Мое Новое и Захватывающее Открытие

There is a feature of this blog universe that I discovered that I would be thrilled to share with you but I'm sure you already know about it so I feel a little silly proclaiming my discovery. It is as if I made a wondrous announcement that I discovered a brand new exciting thing called a Can Opener only to discover that you had known about it for years. So to call attention to my discovery also calls attention to my knack for not paying attention.

It is called 'Stats' and is the very last tab at the top of my screen as I speak. I noticed it the other day and said "Hmmm" and then my daring sense of exploration kicked in and I boldly clicked on it. It opened up a fascinating series of pages that gave me a renewed sense of silly satisfaction. You see, when I see anywhere from ten to twenty comments on a blog entry I pretty much assumed that ten or twenty people stumbled upon my entry. But the 'Stats' page tells me for my 49 entries, 2,419 people have viewed them which averages out to 49 views per entry. I can take this a lot of ways. In one sense I can surmise that over 29 people view each blog and they didn't think it worthy of comment. That is thinking negatively. Perhaps ten people viewed each blog three times simply because that succumbed to the seductive  and sophisticated layout of my blog. Actually that seems unlikely.

But averages are misleading. If I look to see which blogs got the most views, depression sets in. Some of my entries were a bit haphazard -- you know, 'throw away entries', those things written in fifteen minutes on the spur of the moment with little aforethought. My entry, We'll Leave the Light on For You was one of those -- and it got 249 views. Almost 250 people lined up to read this silly entry which rates about number 30 on my list of meaningful blogs. My most dynamic, innovative, soul stirring entries such as: The Miscreants, The Piccolautist, The Kiss, and Blowing in the Wind didn't even rate. I was terribly disgruntled about this until I figured out that there was no data available for more than a couple of months ago. So it is possible that someone read them after all.

So that means that the 'Stats' tab is a relatively new feature which means I may have discovered it before you which pretty much means that I am a hero.

There is more on that 'Stats' tab. There have been sixteen people in Russia which have viewed my entries....or one person in Russia that has viewed my blogs sixteen times...or two people that have...anyway, I have a  Russian friend...or friends. I think it is important to strengthen the Russian-Texan ties -- so if you are from Russia please leave a comment and tell me "Hey! I know you thought I was from North Carolina but I am really from Russia. Really!" Or -- let me help you out here:  "Я - из России, и я читаю ваш blog."

And then there are those twenty-two Brazilians...or fewer: "Olá os meus amigos brasileiros do seu amigo de Texas."

Now when someone asks me, "Do you blog", I can with modest humility proclaim, "Aw yes. I am an international blogger."

I wish there was some way to search for stuff in this Blogspot thing. It would be neat to plug in 'Lithuanian Wine Connoisseur' and be connected to a Lithuanian wino blog. Or maybe search by genre: 'Bloggers with In-Grown Toenails'. Would someone work on that?

This is my entry on 'Stats'. This is one of those throw-away entries and you don't have to view it.