Statistics - and?

I don’t do this often, but five days ago I checked the various statistics that blogger offers for those writing a blog. And I was touched to see that my blog has had visitors from 117 countries so far. Ok, not very frequently from every country, and perhaps not even very recently – e.g. the one and only visitor from Guatemala stopped by on January 15, 2012 at the tail-end of the list. And, to be honest, twenty of the positions list only a single click in total. But just two places ahead of Guatemala , a one-time-visitor from “Bonair, Saint Eustatius and Saba” had clicked my site on July 9, 2014, very recently. I admit, I had to look up that one – an island in the group of the ABC Islands off the coast of South America, politically a special municipality of the Netherlands (English article on Wikipedia here, German article on Wikipedia here).

Map of location of Bonaire, taken from here 

photo of Bonaire from space, taken from here

You learn something everyday. Of course it set me wondering – a quilter on a tropical island? Or just a drive-by click which will not be repeated?

I decided I wasn’t going to be frightened by the fact that this list is compiled ‘for me’ whether I call for it or not, available at a click. And certainly I could find out a lot more about the whereabouts of the visitors if I only knew more about computers and the ways of the internet than I do, merely a simple-minded user on the surface. Perhaps I could even identify that person on Bonaire, get in touch. (Now wouldn’t I like to be invited to teach on a tropical island – that thought is so tempting, I would definitely be willing to make special allowances in terms of payment... But who has heard of a quilter’s guild on Bonaire? Please, do come forward!)

Position 56 – 10 clicks in total, the last one in February 2013 – obviously knows a lot more about hiding their digital traces than I do, because that position did not show the name of a country in the first column of the table. Though how do I assume that is just one person? No telling, at least for me.

And do I understand why the one and only click from Ethiopia (position 100) of June 2012 is ranked so much higher than the recent one from Bonaire? Sorry, I don’t.

The top two positions – USA, going on 8,000 clicks, and Germany, going on 7,000 – are the countries where I have spent the most time of my life. Followed by so many others I would love to spend (more) time in – although, unpleasantly enough, the current financial and family situation does not allow me to concoct as many travel plans as I would like to. Not that I think I want to spend my life as an island hopper – but then, why not? (Curiously enough, there is not the expected entry for this to be found on Wikipedia or Google as such – I thought I had once heard that there are people who ”collect” islands by trying to visit as many islands in their life-time as possible, but obviously I am not searching for this occupation/hobby/competition with the right term. So do 'they' not know everything, or is it me?)

As you can gather, I am not a learned statistician whose analysis can get any more in-depth or telling than this. It is past 11 p.m., I am waiting for the washing machine to do its last preliminary rinse/spin before I can set the full cycle going for the second color of the upcoming collection of the fabric club, and really all I want to be doing is go to bed... But position 18, New Zealand, with 99 clicks, most recently on the first of this month, can count itself lucky, because that is the country next on my list for international travels NOT connected to quilting. November 2015. Can’t wait!

One of my top favorite places in the world:
Lake Wanaka, South Island

Still wish I had collected more driftwood there...
but kind of hard to transport washed-out logs on a bike!

But looking at the statistics of visits to one’s blog at least gives one a feeling of being connected to the world. Perhaps this feeling of connectedness will eventually prevail over the feeling of the last few days that, as the centennial of the declaration of war in 1914 is coming up, humankind does not seem to have learned anything and is doing it all over again? I hope so.

Thanks for every click to each and every one of you – I do appreciate your stopping by!