“If you really want something in this life, you have to work for it. Now, quiet, they’re about to announce the lottery numbers! “~Homer Simpson

Y’all, I have a “to do list” that is as long as my arm. Actually, I have more than one. I try hard to get things done. I work for the things I want, but I’m so easily distracted. I sometimes wonder if I really do have A.D.D., because I can never…oh, look! A blue car!

As I was saying, I have trouble staying focused; especially so when all is working well with my computer. For a few days there (when my blog disappeared) I was so totally productive that it was almost scary. I just walked away from the computer for a few days. Now, I’m finding all kinds of distractions again. Some don’t involve the computer, but I’m ashamed to admit most do. Here are thirteen of those for the Thursday Thirteen meme.

1. In looking at my blog statistics today, I noticed that someone came to my blog looking for “nude images of hasselhoff or selleck.” That’s what the search string said. I’m afraid when they got here that they were disappointed. However, the thought of a nekkid Tom Selleck kept me occupied for a few minutes. Ahem. Being curious, I followed the link to the page on AOL where they had entered that search. I clicked on “images,” but I didn’t find any nude pictures. Firefox told me that the word “nude” had been removed because I have “safe search” on. Drat. I don’t know how to take that function off of there, so I was disappointed, too. Don’t tell my husband.

2. My blog was looking very cluttered, so I spent hours removing things from the sidebars. I still have blogrolls, just click on this picture to go to the page.

3. Of course, as soon as I took everything off of the sidebar, I started adding new stuff. I put my “pitcher” on there…see? No, scroll back up to the top. There! I combed my hair just for you, so I hope you are happy. Now you don’t have to talk to the hand.

4. And, I put under it a link to me telling a story. If you have RealPlayer, you can hear it (that link is for a Mac, but you can get it for a pc, too). The story is one that is often requested by folks at festivals who know me. They think it’s funny. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it happened it was tragic. I recorded it for use at The University of North Texas for a storytelling class.

5. I also put a silly quote on the page, and a couple of links to things I like. The plan is that I will frequently update these and change them out so you won’t get bored. We’ll see how that one works, won’t we. I scattered them around on the page so that it could be like an Easter egg hunt for you.

6. You might even find that I’ve got a sidebar link to one of your posts! That’s another thing I’m wanting to do. Just add some posts I like on the sidebar so that my friends can meet each other. I’d rather have your picture on there. Maybe I need y’all to send me a picture that represents you or your blog, so I can rotate those around and give you each an opportunity to shine. There you go, I’m getting distracted just sitting here.

7. In those links, if you will just go and look, you’ll find a story about Share A Square that I thought was pretty cool. Muriel of Crafter by Night, who lives in Austin, TX is putting together one of the afghans. She tells a story that is one of those “it’s a small world” stories, called “Kismet Perhaps.”

8. For any of my Share A Square friends who drop by, you might want to visit Muriel’s “Crafting For Charity” page. She will give you something to keep yourself busy, for sure.

9. I also spent time following another search string to Who Links To Me, which claims to be the ultimate SEO tool. If you are a “stat obsessed” blogger, and haven’t found the site before, you might want to check it out.

10. A better site is “Website Grader.” Seriously! Marcia, at Tumbled Words told me about this many months ago. The first time I entered my web address, I got a grade of 85, “in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over a dozen different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.” It showed me a few simple changes (it took me less than an hour), and my score was raised to 97. My page rank went from 1 to 5. Not only that, once I did the changes my traffic started to increase! I was lucky to get 350 unique visitors a day back then. Now, I average about 650-750 depending on the day. Might be worth a shot for you.

11. I got lost in StumbleUpon. Don’t follow that link unless you want to waste hours.

12. While I was on StumbleUpon, I came across the Pandora Music Genome Project. It lets you create your own radio station with the music you like! I’m listening to my Blues Mix right now. I created it today while I was stitching together an afghan for Share A Square. Pandora Radio is totally wonderful and FREE! Let’s see if this will take you to my radio station. You can create your own just by putting in the name of a musician or band you like, then giving the thumbs up or thumbs down to the music it plays. Cool!

13. Finally, I learned how to download games on this Mac! Oh, people, that’s bad news! It didn’t come with games on it already, like a pc does, and I was weaning myself. Now, I’ve learned I can download a game, play it on demo until they ask me to pay for it, and then delete it!

Will one of you please save me from myself?