Well hey! This little ol’ blog topped a hundred visitors for two days in a row! Thanks to all 117 who stopped by yesterday!
Yes, I am posting at 4:00 in the morning. No, I don’t know why.
Juuuust kidding, on my way to see the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.
I hope to make some decent photos this morning. Here’s hoping the weather holds.
More to come today!
Woo!
Seeking to up the volume of traffic to this little blog of mine, I recently joined a free service that can help drive some eyeballs my direction.
The way it works is this: you have to start out by earning credits. To earn credits, you surf the blogs and websites of other members, stay there for at least thirty seconds, and then click a button to log your visit.
Once you have credits, based on how many you have, your blog gets put into the rotation. With that, your site starts to get views, with the hope you’ll find some sticky visitors.
So I’ve been doing this, idly surfing websites, while watching television or doing other internet surfing, working to earn plenty of credits.
Over the past couple days, I’ve looked at a lot of blogs. I’ve even found a few new sites I’ll keep visiting (see, the process works!).
I’ve also discovered that there is A LOT of dreck out there.
So based on two days of this surfing along, here is my not very scientific conclusion:
The majority of blogs out there on the internets are written by Malaysian teenage girls. Some boys too, but mostly girls.
Malaysian teenage girls who like to post photos taken with their phone cameras.
Photos of themselves with their boyfriends. Photos of them with their BFF’s. And usually at least one photo of their parents who always *clearly* look like they don’t want to have their picture taken.
Oh, and food. Over the past days, I’ve seen a LOT of sushi, udon noodle bowls and a preponderance of mochi.
I knew mochi was gaining popularity here in the Bay Area, I had no idea just how crazy the Malaysian people are for this confectionary treat. Especially mochi ice cream. That shows up on a lot of blogs.
Who knew? Apparently, this whole time, if I wanted more views, I just needed to post this:
Behold, original mochi (with red bean paste center)
It was seventh grade. She was Mrs. Olivas. Typing teacher. A rail thin Hispanic woman with long black hair, parted down the middle, a sour face and an even sourer disposition.
(sourer doesn’t sound right, but Word grammar checker told me that “more sour” was incorrect…so let’s roll with it)
Mrs. Olivas taught my brother, well ahead of me in school. She taught my sister.
And then she taught me.
There we all sat, trembling, at the keyboards of electric typewriters distributed about the classroom. Eyes forward. No looking at your fingers!
Mrs. Olivas would wander the room, shouting letters like a drill sergeant. We would type what she shouted. In unison our keys would strike the paper.
My sister had warned me, with her accent, her “v” sounded like “b” and vice versa. And she graded harshly when you got it wrong.
Mrs. Olivas taught us that after every period ending a sentence, you hit that space bar twice.
End a sentence, space twice, start the next sentence.
One space looked too crowded. Too hard to tell where one sentence ended and the next began.
Two spaces.
No questions. Don’t ask. Two spaces.
I follow this great lady, Debbie Ridpath Ohi, on Twitter (her screen name is inkyelbows). She is a writer and creates spot on comics about and for writers.
So imagine the shock and awe in my world when I read the following re-Tweet:
@inkyelbows From literary agent @Ginger_Clark “Authors: stop double spacing after every paragraph. It’s unnecessary.”
What?!? Sputter sputter. What!?!?
I say…..WHAT?!?!
Ok, to be fair, Twitter itself had me changing my typing habit. Why type two spaces when that takes two of the precious 140 characters? So I figured in the Twitter-verse, it was ok.
But in my regular writing? Stories, emails, blog posts. Can I stop?
Period-space-space is in my muscle memory! It lives in my cells!
Seventh grade was almost thirty years ago! If I don’t period-space-space won’t Mrs. Olivas come haunt me in my sleep like the La Llorona of the Smith Corona?
“Peerrrioood-spaaaaace-spaaaaace,” she will howl outside my window!
I found this bit of explanation online: ” It is generally accepted that the practice of putting two spaces at the end of a sentence is a carryover from the days of typewriters with monospaced typefaces.”
So to do a period-space-space is something of a throwback. It marks me as “old school.” Someone who learned to type on an actual typewriter.
Ok, fine. I’m trying. Every day I’m trying to retrain my obstinate thumb to only tap that space bar once. Just once.
It’s tough! I still have to do a find and replace when I finish any document, including this blog post.
I’m too old to learn new tricks!!!!
Waaaah!
Oh, and:
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
*apologies to Hank Williams Jr for bastardizing his lyric.
Coming tomorrow: “Three Grammar rules that are okay to break.” My world is off its axis!
Back in March 2007, I started this little ol’ blog, with much tentativeness and apprehension.
It was The Good Man’s idea for me to become a blogger, and he’s been my biggest supporter all along.
So he made me a deal.
Threw down a gauntlet.
Set a goal for me.
If I could top 100 unique visitors in a single day, he’d buy me dinner.
A *nice* dinner.
Yesterday, I finally achieved that feat.
WHOOO HOOO!!! Dinner! Yeeessss!
Each blogger, in the course of their writing and rambling, has one post that they might call their favorite. It may or may not be a fan favorite, but it’s one that sticks out the most in the blogger’s mind.
I have one of those.
Waaaay back, lo’ these many…uh..months ago, I prepared and posted what has become my favorite blog post ever.
Yes, my explorations of this Officine Era, this epoch in my history, the importance of documenting my findings!
And, it can become a living record, because there are some changes…some *updates* to the research and analysis!
My travels have taken me past those relics discussed time and again, and I feel, in the interest of scientific accuracy, it is vital to update the records.
So here we go, the latest understanding of the artifacts, as we know them.
First, recall the lonely and homeless set of keys? Those which secure a laptop from theft, but these, cast mercilessly aside?
Well. They are gone now. Extinct. Disappeared without a forwarding address.
What might have become of these sad, homeless keys? We may never know….
Folks, let’s have a moment in remembrance…
However, all is not bad news! Remember the lowly and lonely industrial strength stapler?
There he was, far from any stapling opportunities. Lost and alone. Unused. Unloved.
But look! He found friends!
Hi Mister Highlighter! Hey Miss Piece of Paper! Welcome to my expanse of file cabinets right outside the conference room. Wanna play flag football?
I’m so happy the stapler was able to make friends. His story doesn’t end tragically, like those keys…
And how about this? Remember that bit o’ Heath bar wrapper that was careless dropped and left abandoned on the stairs for some months?
It’s STILL there! And has adapted camouflage capabilities! It has moved over to the side and has flipped over….behold!
We are seeing evolution in progress, people! Amazing, fascinating stuff.
And, I saved the best for last! We have a new artifact to introduce to the world. It’s amazing. Phenomenal! Fantasmagorical!
Ladies and Gents, I introduce you to…Big Ass Box Of Binder Clips!
This box of clips, located near the broken copy machine that no one uses, and is *SO* important that someone named Jon has demanded we not remove it!
I don’t even know who Jon is or why I would obey him, and yet, I do!
The exclamation mark on his sign coerces me to abide! And so, I don’t remove. Not a one. And neither does anyone else! No one uses these binder clips. So there they sit! Useless and unused! Shiny, taunting, but out of reach.
Damn that Jon and his demanding posted sign!
Ok, well, this is all good stuff. Much to consider. I encourage all to go out and explore their own Officine Surroundings. What you find might surprise you!