Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter's Fourth Birthday

 

Last year I was too exhausted to celebrate my blog's third birthday. So I am writing this ahead of the date this year to ensure I remember to mark its fourth birthday!

 

[Image description: cakes! %P]

I can scarcely believe that there have been nearly 412,000 viewings. My greatest success numerically (with 145,468) by far is my blog-post from June 2012 Alan Turing: a Queer Hero, which I suspect was boosted by the release in 2015 of a biopic on the said computer scientist & mathematician.

The second most viewed item is the same as two years ago, from October 2013, Bloom Brasserie @ Bloom Live, which has reached nearly 83,084 hits. A shame that the venue closed some "two months later - hopefully not due to my review!" 

And still in third place is my second report on my favourite male musician, from June 2013, Matt Alber in Birmingham (not Alabama!), which has been visited on some 74,708 occasions.

Whilst large numbers do not read all my postings, I am just as happy when handfuls of folk read my poems. Especially pleasurable is when some reader picks one from early on in the blog's history, as this says to me that the person has actually looked out the poem for some reason.

 

[Image description: map of top-ten countries; list of top-ten countries with number of page views.

The screen-shot was taken on 24th April, two days prior to the fourth anniversary]

Two years ago my blog was mainly visited by UK and US readers, then France, Germany and Sweden. At that time these five countries constituted two-thirds of my readership. Now the US represents more than half of all my viewings. Then the UK followed very closely by France. Germany is still in fourth position. But Russia has leapt up the chart to fifth position, with Sweden still making the top-ten at number nine. 

The index of terms that appears at the bottom of every blog-page has increased to 189 words that appear four or more times.

The top-fifteen terms are listed in the chart above.

#1     disabled with 67 references

#2     review with 41

#3     disability with 35

#4     blog with 30

#5     Manchester & poetry each with 27

#7     wheelchair with 25

#8     DWP with 24

#9     WoWPetition with 23

#10   Facebook, service & Spain each with 22

#13   Benalmádena, queer & UK each with 20

The above chart lists the rest of the double-digit entries, a further twenty terms. There are now a total of thirty-five terms with ten or more references, as opposed to seventeen back in 2014. All the words listed in 2014 are still contained in the two charts above. Thus, my prediction back then, that the same issues would continue to be of interest to me, was pretty much spot-on.

Dozens of new terms have been added to the four-plus club. The most notable (with five or more) are listed in the above chart. The new entry with the highest references is Newcastle-upon-Tyne. I took a holiday there, so had lots to relate. Other than that the terms cover travel, health, food, politics and disability issues. I suppose that fairly sums up my life!

Blogging Against Disablism Day 2016 (#BADD2016) is on 1st May. I am hoping to host a gallery of artworks that may speak to folk with disabilities as well as a blog-post on "Art for All". Additionally May is International M.E. Awareness month, so I am hoping I shall be well enough to add something to that. Additionally, I have my fingers crossed that I can write up about more of the things I did on my recent trip to Berlin, supported and cared for by two wonderful assistants (thank you both). Perhaps the reader might be enticed to return for one of more of these.

As ever: many thanks to my seven stalwart followers (feel free to join them if you care to do so) and of course the many, many readers across the globe (except Antarctica - still!). xxx

  

Best Month EVER for Viewings!

It is quite astonishing to me that December was by far and away the best ever month for visits to this blog. There were 35,185 separate viewings. I suspect the release of the film, The Imitation Game, based on Alan Turing's life has led to many more individuals looking him up on the internet and thence being guided to my blog-post on him, which resulted in said post now having exceeded 100K views (see article from December 2014).

[image description: graph of all views to cripplequeeranglo-europeanranter.blogspot.co.uk]

I do not take my readers for granted and I genuinely do appreciate those who visit my pages, read them and especially those who take the time to give feed-back and/or follow the blog. As ever, thank you so much for reading.

And wishing us all: a happy, healthy and wealthy 2015;

happy new year, folks!

%D

*

Alan Turing Blog-Post Passes 100,000 Views!

[Image description: statue of Alan Turing draped in rainbow flag and bedecked with cards, flowers and candles]

It is quite incredible more than one hundred thousand (100,000) folk have read my article on my queer hero, Alan Turing. It is my top post by far.

To all my readers: many, many thanks.

Much appreciated.

%)))

Crippled, Queer, Anglo-European Ranter's Second Birthday

[Image description: fairy cake with two candles;

courtesy & © Eric Lacavalerie]

Another year has passed and my blog is still going and even appears to be flourishing now thanks mainly to my June 2012 article on the computer pioneer & mathematician, Alan Turing: a Queer Hero. This post alone has garnered nearly thirty thousand views.

The second most viewed item is from October 2013, Bloom Brasserie @ Bloom Live, which has reached nearly eleven thousand hits. The venue unfortunately closed two months later - hopefully not due to my review!

In third place is my second report, from June 2013, on a favourite musician of mine, Matt Alber in Birmingham (not Alabama!), which has been visited on some seven-and-a-half thousand occasions.

[Image description: map and chart indicating the top ten countries by views]

Unsurprisingly perhaps, my blog is most visited by UK residents - approximately 30,000. Then the USA with circa 20,000. And the tertiary spot is taken by France with about 10,000. These three countries plus Germany & Sweden make up two-thirds of my visitors. Other countries in my top ten are Spain, Indonesia, Netherlands, Russia and Poland. I attract regular visits now from Canada, Oceania, India and China and a continuing increase in hits from South America and (oddly?) the Middle East. The latter area mainly views my article on Penis Problems: Crooked Cocks, Curved Cocks, which from all countries has had viewings totalling some 2,700. Rather suggests that there is a lack of good sexual education perhaps?

