Because this is fun…

One of the fun parts of having a blog is obsessively tracking your stats—your page views, where in the world people are reading from, what people click on when they read, the search terms people use to find your blog and so on and so forth.

I remember several months back hanging out in the lounge at the PC office in Surabaya and a group of blogging volunteers joking about all the crazy search terms that pop up on their blogs. Here’s one such example.

So why keep these fun little blogging anecdotes to myself? Below is a few terms people searched to find my blog that I rather enjoyed:

• she plays in the mud — that I do
• teens eating — that they do
• Pretty bake pops — what does that even mean?
• Exotic roosters— I want one!
• диско шар — don’t know what that means but cool
• aged women in tracksuit
• miss intrigue — Is this referring to the aged women in the tracksuit?
• komodo dragon’s third eye
• valcano — Damn it, I may have misspelled volcano somewhere.
• the turkey meal America — That’s Thanksgiving. Don’t belittle it.
• happy heads above water — I’d be happy not to be drowning too.
• girl on butcher— creepy and not sure they found what they were looking for
• cow with map of world — He sounds very worldly. (you know you like the corny joke)
• i forgot my crack password dan.imut 66
• pictures of ugly people with spiky hair
• sad cow
• what a woman is mostly interested in  — I’m sorry I’ve got nothing for you.
• i want milk in Indonesian — Me too. It’s boxed and tastes funny. Where them sad cows at?
• hitting the floor instead of the toilet — This one actually made me laugh out loud, I’m sorry I couldn’t help it.

Those are just the stranger ones. Many of the search terms seemed appropriate by either having to do with Peace Corps or travel/life in Indonesia.

Interestingly the top search term is “2 weeks to go.”

Followed by “disco ball” which makes me really happy.

Coming soon… some real thoughts about things, mostly being halfway done. I do, however, reserve the right to ramble.

I’ve been putting this off for way too long

Alas the time has come for me to once again enter the blogosphere.

I’ve had blogs in the past. My first blog was a class assignment for an online media journalism course, the content of which can be found at nicoleethierarchive.wordpress.com. I chose to cover “all things food,” and that was the nifty little title I came up with before realizing it blatantly resembled the title of the NPR program “All Things Considered.” (And I thought I was so clever.)

Another blog I had was also a class assignment in which I covered print media and the transition into the digital world. The content of which may be found at blogs.startupmedia.org/nicole.

My point is:
I’ve blogged before. Never for enjoyment but rather as an assignment,  something I am required to do. Just as I didn’t appreciate reading literature all throughout my formal K through 12th grade education — it isn’t until I am no longer required to do something that I actually have an desire to do it.

And I actually might enjoy it.

And I actually might seek it out on my own accord.

I feel that much of life is ironic in this way.  We don’t always appreciate it, until that something is gone. We grow up dreading many things that we later come to enjoy as adults. And on that note, I will catch back up with you later.

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” — Scout in “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee