Welcome, new readers

Just wanted to offer a bit of thanks and a welcome to the new readers, and a “welcome back” to the old-timers. FYI, the site had 550,000 page views last month, and I was pretty blown away. But I just checked Site Meter and it appears that in the past 36 hours alone we’ve had 70,000 page views. As you know, I’m mathlexic. So I’m not sure what that would work out to if the traffic stayed like that for a whole month. But it’s a lot, I think. Which is, let’s face it, pretty weird. Who are these friggin people? And don’t they have anything better to do?

So here’s the thing. I want to make this more than just a blog. I want to make it a community. Or, dare I say it? A platform. Just as we’ve created a fantastic apps ecosystem around iPhone, we want to build a fantabulous Jobso-centric ecosystem around this site. Which means I really, really want to encourage you to participate. Write stuff. Make a movie for the mail-order brides. Be a citizen journalist. File reports from nerd events. Can you do a really good impersonation of Katie Cotton? Do you have a TV show you want to launch? A comic strip? Let Papa Steve be your platform provider. Our audience may not be huge, but who gives a shit? Consider this: Since the debut of Mosspuppet here on FSJ, our pal the puppetmaster at Hoggworks Studios has landed himself two media offers.

Also: if you are an animator, or if you know an animator, could you get in touch with me? I’ll explain over email.

I’ll be blogging sporadically this week, and taking next week off to spend seven days in total silence, fasting and meditating and drinking cleansing smoothies in preparation for the iTablet keynote. During that time I will be pondering some deep issues, including the ways in which the FSJ site could be redesigned to be more of a showcase for the creativity of the community. If you have ideas, please send them in.

And Putin? When you get done playing Brokeback Cossack, could you please friggin send me an email? Also, can I just point out that when guys like you start working really hard to show how tough and macho they are, we all know what it means? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But anyway. Put on some clothes and get back to ruining the lives of your people. Okay? You daft old queen.