27.5.07

thinking (with multiplication) ?

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Okay now here's the second tagging post. Only this is not called tagging. It's got the rather grandiose title of 'the thinking blogger awards'. Much easier than the 'tagging' - no random facts or confessions. Here's the little thingamy that i'm sposed to put here-
The image “http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/421/thinkingblogger2ql6.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
and the obligatory link to the origin of the whole thing.

By the way, the picture up top has nothing to do with anything, but I gotta have a picture.

Firstly it was Arlee Barr of Albedo Design that 'awarded' me, then it was Helle of Gooseflesh, and then Marion of My Art Grows Around Me. Thankyou. So does that means I've got 15 awards to give? I'm not sure.Of course it is my own fault, I should just have done the 'awarding' when Arlee awarded me. But, as usual, I was slack and took my time....

Anyways I was thinking about tagging and stuff, and about how quickly 'the tagged' (or 'awarded') would multiply. So I did the sums and it's all slightly disturbing in an amusing sort of way. Well I think so.

Now, remember these numbers only work if everyone tagged actually does the tagging. And i'm sure they don't. They couldn't. But the potential is there. I should mention maths and that sort of thing is not my strong point by any stretch of the imagination, so perhaps I went about this completely the wrong way....

Each number listed on the left is each stage of tagging, i'll call it a 'degree'. For example, 1. is the people I tag, 2. is the people they tagged and so on. I've left out the sums after number 4, but you get the idea.


1. 1x5 = 5
2. 5x5 = 25
3. 25x5 = 125
4. 125x5 = 625
5. 3125
6. 15,625
7. 78,125
8. 390,625
9. 1,953,125
10. 9,765,625
11. 48,828,125
12. 244,140,625

So, by the time a tag has separated 12 degrees from its originator, over two hundred and forty four million blogs/bloggers have been tagged. Yes that is right. Unless of course i've gotten something very wrong. Which is entirely possible. I guess it works well for whoever starts these things, at least when they get you to link back to their blog....

The blogosphere report of April 07 (most up to date relevant info I could find) says technorati is tracking over 70 million blogs. Even double that and every single blog would be tagged within 12 'degrees' of an individual initiating a tag or whatever. No wonder I got the award three times, eh?

And only 36% of blogs are in english. 37% are Japanese. Not that tagging is limited to blogs in the taggers language. I have tagged (last post) at least one blog that is not in english, though i knew that the blogger was proficient in english (after all, it does seem that people whose first language is english are less likely to be bi-lingual, so there could be lots of 'inter-lingual' tagging).
While Babelfish is a great thing, it is a long long way from being perfect! Much as I would like to stick a babelfish in my ear, it is, after all, a towel that is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Not a babelfish. Sorry, very bad joke. Anyway I would think that the tendency would be to tag blogs in your own language.

Not that i think it would be bad if every blogger got tagged or awarded once (or even occasionally), but at the potential rate that these things multiply, we could all end up doing posts that are just tagging....
There are 120, 000 new blogs created every day (according to blogosphere) but i dunno if that's gonna be enough!?! Depends, i guess; if everyone is as slow as me when it comes to tagging we might be okay.

So, in light of this little investigation I have decided i'd better just give 5 awards. I'll try to avoid those I tagged in the last post as well as folks I know already have one. But probably i'll mess up.

So here are my 5 thinking blogger awards-

1. First has got to be Lauren of She Sees Red. Partly just to get her back. Just kidding, actually it's because Lauren really is a thinking blogger. And a thinking artist, too.

2. Then there is Mandy the Feltbug. I love Mandy's work, and her blog too. I just noticed Mandy was tagged and then was too thoughtful to tag anyone back, just listing some blogs she likes, including this one. When I first read the post I thought Mandy was tagging me. Luckily that was not the case, otherwise i'd be hassling even more bloggers. Sorry Mandy, I am not so considerate as you, but at least this one is 'non-confessional'. And please ignore this if you like, or take five or six months (see last post!). That goes for all of you.


