My Coolest Readers

I occasionally check my blog stats. It's not nearly as depressing creepy as Googling myself. I just want to know who is interested. Really. I'll share with you. I have nothing much to hide. Here are some of my blog stats.

 

If you've been following me, you know I'm big in Germany (see my blog post from3/29/12 entitled "Random German Citizen.") This is reflected here by the green spot on the map of Europe. Great Britain is the other Western European country that seems to understand me. At least one person has been curious enough me to read the blog eight times (or maybe they're curious about whether or not I'm being investigated by DCFS yet.) That's one more British view than all of the views I've gotten in China. To be fair, I might be censored in China...but I doubt it. I have no views on currency manipulation at this point. It's not that I don't care, I just don't understand. Someday I will, then the censors can come after me.

 

 

(It kind of feels like the Olympics looking at this map. United States, Russia, Canada...and China. If it wasn't for China, I'd say it's the winter Olympics, but I don't recall how they did in hockey.)

 

Now, I have to say that the Scandinavian countries are woefully under-represented on this map of readers. I've had a (one time) reader in Saudi Arabia for heaven's sake! Is it too much to ask a Norwegian to tune in occasionally? This map doesn't show all of my readership, but it shows a good majority of it. Looks like China has overtaken Ecuador which is now even with Malaysia and Latvia. but neither of them show up on the map. Believe me, they're there. 

 

Next, we have what internet providers people use. Internet explorer and Chrome are second to Firefox, which is kind of cool actually. I just like the idea of foxes. They're cool animals and flaming foxes sounds like the name of a very cool band, or the nickname I may or may not use for some of the women I work with (not.) Mobile something or other is up there. But I'm really excited by Opera. I mean who wouldn't be excited by Opera? I've been to see a couple of operas and they were actually all pretty fun to watch. All except that modern thing which was kind of atonal and depressing. If I want atonal, depressing singing, I'll switch off the auto-tune on B-96, or listen to Taylor Swift perform live.

 

And finally, this one. This is what operating system you people are using to access my blog. Bravo to you, brave Linux user. I don't know who you are, but you are obviously my coolest reader.

Random German Citizen

Over 1,000 views on my blog. Thank you all. Seriously. Thanks. Thank you to all of my United States readers (according to Google, you are the majority--and you should be as you are mainly my family, and you keep tabs on me. I'm sure most of you are reading just to make sure that I'm not talking about you, but don't worry. I'm just talking about my kids because they're not computer savvy enough to object yet.)

And thank you to all my my Canadian readers--also a significant number. I love you guys, and yes, I am teaching my children that you are a foreign country and should be respected as such. Really. That's why I'm homeschooling. It's all because of you.

And thanks to my German reader...whoever you are. I didn't think I knew anyone in Germany, but that's the country that Google has flagged as having an occasional reader. I love you too, random German citizen. I love you too.

 I am now officially following the uh...following blog:

itsallfunnytome.blogspot.com

It's Becky and her Banditos. It's far funnier than anything that I could try to put together, but I try not to be jealous of her talent.


And the above statement demonstrates one of the bizarre things about the English language, and one which I have a difficult time with--not  splitting infinitives. If you are not aware, an infinitive is a non-conjugated form of the verb, in this case 'to be.'  In my mind, it would make more sense to say 'I try to not be jealous.' But that's not proper. 'I try not to be jealous,' is correct, but it sounds funny. It looks funny. It is funny. I'm not trying not to be. I like being after all. I just want to exist (to be) not in a state of jealousy. I want to not be jealous...to be not jealous...ah nuts.

Yet, that's how English works. I've always just accepted it. When you're in a class (or teaching a class) of 20+ students you just don't ask or answer all the possible questions that are out there. When you have only two students, you can't duck the tough questions, like "why is it wrong to split infinitives?" I think that grammar is the only subject where an acceptable answer is "just because that's how we do it."
Well, grammar and statistics, but I don't have to teach statistics.
 
 And now for a preview of Becky's Banditos....



Pure imagination, candy and beer. Mmmmmmm.
(And wouldn't Becky and Her Banditos be an awesome name for a band?)

Oh, and 3 followers!!!! 97 to go until the big prize! ( I dunno. Maybe a great big candy bar! Or lunch with Becky and the Banditos--I've got an 'in.')