Stats

Posted on December 2, 2013December 2, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Yesterday started a new month and as I usually do, I reviewed my stats for the month and check to see how I was doing compared to last year. My goal is to improve the traffic to my blog so as long as my numbers beat the previous year I figure I’m going in the right direction.
One of my favorite stats to check is where my readers have come from. WordPress has not only a list, but a map and I think this is so cool.
This is what the map looks like since I’ve been blogging on WordPress.

Country	Views
United States	47,422
Canada	1,065
United Kingdom	451
Germany	285
France	281
Russian Federation	259
India	209
Australia	179
Italy	134
Netherlands	121
Taiwan	120
Brazil	104
Indonesia	75
Philippines	68
Croatia	68
Greece	67
Finland	65
Republic of Korea	65
Slovakia	65
Spain	64
Mexico	63
Malaysia	62
Bulgaria	59
Argentina	58
Poland	54
Thailand	53
Portugal	51
Sweden	51
Czech Republic	51
Turkey	50
Japan	48
Belgium	46
Switzerland	46
Romania	45
Denmark	40
Pakistan	36
South Africa	35
New Zealand	34
Ireland	34
Israel	32
Hong Kong	32
Hungary	32
Ukraine	31
Singapore	28
Colombia	27
Ecuador	25
Serbia	24
Puerto Rico	24
Chile	23
Trinidad and Tobago	19
Norway	17
United Arab Emirates	16
Lithuania	16
Saudi Arabia	14
Viet Nam	13
Nigeria	13
Austria	13
Egypt	11
Dominican Republic	11
Peru	10
Moldova	10
Kuwait	10
Iceland	9
Qatar	8
Iraq	8
Malta	8
Bangladesh	8
Latvia	8
Costa Rica	7
Slovenia	7
Belarus	7
Venezuela	7
Guatemala	6
Algeria	6
Guam	6
Barbados	6
Georgia	6
Albania	5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	5
Kenya	5
Sri Lanka	4
Bolivia	4
Estonia	4
Jordan	3
Cyprus	3
Jamaica	3
Paraguay	3
Cambodia	3
Oman	2
Tunisia	2
Lebanon	2
Panama	2
Lao People’s Democratic Republic	2
Bahamas	2
Rwanda	1
Cuba	1
China	1
Palestinian Territory, Occupied	1
Guyana	1
Senegal	1
United Republic of Tanzania	1
Mauritania	1
Macao	1
Myanmar	1
Yemen	1
El Salvador	1
Faroe Islands	1
French Guiana	1
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic	1
Turks and Caicos Islands	1
Luxembourg	1
Syrian Arab Republic	1
Antigua and Barbuda	1
Uruguay	1
Cayman Islands	1
Fiji	1
Uganda	1
Honduras

So , my fellow bloggers, do you check your stats too? Which stat is your favorite?

50 Years Ago Today

Posted on November 22, 2013November 22, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. Words that are always associated with John F. Kennedy. Words that helped inspire us to walk on the moon. But words that today speak to the many sacrifices made by our loved ones in the armed forces.

Today our Nation is divided in more ways than ever. While loved ones fight on foreign soil, welfare, drugs and crime run rampant at home. Ban guns or protect our right to bear arms? Democrats and Republicans would bring the country to a standstill rather than work together.

50 years ago today John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The controversy and conspiracy theories still abound. Single shooter, pawn of the evil empire? For some that question will never be answered.

But today, none of that matters.

Today is a day to Remember.

Polite Dinner Conversation

Posted on November 18, 2013November 18, 2013 by Dusty Roads

I still have a couple of more stories from the Horse Show to share but I haven’t had time to prepare the photos so I’m going to take a break from that topic for today.

I was noticing on Facebook that lately my newsfeed has been full of religious posts and political posts. Luckily my friends haven’t stooped to sexual posts yet (for the most part).

It makes me wonder, didn’t anyone ever teach them that the 3 things that are never to be discussed at the dinner table (ie polite company) are religion, politics and sex? Now don’t get me wrong. I like religion, politics and sex but in small doses…moderation in all things; balance in life.

What particularly annoys me is when 1 friend posts 20 or 25 posts in a row all about how to be saved or how God in her life is carrying her troubles. Come on. I got it after the first one or two, especially when you considered this person does this multiple post thing two or three times a day.

I friended her because when I knew her she was an interesting, dynamic person. She had lots of things to talk about. Now it seems saving the souls of her facebook friends is all she can talk about…that and her weight loss. I don’t want to un-friend her but I would like my newsfeed back to normal.

It’s like religious spam. Don’t get me wrong. I respect her faith and her right to hold it close. I just don’t need to be reminded about it constantly. ( I have many very religious friends of all persuasions and only this one thinks it’s ok to spam)

Now on the political side. All these posts about Obama… all bad too…are a waste of space. I get it. The person/ persons posting this dribble didn’t vote for Obama and takes great pleasure in pointing out his shortcomings. What I don’t get is why I should care ( whether I voted for the man or not. ) It’s done. He won but soon he’ll be done. He’ll be out of office before you know it. He can’t run again. Move on. If you want to make political commentary then do it in an intelligent manner. How about discussing (please note I said discussing) the affordable health care law?

