Search Term Thursday 2.16.2012

Since I've been offline for much of the last week, I haven't had a chance to screenshot my search terms.  Luckily, these little jewels showed up just now when I inquired about this week's stats:

If the dishwasher melts *your* bottom, please go directly to the hospital, not to Google.

So Emotional

So, that didn't last long.

Sorry, guys.  I hate it when someone does this huge announcement, "I AM TAKING A BREAK!" and then they're back in four days, so feel free to hate me when I do it.  I won't blame you.

The thing is, on the very day that I decided to go off social networking, Whitney Houston died.  I was all, MUST...TWEET...MUST...BLOG, but I resisted the urge.  I guess I'm less of a social networking addict than I thought, huh? 

Now that I've had some time to gather my thoughts, I'd like to say a few words about Whitney Houston.

As I type this, I'm listening to "So Emotional" on my Spotify Whitney playlist, which has been running almost nonstop since Saturday night.  This hit me hard.  I've cried a few times, and I'm fighting back tears now.

I loved those earrings.  I loved them so much.

Whitney Houston played a huge part in my childhood.  I remember sitting in the back of a moving pickup truck with my sisters, singing "I Wanna Dance With Somebody" at the top of our lungs.  We would watch hours of VH1 just so that we could catch the video for "The Greatest Love of All".  "One Moment In Time" was nearly my moment, when my choir director almost chose me to do a solo at the beginning of the song for the concert (I didn't project enough back then--I was too shy).

Basically, through repeated rewinding and playing, Whitney Houston taught me to sing.  No, I will never sing as well as she did, but by attempting to sing each note of every one of her songs in the exact way she did it, Whitney was my very own vocal coach.  I still know all the words to all of her early songs.

I can't get "Didn't We Almost Have it All" out of my head.  While most of the tributes I've seen have referenced "I Will Always Love You", I think this one is more suitable mainly because of these lines:


Didn't we almost have it all?
When love was all we had worth giving
The ride with you was worth the fall, my friend
Loving you makes life worth living

The ride with Whitney Houston was worth the fall.  She may have lived a too-short, tumultuous life, but her beautiful voice will live on forever, and will continue to bring joy to generations of music lovers for years to come.  That's priceless.

Rest in peace, Whitney Houston.  Thank you for the music.

Goodbye.

I'm taking a break.  See ya when I see ya!

How to View your Stats

Since I've been doing Search Term Thursdays, I've had a few people ask me how I gather this information.  Being a nice person and all, I thought I'd make a little tutorial for those people.  If you don't know how to view your stats, observe:



NOTE:  This is for people who use blogger in draft as their dashboard.  I'm sorry, but I don't know how to get mine back to the old settings, or I'd illustrate that as well.


1.  From your Blogger dashboard, click on the graph/number of pageviews (circled in yellow) to bring you directly to the stats page.  Alternatively, you can click on the drop down menu (circled in blue) and click on "stats" from there.

 2.  If you only have one blog, or if you clicked on your blog's name, your dashboard may look like this:

In that case, just click on the "stats" link.


3.  Once on the Stats page, to view your search terms, click on "traffic sources".

4.  Enjoy (or be horrified)!


Now, this is the simplest way to view your statistics, and it works well if you don't want or need a lot of detailed information.  If you DO want a lot of detailed information, I'd suggest installing Google Analytics on your site.  It's a little complicated, but you can do a lot more with it.

Happy viewing!

Search Term Thursday 2.9.2012

Thankfully, Tony Lucca's appearance on The Voice knocked out any chance of that horrible search term showing up in my stats.  Try harder, troll!  (actually, please don't)

Thank you, Tony!  I'm rooting for you to win!

Happy stuff.

So, apparently nobody else remembers Rock N Roll Mom.  Who'd a thunk?

That's okay.  Even though I feel like a complete outsider now, I still had a pretty good day.  Why, you ask?  Let's see...

Things that made me happy today:

*The case of Sugar-free Red Bull I just bought at Costco.

*Thinking I left half my reusable grocery bags at the grocery store, only to find them at the bottom of another bag when I got home.


*The way The Kid looked when he got up from his nap (which he never really took):

*Planning what I'll wear and how I'll do my hair for (early) Valentine's Day dinner this weekend.

*Finishing a re-write of my screenplay Coma Lady last night.

*The realization that it's already February 8th and we probably will escape this winter without suffering through a big winter storm this year.


*Realizing, after 2 1/2 years of growing it out, that my hair is now down to my bra strap, which is the length at which I officially consider it long.

I have long hair!  ...but apparently I lost a hand.

*Wearing the perfect shade of red lipstick that I got as a sample at Sephora, but will soon be buying in the full-sized version.

*Having a conversation with The Kid in the pasta aisle of the grocery store that started with the question, "How long do vampires live?".

*Finding a musical twin to share playlists with on Spotify.

*Making plans to see a friend I haven't spent time with in months.


So you see, my happiness isn't dependent on a single other person in the world sharing my affinity for horrible made-for-tv 80's movies.

It's dependent on Red Bull and lipstick.

So there.