The Blog Census
Posted at 6:10 AM on March 16, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(51 Comments)
Radio Heartland has tickets to see the Del McCoury Band this Thursday, March 18th, at the Cedar Cultural Center.
Enter the drawing.
Obey the rules.
Good luck!
Americans are getting their census forms in the mail this week, along with strong encouragement from local, state and federal officials to fill them out and send them back so communities can get full credit for the people who live there. Everything from federal money for support services to representation in Congress is determined by census numbers, so it's important that we get it right.
Likewise, an online blog is a community that requires services in the form of attention, raw material to generate responses, and an endless supply of electrons. We can't tell from comments posted how many people actually read a blog, and we can only guess how many visit and move on, leaving little or no trace.
That's why I encourage you to take the time to fill out your Trial Balloon Blog Census form today, so we can know whether this digital enclave should receive more time and attention from your unelected servant (me), or whether this is an area that might quietly accept a downstream damming project that could put all these familiar streets and buildings under 60 feet of water with a modest political cost.
The Trial Balloon Blog Census is quick and easy to fill out, and does not violate your privacy because there is no way we can check the answers of force you to tell the truth.
It IS the Internet, after all.
The computer you're using is ...a) owned by me.
b) rented.
c) borrowed.
d) stolen.Do you ever leave a comment on the Trial Balloon Blog?
a) Always.
b) Sometimes.
c) Never, except now.
d) Really, never.How many online personalities reside at your physical address?
a) I am always only myself.
b) I sometimes use a pseudonym.
c) multiple random individuals occupy this space.
d) I am everyone I have ever known.Regarding your ethnic heritage, how would you identify yourself?
a) PC.
b) Mac.
c) 3G.
d) HD.Being counted makes me feel ...
a) proud.
b) marginalized.
c) angry.
d) numeric.
Disregard any questions you don't like.
Do you typcially respond to surveys?
Comments (51)
A metaphysical quandry: my answer is no, I never answer surveys, but aren't I doing so by answering this questions? Tis a fiendish trap. Dale gets devious when he gets a bad cold.Or I get paranoid when I have only had an hour or so of sleep and have been at the office for awhile now.
a b a a d
wow, that was difficult...but I feel quite satisfied I did the right thing.
Now, on the subject of the "right thing" -- I have it on good authority of Facebook that tomorrow is the birthday of Barb of Blackhoof and I think we need a survey of appropriate songs to be played (along with the Irish, of course).
What a grand day to have a birthday on. Barb!!
Do we have any goat songs?
My computer is old and robust. I do my best to emulate.
I have gone from lurker to serial commenter in a short time.
I am the only human at my physical address. On a good day, there is one personality here. There are days when I can’t make that claim.
Hmm, my ethnic background? I’m disgustingly white and Midwestern, albeit leavened with a bit of irony. This is getting mighty personal.
Being counted makes me feel invisible, as I blend into the woodwork in groups of any size. If I am one of six people you invite to dinner, the group is large enough you won’t remember later if I showed up or not.
No, I never respond to surveys unless I have been shamed into doing it. Surveys make me reflect on how I compare with others, and that is distressing.
Cynthia: SURE, I read the old Pogo books. Some are still in print, plus I have some that haven’t quite fallen apart in 55 years.
i sometimes get sucked into phone surveys (and then vow never to do them again) but i don't think i've ever done an online survey. well, i lie. i've done the "survey monkey" several times for several organizations.
c,b,c,a,NA
now should i get started on daylight savings time and dairy farming? where's the survey where we all agreed to jerk us around in mid-March. i think i missed something.....
good tuesday to all you TBers!
good morning bloggers, great start unelected servant,
i enjoy the surveys when they are informational. when they are methods of sucking your email address or discovering how to forward you advertising i am more leary. like tgith yesterday as long as there is no pin, social security number and credit card i am willing to proceed.
i enjoy the blog every morning and so do i
I could provide an oral interpretation of Leviticus 16:1-28, the story of the scape goat. As Fr. Mulcahay would say, "As we read in Valiticus . . . ."
Has to be some music from her uncle, although Dale just did one.
There is the Goat head song from Song of Music.
Happy Birthday, wonder woman of the stable!!
aaaad. And this is why I don't like surveys - they make me feel boring. Went to see my doctor in February (long, long, long cold/bug). Hadn't been there in six years so they made me check their paperwork. Same address, same phone, same job, blah, blah, blah.
