One of the features that my blog-hosting service provides is statistical information on "page views" to my site. I can see how many times in the course of a day my website is viewed. Beyond that, however, it also tells me if someone visits my site via a link from another site, and even tells me which linked site the visitor is coming from. It’s kind of creepy, if you think about it. If a visitor links from another site directly to a particular post, I can see that as well. So out of curiosity I check each day to see how many people have viewed my site and try to figure out how they’re getting here to see if I can see any patterns. Most come from links on friends’ blogs, but a lot seem to come get to my site as a result of doing a Google search. Interestingly, I’ve noticed something very odd—the two most common Google searches that send people to my site are "Don’t Stand on Ceremony" and "Pop-tart Burns." Yes, I have written two posts on those subjects, and they can be found here and here. Searching for the ceremony one is understandable–it’s a common Chinese phrase so someone researching Chinese culture would likely encounter it and want to learn more. But pop-tart burns? I guess I have found some small comfort in the fact that I wasn’t the only person on the planet stupid enough to burn myself with a pop-tart. Who knew that it was so common??
So, if you’re looking for information on the Chinese love of ceremony, and dealing with pop-tart burns, folks, this is the place to be!