An astronaut meets an alien and they go on an adventure of space travel and jokes in this claymation short.

Download the high quality version (15.4 MB, requires Quicktime)

I don't know how it happened, but somehow I have 947 fans on StumbleUpon and I'm near the top of the list of top stumblers. At first I didn't even know any of this, I was just stumbling as I always have for the past 5+ years, reviewing sites I enjoyed and posting cool and amusing photos to my Stumble blog. Then I started getting all kinds of messages from people asking me to thumb up their pages, review their sites, add them as friends, all kinds of stuff. I've now been asked at least ten times what the trick is, as if I have some kind of big secret. Well, I'm about to share it with you, all the folks who want to rule the world of StumbleUpon. Here it is:

I didn't do anything. Seriously.

I don't know about you guys, but when I join a social media site like Digg, StumbleUpon, or Propeller the thing I definitely don't pay attention to are the constant barrage of shouts and messages asking me to vote up the latest list of stupid crap, how to market your dog on the internet, list of top lists, and all those other things. Seriously, I don't care. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but let's be honest here. I joined StumbleUpon to find new sites about things I enjoyed. That's why I'm still there. I didn't join as a marketing tool or to pump up my site traffic or something like that. I think the key lies somewhere in that.

So what do I tell all these people asking me for advice? Well, first off I'm nice and polite because especially in this day and age I think that goes very far on the internet. Making your message not sound like a form mail you've sent to 5,000 of your non-friends really does matter. But I tell them that all I do is give sites I like a thumbs up and add people whose stumbles I like as friends. I didn't spam all my friends with messages every time I posted a new blog post and if I did I used tact and poise. When all you're looking for is traffic and popularity, the only other people who stumble your sites and what not are people doing the exact same thing, not genuine users. This kind of takes the fun and purpose out of those social media sites in the first place when they become some giant echo chamber of marketing and crap.

I hope that all made sense. I just figured I would make a post so I could reference it in the future when I get asked this question. I guess the key to being popular is, just like in life, not trying to get popular all the time. Please stumble, dig, mixx, propel, zip, slam, buzz, tweet, swoop, and whatever else this article.

QUICK STOP EXCLUSIVE: Teaser Trailer From Terry Gilliam?s THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS! » Quick Stop Entertainment

Our friends over at Quick Stop Entertainment have delivered again and this one looks spectacular. While I actually enjoyed Gilliam's recent work, I know there are quite a few who haven't and this one really has the feel of some of his older work, such as Time Bandits and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Very fantastic, very dreamy, very out there. It's Gilliam all the way and I can't wait.