They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery, so Otis and Timmy, I hope you feel flattered. I'm copying the basic concept something both have done this week, although with my own little twist, in order to recap my experiences in the blogosphere this year.
(Keep in mind these stats are only from April 4 when I started tracking the traffic on MM)
Traffic Sources: 50% Referring Sites / 31% Direct Traffic / 15% Search Engines
Visitor Locations: 13 counties including the US, 37 states in the US
Returning Visitors / New Visitors: 67% / 33%
Browser usage: 59% Firefox (this really surprised me in the IE world) / 35% IE / 4% Safari / 2% Chrome
Top 5 Referrers:
1.tigerdad.wordpress.com (my dad's blog)
2. blogger.com
3. google.com
4. facebook.com
5. dixiemagnolia.blogspot.com
My Top 3 favorite posts of my own (in order):
1. Still a Journalist
2. Fighting the Fight
3. No, I Don't Want Corn in My Gas Tank
My readers' Top 3 (according to Google analytics):
1. No, I Don't Want Corn in My Gas Tank
2. Idol Week 10: The Cryfecta
3. Following the Water
And to give props to all the peeps on my primary Blogroll, here's my favorite post from each of them, in no particular order, from 2008:
Defying Expectations by Anne
Death of the Arcade by BuckeyeTimmy
Sorry Honey But I Had An... by Chris
Two Down and One to Go by Dixiemagnolia
A Sweet Tooth by Jennifer
Why I Will Never Be Rich by Kamran
Christopher Frost by Mike Daly
Safeside Superkid by Otis
Cup Caper by StudentOfLife
Footprints on the Moon by Tigerdad
Campstamp: 2008.February.23, Charlestown, MA by Uncle Ted
Evil and Awsome (but mostly awesome) by Wil
So go check out these other great posts. And a Happy New Year's to everyone out there. May you all have a blessed 2009!
31 December 2008
30 December 2008
A New Perspective on Theme Parks
When I was little, we used to go to Conneaut Lake Park in western Pennsylvania at least once or twice a summer. CLP just happened to be where my parents met when they were working there for a summer during college. So I'm sure they have lots of fond and interesting memories of it also.
My memories of it usually revolve around the sheer fun of it -- there was so much for kids to do. It was the one place I looked forward to going to each summer. They had rides (although at that point, I was nowhere near the thrill-ride junkie I am not; in fact, I was scared to death of them); they had a petting zoo; they had this place called Fairyland Forest; they had midway games; and they had an arcade.
I did dare to ride a few things like a mini-roller coaster called the Wild Mouse and their version of the Tilt-a-Whirl the last few times I went to CLP. They did have this thing called The Hell Hole that I never did go on though because it just looked ominous and my parents always told me I was too little.
I spent some serious bank in the arcade there. And of course, I'm sure my parents spent more than a fair amount just getting us into the park and for tickets to do everything we wanted to.
We moved to the Carolinas though after my fifth grade year and haven't been back to CLP since. Over the years since then, the park has had alot of financial difficulties, changed ownership a few times, and hasn't been open in over a year. They had a pretty big fire in the old dance hall there last year also. I think that's really sad. It was such a magical place for children.
But now I think I've found my adult equivalent.
During our vacation last week to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN, my wife I decided to go to Dollywood. As I have been every other time we've been to the area, I was reluctant to go to Dollywood - period. I have issues with the fact that a lot of entertainment venues seem to like to take advantage of people with high priced foods and souveniers. And I figured Dollywood would not be worth it and would just be another place that sucks hordes of money from its patrons.
So when I paid for our tickets to get into the park my thought was "This better be worth the money I just plunked down."
It ended up being very worth it - and then some. We ended up upgrading our tickets to season passes before the end of our first day there, for a very nominal fee, which can be used for the last few days of 2008 and all of the 2009 season.
I always thought that the shows I saw at Carowinds (outside Charlotte, NC) and Six Flags over Georgia were really dorky. I understand now though that that is how those performers make a living, they truly are talented, and they obviously must enjoy their job to be able to put these performances on four or five times a day, seven days a week, for 9 months at a time. We saw a total of five shows - and each one of them were really awesome - from an adaptation of Babes in Toyland, to an Appalachian bluegrass group performing Christmas carols, to a musical about the birth of Jesus. I came away wishing they had a few more shows to see.
