"A mind once stretched by a new idea can never regain its original dimensions." ~Oliver Wendall Holmes

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

Year 2 in the life of a clustermap

The map above is my archived map, while the map below is the map with all of the individual dots and has more detail.

Last year I was just under 4000 readers, so there are alot more people out there who are reading. And lots of people who are reading everyday. And it's fun to see where they are all from.


Current Country Totals
From 8 Feb 2009 to 9 Feb 2010


United States (US)4,737
Japan (JP)98
Canada (CA)54
United Kingdom (GB)50
Australia (AU)23
India (IN)22
Brazil (BR)19
Malaysia (MY)14
Germany (DE)13
Spain (ES)11
Korea, Republic of (KR)10
Romania (RO)9
Italy (IT)8
Russian Federation (RU)8
Indonesia (ID)7
New Zealand (NZ)6
Singapore (SG)5
Netherlands (NL)5
United Arab Emirates (AE)5
Philippines (PH)5
Pakistan (PK)4
Poland (PL)4
Sweden (SE)4
South Africa (ZA)3
Argentina (AR)3
Belgium (BE)3
Portugal (PT)3
Turkey (TR)3
Taiwan (TW)3
Vietnam (VN)3
Mexico (MX)3
Saudi Arabia (SA)3
Egypt (EG)3
Guatemala (GT)2
Norway (NO)2
Ukraine (UA)2
Thailand (TH)2
Denmark (DK)2
Colombia (CO)2
Costa Rica (CR)2
Hungary (HU)2
China (CN)2
France (FR)2
Ireland (IE)1
Peru (PE)1
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY)1
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)1
Finland (FI)1
Israel (IL)1
Estonia (EE)1
Greece (GR)1
Saint Lucia (LC)1
Nepal (NP)1
Chile (CL)1
Macedonia (MK)1
Slovakia (SK)1
Czech Republic (CZ)1
Austria (AT)1
Hong Kong (HK)1

Monday, February 08, 2010

Word verification

The blog has been getting hit lately by alot of spam comments....advertisements, jibberish, and such. Apparently this is happening more and more to alot of people's blogs, so it's a wide spread problem. I have always gotten spam comments, but before it was maybe one or two every few weeks and I would just go in and find the comment and delete it. Now I'm getting more spam comments than real comments and it seems to be happening on a daily basis. To try to reduce this problem, I have enabled word verification on the comments section of my blog. This just means that after you write a comment, you will just have to type in some random series of letters so that the blog knows you are a real person, not just a spam generating computer. I hope this small step doesnt deter anyone from commenting.


IN OTHER NEWS...
I'm sick. On Saturday, I spent my whole day wrapped around the toilet vomiting violently. My whole body was sore on Sunday and I had lost almost 3 pounds (now I see why people turn bulimic) . On Sunday I felt better and was able to eat, but still wasnt back to normal. Then this morning I was back to vomiting again. So, I stayed home. And the time I'm not spending in the bathroom hugging the toilet, I spent in bed sleeping. I honestly dont thing I've ever slept so much (and that's saying something, cause I love to sleep). I tried to go to work this morning. I got up and dressed and tried to convince myself that I could do it and that I would be fine, but I was miserable. I have so much happening at school right now that I just didnt want to be absent. I felt terrible about not being there. I usually dont feel that way, but today I did.

We had our 2nd annual ThanksSuperBowl party on Sunday. Since all of us friends here usually are traveling around the holidays, we dont get a chance to do anything together. So on the day of the SuperBowl, everyone cooks a Thanksgiving type of dish and we all get together. My stomach was still pretty uncertain yesterday, so I did not get to enjoy the gorging to its fullest. However, seeing the Saints win made up for it! We had fun! And its has now become a yearly tradition.

Tax time is here. I am again doing taxes for a bunch of people. I havent started yet, but the idea of adding another thing to my insanely long list of things to do is daunting.

Avery is doing so awesome. These last couple of months he has really matured alot. Many of the ideas and concepts that I've been trying to teach him are finally coming together...taking responsibility for you actions, being nice to people if you want them to be nice to you, having an attitude just makes life that much harder. It has been fun to watch him grow and mature right in front of my eyes....and it makes all the struggles worth it.

Avery school pictures are in and I got a bunch of the Alaska bird calendars for people. I know it's late in the year for a calendar, but they were free and I've sent them out every year that I've been here. So I'll be sending out calendars and school pictures soon.

