A-Sidebar

If you look over on First Mover's sidebar, you'll see a breakdown of all the countries we've had visitors from, giving the number of readers from that locale as well as the nation's flag. It's a rather neat tool. I'm a big fan of flags. This site graded each country's flag on aesthetic merit, with several criteria being used to raise or dock (mostly dock) points. For example, having a "graven image" (especially of weaponry), being "too busy", or having too many stars (sorry USA) were all grounds for point reductions. I remember that Gambia got the highest grade, and Brazil the lowest of any independent state, but the American territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Marianas Islands got the worst grades of all. The site is no longer up, but you can still see some of it via the Wayback Machine.

Anyway, back to our sidebar. I just wanted to say that while Trinidad & Tobago is a favorite flag of mine generally, I particularly like the listed "flag" of "anonymous proxy." He looks like a Lego pirate. Lego pirates were an important part of my childhood, but I feared they may not be able to compete in today's digitized, flashy toy economy. However, I can now sleep easy knowing they have acquired gainful employment as avatars (go ahead, say it like a pirate) for hit counting services.

Smooth sailing, little pirate man.

And now, I clearly need a nap.