A POST A DAY FOR A WHOLE YEAR!!!

Well...I made it! This is the 366th day in a row I've posted something on my blog. Initially, I never thought I'd make it past March, but here I am. If you've taken this journey with me, or at least parts of it, thank you very much! This was one of the most ambitious New Year's Resolutions I've ever made, and by far the most successful I've ever been with one. I've learned a lot about myself along the way. I've learned that there's still a creative spark inside me; I just have to nudge it every now and then to get it going. I've learned a lot about dedication (forcing yourself to write *something* every day is much harder than it seems) and overcoming difficult circumstances (when you're in the middle of nowhere in the mountains with no Internet service and you have a blog post written ahead of time, but have no conceivable way to actually post it). Will I make this same commitment next year? No, I won't. That answer comes from me and my wife. She knows as well as I do how much time I've committed to posting something every day, and that this year it was (for the most part) doable. But with a brand-new person to take care of arriving any day now, I won't have the time or energy to be able to pull this off again. Will I still blog? Of course, I will. Often? Probably. By this point, it's become a habit. But it won't be everyday, and it may not even be more than once a week. We'll see how it goes. With all that being said, here are some interesting year-in-review "numbers" for The Plural Of Hyena blog for the year of 2012 (with links to the original posts):

MOST POPULAR POSTS BY # OF PAGE VIEWS: 

(And why I think they've been viewed so much)

Creepy Mustaches  (2,434)

(I'm guessing this is a popular searched phrase, and I'm

just reaping the benefits of people clicking on images)

Interesting Quotes By Famous People With Two Different-Colored Eyes  (2,012)

(I guess people are very interested in folks with

heterochromia...nice round number, by the way) 

40 Interesting Things About The Number 40  (2,001)

(Apparently, the high page view count is due to the picture

I included of a 40-oz. "beverage" ~ more on this later) 

Do You Suffer From Coulrophobia? Find Out Today!  (1,784)

(Creepy clowns are in vogue, I guess)

Epic Beards  (1,729)

(Like "Creepy Mustaches," I think a lot of people are searching

for images with this phrase...and finding my blog instead) 

Interesting Facts About Very Tall People  (1,585)

(Tall people are fascinating? I dunno...)

Fifty Shades Of Lamps  (1,559)
(Duh! FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. Did I intentionally rip off the

title of a pop culture phenomenon to get more page views? Yup.)

Fascinating Facts About Our Feathery Friends, The Flamingos  (1,366)

(I included a lot of cool flamingo pics, which 

people must be Googling for a lot these days)

10 Things I Never Expected I'd See In A Photo  (1,040)

(David Hasselhoff hugging puppies ~ more on this later)

Anteaters!  (1,002)

(Lolcatz are OUT ~ Captioning Anteater Pictures is IN!)

Interesting Quotes By Guys Named Woody  (780)

(Either people are really into Woody Allen, or they

really love TOY STORY ~ I'm guessing the latter) 

The People Inside Some Famous Costumes  (619)

(People are really curious to see what the guy

who plays Chewbacca actually looks like)

Reasons To Laugh  (610)

(Because in this day and age, we NEED reasons)

Pseudonyms, Pen Names, And Noms De Plume  (595)

(I guess people are fascinated by fake names...)

WHERE DO MOST OF MY PAGE VIEWS ORIGINATE FROM?

www.google.com  (U.S.) (17,771)

www.google.co.uk  (United Kingdom) (2,747)

www.google.ca  (Canada) (1,676)

www.facebook.com  (1,584)

 www.google.com.au  (Australia) (746)

www.bing.com  (429)

www.google.co.in  (India) (335)

images.search.yahoo.com  (326)

www.google.de  (Germany) (322)

www.google.com.ph  (Philippines) (212)

MOST SEARCHED KEYWORDS THAT LEAD TO MY BLOG

(I have to exclude the many zebra-related keywords, 

since my big zebra post was last year, not this year)

"Brahim Takioullah"  (2nd tallest man in the world) (176 searches)

"David Hasselhoff Puppies"  (144 searches)

"Woody"  (131 searches)

"Flamingos"  (109 searches)

"Telly Savalas"  (quotes by famous bald people) (104 searches)

MOST PAGE VIEWS BY COUNTRY

United States  (27,697)

United Kingdom  (3,509)

Canada  (2,068)

Australia  (1,014)

Russia (894)

Germany  (798)

India  (366)

France  (352)

Philippines  (265)

Brazil  (200)

P.S.  Thanks again for being loyal readers! Stick with me in 2013! I have plenty more ideas -- both good ones and weird ones -- to share with you in the coming year!  ~  JH