event was not being televised and recorded for prosperity anyway. (It's on BBC iPlayer, which is where the screen grabs are from, if you missed it.)
One of our assignments has students making pretty PDB structure diagrams using UCSF Chimera. Some of them are very good at it too. (The picture left is from the Chimera Image Gallery, not a student.)
☑ Make more time for writing. I've got a few papers and a book chapter that need writing. Episodes of Mystic Mog and the Exploding Tortoise have also been decreasing in frequency down to a disappointing 4 in December. There are a number of contributing factors to this but one is clearly not setting aside time to write.
