Back in the U.S.S.R. - Maddie's Mission on Facebook!

Oh, flew in from Miami Beach B.O.A.C.
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the U.S.S.R.
You don't know how lucky you are boy
Back in the U.S.S.R.

Been away so long I hardly knew the place
Gee it's good to be back home
Leave it till tomorrow to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone
I'm back in the U.S.S.R.
You don't know how lucky you are boy
Back in the U.S.
Back in the U.S.
Back in the U.S.S.R.


Writing a blog is an interesting experience because it is so interactive.  It is much different than writing a book where the reader has little opportunity to respond to the writer.  A blog offers the opportunity for the back and forth communication which makes the process so much more appealing to me.  In the early days we received tons of comments on each post because the emotion was high and each post was full of new information about a disease no one had heard about.  Over time, the comments naturally became less, but were still filled with witty comments and thoughts on the topic at hand.  That was until my friends in the former U.S.S.R. took notice.  

One of the cooler things about the Google blog site is the opportunity to review statistics.  The stats page outlines the number of pageviews, traffic sources, popular posts, and audience reach.  The Audience link outlines the pageviews by web brower, operating system, and my favorite - by country.  The page has a nice map highlighted with colors based on reach (see below).   

When we first started to post blogs we expected to see the views grow in the United States because of our family and friends.  Over time we were thrilled to see the occasional spotting in Europe and even Australia.  We knew some Pompe folks in these areas and hoped they were checking into our story and enjoying the journey.  During all this time the comments kept rolling in either from folks we knew or anonymous posters who sounded a lot like people we knew.  And then came the Russian invasion!

Once in a while I would notice strange comments like:

Very nice article. I certainly appreciate this site. Keep it up! Feel free to surf to my blog post ...

or 

Very nice article. I certainly appreciate this site. Keep it up! Feel free to surf to my blog post ...

At first, my twelve years of Catholic School told me to answer, "How nice!"  Then, once the volume of the comments increase dramatically, reality set in that the site was being hit by spammers.  After clicking every one of their bogus links (kidding), I turned off the comment option so nothing more could come in.  The only problem is, by doing so, we lost the opportunity to connect with our family and friends.  So, we set up a Facebook page and called it...surprise...Maddie's Mission.

On the Facebook page we add each new post plus information on Pompe, Muscular Dystrophy, etc.  However, the main goal is to give our family and friends a place to comment on our posts or leave messages for the girls.  If you are interested in checking it out and "Liking" it the address is https://www.facebook.com/pages/Maddies-Mission/343231419122252.      

If you have extra time, I can always send you links from my friends in Russia, Latvia, and the Ukraine, but I have a feeling you don't want those! 

Credit to: The Beatles, "Back in the U.S.S.R"


See someone you know?

Pageviews by Countries

Graph of most popular countries among blog viewers
EntryPageviews
United States
53239
Russia
870
Germany
447
Canada
417
Latvia
414
United Kingdom
280
Australia
253
France
169
Ukraine
124
Greece
68

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