With DSL I can get around faster than used to which means I can spend time looking at blogs I would have not read before, both inside and outside of Blogstream. There are blogsites all over the internet that seem to have sprung up since I joined Blogstream just over a year ago. Many of them are social networking sites which appear to be targeting teenagers in a way that I'm not entirely comfortable with. I grant that todays teen has more money in their pocket and they spend more than us "old" folks, but why should that be a prerequisite for blogging?

I have found websites that tell you how to "promote" your blog. They aren't talking about promoting within your blog community they are discussing ways and means to get yourself noticed in the wider world of the internet. There is information about what is and what isn't copyright infringement. There is information about setting goals for your blog and how to achieve them. On BloggerTalk there's a whole article about hits and visitors and what the difference is and what it means for your blog. Some site servers are set to register one "distinct" visitor as 80 "hits", which means that a blogger can claim 80,000 hits in a month when actually they've only received 1000 distinct visitors. Blogstream registers only distinct visitors which is why we probably don't rank up there with sites like Myspace, Friendster, Cherry Tap, etc. Also, it clearly states that no counter is 100% accurate, which is why you measure your success based on whether or not you've achieved your goals, rather than on the numbers.

Since reading that I've wondered if any of us actually set goals ahead of time or did we jump in to blogging with no direction in mind? I know I didn't, it was a whim and I didn't have the least idea what I was getting myself into. Still, there was an identifiable goal there. At the time I wasn't thinking about it, but my goal was to broaden my own horizons. To use my mind in a way you don't when dealing with day to day living. However, it wasn't anything that I saw as a goal. I also think that this type of goal is probably age related. The older one is, the more one understands that there is more out there than the narrow confines of our lives suggest. For me, it's been one of the easiest ways to learn new things which keeps the old brain firing on however many cylinders it has left. Plus it helps restart a few cylinders that were laying dormant. This is good for the post menopausal brain in ways that you can't imagine unless you possess one of those mildly dysfunctional post menopausal brains.

Another goal for a blog could be practicing your creative writing skills. I would assume you measure the success or failure of that goal by whether or not you feel there has been an improvement. Of course once you've done a blog, if it leads to a publishing contract you know you've achieved your goals. Sharing information about child rearing, animal care, new methods of agriculture, politics, or any other topic can also be a blog goal. I would think that having actual knowledge about the topic you're discussing would be a prerequisite to attaining your goal there, and it would require participation in the form of reader questions and the like.

Blogs can be used to sell things. If one has an online business adding a blog to your site can enhance your sales. Or having a blog off site can direct possible customers to your website. That would depend on how well written your blog is, and how much the reader likes what they are reading about you. I would also think that sharing your views about topics that disturb you could be a blog goal. If it leads to a sense of peace within yourself then you immediately know you've achieved your goal and are a successful blogger.

All of this leads me to some questions. What were your goals when you started blogging? Did you think anything through or did you do what I did? Is it what you expected, or are you disappointed? Why is blogging so addictive? Can you stop anytime you want to? Is there a 12 step program for blog addicts? Help! I've fallen into blogging and I can't stop.

Getting this up a little early because I'm not sure what time I'll be back on. Running errands, and we are supposedly expecting T-storms late afternoon and early evening. I'm hoping the weather report is wrong, but you never know.

So this year Kobayashi has been defeated as top hot dog eater. For the first time in 9 years the mustard colored belt will be worn by an American, one who set a new world record by eating 66 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs in 12 minutes. Taking gluttony to new heights, or maybe it's new lows? This years event took place in front of 50,000 spectators and according to ESPN statistics, one and a half million TV watchers. Don't we have anything better to do? Are our lives that boring? What are we getting out of this? The pleasure of watching Kobayashi puke?

I grant that I'm not big on hot dogs. More to the point, I'm not big on watching anybody make a pig out of themselves. This year was the first time any money was available with the winner getting $10,000. I suppose that's not a bad deal for 12 minutes of stuffing yourself with hot dogs, but why would anybody want to do it for free? Obviously it makes you sick. It did Kobayashi and with 66 hot dogs crammed into a stomach that isn't designed to hold that much, something is bound to give.

