Trying NaBloPoMo Again . . . And A Headscratcher

I decided to give NaBloPoMo another try.  This time, I set my Google Calendar to email me with daily reminders so I won’t forget like I did that one day in April that was the beginning of blowing it, for me, for the month.

*   *   *

When I saw my stats today, my mouth fell open.  I checked my statcounter account because my WordPress stats didn’t really show anything to explain the huge jump in traffic.  My statcounter account, unfortunately, always says “No referring link” and won’t show search words.  It did, however, show that my blog was visited by computers at several schools or Department of Education offices in various US states, plus two locations in Canada and two in the UK.  The search words showing in my WordPress stats have been mostly about “funny” stuff, cartoons, and lolcats for two days straight.  I did use the word “education” as a tag for my “How Can You Say This Differently?” post on April 26th, but I’m not seeing that as a search word, and so far there is only one incoming link showing from the WordPress Dashboard, where someone may have followed the “education” tag.  And the school-related visits are all to my main Front Page, not to a specific entry.  

I’m scratching my head on this one.

So far today, in addition to many visits from other ISP’s, between 07:45:51 AM and 02:41:46 PM (not quite 7 hours), I have had visits from the following school- or state-related ISP’s:

Johnston County Schools, North Carolina (US)
Northeast Ohio Network For Education Technology, Ohio (US)
Sevier-school-district-3644, Tennessee (US)
Cumbria And Lancashire Education Online, Workington, Cumbria (UK)
Orange County Public Schools, Florida (US)
Durham Public School, North Carolina (US)
Toronto Catholic School Board, Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
Arkansas Public School Computer Network, Arkansas (US)
Sherburne-earlville-school, New York (US)
Liberty University, Virginia (US)
Racine-unified-school-district, Wisconsin (US)
Cumbria Lancashire Education Online, Poulton, Blackpool (UK)
State Of Nebraska / Office Of The Cio, Nebraska (US)
Broward County Public Schools, Florida (US)
Ohio Mid Eastern Regional Education Service Agency, Ohio (US)
Bolton Public Schools, Connecticut (US)
Amphitheater Public Schools, Arizona (US)
University Of Toronto, Ontatio (Canada)
Georgia Department Of Education, Georgia (US)
Northside Independent School District, Texas (US)
Widener University, Pennsylvania (US)
Education Service Center Region 12 , Texas (US)
San Diego County Office Of Education, California (US)
Albany Schoharie Schenectady Boces, New York (US)
Lee County Schools, Florida (US)
Clackamas Education Service District, Oregon (US)
Wv Department Of Education, West Virginia (US)
Union Public Schools, Oklahoma (US)
Washington School Information Processing Cooperation, Washington (US)
Erie 1 Boces, New York (US)
Boaz City Schools, Alabama (US)
Poultney High School, Vermont (US)
State Of Arkansas (US)
Utah Education Network, Utah (US)
Mobile County Public School System, Alabama (US)
Berryessa Union School District, California (US)
Indiana Department Of Education, Indiana (US)
New Milford Schools, New Jersey (US)
Wyoming Higher Education Computer Network, Wyoming (US)
Monroe #1 Boces, New York (US)
Heartland Area Education Agency 11, Iowa (US)
Contra Costa County Office Of Education, California (US)
City Of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (US)
Education Service Center, Texas (US)
U.s. Department Of State, Washington DC (US) – This visitor clicked my “Television” category

These are my search terms so far for today:

funny

funny pictures

funny pics

funny images

funny cats and dogs

awesome cats with funny writing

funny pic

lolcats love

funny many cats

funny dogs and cats

i can has cheezeburger cats

funny+cats+and+dogs

funny mothers day cats

funny photos

get out of my office kitten

funny shit

2009 funny

colors that go with brown pants

funny
funny pictures
funny pics
funny images
funny cats and dogs
awesome cats with funny writing
funny pic
lolcats love
funny many cats
funny dogs and cats
i can has cheezeburger cats
funny+cats+and+dogs
funny mothers day cats
funny photos
get out of my office kitten
funny shit
2009 funny
colors that go with brown pants

Is there a multi-school project today involving funny animal pictures?  I can’t imagine that many people are questioning their color-coordinating fashion skills.

Just because I am so curious now, if you have reached my blog from a school or a Department of Education office, can you please either comment or email me (lifeischangeblog [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know how you found me?  Thanks!

“How Can You Say This Differently?”

I’m reading Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, and I was talking with Sister about it.  Although the book is specifically about punctuation, we got to talking about grammar and sentence structure as well, and wondering why there are so many people close to our ages who went to school in the same state we did, who managed to come away with very little understanding of how to write a sentence.  (I am very aware, now, that by mentioning my opinion that I have decent grammar and punctuation skills compared to many others, I’m putting a magnifying glass on any mistakes I make . . . *cringe*.)

I pointed out, to Sister, that we went to school in other states before moving here, and that those other schools were quite advanced compared to the education system here at that time (I don’t know how it compares to the rest of the country now).  I pointed out that I was about halfway through the second grade when we moved here, and that I was in the seventh grade before there was any material to speak of that really felt “new” to me.  Then I added that we also had the benefit of our mother’s teaching as kids.  She read with us, made up learning games, and she shared her love of writing with us.  She uses proper grammar when she speaks, especially with children, so she was a good example to us while we were growing up (although I do use improper grammer way more often than she ever does, but the good part is I realize what is wrong about it).

Well, having that discussion with Sister reminded me of a conversation with my therapist several months back.  I’d said something, referring to “my stupider moments”, without realizing I’d used the word “stupider” until my therapist repeated it back to me and asked how I could have said that differently.  She was looking for an answer that was not so judgmental of myself, but in the second or two that it took for me to realize what she really meant, I almost said, “Oh.  Yeah.  ’More stupid’.”

I still laugh about that.