Accismus

Happy birthday, dear readers! One year ago today, Accismus was born.

I cannot tell you all how happy I am about having kept this blog up and running for a year. As I might have mentioned a couple hundred times, 2007 was a slow year for me, and writing this blog was undoubtedly the best part of it. Other than really forcing me to crank out some words at least once a week for a full year (!!!), it’s been a wonderful way to keep in touch with old friends and reach out to new people. The readership of this blog has expanded from a small circle of friends and family, to new acquaintances, to regulars I’ve never even met. Thanks to all of you, for being so supportive and great (and also for tactfully avoiding comment when I’ve had to phone a post in from time to time). If any of you miss the constant feedback and reinforcement of turning in school papers, I highly recommend you start a blog: nothing perks up your day like getting an email that someone’s commented on a post.

The one-year marker seems a good time to share with you some of the behind-the-scenes blog stuff that amuses and interests me. Obviously, this blog really shot up the google rolls with the igoogle teahouse fox post, and that post continues to get the most traffic. There’s not a day that goes by that it doesn’t get at least some hits.

I am sorry to report that I now know for certain how seldom I am googled, but I am googled sometimes, and it’s fun for me to speculate as to who might be interested. Incidentally, every single fictional first and last name I’ve made up for a post has been googled at some point. And, shockingly, there is apparently no commercial jingle or slogan so obscure or so dumb that several people every day aren’t googling it for some reason.

I especially enjoy getting hits where I know that the person searching was probably utterly confused or disappointed by what they found here. This includes the tons of people searching weekly for ‘tips on how to meet men,’ ‘how to meet men when you’re single,’ ‘ten ways to meet men,’ etcetera. I also get hits for ‘I love women,’ ‘I hate women,’ ‘Women are dumb,’ or simply ‘Wimmin.’ Also probably disappointed customers. And finally, I love that everyone searching for ‘how to deal with a poor listener’ is taken to my post on that topic. I really, really hope they actually implement my suggestions.

Then, there are the really freaking weird searches. I get a lot of hits for people looking for ‘nasty old widows,’ and frankly, I can’t for the life of me figure out what post is bringing them here. I don’t remember having mentioned anything about widows, but I must have at some point. There are also a lot of searches for ‘girl with snakes.’ And lately ‘Clinton Scientology,’ which, is that an actual rumor? Ever since I put up that alien page, there have been a lot of really bizarre searches around some variation of aliens taking over the world. My all time favorite, however, had to be ‘dead preacher on the couch.’ I love that someone was searching for that, and even more, I love that it brought them here.

Anyway, happy one-year birthday, everyone. I look forward to another, even better blog year ahead!

Smooches,
Elizabeth