International Triggers

Google owns Blogspot, this blogging site, and they have some cool tools you can use. One tool is a map that will show you from which cities around the world people are reading your blog. It's pretty cool to see the periodic new city in some country I've never visited pop up on the map, often times due to frequent poster Alexis' international travels.

However this week there has been a big jump in my international readership. Hopefully they will stick around and post, but history indicates otherwise. Here is a quick list of those cities:
Vincente Lopez, Argentina
Curitaba, Brazil
Casablanca, Morocco
Oxford, UK
London, UK
Manchester, UK
Dublin, IRE
Sydney, Australia (probably the ex-coworker)
Calgary, Canada
Vancouver, Canada
Ottawa, Canada

All in the last week! So which of my postings might have drawn such an international crowd? Maybe it was the roadkill table post. Possibly the pictures from northern Michigan post? Who wouldn't like a nice picture of a bull frog? The mention of tapas? Whatever the reason, hopefully some of the international readers will stick and add their wisdom to the site.

The Dow is getting whacked again, down to 11,350 after a horrific week. Earlier this year I wrote about a potential bottom around 10,700. I'm inclined to stick with that number, another drop of about 5%. There are still some stocks to buy, but buying the MARKET is probably still not the best idea. Dollar cost averaging though and disciplined investing would dictate that you stay the course and don't alter your investment philosophy based on short term swings.