I have 50,000 friends!
I think that is how the FaceBook crowd counts.
More accurately, I have had over 50,000 individual hits on this blog since I started tracking in April of last year. The odometer tripped over sometime during the afternoon last Thursday.
Those of us who keep a hit counter have posted on this topic numerous times.
The more hopeful amongst us see it as an opportunity to reach out and touch new friends -- and wonder why our new friends do not leave Cole Porterish witty comments for all of us to share. In the same exercise we once conducted sitting by the telephone waiting for that girl who smiled at us in second period English to call. Only to discover she suffers from a nervous tic and not infatuation.
And then there are the cynical bloggers who know that 93.7% of those "hits" are the result of Google searches ferreting out that post you named "naked youth" in the hopes of improving your statistics. And unless you have an interest in talking to male British tourists posting from Thailand, you are probably happy that the comment box is as pure as their hands are not.
I tend to fall into the practical category. (Of course, I do. This is my blog, and I can compliment myself whenever I choose.)
I am happy to see that more people are spending more time reading what I have written. And the comments have increased.
I love the comments. But I am also happy to merely share my words with whoever stumbles into this verbal emporium. Chat, if you like. If not, feel free to take one of those posts off of the hanger, and try it on for size.
And, even if I do not have 50,000 friends, I enjoy this small group sharing ideas and building the future.
And that is good enough for me.
I think that is how the FaceBook crowd counts.
More accurately, I have had over 50,000 individual hits on this blog since I started tracking in April of last year. The odometer tripped over sometime during the afternoon last Thursday.
Those of us who keep a hit counter have posted on this topic numerous times.
The more hopeful amongst us see it as an opportunity to reach out and touch new friends -- and wonder why our new friends do not leave Cole Porterish witty comments for all of us to share. In the same exercise we once conducted sitting by the telephone waiting for that girl who smiled at us in second period English to call. Only to discover she suffers from a nervous tic and not infatuation.
And then there are the cynical bloggers who know that 93.7% of those "hits" are the result of Google searches ferreting out that post you named "naked youth" in the hopes of improving your statistics. And unless you have an interest in talking to male British tourists posting from Thailand, you are probably happy that the comment box is as pure as their hands are not.
I tend to fall into the practical category. (Of course, I do. This is my blog, and I can compliment myself whenever I choose.)
I am happy to see that more people are spending more time reading what I have written. And the comments have increased.
I love the comments. But I am also happy to merely share my words with whoever stumbles into this verbal emporium. Chat, if you like. If not, feel free to take one of those posts off of the hanger, and try it on for size.
And, even if I do not have 50,000 friends, I enjoy this small group sharing ideas and building the future.
And that is good enough for me.
Senor Steve,
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading your blog with as much anticipation as I do for Senor Felipe Zapata's. Good Reading is Good Reading period.
Saludos,
Francisco
Detroit,
Thanks, Francisco. And I always appreciate your comments.
ReplyDeleteYour doing something I would like to do, living in Mexico on retirement income you earned from years of hard work. I think once you settle in to your life in Mexico you will be one of those that give back to those who need. No good deed goes unpunished, feel free to complain. Congrats on the 50.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Norm. But I think the readers get the congratulations on the 50K.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I don't post comments very often (O.K., hardly ever) is that I'm not all that witty - and the witty ones are much more fun to read.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I must say your writing is just getting better and better and I look forward to reading your entries. I also like the little photo tours of your new home. Keep working with your camera and don't let the old gray guy in Patzcuaro discourage you - some of us like photos of flowers.
Hi Steve: I'm a fan from Litchfield, Connecticut, hoping to have my own Mexican adventure some time soon. I look forward to your blog, it's now become the first one I read. Best wishes to you in your new life.
ReplyDeleteSteve - 50,000 friends! And the best part is, you couldn't possibly throw a party for them all.
ReplyDeleteOh I read your blog because it's an interesting blog with adventures and a variety of other topics as well, some just too way up there for my intellect level, but I do read. I learn. Actually I'm just here for one thing....that is to make sure Professor Jiggs is well taken care of and happy and carefree. :D Take care Steve. ::hugs to Jiggs::
ReplyDeleteYou blog is one I read regularly, along with a handful of others by expats in Mexico. I enjoy it. Thanks for writing it.
ReplyDeleteRon
Congrats! I am glad that Jigg's is holding up. The trip down probably worn him out more than we thought.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Francisco, enjoy reading along everyday. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteOnwards and upwards.
