As a kid, I always loved flags. I would go to “Flags of the World” in our Encyclopedia set, get out map-pencils (not crayons), and A4 paper.  I would then proceed to make maps.  I would make sure to stay in the lines, make the colors strong by bearing down hard on the paper… and I would try to keep the shading even.  I would spend hours on this stuff.

I ended up studying Geography at university.  Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Now I am a musician, and a whippet enthusiast, owner, trainer, breeder.  But I still feel very geographic — which should explain why I have lived so many places (even with my dogs).  It also explains why I love flag-counters on my websites and why I am making this blog entry today.  🙂

Keep in mind that the counter only counts unique visitors.  This means that when someone comes back to the blog again from the same computer, the visit is NOT counted.  Any computer can be counted only once.  Also, this blog was up for quite a while before i added the flag-counter.

Here are the top 20 countries visiting the Machspeed blog:

1. United States 3,235 North America
2. Poland 1,080 Europe
3. United Kingdom 1,062 Europe
4. Vietnam 488 Asia (Southeast)
5. Canada 369 North America
6. Australia 244 Oceana
7. Netherlands 181 Europe
8. Sweden 173 Europe
9. Germany 154 Europe
10. Belgium 90 Europe
11. Finland 82 Europe
12. France 80 Europe
13. Taiwan 80 Asia (East)
14. Japan 62 Asia (East)
15. Thailand 59 Asia (Southeast)
16. Philippines 58 Asia/Pacific
17. Singapore 51 Asia (Southeast)
18. Russia 47 Europe (and Asia)
19. Portugal 46 Europe
20. India 43 Asia (South)

Poland and VietNam are high on the list because i have lived there.  Other southeast asian nations also probably got a boost from my time in VietNam.  Biggest surprise here?  Well, I really don’t see any surprises…  Maybe Portugal being higher than Spain.

Here are my top 10 states in the U.S. for the Machspeed blog:


1.1.		                         California                                 634 Pacific Coast
1.2. Texas 234 South . Southwest
1.3. New York 175 North East
1.4. Oregon 171 Pacific Coast
1.5. Washington 138 Pacific Coast
1.6. Pennsylvania 137 North East
1.7. Iowa 130 Central
1.8. Florida 129 Southeast
1.9. Georgia 110 Southeast
1.10. Ohio 100 Central / Midwest

Notice the domination of the Pacific Coast.  This formed well before I moved to California and it didn’t particularly influence my decision either.  The biggest surprise here?  Definitely IOWA.  Thank you Iowa.  🙂

With Canada, you see the importance of the West Coast as well:


Province/Territory		 Unique Visitors Last New Visitor
5.1. Ontario 138 East
5.2. British Columbia 115 Pacific Coast
5.3. Alberta 48 March 4, 2012

Click on the yellow flag-counter to the right if you want to see the full data or want a flag-counter for your website.