Photobucket had recently changed their policy and now all the images from my 650+ blog posts are disabled. I am slowly editing them by moving my images to my own server at AWS, but it will take time. In case there is a particular old post you want to see the images of, kindly drop me a mail at mizohican@gmail.com and I'll keep that at a high priority. Thank you.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Chp 140. The Big Break

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

A lovely poem by Robert Frost. Short and sweet, and yet extremely meaningful. “And miles to go before I sleep”. Hence this is the time when I must take a leave from the blogosphere for a month or two, because of those “miles” I must cover.

Of course this sabbatical would mean the usual stuff: a drastic decrease in the number of my daily visits (past 3 days visit was 470+). Even though I did used to get more than 200 visits/day a long time back during my IIM days, I took a break and then came back writing more Mizo-centric articles. I was then barely maintaining an average of 100 visits per day. And then I entered Camp and came out writing only Gospel articles, and the number of daily visits increased but the profile of my visitors completely changed! Now having learnt how to strike a balance between each type of posts, I feel proud to maintain a visit of around 130/day, all thanks to all you wonderful people out there. Here is a *Muaaah* (No it is not considered normal for a guy to give out muaaahs in my culture too, but what the heck, I just feel like it )

A great big thanks to all the Zo bloggers out there for reaching out and letting your voices get heard. Keep the faith and keep blogging. Love you all. Also another bounteous thanks to Bobby, Marzi, Jesse, Janice, Jean, Emila, Zublin, Christy, and all my new wonderful blog-friends from MBL community who introduced me to technorati. I am now in the top 100K website listing!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you


[Notice how I kept the mouse over the PC time for “date stamp”. Lolz]

Even though that rank is miniscule compared to some of the ranks of my friends mentioned above, I feel proud to have reached that rank as my blog is more article oriented than short-posts based, with just 4-5 updates/month. It would indeed be sad to see all that slip away yet again, because of the break I am going to take. But I promise I will be back with more improvements, enthusiasm, passion, energy and the usual Kim-Humor

Visit past one week:



Yeah I may have fallen into the “site-meter trap” (visiting one’s site-meter more often than one’s own blog! ), but sometimes it is important to know the profile of your visitors, so that you can tailor-stitch your blog more to their liking.

I have registered at Google Analytics thanx to my good friend Sundancer on October 2nd 2006. It’s not even been a year since then, but what I learnt from the Analytics report is gargantuan (yeah I really love that word ).

I’ve learnt that 59.24% of my visitors visit my blog 4-5 times a month. This corresponds exactly with the number of times I update my blog a month. This tells me that people who visit my blog know how frequently I update my blog, hence it would be a waste of time to visit everyday. Last month (July 2007), the number of people who visited my blog more than 10 times during the entire month was 534, which is just 22.25% of the total month’s visit (2400 approx).

I’ve learnt that 58.93% use Internet explorer, compared to 36.66% Firefox. Hence I could use HTML tags like “table bordercolor” which displays perfectly for Explorer but looks ugly in Firefox. I avoid “rowspan” as it sometimes gets messed up in Explorer. Similarly there are CSS scripts which works well for one but doesn’t for the other, which I will not post here for boring’s sake

Another important point I’ve learnt from the Analytic’s report: 71.55% of my visitors use a screen resolution of more than 1024x768. Hence I could freely increase the size of my page to (currently) 815 pixels, with 468px on the content and 336px on the side bar. This way I could push in more graphics and contents on either side without bringing in the (oh so evil!) Horizontal scrolling.

67.21% of my visitors come from Cable, DSL and other high speedsters, while 4.57% come from Dial-up (Why do I picture my friend calliope’s canticles in my mind every time I see a visit from a Dial-up? ). Hence I could safely use a number of heavy graphics decorating the sidebar with minimum complains about the loading speed.

Regarding the location of my visitors, as most other blogs around, I do get a huge number of visitors from different parts of the World. However, I would request you all not to jump the gun whenever you see a foreign location. My friend FadeNoMore works in Convergys, a BPO in Bangalore. Whenever he visits or comments, his ip address shows “Cincinnati, Ohio, USA” which is probably where it is routed back (Convergys Head Office). Similarly, when some of my visitors from AOL Call Center in Bangalore visit my blog, their ip addresses show “Dulles, Virginia, USA”.

