Category: Uncategorized

three years of blogging

February marked the 3-year anniversary of Buffet o’ Blog.   From such humble beginnings, this site has become the awesomeness that it is today.  🙂  And as always, there is no charge for the awesomeness.

In the past year, we’ve added a few new features that have proven popular, and there’s a few more in the works.  We’re keeping the same random goodness that you come back for, as well as making changes to improve your experience.  So you could say we’re both conservative AND liberal, at the same time.   But we’re not like politicians, because we’re not evil nor trying to take over the country.   (And rest assured, we won’t ever be evil.)

Traffic has continued growing as well.  Here’s a chart, so it looks all official and stuff.

look at the traffic!

As you can see, the traffic peaked in October, then has stayed in the 11,000 to 12,000 range.  I blame it on the economy.   But at least our chart looks better than the stock market…

Here’s the all-time blog statistics, for those of you who are interested in such things.

Total # of posts: 623
Total # of comments: 2,669
Total # of spam comments blocked: 55,053
Total # of page views: 161,241
Best day of traffic: 940 hits (page views) on October 31, 2008.

Last year at this time, we had only 40,740 page hits, so in just the last year, we’ve had 120,501 hits.  Inconceivable!  I’m amazed that so many people have seen and perhaps read some of my ramblings.  Does this mean I’m famous?  Is my blog now officially not obscure?  🙂

The daily traffic has its ups and downs, with Saturdays and Sundays typically being the lowest traffic days.   (I wonder why that is… surely it doesn’t mean most people check this only at work…  😮  But if so, that’s okay with me!)  We’ve currently had over 307 consecutive days (and counting) of 100+ hits, and recently had 143 consecutive days of 200+ hits.  The latter streak was broken during the Christmas holiday, when traffic went down.

Some researchers have said that laughing heartily adds 7 years to your life.  So think of all the people who have been helped by this blog!   That’s all the thanks I need (although I’m not against hearing more compliments, should anyone have any, and I also accept cookies, gift cards, and U.S. currency).  🙂

I wish we were having a big party to celebrate, but it’s just not in the budget this year.   Maybe someday WordPress will allow ads on the blog and by then we’ll be getting thousands of hits per day, and thus we’d make some money.  Then we’ll have a big party.  (And by big, I mean lots of food… y’know, the important stuff.)

And of course, I have to thank you, my readers.  Without you, I’d be talking (writing) to myself.  And that would be sad… but because of you, it’s awesome!  (See the difference you make?  You should feel special.)

our subscription options, which help us both

I realize it’s not convenient for everyone to visit the blog on a regular basis.  Maybe you aren’t allowed to browse the Internet at work, or maybe keeping up with numerous blogs takes up more free time than you typically have.  Or maybe you would just like an easier way to keep track of new content at your favorite blogs.   Or on a semi-related note, perhaps you would like to support this blog but don’t have any spare money to donate.

We now have two options for having new posts and comments delivered to you.  (And these options benefit both you and me.)

The newest option we have is that you can subscribe by e-mail.  Once a day (if there is a new post), you will receive an e-mail featuring the post(s) from that day.  With most e-mail programs, the images are included, although sometimes the formatting may vary from how it displays through your web browser.   There’s also a link below the post that takes you to the comments for that post.

If you have a feed-reader program, you can subscribe via the RSS feed (there’s the link, and it’s also in the sidebar).  That’s a handy way to keep up with multiple blogs.  New posts and comments show up like e-mails do in your inbox.  From there you can read them and then go to the site to add your own comments.  I’ve used SharpReader some, which is free.  There’s quite a few to choose from, though.

With both of these options, I have inserted a Google AdSense ad at the bottom of the posts.  This is to make a few extra dollars.   (Before anyone complains, please remember that the blog is absolutely free.  Also, I am now self-employed and not making much money, so everything helps.)  The ads are unobtrusive, and they should always be clean / family-friendly (if not, please let me know).  Also, I don’t beg you for money, so you don’t have to put up with that.  And if you want to support the blog, you can subscribe with one of those methods, and it costs you nothing.  You can’t beat that with a stick.   🙂  And if you’d rather not subscribe, that’s fine.  There’s no pressure, there will be no grudges, and you can still visit the blog all you want.  It’s all good.

Thank you, drive thru…

Don’t Diet on Thanksgiving Day!

I saw a news story before Thanksgiving that started with this info:

The average Thanksgiving dinner has more than 3,000 calories.  That’s more than a day’s worth in one meal!

Well, usually my Thanksgiving dinner is most of what I eat that day, so that’s okay.  But then the articles went on to tell us that we should eat healthier on Thanksgiving Day.  Let’s see if I can sum up my thoughts on that idea: no, no, No, No, NO!  On holidays, diets don’t apply. For that one day, you should eat ALL you want.  I know, it’s good to eat healthy and have lighter portions, but not on holidays!   Good grief!

The article goes on to compare certain foods with each other, for example:

Mashed potatoes, half-cup: 118 calories
Roll with one pat of butter = 136 calories

To that I say, “So what?”  But then some “registered dietician” said, “The real take-home point here is, don’t go for both, especially don’t also have stuffing and mashed potatoes and bread. You can’t have everything. You’ve gotta choose one!” Again, I say, “NO!”  Such thinking will ruin your Thanksgiving feast!  It’s the height of absurdity to choose one item between mashed taters, stuffing, and bread.  If you start excluding all the traditional foods, you won’t have a feast at all!

I can’t believe such nonsense was actually published in the news!  That kind of misinformation is not healthy.   If I had to choose only 2 or 3 items in small portions on Thanksgiving day while everyone else ate all they wanted, I would probably get depressed.  And it’s not good to be depressed.  So eat up, people.  I may not be some important doctor, but I do know what I’m talking about this time.

adding your picture to your comment

I’ve mentioned this before, but it was many moons ago, so here’s a reminder for those who may not know or have forgotten.  If you want to have a custom picture (avatar) next to your name when you leave a comment, you just have to follow these instructions.  It’s really easy, and it makes the site more enjoyable for everyone.  Of course, it’s optional, but why would you not want to?  You can upload any picture you want.  (Just keep it clean.)

This has been a public service announcement from Buffet o’ Blog.  Thank you, drive thru…