Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Six continents heard from.
Despite what the little map thingy over there in the sidebar may say, this blog has now had visitors from six continents in the six weeks or so since I installed the little map thingy. I am amazed! But red dots indicating visitors from Brazil, Argentina, Aruba, Israel, China, India, and Mongolia have now disappeared. Does anyone know how long the red dots stay? They are a fickle lot, I must say.
An interesting fact about the little map thingy is that New Zealand does not appear on it at all. But this blog has been visited a couple of times by New Zealanders (Hi, Katherine!) and their flag showed up, but their red dot did not.
Who lands on what is a fascinating study in itself. One of the most surprising trips through cyberspace occurred a couple of days ago when a visitor from Uganda landed on a post of mine about Ira Gershwin and a song he wrote called “Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Moon”!
Here is a list, in alphabetical order, of the flags I have seen in the live traffic feed:
Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Mexico, Mongolia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam.
That’s 35 countries. I managed to save most of the flags on my hard drive, and I would show them to you, but that requires more work than I want to do at the moment. Suffice it to say that when I began keeping track of visitors I had no idea that so many people from so many places would find their way here.
I suppose I must be satisfied with six continents. The seventh one, Antarctica, is uninhabited. But I’m still hoping to see Iceland and Ukraine and Sweden and Uruguay and Nepal and Hungary and Ghana and Chile and Zimbabwe and....
Update, 1/20/2009. Chile showed up as if summoned, barely after I got the words in the previous paragraph onto the screen. Ugandans may like Ira Gershwin, but Chileans apparently go ga-ga over Beethoven. Who would have thought? Perhaps I should not make such sweeping generalizations from such a small statistical sample. --RHB
Update, 1/24/2009. Finland, South Africa, and Hungary have also showed up here in the last four days. Thirty-nine countries to date. I’m seriously considering applying for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations, unless the nod has already been given to Caroline Kennedy. --RHB
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I'm impressed, but not surprised. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I always show up on these virtual map/counters as being from Watson, Illinois...I am from Ohio. Not quite accurate, are they? Or, am I misunderstanding somehow?
ReplyDeletePat - thanks! I think you have been reading my posts for a year now.
ReplyDeleteMary @ Annie's Goat Hill - I don't think I have seen a comment from you before. Welcome to my blog! Very strange about the Ohio/Illinois thing, especially since Indiana is in between...my handy-dandy road atlas shows no Watson in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, or Kentucky. Curiouser and curiouser! I always thought the place shown was the location of your server, not necessarily your place of residence, but if there is no Watson in four states, I am at a loss to explain it. By the way, your blogname (not "Mary" but the "Annie's Goat Hill" part) is intriguing; I will have to drop by your blog and check it out.
P.S. to Mary @ Annie's Goat Hill - Sometimes a handy-dandy road atlas just doesn't do the job. It turns out there *is* a Watson, Illinois, and you can read all about it here.
ReplyDeleteWatson is one mile in diameter and has a population of 729. Maybe you live in "greater Watson."
P.P.S. to Mary @ Annie's Goat Hill and other interested readers - I think I have solved the mystery! I checked in Wikipedia further and found that there is also a Watson, Indiana, that is just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Kentucky. But that made little sense because Cincinnati is a lot closer to you than Louisville. I searched further. I think you are accessing the outside world through the Watson Library at Wilmington College in Wilmington, Ohio, which a map reveals is also in southwestern Ohio, not all that far from you! And Wilmington College has a branch in Cincinnati for adult education, so I suppose they are linked into the same databases. The article I read said that the Watson Library had access to over one hundred databases, so maybe they "serve" the community in this other way as well.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't explain why the Live Traffic Map thingy would say Watson, Illinois. Maybe it is all just a big coincidence, but it is undoubtedly all just a big mistake.
I am giggling! Not laughing at you, but because I question and dig into things, and you REALLY do. Ha ha ha! Amazing connections that you found, really, and Wilmington College is about 30 minutes away from here. Perhaps it is a tie into the words somehow, locations, I do not know, but I will be thinking about this again. No doubt!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I try to step outside of my normal reading area (friends and blogs that I read) from time to time. I look for interesting blogs, stumbled across yours. That is how it happened.
Interesting that your wife uses goat milk products. There are a lot of people that do. But it is not something you generally find at the corner market, not something you would find with a huge brand name and still be hand crafted. That is the beauty of it.