For those of you at home with your own net connection, it is also very important to “ignore visits” of your own ip address. Sitemeter offers that option. Even though I update my blog 4-5 times a month, I frequently log in to my template to change a thing or two every now and then. Every time I do that, it counts as a visit. Hence I simply ignored the visits from my own ip address so that my actual number of visits does not get tampered.

Other important factor not to miss: Know where most of your visitors are coming from. This is from my Google Analytics report.



Where does the referral traffic come from?

Again, Google Analytics answers [in order of percentage, top 20 only] :

01. orkut.com
02. mbaleague.blogspot.com
03. sunshinenjoy.blogspot.com
04. anuragjain.blogspot.com
05. mybookmarks.com
06. mybloglog.com
07. whymba.blogdrive.com
08. misual.com
09. mariuca.blogspot.com
10. desipundit.com
11. lawrkhawm.com
12. dignifiedcow.blogspot.com
13. mutiny.in
14. sekibuhchhuak.blogspot.com
15. e-pao.net
16. technorati.com
17. carpeimperiummundo.blogspot.com
18. chandoo.org
19. shutterspeedchronicles.blogspot.com
20. suyogdeshpande.net


Thank you so much for the referral, everyone. Nice to see 4 Mizo sites (misual, lawrkhawm, Sundancer and Seki) among the list too. Ka lawm e!

Many of my articles have appeared in various National magazines and newspapers like Midday, Times of India, Jesus Calls, Telegraph, Business Today, Newslink etc. They’ve also been cross posted at popular sites like desipundit.com, pagalguy.com, e-pao.net, misual.com, lawrkhawm.com, zawlbuk.net, youthim.com, zoram.com and various Mizo Association websites. Since it is difficult to conclude which are the most popular posts (one man’s thingie is another man’s thungie), I am displaying the 25 top views of my posts according to Google Analytics. (Note: Google Analytics started calculating the page view only from Oct 2006. The views before that are not recorded; hence, the result may not be that accurate).

01. Chp 085. A "new" discotheque called "Poison" (2020)
02. Chp 094. Racism I: Chinky - What me insult? (1011)
03. Chp 092. Arsenal: New signings, new formations. (912)
04. Chp 079. Underworld 3 : The Movie (interracial perspective). (784)
05. Chp 077. Manori Beach > Palm Beach Resort. (782)
06. Chp 116. Christianity & Culture: Wearing “puan”. (655)
07. Chp 039. Sonargachi! (599)
08. Chp 022. Love, jealousy & ex-girlfrens : A Valentine's Day Special. (531)
09. Chp 117. Impression of a Christian (505)
10. Chp 089. Mumbai Cable TV and the Ban (467)
11. Chp 108. A special Valentine's Day post (419)
12. Chp 073. World Cup: Of women folks and football. (337)
13. Chp 106. A blessed long distance relationship (316)
14. Chp 050. Of older women n younger guys (301)
15. Chp 111. To Nepal, with Love. (293)
16. Chp 096. "AGAPE" Gospel Rehab Camp (215)
17. Chp 113. A poem for women (194)
18. Chp 030. Anara CD controversy : My take. (191)
19. Chp 054. Inter-racial relationships (176)
20. Chp 124. The Ironies of Love (172)
21. Chp 100. The Christian Life (167)
22. Chp 086. What really happened in the IIMB Campus (133)
23. Chp 093. I'm horny, you're horny. (128)
24. Chp 095. Mizoram, My Mizoram! (115)
25. Chp 049. Tuscan Verve (111)

13 of my posts which I wrote before I activated my Google Analytics (before Chp 95.) appeared among the top 25! Since there was no record before October 2006, the mentioned 13 posts would definitely have a much higher rank had I activated Google Analytics earlier. It also feels wonderful to know that 7 of my Gospel posts appeared among the top 25. Longest run at top 25: 5 posts (Chp 92, 93, 94, 95 & 96).

If in case you are jobless with nothing to do except read some “new” stuff then please do go through some of my Top 25 posts mentioned above while I’m gone (Oh! Shameless me!!!!)

