All Sorts of Tidbits II

Ah, yes, the compendium type post. Sure to be of interest to no-one, except, guess what? You're here reading it. So it must interest someone at least little on some level. That or your RSS reader has let you down in a spectacular fashion.

1. First, the blog is approaching 200,000 posts and I expect we'll hit that number this summer. Though recent traffic has dropped off a bit. I cannot believe how many hits I get, though about 70% of them are what I deem a "worthless" hit. To me, that's someone who reads the one post they came across and never comes back to the blog again.
2. Secondly the mix of visitors has slowly started to change. Search engine referrals are down to 73.5% while website referrals are up to 26% -- Google still provides most of our traffic (75% of that 73%).
3. My post on Led Zeppelin still remains the single most popular post and it generates people who linger and read the 300+ comments. Following that is the post about Daniel Radcliffe's Penis which generates more worthless hits than anything -- apparently people think they're getting the goods from my website. I think not. In third place is the Dell Sucks post which generates traffic as well as getting me lots of sympathetic e-mails. In fourth place is the Crazy Frog post, which like the Penis post, is worthless for valuable traffic. All other posts generate insignificant traffic when measured over time. Short-term some posts like mine on Wolfgang Van Halen and Terry Brooks generate short-terms bursts but then people move on to whatever else is news.
4. A special shout-out goes to Maury Wilkinson. She's the one who challenged me to make a blog. So I should thank her for that. But that's not why she's getting the shout-out here. She's been bugging me forever to get a TiVo. I broke down and got a DVR today (which she calls a Ti-Faux because it's a generic one) so I don't have to miss House, Heroes, and Lost any more. We'll see how I like it.
5. I love being a grammar Nazi. No, really. I'm not perfect but I am better than most people. And I certainly know the difference between your/you're and it's/its -- which about 80% of the people who write me obviously don't. I started a thread on my Panthers Hockey Message Board (which actually tracks back to another thread on a different board). I am only mentioning this because the thread is awesome. And better yet, the spiteful bitch on the original thread, who apparently runs the LED board, made an ass out of herself, engaged in petty-name calling, and then used RED on the matrix board to make the error worse.
The thread got locked and the entire ad was gone from the last game. Victory is mine! (Okay, it's got nothing to do with me or anything I said, but still.)
6. My guest room is now wired for HDTV for the benefit of my guests. And I've installed a new flat-screen LCD TV. Isn't that great? Except I don't like guests. Damn -- I think that may be ironic. That's why I'm in the process of finding a new home for my Sony KV27EXR10.
7. I saw Horton Hears a Who. It is surprisingly good. Really. Except when they break into song at the end -- a clear Shrek rip-odd. Everyone knows the story, has read the book, etcetera so there's no point in me going over it. You will like it. Visually appealing, very entertaining, and just a good film. Really. Saw previews for Ice Age 3, Narnia: Caspian, Wall-E and Speed Racer. I can't wait to see the first three. I was looking forward to Speed Racer but the preview has me reconsidering.
8. My neck still hurts (see accident report) and though it was getting better, it's acting up again. Not sure why. But my C4 vertebrae is in the wrong place according to the x-ray the chiropractor took. I definitely have whiplash. Progressive Insurance are being serious poopy-heads about it, and I've written a letter to their CEO and the State of Florida Insurance Commissioner. They lied to me, and I caught them in the lie. They also tried to get me to sign a waiver of rights including all future rights. I'm not even cured yet and they want to buy me off for a small pittance. I was very up-front. I want them to pay my medical bills. Nothing more and nothing less. Apparently they think this is unfair. State Law entitles to me reimbursement for missed work and other benefits. I wasn't really excited about the paperwork, but I suppose I have to do it now. It's clear they are lying scum and do not have my best interests at heart. Ultimately, I will be better so I'm not worried about long term issues, but if they think I'm signing a waiver for something down the road, they're nuts. What if something was missed on the x-ray? Too many things could go wrong. Woe be the person who gets rear-ended by a Progressive policy holder. Progressive Sucks. They must use Dell laptops :)
9. I am opposed to bio-fuels. Why? Food should not be used to operate cars when people are starving to death all over the planet. I can't imagine why anyone thinks this is a good idea.

