Stats and Gaiman

Well, I’ve had a pretty successful day as far as Blog Stats goes, at least on the surface. I’ve already had 150+ visits today, which is about 3 times my normal. I wish it was due to something brilliant I wrote or something like that. Instead, it’s due to 114 views for the post I made a few years ago about the “Death of Garfield“. This post has been a constant hit source for me, which I find amusing. Posts like this usually don’t translate into return visitors. 150+ visits today and 1 comment. Oh well.

I have added some links to my writing on the “Death of Garfield” post, just in case someone gets curious.

Oh, make sure to stop by Neil Gaiman’s Journal, as he has been linking to a bunch of Stardust movie related stuff. Also on his site is the first chapter of the audio version of Stardust, read by Gaiman himself: link to mp3 of chapter 1 of Stardust.

A while back he said that his tagline for the movie would’ve been “Stardust. It’s not a sequel to anything.” I like that.

Blog of the Minute

Wow! My post Meme of Eight was hugely popular today and this site was the “blog of the minute” on wordpress for a solid hour. Here is a screen print if you don’t believe me:

Pretty cool, huh? This of course means I have seen a huge spike in my statistics for today. My previous high was I believe 130 or so hits and I normally average around 50 hits a day. Today I have 264 hits and it isn’t even Noon yet. Take a look at the graph:

Hopefully some of the people who stopped by here today will return. The more readers the better.  Welcome to all you newcomers and thanks to all you regular readers.

Thinking Blogger Award

As I mentioned yesterday, the lovely and talented Paperback Writer nominated me for a Thinking Blogger Award, which I hope I’m occasionally able to live up to. I just realized I have been blogging since January 2006. Here is a link to my first blog post, wordy as ever :).

Without further delay, here is a list of 5 blogs I nominate for the Thinking Blogger Award, blogs that really make me think:

• Pretty Good on Paper – he has done some really interesting work lately with word clouds – studying vocabulary and how the English language is used on blogs.
• Be A Good Dad – An excellent blog about parenting and parenthood, whether it be about Autism, or the way siblings play together.
• A Was Alarmed – with exciting tales about her son, or struggles with editing her novel, Helen always entertains me with thoughtful, well written posts.
• The Hopeless Writer – Bryan does a really nice job with his blog in addition to which you should check out his Letters from the Front Lines.
• Scribe’s Writing Desk – Another blog with tons of stuff about writing and life.

These are just some of the blogs that make me think. Check out my sidebar, because every one of those blogs also entertain me on a daily basis.

Those of you I have “tagged” above, here are the rules of participation:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

Done with Travel

I’m finally done with my holiday travel today and should be back to posting here regularly soon.  I was able to see pretty much everybody from my family for the holidays, so that is nice.  It will be great to sleep in my own house tonight, though, and hopefully our daughter will sleep better.  She wakes almost every hour when we are away.

On the plus side, my wife got me the Delphi Roady XT XM Radio for Christmas and it is great.  It definitely makes the long trip to western PA more enjoyable.

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone has a great Christmas. I have a full week off from work and am not sure how often I will be able to stop by here, though I hope to at least once a day. In the meantime, here are some links for you to check out.

• We Are Santa’s Elves
• What If Monday – Time
• What If Monday – A Day With No Consequences

Also be sure to check out my Blogroll for some excellent blogs.

Short Story Now Downloadable

In case you wanted to read my short story, We Are Santa’s Elves, but don’t have the time, I have made it available as a pdf download so you can print it and read it at your leisure, or use it to start the fire in your fireplace tonight. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Theme

I switched my theme to the new Christmas theme, as I’m sure you have noticed.  You will probably see quite a few blogs with this theme for the next several days, but I like it and think it fits with my Christmas short story.  I hope you can still find everything you are looking for here.  I will switch back some time after the holidays.

What If Monday – Soon

Check back in a while for What If Monday.