list posts – St. Eutychus

My top five posts about ninjas

You probably didn’t see these first time around. But ninjas are sneaky – so that’s understandable.

Shirt of the Day: Ninja Code

For people who know CSS and like ninjas… Buy it here.

My first thought when reading about this new, controversial “Burquini” the Islamic bikini invented by an Australian and banned in France (two things that make something more likely to be awesome) was that it looks pretty much like a ninja suit.

Am I right? Yeah. Which got me thinking further – firstly, I didn’t know what a ninja suit was actually called – which was a bit of a gap in my ninja arsenal. For the record it’s a shinobi shozoko. But it’s always dangerous to put a ninja in a box.

Ninjafy your car

After you’ve got things in the kitchen to a dangerously ninjafied status it’s time to turn your car into a lean, mean, killing machine (figuratively not literally).

Pirates v Ninjas: Black and white issue

First there was ninja v ninja checkers – and now a chance to settle the age old question – pirates v ninjas.

January 6, 2010

January Listmania

Everybody loves lists. Especially at the end of the year and the end of the decade. I haven’t written any yet. I’m putting together my hottest 100 Townsville experiences in time for Australia Day – because everybody knows that’s the day for hottest 100s.

In the meantime today will be a bunch of lists. And because I’m lazy it will be lists of stuff I’ve featured before. That you may have missed.

January 6, 2010

Five reasons to write lists

Traffic. If there’s one thing I learned from the last week it’s that lists work. Every “how to write a better blog” post I read suggests writing lists.
They’re easy – lists are the easiest of posts to write. You start with a half baked idea and build.
They’re easy to read – the structure is nice, points are enumerated, discussion is easier.
They’re finite – the reader knows what they’re getting. You know where to stop.
They’re controversial – lists start discussions. That’s why magazines have had “top 100” features forever. People have different ideas about what shouldn’t be on the list – or thoughts as to why your list is wrong.

There’s a great article here about why “lists of n things” are such popular fodder. You should read it.

Some quotes…

Structurally, the list of n things is a degenerate case of essay. An essay can go anywhere the writer wants. In a list of n things the writer agrees to constrain himself to a collection of points of roughly equal importance, and he tells the reader explicitly what they are.

It’s fine to put “The” before the number [in the title] if you really believe you’ve made an exhaustive list. But evidence suggests most things with titles like this are linkbait.

Lists are in. They are great Internet fodder. If you want to get discussion happening about something – write a list.

October 4, 2009