Not-So-Boring (for Me) Statistics

I had to take a minute to look over the statistics that we bloggers get. Just to satisfy my curiosity. I'm a curious sort -- what can I say?

Not including this post: I've written 391 posts since I started this, with 11,784 views. Not bad -- I guess!

Many, many posts have only one or NO views, especially in the beginning years. It has picked up in the last couple of years, and six posts caught the attention of more than 100 readers each. They are, in descending order:

• 648 views   Desert Painting in the Dutch Tradition   11-29-2009
• 450    "         Jean-Léon Gérôme   8-28-2010
• 285    "         Desert Hills   1-23-2009
• 156    "         Kelly Clarkson and Fat-Ness   5-31-2009
• 149    "         Additional Website URL   1-22-2009
• 105    "         Desert Shack   11-05-2008

Don't know what it all means. I assume my piece on Gérôme got some hits because people were looking either for his artwork or for information about the man. Kelly Clarkson -- well, I wrote about how much I love a little plumpness in women -- many guys do, in fact, and don't care for the skinny, "concentration camp" look the entertainment industry constantly sells us.

I AM surprised that a post about a second URL (www.MarkJunge.com) I created, which will redirect the viewer to my "main" URL (www.SouthwestSpaces.com), got as much attention as it did!

My blog is useful to me in other ways, too -- it helps me look up events that happened and I can't remember the dates for. I.e., I never remember when I was officially diagnosed with Type II diabetes. But I wrote about it here in May 31, 2011. So it's been over four years ago.

Lately, my posts have been getting anywhere from a dozen to three dozen viewers. Nice to know friends out there have "discovered" me!

Thanks, everybody! We'll meet here again soon!


Postscript: how about an image of Kelly Clarkson in February, 2015 to finish this off?

Kelly Clarkson -- plus-size beauty!

Confusers

Sometimes I think "confuser" is a more accurate name for this gizmo than "computer."

I was having some problems with the thing and was concerned something really terrible happened -- hard drive crash or something -- and while most of my stuff is backed up, not ALL of it was.

So I took the confuser to a confuser repair place. The technician found the dial-up/fax modem (which I never used) was bad and removed it. He also uninstalled some extra anti-virus software which, I think, came with the confuser when I bought it in 2008.

Everything seemed fine, although I had a bit of a scare yesterday -- the confuser acted up again, just as it did before I took it in. I called the guy who suggested trying a different power supply or electrical outlet. I had already unplugged an external hard drive with a transformer from the surge-protected power strip I have everything plugged into. Guess what? The problem hasn't returned!

So -- either the surge protector is getting too old (and it IS old!), and/or the transformer for the external drive really was interrupting the power supply to the confuser itself.

Well, at least things seem OK for now. I'll plug the external drive into another outlet, and I may unplug the printers from the surge protector, too. And maybe buy another surge protector for the confuser.

And then maybe I can try to get back on schedule with blogging again!

Addicted?

I don't know where you stand on this issue, but I've become a little addicted to the computer.

I find I can't wait to get on to see if there are any e-mails, new Facebook posts, new artist forum comments, whatever. And, once I'm on, I'm hesitant about getting off! I find myself just surfin' the 'net, looking at things (or trying to find pages) that are purely for entertainment's sake.

The problem with that is, of course, it cuts into my work time. The type of paintings I do takes a long time -- certainly longer than if I simply shot paintballs at a large canvas and called it Art! (Well, OK, it would probably be art to some, but not for me -- not if I'm doing it, anyway).

So -- what am I gonna do about this? Do I need an intervention? A padlock on the computer? More self-discipline? Sa-a-a-y-y...maybe that's the answer.

But there's always that part of me that says: "Naaah!!! It's fun. Just do it!"

We'll have to see who wins: the little angel by my right ear, or the little devil by my left. In the meantime, I guess I'll see you in cyberspace!

If You're in Germany, Look Me Up!

I was doing a Google search for my Website after hearing about some sites being infected with a virus and Google places a warning beside the infected sites. No Google warning (so far, thank God!), but I did discover southwestspaces.com is mentioned on a German Website! Some of the text is in English, and some is in German:

http://www.123people.de/s/mark+junge

So I appear on a site that mentions a number of Mark Junges (including a writer in Wyoming who contacted me years ago), but I wasn't searching for my name -- I was searching for my Website. Apparently, the two are indelibly linked.

Either way, people in Germany can find me!

Confuser Day

No working on art today.

WHAT??!? How can this be???

Well, I picked up on a comment from another blogger and moderator for an online forum for artists: she said something about Tuesday being "computer day." And I thought (yes, I do think every so often): that's a great idea. I would still check e-mail, forums and other stuff every day, but I really could use extended periods of time to do the more involved items, such as updating the Website (http://www.southwestspaces.com), organizing and backing up files and things that, if I crammed them in between brush strokes, might not get done right , if at all.

By the way, I like to call this machine a "confuser." Sometimes that label fits better. You know I'm right about that, don't you?

The art business is definitely about more than just making art!