Congratulations! This morning (30 October 2005) at precisely 10:38:33 am (Edmonton time) I had my 10,000th visitor to my blog. As I previously mentioned, this person (perhaps one of my students?) has won a free biblical studies or Hebrew language book. I will provide some options and this lucky person will choose which one he or she wants.

As it turns out, the lucky winner is from Edmonton, is using a Windows computer, and is web browsing with Firefox. If this is you, please send me an email. In order to verify that it was you visiting my blog, I will ask you what service provider you are using and perhaps some other identifying features of your visit.

To be honest, I am somewhat relieved that lucky number 10,000 is from Edmonton since I won’t have to worry about shipping! Visitor 9,999 was from Birmingham, UK, while 10,001 was from Vancouver, British Columbia. Other recent visitors have been from Denmark, Germany, Hungary, and the United States.

Since the first of September when I had my 5000th visitor, I have had an average of 166 visits to my blog per day. That is up considerably from just under 100 visits per day for my first 5000 visitors (or at least my first 5000 from the day I added the site meter, July 7th).

I would like to thank everyone for visiting. And I am honoured that some people actually find what I blog interesting and/or informative — or perhaps something else!? I have enjoyed blogging for a variety of reasons. First and foremost I see this as an extension of my teaching. It also allows me to think out loud, so to speak. Blogging allows me to put to writing different ideas that I have based on reading and research in and around my courses. I have also enjoyed becoming part of the biblioblogging community. I just think that it is kind of neat to be able to interact with others around the globe.

Again, thanks for visiting! Come again and come often!