Back Update and HEY, LOOK, Traffic!

Finishing my granola and coffee, taking a boo at my new bloggie. Dreading tonight. I'm at the point now where the only thing that really hurts my back is lifting or sitting. Even lifting I can kind of do, but sitting still sucks. I'll be getting more painkillers tonight from the doc, so that work will be manageable until next week sometime. I think this will settle down completely within the week, though, thank god.

The dread, though, is because I have to clean my kitchen. It should only take a half hour or so, it's small, but I need to do the floor and the broom closet. Because I've been sprawled on my back and unable to do anything, my place has been getting increasingly filthy, even though I've tried to wash my dishes each day and stuff. It's the floor -- the floor hasn't been done in three weeks, not really thoroughly. That's when I began my battle against the cockroaches.

WELL, being unable to be a cleaning fiend is about the worst thing that can happen when you're fighting bugs. The roaches have been reappearing. I think they're coming from the broom closet now. I think they're enjoying my dirty floor. So I'm going to clean it really well with my Swiffer. I'll use a half-dozen cloths on my floor and in the broom closet, and sterilize it with a spray of Lysol after.

The last thing I need is to be creeped out of lying on the floor while I'm continuing to rehab my back. Jesus. So, I'll be all passive about it. The walking I was doing yesterday seemed to help loosen my back up a bit, as much as it wasn't very fun to do, so I think a little bit of light housework with lots of stretching before, during, and after would be a little beneficial. I know how to be cautious about it. But I need these fucking bugs to FUCK OFF.

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Anyhow! I think I mentioned I've spiffed up the old blog of mine, got a hot new template, and I've been writing pretty incendiary political stuff of late, and I'm now getting twice as many hits and page views as I was just two months ago, quadruple my traffic of a year ago, but only 40% of what I used to make. But that's okay!

It seems that Wordpress IS, as I suspected, better at getting picked up in web searches than Blogger is. My search page-lands are escalating a bit. I installed the Wassup widget, which allows me to watch real-time traffic on the blog (how addictive is that?) so I can see what people are reading. Also, I'm getting now about 6% of my traffic from Twitter. Not too shabby.

But I'm pretty chuffed, as the Brits would say, that I've succeeded in taking my traffic up a bunch, and I think the move is helping. I think, as I continue to re-tag and categorize my archival postings (which is on hold until the domain finally transfers and we move the blog back to its right home and change all the DNS pointings), that I will continue to place higher and higher in search finds, because I'm being SO thorough on my tags and categorizing.

I've also downloaded an SEO tool for the blog, so I'm going to read up on Search Engine Optimizing this weekend, and start doing THAT on all the blog posts, too. So, I expect that I will finally be using all the power the web offers me for harnessing search engine power and maximizing my hits.

I mean, I don't need to worry about the writing. I'm back on that front. I mean, fuck, I've been having a blast in my last two political rants. "No, tell us what you really believe, Steff." It shows I'm having fun. THAT is what I have been looking for. THAT is what I have wanted back in my writing.

Well, it's back. Fun. There it is. Fun! Reading a writer who's actually having a good time writing is a wholly different and more enjoyable reading experience. I think I do perspective and internalization well in writing, but I love it when I do "fun" well. It's pretty rare. They come in clumps of three to six months, if I'm lucky. It's generally a signal for when my life as a whole comes together in a more positive way.

All my problems of late -- the back, the eye, the bronchitis, the bugs -- they all have real, authentic causes pertaining to actual situations in my life. It's not like life continually shits on me. The back, the eye, the bronchitis, my workouts, my diet, ALL of that is interconnected, so it was just a shitty domino, but having 10 days off to just REST and be on your back and think and find things to appreciate in life and set goals, WELL... that's a good thing to have before you move on to a new phase.

But none of it has gotten me down. I've had down days, yeah, sure, but the mood always passes. And, usually, it's only a down morning or afternoon, it seldom lasts for more than a few hours now. This is good!

Note to universe: I win. Go pick a different sap to play victim.

But being on my back to get my blog done is a fucking huge accomplishment. If that's the ONLY thing I accomplished in 10 days, if it's the ONLY positive I had in all that time, you know what? I'll take it. I've been meaning to do this for two years.

And since I'm now back in every sense, it's a really fucking exciting time to have it happen. I'm stunned at how good it is for traffic already. Things are gonna get fun.

Well, time for some more painkillers and off to work. FUN. Ugh. Blah. :) Sitting for hours. Sigh. I'm not going to spin that one in a sunshiny way. Heh.