I did get the Census packet yesterday in the mail but haven't opened it yet. I know I'll fill it out, for the same reason that I filled out that Nielsen booklet every day for two weeks, even though most days the tv wasn't on...seems like I ought to. That's seems boring too! If I could just think "stable" instead of "boring"..........
thanks, Cynthia. it's a curse to have a BD on such a memorable day - and i'm not Irish. so if anyone else would like to have a BD tomorrow, i'd happily give up mine....
but Dale, if you care to play Inna Godda Davida by the Finnish throat singer i'd quit griping about daylight savings time :-)
Alba due a week from today; Dodger in 8 days. 1.25 pens cleaned.
a,
b)
b)
d)
a)
AND I'm a sustaining member of MPR - Radio Heartland Rocks!
Clyde...make that the goat HERD song from Sound of Music...go home, Cly de office, go home!
My daughter, barb has a worse bd and anniversary--9/11.
Here's a detail to po TGitH--software can identify with way over 90% accuracy students who do not really read the questions but just darken cicles on standardized tests. Some questions on tests are to check for that: every notice repeated questions on surveys and tests? That's why they are there. So, there is nowhere to hide.
The computer you're using is ...
a) owned by me.
Do you ever leave a comment on the Trial Balloon Blog?
b) Sometimes. Usually after the show when no one is reading it anymore!
How many online personalities reside at your physical address?
c) multiple random individuals occupy this space.
Regarding your ethnic heritage, how would you identify yourself?
a) PC and old school.
Being counted makes me feel ...
d) numeric.
Do you typcially respond to surveys?
YES!
cynthia--Can't go home. This is a one person office. I work through pain, colds, and life's disappointments as does Dale and all those who milk, even when they whine about DST. yep, goat HERD. Such nimble fingers I have. Was pastel drawing/painting last night and was struck by my lack of digital deftness there, too.
oh, barb, my 7 year-old grand-daughter will trade her 12/25 birthday with you.
Dale--was PC politcally correct, personal computer, past caring, or something else?
I am going to try to sleep for an hour before work starts.
Happy birthday Barb!
No irony in this message.
Any new bucklings or doelings?
Greetings! My answers would be:
A
A
C
A
A
I don't normally do surveys, but this one seems pretty innocuous. Plus, I'm proud to do whatever I can to help out Dale, RH and TB.
I filled out my Census form the same day I received it and it's in the mail today! I wish all my paperwork was that easy and quick ...
Steve - serial commenters are always welcome here!
Barb - good wishes for healthy and safe kids for you and your goats.
I really dislike surveys, I feel honor bound to fill out surveys since people from my profession develop them. My favorite testing joke is the one about animal movement on Rorschach cards-whether a rat placed on a colored card will move more on those or the black and white ones. Its so esoteric, and psychologists can't explain why the joke is funny because it gives away the theory behind Rorschach cards. Happy Tuesday.
A A A B D (though I am proud to be counted as a RH listener and supporter and a denizen of Trial Balloon)
I answer surveys. I filled out the census. I am a rule follower...sometimes.
The computer you're using is ...
e). other. owned by my employer
Do you ever leave a comment on the Trial Balloon Blog?
c) Never, except now.
How many online personalities reside at your physical address?
b) I sometimes use a pseudonym.
Regarding your ethnic heritage, how would you identify yourself?
d) HD.
Being counted makes me feel ...
a) proud.
Do you typcially respond to surveys?
Nope. Consider yourself blessed :)
Oh - and heartiest felicitations of the day, a day early, Barb in Blackhoof. Hope the goats provide an appropriate celebration.
so, Renee - i'm not thinking right. animal "movement" i thought was a euphemism for poop (being deep into that end right now, as i clean out pens :-) so if a rat pooped on the Rorschach would that change the meaning?
and Clyde - sorry for the whining. in fact, i'm sorry that you didn't sleep last night and also sorry that your Granddaughter has such a bad birthday date. i don't want to be 7 again and i doubt whether she wants to fast forward to 64 either =:-)
thanks for the good wishes everyone; now stop it.
where were we???