Randomness Part Six

First, I updated an old post with some additional Cal alumni including Jay Ward (class of '41) the creator of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Second, blog traffic is creeping up again which pleases me. All-time historical hot topics now include Led Zeppelin in first place with about 7% of my 160,000+ hits since I got my tracking software. Daniel Radcliffe's Penis is still a hot (cough) topic at around 6% and that traffic does nothing but blow through here (forgive the pun). I'm half tempted to delete those posts because it's traffic I don't want. I won't do it of course. In third place is the Dell Sucks topic with about 3% of total traffic. Recent hot topics include the aforementioned in addition to my reviews of Terry Goodkind's books and my review of My Name is David. Also regaining popularity is that damned "Crazy Frog or Coldplay" post with 172 hits this week alone.

Third, I did not skate this weekend because Adrian was sick. I need a back-up skating partner. I am fat and need the exercise. I start a new diet along with many other people from work. I hope it helps. I want to lose 30 pounds but if I do half of that I'll be lucky. It's a one month contest. Tonight is my "last meal"

Fourth, I replaced all three of my exterior lights yesterday with ones that (I hope work). They're all made by Home Depot's "Hampton Bay" division and they all suck. The photocells don't last long and every year or so they have to be replaced. One year I will get motivated and get them from Lowe's instead but then I'll have to re-drill lots of holes in the walls for new mounting brackets.

Fifth, my neighbours are getting their new roof now. Amazingly, two years after the dual-hit of Wilma/Katrina people are still having roof work done in my neighbourhood.

Sixth, my ex-friends continue to vex me but it's my own damn fault that I continue to let them bother me. I could mention Josh's name here, for instance, but I won't. Or Eric's for that matter. Spiteful, I am :)

Seventh. Relatives suck. Pretty much the whole lot of 'em.

Eighth. I must be Belgian? Why? I am a bit Phlegmish today. That was funny as hell. I hope you laughed.

Ninth. At 3pm today we're all meeting at Cracker Barrel before the hockey game for a very late lunch or early dinner depending on your POV.

Tenth, and rather amusing, is the story of the first official piece of electronic advertising -- the fault of a dentist no less. Economist Magazine.

Last, but most important, Scooter got her check-up today. Everything is still same as last time, though she's lost a little bit of weight (not good). Her thyroid is under control from medication. Her kidney functions remain in the danger zone (just barely) but are not treatable -- the vet was surprised as she expected a worsening: good kitty :) So we're going to adjust (slightly) her thyroid dose from 1 pill AM and 1/2 pill PM to remove the 1/2 PM pill every OTHER day. Her shoulder ligament problem is worse -- it's more inflamed but there's nothing they can do as the vet doesn't think she can survive the surgery. I will get a second opinion soon.

Return of Wherefore art thou Eric J. Hedlund?

It's been a busy week. Let's see, I'm sick. I have a cold. My throat problem appears to be back, but I've been ignoring it for weeks -- it's pretty bad now so I'm off to the doctor tomorrow. Dad gets his one year oncologists report tomorrow.

Last night, I saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra with Evan and Brenda, their kids, and Adrian. Actually enjoyed it. For their second year running, they opened the show in Sunrise, Florida. It's a bit early for a Christmas show. WHAT? CHRISTMAS? Yeah. But that's not why I go, though I truly don't mind it. I love the second half where they do rock-based classical music. That's how I discovered TSO.

Codey, a 17 year old kid, who I never, but knew on-line, died this past Sunday. I won't go into all the details but it's not fair. Life isn't fair. A great kid and we need more people like him. I'm remarkably sad considering I never spoke to him, only had a few IMs, and basically knew him via email and/or forum posts. Friendships aren't defined like they used to be.

In a previous post I wrote about Unca Eric which was actually a follow up to a 2004 post I made. A few months ago, I decided to track him down a few months ago. I found out he left his job in Taos (see that previous post). I knew some of his friends names -- met them once so many moons ago -- and through the power of Google and my persistence I contacted PL and EW -- who both had no idea how to get in touch with him. E-mails to all known addresses bounced. I had given up.

