Here are the things I found out about Harderwijk this morning:

1. It is in the (almost) exact geographic centre of the Netherlands.
2. It is home to at least 2 colleges and Universities (Christelijk College Nassau-Veluwe, University of Harderwijk)
3. It is in the province of Gelderland
4. It is home to the Dolfinarium, a marine mammal park
5. Notable residents include Politicians, soccer (football) players and a Tattoo Artist named Henk Schiffimacher
6. Someone from Harderwijk visited this blog yesterday!

Here is the thing, dear reader, before you think me all stalkery and just weird, I want to explain how I know about my Harerwijkian visitor, and why it thrills me.

If you ever got the opportunity to hear me go on about educational topics, you will undoubtedly have heard me speak about SAMR. It’s the ‘R’ that I’m getting at today.  In the SAMR model, R is for Redefinition– where Technology allows a situation for a task to be totally redefined in a way not possible.

So people ask me (occasionally with pained expressions, but that’s a different post) why I put my thoughts and words and assorted ramblings Out There. It’s because of Harderwijk.

Here are some stats for you from the last month:

• From August 1-31, I have had 868 visits to my site
• that includes 159 cities
• my home town of Duncan has the most readers at 69 (visiting a total of 149 times)
• Calgary and Nanaimo each have 6 readers totaling 14 visits, while Richmond has that many visits divided by only 2 visitors.
• Weston-Super-Mare is the longest city name to boast a visitor
• Kalamazoo is on the list (I can’t tell you how happy that makes me)
• 22 countries in total are represented
• Harderwijk is the only visitor from the Netherlands last month.

I don’t spend a lot of time looking at the stats (granted, it’s a little bit of a vanity move, and on those days that I get 0 visitors, I’m always a little bereft). But in any event, back to my point. I am interested in Harderwijk this morning, because someone from Harderwijk accidentally or on purpose found my blog and, hopefully, read some. A task not possible without Technology. It thrills me to think that one day, if I’m lucky enough to travel to the Netherlands, I could visit Harderwijk and complete a circuit,

Like it or not, my electronic friends, technology redefines our lives, constantly. I learned something about a far-away place I would never, probably, have known if not for my visitor. Believe me when I tell you, I get back what I give out, in equal if not greater measure.

Thank you for reading, Harderwijk, and Chapeco, and Waterloo, and Quezon City, and Beijing–  oh hey! There is a circuit completed!