100 Posts: A Look Back

So, last night my review of Troy Blackford's "For Those With Eyes to See" was my 100th post on the doofus blog.

In the interest of self interest, I thought I'd take a look at the "Stats" that have been run up here over the past few years.

All Time page views:  6,138  (673 last month)

Most Viewed Posts:

5 Worst NFL Uniforms Nov 17, 2011	593
Top 5 NFL Team Uniforms Nov 18, 2011	404
Top Ten NBA Coaches May 24, 2012	386
Saying Goodbye to Seau May 21, 2012, 1 comment	177
NFL Kickoff Blog starts at 7:30 pm Central Sep 5, 2012	109

Two of my earliest posts ever, have the most views.  Also, I've found that "Top 10" and "Top 5" lists are popular.

Glad to see 177 views of my "Saying Goodbye to Seau" post.  That was a hard one to write for me.

Top "Search Keywords" that have led people to my blog:

scott brooks	141
musings of a sports doofus	26
worst sports uniforms	22
ugly browns fans	21
grace potter	10
sports doofus	9

So, Oklahoma City Thunder Head Coach Scott Brooks is number 1, and by a long way.  Which is strange because I think I've only written about him one time.  Also love the "ugly browns fans" search.

The Audience of this blog:

United States	4191
Russia	261
France	213
Germany	209
United Kingdom	130
Canada	63
China	59
Sweden	53
Philippines	45
Australia	24

So mostly Americans, which is understandable, because I'm American and my facebook and twitter followers are American.  Surprising to see Russia in 2nd on this list.  Again, Welcome Comrades!

By Month... the most views of this blog

April 2013 with 848 views

May 2013 (still not over!) with 644 views at this writing.

September 2012 with 445 views

As you can see from the picture below, the attention being paid to the blog appears to continue to grow.

As to why I started this blog... I'm not really sure.  I just felt like I had some opinions on things, and wanted to put them out there.  I'm not whining or anything, but I don't really have a lot of close friends, and many of those live quite a ways away.

It was just a way for me to communicate my thoughts, originally on sports, but then amended to include Television, Movies, Music, and whatever else I find interesting.

It's still mostly about sports.  April being the (former) home of the NFL draft, and my live blogging of it the past year was certainly the reason that last month had the most views.

What does all this mean?  Nothing much.  I'm just a guy with a keyboard, who likes sports and popular culture.

Thanks for reading this.  If you're a regular visitor to the blog...feel free to sign up to be a "follower".  I only have 5!  Maybe someone with 100 posts and only 5 followers should "wise up" and stop "wasting his time" by typing a bunch of worthless drivel.  But I'm not going to.

Tell some friends, spread the word... I bet we could double the number of followers in a Month!  

(that's a little joke, I know... I'm not funny)

Thanks again.  We'll see you in the funny papers.

Mark

Book Talk: For Those with Eyes to See

So, as I said in my last book post a few weeks back, I'm not a book reviewer.  In fact, I cannot fathom how someone would become such a thing.  It's not that I don't appreciate it... I'm always reading the reviews of the books I am choosing to read, or have read, or whatever.  I understand it takes skill and knowledge that frankly, I do not have.

However, I do enjoy reading and try to get through as many books as I can.  I can never get through as many as I want to, and I usually have a "waiting list" about 10 books deep.

A bit over a year ago, I signed up for twitter, and one of my earliest "follows" was a young writer by the name of Troy Blackford.  Mainly because it seemed like we had similar interests (mostly Stephen King) and he described himself as a "80's kid", which I was too (well, 80's teenager anyway).  So I followed Troy's twitter feed, and I thought that would pretty much be it.

Little did I know that he is writing constantly, and posting many of his stories... free for the world to see on his blog.  I read a few of them, but on a few "special occasions" Troy posted a link for FREE copies of his Trilogy:  Critical Incident, Emergent Pattern, and the soon to be released finale... Inimical Outcome.

I really have enjoyed these "novellas", and so a few weeks back, Troy mentioned on Twitter that he was looking for people to read copies of his collection of short stories "For Those with Eyes to See", I contacted him, and he sent it to me...and I just finished it.

So, where to begin?  Like I said, I'm not really a book "reviewer".  But, I really enjoyed these stories.  They were fast paced, and quick... which is important to me in short stories (I hate reading a book of short stories, and thinking...'when will this end?') .

The other point I'd like to make, is these stories were very original and creative.  I found myself often thinking "where did he come up with this?"... and I mean that in a good way, it was a positive.  I'd find myself smiling as I was reading the introduction to several of the stories.  You just never knew what road Troy was going to take you down.

A few of my favorites from this collection:  Ghost in the Machine, Discontinuity (I'm not sure if this is the same title in the book...I'm going off of Troy's website here..and that's the story, about the person stuck in the room, but I digress), and the title story "For Those with Eyes to See".  There were certainly other stories in there that I enjoyed.. but I'm having trouble remembering the titles right now.

Truthfully?  I enjoyed them all.

Troy also has a "full length" Novel available (I'm pretty sure he'll even send you a signed copy if you want) entitled:  Through the Woods.  Which I haven't read yet, but it is certainly on my "list" of books to purchase.

So, if you like stories, and even better, if you like stories that are imaginative, and fun, and fast moving... I'd highly recommend that you give Troy Blackford's For Those with Eyes to See a try.  I think you'll enjoy it, I certainly did.