And of course before saying goodbye, something I’ve always been meaning to do for a very very very long time. An award to my MBL friends!

This goes out to all you MBL folks who have not just become mere “blog buddies” but very personal friends within time. You’ve shown me the true value of friendship and support, even though we are all miles apart and most definitely will never meet in our entire lifetime. Yup this award goes out to you Bobby, Marzie, Jesse, Jean, Janice, Christy, Emila, Zublin, Barrett and in cinq (dear Lord, I hope I didn’t miss out anybody).

Even though they know I don’t do tags and memes because my blog is article based, and that I want to maintain the “brand image” of that, these people still tag me, meme me, and award me! Most people do that so that they will be linked back so as to push up their ranks, but these people on my list do it purely out of love.

I’ve been awarded so many times too, by these very same people. So, since this is my last post for the time being, I thought, why don’t I design my own award for these wonderful people? Something that I can personalize so as to fit them exactly… I thought and thought and thought… most of the awards that best describes them are already there… and then it struck me. There was one very important quality all these bloggers had in common: They make me smile.

Be it Bobby’s knowledgeable insight on the nuts and bolts of blogging, or Marzie’s extremely “feel good” posts about everything, or Jesse’s yet another attempt at registering at yet another blog promotional site , or Emila’s wonderful illustration that has an aura of placidity and serenity around it, or Janice and her two marvelous kids who you wanna nibble and pinch and chew forever, or Jean who is all sweetness, niceness and sugarness all rolled into one, all these people and the wonderful ones not yet mentioned (because I will go on and on and on if I point out all the wonderful qualities of everyone) have always made me smile and feel good about the fact that I’m alive. They have been a part of my life for the past 1-2 months now, and my life has indeed been more cheerful since.

Hence, here is the award I have specially designed for you guys, straight from the heart. It's the "Thank you for making me smile" Award



With that, I begin my sabbatical. Of course I will still visit other blogs occasionally, but there won’t be any updates here for the next 2 months. And about the comment moderation, that is still activated, but my girlfriend will be manning my account everyday as usual, accepting the comments (insightful ones, criticisms, supportive, agreements, disagreements, argumentative etc) while rejecting the spams & occasional racial abuses my blog is still a target of. God bless you everyone!

34 comments:

emilayusof said...

Illusionaire!! Thank you for the award! I am so flattered!! I love reading all your articles! You're such a great writer and your style really have a wit to capture reader's attention!

Anonymous said...

Hey there! Thanks SO much for the award! I absolutely appreciate it! The relationships I have made in the blogospere has surprised me! It feels nice to be a part of a community of bloggers! I will miss your posts while your gone! This was a great post! I had not heard of the Google Analysis thing, so I will have to check that out! YOu are a great writer and I thoroughly enjoy your posts! Take care friend and we will be looking for you in the blogospere in a few months!

Mizohican said...

OMG Emila and Barrett, how did you guys do it? Did you subscribe to my post feed or something like that? I'm still busy altering some of the paragraph and link alignment here and there, and you guys already found out about the award and commented! I haven't even told the others about it! lolz.

You're very much welcome Emila and Barrett. You guys deserve it. I'll tell the others tomorrow morning as it's already late here in India :) Goodniteeee.

Mariuca said...

Sandman!!!!! I am gonna miss u and ur words when you're gone! Can't u like cut down ur sabbatical to a month or something?!

Thanks so much for the award!! I am so honoured and HAPPY to be awarded by Mr. Mizohican, who I know doesn't do memes or awards! I love it, thanks so much!

Well, have a nice break and I hope to see u before the 2 months!You're welcome to visit me any time u feel bored from being away from all of us here! Loads of love and hugs for you! :):):)

Oh that Robert Frost poem u cited, is one of my favourites! :)

Mizohican said...

Ohhh Marzie, it's not that bad :) I'll still be around to check your new posts etc. I just won't be writing new posts, thats all. I will still be commenting :) You mean to say you don't appreciate my words when it comes to comments on your blogs? (Oh! The superbia!!!) *grin*

Keep blogging Marzie, I'll still be around in the blogosphere.

emilayusof said...