We didn't do a whole lot of rides - just two roller coasters for me, some sort of combination tilt-a-whirl that rocks back and forth that we both rode, and then the carousel. And we did ride the Dollywood Express, an authentic coal-fired locomotive that does a five mile trip through and around the park. We rode it at night so there were few spots where it literally was pitch black as we were winding through the trees outside the park.
What we really enjoyed was going to church service in the park and seeing some demonstrations at some of the specialty shops - like glass blowing, blacksmithing, and carriage building. I really wish I had had my Nikon with me, but I was not about to take something that expensive into Dollywood. I kept telling myself "Oh, that would be such an awesome shot - I wish I had my D40 with me" --- like the gentleman who was painting the glass beads on Christmas decorations, or the one who was putting a wagon wheel together. And some decent pictures of the bald eagles that they have in the park would have been cool too.
So all in all it was very worth it. And I think I've come full circle now on from my favorite childhood amusement park to my favorite adulthood theme park.
My memories of it usually revolve around the sheer fun of it -- there was so much for kids to do. It was the one place I looked forward to going to each summer. They had rides (although at that point, I was nowhere near the thrill-ride junkie I am not; in fact, I was scared to death of them); they had a petting zoo; they had this place called Fairyland Forest; they had midway games; and they had an arcade.
I did dare to ride a few things like a mini-roller coaster called the Wild Mouse and their version of the Tilt-a-Whirl the last few times I went to CLP. They did have this thing called The Hell Hole that I never did go on though because it just looked ominous and my parents always told me I was too little.
I spent some serious bank in the arcade there. And of course, I'm sure my parents spent more than a fair amount just getting us into the park and for tickets to do everything we wanted to.
We moved to the Carolinas though after my fifth grade year and haven't been back to CLP since. Over the years since then, the park has had alot of financial difficulties, changed ownership a few times, and hasn't been open in over a year. They had a pretty big fire in the old dance hall there last year also. I think that's really sad. It was such a magical place for children.
But now I think I've found my adult equivalent.
During our vacation last week to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN, my wife I decided to go to Dollywood. As I have been every other time we've been to the area, I was reluctant to go to Dollywood - period. I have issues with the fact that a lot of entertainment venues seem to like to take advantage of people with high priced foods and souveniers. And I figured Dollywood would not be worth it and would just be another place that sucks hordes of money from its patrons.
So when I paid for our tickets to get into the park my thought was "This better be worth the money I just plunked down."
It ended up being very worth it - and then some. We ended up upgrading our tickets to season passes before the end of our first day there, for a very nominal fee, which can be used for the last few days of 2008 and all of the 2009 season.
I always thought that the shows I saw at Carowinds (outside Charlotte, NC) and Six Flags over Georgia were really dorky. I understand now though that that is how those performers make a living, they truly are talented, and they obviously must enjoy their job to be able to put these performances on four or five times a day, seven days a week, for 9 months at a time. We saw a total of five shows - and each one of them were really awesome - from an adaptation of Babes in Toyland, to an Appalachian bluegrass group performing Christmas carols, to a musical about the birth of Jesus. I came away wishing they had a few more shows to see.
We didn't do a whole lot of rides - just two roller coasters for me, some sort of combination tilt-a-whirl that rocks back and forth that we both rode, and then the carousel. And we did ride the Dollywood Express, an authentic coal-fired locomotive that does a five mile trip through and around the park. We rode it at night so there were few spots where it literally was pitch black as we were winding through the trees outside the park.
What we really enjoyed was going to church service in the park and seeing some demonstrations at some of the specialty shops - like glass blowing, blacksmithing, and carriage building. I really wish I had had my Nikon with me, but I was not about to take something that expensive into Dollywood. I kept telling myself "Oh, that would be such an awesome shot - I wish I had my D40 with me" --- like the gentleman who was painting the glass beads on Christmas decorations, or the one who was putting a wagon wheel together. And some decent pictures of the bald eagles that they have in the park would have been cool too.
So all in all it was very worth it. And I think I've come full circle now on from my favorite childhood amusement park to my favorite adulthood theme park.
A Different Sorta Christmas
I guess last year I set myself up for doing a Christmas recap, so here is my 2008 Christmas -- 5 days overdue, but notheless....
It was a very different Christmas this year.
It was my neice Laken's first Christmas. Laken is an absolute angel. At 10 months, she has developed an absolutely joyous personality. I love watching how she reacts to things. I love her smile - and I love her laugh.
