This is what they want!

As you probably already saw, yesterday I did a post over at The Weekly Crisis about awesome Nerd Cakes. Honestly, they are great, and I thought people would be all over that article, that people would comment a lot about it, that it would be linked around Twitter and stuff. Sure, some friends RT the link, and there are a modest amount of comments (7 at the time of this writing), but honestly, I thought this could do be better. I was already resigning myself that maybe people weren't all that interested in it, when...

You guys use Google Reader? I do, it's incredibly useful to keep track of feeds. It also has some nice buttons like "Share" to share a particular entry with your followers, and a "Like" button for when you really like an article. I always "Like" and "Share" all the articles in The Weekly Crisis, because I honestly like all the material we present. Anyway, the most popular posts get usually around 5 ~ 10 "Likes", and usually by the same group of people, most just get one or two. I went to check the "Nerd Cakes" post, and I was greeted with this...

HOLY SHIT. At the time of this writing, 226 people have "Liked" that article. It has gotten so popular that if you go to the "Recommended" tab that Google Reader offers, it shows up as one of the first choices.

According to the info provided by Google Reader, 769 people subscribe to The Weekly Crisis feed using Google Reader. Like I said above, if the most popular posts usually get 7~10 "Likes", that means that usually what we write really appeals to 1% of the readership. To get these kind of numbers, and working under the assumption that only 1% of the people reading will bother to hit "Like", that means this article has been read roughly 22000 times!

Update: I asked Kirk to check the Analytics for that particular post, and it's not getting any more site views than the rest of them. I guess that the people that saw it REALLY liked it though.

Of course, the other alternative is that this article was so awesome that it completely shattered that 1% statistic, but even then, this is probably the most widespread and well-liked article I have ever written. I do not if this got linked around in Tumbler or Digg, or what, but SOMETHING must have caused this many people to see this particular article.

(and in the time it took me to write this, it's already up to 229, who knows where it will be by tomorrow?)

In other words: Damn it feels good to have an audience. 

Matt Ideas: Frank Miller's Footloose

This is the kind of stuff I come up when I have free days from work. I clearly should be writing other stuff due at The Weekly Crisis and other places, but this idea got into my head last night, and I could not let it go. Whoever was on Twitter at the time probably saw this already. Just imagine that this is Frank Miller's Batman or Daredevil saying these words, come on, try it!

There's something strange about this town. The streets are empty. There is no joy in the dance floor.

It is holding me down. Not anymore. Not this night. Tonight i gotta cut loose. Footloose.

Time to lose my blues. I am yearning, burning for more. Time to kick off my Sunday shoes.

Everyone's playing it cool. Obeying the rules. They don't realize they could fly, if only they'd cut loose. 

I have to turn it around, plant my feet in the ground. Take hold of my soul and let it loose.

And like I said, I couldn't let the idea go, so you also get a movie poster...

That's gold, Jerry! Gold!

Martian Manhunter vs. The State of Arizona

(Page originally from Brightest Day #0. Click to enlarge)

I don't think Arizona thought it all the way through when they passed this law. The next time that Doomsday or whatever shows up in their state, they are not going to be able to get help from Martian Manhunter, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, etc. Well, it's only Arizona. Fuck'em!