Illusionaire, the link to my blog pops up in my wordpress dashboard. i will write a post about the award and of course i will link back to you! Cheers! Enjoy your sabbatical!

J@n!ce said...

Congrates for making the advancement in your ranking. I am so honoured to be receiving this award from the great writer here.
The badge is so nicely done up that the trophy look so REAL :)
I love it!! Have a safe trip & we'll gonna miss you & your writing.

*hug* to you & take care :)

Mizohican said...

@ emila: Yes Emila, I know that. Even at another website I co-author at wordpress, the links to that website pops up. But I was just surprised at the immediate reaction, which means you and I went online at the same time! :) Like in MBL, when you log in, you see 5 other MBLers who logged in recently. The chance of seeing somebody you know is small, but one day, the guy who logged in just before me was Bobby :))) I just laughed. lolz.

@ Janice: Thanx :) you too have a great time and you really do deserve the award. Give my hugs and kisses to Amos and Zachary.

Jean Chia aka Ms.Yummy~licious said...

sandman!! congrats on your technorati ranking and you've make a great move to captured the date & time. *wink*

thank you for the award! im speechless. Nevertheless, it's definitely one a kind! i will proudly display it in my blog! thank you so much.

Take care my friend and hope yo have a good break! :) Feel free to have a peep into my blog now and then. I'm serving coffee at my shoutbox all day long! *wink*

Bobby Revell said...

Thank you Sandman! This group of people you have selected who I am proud to be be associated with are the finest people I've met since I started blogging. I am honoured that you you have me in this list. I will always support you 100% and wish you the greatest of success in all of your endeavors. Thank you:)

Christy said...

Thank you so much! That is really nice. I absolutely love the award! Congratulations on all of your success and enjoy your break!

Big Hugs!

Christy:)

Mariuca said...

Yay, in that case... enjoy ur sabbatical!

And of course ur comments are very much appreciated whenever they make their way to my blog!

Mizohican said...

@ Jean: lolz, thanx Jean. Of course I will still take a peek now and then, how could I not! :) And yes, I will be there for the coffee too. But coffee better be there when I come, coz I get real grumpy in the morning if I dont drink my coffee :)

@ Bobby: Thank you for the wishes Bobby. And it is indeed an honor to present you the award. You do know you play a huge role in my rank going up, right? Thanx once again for that!

@ Christy: Your welcome, Christy. Hugs back to you too :) Keep blogging and I will of course visit now and then.

@ mariuca: You can count on that :) Cup or no cup, I will still comment on your blog. And yes, my "hijacking plans" when that cup travels from Malaysia to South Africa is still on. *BIG GRIN*

Anonymous said...

Kima wrote: "visiting one’s site-meter more often than one’s own blog!"
Haha, how true. It's DAMN addictive. Leave that job for ahemz :D

On a serious note, didn't you think this was coming? Seriously, I wasn't surprised with the stats :)

And "thankyou" back for the referral...*Muaaah*
/what the heck, I too just felt like it :))

PS: leave poor calliopes alone, will ya? :P

Pixie said...

Ah!!! so many statistics!! :-)
Its good to be back - reading blogs AND commenting!
Hadn't herad of the Google Analysis thing before... will check it out.

Trix said...

Dear Sandman, choosing me as one of the bloggers who bring a little more fun and sunshine into your life makes me so happy ! I am also honoured by your kind words here and cannot say how great you have been as a new friend here online.Your open and happy attitude to life and your witty comments always bring a great feeling to my own life.Thanks so much for including me in this award.I wish you well in your new adventure and look forward to many future posts when you return.Hugs and best wishes to you and yours :)

Trix said...

By the way....this award is totally awesome ..thanks Sandman

Trix said...

Hello again, I just finished putting this wonderful award from you on my blog..and I suddenly remembered, I have no link to your site on my blog..I am going to rectify that right away ! i hope that you are doing great, Sandman...and cannot wait for you to return.Your posts are always stunning, such rare talent..hey, I am still hoping to interview you one day ! :) love to you and yours...

incinq.blogspot.com said...

Wow, I'm honored to be mentioned with the others in this group. Thanks so much. :)

Henry said...

