Top Word of the Year

Did you know that the most searched-for word on Merriam-Webster online in 2004 was (drum roll please) Blog? How funny. I didn't even know Blog was in the dictionary.

Here is the official definition:

Blog - noun [short for Weblog ] (1999) : a Web site that contains an
online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often
hyperlinks provided by the writer.

Hmm. Good to know.

Well, Thanksgiving was ok. I survived and the food was good. There was ample weirdness, but also some goodness, so it all kind of balanced out to be neutral. If this isn't making any sense, I apologize. I am just not quite ready to get into family stuff on this site.

Speaking of which, I have absolutely no idea who actually reads this thing. Yes, I know that I have a few non-commenting friends who read it and some of you e-mail me about things on here once in a while, but where did those thousand hits come from? How do people even find my site? And how does one achieve the kind of fame in the blog world where the people who run Blogger notice your blog and list it on the Blogs of Note list? I am not sure I want that kind of recognition... but I am just wondering.

I am also wondering if humans used to hibernate in the winter. Or at least hunker down more because, without fail, when the days start getting shorter, I have this urge to eat a bunch and curl up in flannel and sleep. A co-worker was just telling me that he read something that basically said we used to keep much shorter hours in the winter, but artificial lights have messed everything up. If this is true, at least there's a more scientific explanation for my laziness than me just being lazy.

I think I will end this random random post with a bit of advice I received from my little brother (the smartest person I know.)


"Keep your head up and take care of you. You can only control how you act, so do it. Take lessons from others and make yourself a better life. Act like the person you know you are, and if people see you doing well -- really truly happy -- they will be inspired by you and do the same for themselves. These little things will sort themselves out. Things will change and the unexpected will be the same. People will grow, or shrink as they chose. It is up to each one of us to take care of ourselves as well as our family. So use your energy for something productive and don’t get all hung up on the problems."

Obviously this advice is about some family crap we're going through, but it can really apply to so much and it helped snap me out of a funk today (the advice, lunch with Nancy and some cheery TV-related e-mails from Sean.) So thanks Dustin and thanks to my friends for being there. I am off to be like myself and get my butt to the gym.