Well, how about that? I was just looking at my dashboard and realized that Friday's post was #100! Funny how we put such emphasis on certain numbers, isn't it? Anniversaries and birthdays that end in 0 or 5 get a lot of attention, and then there are the biggies: 25, 50 and 100. Sadly, #100 was not one of my better posts. This one may not be much better!
I'm living in fear today. Not of the rejections I'm sure will start flowing in this week, but of my computer. Last night I was catching up on the nastiness of Flyers-Penguins game 3 via one of my favoritehockey blogs. I was watching video clips: Stars fighting stars! Bad goaltending! Cross-checks to the face! when my computer locked up. No mouse movement. No Task Manager, no nothing. Nothing to do but press and hold the power button for ten seconds to shut it down. I left it alone for ten minutes or so. When I restarted, everything was normal, until about ten minutes in, same thing happened. Uh, oh. And then it happened again. Not good. Around ten last night I unhooked my computer from everything and spent a good half hour blowing dust off of every surface and sucking it up with the vacuum. After that I rebooted in safe mode, ran some Malwarebytes, Spybot, etc., and shut down for the night. This morning, so far, so good, but I'm definitely treading on eggshells.
Speaking of treading on eggshells, The Wife ran out of cigarettes yesterday, which is fine because she's officially quitting smoking today. Again. I hope this is the last time. Experience tells me the best thing I can do for her is to never mention cigarettes, and avoid any discussion of how she's feeling or any outward sign of support such as "You're doing great!" It puts pressure on her, even when she's being encouraged or praised. So, I can only state here that I'm proud of her for making the effort and I hope it works this time.
From the WTF? Department: I check my numbers. I'm sure you do, too. I notice when I get new followers, and I will eyeball the number of page views. But I don't have any advanced analytics, I just use the stats page blogger defaults to. I've noticed over the last couple of months a spike day, one that seems independent of any blog hops or challenges or whatnot, where my numbers take an unexpected jump. Yesterday I was looking at the stats page, and sure enough, there was one of those jumps: Page views Today: 8. Page views yesterday: 46. As I said, WTF? I expect this sort of thing if I'm in an event. Sad Songs brought a lot of people here. Origins, now the most-viewed post on this blog (it took a while – for the longest time, the #1 page was, inexplicably, the Back Home Filler Post from last August) was logical. Go figure, because I can't.
I recently read Fearless, by Rafael Yglesias. It's an older book, published in 1993, and was made into a movie starring Jeff Bridges. This is one of those books that made me say, "I wish I'd written that!" Very clean, direct prose, compelling characters and situations, and a hell of a start. I hadn't read Yglesias before, but I'll have to look for more of his books.
That's about it for me today, have a good week, all.
Congrats on the 100th post. I need to check and see how many I've done because I have no idea.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see the number of it. I'm fascinated on the places my hits come from. My blog must be quite the world traveling destination some days. lol
I think it also depend upon what labels you put on it.
Congrats and good luck to your wife. My cousin just celebrated her 1 year anniversary of being cigarette free after 33 years of smoking.
Congratulations on the 100th post, Jeff! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the real question is: Are you rooting for the Flyers or the Penguins? :P I know you're a Bruins fan; I just mean in this particular match up.
I say Flyers. They have quite a few former Jackets, and they don't have Cindy. *Grins*
P.S. Good luck to your wife!
Ooh, tough question. After careful consideration, I have to say 'Flyers.' I never liked Mario (though I can admit he was an incredible player) and I don't like Crosby (though I admit he IS an incredible player). I realize it's not Sid's fault the NHL and NBC shove him down our throats so much (I'm so tired of hearing Ed Olczyk say "and it's all because of Sidney Crosby"). And one other thing: I believe, if the Flyers and Bruins make it far enough, the Bruins match up better with Philly than Pittsburgh. Although the way Pitt's D and goaltending is right now, even the Jackets could beat them!
DeleteI resent that last remark. :P
DeleteSorry, I'm a Bruins fan - I couldn't resist the cheap shot.
DeleteYay for your 100th post! I will quietly and secretly be sending your wife good quiting-smoking thoughts. (I've been smoke free for 5 years and 3 months!) Hope the puter is okay. Never read Fearless but I have a friend who loved that book tremendously. And that was one entertaining game although I was only allowed to tune in in the third period due to widespread sports superstition in my neck of the woods. Apparently, it worked.
ReplyDeleteAh, sports superstition. It's crazy, isn't it? And secret thanks to you and everyone on behalf of The Wife.
DeleteI believe you and I have a great deal in common--COMPUTER ANGST! Check out my post for today and you'll see what I mean. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've only looked at my stats a couple of times (honestly). My highest page views are always from people looking for clipart I've used. I gave up looking after realizing that. I hope your computer fix works! And good luck to your wife - I hope this is her last time too :)
ReplyDeleteGo figure. The top search term that brings people here is 'european hockey jersey' (which might explain why 'Product Placement...in my books?' is my second most popular post. Dang, I thought it was because of the excellent, thought-provoking nature of that post). My personal favorite is 'archie bunker beer can template'.
DeleteComputer sickness is very, very scary! Fingers crossed that whatever was bothering your computer is in the past.
ReplyDeleteWishing your wife every success in her struggle to quit smoking. My hubby is a smoker and can't seem to quit, so I bet I have an idea of how much you're behind her on this. Again, fingers crossed.
And guess what? I don't check my numbers. Maybe I should be sheepish about this, but since I can't figure out the meaning behind the numbers, I get frustrated. Why be frustrated? ; )
The computer does seem to be working. I'm thinking it was either overheating or had become a pacifist overnight and was objecting to the violence in all those Penguins-Flyers clips I was watching. Good for all of you for not checking your stats! Maybe it's better that way.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck to your wife, I hope she succeeds. As for the weird stats, they may be somebody from Romania cataloging your blog for their search engine. Usually when I get a weird spike it's all from some other country.
ReplyDeleteHi there. Just followed your comment on Nancy S. Thompson's blog. I seem to be comment surfing tonight--as one does. I enjoyed your post; sincerely hope your computer sorts itself out and stops freaking you out, and that your wife succeeds in kicking those smokes to the curb. Quitting smoking is stupidly hard, as I remember from painful experience.)
ReplyDeletePlease don't hold the fact that I'm from Vancouver (B.C.) and a Canucks fan against me. :)