Congrats for breaking into the 100k :)

Speedcat Hollydale said...

Wow Sandman Illusionaire! You really keep tabs on this domaine. See you at Technorati :-)

Speedcat Hollydale Page

Sekibuhchhuak said...

Proxy hmanga ka view thin a vangin ka comment thei lo thin a..buaithlak hle mai,finally ka ti tehi e.

Sekibuhchhuak chu a lo lang ve teh nawlh a :D

thnks for the Award!cash a keng tel na nge..hehe..

I reh ruih dawn nih chu i chawlh chuan,myself lakah chawlh la tho vem aw *wink* :D

I exam te tha deuhvin ti dawn nia.I blog hi chu chhiar hi a nuam in,a bengvar thlak em ani.

Btw,myself hia van van zik zek ve aaaa...:P

Jerusha said...

Treat ka phu in ka hria :)
(I see 'This space for rent' way down below..over eee :PP)

Mariuca said...

Hola Sandman and GF! I have something for you! :):):)

http://mariuca.blogspot.com/2007/08/sweetest-award.html

Sekibuhchhuak said...

hey Kim..ih mawm,misual.com a,ka blog link saw min lo telh tawh lo mai ta che aww..i fel si..:)ka lawm ngawt ang..

'misual' hi chu a lar in,tlawhtu an tam sia..ka blog a ka thil sawi duh thenkhatte ka tim phah deuhva..:DD.

Thanks a lot!

VaiVa said...

Avan zia lo awm ve aw! Chutia i chawlh daihte chuan... nia keipawh i fans ka ni tep hman nia. Saptawng ka thiam ve loh vangin Hnam tawng ka rawn hmang tawp mai. I award ah chuan ka lawm pui tak meuh meuh che ani e.

Rka said...

thil dang daih ka lo sawi teng Kim (pawi lovang chu maw hetia koh hi) Mizo blog directoryah khan rka_49er ah khan ka personal blog http://zoliansanga.blogspot.com hi i lo telh thei mai ang em? ka rawn thehluh hmasak kha http://missionveng.wordpress.com a nia.

Trix said...

My blog misses the Sandman... :)

Almostunreal said...

Humble humble Kima, lol

Happy for you

Maruata said...

Hello Sandman,it must be tough to leave 'the woods' to fulfill certain duties in life..three cheers for that! All the best!

J@n!ce said...

Dropping over to hope all is well :)

Do let us know when you are back.

Take Care :)

Janice Ng

Anonymous said...

gordon education, http://vilinet.communityserver.com/members/apples-candy-sex-star.aspx apples candy sex star, s7SiA5, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/amateur-camera-hidden-sex.aspx amateur camera hidden sex, ZuwamD, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/first-r-sex-story-time.aspx first r sex story time, zi37SB, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/yeast-infection-from-sex.aspx yeast infection from sex, gpg4YC, http://vilinet.communityserver.com/members/gay-teens-in-jockstraps.aspx gay teens in jockstraps, fjBeJJ, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/free-full-length-mpeg-sex.aspx free full length mpeg sex, JxDQfa, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/so-unsexy-lyric.aspx so unsexy lyric, CSKhIS, http://portishead.forums.umusic.co.uk/members/home-video-cam-sex.aspx home video cam sex, T9PodM,

Anonymous said...

Bonjour, mizohican.blogspot.com!
[url=http://cialisycin.pun.pl/ ] cialis [/url] [url=http://viagrappro.pun.pl/ ] viagra [/url] [url=http://cialistyli.pun.pl/ ]Achat cialis online[/url] [url=http://viagrantor.pun.pl/ ] viagra online[/url] [url=http://cialisesse.pun.pl/ ]Acheter cialis en ligne[/url] [url=http://viagrailli.pun.pl/ ]Achat viagra online[/url]

Id Prefab System said...

Thanks for Sharing. It's a very informative blog. We are highly engaged in offering an optimum quality range of Prefabricated Security Guard Cabin in India, backed by rich industry experience. Our offered room is in high demand among our valued clients due to its long-lasting finish and sturdy construction. Our highly experienced professionals construct the provided room in accordance with industry standards, using premium-grade raw materials and superior technology.