First flame

Anonymous left a comment in the previous post that deserves a response. He or she has focused on an element of my blog, namely my suggestion that readers PayPal contributions to "the cause". I agree that Anonymous is correct on this point; hardly anybody is going to do it. My chances of success would probably be only slightly higher even if, hypothetically, the blog existed to publicize the costs associated with sweet Daughter's battle against life-threatening leukemia (no, don't panic, sweet Daughter doesn't have leukemia, only guppies). That's how things go.

I set up this blog as my post in the Google Earth forum leaked into the blogosphere and then into mainstream media. It is, as a reminder, my running commentary on the news about the post. Along with sparse, clumpy bits of very dry humor. A secondary reason for the blog (my first) is to see what running a blog is all about (i.e. practice). And another function (though not necessarily the third on the list); to satisfy Wife's requirement that the massive time I spend in Google Earth is productive somehow. Hence the donation request. I guess the dry humor of the blog has been so absolutely dry that it can appear that the donation request is the primary goal. Maybe I'll try to ease up a bit on that, and in the future preface it with "WTF OMG IF UR DRUNK S3ND M3 $$FRANKLINZ$$ ROTFLOL". Perhaps the few people who have chosen to make a wife-placating donation were, indeed, drunk. Or saw themselves in a similar situation. Or both.

And though Anonymous doesn't state it directly, I will point out that I was certainly not the first person to run across that landscape replica. With millions of people (I believe) using GE, I'm sure at least hundreds of people noticed it before I did. After weeks of running across strange things in China I was finally motivated enough to post it in the forum and ask for opinions.

So, all in all, I agree with Anonymous on pretty much everything he says, though from a different viewpoint. But apparently he is a fellow GE user and where he has reduced me to tears is suggestion that I am not, in fact, an OK guy who likes GE as much as the rest of you / us. I love GE. Read my very first post; GE is simply an extension of my life-long interest in the physical and human geography of our planet. It's always nice to run into people in the real world

So, Anonymous, I think we can be friends. Please don't take this blog too seriously.