Then, suddenly, there were new posts in his blog. Yay. YAY! I wrote him through the LiveJournal internal mail system for its members, figuring there was no chance of contact whatsoever. He wrote me back! I felt some really nice, sincere, deep joy. I realize none of my blog readers will care, but I do. Eric meant a lot to me -- in a world of mental midgets he was a rare mental giant I could talk to. I respect him.

What's Wrong With Blogging

I had this burning desire to post some really personal stuff here, specifically a few things that were on my mind. That's what blogs are for. I wanted to make a post and I didn't make it because I was afraid a particular person might read it, or maybe a particular group of people. Blogging is supposed to be about expression, but it's not free. That bothers me, I think. Stuff along the lines of: I like person A. I hate person B. I really feel emotion C. That sort of thing.

Then I realized that I was censoring myself. Yep, the blog has come to that point. I've got people reading who, quite frankly, I just don't want to know some of that stuff and if I post it here, it'll be pretty damned hard to hide won't it? I think the blog was a little more fun for me when it was anonymous and I didn't know who was reading it. It's ironic that as the blog gets more visitors and more people, it's harder and harder for me to put what I want in the blog. It's might also be interesting to my readers that since you know what I'm willing to write here, you ought to wonder what I'm not willing to write.

As an illustrative example: Do I care if random person X knows that I like A or hate B? Not in the least. Do I care if A knows that I like him/her? Maybe. Do I care if B knows I hate him/her? Of course not. Do I care if anyone I know thinks I'm having emotion C? You bet your ass. I used him/her so nobody would read anything in to the pronouns. (This is an illustrative example only, not an actual example for those of you who couldn't pick up on it without me explaining it.)

To carry it further, what might be okay for a stranger to read, you might not want your best friend to read. What be okay for a friend, might not be okay for a relative. And what's okay for a stranger and/or friend might not be okay for an employer. So the blogsphere which is supposed to be censorship free becomes self-censored.

It was an interesting revelation and/or epiphany to have. So this blog, while it isn't censored, definitely only shows you part of the picture. And the very best part? This may the most uncensored post I've ever made* even though it appears totally censored.

I only know of one person -- who probably won't ever read my blog -- who will have any clue what's going on in this post. Most of my readers will think I've taken too many medications and dismiss this post as inconsequential when in truth it's the single most important post I'll ever make. And, it's quite possible, a few of my readers -- one or two of my friends I suspect -- will actually try and figure it out. And fail miserably. Sorry, guys :)

This post made me feel sad inside and put a smile on my face (this is a true statement).

* he said cryptically.

Bold text added 10-25 for people who, apparently, need things spelled out.

Panthershockey.net gets a sponsor!

Well, I've taken the plunge and accepted paid advertising. I never thought I'd actually do it. However, as my combined sites' Technorati authority ratings have climbed, offers have increased. I won't even CONSIDER porn ads, though those offers were SUBSTANTIAL and into the four figures. My Technorati authority rating broke 5 not that long ago -- and now it's up to six!

I finally got a sponsorship offer that I didn't find offensive, was related to what I talk about, and covered my annual ISP hosting bill. The fact that I have a lot of sports pages, often talk about sports, and quite frankly, like sports made this one of interest. So, I am pleased to announce, as my first sponsor and Première sponsor, Barry's Tickets. If you like this site, please click on the link or banner ad and check them out. Sure, they do non-sports stuff, but that's not what made them attractive to me as a sponsor:

Here's the little blurb we wrote about them for their sponsor tag-line: Barry's Tickets -- our site sponsor -- is your one-stop source for tickets to the hottest events nationwide. We offer premium seating and sold-out tickets as well. As a privately owned ticket broker, Barry’s Tickets has seats for all sports and entertainment events buying and selling tickets at the best prices available. Visit them and help support our site!

I hope they get some business -- to be clear I get no commission from sales. They paid me a flat fee, and I agreed to give them a one year exposure until 8-31-08. So far they've been extremely professional. You will see their ads around my sites as follows:

1. Darsys.com/panth (www.pathershockey.net) left-side navigation bar on EVERY SINGLE page in the site exclusive to them
2. Darsys.com index page left-side navigation bar exclusive to them
   
3. Darsys.net index page left-side navigation bar exclusive to them
4. Darsys.com index page TOP OF LIST banner ad (like the one above)
5. Darsys.net index page TOP OF LIST banner ad (like the one above)

So, share the love and click on the Sponsor's Link from here, or better yet from my website. If you buy and they ask where you came from, mention DARSYS.COM, DARSYS.NET, and/or PANTHERSHOCKEY.NET.

