One of the things I love about the Internet is how it can bring together people from various nations and cultures in ways previously unheard of. I have met people from literally every continent except Antarctica without ever leaving my home. There is really no way that I would ever have a chance to meet these people other than through the wonders of computers. My father is originally from Sweden, so I have an interest in learning about other nations and cultures, finding the differences and the similarities curiously fascinating. In this very blog I have interacted with people in numerous countries, and found commonalities that we may have never expected.
I bring this up because I added a few gadgets to my sidebar. Scroll down to the bottom of the bar on the right, and you'll see a counter and a map. First, I was surprised to find that in the last 48 hours I have had approximately 100 unique visits to this site. That's far more than I expected. I know that have more readers than make comments, but I figured maybe a couple of dozen, not far more than that. The map is also interesting, as it tracks where the IP addresses originate. I knew that I had readers in England and New Zealand, but some of the other countries surprised me: India, Malaysia or Indonesia (hard to tell on the map), and far northern Canada. I expected readers across the US, but didn't realize that they would be so wide-spread.
So my humble little blog has generated literally world-wide interest!!!! Wow, that sounds pretty crazy to say. Makes it seem bigger than it is. But it's fun to think of the people that are hopefully finding my entries interesting, educational, thoughtful, and fun.
So keep watching to see how all of this grows. I certainly will!