The traffic on my website is pretty modest, like 50 to 70 a day. But the other day, I got a whopping 114 visitors to my site. So I looked into it and discovered that 49 of them came from people using bing.com to search for snow monkeys.

They found an old post about how I used this photo of snow monkeys from my friend Masha as reference to draw a birthday card for my mom. (Currently, it’s on the front page of image searches for “+snow monkeys in hot springs” in the second column, sixth row down.)

On a related note, it would appear that people who come to my site from bing looking for snow monkeys do not tend to subsequently purchase my apps. Dang freeloaders…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-K1gMRRLr98

The baby is really into bath time. As soon as he sees or hears water filling the tub, he gets really excited. So then we were thinking, what if he heard the water from farther away? We were in a hotel at the time so I wasn’t sure if he would crawl towards it or just get lost in the new environment. Fortunately, he has a much better sense of direction than his father.

I noticed in one of my sales stat pages that someone got a free copy of Mach Dice recently. When I hovered my mouse over the relevant icon, it said, “Application gifting redemptions”. Presumably, it’s recorded as a sale when the app is initially gifted and then recorded as a free copy when the receiver actually redeems the code.

I thought it was cool that someone thought highly enough of my app to give it as a gift to someone. (As it happens, I found out later that it was one of friends who gave it as a gift to another friend. But hey, still cool!)

A while back, there was a funny image of typical XBox players and their D&D alignments going around. As it happens, there are about 9 people in my gaming group, so I did a version with my friends (which makes it a D&D version of an XBox version of a D&D alignment chart).

If you’d like to make a version with your friends in it, you can use this Photoshop file I created as a template.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDP_cUF5pJ8

Last weekend, one of my friends had a birthday party at a trampoline park, The House of Air in San Francisco. It’s a big indoor space that’s filled with trampolines. We spent a couple hours jumping around and doing all sorts of crazy flips and stuff.

Well … that’s what I thought I was going to do. But jumping on trampolines is hard. So mostly, I jumped up and down for ten minutes at a time and then collapsed into heaps of exhaustion. Oh, we also played trampoline dodgeball, which is kinda like regular dodgeball except that you’re flying.

To the woman I’ve known for half my life.

To the woman who brings me joy and laughter.

To the woman who gives me comfort and solace.

To the woman I cherish.

To the woman I love.

Happy Birthday.

You grow more beautiful every day.

On Friday, someone noticed a suspicious motorcycle in their parking lot, not far from where I live. They called it in and discovered that it matched my stolen bike’s info and so the cops called me in to check it out. Sure enough, it was my missing Zoolander, the bike that couldn’t make left turns.

Unfortunately, the thieves had already started gutting it and cut the ignition lines so I couldn’t start up the engine, which meant I had to push it on foot the six and a half blocks back. And it’s going to take a lot of work to get it back to working condition. But it’s safe and at home now. Woot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zloy9LJpibQ

Are babies good at distinguishing what is or isn’t appropriate for babies? Let’s find out…

So there I was, at a dinner party when this older guy comes up to me and says, “May I take your picture? I am Karl Lagerfeld.” I shrug. Later on, I tire a bit from the party so I find a nice open convertible sports car to take a nap in.

Moments later, the old guy is jostling me, annoyed that I’m taking a nap in his car. I start to apologize but then he says, “Do you like to go fast?” I shrug and suddenly we’re tearing down a steep mountain road, engine redlining. Nervously, I glance over to see Karl Lagerfeld unbuckle his seat belt and start to open his door. Is he suicidal?! Is he trying to kill me?!

I only have moments to act and I leap out to grab the steering wheel but I realize it’s too late as we’re just about to slam into —

Then I wake up, heart racing, in a cold sweat, and it’s only then that it hits me … I have no idea who Karl Lagerfeld is.

Happy New Year!

Also, I got a new cell phone. This thing is so advanced, it can take pictures of itself! (Well, with the aid of a mirror.) Also, it has bluetooth!

Also, is it just me or is it nearly impossible to find a simple ringtone? I don’t want the ubiquitous Nokia tune and I don’t need a full movie soundtrack. I just want a simple riiiiinnng riiiinnnggg. I couldn’t find anything so I finally just recorded something on my flute. Feel free to use it.