Intimate connections

I know Valentine's Day is at hand but I still was a bit shocked to see a certain valentine sent my way from Hustler Club M.D. I was innocently searching the Internet for links to my ten-week-old wineblog when I caught a mention of me on a site that, shall we say, is of a much more personal nature than most blogs. This "Hustler" site was accredited with an M.D.; I claim this turf here using the term "Doktor". That's where the similarities end. Nice linking action though. Thanks for that extra exposure Hustler Club!

The randomness of the Internet is well-known yet it never ceases to amaze me. On another occasion during the SAQ scandal, I was searching for comments from local wineshoppers. It was interesting to see what people were saying, but by far the most scintillating words were from an angry customer from the South Shore of Montreal. She had had enough with SAQ, especially during the recent strike, when the vodka she wanted was hard to get a hold of. I liked the way she expressed her exasperation and I clicked on her MySpace page to find out more about her. Then I realized I was more familiar with this voice that I had thought. Right at the top of my screen was a grinning photo; it was my boss's teen-age daughter. It wasn't long until we all got together over drinks and laughed it off. "That's like going to Europe and meeting your next-door neighbour!" shouted my boss, in awe of a new sensation known as the "stumble upon", and under the spell of her third vodka gimlet.

The reach that publishing yourself on the web can give you is quite boundless. These two examples outline a mere hint of the crazy ways online information can travel.

But having a blog, especially a wineblog like this one, is wonderful for several other reasons as well. Your reviews and notes become instantly searchable, not only for your own benefit, but for virtually everyone who cares to look. On top of that, I've recently stated a case for maintaining an online database for your wine cellar. Basically, it presents the same benefits: in sorting out your cellar through the use of the Internet, you not only get instant access to your holdings from anywhere, but you also offer others that same privilege. And it is nice to see this kind of exchange of information actually reflected in the statistics provided by my web hits counter.

I heart my Site Meter. I think I love it so much simply because it shows me the usefulness of maintaining a wineblog. With Valentine's Day around the corner, this seems to be more clear than ever, especially when viewing the list of URLs that are referring visitors to my site (viewable when you click the above link). The way I see it, wine is an intimate beverage, filled with connotations of romance and passion. Accordingly, consumption of it goes up on February the 14th, as do the chocolate and the roses. So leading up to this annual observance, visitors to Doktor Weingolb are being linked here as the result of search engine queries more than ever before. These are queries that, no doubt, are in preparation of celebrating in style via the selection of a well-chosen (and thoroughly Internet-researched) bottle. Bonne St-Valetin à tout le monde.

Backwash
It takes a lot to throw Doktor Weingolb from its regular schedule of publication. In December, that schedule was daily posting; for 2006, it's been weekday postings, save for a bit of a holiday at the beginning of January. But lately system outages have been running rampant and I couldn't even publish to Blogger.com last Friday. This morning wasn't much easier. I don't heart Blogger.com much. And I guess it doesn't like me back either. Its connection to my modem flickers off and on like a third-grade crush in full bloom. Each ticking second is a love-me, love-me-not daisy petal dropping to the ground. In a classroom full of kids, Blogger.com is about to be singled out as the poor kid who gets no valentines delivered to his desk on Tuesday.