My blog has entered it's fifth year. It and it's companion blog Mariko Magic: Fashion in Second Life are collectively approaching 100,000 total page views since counting began in May 2010. Its endurance to me is wondrous, and I thank you dear readers for inspiring me to write this journal of my sojourn in Second Life. On the last anniversary of my blog, I pondered on the Google searches that brought many people to this blog and posted a selection of keywords, amusing and what not, used in those searches. Many Googlers also come to the blog when searching for images. Now, I don't consider myself a Second Life photographer of any note or talent. I'm certainly no Strawberry Singh. But I'm thrilled when one of my pictures has attracted someone's attention and has brought them to my blog. So this anniversary, I want to post some of the more frequently selected pictures from those image searches. Let's start with the picture of my favorite virtual kimono. Google searches for Chinese brush painting bring searchers to the pictures of my new avatar wearing my favorite kimono in the post Chinese Brush Painting/ A New Mariko.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing.
My most popular posting ever is my tour of the Sistine Chapel in the post Second Life Treasures: Sistine Chapel. Just about all the pictures in that post show up in Google searches. In this picture, we're looking straight up at the famous ceiling frescoes by the magnificent and indomitable Michelangelo.
Ancient Nubia was the first great black African kingdom, a civilization as old
as Egypt, its neighbor to the north. Image searches for ancient Nubia brought Googlers to these pictures from Out of Africa. I really like my deep Hawaiian tan.
Have you ever seen a circus clown with such beguiling eyes?
That's Lulubelle in I'm off to join the circus.
Exploring the walled city of Kowloon in City of Darkness.
I find it surprising that so many people are searching for images of donkeys.
This one is from the 2010 post Photo Mariko for August.
Posted in Deadly Sexy. That says it all.
She's even Deadlier and Sexier in Anna's Many Murders - The Babysitter.
Googler's searching for alien landscapes select this one from Walking with Windlight.
Another alien landscape - that of the planet Pandora from the movie Avatar.
This picture is from Avatar Inspired Fashion at Boudoir.
This picture of lovely Moni Markova from Some People and Places
is a favorite among Google searchers.
As is this picture of Samantha Kazakov posted in
Mowgli and Jungle Mariko Prowling the Tall Grass At Opar
Popular pic from a 2009 Cheesecake Mariko post fittingly titled Call of the Wild.
Popular pic from a 2009 Cheesecake Mariko post fittingly titled Call of the Wild.
This Autumn Nymph certainly called to the wild in some Googlers.
Googlers searching for Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus
stopped to look at this picture from Autumn Nymph.
And Googlers searching for images of Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven
come to this picture of Whom the Angles Name Lenore.
This picture of Bacchus Ireto in Its a Grand Night for Singing must also be calling to the wild in some Googlers. What else can explain its popularity?
Don't Panic. The secret to surviving a zombie attack
is
staying cool and looking fabulous.
Zombie Hunter.
Searching for a picture of Gulliver and the Lilliputians?
Googlers found it at Random Clicks and Notes.
Popular Cheesecake Mariko picture entitled Baby, The Rain Must Fall.
The less said, the better.
Sinister evil inspired fashion posted in Alecto - A Touch of Evil.
Cute! Cute! Cute!
Cute hat from Tra la it's May.
Googlers searching for pictures of offshore oil rigs are smitten
by this oil rig babe in Drill Baby Drill.
A winter scene designed by my friend Kaja Ashland posted in Second Life Winter Memories.
The world ending in ice from Fire and Ice.
And speaking of cold winter weather, two of the most frequently selected pictures are these wintery pictures from Russian Snow Princess, Encore.
As
always, I am grateful for your readership, and I want to personally
thank you for dropping by. As I begin my fifth year of Second Life
blogging, I hope that I can entertain you and hold your interest over
the next year. So please drop by again.
Your's Always, Mariko Nightfire
“The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.” –John Adams, 1818
Peggy Noonan calls George Will's lecture at Washington University in Saint Louis the most important speech of the young 21st century. A political commentator and atheist, George Will delivers a brilliant analysis of religion in American politics in the context of what he calls Madison and Wilson. James Madison, our fourth president and father of our constitution, embodies the values of the nation's founding that define our national experiment in individual liberty. These founding values derive from the concept of natural rights that the founders believed to be self-evident and inalienable. Woodrow Wilson, our twenty-eighth president, embodies the modern Progressive Movement which rejects the concept of natural rights as an outdated artifact of its time and promotes a concept of rights that are not endowed by nature (and nature's god) but conceived by society and codified in law; rights that are alienable and inherently changing as human nature progresses and the enabling instrument of government perfected. Madison versus Wilson is the debate of our time. It's liberty versus paternalism. It's limited government versus the expansionist regulatory state. It's a constitution of enumerated powers versus a 'living' constitution. It's the right to the fruits of one's labor and risk taking versus wealth redistribution. It's those who want to fundamentally change our nation and close the book on the American Revolution and those who wish to write more chapters in that book. These differences are irreconcilable and the reason for our political acrimony and gridlock. To understand politics in America today, one must understand Madison and Wilson. So regardless of where you stand on Madison versus Wilson, be informed and savor this lecture by George Will.
Peggy Noonan calls George Will's lecture at Washington University in Saint Louis the most important speech of the young 21st century. A political commentator and atheist, George Will delivers a brilliant analysis of religion in American politics in the context of what he calls Madison and Wilson. James Madison, our fourth president and father of our constitution, embodies the values of the nation's founding that define our national experiment in individual liberty. These founding values derive from the concept of natural rights that the founders believed to be self-evident and inalienable. Woodrow Wilson, our twenty-eighth president, embodies the modern Progressive Movement which rejects the concept of natural rights as an outdated artifact of its time and promotes a concept of rights that are not endowed by nature (and nature's god) but conceived by society and codified in law; rights that are alienable and inherently changing as human nature progresses and the enabling instrument of government perfected. Madison versus Wilson is the debate of our time. It's liberty versus paternalism. It's limited government versus the expansionist regulatory state. It's a constitution of enumerated powers versus a 'living' constitution. It's the right to the fruits of one's labor and risk taking versus wealth redistribution. It's those who want to fundamentally change our nation and close the book on the American Revolution and those who wish to write more chapters in that book. These differences are irreconcilable and the reason for our political acrimony and gridlock. To understand politics in America today, one must understand Madison and Wilson. So regardless of where you stand on Madison versus Wilson, be informed and savor this lecture by George Will.
