Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Man, I really hate Snap Preview. I wish everyone would just turn that particular feature right off.

Tags: asides

Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

Strange - over the past two or three days, my site statistics have spiked. Already today I've received 319 unique hits, nearly all from unknown referrers - and I'm really not sure why. The vast majority of these hits seem to be directed at my Book Love entry from a few days ago. Again I've no clue as to why. Initially, I was thinking spambots, but the almost single-minded focus on this one entry would seem to preclude that idea (spambots generally run the gamut of archived entries). So, the only other thing I can think of is that someone submitted that entry to a social bookmarking site - yet I don't see that site listed as a referrer, which naturally causes doubt.

So, anyone know if that entry got submitted somewhere? Or can anyone offer up a better explanation for the sudden spike in traffic to my site?

Tags: technology

Originally published at Writer's Blog. Please leave any comments there.

The human eye makes millions of individual observations a day. The vast majority of these are ignored by the conscious brain, but far more of these observations than we realize are recorded into long-term memory. The thing of it is, we don't usually realize it. It's not quite photographic memory - most of us simply can't recall all these details on demand. But they reside in our minds, nevertheless, allowing us to notice, for instance, when something in a familiar landscape has changed, even if we can't quite put our finger on what. This is the mind drawing on the stored details relevant to this setting and context and providing us with a comparison that our conscious minds must then endeavor to sort through to determine the differences in our environment. Sometimes, this process can mean life or death.

In my case this morning, it was nothing half so dramatic or critical. It was more a subtle niggling that something about my walk across campus on my way to my office was different.¹ What took me so long was that the change was truly slight - it was the observation that all of the trees now have little buds growing on them, a further sign that spring's arrival is imminent. It was a delightful observation to make, even if it did take a while for my brain to catch up with my mind.²

1. The lack of students - all of which are on Spring Break this week - was not what my mind was trying to draw my attention to. [↩]
2. And if that doesn't make your head hurt, nothing will. [↩]

Tags: commentary