It was the first time my wife and I did a Christmas vacation. We spent most of Christmas week in the Great Smokies --- rented a cabin in Gatlinburg and did some touristy stuff. Gatliburg and Pigeon Forge are amazingly beautiful as it is, but the Christmas lights made it even more fun (save the traffic on the Saturday following Christmas - it was nuts). We even went to Dollywood for the first time and liked it so much we bought season passes for 2009.
It was the first Christmas since my wife and I have been married that we didn't attend Christmas Eve service. We have done this every year up until now. We had hoped to attend a Christmas Eve service at the Presbyterian church in Gatlinburg. But when I asked some locals if that church was having one, I found out it was not. Apparently that church's membership has dwindled severely in recent years, which is very diasppointing and sad - and they were not having any services on Christmas Eve. We decided to do Christmas Eve in, at our cabin. I felt really guilty though about not even going to one of the other local churches' Christmas Eve services, but.....
It did end up being the first Christmas we went to church away from home. On Sunday when we were walking through Dollywood, we saw a church inside the park. At first glance I thought, "Wow, they made a replica of a country church here. I'll bet it has some interesting displays inside." Well, we went inside and found out that it is a full-blown church. We heard the pastor talking to someone about the fact they do 11 am and 5:30 pm services every Sunday when the park is open. We decided to attend the 5:30 service that day - which ended up being packed. We heard a wonderful message and sang Christmas carols. So I ended up not only coming away less guilty about the whole missing Christmas Eve service thing, but happy we were able to celebrate Christmas and its true miracle - the birth of Jesus Christ - actually in church.
Those are probably the things that will stick out in my mind from Christmas 2008 - but these little ones are what just made my Christmas:
It was a very different Christmas this year.
It was my neice Laken's first Christmas. Laken is an absolute angel. At 10 months, she has developed an absolutely joyous personality. I love watching how she reacts to things. I love her smile - and I love her laugh.
It was the first time my wife and I did a Christmas vacation. We spent most of Christmas week in the Great Smokies --- rented a cabin in Gatlinburg and did some touristy stuff. Gatliburg and Pigeon Forge are amazingly beautiful as it is, but the Christmas lights made it even more fun (save the traffic on the Saturday following Christmas - it was nuts). We even went to Dollywood for the first time and liked it so much we bought season passes for 2009.
It was the first Christmas since my wife and I have been married that we didn't attend Christmas Eve service. We have done this every year up until now. We had hoped to attend a Christmas Eve service at the Presbyterian church in Gatlinburg. But when I asked some locals if that church was having one, I found out it was not. Apparently that church's membership has dwindled severely in recent years, which is very diasppointing and sad - and they were not having any services on Christmas Eve. We decided to do Christmas Eve in, at our cabin. I felt really guilty though about not even going to one of the other local churches' Christmas Eve services, but.....
It did end up being the first Christmas we went to church away from home. On Sunday when we were walking through Dollywood, we saw a church inside the park. At first glance I thought, "Wow, they made a replica of a country church here. I'll bet it has some interesting displays inside." Well, we went inside and found out that it is a full-blown church. We heard the pastor talking to someone about the fact they do 11 am and 5:30 pm services every Sunday when the park is open. We decided to attend the 5:30 service that day - which ended up being packed. We heard a wonderful message and sang Christmas carols. So I ended up not only coming away less guilty about the whole missing Christmas Eve service thing, but happy we were able to celebrate Christmas and its true miracle - the birth of Jesus Christ - actually in church.
Those are probably the things that will stick out in my mind from Christmas 2008 - but these little ones are what just made my Christmas:
29 December 2008
The Christmastime Parking Saga
I just thought I could knock this one out really quickly before shutting down for the night - you could potentially find it sad, amusing, and inspiring all at the same time.
Christmas Eve we were in the mood for ice cream and we didn't have any. We had seen a Ben and Jerry's on the main drag in Gatlinburg earlier that day so I told my wife "I'll run down into town, grab a pint, and come right back."
Got downtown and there was no parking spot to be found. I ended up finding what I thought was a timed lot (mind you it did have a sign that said $5/all day) - so I pulled in, got my ticket stub, found a spot, and ran three blocks to Ben and Jerry's.
