Author: Michelle

Statistics

I never really liked statistics. In fact it was the one class I failed in college. I wound up changing majors, so I didn’t have to take it again thankfully. But one thing I have found about statistics is that they tell me where all of my readers are coming from. And that part of it is fun for me.

In the past week I’ve had visitors from: Everett, Snohomish, Redmond, and Spokane Washington, Honolulu Hawaii, Cumming, Alpharetta, Douglasville, Lithia Springs, and Marietta Georgia, Centre Alabama, Lanse Michigan, Norman and Purcell Oklahoma, Tuepelo Mississippi, Pittsburgh, Grove City, and Hazelton Pennsylvania, Fresno and Los Angeles California, Manchester England, Nordrhein-Westfalen Strae, Germany, Cholla-namdo Naju, Republic of Korea, Montreal Quebec Canada, Paris France, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates – just to name some of the places represented. Some of these places I had to get out the atlas to find, so I’ve actually gotten a geography lesson out of the statistics as well. And please, don’t feel left out if I didn’t list your area. Yesterday was such a busy day, it completely blew my mind and added so many other places that I hadn’t already listed. I’m thankful for everyone of you.

Now I can’t say for certain how some of you may have found me and this blog, but I can say this. I’m glad you’ve stopped by. You’ve introduced me to some new places and brought back memories of other places I’ve been and lived.

So keep coming back, and let me know where you are from. I love learning about new places.

Tone It Down

** Note – this is a raw post, unedited, other than to correct spelling errors. It is emotionally driven, but it’s something I felt I had to post. Regular Brain Drops will resume tomorrow.  **

Tone down the rhetoric. After the horrific happenings this past weekend in Tuscon, that’s one phrase I keep hearing. But it should start at the top. When the politicians are so busy sniping at each other, finger pointing, and name calling, it’s no wonder the rest of society acts the way it does. The media doesn’t help either. They give attention to those that really shouldn’t get it, which emboldens those spouting hate and divisiveness even more. I am all for free speech, especially as a writer. But common sense and courtsey has to have a place too. This church that protests funerals – really? The people there are grieving, probably having one of the worst days of their lives, and you want to add to the misery by spewing your “free speech”. I can’t even think straight to write this right now. I’m thinking about making this a blog post, but then again, I wonder if it’s best to just keep it in my private files and not add fuel to the fire. It’s one of those things that frustrates me. I want to change the world, to make it better, but then I see things like this and it just makes me so frustrated and mad. How can we as a society accept this? Have we gotten so lazy, so apathetic, that we just accept it and live in our own little world with our blinders on. Thinking, maybe, this won’t affect me or happen to me, so I won’t do anything to change it. I’ll just go about my life and do my thing and not bother anyone else. It’s no wonder we are falling behind in so many areas. It’s no wonder we’re in debt up to our eyeballs. No one wants to take responsibiity. Maybe I should post this just the way it is, unedited, for all to see. Maybe that’s what we need, a wake up call. Maybe I think too much of myself to think that my one little blog post could be that wake up call. Then again, there is the concept of the butterfly effect – one action, leads to another, to another… I suppose I will sit on this a few days, hopefully the news will tone it down a bit. A comment from a friend on facebook “so much of this is motivated by our manic greediness” really is true also. I look at the “stories” the news is reporting and I wonder why is some of this considered news? Do we really need to know every detail of everyones lives? Can we not allow some areas to be private in the lives of the famous and the not famous people that somehow wind up on the news anyway.

I don’t have any easy answers. In fact I don’t know that I have any answers as all. But I do feel a little better now that I have gotten this out of my head.

 

Following Rabbit Trails

So last week I had out patient surgery for a varicose vein that has been bothering me for years. Because of this, I wasn’t able to do a lot for the remainder of the week, other than sit around, keep my leg elevated, and try not to go stir crazy. Thankfully one of my Christmas presents was a Macbook Air, so I was able to at least use my computer while sitting on the couch. Otherwise I would have been extremely contorted at my desk trying to keep my leg up. But that’s off topic. Back to the rabbit trail.

I invested or spent, depending on how you look at rabbit trails, a lot of time reading. Blogs, news, tweets, help topics, reviews, pretty much anything that was written on line that was broadcast into my little on line world of twitter, facebook, and google reader. And along the way I have found out something interesting.

Rabbit trails are the way to market today. Whether you are a musician, writer, business, whatever… The more rabbit trails you create, the more you spread your word. You create buzz, traffic, and hopefully in the end, you accomplish your goal, whether that be getting your name or product out there, or increasing your business. But notice, the rabbit trails I followed weren’t from print ads, or commercials on tv (which I actually watched less of this past week), or radio spots. They were from links that you posted on twitter. Or maybe it was your blog. Or maybe something someone said on facebook that led me to do a search on google. It all comes back to social media and an on line presence. Now I’m no expert in this field, there are plenty out there who claim to be. But if I can figure this out it must not be that hard. So I ask, if you not, why aren’t you using this as a tool to get your word out? And if you are, have you noticed a change? Is it working? Any advice you’d share?

I’m off to follow more rabbit trails, and see what else I’ll learn.