The first Red Wing Blackbird of the spring just arrived...proudly announcing himself.
makes me think of "Morning Has Broken" (if you have time, Dale/Mike, preferably by Cat Stevens)
Happy Tuesday, Happy Spring-soon-to-be and Happy St. Urho's Day'all!
Barb, I wish i could explain the joke, but it's a trade secret and would invalidate the protocol of anyone who read the explanation,and was subsequently administered the Rorschach. I can never take the Rorschach, either, since my percepts have been contaminated by the many people to whom I I have given the test. I also can never know my IQ since I know the answers to all the tests.
a
b
b
b
all of the above.
I do surveys constantly, certain that someday Walgreen's will send me $3000, or Target a gift card, or something. If the census came with a chance to win a gift card or an iPod or something, they wouldn't have to hire all those people to fan out and knock on doors asking people why they haven't sent theirs back.
Would you be more likely to fill out a survey for a chance at a prize? Just taking a count. No prize for answering.
Renee I know a really funny Rorschach joke. But after a lot of reflection I see there is no way I could write it for this page. If we Heartlanders ever gather for a party, remind me and I'll tell it.
The computer you're using is ...
c) borrowed. At work…..
Do you ever leave a comment on the Trial Balloon Blog?
b) Sometimes. …I wait until I have something clever to add so I rarely post…….
How many online personalities reside at your physical address?
a) I am always only myself.
Regarding your ethnic heritage, how would you identify yourself?
a) PC.
Being counted makes me feel ...
d) numeric.
Disregard any questions you don't like.
Do you typcially respond to surveys? No….
Here I am trying to think of something clever....no not today.
Donna where are you? Clever is your middle name.
Steve-great. I won't forget.
Good Morning to You Survey Recipients,
The answer is aaaaaaaa, always a. That makes taking surveys easy, and I don't think Dale minds. It is the process that matters, not the answers, right? No?
I supose it is fairly clear I am not too fond of surveys, but I did turtn in my census form. We need to do our patriotic duty don't we?
I don't answer surverys, they too often produce political statistics.
This is my first comment in months, you could think I'm living high on the hog, but it's untrue, just sleeping late though often listening. Love the repeat of show 11:00-1:00, Dale, your programming is the frosting on my daily cake!
I'll get back to the "survey" in a moment, but first, another red-wing blackbird song: Greg Brown does a lovely song about his grandmother, called "Ella Mae" , on his disc called "One Night". Do you have it? It's wonderful. Talks about the return of the red-wing blackbirds.
i agree, Kim! where else, after a comment from a listener, will the next three songs (at least) address the topic (of say, red-winged blackbird)?? really, really, really cool.
Cynthia - didn't hear BB yet, but think i heard American Tree Sparrows in the meadow yesterday - didn't see. also, a large raptor across the pond (again, didn't see enough - no white rump, so not Northern Harrier) this is an exciting time of year. no bluebirds yet, Steve, but coming soon!
no sightings in the kid pens yet. a week early is too early.
The computer you're using is ...
e) Temperamental at best
Do you ever leave a comment on the Trial Balloon Blog?
q) This is a blog? I thought it was an online help desk for Mall of America. (And what is Mr./Ms./Mrs. Balloon on trial for anyway?)
How many online personalities reside at your physical address?
v) There are many, many voices inside my head that spill out onto the screen
Regarding your ethnic heritage, how would you identify yourself?
k) Univac with hooks that flail wildly while I shout, "Danger! Danger!"
Being counted makes me feel ...
w) Pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, and numbered.
Do you typcially respond to surveys?
I can't answer this without multiple choice options.
A big part of my job is designing and interpreting surveys, so I usually feel under an obligation to answer them. Plus, I like to see how other people write questions. Writing surveys is one of those things that everyone thinks they can do, but is pretty hard to do well. (And I need everyone to believe this in order to justify continued employment.) The hard part is figuring out how someone might understand a question differently than the way you intended them to, and then trying to write the question in a way that will minimize that possibility. Second hardest part is coming up with the correct set of responses for multiple choice questions.
But the ones I won't answer are what we call SUGing (sales under the guise of a survey) or FRUGing (fund raising under the guise of a survey). Legitimate surveys serve a legitimate purpose, and these guys are ruining it for those of us doing legitimate work. Worst of all, of course, are the push polls, which are more attempts to sway your opinion than attempts to learn about it.
