Virtual Flaneurism

It is the end of the year, making it a time for some humble reflection. Instead of just talking about myself, I've decided to share with you a list of the top ten most popular pages from this year...all whilst talking about myself, of course. After, a handful of thoughts and self-deprecating comments that the following list inspired.

Now, the top ten:

10. August 29th: #1114

That a Cathy cartoon made it this high on the list is really very discouraging. I almost closed up shop on this one.

9. April 10th: #193

A personal reflection on leaving New York, as well as a link to Joan Didion's wonderful essay "Goodbye to All That". Not funny, so what were you linking it for?

8. October 9th: #1461

The "Awesome Sweaters" video. I might've wracked up all the hits on this page myself.

7. July 14th: #775

Yet another personal reflection, this one ultimately about my decision whether to stay in graduate school. Probably the dumbest post I've made - which is saying something.

6. July 13th: #767

You all liked to read my ramblings, apparently: this post was a segment from a piece I wrote in 2007 about my nephew's birth. It involved jokes about baby testicles, so maybe that explains the number of hits.

5. July 9th: #733

Naive Secretary E-mail Thread. I think I stole this from Ben and failed to give him credit. Remedied, bitches!

4. August 25th: #1089

Neil Patrick Harris + Silly Bandz + Sexual Innuendo? I fully support your approval of this one.

3. April 25th: #298

A battle of the "bands" where two fools try to outdo one another using children's musical instruments. I liked it, but you clearly liked it more.

2. July 30th: #889

The people of Reykjavik have spoken.

1. September 28th: #1359

It says so much about the readership of this blog that the top page is (1) about Obama and (2) a double entendre about sexual penetration. Good to know you're all as immature as I am.

Some thoughts:

- From my exploration of your top hits, it has occurred to me that you all either do not click the music pages, or simply do not like them. However, that is not true! Your top 5 searched tags for the year were cat, video, dogs, music, and gay. First, you all are clearly amazing, because those tags are some of my favorites. B, it appears that, while you aren't clicking the music pages themselves, some (or many) of you are regularly clicking "music" to check out all of the song posts at once. So, basically, I'm gonna keep trolling you with music, and that's that. Expect more Styx.

- You all seem to enjoy reading my writing. Seriously -- three of the top ten posts are "reflection posts" involving me rambling and you reading. The implications of this are mind-blowing -- should I be writing more? I am inclined to assume that you are mainly clicking these pages so that you can link others to them as a joke.

- I use Google Analytics, which gives you a rundown of where your visitors are coming from. Who knew that I had readers in Texas and Chile? Good thing I kept those racist Incan cartoons to myself. Also, it is telling that all of the Texas readers are from that great homo-hacienda of the South, Austin. (PS. Yes, Google Analytics is so stalkerish that it tells me where you're reading from, down to the city. Unfortunately, they've yet to integrate Google Maps and Analytics, or I'd be all up in your home addresses blog hits).

That's it, kiddos. Onward and upward to a fantastic 2011.