Pleased and Dazed

I am pleased (or, as the kids say, totally geeked out) by the new little doohickey in my sidebar (scroll down a bit), called a flagcounter, which records the number of visitors to this site per country. The numbers are discrete: the counter only records each reader one time, unless that person happens to check this blog from several different computers, in which case it will log one visit per computer. I like that: a realistic representation of actual readership. And, as I have had issues in the past with blogging regularly, I'm finding this flagcounter to be oddly motivating. There are people out there who actually read what I write! Or at least they have read it once! Well, probably some of the them clicked on the site by accident. But still! One of them lives in Israel! And another in Italy! And then there are the people I actually know, the Americans, the Canadians and the Dutch! I cannot let them down!

Oh, if you click on the widget, you can get your own for free.

Props to Erin, where I saw it first.

I am dazed because one week from today I have to take the departmental biblical Hebrew exam here at Emory, and my eyes and brain and heart and (as the ancient Hebrews would add) liver and kidneys are a bit overwhelmed with the preparation I've done until now, and the seven full days yet to come.

Jackie logs off blogger, turns to her Hebrew Bible, and commences with the nail-biting.

EDITED TO ADD
I also spruced up my sidebar a bit, removing a few old lists and paring down some of the current ones. Still too much? Feedback welcome!