One of the ways I get traffic here is by building an archive of strangely topical narrow interest content. For instance, a google image search for travis will probably show you this image of Jessica Travis who I went to theater school with:

And so it goes. This is cool because from time to time people who I've lost touch with will decide to google someone they know (not even me, dear ego) and come across my site. The other week Randal Cohn, who was assistant director of the Ad/Diction project (nee: the QuickFix) dropped me a line because he was googling people from the cast of his ETW Independent Project, a cast that included the illustrious Julia Henning, and he ended up here.

It's fun to catch up; Randal's pulling down a Masters in International Relations and going PhD in 06 -- turns out we had similar reactions to how the world has changed in the past four years, promting a detour from purely artistic pursuits -- so I asked him what the Acadmic trip has been about, since I've considered going that way myself. Here's his response, which I thought was awesome:

things you should keep in mind:

1. your fancy BFA from NYU don't mean shit. you have a BFA. unless you got a dual degree, that means you didn't do any serious scholarship according to most people whose opinions matter in the application process to any rigorous academic program. that's why i am at SFSU -- not the best school on the planet -- getting this master's degree: so i can write a thesis, prove i'm capable, and then, in combination with my fancy BFA from NYU, make a credible application.
2. academics, on the whole, are kookier than artists and musicians.
3. the girls are hotter at the theater program.
4. the people who are -- by profession -- less full of shit than normal people who just talk out of their asses all the time are a) full of shit, and b) talking out of their asses all the time
5. better like reading.
6. it's about as likely you'll get a tenure-track appointment at a good university as it is you'll become a movie star.
7. the social sciences are particularly suspect epistemologically.
8. smart girls.
9. i remember when i used to take dance classes.
10. we'd love to have you.

This will keep you from getting work done. Really neat physics sim, and depressingly enjoyable to fool with. Plus you can throw the president into a bubble. Don't click the link if you have anything that needs to get done.

And I thought it was just because I wasn't 18 anymore:

A raft of new studies suggest that cyclists, particularly men, should be careful which bicycle seats they choose.

The studies add to earlier evidence that traditional bicycle saddles, the kind with a narrow rear and pointy nose, play a role in sexual impotence.

Some saddle designs are more damaging than others, scientists say. But even so-called ergonomic seats, to protect the sex organs, can be harmful, the research finds.

Holy shit! This is really bad news! I've always been a fan of the cleft, which reduces the appearance of numbness, but apparently it falls short of a real solution, and may make the problem worse:

In men, a sheath in the perineum, called Alcock's canal, contains an artery and a nerve that supply the penis with blood and sensation. The canal runs along the side of a bone, Dr. Goldstein said, and when a cyclist sits hard on a narrow saddle, the artery and the nerve are compressed. Over time, a reduction of blood flow can mean that there is not enough pressure to achieve full erection.

In women, Dr. Goldstein said, the same arteries and nerves engorge the clitoris during sexual intercourse. Women cyclists have not been studied as much, he added, but they probably suffer the same injuries...

Today's ergonomic saddles have splits in the back or holes in the center to relieve pressure on the perineum. But this may make matters worse: the ergonomic saddles have smaller surface areas, so the rider's weight presses harder on less saddle, Dr. Schrader said. The perineum may not escape injury because its arteries run laterally and they are not directly over the cutouts. The arteries can come under more pressure when they come into contact with the cutouts' edges.

It's hard to talk about your penis not getting hard, or as hard as you'd like, when you're gettin' it on. But this is an important topic for men to get used to dealing with, and it's only going to be more of an issue as time marches on.

This plays a part in pride and enjoyment, as the advertising world reminds us. The vast majority of consumers of Viagra and its kin aren't trying to treat full-on impotence; they're trying to go from 60% (which is on the border of functional for intercourse) to 100% (the punishment!). It also affects people's sexual health choices. All the people I know who have unprotected sex do so not just because it's a different world of sensation, but also (and even primarily) because putting on a condom exacerbates any problems you might be having at that moment maintaining your boner.

Personally I haven't had frequent problems here. I still use protection rigorously, and I've been fortunite to be with women haven't made me feel bad when I have had problems with my circulation. Bully for me. However, the phrase "loss of libido" makes me nervous. Apropops my moments of romantic longing, I've writting in my private paper journal before about how I seem to have less and less of a hunger -- less acute, less often -- for the sensual things in life. Part of this is without a doubt a product of hormonal maturity, and part of it might be lingering depression, stress or fatigue. But what if my love of two-wheeled human power is also a culprit?

"We make kids wear helmets and knee pads," Dr. Goldstein said. "But no one thinks about protecting the crotch."

Well, I sure as hell am thinking about protecting my crotch now. I'm going to be getting a new larger track bike at some point when I get back to NYC. Looks like it's time to invest in a noseless saddle too.

Since switching servers from good ol' Neureal (who are excellent if you just need some low-rent hosting) to somewhat more nerd-pleasing Tektonic (where I can do cool shit like run Ruby and lighttpd), my ego has taken a beating. See, Neureal gave me webalizer to analyze my stats, leading me to believe I was developing an audience in the thousands.

Now I've got a slightly more clueful stat package what filters out hits from bots trying to post links to online poker and stimulants, and I find out that fully 50% of my traffic is bogus. Which is still a lot of readers. But not as many as I thought. I'm dying! Ahhhh!

Well, ok. Actually I rather like the homey nature of this old website. So don't cry for me, Argentina.

On the plus side, my new stat package can list referrals (inbound links) and filter out self-referrals and search engines pretty good. This is awesome because when I look at the list to see who's linking to me, I discovered that Scott in Plano has a blog! Here's an example:

Well, last weekend was fairly eventful. Friday I didn’t do a damn thing, played some Socom II and went to bed, in anticipation of camping trip at Lake Texoma. The plan was to meet in Dennison at noon, so I got up early, and decided Roger should be up too. Hmmm…what to do, I KNOW, load the potato gun up with a sock and fire it into his bedroom. Scared the shit out of him and woke him up, mission accomplished (I know I will suffer payback, but it’s worth it.). Of course our friends are running late, and noon came and went, so while the spud gun is still warm lets have some more fun. Here’s a rundown of the conversation:

Roger: Let’s shoot a sock at each other.
Me: Uh..I don’t know about that.
Roger: C’mon, it’s just a sock, how bad could it hurt.
Me: Okay, but you go first.

Fuckin' a. I'll tune in for more of that; reminds me of having fun in Texas (audio from vagabender). It's one of my great regrets from the road that we didn't get around to taking pictures of topless girls at Burning Man with the potato cannon they gave us to send to Scott and Roger. My fault for loosing Mark's camera. Sorry guys!