The Grumpy Economist: What Brings You Here?

A PROLOUGE TO THIS POST

A prologue (Greek πρόλογος prologos, from the word pro (before) and lógos, word) is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details. -- Sir Wikipedia

This is the post that disapeared.

It existed one moment and was gone the next.

It went POOF.

And it made me so sad. It has been two weeks since my original post apparated off the face of the blogosphere, and I'm afraid that much of the content of this post packed its little bags and marched right out of my memory. I don't want to think about how they escaped my brain. Perhaps by crawling out of my ears. This has always been a frightening thought for me, ever since the day I saw a magician pull a scarf out of someone's ear.

But I have to remind myself of that ubiquitous poster, so innantely British, (and also from the 1940's, a period of history that I love to study): "Keep Calm and Carry On."

I shall carry on. And if this post don't shine like the top of the Crysler Building, you must forgive me. Allons-y.

CHAPTER ONE

CONCERNING KEYWORDS

Back in January-- my how time flies-- I noticed an interesting trend among bloggers. They shared some of the keywords (those words you type into Google) that brought people to their blogs or websites. People like Jennifer Fulweiler who is one of the top hits for "socially awkward person" (and she loves to talk about it!). Or Heather the Story Monster. There were many more people, but this is a shobby attempt at re-doing a post and I really don't have the energy to look up any more.

The top keywords for my blog are pretty obvious. Some are more interesting.

The number 1 Google search bringing people to my blog is, strangely enough, "Hermione Granger Yule Ball Dress" and a hundred bajillion permutations thereof, including "harry hermione granger goblet ball dress blue really for sale."

Two years ago, I did a colored pencil drawing of Hermion Granger from the Harry Potter series. I loved her dress in the Goblet of Fire movie, but the book purist in me hated that it was pink and immodest. I drew it in the original periwinkle that J.K. Rowling wrote about. I posted the most HORRIBLE scan ever, and then a very blurry photograph of the image.

For some reason Google thinks that that old, quick post is more important than the really good posts I've spent lots of time on recently. :)

Go see the post here.

This was the most popular post on my blog at the time that I first wrote this post (now the Book Clock Tutorial has that honor).

I decided to see why it's so popular:

So cool.

The second most popular search is "narnia lucy" and variations on that such as "lucy pevensie," "narnia drawing," and "llw costume." (LLW stands for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.") This leads to an equally bad scan of a colored pencil drawing...

Here's the original post.

The Evenstar is another popular post and a big keyword. This is the first keyword that I expected! I obviously talk about Evenstars a lot, considering that I'm a big Lord of the Rings fan and I make Evenstar-inspired jewelry... I also get a lot of hits for "Elvish," "elven," "lotr," "lordoftherings costumes," etc.

One of the Evenstar sets.

The Book Clock tutorial isn't big in the Google keyword list, but it's currently the most-read page on my blog.

I find it funny that the Book Clock has become so popular on Pinterest and various crafting blogs. I think it's a really great project, of course, but currently it's sitting on my dresser (as pictured above, when the dresser was clean), surrounded by stacks of paper, bobby pins, post-it-notes, Easter candy, and random other knickaknacks that wind up on top of dressers.

The clock isn't even working right now. I had to take the batteries out to put in a camera. It's amazing how batteries are never in the battery box, and how the batteries that are in the battery box are broken batteries. I'm semi-famous for a project that isn't even functioning right now. :P

By the way, that picture I just showed you of the book clock? I didn't show you what was on the wall next to my dresser.

This is typical for me. Those are notes for my research paper on WWII-era cryptology, and post-it-notes filled with Celtic Knots and math-y stuff, because I'm attempting to figure something out. Hey, I like working with big spaces where I can move things around and arrange them in order. I'm a "spatial thinker" or something along those lines, according to my mom.

There are bunches and bunches of other keywords that bring people to my blog. It's really facinating-- to me. I'm sure you could care less about it, so while I got have fun with that, I want you to press the RANDOM BUTTON.

