500th Post

Edited post

Although I tend not to edit posts, once I’ve put them up, this one’s an exception. I’ve modified the links to my photos site.

Probably not that important, but I’m anal-retentive, that way.

Welcome to the 500^th post to the sernaferna blog. Upon reflection, I’ve decided that I don’t have anything deep or insightful to say in this entry; instead, I’m doing a retrospective post, looking back at some of my favourite posts over the last year and a half.

I’m not saying that the posts listed here are deep, or even interesting. They’re just my personal favourites. However, since—as I like to keep mentioning—this blog is maintained for my own personal enjoyment, and nobody else’s, I feel comfortable doing it this way. Actually, even the word “favourites” might be a bit misleading—I simply started at the beginning (Thursday, March 17, 2005), and started grabbing links for posts that caught my eye.

Blogs about Blogging: Anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows that I blog about blogging a lot. There are various reasons for this: I’m trying to figure out why I do it; I’m trying to figure out why others do it; I’m trying to come to grips with ways I might do it better, or make my blog more useful; I’m wondering why I spend so much time reading other people’s blogs, when so many of them are utter wastes of my time. These entries are all blogs about blogging, and some are probably contradictory, because they’re all moments in time:

• It’s funny...: This was probably the first post that acknowledged the fact that my blog is a complete and utter waste of time—both for me, and for the reader.
• Why?: This was the first blog that explicitly mentioned the fact that there is no real reason why you, the reader, should bother coming here. It’s a little out of date now, because it says that I don’t use my wife’s real name (which I started doing), and that I don’t post pictures (which I can now do), however the main points that it’s making are still true: I may use Andrea’s name, now, but I still don’t post any private details about our marriage, and I may be able to post pictures now, but I don’t do it often enough to make the blog interesting.
• Definition: Another obsessive post about my own blogging.
• How to blog: The post for this title isn’t really properly descriptive; it’s actually a post saying that you shouldn’t try and tell people how to blog.
• Blog Advice: Did I say that I don’t give blog advice? Well, apparently I do.
• Why Blog?: Indeed.
• ANOTHER post about blogging: I’m very aware of the fact that I post about blogging a lot.
• I think I’m getting addicted: Another post about blogging, but, just to switch it up about, it’s about other people’s blogs, not mine.
• Rights: A post that’s partially about blogging, but also just about life in general.
• Nothing. Me. Everything. Another “I was reading a blog and it inspired me to write about blogging” entry. And same with Pretentious bloggers.

Headlights: This was the first—and last—PSA I posted to the blog. You’re welcome.

Damn this feeble memory!: Possibly the most important blog entry I ever wrote. If you have access to a printer, you should probably print this out, and put it up on the wall next to your computer. Then you can read it, from time to time, when you need inspiration. (You can probably tell, when I go so far with it, that I’m being ironic, can’t you?)

Tandoori shrimp: I take it back. There were more PSA posts to the blog.

Now THAT is what a conference call SHOULD be like!: This post documents the best conference call I ever attended.

I’m so stupid: This post documents the exact day when I learned that the word “literally” can be used in two—completely opposite—ways, both of which are correct. This was a turning-point in my life as an English-speaker.

An intellgent, well-thought-out post covering the state of serna’s life at 11:30 on a Sunday night: ’Nuff said.

Quebec Trip: Chronicles a trip I took to Quebec City, for business.

Etymology of "sernaferna": Explains where the name sernaferna came from. And how it is pronounced.

MSN Conversation: This is the first conversation I ever posted from a conversation I’d had in Messenger. (I posted this before I’d set myself up to show all of the emoticons, so it’s very… textual.)

Book Review: [Hegemony or Survival] This is pretty self-explanatory; it reviews the aforementioned book by Noam Chomsky. I didn’t bother to link to all of the book reviews I did, but this is probably the best analysis of American foreign policy/politics that I’ve ever read.

The flip-flop controversy: Last year, in June, there was a mild controversy on this blog because I claimed—rightly—that flip-flops are ugly. It was mentioned in a number of posts:

• flip-flops
• flip-flops revisited
• Why so many posts about flip-flops?