And so: e (owned by my employer), b (but usually after no one else is reading), d, a, a
ababe
e=none of the above.
Mostly I don't respond to surveys, but hey it I did my census form last night. I thought they were going to ask lots of probing questions, like my favorite ice cream flavor in 9th grade. We were expecting something as complicated as doing our taxes. It only took five minutes, and most of that was looking for a pen!
I thought it was odd that they asked for my age and the date of my birth. Are they checking to see if I can do math? Or if I am deluding myself about my age? :-)
DanT
ababe
e=none of the above.
Mostly I don't respond to surveys, but hey it I did my census form last night. I thought they were going to ask lots of probing questions, like my favorite ice cream flavor in 9th grade. We were expecting something as complicated as doing our taxes. It only took five minutes, and most of that was looking for a pen!
I thought it was odd that they asked for my age and the date of my birth. Are they checking to see if I can do math? Or if I am deluding myself about my age? :-)
DanT
dan, i like that your answers form the phrase "a babe"!
i use my own Mac, which allows me to comment erratically on the blog, most often as myself, which is complicated enough for me. Being counted reminds me i am just one of billions on this earth---far too many billions, if you asked the earth, i'm sure....ZPG, anyone?
ah, spring is coming--i can tell by the commenters' exuberance!
can't wait for the goat updates, barb!!!
Kay -- I'm glad you're on. I finished your book over the weekend. WOW! Now I'm trying to find places to leave it casually laying around hoping it will attract my teenager. Keep your fingers crossed!
a) owned by me.
a) Always, usually - unless I honestly can't thing of a thing to say or am out of town.
b) I sometimes use a pseudonym, and
c) multiple random individuals occupy this space -- I argue with one of my other selves when journaling...
a) PC, pining for a MAC
a) proud.
I'm sporadic - always want to "give my 2 cents", but recently got impatient when doing a 'short' phone survey by Quest (after we'd left them) and was so snippy to the poor surveyor (that's not spelled right, is it?) that I ended up apologizing before hanging up.
Well, I posted something earlier, but I don't see it (disappeared?). I was trying to tell Dale about another red-wing blackbird song: Greg Brown/ Ella Mae, #16 on One Night CD. Love it---it's about his grandmother, and includes a reference to the red-wings coming back in the spring. (Dale, I think the red-wings touched a nerve.)
To the survey: ABBAD
As if it really matters. I'm usually the last one to comment on the blog, as my computer is in the basement, and I can't be dissuaded from hearing what I still call The Morning Show. Then after showering and various duties around the house, I generally don't get "on" until late morning. Sometimes I even post a comment on yesterday's topic, so I'm sure nobody reads them, except maybe Dale, who has caught several song requests that way (you're GOOD Dale!)
Have found out the hard way that surveys online promising rewards generally mean I'm giving away too much information and NOT getting a reward at all. So I've stopped that. I only answer this one because it's DALE, after all! And because I'm a loyal listener and (ahem, to some extent) follower.
Good morning all...or should I say good afternoon?
B/A (Home and work)
B
D
a/B (pc at work...LOVE my Macs... have two of them at home)
D
Surveys always remind me of the song 'Embassy Lament Anthem'' from the musical 'Chess' when the Civil Servants sing:
'....And when you've filled in all the forms
And been passed clear of all disease
Debriefed debugged dedrugged disarmed
And disinfected please don't forget the guys who cut your keys!'
OOOPS, sorry Dale. I see that my previous message actually DID post---how did I miss it?
Fun survey, by the way.
Ben - I had forgotten "Chess" -- that's a great musical and those words are so clever -- and very apt for these days. Now I'll have that song in my head ...
Figure I have to get on and be counted. Would hate to have this particular playground flooded over.
a&c, b, a, a&d, d. I sometimes answer surveys, as so often when I hear the results of surveys, I wonder who on earth they asked, because I don't know anyone with that opinion.
That was a lot of scrolling back and forth!
May well not get on tomorrow (my online time has been severely curtailed), so happy birthday tomorrow Barb! Hope the goats have something nice planned for you, or at least not alarming?
Any chance of birthday sharers among the expected kids? Doesn't sound like it, but you never know.
