100

Late in 2001, I decided to wade into the brand new world of blogs. So I went and got myself a domain at blogger and developed a plan to conquer the world. Then I did nothing for the next three years. I’m not sure what happened during that patch, but I’m pretty sure I was really busy.

But then, after moving to Texarkana and thoroughly disliking it, I made myself a new year’s resolution for 2005… I would start writing again and start posting it on my long forgotten domain. So I posted some stuff, then forgot about it again for 7 months.

But after that false start, I started getting better about writing, and this little site has been a going concern for about a year now. And today it hits a milestone: 100 posts.

Now when a television sitcom hits 100 episodes, it’s cause for celebration because that means the show can be syndicated and everyone involved makes huge piles of cash. That’s clearly not going to happen here, so instead hitting 100 is a time to reflect and gloat and plan.

The idea of this site was to replicate the weekly humor column I used to write. I imagined I would be writing primarily for my family members and a few friends scattered across the nation.

Some things have changed from that original plan. First, the tone of some posts (take the previous one, for instance) have been decidedly unfunny. Second, due to the random and sprawling nature of the internet, some strangers stumbled upon this site and actually came back. Furthermore, hanging a little shingle out on the Information Superhighway (remember that term?) has allowed me to reconnect with friends long lost through time, distance, and circumstance.

A couple of months ago, I signed up for Google Analytics, which tells me about this site’s volume and where hits are coming from. And from this lovely free service (thanks, Google!) I learned a few things.

First, you dear readers are members of an exclusive club. This site sees just 50-150 hits per day, just a drop in the ocean compared to the biggies, and still just a drop in the ocean compared to the really tiny sites, but still more than the average family newsletter blog.

Second, you’re scattered all across the globe. Google Analytics features this map of the world with little dots representing the location of visitors to this site. I love this feature, mostly because I’m a serious map nerd. But it’s also fun to see where all the hits come from. Some are pretty predictable, with clusters found in southern Oregon, Los Angeles, the Texarkana-Shreveport area, Utah, and anywhere where I’ve got family.

There are other little clusters that are unexplained. I seem to get a lot of hits from the Portland area, Eugene and its surrounding towns, and Missouri. Whoever you are, thanks for stopping by. I’ve even found a decent number of international hits. In the last 8 weeks, I’ve gotten hits from Canada, Switzerland, India, Singapore, the Philippines, Israel, Germany, Belgium, Argentina, South Korea, Costa Rica, South Africa, Bosnia, and Kenya. Some of these hits are likely flukes, but not all. There’s someone in the Netherlands who keeps coming back for more. I also get a fair amount of hits from the UK, and Australia. Whoever you are, thank you for visiting.

As for content, there are two things that seem to drive traffic to this site, the first is any reference to Radiohead, and the second is photos of Julie pregnant. Julie will only be pregnant for another few days, so I’m really going to have to ramp up the Radiohead content. (For the record, Elvis Costello references finished a strong third.)

Hopefully it won’t take another 5 years to hit 200 posts. At my current pace, it should take 8-12 months. I hope to get back to more silliness in future posts, but it also seems likely that at least the next few posts will be very baby-oriented. However, I will endeavor to produce non-baby content as well. I’m also thinking of starting a separate blog just for baby photos and stuff like that, so they won’t clog up things here too much.

Comments or suggestions on that subject are welcome, and also on the subject of what types of things you’d like to see in this space (other than Radiohead and pregnant-Julie content, of course).

But whatever the case, thanks again to those of you who stop by here to sniff the digital roses. I will endeavor in the next 100 posts to make this a place worth returning to.