The entire cost of the darsys.com domain was paid for by this and left me a two cent profit. If I get another sponsor, I can probably get darsys.net paid off too. Send me an offer -- the more zeros the better :)

Random Tidbits

SCOOTER UPDATE: She's feeling a bit better after we saw Dr. Child -- Dr. Child has a much better bedside manner than the other two doctors in the office. Plus she's a cat owner. Cat owners make better cat vets than dog owners (and vice versa).

She changed Scooter's medicine levels to 1-1/2 pills per day, down from her original 2 but up from the 1 that the other doctor recommended. She's still got all sorts of symptoms -- but most have lessened except the thyroid stuff -- but she seems happy and doesn't seem to be in any pain. I have to make the appointment to take her back in late September. At some point I also have to take her to see Dr. Diaz (my regular vet). I'm just reluctant to get two doctors involved if the first one seems to be doing a good job and knows what she's doing. [This has nothing to do with the fact the vet is very cute. I promise.]

SHOULDER UPDATE: I saw Dr. Levitt today -- my orthopaedic surgeon. My shoulder saga -- on and off again -- being painful and unpleasant. I figured I best check and see what the hell was wrong. His assistant made an initial assessment before the doctor saw me. Then sent me to a brand new x-ray machine that is digital (no film, film cartridges, or any of that). They take it and it's done -- and if they don't like it, they take another one. They can zoom it in/out and rotate it all from their control box. It looks like an MRI room actually only it's full of gantries so the machine can move around on its own or with their help.

A few moments later, I was back in the doc's office with the results. I kid you not -- under five minutes for the answer. The good news is: absolutely, positively, no serious damage and no surgery required. I am to continue to see my chiropractor. I was told what to tell him. But basically the muscle is knotted up and not in the wrong place and that's causing pinching and it just needs to be re-aligned. He asked me a lot of questions about my chiropractor -- because he feels most are quacks (as do I) -- but my answers satisfied him. And he gave Dr. Yoham the a-ok.

REST OF ME UPDATE: I also asked Dr. Levitt about a number of my other joint aches and pains. Sadly, his answer was the one I feared. I'm getting old and all those aches, pains, pops, and noises are part of the process. He said to do nothing out of the ordinary and hopefully it won't get much worse. I have mild arthritis in my knees, but that's not a surprise. It happens if you have surgery on your joints. Nothing life-altering. Yay.

RANDOM NEWS: In unrelated health news, I have an uncomfortable itch. You don't want to know where. I had to tell someone, and that someone is you. Aren't you lucky? In even more unrelated news, London is still not looking very good and I've thrown out a last ditch plan before I throw in the towel and try to combat the resultant depression.

SITE NEWS: I will have some soon. If you're clever and have been around http://www.panthershockey.net or my other pages http://www.darsys.com and http://www.darsys.net you may have already figured out what the announcement will be. But no formal announcement for 5 to 10 days. It's all related to the fact that the site authority level has been creeping up. We hit 3 earlier this year, and 4 a few months ago, 5 recently, and 6 yesterday. That's good because it means people are pay attention. That means more eyeballs. And those eyeballs (insert your own conclusion here).

Appleism (Apple Becomes a Religion)

I use StumpleUpon regularly, and it dropped me into a blog which has a fascinating post. I'm sorry it took me so long to blog it, but here it is. David Kuo writes a rather interesting piece entitled "Welcome to Appleism – the religion that is Apple." I don't want to spoil it all here without encouraging you to read it first.

He starts with this statement: Apple isn’t a cult anymore, it has become a full blown religion with scores of millions of followers. The frenzy around the iPhone brings to mind the clamoring throngs that greeted Jesus at the height of his ministry. And it's a telling statement because he's right, there is a frenzy. Though, I daresay, it's more consumerism than anything resembling religion. The frenzy is no different than that surrounding the Nintendo Wii or any other über-hot item.