The store was locked. It was 5:05. They closed at 5. Crap. I had however on my jaunt down the road seen a Baskin Robbins - so I popped in there, got some ice cream, and went back to the car. Drove to the attendant booth, gave him my ticket stub, and here's where it gets interesting.
Me: How much?
Attendant: Five dollars.
Me: You're kidding, right?
Attendant: No, five dollars.
Me: I'm not paying you five dollars. I was only parked for thirty minutes
Attendant: Five dollars
Do you see where this is going yet?
Me: OK. The sign says five dollars per day. It does not say five dollars period. If that's what you intend it to say, then you need to go rewrite it because as it stands that is false advertising. So if you figure you have probably 12 hours in the day when people use your lot at a $5/day rate, that's approximately 40-some-odd cents an hour and 20-some-odd cents for a half hour. So I will give you 50 cents and you'll let me out of the lot, or I will sit here all evening long and block you gate so nobody else can get out.
Attendant: No you won't. You'll pay me five dollars.
Can you guess what happens next?
Me: See, there comes someone up behind me right now.
Attendant: You need to pay me five dollars.
Me: No I don't.
Attendant: Yes you do.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: Ready to take 50 cents yet?
Attendant: No.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Attendant: OK, three dollars.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: One dollar.
Attendant: Two dollars.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: One dollar.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Attendant: OK, one dollar.
So I pay the price gouger and leave.
The next evening, Christmas Day, as my wife and I are looking for a place to park to go to the restaurant we had planned on eating at, we cannot find a spot. Downtown has exploded with people. It's nuts.
We decided to grin and bear it and pull into the closest lot to the restaurant and break down and have to pay the $10 parking fee on the big sign pointing toward the lot.
But then we make the turn into the lot and see that the gate arms on both sides are wide open. There is no attendant.
WOW. That was really shocking.
We park, go eat, come back, and still no attendant. Hey, free parking. I guess some people do have a heart.
It's people like that who really embody the true spirit of Christmas. Yes, as a business operator they could have chosen to give in to their desire for more profit, but they decided to give into their heart and provide many someones a heartfelt Christmas gift. They decided to give back.
That's what Christmas is truly about. It shouldn't be about buying an expensive gift for someone. It shouldn't be about expecting certain gifts from someone. It's certainly not about trying to get as much profit as you can, nor is it about starting arguments with a parking lot attendant. It's about giving from the heart - even it's something a simple and easy as opening up your gates and not charging parking fees for the day.
Christmas Eve we were in the mood for ice cream and we didn't have any. We had seen a Ben and Jerry's on the main drag in Gatlinburg earlier that day so I told my wife "I'll run down into town, grab a pint, and come right back."
Got downtown and there was no parking spot to be found. I ended up finding what I thought was a timed lot (mind you it did have a sign that said $5/all day) - so I pulled in, got my ticket stub, found a spot, and ran three blocks to Ben and Jerry's.
The store was locked. It was 5:05. They closed at 5. Crap. I had however on my jaunt down the road seen a Baskin Robbins - so I popped in there, got some ice cream, and went back to the car. Drove to the attendant booth, gave him my ticket stub, and here's where it gets interesting.
Me: How much?
Attendant: Five dollars.
Me: You're kidding, right?
Attendant: No, five dollars.
Me: I'm not paying you five dollars. I was only parked for thirty minutes
Attendant: Five dollars
Do you see where this is going yet?
Me: OK. The sign says five dollars per day. It does not say five dollars period. If that's what you intend it to say, then you need to go rewrite it because as it stands that is false advertising. So if you figure you have probably 12 hours in the day when people use your lot at a $5/day rate, that's approximately 40-some-odd cents an hour and 20-some-odd cents for a half hour. So I will give you 50 cents and you'll let me out of the lot, or I will sit here all evening long and block you gate so nobody else can get out.
Attendant: No you won't. You'll pay me five dollars.
Can you guess what happens next?
Me: See, there comes someone up behind me right now.
Attendant: You need to pay me five dollars.
Me: No I don't.
Attendant: Yes you do.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: Ready to take 50 cents yet?
Attendant: No.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Attendant: OK, three dollars.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: One dollar.
Attendant: Two dollars.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Me: One dollar.
**HONNNNNNKKKK**
Attendant: OK, one dollar.
So I pay the price gouger and leave.
The next evening, Christmas Day, as my wife and I are looking for a place to park to go to the restaurant we had planned on eating at, we cannot find a spot. Downtown has exploded with people. It's nuts.
