The Blog Stats feature in WordPress fascinates me. Sometimes in a troubling way. Like when I see multiple searches on my first and last name (which would not lead directly to this blog – you might find this blog through some other blog I’ve posted on by searching on my full name), or wandering bella. It’s hard for me to imagine what on this puny blog motivates people to look for it beyond the people I know read it on a semi-regular basis. Anyway, the latest stat trend I find interesting (and troubling) is related to this post I wrote about witnessing some sketchy marine recruitment tactics outside the Super Target in Fishers. Since I wrote the post on December 12th, 2007, I get no less than 15 searches a day landing on this site where people are typing these search strings into search engines:
“IRAQ I want to go there and get paid”
“how often do marines get paid”
“how much will i get paid a year in the marines”
“money in joining marines”
“how much are marines typically paid”
“why are marines paid minimum wage”
I get on some level why this information is of interest though I’m not by any means an official source. In any case, I have to wonder about anyone who types “IRAQ I want to go there” into a search engine and then arrives here – they are most certainly in for a rude awakening. At a minimum, they can learn about big white dogs, my social liberalism, depression, my failed relationships and my boring life. And more to the point who *wants* to go to Iraq?
What I find really interesting about those searches is how concerned people are with the amount of money they would make.
Recruiters will tell kids ANYTHING to get them to sign up. Like, there’s always a “$50,000 sign-on bonus,” and then omit the part about how the fifty grand isn’t for you, exactly: you won’t get it all at once, you only get a small part of it after you graduate from A-school, or how it’s actually the GI Bill and you only get *reimbursed* for going to college after finishing 4, 6, or 8 years in the military.
Not to mention the fact that they CHARGE you for food, housing, and clothes for basic training, alone (it comes out of your paycheck). When I was in the Army a long, long, long time ago, I made about $150 every two weeks. Charlie got a bit more than that when he was in the Navy in ‘99-’02.