To reflect the fact that my blogging here has broadened from what it used to be (all polyhedra, all the time), I gave this blog a new tagline, title, and changed a few other things about the blog’s appearance. If you remember the way it looked before, I have a simple question for you: do you like the changes?
I’ve been asked, more than once, if I’ve ever considered writing a book. The answer: writing a book, as compared to maintaining a blog, would drive me crazy. The reason is simple: every book I’ve every read has at least one typo in it — somewhere. If I wrote a book, got it published, and then found writing mistakes in it, I’d be mortified. With a blog, on the other hand, I can edit mistakes away, months, or even years, after making them.
There aren’t many things that embarrass me, but making errors in writing is definitely one of them. If others can see the errors, then having committed the “sin” of writing incorrectly feels like being caught naked in public — eeeeek!
More hits come to this blog from inside the USA than any other country. Considering that I live here, that isn’t surprising. However, my international readers do outnumber what are confusingly called “Americans,” at 54.7% to 43.7% of hits to this blog.
When the hits from outside the U.S.A. are considered at as a set, a slim majority of that set is held by six nations, each with over 1,000 hits. India leads this group, followed by Russia. After those non-English-dominated countries come the English-dominated U.K. and Canada, in that order. Germany and the Philippines round out this group.
The next set, of 24 nations, are those with between 100 and 1,000 hits each:
Below 100, there are numerous nations. The next list goes down to the those nations from which seven or more hits have come.
Finally, the readers in each of these nations have only seen my blog between one and six times per nation.
Thanks to all my readers, everywhere you are. =)
Since I’ve started blogging on WordPress, there have been several surprises, but the most puzzling to me is the recent rise in popularity of my blog in India. I live in the USA, so it’s no surprise that most hits on my blog come from here. However, I have no explanation for why India is #2.
This blog has a high math content, compared to most blogs. Might that have something to do with it?
Whatever the reason, I’m glad I have readers there.
The part of this map I don’t like involves China, Iran, and North Korea: zero hits from each nation. That has nothing to do with the content of my blog, of course, but with heavy censorship in each of those countries, all of which have notoriously bad human-rights records. In at least one of those nations (Iran), my blog has been read, but that doesn’t show up on this map because of the extreme lengths my friends in Iran have to go to simply to surf the web without detection and interference from Tehran.
I would like, someday, to visit all of these countries. In the cases of Iran, North Korea, and China, though, I’m waiting for regime changes first.
RobertLovesPi is the name I use on the Internet, and I come to WordPress as a refugee from Tumblr, where I have grown tired of what I call the “reblogging-virus.” I am here to get a fresh start.
I am interested in a great many things. It would be silly for me to try to list all these topics here and now, so I won’t do that. My interests will become apparent as this blog progresses.
Regarding demographic basics, I was born in 30 B.G. (“Before Google”), but have become so accustomed to life in cyberspace that it now seems, to an almost scary degree, as if I am a native. I am 44 years old at the time of this blog’s inception, and work as a teacher of science (as well, sometimes, other subjects, varying from year to year) at a high school in Arkansas. It doesn’t take much math to figure out that this blog is starting in the year 14 A.G. (“Age of Google”) on my preferred calendar — if one knows that, unlike with the conventional calendar most Americans use, there is a Google Year Zero, also known as 1998 CE. And, yes, I invented the Google-based calendar myself. Why not?
As for my cyberspace name, it isn’t a joke. I really do love pi. Just don’t spell it with an “e,” please. If you do, that refers to someone else.
Also, my favorite number isn’t 3.14, no matter what your geometry teacher told you. And, no matter what I Kings 7:23 says, it certainly isn’t exactly 3. This can be proven with nothing more than a coffee can and some string.
Evidence is important to me, for I have been fooled before. I try my best to keep myself from being fooled again. If you want to persuade me of anything, be prepared to show me the evidence.
RobertLovesPi.net 