Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding!

As part of the 7Pi7D project, I had announced that I will give away a little something something to the 500th commenter and the blogger on whose post the comment appeared.

Well we have our 2 winners, and I will reveal their identities on Sunday! I will contact the winners before then and let you know how we go about the prizes. Thanks very much to whoever has participated so far, and I hope it will not stop you guys from commenting on some really good posts (don’t you think?)!

Look out for a review of this week on Sunday, the names of the winners, how I go forward on this blog in February, and some new development on the status of this blog!

Look forward to the remaining posts!

Numbers numbers numbers…. it’s what the world runs on. Essentially it is just a zero and a one….. in different sequences ofcourse, but it’s that which keeps us ticking.

So why am I talking about numbers? Well…. I’m not quite sure actually…. but I know what I am getting at… so hear me out!

Historically speaking, I have been a number cruncher. As I grew up, maths always had a greater focus at school above all other subjects. It didn’t matter how you did in any other subject (strictly speaking, that’s not quite true but…), everyone asked how you did in maths first. That pattern carried on from high school into college, and even into university; my degree was ‘mathematical‘ to a certain degree (Computer Science).

I noticed something a while back – most of my t-shirts have numbers on them. If they don’t have a number, the label is something numeric. It’s very strange when I think about this because I actually never look to get any of this. Even at work, I try and look at issues more from a numerical logic; this confuses a lot of people – but does answer a lot of questions too!

Even when I started this blog…. numbers kinda jumped up and down in front of my eyes – I guess by default. OK, I was not too bothered about how many people read me , or followed me initially, but then I went through a phase of trying to capture readership. I think there was a point where I got on to twenty something bloggers, and befriended a huge number of people – trying t gain traffic I guess. I do actually follow some of the blogs which I picked up from there, but the numbers don’t make sense. I have about 300 ‘friends’, but obviously I don’t get even close to that many hits in a week. I guess it massaged my ego a little that I had my highest number of views in July ’08, but I know these were not genuine hits.

So over the last 3 months or so, I have taken the sensible direction towards blogging (hey, i’m a slow but effective learner!). I guess I have been posting better stuff, and I have also, and more importantly, been commenting a whole lot more than I used to. I am in no way trying to ‘buy’ a readership anymore; I think that my views earn me decent enough traffic.

So… what now? well… I am always up for a challenge…. a numerical one – even better! I was catching up on my reader on the train this morning, and I read the new years post by Chronicles of a chai charsee. I read in November ’08 about NaBloPoMo, but never really thought about it much. So when C.o.a.c.c. spoke about posting everyday in January too (C.o.a.c.c. took part in NaBloPoMO in November ’08), and it got me wondering… I posted 17 times last month…. the days when I did not post were well… because of laziness I guess… So that begs the question – can I go through a month by posting something on a daily basis?

I didn’t realise that NaBloPoMo had a theme for every month. January is ‘Change’ – I guess something which a lot of bloggers will be attempting to bring in in the new year. So why can’t I?

So… here it is… my numerical challenge for January… I will attempt to post atleast 31 times this month. I think I can do it… there is always a lot to talk and discuss… I am constantly trying to post on the move, but I guess I am not stable enough in one place to complete posting – but this is what I will try an change!

My first 2 posts this year were 2009 and New beginings (I got the timings screwed up on this, so it posted last night instead of tonight).Let’s see how far I can get with this… wish me luck!

For those who can’t get enough of numbers….. here are 5 cookie blog stats for you…

1. I have been blogging for 220 days.
2. At the point of writing this post, 4331 people have visited this blog @ an average of about 20 visits per day.
3. This is the 106th post which I have posted.
4. 325 comments have been posted so far.
5. There is a surprise gift awaiting the 500th commenter. I won’t disclose it just yet, but depending on the location of the commenter, there could be something coming your way!

Anybody else feel they can run the 31 days with me?