nuntium undecimum (11th post) happy birthday, true confessions and no tatting

felix natalis tibi, sorella mea amata!  Happy birthday, little beloved sister!

You are really the “goddess of cake”.  (Be careful if you click on this link, firstly you will see my true sense of humor-somewhat dark but painfully accurate (confession #1)- and although I don’t use it, the author does sometimes use the “f” word.  I hope I haven’t alienated my new tatting friends who all seem so gentle and kind.)

You will notice that my post now has an English title, this is thanks to a very gentle suggestion from one of my new tatting friends.  It makes so much sense but sadly, never occurred to me despite the fact that I subscribe and look at 208 blogs plus use that kind of title when looking myself.  Duh.

So on to the next confession.

I am a geek or nerd.

Sometimes my dear middle schoolers will blurt out, “Magistra, you are so cool!” to which I laugh heartily and say, “Sweetheart, I am a Latin teacher which, per se, makes me the biggest geek you’ll meet.”  Then we all chuckle because, of course, they are Latin students!

Back to the geekiness.  I also love technology (well, I love it when it works and hate it with a blinding passion when it doesn’t.)  In fact, I’m pursuing a master’s degree in technology in education.  A Latin teacher- technology in education - tee hee - now why does that make me giggle? 

I’ve been blogging for about a month now and I find that I am addicted to the “stats”.  I check every day to see where the people who look at my blog are from.  About a week ago, I was talking to one of the school’s tech team and we started talking about blogs.  I told him of how fascinating I found the stats and he opened up a whole new world to me- Google Analytics. 

Perhaps you all know about this already but WOW. You just put your blog’s url in, put the code on your page (you just put in as a gadget- if you want to do this and can’t figure it out, just ask me and I’ll explain) and that’s it.  It takes about 24 hours and then hang on to your hat! 

You can see not only the countries but if you click on the country, you can see the city/town where your viewers are.

I can't take a screen shot AND hover over the town show it shows the name but you'll have to trust me.

It’s not 100% accurate as I just found out with Frivole but darn close.  I know that there’s someone in or near Glasgow who looks almost every day and someone in Bari, someone in Warsaw, someone in Sydney and someone in Canada in a town called “Salmon Arm” (Of course there's Fox too in Toronto! 

You can also tell if the viewer is new or returning and how many times s/he’s been.

And how long they look at the site.

Somewhat creepy but at the same time, infinitely fun!

I am currently on a coach bus, using the wifi.  (Really?  Yeah, technology)  My students and I are off to Concordia Latin Days, hosted by Concordia College in Moorhead, MN (my alma mater) and dangerously close to Ladytats' stomping ground.  It will be a 4-hour ride and when we get there, these kids, who have voluntarily come, will take tests about Latin, hang out with other Latin students from the tri-state area and even compete in quiz bowls.  This event has been going on since 1978 and I have gone every year except three.   1978 (Before I started Latin), 1996 (had a baby in June- we used a school bus back then and it seemed like a bad idea) and 2000 (had a baby in May).  Even in college, I helped run this event.  We’ll stay overnight, do more competing and have a toga/stola banquet tomorrow and then home again by 8:00pm.
Exhausting but I love it and if you could see the kids’ faces, you’d know why.  They have so much fun - with Latin.

Well, and I can tat on the bus...

Latin for the day:  felix natalis tibi = Happy birthday to you!  (And I sneaked in two Latin expressions, can you find them?)