How is it affecting you? Research it so your comments are backed by some understanding. Too much of it is just sharing a political cartoon over and over . I love a good political discussion when it’s factual and well researched.

I have one friend that used to get wonderful , thoughtful discussions going on everything from the war on terror to gun laws.

His comments were always well thought out and researched. His friends that commented didn’t always agree but they were as articulate and informed as he. It made for some lively reading. I enjoyed it but he’s gone. Facebook got too trivial for him.

A few of my crude friends do occasionally post a “like / share “on a sexually explicit photo. I don’t know what gets into them because they know better and they would be the first to yell if they had children and saw it on their feed. I’m sure they just didn’t use good judgment. They just didn’t think.

So here’s the bottom line, then I will rant no more until the next time. 🙂

If you want to save my soul, please do it in moderation. If you want to raise political awareness, please do your homework, and if you want to look at sexually explicit photos, please don’t share. Remember what your mother should have taught you…Never discuss religion, politics or sex at the dinner table.

disclaimer: I don’t wish to offend anyone. These are just my personal observations of my own newsfeed.

Quick Trip to The Massachusetts Registry

Posted on November 8, 2013November 8, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Mass Pass, Easy Pass, Fast Pass….all names for the High speed , don’t stop, toll lane. You all know the one, it’s supposed to be more efficient, no need for humans and you can’t avoid paying the toll with this system.

On my last vacation in Florida I ran afoul of the Sun Pass lane.

I was in a rental and didn’t have a transponder. My GPS was repeating keep right, keep right so I was hugging the right hand lane…oops, that was a little too far right. I was stuck in the Sun Pass lane. This happened a few times and when I reported it to the car rental company they just laughed. I was assured that I would get a bill. Well, no bill just a series of automatic charges to my credit card, each one carrying an additional “administrative fee”.

I don’t drive too many toll roads. Except for mishaps like in Florida I seldom have a need to pay tolls. I bet I don’t spend $10 on tolls in any given year so I just pay the old fashioned way, with cash. Well Massachusetts announced it is taking down the toll booths. Everyone needs a transponder because paying cash will soon be obsolete. Without a transponder you will have your license plate photographed and run through the registry so they can bill you, after adding on that pesky administration fee. If they think you are trying to be a “Toll Evader” the fine can get hefty.

Needless to say, I found this incentive enough to decide to bite the bullet and get a transponder. The equipment is free but you have to set up an account so they can automatically take the toll out of your bank account or charge a credit card. You can enroll online and they will mail you a transponder or you can pick one up at designated locations and registries.

Silly me. I thought that I could just drop in and get my transponder, like a store. Ha! I was handed paperwork to fill out about me, about my car. When I returned the paperwork I was given a number. It said only 19 ahead of me. Since the registry was filled to overflowing I was directed to the “overflow” waiting room. It was only 49 degrees outside and the registry didn’t bother to turn on the heat. That might be ok for a short wait but as 15 minutes turned to 20 and then 30 I began to get a little chilled. Worse, I was in “A” queue and that wasn’t being called at all.

I sat next to a young man from the “I” queue and we began a friendly competition to see who would get called first. We were “neck and neck” as the elapsed time rolled into the 2nd hour. Finally I was 1 number away. I moved into the main room where there was wonderful heat. My number came up right after that. As I was standing at the window going through all the information on the form for the clerk I heard the “I” numbers get called and there was my young friend. He’d made it to the window next to me.

Total time at the registry to pick up a transponder….2 hours and 28 minutes. Next time I’m signing up online.

NaNoWriMo is Here

Posted on November 4, 2013November 4, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Don’t know what it means? Don’t feel bad, I didn’t either. I know it always rolls around in November but I thought it was a challenge to bloggers to post at least one post a day, no restrictions, no minimum, no maximum, just be dedicated enough to post at least once a day.

For a part time blogger that can be tough but the point of the exercise is to create a new habit..or so I thought.

I decided to look it up for once and I found out the NaNoWriMo really stands for National Novel Writing Month! It was started to encourage budding athors to pursue their dream of writing a novel, maybe not the GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL, but who knows what’s locked inside if you never get started.

Now reading novels is more my speed than writing them but that doesn’t mean I don’t embrace the idea of a month in which we make an attempt to post daily. One of the quotes I found says NaNoWriMo is all about writing something you want to write, just for you, without worrying about others sitting in judgment, so it’s an exercise in truly expressing yourself — which means, if you think about it, there really isn’t a way to fail!

Pretty cool idea, huh. I know I try very hard to make my posts interesting. When I don’t have first hand experience I put a lot of research into the subject. Sometimes that takes more time than actually writing the post so when, after all that, no one sees it or reads it, it can get kind of disheartening. I’m sure all of the other bloggers out there feel the same way.

Oh I know, you’re writing for yourself. You don’t care if no one else reads it. Don’t kid yourself. If you really didn’t care you wouldn’t put it out there for everyone to see. You’d have a private diary or journal.

So hop on the band wagon. See if you can post something every day in November, short or long, good or bad, just post something so you can be a part of NaNoWriMo.