Serendipity and the usefullness of counters

I am just so very busy. Yes, I know absolutely no one else is occupied at all, except for me. Uh huh. Sure. So imagine my complete surprise when I finally checked my Site Meter counter to see a spike in my hits very early in April. To be sure, many hits come from people clicking on the "Next Blog" button here on Blogger and many visitors come from from Google or Technorati searches. I'm not "up" much on the other so-called social sites like Digg, Furl, del.icio.us , etc,. though I am not completely clueless. (For the most part, the social sites don't serve what I do.) Yet, one more site was sending unsuspecting readers to my blog, Anirvan Chatterjee's Bookfinder Journal. It is a good thing I had one decent post for him to use, but I was almost considering deleting this whole endeavour around the same time Anirvan was directing folks here. I am not egotistical enough to believe I write anything of interest or importance to anyone else. This is my personal exercising of demons. If anyone comes along for the ride- welcome! Lack of free, creative time makes it difficult to write compelling content and that's assuming I am capable in the first place.

My blog is too new, not full of basic, helpful information for booksellers (because I think "booksellers" should need very little, basic help in general or maybe they are in the wrong business) and much of what is contained here can be found elsewhere. However, some people are repeat offenders and I noticed Europeans, as a rule, are Googling my blog title. Thank you for your interest. Eventually I will add informative links or content but as a way of storing my stuff. Please feel free to avail yourselves to my resources, though.

The serendipity part comes into play because I saw a Google search for "free fm gone in san diego." I clicked on that and found this Free Radio San Diego. As I clicked to listen (I've always been a rebel- or a pain in the rear minimum- and, it is great music) I had to turn down my stereo that was tuned to Sirius satellite's Howard 101 for the Stern show replay to hear the streaming pirate station. My phone rang; it was a survey about my radio listening habits ... serendipity. I don't think my answers would have been helpful since I only listen to non-terrestrial radio, namely Sirius satellite, whether at home or in my vehicle. I can't listen to regular radio anymore! The commercials and lack of real free speech are too painful.

The fact is, I shouldn't be receiving any junk calls since our number has been on the National Do Not Call List since before its activation- and I recently made sure to re-add or renew our number on the list just in case- although registration is for 5 years. (Incidentally, I just reported a loan company called "First American" to the FTC for a violation this week.) You will not find me shopping, walking, driving, eating in a fine or casual establishment, etc., while talking on a cell phone. I DON'T OWN ONE!!!! Don't want one. I do not need to be in contact with someone 24 hours a day. I like my own company more than anyone else's, except for my animal companions. I barely answer the hard/land line for people I love.

For readers who have suffered this far, if you haven't had your fill of the saga of Kaavya Viswanathan and "Opal Mehta," The Harvard Crimson - with the hometown court advantage-lists the "similarities" between McCafferty's books and "Opal Mehta." The NY Times has an article speculating on the involvement of Alloy Entertainment in the publishing industry in general, and mentioning Viswanathan's book in particular. (btw, what high school kid's school counselor has an agent in the pocket as in KV's, case especially a friggin' William Morris agent? My, how times have changed!) American Idol Smithy Code Jane Jacobs Sketchup Stuck With Bush Singapore Election Duke Lacrosse Net Neutrality Video Singapore Myspace South Park Tony Snow Apple