We decided to grin and bear it and pull into the closest lot to the restaurant and break down and have to pay the $10 parking fee on the big sign pointing toward the lot.
But then we make the turn into the lot and see that the gate arms on both sides are wide open. There is no attendant.
WOW. That was really shocking.
We park, go eat, come back, and still no attendant. Hey, free parking. I guess some people do have a heart.
It's people like that who really embody the true spirit of Christmas. Yes, as a business operator they could have chosen to give in to their desire for more profit, but they decided to give into their heart and provide many someones a heartfelt Christmas gift. They decided to give back.
That's what Christmas is truly about. It shouldn't be about buying an expensive gift for someone. It shouldn't be about expecting certain gifts from someone. It's certainly not about trying to get as much profit as you can, nor is it about starting arguments with a parking lot attendant. It's about giving from the heart - even it's something a simple and easy as opening up your gates and not charging parking fees for the day.
Back At Home, Not Quite Back to Normal
My wife and I just got back tonight from a Christmas vacation in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN. I had hoped while we were up there to be able to post something here on MM since I haven't in over a month.
But technology wouldn't cooperate.
We were staying in a cabin without internet access. We did have my wife's new HTC Touch phone with internet access - and I was able to keep up with my Facebook peeps. But I tried logging in and writing a blog on it and that didn't work real well.
Her phone does have Internet sharing, which allows you to use the phone as a conduit for your laptop to get onto the Internet. I tried to get that to work, but to no avail. I probably should have taken the master driver disk with me. No blogging me for this past week.
I have, however, had a lot of topics on my mind lately to blog about - and came up with several new ones this week also. And I found myself as we're walking through Dollywood emailing myself blog ideas.
Now that we're back from our five-day trip, I just realized I have a pretty lengthy list that need to be whittled down, including topics on the energy of children, feeling old, being ornery, refusing to pay $5 for 30 minutes of parking, the necessity of emergency makeup purchases while on vacation, insane drivers, why I hate Windows Vista, a new Star Wars character called Darth Elfus, filling a cabin with fireplace smoke, critters....
I think I have a good list to choose from, but obviously I won't get to everything because that would be a lot for me to type and a lot for people to read.
I'll tell you one thing, it feels really good to be able to use a real keyboard again instead of having to tap all this out with a little bitty stylus.
So if there's anything on that list that sounds interesting to you, let me know. I do owe a "How My Christmas Went" posting, and I think I'm going to do one on my take on theme parks.
For now though, we're at least home - but not quite back to normal. There's a living room full of luggage and a cooler full of food and drinks to unpack, some very smoke-laden clothes to throw in the dryer, and about two days worth of Christmas decoration removal ahead of us.
Until later, I'm out.
But technology wouldn't cooperate.
We were staying in a cabin without internet access. We did have my wife's new HTC Touch phone with internet access - and I was able to keep up with my Facebook peeps. But I tried logging in and writing a blog on it and that didn't work real well.
Her phone does have Internet sharing, which allows you to use the phone as a conduit for your laptop to get onto the Internet. I tried to get that to work, but to no avail. I probably should have taken the master driver disk with me. No blogging me for this past week.
I have, however, had a lot of topics on my mind lately to blog about - and came up with several new ones this week also. And I found myself as we're walking through Dollywood emailing myself blog ideas.
Now that we're back from our five-day trip, I just realized I have a pretty lengthy list that need to be whittled down, including topics on the energy of children, feeling old, being ornery, refusing to pay $5 for 30 minutes of parking, the necessity of emergency makeup purchases while on vacation, insane drivers, why I hate Windows Vista, a new Star Wars character called Darth Elfus, filling a cabin with fireplace smoke, critters....
I think I have a good list to choose from, but obviously I won't get to everything because that would be a lot for me to type and a lot for people to read.
I'll tell you one thing, it feels really good to be able to use a real keyboard again instead of having to tap all this out with a little bitty stylus.
So if there's anything on that list that sounds interesting to you, let me know. I do owe a "How My Christmas Went" posting, and I think I'm going to do one on my take on theme parks.
For now though, we're at least home - but not quite back to normal. There's a living room full of luggage and a cooler full of food and drinks to unpack, some very smoke-laden clothes to throw in the dryer, and about two days worth of Christmas decoration removal ahead of us.
Until later, I'm out.
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