Email hilarity. Or lack thereof.: This post is simply a testament to my own bizarre sense of humour.

Three Hours Between Chatham and Toronto: I don’t even know what to say about this one. It’s just something I’d written in the past, and forgotten about, and then decided to dredge up and put on the blog.

Coffee and environmentalism: A post about coffee. Oh, and also about environmentalism. In fact, it’s really more related to environmentalism than it is to coffee.

another Monday, another post about the weekend: Nothing particularly interesting about this one, actually. It’s just a post about the previous weekend.

Downtown Toronto (long): A post about downtown Toronto, because I miss living there.

Tim’s: A love letter to the coffee company I like best.

I’m such a nerd...: A recap of some of the electronic devices that have brought me so much joy, over the years.

Art? Art.: Some pictures Andrea took, that I thought looked good enough to blog.

Recommended Reading: Books that I recommend.

My spine: This post contains a medical hypothesis that I don’t think gets enough credence.

My HTML Editor: A post about HTML-Kit, the HTML editor I use for creating these blog entries—and pretty much anything else that’s HTML-related. What I didn’t mention, though, which I should have, is that HTML-Kit is much more appropriate for people who want to work with the HTML tags, and not for people who want a FrontPage-like interface.

Good Article on Hip-Hop and Sexism: References a comment made by bell hooks on a blog somewhere, on hip-hop and sexism. Andrea’s been bugging me to start reading bell hooks, but I haven’t gotten around to picking up any of her books, yet.

Puttin’ on the Pounds: I’m not saying this post is when I started to realize I was gaining weight. But it was definitely a blow to the ol’ self esteem.

Descriptive Writing: Something I don’t do.

Bored at work: Just a typical afternoon for serna.

An Interview With Serna: This is the first time the editors of sernaferna got together with the writers of sernaferna, for a quick chat on the state of blogging. It didn’t go as well as either were hoping. They didn’t even spell serna’s name proplerly, in the title.

My Wife: The first post in which I used Andrea’s real name.

Formatting Change: Another complaint about the way some people format their blogs. Especially the ones who use Spaces from MSN.

Update: A strange post, if ever there was one. And not named very well, either.

Chatting: Fond remembrances of the way chatting used to be.

Venezuela Pictures: Don’t get your hopes up, when you read that title. There are no pictures in the post. There is, however, a link to my photos site, where all of my pictures from Venezuela (and Barbados, and Guyana) are.

The Conservative Party: Everyone else who has a blog complains about the minor inconveniences in their life; why can’t I? And, while I’m at it, I should also mention the Conservative Party Update, and the Conservative Party AGAIN.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas and Everything: This is what you get when serna posts right before Christmas.

Insert Title Here: The best blog entry I ever wrote. Honest. Go and read it now, if you don’t believe me.

My Sense of Humour: Self-explanatory.

Swiss Chalet has sold me out!: This is the chilling post where I learned Swiss Chalet had switched from Coke products to Pepsi products.

People are strange: Why put graffiti on plants?!?

Strategic Voting: Should I vote Liberal, or NDP? Hmm…

Apparently, I have nothing to say...: I should use this title for all of my blog posts.

300th Post to this Blog!: The 500^th post isn’t the only milestone, you know.

An Interview With serna: Another one? Yes. Another one.

Shout Out: I get mentioned on others’ blogs so rarely that it usually gets mentioned in mine when it happens.

Simpsons Trivia: Who Shot Mr. Burns?: I thought I would end up posting a lot more trivia to the blog, after this post, but I didn’t.

Swiss Chalet--Again!: I complain, but I still love them.

Just a Conversation About Nuthin: Yet another brilliantly titled post.

A Grey Drive Home: Some pictures from a… well, from a grey drive home.

Writing: The real reason I want to be a writer.

Email - and lots of it!: Ever got bombarded with emails at work? Here’s how it works.

Simpsons Trivia: Grampa: I didn’t put up much Simpsons trivia, but I did do it from time to time.

