Recently, the House welcomed its 5,000 visitor!

It was probably me.

My guess would be that I visit my own site 7 or more times a day. Taken over the 2.5 month life span of the blog that adds up to about 500 visits or 10% of the total.

And then there’s BlogExplosion.

This is a very interesting site building tool for several reasons. First, it does generate traffic. My unique visitors are back up to where they were just prior to the election. Secondly, there are some very interesting and weird people out there (you know who you are) with some very interesting and weird blogsites.

The personal blogs are by and large…well, um, personal. Some are poignantly so. Others…well let’s just say that if I read one more blog about how the baby wet here or there…or how life is crap because so-and-so dumped me…or one more agonizing rant about should I or should I not sleep with him…I’m gonna barf in my boots. Look folks, it’s one thing to post that stuff for your friends or family, but hey! I’m not Oprah, Jerry Springer, or a Father Confessor; what possessed you to put this crap on the web for everyone to see?

Now before you’all leave a nasty comment let me also say this…there’s some tremendously talented people out there (and you probably know who you are also). I do try to read every site I’m directed to and even if the subject matter is mundane, a good writer can make a baby’s accident into a hilariously funny bit. And it is interesting sometimes to read about someone’s pratfalls on life’s grand stage. So by and large, I’d say the hour or so I spend building credits on Blogexplosion is well worth it.

I’ve also gotten some excellent ideas for the coming upgrade for this site. Even if the content may be lacking, some of the worst written sites have the absolute best layouts! When I get this blog onto some kind of webhosting and have a pro design it, I’ll have many of you to thank for whatever the finished product is.

One other boast, if I may be allowed…This post I wrote on the Groningen Protocols was selected as a finalist for this week’s Watcher’s Council over at Watchers of Weasels. After 15 years of not writing a word, it’s finally starting to come back to me, albeit slowly. Yes, it’s still a struggle to rattle off 500-750 words for a post…but instead of taking two hours or so a couple of months ago, it’s starting to flow a little better and I can do it in less than an hour now. While that may not seem important, I used to be able to turn out pretty good stuff that length in about 20 minutes when I was writing for a living back in the 1980’s. Back then, I could “see” what I wanted to write and it was just a matter of typing it on the paper. The finished product was generally readable and sometimes even eloquent. Haven’t gotten that for yet…but as I said, it’s coming.