Assorted Afflatuses

An Enigma

After an exceedingly difficult or dull day at school, I make sure to visit a number of websites, so as to keep myself abreast of the latest news and happenings around the world. I generally start with engadget, BBC News and LCI, followed by a quick check of my website statistics. There, I can view all sorts of information about the lovely people who visit my website each and every day. Amongst the browser statistics and top search strings is an area which permits me to see which web pages link to mine and how many people have followed the links on those websites. In general, the referrals come from places I might expect - say a friend's blog or technorati.com. Today, however, I noticed a litany of links from a certain person's LiveJournal. Curious, I clicked on the link and happened upon a page explaining that only the user's friends could read the entry. So, I removed part of the URL and looked at the user's public LiveJournal.

This mysterious LiveJournal impressed me in one way, disappointed me in another, and left me quite perplexed in yet another. To begin, this mysterious LiveJournal looked good. Really good. In fact, it looked better than any other LiveJournal I have happened upon in the past. Unfortunately, though, the praise must end there. For I cannot judge the LiveJournal in any other way, since the author has only granted permission to his or her LiveJournal friends to view his or her entries.

But that aside, the question remains: who is this mysterious referrer?

A Mystery

I often find myself in the midst of a conversation whose subject would not necessarily cross my mind. Today, for instance, I spent several minutes discussing the merits and demerits of certain types of Christmas trees. The notion had never crossed my mind. Though, when I did consider it, I realized that I had no real preference as to which particular type of Christmas tree I prefer. Certainly, I would much prefer a strong healthy tree to one who looked on the brink of disintegrating into a pile of dust. But I cannot say that I prefer a Douglas Fir to a Noble Fir. I call them both "Christmas Trees."