Lest you think I am disagreeing with Mr. Kuo, I am not. Apple has certainly become a religion of sorts, but a proper one that has developed over time. Its members are fiercely loyal, even when they shouldn't be. The evangelize their religion by trying to convert all their friends. I do that very thing, but I will not recommend one of Apple's "bad" products, though happily they are few and far between.

Mr. Kuo also states "Appleism espouses a liberal worldview that challenges conventional morality and norms and encourages creativity. It was clearly seen in the famed 'Think Different' ad campaign." And that is a key point because Think Different embodied the spirit of Apple. Mr. Kuo missed the very most important point of all, though. You either get it, or you don't.

I have friends and relatives that will never get it, and I don't even bother trying to convert them anymore. Not to put down my friends/relatives, but those who have converted have seen the light and realize the bliss of being righteous and knowing you've done the right thing. I'd love to insult the unconverted lot and say the intelligent ones have converted and the less-than-sharp have not, but that's a generalization and wholly untrue. There is no quantifiable measurement of get it, but anyone who is an Appleist, certainly gets it. There is research that does quantify the fact Apple users are statistically smarter than PC users (see previous blog entry) but I don't feel the pressing need to rub it in your face*.

It's no secret that I think different. That's probably why I get it.

(* Besides, all Mac vs PC arguments can be won by uttering the phrase Windows ME which will shut up even the most virulent Microsoft supporter).

Wherefore art thou Eric J. Hedlund?

So, every now and again I like to check up on my "missing" friends -- you know the people you lost contact with but you wish you hadn't. I guess it's sort of nostalgic. There aren't that many that I've lost touch with that I wish I could reconnect with, but there are a few. One, Eric, was just an amazing person. I really liked him for all sorts of reasons. I met him when he was around 14 or so and I was in my early 20s (here's a picture).

He ended up, last I checked, as the editor of the newspaper in Taos, New Mexico. Every now and then I'd go check over there, read some of his articles, and feel a little more connected. I sent an email to him a few months ago and it bounced. Then I found a notice saying that he'd left the paper because he decided to leave Taos entirely. So now I've lost contact. I feel surprisingly saddened by this -- despite the fact I haven't spoken to him in many, many years. He hasn't updated his blog in over a year.

A few years ago one of his friends e-mailed me as a result of this blog, so I thought I'd post this here in the remote hope it happens again. Eric's not the only one I think about, but he's one of very few. I miss Dee, but sadly, she's dead. There were some other people too, but I've managed to reconnect with them via e-mail and/or IM and such (Randy, Carey, for instance). I don't count the people I've tried to reconnect with but have met with reluctance or resistance (Josh, Rob H).

Keenan Florida Panthers Why

I monitor my blog's traffic to see what draws people in (see previous post) and it's mostly uninteresting except in a statistical sort of way. However, this Google hit from earlier today made me laugh: "keenan florida panthers why"

I can't stand Keenan because I think he's a prick. I don't have much nice to say about him. Someone's search terms perfectly sum up how I feel about Mike Keenan. I've gone over it and over it on my Panthers Message Boards, so won't rehash it here.

But it STILL made me laugh. Indeed: Mike Keenan, Florida Panthers, WHY?

My website is actually getting popular

It's thanks to the blog naturally. As of June 2005 there were 68 million web pages and that numbers has, quite obviously grown. A site called alexa.com ranks them all based on traffic analysis. If you're in the top 100,000 you get all sorts of coolness factors. I'm not there -- not even close. However, this site is now ranked about 2.38 millionth which sounds low, but that does put it in the top 5% based on traffic. Naturally this fluctuates over time. Does that make me cool? No. Does it make me excited? Sadly, a little because I am a geek.

I'd love this blog and ultimately my site to garner a lot more traffic. But to do that you have to pander to people either by going totally pop-culture (boring), porno (not really my thing), or being totally one-track. That's not what my blog or my pages stand for or are about.

