Signs

No, not signs of the end of the world, though that is an idea. A business opportunity has so far been ignored there. Let's see...WARNING: WORLD ENDING. To the point if a bit uninspired. BEWARE OF DISINTEGRATING PLANETS. Practical and helpful but a bit long. THREE LANES REDUCING TO NONE (OK if there are three lanes. THINK HELP!! Short, punchy, but what use is thinking it? A14 CLOSED BECAUSE OF APOCALYPSE. What about the A120? And is Apocalypse that hard rock band from Banbury?

No, that wasn't what I meant. Yesterday I walked a footpath over a golf course which was marked both ends with notices saying "BEWARE OF FLYING GOLF BALLS". Quite. They're difficult to control and it's very easy to fall off. Stick to planes.

OK, that was perverse. But what about the road sign I saw a few days back: red triangle and black exclamation mark (so, warning sign in the UK). It said, "THINK!" That was it. No indication of what I was supposed to think about. Global warming? The meaning of life? Risky investments? What jacket to wear tomorrow? The road gave no clue: there was a bit of a bend, but nothing unusual.

THINK! Well, I am thinking. I just haven't reached a conclusion.

By the way: UK visits to this site are running at just under twice US visits, which dropped a bit. For a long time, France and Germany were neck and neck, slugging it out (loyal to history, then) with Russia and Ukraine vying with them from time to time; but now France has shot way ahead and is closing on the USA, which is obviously faltering through cheese deprivation. Welcome to newcomers from South (Africa and Korea). I'd love to hear from any of you, here or on simon@ss93.wanadoo.co.uk.

Next post will continue the adventure of Agile Working in Odanglesex.

Blogging in the half-light

A while back I posted "Blogging in the Dark", talking about the information I could get on visits to the blog and the questions it raised but didn't answer. For example, I was intrigued and slightly puzzled by acquiring a Russian and a Latvian readership and encouraged the Russians and Latvians to talk back. They didn't, but I do have a theory about the Latvians: suddenly all at once I had 26 hits from Latvia and thereafter only one repeated, so I wonder if this might have been a computer-savvy English-language class looking through English-language blogs. The Russians, though, gradually increased until they overtook the USA into second place (the UK being unsurprisingly first).

Then, dramatically, the Americans hit back. The Russo-American space race was nothing to the SibatheHat blog race. A sudden surge in American hits coincided with sudden interest in a very early posting I'd thought had vanished without trace, "The dangers of being customer-centred". I was very pleased by this as I felt I'd been saying something important there. Soon hits from the US were running at about 2/3 of the total and after they'd looked at the customer-centred thing and the two posts on happiness as an aim of government policy, all six most viewed posts were episodes of The Odanglesex Chronicles, my lampoon of English local government. The conclusion is unavoidable that this has found interest in the US somewhere - but why? I'd be fascinated to know.

At the same time a level of two or three German hits per week trebled and France came from nowhere(well, France was in France all along, but you know what I mean) to overtake Russia for third place. Interesting and a bit mysterious too.

One reason why this all remains a mystery is that unlike on my poetry blog (http:simonsworlds13.wordpress.com, and please do visit that too) hardly anyone is commenting. Please do (by clicking on "comments"): I'd love to get some discussion going.

Just a birdwatching note while I'm about it: my yearlist is now on 211 without being a twitcher or leaving Britain (Glossy Ibis and Great Grey Shrike at Fingringhoe, TICK); there was a White Wagtail feeding in the next street along four days ago; and while good numbers of many winter visitors in Essex hadn't been matched by winter thrush numbers, especially Redwings, suddenly along the Colne valley on Christmas Eve there were lots. Birder folklore might suggest this was one of those movements ahead of hard weather, but the meteorologists said no and they were right.

Back to the Odanglesex Chronicles soon. I think they'll be struggling with Agile Working soon, but maybe first, an ukase from the Secretary of State...

Blogging in the dark

Blogging is not quite like leaving little notes around town and then taking a bus out - or singing out of a toilet cubicle knowing other patrons might hear you. Blog hosts provide some statistics. These are interesting and sometimes rather odd.

My other blog (http://www.simonsworlds13.wordpress.com for poetry) got a record 23 hits yesterday, distributed around different posts (in other words, the 23 didn't all look at the same things) and only three so far today. Wordpress doesn't show you where these people are, but blogspot gives you a neat little map. That quite a lot of hits on this site are from the UK is no surprise: I'm from there myself and some of the posts will make most sense to Brits. That a number are from the U.S. is no surprise either as I advertised the blogs on a LinkedIn group with very many Americans. Some hits from India and Pakistan make sense because of conversations I've had including around poetry blogs. But what about the Russians and Latvians? I'm curious about you. Advance and identify! I'd love to find out more.