Wednesday, November 22, 2006

It's a small world after all

When I first started my blog, back in August-06, Morgen recommended that I put a 'Site Meter' on it so I could tell how many people were actually reading my stuff.
While checking back with the site soon thereafter, I found a neat feature where you can see what link a visitor clicked on that led them to your page.
For example, if I had a link to you on my blog, and someone clicked on that, your SiteMeter would tell you that someone got to your blog via the site html://jannaverse.blogspot.com. It's a neat way to learn where your traffic is coming from-- how your readers are finding you.
Welllll, while surfing through this list, I saw places I recognized, like Morgen's blog, Julie's, Christine's, etc... places I recognized, places I knew had linked to me.
Then I saw this site called http://www.onion-boy.blogspot.com/. The URL didn't ring a bell at all, and I had no idea what this was.
I clicked on it.
It's a blog by this guy whose blog-nickname is "Onion-Boy". I had no idea who he was, but I started reading...
The first post I saw was this one, where he actually took a picture of his car's dashboard while he was driving. (The purpose was to show us that the odometer had reached 30,000 miles.)
"How funny," I thought, shaking my head in amusement. "What a wacky thing to do."
As I read other posts, I found his writing to be intelligent and articulate, with a good combination of thoughtful seriousness, everyday banality, and humor. I also found it amusing that he calls his blog The Onion Skin News, when I positively abhor onions with every fiber of my being. :)
Then I surfed further and found this post. It's a personality/IQ test he made up, and it's hilarious. That pretty much clinched my decision to be a regular reader from now on. I put a link to him on my blog and have been checking back ever since.
But that still didn't answer the question of how someone could have gotten from HIS blog to MINE; I seemed to be nowhere in his links, nor was I mentioned in any of the posts. (I'm linked there now but I wasn't back then.)
"How the heck does this guy know me???" I wondered.
Well, now I realize he didn't know me, and that site-meter thing was probably just a result of some surfer clicking on Blogger's "Next Blog" button. Someone out in cyberspace was looking at his blog, they clicked on the button that randomly finds another one, and just happened to be sent to mine next.
Complete coincidence.
Lemme backstep for a moment here: one of the things I tried to ascertain during my initial scan of this guy's blog is, WHERE is he FROM? If he was from Michigan, that'd be a clue he might have met me in person.
But no... his profile says he's somewhere "Just south of Cowtown."
I had no idea what the heck that meant.
All I could think of was the old TV show "Alice", where the sassy waitress "Flo" mentioned something about being from "Cowtown, Texas".
Completely clueless, I figured that must mean this guy was from Texas.
A couple months later, I learned he's actually from Nebraska.
Here's the thing, though: today, I learned he used to be from Michigan! And the town he grew up in is only a 20-minute drive from where I live. (!)
Soooo, when he saw this "Janna" person leaving comments on his blog, he clicked on my link, started reading MY blog, saw I was from Michigan, and now HE was wondering "How does this person know me???"
All this time he's been wondering if we met during his childhood, or something!
And all this time it was just a click on the random "Next Blog" button.
Is that a great coincidence, or what? :)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

it's a small world after all,
it's a small world after all,
same thing a third time, you think they could be more creative with lyrics
it's a small small small small world!

Janna said...

Hope you're not disappointed.
If you'd like, I can make up some story about how I was the long-lost great-niece of your great-aunt Hildegard or something... :)

Viv said...

Our onionboy is an interesting one in person to. You should find out the meaning of onionboy. It generally goes along with what his blog is all about. I really enjoy reading your comments. You seem like you have a great sense of humor.