3.Next is Shula of POPPALINA. Shula makes fabulous things, and does some extraordinarily thoughtful blogging.

4. Jan of In My Spare Time. Just to get her back. No, really the blog is great, very thoughtful! And marvellous work, too.

5. Fiona Long. I've known Fionas work through flickr for quite some time but somehow missed the blog/website for a while there. Anyways the artwork and blog are both very thoughtful, and altogether wonderful.


Apologies to anyone already awarded. You can completely ignore it. Fine by me, it's probably for the best. And you can ignore it even if you have not been previously awarded, that is also more than fine by me. Bound to come back round and bite me on the bum anyways.

10 comments:

lauren said...

thank you sweetheart! i haven't read the proper background info, but if it's anything like tagging, thank you - it's very sweet of you!!!
mandy and i met on friday so it's funny that we should be 1 & 2!! i shall email you about all the fun and games soon :)

love and miss you dearly... xx

shula said...

A towel, far from home, really is a Most Useful Item.

And thanks.

Jade said...

Lauren you are very welcome, cannot think of a blogger more deserving...it is tagging really.
How marvellous that you met Mandy! Yeah that is funny...

Your last email was a pleasure to read, that bird in your hair so sweet!
I shall email you shortly, and tell you what has been going on in the exciting and fast-paced whirl of culture that is wollongong. Ha. It'll be a short email i guess.

I miss you terribly, and your guerilla artworks too. And now i have too many chillers alone....but i am so happy you are doing such wonderful stuff where you are. xxx

Shula glad you agree! You are very welcome, Poppalina is such a rich mix of comedy, tragedy and art. Perfect.

Feltbug said...

I love this post (not just cos you say such nice things about me :)) - I find the whole tagging thing a bit painful - reminds me too much of chain letters or pyramid selling but then again if it is all in the cause of connecting and communicating ... the other worrying thing was that after I listed 7 facts about myself I kept getting the urge to confess more stuff - oh no !! It was great to meet Lauren and it brought you closer too x

arlee said...

OhMY, Jade---such a thoughtful post that i am rethinking the whole tagging thing--does that mean i have to take back the TBA or give you another one????? :} My towel is damp now........:}

Jade said...

Glad you liked it Mandy! Yeah i feel rather ambivalent about the tagging too. Certainly it is an interesting phenomena, creating a particular sort of network or web of connections...

I know what you mean about the urge to confess more stuff....i keep thinking of more things i could have listed.

It is lovely that you and Lauren got to meet. Wish i had been there! It certainly does make the world feel small. In a cosy nice way. I certainly hope i get to meet you someday!xx

Haha! Arlee i have you to thank for setting me on the path of an interesting investigation! I am rather flattered, you know. Despite probably sounding a little whingy.
And the TBA is an easy sort of tag. No confessions. And thanks again!
Hope you've got a spare towel!

Jan Allsopp said...

Thanks Jade (I think!) for the glowing award! I must confess to the desire-to-confess side effect of tagging too. Every time I read someones responses I wanted to do a new post with more about me... then I remembered I'm not that interesting and moved on. And now there is the Thinking Blogger thing... well, all I can say is - I'll think about it! Actually, I'm overwhelmed with the idea of creating a 'thinking-artist-blogger -award', could be interesting, but if it's simply another form of tagging, then why? All in the name of fun, I guess.

Anonymous said...

hi Jade, i like it that you put up a picture regardless for each post. :).
funny post here, btw. i'll just take your word about the exponential numbers.

been looking through the pictures on your flickr site and i wish i have a book of all your work. books are still much better than computer screens.

p.s. very cool that you don't shave or wear make-up.

Jade said...

Jan you are welcome. I think you are very interesting! Yeah i had to be thoughtful about the award.....and take ages to do the post....hehe.

Mien i gotta have pictures!
Yeah the numbers would only be accurate if everyone did the tagging. Luckily they don't.

Yeah books are nicer than computer screens.

Glad you think it's cool, really i think i am just unkempt.

Anonymous said...

haha. i didn't think of that. that could very well be it, too. ;).