I know there are lots of other things going on, but this is all the energy can muster for blog writing today. I'm going to go back to the groove that I've carved out in the couch now.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

I just dont feel like it

I know I should post something new and I have lots of ideas about things I want to say, but I havent been feeling well these last couple of days and I just dont feel like doing much of anything. I'll get it together soon.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

30 things to do before I turn 31

  1. Vacation in another country
  2. Get a summer job
  3. Touch a glacier
  4. Pay off my credit cards or truck
  5. Read at least 5 books from Newsweek's Top 100 Books:The Meta List
  6. Lose another 20 pounds
  7. Take a family photo
  8. Finish my Rubicon curriculum maps
  9. Take an exercise class
  10. Use my cookbooks to create a dish once per month
  11. Read Charles Darwin's On the Origins of Species
  12. Spend (most of) the summer in Alaska
  13. Create a profile on my HS alumni website
  14. Ship more of my belongings from Ohio to Alaska
  15. Update my resume
  16. Filet, cook, and eat a salmon that I caught
  17. Start (and contribute regularly to) a vacation fund
  18. Host a girls spa night or a game night
  19. Plan a Bingo get together with as many people as I can get
  20. Finish playing Zelda: Twilight Princess
  21. Read the Golden Compass Trilogy aloud with Avery
  22. Ban (almost) all Christmas spending this year
  23. Take enough credits(12) to move over a column on the pay scale
  24. Find a new favorite drink
  25. Visit/volunteer at the local senior center
  26. Update my photo albums
  27. Attend a city council meeting
  28. Give an anonymous gift
  29. Play in the snow/build a snow cave
  30. Visit at least 3 Alaskan villages/towns/cities that I've never been to
The first four on the list are goals that I did not get completed on my last birthday list and the rest are new. I wanted to focus on goals that I can definitely accomplish and stay away from goals that I have no control over. I also focused on goals that have a definite end so that I can write about them as they get completed. I'm looking forward to a whole new year of fun and excitement!

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a great day today. Some of the kids found out it was my birthday and hung a sign on my door. I had kids coming in all morning wishing me "Happy Birthday" before I finally realized why. My friend baked me the most amazing cookies and Avery baked me a cake. That's all great and everything, but the problem is that I actually ate all that stuff. Way too many calories!

The big 30...

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Unaccomplished goals

Seeing as how I turn 30 in about an hour, I thought I'd better wrap up the old birthday list so that I can start working on the new one...

There are 6 goals on my previous birthday list that I did not get accomplished. I did get 23 out of 29 completed though, so I'm pretty happy with that. Some of these goals were things that I could not control.

3. See the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights)
4. Pay off my credit cards or truck
8. Vacation in a different country
9. Get a summer job
18. Fall in love
23. Touch a glacier

I'm really close to having Number 4 completed. Probably only a few more months until my truck is paid off. I would still like to accomplish all of these things, so I've been debating with myself about what I should do with these goals. I could just leave them alone on this birthday list and go back and check them off if I do get them completed OR I could make them the first 6 goals for my new birthday list. What do you think readers? I'm posting a survey on the sidebar where you can vote, but you better hurry up...I'm hoping to post my new birthday list soon!

Monday, February 01, 2010

Tuntutuliak and back

Here are the pics...I'll write about it as soon as I get a chance.

































Sunday, January 31, 2010

FINALLY!

We got the snowmachine back yesterday! Then a couple friends invited me to ride down to a village called Tuntutuliak. We rode about 120 miles today. It took about three hours down and three hours back. It was a great day for riding. Nice and warm (about 20 degrees ABOVE zero). I'm so sore I can hardly move now...I can only imagine how sore I'm going to be tomorrow!

I'll post pics from the trip soon!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Number 26

The birthday list goal was to read the Bible. Did I read it? Yes, some of it. No, not all of it. I definitely started it with the intent to read the whole thing, but it is going to take some time. I am on track to read it all and have made it farther than ever before. I am going to call this birthday goal complete in the spirit of having made it far enough through and having made reading it a habit, that I know I will make it through the whole thing eventually, but maybe not even this year. It's just too big of a project. I am enjoying my journey through the book and have been journaling as I go as well to record my thoughts as I read through.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Number 16

Number 16 on the birthday list is complete. This Monday we had baked potatoes and stuffing. This monday will be cheese quesadillas, mexican rice, and beans. This has turned out to be a really great goal for me and much easier than I had originally thought it would be. I have enjoyed it very much. I dont think I ate vegetarian once EVERY single week (especially when I was on vacation or travelling), but I know there were weeks when I ate vegetarian twice in one week. If there are 52 weeks in the year, I think I am safe in saying that I ate vegetarian for at least 52 days out of the year. I am hoping to expand on that in the coming months...I would like to get up to two vegetarian days per week...or at least vegetarian dinners(which usually lead to lunch, because most of the dinner leftovers are what I eat for lunch).