My labels list is growing. It now takes up about a quarter of any open page of the blog. Due to the eclectic subject matter of my postings, there are many words that appear only once or twice. However, there is now a hierarchy of labels which have attained double figures of references:

1.  Disabled 44
2.  Disability 24
3.  Review 20
4.  WoWPetition 19
5.  DWP 17
     Manchester 17
7.  Blog 16
     Wheelchair 16
9.  Queer 15
10.  Poetry 14
     Spain 14
12. Facebook 13
     Gay 13
     UK 13
15. Twitter 12
16. Benalmádena 11
     ConDem 11

Looking at the list, it is likely that all will continue to feature in my writing over the next twelve months at least; but it appears that my disability and issues around being disabled are way out in the lead, followed by food, travel, writing, gender issues, social media and politics. Well, I suppose that means my writing fits with the name with which I christened by blog.

In the pipeline, is my Blogging Against Disablism Day 2014 (#badd2014) submission for 1st May, which is entitled "Product Packaging Problems (and solutions?)". Additionally, I still have several eateries to write up and a travelogue of my mini cruise from Santander to Plymouth. WoWPetition is transmogrifying into WoWCampaign, so no doubt I shall be apprising you of developments there.

For those of you with an interest in "Artworks, Books & Erotica", who ADDITIONALLY are not offended by nakedness / nudity / pornography / sexual imagery, I have just started a tumblr blog called criquaer: uncensored. It is my intention to publish any really risqué tales on tumblr. Please feel free to take a look if this piques your curiosity - however, you must be aged over 18 in the UK and whatever legal age is required if living elsewhere. You can find other images by Eric there too, or, if you prefer, the censored versions on the more prudish facebook. Either way, you'll probably adore or swoon over Ludo!

Oh, and by the by, I am still awaiting my first visit from Antarctica… %D

Alan Turing: a Queer Hero

[Image description: statue of Alan Turing draped in rainbow flag and bedecked with cards, flowers and candles next to which is the writer in his wheelchair.]

Last weekend was the 100th birthday of Alan Turing (see Wikipedia for a good, full, in-depth article). Perhaps many will never have heard of him. However, if it had not been for him, we Brits might now have been under the rule of a NAZI régime and you the reader and I might not have been reading this blog on a computer right now.

[Image description: mosaic of rainbow flag situated on the ground in front of Alan Turing statue]

If the reader has not heard of this great man, it may be due to the fact that he was a homosexual and he was hounded by the state he served and helped save, the fascistic Britain of the 1950's. Some would argue that the witch-hunt initiated in the UK was at the behest of the USA. We none of us come out well in this sorry tale.

Who knows what insights we might have gained had he not died of cyanide poisoning. This is generally believed to have been an act of suicide; but the BBC recently released an article (Gay codebreaker's defiance keeps memory alive) that suggests it could have been suicide or an accident or even murder. His untimely demise was so badly mishandled and investigated that we shall probably never know why he died nor the background to his death.

As a resident of Manchester for much of my life, I consider myself an honorary Mancunian and as such take pride in our recognition of this great fellow:

"Turing has been honoured in various ways in Manchester, the city where he worked towards the end of his life. In 1994, a stretch of the A6010 road (the Manchester city intermediate ring road) was named "Alan Turing Way". A bridge carrying this road was widened, and carries the name Alan Turing Bridge. A statue of Turing was unveiled in Manchester on 23 June 2001 in Sackville Park, between the University of Manchester building on Whitworth Street and the Canal Street gay village." (Wikipedia, op. cit.)

[Image description: commemoration plaque which reads:

Alan Mathison Turing

1912-1954

Father of Computer Science

Mathematician, Logician

Wartime Codebreaker

Victim of Prejudice

______

"Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth

but supreme beauty, a beauty cold and austere

like that of sculpture." - Bertrand Russell ]

It also pleases me that city councillors, such as Kevin Peel, and local MP's, such as John Leech, paid tribute to him, both in their Twitter feeds and by attending a commemoration ceremony. However, the fact that ordinary citizens did so, is a mark of the esteem in which Mancunians hold Turing.

[Image description: Mancunians paying their respects at the Alan Turing statue.]

I actually went on the anniversary of his birth to pay my respects. I was hoping to see the Olympic flame arrive for reasons I shall explain below. Unfortunately, the torch-bearing was delayed, and I was too ill to remain. Nonetheless, the torch did indeed detour through Sackville Park, the location of the Turing statue, and made obeisance to Alan Turing (see photo below). This included war-veteran Capt. Martin Hewitt kissing the statue. What better than a military man seeking forgiveness for the way one of theirs was treated and simultaneously paying respect to our long-fallen hero.

©LOCOG/Getty Images

Above all, the most important symbolism for me, is that of the NAZI creation of the Olympic torch relay (Olympic Flame) having to pay respect to the man who helped bring them down. Exquisite!

Perhaps the fate of Alan Turing is a modern morality tale. In our rush to condemn and destroy, we may actually be harming ourselves and our futures. (See also my article on Genetic Discrimination.)

[Image description: the decorated statue of Alan Turing sitting on a bench holding his nightly apple.]