Becoming Scrupulous about Google

Hello:

I mentioned in my last post that I occasionally obsess about things. Right now, I'm obsessing about BLOGs (big surprise). I've surprised myself even with how much time I have spent researching how to bring people to a BLOG and planning things I want to do in the near future.

Despite that the fact that my friends tease me (a lot) about my Obsessive Compulsive behaviours, I don't actually have OCD (I've been tested). Knowing how difficult life can become for myself (is it easy for anyone?), I have a lot of compassion for those who live in the grasp of the full blown syndrome. The Redemptorist Order has a special calling to minister to those suffering from a specific form of OCD which involves an unhealthy fixation on religious rules and restrictions. This condition is known as scrupulosity and is a powerful form of anxiety that is difficult for mental health providers to treat due to the religious aspect of the disease.

St Alphonsus Liguori suffered mightly from this condition and is the patron saint of the scrupulous. He also founded the Redemptorist Order and is the name sake of Liguori Publications. As part of the order's outreach to the scrupulous, we publish a free newsletter called Scrupulous Anonymous. We also publish Understanding Scrupulosity: Helpful Answers for Those Who Experience Nagging Questions and Doubts by Thomas M. Santa, C.Ss.R. Father Santa was the president of Liguori when I started 7 years ago and has written a large amount of material in both English and Spanish.

Something that's driving me crazy right now (besides the length of this post), is that all mighty Google hasn't indexed my site yet.I understand that they can't actually index EVERY site in the universe, but why am I forced to have a Google search bar float at the top of my blog if it can't be used? If you've ever tried to search a BLOG using the box at the top and it didn't return any results, it's because the page hasn't been indexed. I've submitted my site to Google, Technorati, Yahoo and several other search engines recently but Google keeps shunning me. Maybe I should invite it over for drinks and we can discuss the situation?

To really rub salt in the wounds - Saintly Sinner (written by my buddy Dave) started a week after I began mine and has many fewer posts AND YET Technorati is all ready indexing him. IS THERE NO JUSTICE? Call it bait, call it a bribe, call it what you will; but here's a Technorati 'tag'. I'm not exactly certain if this will help anything, but here it is. Click it if you want to: Liguori Publications Technorati Tag.

Well, I think I should calm down and go to the gym. Maybe I'll check the stats on our new Google ad a few hundred times. That always seems to relax me. I hope that everyone has a great holiday weekend. I feel very fortunate that I have the luxury of getting upset over stupid things like BLOG rankings. I have a roof over my head, food in my refrigerator and people in my life who love me. I am truly blessed. If you haven't all ready, please visit Network for Good to see how you can help those affected by hurricane Katrina.

Peace,

P. Del Ricci