Seriously?

I periodically check the traffic stats for this blog and for my business website, just to see what’s going on. Unlike stats for my website, which give me IP addresses and pages/documents viewed, the blog doesn’t provide IP addresses, just visitor counts, links used to reach the site, links used from the site, and search terms. The search terms that are used are often amusing, strange, and potentially disturbing…recent examples:

• regional capital,coastal city near concrete hand
• soviet self employees contacts 2009
• self employed using my own laptop expense
• funny story about a persnickety
• elbow patches heathrow
• non negotiables funny storry
• medieval inter tainment
• vodka, kahlua and cream
• how to mix a kahlua and cream
• planet 9 consultant

I’m intrigued by ‘funny story about a persnickety,’ I may have to use the googles on the inter-tube to see what they may have been all about. ‘Elbow patches Heathrow‘ absolutely cracks me up, I think that might defy rational explanation. People looking for a Kahlua & cream recipe got my story about flaming Russians. I’m not sure I want to know what ‘planet 9 consultant‘ was about, I wonder if that person’s other searches were ‘area 51′ and ‘fake moon landing.’

Psychosomatic

I’m nearing the end of a business trip to So-So Capital City in Pretend Balkan Country, the first time I’ve been here. I wouldn’t mind coming back, but this wouldn’t be near the top of my list of places to visit on vacation.

So much of this is so familiar to me as a post-communist place: my language/Cyrillic skills have come in handy; the same sort of communist mentality legacy; nearly everyone smokes during nearly every minute of the day; the cuisine is tasty although the range is somewhat limited; no washclothes in hotels (seriously, bring your own for post-communist countries); and even the same styles of buildings from the late 1800s to early 1900s (Art Nouveau and Secessionist) that you can see throughout Europe from Paris to Sofia. The overlay of Ottoman Empire history is a neat twist on what I’ve seen before, though, but I’m undecided about the local-language version of the Eagles’ Hotel California that has been on heavy radio rotation.

What is new to me is the extent to which the political arrangements here are just pretend. Goodness gracious, I haven’t seen so much pretending since my daughter and her friends dressed up as Disney princesses. Ethnic differences may have been wallpapered over with the assistance of the West, but the differences have become more meaningful, if anything. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to wake up one day and hear on the news that fighting between ethnic groups had broken out, EU and NATO be damned…or to hear nothing because everyone’s OK with pretending…could go either way, really.

Get Yours Now, Before They Run Out!

Generate your own academic sentences — it’s easy and fun for the whole family:

University of Chicago Writing Program

A Blog Post is Born

Actual conversation with my middle-school-aged son tonight:

The Boy: What’s that you’re typing on Facebook, Dad? What? Whaddya mean I’m contrarian like you — I’m not contrarian!

Me: Okaaaa-hahahahahahaha!

The Boy: I’m not contrarian! I’m NOT contrarian! I’m not contrarian!

Me: Hahahahahahah snort hahahahahaha!

The Boy: I’m NOT contrarian! I’m not contrarian!

Me: Hahahahahaha, do you even get why I’m laughing so hard that I’m crying?

The Boy: I’m not contrarian! I’m not contrarian! I’m not contrarian!

Me: Hahahahahahaha omygod I might pee in my pants hahahahahaha gifted & talented huh? hahahahahaha!

[some of you might recall my Contrarian post]