If I find it interesting, I blog it. Hence I've got posts about any manner of topics -- none of them related. It's eclectic if nothing else. If I were famous like Guy Kawasaki or Wil Wheaton my blog would get traffic because of who I am. Wil's site isn't all that interesting any more. Guy gets traffic because of who he is, but he keeps it because of what he says. Guy's blog is always cool. Wil just posts random thoughts like me and sometimes he's good -- like when he talks about mundane domestic stuff or even his old Wesley Crusher days but sometimes he goes off about poker, and quite frankly it runs me off. I could have emulated either one of them and probably done quite well, but I decided to go on my own path and still I'm at 120,000 hits and counting. Honestly, two-thirds of those hits are garbage hits (follow a link, look, and leave within seconds) but the rest are real visitors. They stay, read, and sometimes even click on an ad (thanks!) -- I like the fact that my blog stats show that the entry page and exit page are generally not the same which means people come, read a post, and then read another post before leaving. Content does that.

People love the Led Zeppelin/Pink Floyd thread -- it's still the majority of the traffic followed by that damned ColdPlay/Crazy Frog debate. Next most popular is Daniel Radcliffe's (Harry Potter) penis -- but that's most of the garbage traffic now -- because people are looking for pictures and not me making fun of it. No porn here, sorry. The net has plenty of porn, in fact in the words of Avenue Q's Trekkie Monster "The Internet is for Porn" and it shows.

So I will stay true to my roots and ramble on about whatever moves me on a given day. Sign up for the RSS feed if you'd like. And help me get clicks. I want to break the top million. Send people over if you think there's stuff here worth reading, and many of you obviously do. And when you're done, check out Guy's blog and even Wil's -- in fact check my tiny, personally selected, blog roll on the bottom right side. It's all stuff I read and look at: none of those paid placements. I don't do that.

I've Added Snap

Snap is this little thingy where as you mouse over a link you get a preview of the link's website. I'm going to try and see if I like it. Guy Kawasaki uses it on his blog, so I'm sure it's reputable.

Let me know what you think. You can turn it off if it irritates you or configure it -- just click the OPTIONS tag in the upper right corner of the Snap window. I think it's kinda' cool. I installed it and tried it with the icons, but found that intrusive so I removed that.

Popular Blog Topics At The Quagmire

These represent UNIQUE hits and not page loads. So they don't add to the total hits. And these stats have only been collected for about one year. But you want to know what have been the most popular blog keyword for the past year at The Quagmire? Here ya' go:

2784	5.71%	crazy
2778	5.69%	frog
2302	4.72%	led
2270	4.65%	zeppelin
2102	4.31%	sucks
1420	2.91%	dell
1111	2.28%	quagmire
1103	2.26%	billy
983	2.01%	joel
930	1.91%	concert
798	1.64%	review
746	1.53%	the
693	1.42%	2006
522	1.07%	list
508	1.04%	goodkind
477	0.98%	phantom
473	0.97%	queen
466	0.96%	set
432	0.89%	terry
404	0.83%	throat
397	0.81%	tickle
383	0.78%	blood

Your mileage may vary. This is very misleading because certain words are hit in combination. For example "Queen Set List 2006" actually works together and I'm not sure how the mysterious tabulator works.

The 100,000th hit will happen....

.... in the next 12 hours but I won't be on-line to see it. The counter is down near the bottom, and you can even click the little planet icon to get some semi-anonymous type statistics. I'm just amazed at how far this blog has come.

I could thank Technorati, but they have contributed all of 96 hits since we went live on 17 October 2004, Digg has done much better for me. In fact, I've been on a roll there these past few days with some traffic to my Family Guy Jumps The Shark post. I've finally added "Digg This" buttons to my blog, so if you like something you can share the love more easily.

But really, who could have imagined? That's huge. It's been 845 days since I started this blog, which means I've had on average 118 hits per day -- though at our peak we were getting 358 hits per day. We started slow, and there have been slow days, but I never expected popularity. Not like this.

I'd like to make the next day even more popular. If you have a real blog, I'd consider trading links back and forth between our blogs (subject to content review). I'd like to get more eyeballs, but more for the sake of getting people to comment. Even the enormous blogs such as Wil Wheaton gets precious few comments with ten times the traffic. I'd love to hear any ideas people have about getting people to comment.

I'd like to know who my users are, because the count is not reflective of my friends and family. Give me a shout out, tell me who you are, why you're here. If a public comment is too scary for you, try e-mail.

And more importantly, thank you all!

