My very first Web page

No squirrel sounds since yesterday's adventure.

Jeff and I went out for dinner with our friends Luisa and Reid last night, to an Italian restaurant we like called La Vecchia (2405 Yonge Street, 416-489-0630). Interesting to go to a place like this after our trip to Italy; I saw dishes on the menu that I had in Italy like Pizza Margherita (pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, basil, and olive oil). The wine menu also had at least one of the Brunellos that we tried in Montalcino. I ordered my favourite, Zuppa di Pesce Superiore, which consists of lobster mussels, shrimp, clams and calamari in a garlic white wine tomato broth, garnished with toasted calabrese bread. Yum!

Allison and Jodi have kindly agreed to come over and be my barbecue guinea pigs this evening, letting me try out my new grilling skills on them. I think I'm going to try swordfish! My friend Rand grilled swordfish for me years ago, and I've loved swordfish ever since. I attempted salmon a couple days ago but it fell apart; I discovered later that I shouldn't be turning the fish so often.

Got an illustration job recently from someone who came across drawings I've been posting on Flickr. Looks like a fun project though the deadline is pretty tight; I'll post the URL of the site when it's been officially launched.

Jeff was looking at my stats a couple days ago and said that I've had a million visits (visits, not just hits) since Christmas, and that I get about 7,000 visits a day. When I say "I," I refer to sites on our server, like Blatherings, Waiting For Frodo, and Inkygirl. This traffic does not include sites on Dreamhost like PoetryFAQ.com and Tranzacsession.org, and of course doesn't include Will Write For Chocolate, which is on someone else's server.

Anyway, I confess to being surprised at these numbers since they're comparable to Inkspot's stats and most of the sites are relatively young. Nothing compared to the Big Guys, of course, but not bad for projects that are basically run by one person. Where did this traffic come from?! I knew I had a higher "online profile" when I was working on Inkspot, but that was on purpose; I was actively seeking advertising income.

I suspect that a large part of it is simply because I've had a Web presence for so long. My very first homepage was highlighted in the first edition of HTML & CGI UNLEASHED by John December & Mark Ginsberg (Sam's Publishing, 1995):

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What they wrote about me:

"Figure 2.10 shows Debbie Ridpath Ohi's home page. Her page is typical in that she creates a 'personal information space' that links to personal and professional information. She links to resources that she maintains or develops, including a list of Children's Writer's Resources, 'INKSPOT' (http://interlog.com/~ohi/dmo-pages/writers.html), a page of the WWW Virtual Library, 'Writers' Resources On The Web' (http://www.interlog.com/~ohi/www/writesource.html), and her other activities, including her music group, an electronic magazine (E-zine) that she's developing, and personal and 'fun' links.

Hoo boy, that sounds SO ancient now, doesn't it? So many people now have a 'personal information space' that no one considers it unusual.

Here's what my first Web page looked like:



According to Jeff, here is a list of the top 100 search phrases from which people find my pages.

lotr
japanese schoolgirl
guitar
legolas
writing jobs
butterfly cakes
livejournal user pics
japanese peso
natto
sean bean
freelance writing jobs
blatherings
inkygirl
barbie song
pencil sketches
lord of the rings musical review
chinese menu
stacking firewood
filking
user pics
dock spider
chocolate covered grasshoppers
alisa scott
debbie
appetizers
harp
cat cartoon
schoolgirl
ice hotels
livejournal userpics
ugly food
old letters
telecommuting jobs
frodo
young writers
cartoon cats
krampus
graffiti cartoons
nahanni
inkspot
ice bath
ear staple
watergun
anabuki
happy birthday michelle
santa comic
outdoor shower
children's illustrator
jobs for writers
food movies
wasaga beach
toronto earthquake
armenian kitchen
japanese bath
inky girl
turkey cartoons
happy birthday comic
tearjerker movies
la crema pinot noir
ttc strike
spice girls naked
pants off
fortune teller
cheap liposuction
tess
naked women
gangster girl
ruth ohi
penguins
tightjeans
orkut scrapbook
nahanni river
tamagotchi
dandelion
harp history
japanese pesos
face paint
elvish tattoo
canoe lake
northern virginia magazine
telecommuting writing jobs
active surplus
pillow fight
lj user pics
toronto snow
gardening cartoons
sick cartoons
tamagotchis
how to make a harp
asian eyes
homoseksualiteit
canoe lake ice out
lord of the rings musical reviews
freelance writing
electric penguin
personal homepage
web
metallica figures
ugly frog
schoolgirl japanese

Some scary phrases in there, I must say. I agree with Jeff, though...my vote for the scariest goes to "cheap liposuction"!

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