I've never been to 100

The coveted HubRank of 100 may be within my grasp. I can see it, shimmering on the horizon, teasing me like an SEIU endorsement for a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, which I'm obviously not, but you get the picture anyway.

Today I sit solidly on 98. 98 is good. 98 rocks, I guess. Tomorrow I may drift back down to 96 or 94 or 92 or I may nudge ahead to 99, then rise gloriously to 100.

Ah, 100. The Holy Grail of Hubbing, except without the killer rabbit and the Enchanter named Tim and those taunting French. Like Monty Python, I quest endlessly for that highest of HubPages honors; a 3 digit number superimposed on my avatar.

It may matter. On the other hand, it may be as meaningless as a Special Order speech in the House of Representatives.

Google doesn't care, Yahoo yawns, Bing blinks and turns away, bored. My AdSense income won't be impacted by this auspicious honor. On the other hand, a fellow hubber may be inspired by my Hubtastic success. Somewhere in cyberspace an aspiring author stands on the precipice of committing Hubicide. His cursor hovers over the Logout button, his finger poised to twitch one final time, prepared to close his browser and never write another hub as long as he lives. In a final gasp of desperation he checks Hubtivity, out of habit, hopelessly. He observes that one of his favorite authors (me, if you're not following along) has been anointed with the highest numeric ranking available in the HubPages universe. He thinks to himself "If that nimrod can do it, so can I."

Hey, it could happen.

How'd I get to 98? I dunno. When my HubRank changes, I look back at my Hubtivities in a futile attempt to impose some logic on this cyberworld without rules. Yesterday I published two hubs; one was very narrow, one was goofy. About a week ago I stopped posting to the forums; perhaps I'm being rewarded for that decision? Lately I have been leaving more comments for My Favorite Authors.

There exist rumblings and rumors in HubLand. Some say that a HubRank includes a measure of randomness. Forum posts postulate that the HubGods may tease a ranking up or down simply to tweak or otherwise inspire an author to greater publishing achievements. Hubber Silenus suggests a vengeful component to the HubRank calculation. Is it possible that political leanings play a part?

The sun'll come up tomorrow. Should my HubRank plummet to 95 or even 94, I'll continue Hubbing until my fingers bleed any my synapses scream for ice cream. I may never rise to the quantity or quality of my mentor, Hal Licino, but as long as my motherboard has electrons, I'll keep trying.

Liberal or conservative, please do me a favor. We can all come together on this, because it's important to me. Please keep an eye on my ranking. If you happen to see it sitting on 100, take a screen shot and send it to me. We'll all be better for it.

Today I am at a solid 95. Dropping 3 points over the past few days is an anomaly I cannot explain.