Every year at the end of the competition Nathan's brings out a plate of hotdogs with buns equal to the amount the winner just injested. When you actually see the amount of food they put into their stomachs in the 12 minute time frame it's shocking. In order to compete you have to win a preliminary eating event held by Nathans prior to the actual event. I found a list of the events but no dates were available. How far in advance of the actual competition does this preliminary take place? So, not only are they eating at the competition, they're eating large amounts of hot dogs at an earlier event.

I went looking for a picture of the winners plate to give you an idea of how much is actually being ingested. I couldn't find this years winning plate but I did find last years. Kobayashi won last year by consuming 53 and 3/4 hot dogs and this is what his feat looks like. There's only so much space to put it, even with the expansion of the stomach. I'm thinking that this is crowding his heart and lungs. I'm also wondering how often one can do that without serious damage occuring along the way.



In 2006 this was a record breaking number of hot dogs. Joe Chestnut, the American winner of this years competition, broke this record during the qualifying competition. I wonder what will happen next year with hot dog consumption reaching these phenomenal numbers. I wonder if they will have medical personnel standing by in the event of an emergency?

There are times that I say that if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. Sometimes it feels that way. We've had problem after problem for months now. Family illnesses, deaths, 2 surgeries, a brother-in-law whose heart function is down to 25%, the usual real life problems that everyone encounters. Mine are no different or more tragic than any other families difficulties, they are just...mine. I'm sure that anyone who has difficulties is fully aware of how nearly impossible it is to keep your chin up and function, and there have been times when I wonder how I do it as well.

When someone asks me how I am, I put a smile on my face and say "Fine" whether I am or not. Partly because I know that's what they want to hear, and partly because I know they too have troubles and I'm much better at giving sympathy than I am accepting it. I can do so in a forum like a blog, but not in real life. I don't know what the difference is, it seems to me that sympathy extended between blogging friends should feel fake, and yet it's the sympathy extended to me in real life by my friends that feels fake. I had a stepfather that said you can find sympathy between shit and syphillis in the dictionary. Rather harsh I think, and not entirely true. I haven't found shit in the dictionary so it can't be between that and syphillis, now can it?

For the last few months I have had a real problem with our local hospital and the doctors that attended my Dad. Frankly, they killed him, in my estimation. Oh yes, his place of employment didn't help, but allowing him to catch a bacteria that could have been prevented by the proper use of Universal Precautions, and then ignoring his kidney failure until it was too late were the two main reasons that he died. It was doubly hard to handle because the remaining hospital bills, those over what medicare didn't pay, amounted to tens of thousands of dollars. It's not easy looking at that, knowing that if they'd been more careful most of that amount wouldn't have existed. I've been worrying about how my stepmom was going to pay it. Grief and anger aren't easy emotions to deal with and yet I have managed to put a smile on my face and say...I'm fine.

Well, today if someone asks me how I am, I can put a smile on my face and say "fine", and mean it. Really mean it, because yesterday I found out something that is really good news for my stepmom and for me. We do not owe the hospital one thin dime. I say we because we would have had to help her pay it, she couldn't have afforded it without help. They HAVE to take the amount that Medicare paid them for Dad's hospital bills because, he has no estate. He had no will, no money in the bank and the house has a mortgage on it. That mortgage prevents the hospital from putting a lien on the property and they can't go after my stepmom for the balance owed. They started the paperwork on Tuesday, and she will be receiving a paid in full statement in a couple of weeks.

The Medicare statements that stepmom has received so far indicate that a sum between $15,000 and $19,000 has been paid to the hospital for every stay Dad had. In 10 months Dad was in the hospital 14 times. Even at the lower rate, we are talking close to a quarter of a million dollars that this hospital has received for a hospital bed, medications and testing procedures, plus 4 surgeries. Two of those surgeries were to fix what went wrong from the first surgery. It does frost my tush that they received that much money for substandard treatment, but they are going to have to swallow the loss of the remaining $50,000 plus dollars. I can't see myself shedding any tears of sorrow over that. As a matter of fact it puts a smile on my face. It's a small victory, but sometimes they are just as sweet. See, that's how I stay strong through everything. I wait for those little victories, they are always there.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

The above is an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. With things the way they are in our government, I thought it a timely message this Fourth of July.