I'm honored to be counted among the 50,000!
ReplyDelete"Cole Porterish witty comments" don't we wish we could.
ReplyDeleteRemember that you are the one entertaining us and we enjoy it.
I for one am amazed that you actually pulled it off and are living in a steamy little beach town in Mexico. Brings to mind Richard Burton, or even John Huston in his little beach enclave.
It's impossible to avoid adventures in paradise and that is probably the primary reason you are there.
Rick
Well.......Y A Y ! ! ! !
ReplyDeleteFELICIDADES!!!!
You are the bomb!!!
ml
Your blog?!? I've always thought of it as a platform for my own witty comments.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your help. Seriously. I couldn't have done it without you.
Kim G
Boston, MA
Where sometimes the tongue is so firmly in cheek, that it gives one a rather odd aspect.P.S. Seriously, I enjoy your blog tremendously. Only you and Señor he-who-shall-no-longer-be-named get my daily attention.
Steve - Your Blog is the talk of the office. "Have you read Steve's Blog today?" Is a common phrase. Keep it up so we can follow your progress. Larry.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous -- Thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteLitchfield Anonymous -- I hope something here will be helpful to you in making your decision to move down. Without advice from other blogggers, my transition would have been far more difficult.
1st Mate -- If I threw a dinner party for the 50,000, I am certain that a large portion would bring their own food. It is the blogger way.
Gloria -- Working with a dog is always a winning blog formula.
Ron -- And thank you for reading it.
Chrissy -- Jiggs actually made a dash at some animal that darted through a fence tonight. He is obviously feeling better.
Brenda -- And I read each installment of yours. It does not seem possible that a month has passed since we had dinner. Thank you again. It rescued our day.
Babs -- You probably saw this one coming -- but you are one in a 1,000,000.
Rick -- And the adventures keep rolling in.
Maria Luz -- "The bomb"? A comeback eludes me.
Kim -- I have often thought of this blog as a vehicle to carry your Mort Sahl essence from port to port. Embedded tongues can be surgically retrieved. Just ask The Writer Formerly Known as ******* *******.
Larry -- It is nice to know that my colleagues re still staying touch. Just wait until Roy makes his guest appearance.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteLike many of the readers have stated..
Thank you for sharing your adventures. I always look forward to coming home after a long day at work and reading your blog.
Thank you,
Canadiangrl
Canadiangirl -- What a nice thing to say. I should angle for compliments more often. Glad you like the posts.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Steve. A few weeks ago I noticed that my top source of readers from all sources is from your blog. Your link to my blog accounts for just over 20 percent of my readership. So please write on!
ReplyDeleteThe essence of our faith is to share. I do so gladly. But your readership has a more international cast to it than mine. Just look at our respective hit maps.
ReplyDeleteYou sir, are nothing but a self-involved buffoon. And your buffoonery is sorely missed.
ReplyDeleteWhile not Cole Porter (and there's nothing witty about Anything Goes - can a title possibly set lower expectations and deliver?), the comedian/creep Woody Allen said it best. 'The food in this place is really terrible. And such small portions.'
Here's to being one of the 50k, clamoring for for more terrible scraps.
JoS -- For a moment, I thought that my friend John Simon, the critic, had dicovered my blog. But I know otherwise. Always happy to please my old friends and colleagues.
ReplyDelete"Verbal emporium"?
ReplyDeleteOr did you mean to write garrulous imperium, calling yourself the Exalted Gaseous Clay?
You can't even be certain it's the same 50k returning day after day to listen to the same old thing over and over: ME.
I tried my Presbyterian best to drill into you some sense of social grace prior to your emigration from this land of the free, home of the knave, but you resolutely refused to embrace anything I had to teach you.
Now look at yourself!
You've become a caricature of Goebbels, spewing out self-righteous nonsense about every manner of thing.
I have put off signing on to this blog to make direct comments, but my moral self can no longer allow me to stay silent.
You will just have to steel yourself for my meddlesome interloping into your not so private and not so inner sanctum of thought.
In short, Mr. Smarty Pants, your solipsistic bubble is about to be burst by the painful prick of Socratic logic which I intend to wield like a rapier, whittling your ideas down to their proper size.
Be forewarned! I will not give notice a second time.
-- John
John -- I would point out that your medication appears to be wearing thin these days. But that would even be too Ricklesish for me. I miss these little banterings over the table at Alessandro's. "Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words." And you know into which category we fall.
ReplyDelete