I just got an email from WordPress.com with the Annual Report on this blog, “Another Year of Insanity,” which states that 27,411 people visited my blog in the year 2011! This is pretty remarkable, because of course, I don’t know 27,411 people — in fact I don’t know that I even know one-tenth of that! That’s the power of the Internet for you. In 2011 I wrote 240 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 316 posts. Somehow it knew that some of my most popular posts were written before 2011 — so it reported that my writing has staying power and to consider writing about those topics again. I also uploaded over 900 images and photos.
It was just a little over a year ago that I asked the LCH webmaster, Bill Potter, to install statistics software on the the blog, so I could figure out if anyone was reading the stuff I was writing. I actually started the blog on June 22, 2010 so I don’t know how many people looked at it for those six months of 2010.
WordPress.com gave me this analogy: The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. If the blog were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take over 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it. The busiest day of the year was August 22, with 301 visitors — that was the day after Carl Crosier retired from the Lutheran Church of Honolulu, and I wrote a post titled A message from the cantor. I said that Carl took the opportunity to thank all the people of LCH and especially the music staff for making the past 38 years so rewarding.
Another question that was answered in the report was “How did they find you?” Most people found me through FaceBook, as I shared a link to my wall when a new post was written. But then, I only have 435 FaceBook friends. Others were referred by the LCH website, Yahoo mail and violinist Darel Stark’s website. Many visitors came because of my post on applause in worship, and I questioned why people applaud the postlude. I know that people don’t know how else to respond, but I think the applause is not for me, the organist, but for the service in general. But then again, why would you applaud after the service since it is to the glory of God, “Soli Deo Gloria,” as J. S. Bach signed his music?
Others came because of my post on organist Marie-Claire Alain, and that unforgettable day when she came to the Lutheran Church of Honolulu and played a private recital for just Carl Crosier and myself. (Click the link above to read the post.) Talk about stopping us in her tracks, her playing immediately put us in another place. She played not only with her hands and feet — she played with her heart. I’m sorry to report that she now is in an assisted living facility.
Another thing that is unbelievable is where these 27,411 people came from. Most people came from the United States, and the United Kingdom and Canada were not far behind. But here’s a listing of the countries who also brought visitors: Mexico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Malaysia, India, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, American Samoa, South Africa, Ghana, Egypt, Morocco, Botswana, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Chile. Incredible, isn’t it!
In fact, my writing has attracted the attention of some people I went to school with — at Burbank High School in Burbank, California — and I have been asked to take over the blog for my class. I was just in Burbank last week to celebrate the Au family home, which my mother lived in for 54 years, before it will be put up for sale. I will post my musings to my FaceBook wall.
So thank you all for reading!