Happy Birthday to me!

Periodically, I look at my blog stats to see what sort of traffic I'm getting. I admit that, as a writer, it does give me a bit of a thrill to know that someone, somewhere, is reading this stream of consciousness.

In an interesting confluence, today is my birthday; it is also the day that I topped 20,000 all-time page views!

I don't know if 2012 is just my year or if suddenly people are finding my random scribblings vaguely interesting, or if it's the whole one hundred monkeys and one hundred typewriters in a room syndrome; but I am very thankful to everyone who stops by and reads - or even glances at - my blog.

In honor of the whole twenty-thousand thing, I thought I would take a look at my top five all-time posts.

5. I'm not Charlton Heston (July 4, 2012) 187 views: Independence Day blog? Nope. Apparently on the 4th of July I was thinking about my personal relationship with God. I think it's important to understand how people come to know God. It's not that I chose to be a Christian; religion (I use the word here even though I don't equate my belief in God with the following of any set of particular tenets) is not something that you can put on and take off like a new pair of shoes. Belief in God is not something you can just try, and see if it works for you. That's what I think anyway. If you're interested in how I came to know Jesus, check it out!

4.  Literary Review: The Scroll (February 10, 2012) 219 views: This was my first blog review for WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing, who offer free books (at least to read) in exchange for written and publicized reviews of the books I read. Seems like a fair deal. I've only done a couple so far, mainly because I don't have a ton of time to spend reading and reviewing. The Scroll is a cool book if you like historical adventures. Check out my review and check out the book if you're in to that sort of thing.

3. Landon is on the Board (January 28, 2010) 236 views: This is probably the shortest blog post I've ever written. It consisted of roughly a paragraph of text and an embedded YouTube video of Landon Donovan's first goal for Everton (of the English Premier League). I'm not a sports blogger per se, but most of my friends know that I'm a bit of a football (soccer) nut. I enjoy seeing American players succeed overseas in the tougher world leagues and the Prem is perhaps the toughest. Landon has had a 2nd loan stint at Everton but still calls the LA Galaxy his permanent home. We'll see what the future holds as he comes to the end of his contract there...

2. Space...the final frontier (that we'll never get to?) (December 6, 2011) 303 views: Despite my belief in God, I still keep on eye on science and things scientific. Religion and science are not necessarily exclusive. This particular entry was spurred by the discovery of an earth-like planet orbiting a sun not unlike our own. The problem is, Keppler 22b is a LONG way away. While it's fascinating that we've been able to discover such a world and it's interesting to ponder the what ifs of a manned mission, with the technology we currently have it would take someone seven MILLION years to get there. How many times can you say, "Are we there yet?"

1. I dislike equivalent temperatures (January 7, 2010) 506 views: Far and away my number one blog post by views is the one I wrote complaining about things like heat index, you know, that annoying phrase the weather person utters that goes something like, "Bob, it's going to be ninety-eight degrees out there today but it will feel like one hundred and three."

Honestly, I don't know why people view my blog. I know there are probably a small number of people who actually read my blog but I suspect the vast majority of my page views come from my clever use of labels. Labels are those little terms you include that - I assume - search engine optimize (SEO) your blog post so people can find it. I admit, I am guilty of writing my posts to the extent that I can take advantage of certain SEO words that I think might attract the casual surfer to my blog. Shameless, I know, but as I noted above, what's the point of writing a blog if no one reads it?

So, it's my birthday! Make sure you share this blog post and all the others with everyone you know!

Bilbo Baggins advising all Hobbits to read The Stream of Consciousness blog

With gratitude and humility, I appreciate every one of you who have ever read my blog - either on purpose or by accident.

Thank you!

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