Journal log entry – The other night, and I thought it was the coolest thing, I opened my stats report for the blog, and it gave me a little map of the world, highlighting where visits to my site had originated. I mean, that’s cool within itself that that can be done, but besides that, and what I’m driving at is this, there was this little raspberry-like dot coming from eastern Europe, and when I hovered my mouse over it, it said:

RO Views: 1

RO? What’s RO? I ran off countries in my head that began with RO, and all that I could come up with was Romania and Rockefeller. Rockefeller was close, if its bank account had been in the red I would have sworn it was … but it wasn’t so it couldn’t have been a country. Romania though was a country? (Question to myself: Is that where that lettuce comes from?) Wow, I thought that was amazing, me in a little town in upstate New York, having someone from almost the other side of the world viewing my site. At first I thought of my sister-in-law’s boyfriend, who is from Romania and eats lettuce, but then I second-guessed that and thought: that isn’t it; he eats iceberg. Well, I may be wrong and it’s just a coincidence, but then I remembered someone who had chosen to visit my website, and he was Romanian. I’d discovered that last tidbit by visiting his website, and if he doesn’t mind I’d like to mention it by name: www.cristianmihai.net. Of course if he does, I’ll have to go back and edit this … and I really don’t want to go back … don’t make me go back. Well, anyway, I mention it, because he is an exceptional writer, and I would like to encourage you to check him out. Of course I might be wrong with the RO hookup, and maybe not, but that doesn’t make him less of an exceptional writer, so do visit him.

From my living room, and laptop, which sits on a wooden folding table you’d use to eat dinner from while sitting on the couch watching television, I am in complete awe at how the world can get so small. I don’t want to cut short my enlightenment on seeing Great Britain and Canada and the States lit up too in raspberry, all did and still excite me, but I think what had caught me off guard was the language barrier I assumed was there with RO, which in my eyes I’d seen broken. But I hadn’t broken it. I knew that. I, who’s muddled up his own language criminally, or at least criminally to those who have felt my improper use of a verb’s tense grating down their spine, couldn’t take credit for that. Obviously the person in Romania is more bilingual than I will ever be (either that or they enjoyed the pictures, but I’m not leaning towards the latter). It’s not that I wouldn’t want to be bilingual; I just don’t have the ear for it, but thank heavens, those in Romania do … and thank you for the visit … and thank you all too, all of you, wherever you are … much appreciated.

Signing off,

Roger and out