Thursday 13: My Favorite Posts

This week just happens to be my two year "blogiversary." I've written over 250 posts. Digging through 250 posts is a pretty daunting task for a newer reader so I figured I'd help you out. As a celebration of two whole years of blogging, I'm re-posting not only the entries that are my favorites, but the ones I think give the best feel of who I am. If you've been around for a while (thank you!), come reminisce with me... there's some good stuff here (if I don't say so myself!)

1. The Ping Pong Table

2. Kindergarten

3. What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

4. What's for Dinner?

5. Arachnophobia

6. Oh Great We're Gonna Die

7. My Biggest Fan

8. One Fry Short of a Happy Meal

9. Muscle Motion

10. Danger is My Middle Name

11. They're at it Again

12. Retro-Active Fortune Cookies and the Women Who Love Them

13. My New Apprentice

So after digging through all my posts, I realized my favorite ones are about my childhood memories. Of course that's what the original theme of this blog was... to write down my life story one memory at a time. I still try to write about my childhood memories now and then, but I haven't made a concerted effort to do so on a regular basis. I'm going to try and do more of an even mix of the past and the present from now on. Get back to the roots of this blog and what makes it fun.

To see more Thursday 13 participants click here.

Why You Will Never See Ads on My Blog

Because I don't have what it takes to be a famous blogger, yo. Or something like that. I've determined the following things are needed in order to be a famous blogger:

1. A fancy custom 'masthead' that changes on a monthly basis. I had no idea what a masthead was for the longest time. Can't I just call it a 'header'? Geez.

2. A fancy custom blog page. I could have this, but I'm too damn cheap. There's no way I'm actually paying someone to create a blog layout. You see that square full of shredded cheese up there? I did that myself... after hours and hours of manipulation. I thought it would be a permanent look for this place. I'm already getting sick of it. And I'm kicking myself for not thinking of drawing a picture of myself in Paint like my sister-in-law did on her blog.

3. Lots of swears. Damn and hell are as far as I go. Not that I couldn't get more profane, but I don't normally talk like that and it would likely offend 99% of my 15 readers and I need every last person I can trick into reading this stuff. Plus I just don't have the knack for perfectly placed curses.

4. Be a professional photographer. I suck at photography. Ok, it's not necessarily that I suck at it, I just don't care enough about it to invest the time and money into making professional looking pictures. Most of the time you're lucky there's pictures at all.

5. Regular use of the words 'vintage', 'antique', and 'retro.' The only thing vintage around here is the veneer on the kitchen cabinets. I haven't visited a thrift store in several years, unless you count the handful of times I've dropped off loads of old clothes. None of my furniture looks like it's from another (cooler) decade and the only 'art' hanging on the walls is the elementary-esque oil paintings I did in my early twenties.

6. A second blog (or three or four). I had a second blog at one point, but then I was like, What's the point? Then everybody has to go check a second blog and it's just one more thing to keep up on. Ok, maybe it's better to narrow down one main genre, but I don't really care. Just skip the posts you don't like. You're lucky to get posts at all.

7. Balls. I have none. I'm not talking literally here (you already knew I didn't have those)... the figurative ones. In order to get people to read your blog you have to actually tell them about it. I feel weird plugging this thing. I'm pretty much the worst salesman ever. Also, you have to be willing tell it like it is. Seeing as how the only people who read this are my close friends and family, writing anything offensive would be a bad idea. Unless that's what you're looking for... wait, are you?

8. Interviews & Guest Writers. I'm pretty sure you need friends in order to accomplish this. Plus my interviews would probably go something like this... "What's your favorite color?" "How many brothers and sisters do you have?" "What would you do if you had a million dollars?" You get the point.

9. Witty Comments & Remarks. It takes me ten minutes to leave a comment on somebody else's blog and/or respond to a commenter on my own blog and the response tends to be something like "Wow that's awesome!" Which is why if I haven't responded back to a comment you've left me, it's probably because I spent 30 minutes staring at the screen wracking my brain for something intelligent only to get frustrated and abort the whole process.

10. I couldn't think of a final prerequisite to round out the list. See? Totally not famous blog worthy thinking skills. Meh. Who needs the pressure anyway. Ok, maybe I'd like to give it a shot.

My Biggest Fan

For any of you familiar with the blogging world, Google Analytics is a pretty cool tool. I check my Analytics account every morning to see how many people visited my blog and where they come from.

I've had Analytics set up on my blog for over a month now and most cities that show up are familiar to me in one way or another... at least the ones with higher traffic. I expect visitors from Idaho and Utah cities because that's where most of my family and friends live. But there are always a lot of visits from Palo Alto, California and I couldn't for the life of me figure out who that visitor could be. How could I not know who was visiting me from Palo Alto when it was so often the #1 traffic producer for my blog?

Call it an early morning brain peak or months of subconscious deep thinking, but this morning as I was checking my Analytics account when I first got to work, I had a revelation. Palo Alto was ME. The company I work for has a major site in Palo Alto and their Internet connection must be routed through there. All along this top visitor to my blog was ME. Not some random adoring fan. Not some stranger who stumbled across my blog and now visited on a daily basis because of my wonderful wit and charm. It was ME. ME and my addiction to my own blog.

Of course instead of keeping this information to myself I chose to post it for all my readers to see. What do you expect? My ego has just been crushed.... I've got to do something to build it up again. And what better way to boost an ego than to write a new post to suck in more readers? I feel better already.

A Major Award! A Major Award! I Won! I Won! I Won!

What a great way to end the week! Allison nominated me for a favorite blog award! I actually feel pretty honored considering all the blogs she has linked on her page. It always makes me happy to know that there's a couple people out there that actually read my stuff.

I've known Allison for a long time. She lived just outside the cul de sac of the house where I grew up. She's good friends with my sister, Corinne and I'm sure she had to deal with my little sister pestering more than once. What can I say? I always thought my sister and her friends were cool.

Now apparently there's rules to this nomination thing, but I'm going to break them a little. Hope that doesn't disqualify me. :D

So here are the rules:

1. Put the award on your blog.

2. Include a link to the person who gave you the award.

3. Nominate 6 or more blogs.

4. Leave a message on their blog letting them know they have an award on your blog.

Now Rule #3 is a little tough for me. I don't follow all that many blogs and a lot of the ones I do follow already have like a bajillion readers. I would have nominated 3, but since Allison has already been nominated, I'm going to pick 2 that I think are really deserving.

#1 Rachel- Rachel is my sister-in-law and her blog is amazing. She has two kids, but she doesn't have that mommy bug that so many bloggers have where all they post about is their children. Rachel does post about her kids, but the posts are so heartfelt and honest and beautiful. Of course everything she writes about is that way. Rachel has a lot of character and feeling in her writing and I wait with baited breath for each new post.

#2 Annie- Annie is my sister and she's relatively new to the blogging world. In fact she's only been at it for a couple of months. But so far her posts have been really entertaining and she updates her blog on a pretty regular basis (this was one of my criteria for choosing my favorites). She too has a new baby, but she's kept a good balance of material on her blog. Plus her daughter is one of the cutest kids ever so I don't mind reading about her! I know you'll all be disappointed to find that her blog is private, but maybe if you're nice to her she'll give you access.

Slacker Me

Ok I know I haven't done a post for awhile so this is just to keep you interested while I put something together. You'd think I could have managed to find some time during my almost two week vacation over Christmas, but somehow, I didn't.

It's funny though because I swear I check everyone else's blogs almost everyday and start to get annoyed when they don't have a new post on at least a weekly basis. Then I realize I haven't done one for a month. Crazy me.