Well, it’s hard to believe 2008 is gone already, it feels like we hardly had a chance to know you…on the other hand, when I look at the growth for this blog and the content, for 2008 and over time you like to read, I can see there has been a lot of proverbial water under the bridge.

As of this post, there are 1,255 posts in 14 categories with 499 different keywords and you’ve contributed 2,226 legitimate comments to this venue. Thanks, that’s a great participation rate and a big increase over last year’s comment rate. On the spam side of the comment house, we have now rejected over 160,000 spam comments since the beginning, that’s overwhelming, but shows a slowing trend vs. last year and for that, I’m very grateful.

Musings from the Coast Page View Growth 2006-2008

The first full year of operation, 2006, was a pretty modest affair relative to our readership now. In terms of overall visitors, we had around 17,000 in 2006 viewing nearly 50,000 pages. In 2007, we had great growth of the venue with nearly 180,000 visitors viewing nearly 500,000 pages. This year (excepting today’s statistics) we’ve hosted over 560,000 visitors viewing over 1,100,000 pages! That being said, I’ve gotten a few questions about my decision to stop advertising and I can say, even with the growth seen in this platform, we’re still 100x off what we’d need to be viable as a commercial, on-going concern from a traffic perspective and 300x off what we’d need to be a very successful commercial enterprise. So for now, I’m content to keep writing and hopefully you’ll keep reading (and/or viewing which will make sense as the top content is enumerated below…)

What did you like best of my 2008 content? Here’s the list of top entries as viewed by you…

• Geothermal Industry Landscape – A view of the players in the geothermal industry now referenced from all over the internet – Link to Entry
• More Mavericks Photos – Photos of Mavericks surf contest in 2008 taken from a boat – Link to Entry
• Rodent of Unusual Size – A giant rodent fossil is unearthed, the Princess Bride, and the Capybara – Link to Entry
• This is your Brain – Fantastic picture of a tattoo – Link to Entry
• Turned On – A little humor poking at religion – Link to Entry
• iWash, Keep your iPhone Clean – More humor, this time a movie – Link to Entry
• Coming Soon, A Soup Line Near You – Even a broken clock is right twice a day, I told you we were in economic trouble… – Link to Entry
• Atheism is Dead Wrong – Take heart anti-Santa-ites –Link to Entry
• DIY Steam Engine – Nifty little experiment for the kids – Link to Entry
• Make Memorial Day Personal – A visit to Golden Gate National cemetery – Link to Entry

What about all-time popular content? Well, again, here’s the list as viewed by you….(duplicates from 2008 omitted.)

• Princess Leia – Carrie Fisher in Leia bikini – Link to Entry
• Sexy Pole Vault – The new breed of female pole vaulters (apparently many of you like looking at photos of scantily clad women…) – Link to Entry
• Bebel at Carnival – More skin, this time Brazilian babe Bebel Gilberto – Link to Entry
• Want to get $3,500? – A quick and practical way to save serious money… – Link to Entry
• A Mighty Wind – Detailed description of how electrical power is generated from wind – Link to Entry
• Great Michigan License Plate – Great and Michigan aren’t often used in the same sentence, but this is a funny photo – Link to Entry
• Hellenologophobia – A humorous tour of various fears – Link to Entry
• Coaches Halloween Costumes (2) – Redux of a previous popular entry. Jenn Sterger is there continuing the skin theme… – Link to Entry
• Friday Football Funny – West Fucking Virginia, only here could such humor reign – Link to Entry
• Return of the Amphibian – Another amphibious car is released to roam the lakes and streams – Link to Entry

What about my favorite content? Here are a few entries I like the best (even though you didn’t like them as much…)

• Children with Checkbooks – How we manage our public funds – Link to Entry
• I Chose the Red Pill – Offering a choice to the masses of asses about religion – Link to Entry
• My Anti-Contribution to Prop 8 – Hit them where it hurts, the wallet – Link to Entry
• Move Over iWash – An even more effective iPhone screen cleaner – Link to Entry
• Darwin At Work – A creative way to tempt fate – Link to Entry
• Prison Population Growth – A look at the US prison population 1980-2005 – Link to Entry
• Global Warming, the Proof is in the Knickers – Just click the link and laugh – Link to Entry
• Top 10 Most Likely Ways to Die – For those of you frightened of your shadows, an empirical view of the risks we run daily – Link to Entry
• Rumpology – Again, you’ve got to click it to believe it… – Link to Entry

This is my favorite passage from 2008 from the hundreds of entries (from I Chose the Red Pill above.)

The red pill holds only stark truth. In the end, we’re meat. We’re here for a short time. It’s what we do in this life that matters and how we behave here and now that we can influence and control. The sum of those behaviors form our legacy and can affect generations to come in a very real way. The reward of the red pill is being present, being accountable for one’s own actions, and doing the right thing as a way of life – not because some mystical being will send you to everlasting torture if you choose poorly. The blue pill is comfortable with mystical rewards; the red pill requires work and holds no promise of rewards. In the end, that will likely be the reason most people won’t choose it. And that is a tragic outcome for us all.

Well, that was fun. I hope next year is too. Happy New Year to all and thank you for visiting and reading Musings from the Coast. Please come back often and bring your friends! And also, your comments are valued, so please do feel free to submit them.