Yes, I have a random button. It's over on the right sidebar, underneath the search bar. Click it to find random posts from my blog. I did, and found some hilarious ones! I'm going to attempt to embed that button in this post, right below this paragraph...

CHAPTER TWO

ILLUSTRATED KEYWORDS
IN WHICH SHAYLYNN ATTEMPTS TO REMEMBER SOME OF THE FUNNY SEARCHES THAT GO ALONG WITH THE ONE-MINUTE DRAWINGS SHE MADE BACK IN FEBUARY

Shay Lin Fairi Stor

Lots of keywords are misspellings of my admittedly unspellable name. "Shaylynn's Fairy Store" is the most common among people who know me outside of the blog. Then I get all sorts of strange ways that people remember my olde-fashioned blog name, such as "Shaelyn Fayrie Shop" and "Shaelynnes' Faerie Shoppes." But my favorite has got to be "Shay Lin Fairi Stor."

big stack of books

I recognize that this refers to the Destroyable Books Blog Series, but all I can picture is a stack of evil school books.

DIY herbal slippers

Oh, yesssss, precious, that wonderful post about the Balrog's pink slippers. Lord of the Rings fans, rejoice!!!

apple dress

Do you have to be royalty to be a circlet?

I'm not sure, my dear Googler. I'll let you know next time I morph into a circlet. Maybe I'll also morph into a Princess. That would be cool.

i bought a circlet

That's nice to know. What it one of mine? Because that would make me very happy.

easy abstract art

Um... isn't that the definition of abstract art?
(So sorry to fans of abstract works. I actually do like some kinds of abstract art. But it is so FUN to make abstract art the brunt of all my jokes!)

i'm polymotic

I'm really hoping this isn't a bad word that I just don't know about. But all I could think about is polyatomic.

"Poly" is a Greek prefix "many," and "atomic," of course, means "atom." Therefore, a person who is polymotic is made of many atoms.

It is highly likely that the person who typed in that keyword is made of many atoms, because I doubt that a solitary atom could type that on a keyboard.

(Yes, yes, I know, polyatomic technically refers to a metal molecular ion, but let me be happy with my etymology-based reasoning. Thank you.)

all you need elvish letters of love

You are SO right, dear Googler. I sincerely hope that Mr. Right, wherever he is, is learning Elvish and will write me love letters in that beautiful language. (Kudos to anyone who can read the above drawing.)

This also made the Beatles' All You Need is Love song get stuck in my head?

unicycle jumprope

OK, so these were two seperate searches, but they should have been together. I can jumprope on the unicycle.

Someday I'll get my brother to go out to the park with me and take pictures. Then you'll have PROOF. Because I can do it, and it's totally awesome.

Virtues and Defects of a Young Girl

This is the name of a really old book that my grandma gave me... but I don't remember posting about it on my blog. *raises eyebrow suspiciously*

(Actually, I can't raise an eyebrow suspiciously. My eyebrows like to move together. So it's more like, *raises forehead up and down suspiciously*)

real vs. fake peackock earrings

I'm concerned about the poor peacocks!

sword juggling
I WANNA LEARN THAT!

abstract painting of love

how to make a fairy

I know this is talking about the flower fairies craft, but sometimes I have a macabre sense of humor.

does Hobby Lobby sell ring mandrel?

I love random people who type their questions into Google. I don't know if Hobby Lobby sells mandrels, but I do know that Micheals does. That's where I bought mine.

toilet art paper

this is the most potty humor I will ever willingly post on my blog

(To alliviate your paint, this keyword will bring people to the toiliet paper roll fake wrought iron thing that I made).

first heels

evenstar necklace meaning

Hmmm. This one is actually pretty hard to explain.

In the Lord of the Rings, the Elf princess Arwen Undomiel is considered one of the loveliest elves ever. This is during the time when the Elves are leaving Middle Earth, so she is called the Evening Star of her people. "Evening Star" got morphed into Evenstar.

In the movies, Arwen's Evenstar necklace symbolized her immortality, and when she gave it to Aragorn it meant she was giving up her immortality in order to be with him.

Soo... yeah. There's way more to it, too. :)

goblet of fireball