Roll up the Rim: I had a number of posts about my winning RUTR cups in 2006:

• Roll up the Rim
• Roll up the Rim Again
• I DON’T BELIEVE IT!
• A conversation about my winning cups...
• Still Rollin’ the Rims
• Coffee
• Roll up the Rim almost done
• Roll up the Rim All Done

Keeping in Touch: Why do I even bother, sometimes?

Open Mindedness?: A post on what open-mindedness means to me, and whether or not there are limits. Which was followed by Open Mindedness and Religion, which was then followed by Do Unto Others...

The Bathroom: Because I don’t think I post enough bathroom-related material to my blog.

Project Management: Not a post, so much as simply passing on a funny cartoon. Which was followed by Rich, which also had a cartoon in it.

My Bank: I don’t often post my phone conversations, but sometimes I have a conversation that just needs to be posted.

SNL Videos: No content, but some links to some very funny videos.

V for Vendetta: Every once in a while, I get a bee in my bonnet about something, and end up posting about it ad nauseum. The movie V for Vendetta—or, more specifically, my desire to see said movie—was one of those topics:

• V for Vendetta
• V for Vendetta And Reviews Continued
• That Vendetta Movie Again
• I for I’m Never Going to See This Movie
• O for Oh brother, he’s talking about that movie again!

sernafernaman: Another conversation from MSN Messenger.

Random thoughts during a conference call: Another well-titled, but badly written, post.

"And You": Strange.

Final Spam Tally for March: I had decided, in the month of March, to keep track of how many spam emails I got each day. In this post, I shared the results.

Photos and Cheese: An MSN Messenger conversation which is completely unrelated to anything going on in your life. Followed by The Stupidity of serna.

Bond. James Bond.: A post about a CD I bought. Like you care.

The Wedding: A long, long post about a wedding I went to. With very few details about the wedding.

Camera Phone: A post about the fact that my camera phone takes lousy pictures. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a “rant”, but it is a bit of a complaint. Followed by a series of many, many comments.

DEATH!: I’d been telling people for years—probably since my 30^th birthday—that I was middle-aged. I knew that the stats say the people live longer than 60, on average, but I thought that they were probably skewed. So, in this post, I did some investigation, and found out that what people call “middle-aged” really is middle-aged. I was pleasantly surprised. And, as mentioned in Death Revisited, Andrea was surprised, too.

I can’t think of a title for this Messenger conversation: I might not post all of my Messenger conversations, but I’ll post a bunch of ’em. If it was interesting enough for me to copy ’n paste into Blogger, it’s interesting enough to link to…

Seasons: A post that nobody enjoyed nearly as much as I did. Like most other posts on my blog. Bastiges.

Yes, you CAN recover from insanity. Surprisingly quickly.: Meaningless office fun.

10 Things I Hate About Commandments: No content, but a fun video from YouTube.

Chickenshit Conformist Like Your Parents: A post about the Dead Kennedys. Along with Dead Kennedys, Cont.

My Pictures: This post is funny to me because most people won’t know what I’m talking about, for the last picture I mention. But Jer does, and James probably does, and I definitely do.

Random Thoughts on a Thursday Morning: Sometimes my blog titles are just spot on.

Blood: serna tries to donate blood, and fails. In honour of the subject matter, this post is colour-coded.

Tim Hortons “Camp Day”: Haha, aren’t corporations funny when they’re stupid?

Stickman Funnies: If you’re tired of reading my endless dronings, you can go to this post for a break. It’s just stickman comics that were sent to me, that I posted online.

Learning about life without Grandpa: I posted this to commemorate the passing of my grandfather. In my humble opinion, it combines poignancy with unnecessary detail.

Mr. Show: The Audition and Kids in the Hall: The Chase: No content from me, but two great clips from great shows.

Why Cartoons Always Wear The Same Clothes: Finally, finally, I put up my cartoon, so I can stop posting about it so much now.

Not Ready to Make Nice: A post about this song by the Dixie Chicks, as well as about the controversy they stirred up in 2003.

A Typical MSN Messenger Conversation: I keep posting these. I don’t know why.

U.S.-Backed Israeli Policies Pursuing “End of Palestine”: Another Chomsky-inspired post.