Navel Gazing

Have you heard the stat that something like 40% of all white-collar workers in America spend about a third of their time reading blogs... while at work? I swear I heard this on the radio about a month ago. And I believe it!

We bloggers are hard to resist!

Also, I don't know how all of you found your way here at Why Howard Laughed, but I have some clues provided by sitemeter.com: Google and Yahoo searches.

What's most interesting to me is that so many of Howard's first-time readers find me after doing a Google/Yahoo search for "Lapidus granite", or "Ride the Rockies", or "how Borane reacts with air", or "Ames Monument", or "picture of chocolate milk", or "rktect", or "mansard roof". Somehow, my blog rates high with search engines on those topics.

That last one is my favorite, by the way, because I wrote the definitive history of the mansard roof way back in February, and yet people still come to my blog to read it.

Sometimes the link provided by Google or Yahoo takes the reader straight to the exact blog entry. But then sometimes it lazily dumps them on my front doorstep, leaving them the arduous task of scrolling through months and months of junque for the treasure they seek. I'm sure most of them leave quickly, realizing that they fell into the lair of a raving liberal hippy cyclist egomaniac.

Someday I would love to create a sidebar to my blog page listing links to all my favorite and most popular blog entries. But Howard is not HTML-savvy enough for this nifty trick. Howard is lacking the critical geek gene which would allow him safe passage to HTML heaven. So hell it is.

I created a post about two months ago listing my favorite blog entries. But since then as I accreted more layers to the pearl we know as Why Howard Laughed, that precious post receeded deep into the archives, forever lost. Until now, as I temporarily resurrect it once again.

One of the greatest HRlaughed puzzles that have befuddled me is why Eugene, Oregon residents don't Google themselves more often. Everyone loves to read about themselves, right? I wrote what I thought was a pretty interesting take on Eugene, as seen from a rental bike. Yet nobody found my blog via a "Eugene" search on Google/Yahoo. And nobody commented. At least not yet.

I also wrote a humorous essay on the competitive nature of most bicyclists -- and of course my own competitive nature. My wife, who is a writer, thought it was sparkling and brilliant. I believe her exact words were, "this is nice." But again nobody commented. At least not yet.

And then I posted a link to a very humorous and thoughtful blog that was in desperate need of readers... only to have it belly up within the week. Can anyone say the Howard Kiss of Death?

Oh well. You've reached this sentence so you're still reading. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

If you have the time, tell me in comments how you found this blog (unless you are family or friends, in which case we both know you were threatened.)

Now get back to work, you slacker before your boss catches you reading a raving liberal hippy cyclist egomaniac blog!