Clyde, I kind of like the idea of the Lonely Goathead-feeling rather goatheaded myself of late (no offense to goats, sometimes, goatheaded is what you need to be)-but it does often result in some isolation (often self-imposed for the protection of others!)
thanks, sherrillee, or should it be sshheerriillee (it's fun to type all the letters double) :-)
When I got to come back to the blog after a wearying three-hour conference call, you reminded me of this. So I dug it out and touched it up a little.
The National Flag of the Red-Winged Tribe
The red-wing patches, the bird folk say, are to attract a mate.
Flashing bright against the fragile green of the early cattails in the ditch beside my house.
But not my ditch the State told me, but theirs to do with as planners see fit.
Red-wing combatants care not for human paper—title, claim or writ.
Only for a space in which to build homes of flim, stick, and weave.
They drive off ravens, not by the weight of their few ounces of fluff;
Rather by heft of a fierce willingness to risk all for avian rule of swamp and reeds.
They attacked me too each time I passed on my innocent way,
To mailbox, or walk, or neighborly visit.
As for my bit of ditch and yard, I let it pass,
A battle I would only lose; so I chose not to fight as fiercely as the red-wings.
Any such bombast of mine would have won no human war.
My home was after all, only as a dream, more substantial than red-wings’.
It will take the yellow mechanized civil army to drive off the red-wings,
When they finally make their claim and come.
To allow ever more of my tribe (I would wish not my tribe)
To rush off fiercely to play.
And fiercely but wearily return to their homes of only seeming durability.
Ravens and red wings: a small comic eternal war between two black-feather tribes,
All black except for the waving national flag of the smaller fierce ones.
Their battles are mirrored in large in a war between citizen and state.
And larger still in wars of tribe against tribe, ism opposite ism, faith surer than faith, and nation bolder than nation.
“Genetic imperative,” we name it in the red-wings.
What imperative is encoded in our souls
To stake claims of land, belief, right, or right to rule?
We are all the red-wing or the raven or the machine, or maybe all.
nice one, Clyde. thanks
nice commentary clyde,
is the ditch gone?
No; still there. It all started 33 years ago. Long long story. A lack of clarity actually over what kind of lot I and many others owned/own along Hwy 61 on the North Shore. In the end we sold it for much less than it should have been worth I suppose. Worth a lot to be free of it all. It is still there, for sale for about 3 years now, in part I am told over their inflated price and the lingering legal entanglement and the mess they made of the house. The state has never done anything about the very dangerous highway right in front of that lot. So the ditch is still there and so are the red-wings and the ravens. The state claims the land right up the door step as an "outlot," which was never defined clearly when they took land for the highway along the shore. One state lawyer argued that the land did belong to the homeowners on the basis of several precedents. It will all be settled one day, eventually. In all likelihood the state will have to purchase that whole lot and make a radical move of the highway along that stretch. A fun part of it is that the old highway right of way still exists at the back of the lot, belongs to either the county or the township, no one knows or much cares, but they may one day. A MNDot surveyor once told me it would be possible to argue that between the two right of ways that the lot did not actually exist, but he was mostly joking. The state people were all fine to work with; just doing their job. I also owned the lot across the hwy along the lake. But between the highway easement and the crumbling cliff (32 feet above the lake), it no longer existed. The yearly taxes were the fee it took for the county to send me a bill, $1.68 the last year I owned it. Not many people can say they owned air.
a
b
a
a
d
My census form has been sent in. I respond to a few surveys depending on the subject.Though I seldom comment on TB, I enjoy it every day. I usually don't see it until late in the day by then most of the comments are written and I get the days interactions all at once . I would miss it as much as I miss "The Morning Show", if it went away.
Happy BIrthday, Barb!
Well, today we are hearing from all of the barbs and catherine. How nice. And lost of newer names. Nice indeed.
A D A A D
I HAVE NEVER BLOGGED BEFORE. DOES THIS COUNT?
I RESPOND TO SURVEYS WHEN THERE'S AN INCENTIVE - LIKE A POSSIBLE FREE WHOPPER, TACO OR CONCERT TICKET.
I DEEPLY MISS THE MORNING SHOW WITH DALE CONNELLY ON MY LONG DRIVE IN TO WORK.
THANK GOODNESS FOR RADIO HEARTLAND AND THE DALE CONNELLY SHOW. IT LIFTS MY SPIRITS TO LISTEN AS I WORK ON THE COMPUTER.
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