Confessions: I love Mondays

Today I have a day off babysitting.  That means I can study and write all day in the comfort of my own office chair, on my own laptop, without having to stop and wipe a runny nose, break up a fist fight, or turn the volume down on the TV.

I think I'm going to feel a little forlorn.  As I was trying to fall asleep last night (I'm always trying to fall asleep - insomniac - but that can be another post), I was considering a week begun without two little boys.  That's the think about babysitting for 4 and 1/2 hours on a Monday.  Starts the week of with a bang...literally.  The door banging, the toilet seat banging, a little head banging on the steps - subsequent screaming...and the week is rolling.  Bring it on.

I was trying to fall asleep, wondering what I should do to start off a week without a round of babysitting, when I remembered one small fact about my current existence.  Two little boys are not the only thing I'm babysitting. In fact, humans are not the only thing I'm babysitting.

Thanks to Sid

So, I've been tracking page views in the convenient statistical section powered by Blogger.

Day, month, week... I can even find out how many posts have been viewed throughout all time.

(Don't know what I'm talking about, but realise you are intrigued?  Get a blog.  I'll follow you.)

It's fascinating to actually see in numerals how many people are reading The Mouse Files.  It shocks me every time.

Convenient Mouse Files Statistics...

• Most of you are from Australia   yay! 
• You tend to use Internet Explorer   booo
• The overwhelming majority of you crash in on Windows   the rest are Apple geeks 
• The Mouse Files has had 10 page views from Slovenia.  That's....interesting   Hi, if you're from Slovenia!
• The Mouse Files has appeared on an iPad 13 times.   I still don't understand iPads...oversized iPods?
• And if I didn't know that there was a special reader in Fiji, I'd be wondering why the islanders had iPads.

But the most overwhelming statistic of all can be summed up thus:

WWW: Lilliputian

On the first day of spring - September 2011 - I took the following photos:

These green parcels appeared on the previously bare branches practically overnight.

A word comes to mind...

Exposure - September 11

I'm working on another paper at the moment.

It happens to be about Muslim v. Western interpretations of September 11... an exercise in comparing how observers of historical events tend to put their own 'spin' on things... or something like that.

When I picked this topic it did not register that this year marks ten years since the attacks.  Over the last few days I've had so many possibly sources to pool through, as everyone rolls out another editorial, or pictorial essay, or historical reflection - it's been overwhelming to say the least.

Today I found my favourite piece of the whole lot in the New York Times Sunday Review.  It's just one photograph and a description, and I thought I'd share.