Poll positions

Well, I think the first CoIM poll has about run its course. Final count:

• General Ramblings 13 Votes
• Personal Ramblings 12 Votes
• Neurotic Ramblings 12 Votes
• Movie reviews 11 Votes
• TV reviews 10 Votes
• Jokes at Flunky's expense 8 Votes
• Book reviews 8 Votes
• Short Stories 7 Votes
• Comic reviews 3 Votes

Looks like everything's fairly close, with the "Ramblings" family being the clear winners. "Jokes at Flunky's Expense" took an early lead, but lost momentum as time wore on and the jokes wore thin. Conversely, "Short Stories" was tied with "Comic Reviews" for the longest time, before taking an upswing at the end. Ah, poor "Comic Reviews": the red-headed step-child of CoIM. Still, 3 votes is 2 more than I expected, so continue they shall. But, in the interest of keeping my daily hits up, I will commit to always doing at least one other blog post on Fridays for those poor, deprived blog monkeys who have not learned to appreciate the true joy of comics.

Now, some of you may have noticed that I talk about G'ovich, St. Flunky, and the other Parkerites a lot more than the other groups. It's one of the reasons I decided to do my Secret Origin series, to give a bit more balance to the blog coverage. But there's a pretty good reason for why they come up more often than others: they actually give me feedback. Notice how I mention Fellow Book Monkey and Blogger Bubblegum Tate more than the other Book Monkeys? It's not just because I enjoy typing out the phrase "Fellow Book Monkey and Blogger Bubblegum Tate"; it's also because he's the only Book Monkey to consistently comment on the blog.

A big part of this is my desperate need for attention and validation: I want to keep my regular readers engaged in the blog, and since I suspect they also have a need for attention and validation, mentioning them constantly probably helps. Unless, y'know, I'm calling them evil and stuff, in which case it's not so much seeking validation as keeping a tally of all the reasons they're going to kick my butt the next time they see me. Another part of it is that, the more I talk to them, the more they're on my mind, so the more they come up in my ramblings. Simple as that. Of course, now that they know this, I suddenly have a premonition of absolute silence from all corners of the blogosphere . . .

Now, during these times of feedback, suggestions and complaints have been made. Some feel that they have been maligned, others feel that nickname and role selection have been misguided, while still others have ideas for topics that I should talk about. Well, never let it be said that we here at CoIM (and that's either the "royal we" or the "all-the-voices-in-my-head we", take your pick) ignore our loyal blog monkeys. But rather than just trying to incorporate all of these various ideas, we've decided to give these vocal blog monkeys a chance to state their cases for themselves.

If you'll notice off to the side, there's a new poll in place. This time, we want you to let us know which of the Friends of CoIM you would most like to give a chance to air their thoughts for all to see. After a week or so I'll cut off voting. The winner of the poll will get a chance for one, mostly uncensored (no potty words, people!) blog post on the topic of their choosing. If the person so honored declines, then I shall mock them publicly and move to the next highest winner, and so on, and so forth.

Want to hear Zinger Stoneheart's ideas on what his wife's nickname and role should really be? Want to see what mindbending mischief an unfettered Dr. G'ovich will unleash? Want to give St. Flunky a chance to refute any statements I've made while simultaneously trying to insert subliminal messages into his post to prepare for his eventual world conquering attempts? Think this is a horribly stupid idea and want to hear nothing from anyone but me? Then as the MTV is so fond of saying "Rock the vote! Choose or lose! We play music videos, honest!"