Resolutions

About a year and a half ago, my friend Amanda mentioned a study she'd heard about claiming that resolutions stood a better chance of being completed if they weren't talked about. So a year ago today, I silently resolved to blog once a day during 2011. With this post, I have completed that goal, despite the interruptions of three long-distance trips.

Not every post was a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but I think a few entries were worthwhile. When I have access to a computer again, I'll post a list of my favorites.

Since I started posting daily, traffic to this blog has increased dramatically, and I'm grateful to every reader who has stopped by. Thank you for spending some time here, and thanks especially to those who have left comments - many of which are funnier or more insightful than anything I've written here.

Happy New Year, and may you and yours enjoy peace, prosperity, health and happiness in 2012.

2011

Thanks to my friend and ex-colleague Amanda for throwing a fun New Year's Eve bash, even if we did inadvertently miss the actual countdown!

Sylvia and I look pretty innocent in this photo. But colour and typography can turn even the most innocent image into something dark and disturbing. I was fooling around with Photoshop for a few minutes and wound up producing this:

Hopefully 2011 will be less insane than this image seems to hint!

The End of Year Eight

Over at Jeff Shyluk's Visual Blog, Jeff has posted a year one review of his website. Jeff made extensive use of Blogger's relatively new stats features, and I am therefore stealing his idea to post a quick year-end analysis of My Name is Earl (J. Woods). All stats begin in May 2010.

Audience
As might be expected, most of my pageviews come from Canada, with 3,982 pageviews since May. The United States comes in second, with 1,696. Not surprising. But I was surprised by the countries that fill the rest of the top ten:

Russia: 291
Netherlands: 217
Germany:
163
United Kingdom: 156 (presumably Andrea and Greg)
Latvia: 69
South Korea: 65
Slovenia: 44
Brazil: 39

I'd be very interested in knowing what appeal this blog has to someone from, say, Latvia, so I welcome any and all international guests to post comments.

Most Popular Posts
Board Games at the Bijou (presumably because this is at the top of my "Earl's Greatest Hits" list)
Journey to the Edge of Nowhere, Part V (gratifying; I spent a lot of time on this - I suppose this comes up for people searching for Leaf Rapids, Manitoba)
My Kingdom for Some Potato Skins (a mundane post; I have no idea why this is in the top ten)
Earl's First Attempt at Cooking with the New Oven (see above)
Journey to the Edge of Nowhere, Part VII (same as part V)
First Glimpse at Our New Home (mundane again)
Thanks, Kevin (fans of Kevin Taft must have liked this)
James Cameron (no surprise here; Cameron is famous)
Return to the Dungeons (D&D fans, I presume)
Superhero Speeches #1: The End of My Double Life, by Clark Kent (I'm glad this wound up in the top ten; I think it turned out quite well)

If I'm reading Blogger's stats page correctly, this blog has attracted 7,916 pageviews since May. I have no idea if that's a lot in the world of blogs, but it doesn't seem too bad to me, given the haphazard nature of my posts. There's no real unifying theme to this blog; it's mostly a collection of my random thoughts on pop culture, politics and daily life in western Canada. Writers thrive on readership like thirsty emotional vampires, so I'm doubly appreciative of everyone who visits.

I hope you and yours have a great New Year's celebration tonight, wherever you may be. And may 2011 be a banner year for you, yours, and everyone on our good, green earth.