Why Blogger Beta Sucks

1. This was reported over one month ago via the Blogger contact mechanism. I never got any reply. I understand it's free, and I guess I'm getting what I'm paying for.
2. This problem happens only with New Blogger (Blogger Beta that is not theoretically Beta any more -- it was not an issue with the Original Blogger). I can FTP normally from any other service and with any FTP client. This issue ONLY affects New Blogger.
3. To publish a single (short) post takes 3 to 6 minutes or more. Prior to beta it took about one minute normally, sometimes two on a bad day.
4. I tried to republish my blog yesterday which used to take 10 to 15 minutes under Original Blogger. It has been over FOUR HOURS. Same result again today. Started at 1705pm and it's 2008pm and nothing besides the "taking longer than expected" error message.
5. I'd have switched to Wordpress but Blogger Beta doesn't convert properly yet using normal channels. I'm sure you may have seen my previous post about conversions. And there is now a solution, which I may try -- though I much prefer someone do it for me if there are volunteers. The problem is, I'd have to get my blog to republish for it to work and it's not working.
   

SOMETHING IS BROKEN WITH BLOGGER'S FTP PROCESS. My blog is hosted on my own website (Dreamhost is the hosting company) and I'm connected to Blogger via HellSouth DSL but that shouldn't really matter since Blogger connects to DreamHost directly and it's not actually through the blogger's computer.

I really would like some sort of answer and a fix from Blogger, another DreamHost customer, or anyone out there in the world who uses New Blogger. My frustration is enormous and Blogger has ceased to be fun or useful. Please, please, please help.

You can also contact me via e-mail at darsys (at) AOL (dot) com

(I was going to tell everyone how happy I was to have added Digg buttons but since everything is munged right now, I'll have to pass. Some pages have managed to work, though, so you might start seeing them eventually).

One Hundred Thousand Hits

In the next few days, this blog will record its 100,000th hit since it went live 17 October 2004 -- who could have imagined? That's huge. Traffic has died off over the past year, but that's still an impressive number. It's also terribly misleading.

Most of our traffic is currently driven by the world famous Led Zeppelin Sucks post -- in which I say nothing of the kind. They've directed over 30,000 of those hits. Those users do look around the blog a bit after posting their flames, most of which I don't even release anymore.

The next largest chunk comes from that damned Crazy Frog or Coldplay posts (there are two 1 and 2). Those visitors are worthless and they also account for around 30,000 hits, but for awhile it was sending nearly 75% of our traffic until Yahoo stopped listing us first. They come, read, and leave on the provided links, so it's not quality traffic. They aren't even nice enough to click on one of my Google Adsense Ads. Laugh, but those pennies can add up, and I always appreciate anyone who helps support our site. But ultimately, this isn't about the money because I haven't made any yet :)

The rest of the traffic is mysterious. I analyze my blog traffic regularly and there's no real pattern. I always hope some of the visitors tell me why they came but I get very few comments aside from the aforementioned Led Zeppelin Sucks post, which is a magnet of sorts for comments -- not all intelligent.

I thought my random post about the nude Harry Potter pictures would garner traffic, and they did but very little. Amazingly my post on Terry Goodkind's Phantom have generated some nice traffic -- by that I mean quality traffic, the people who stay and look around. Some of these folks even go to my website.

Google Analytics and Stat Counter are very useful, though for most sites Stat Counter is better suited. The Google Analytics page is more practical for corporate sites as it's pretty complex and overly complex.

Blogger Beta and Wordpress

I have made a decision to switch to Wordpress because Blogger Beta pretty much bites ass. It's slower and has too many quirks. All my e-mails to tech support resulted in a 100% response rate: zero. And all of the bugs remain and now they've announced they're coming out of beta and going live. It will be a disaster. But enough of that, I like Blogger and wish them well.

To that end, I installed Wordpress and it works. However, I've got a glitch. The import tool for Blogger doesn't support the Beta version and there's no way to roll back to the unBeta version. So, I can't make the switch. I really want my old posts (100s of them) and comments to come over. So, I'm stuck with Blogger for the moment.

If anyone out there can help, I'd appreciate it. I've spent hours with Google and Wordpress' online support looking for a solution but there doesn't seem to be one at this time. The only solution online that seems to work requires installing two versions of Wordpress (1.x and 2.x) and moving your posts through one at a time. I don't have that much free time on my hands. I'd rather stick with Blogger.

Ah well. There you have it so far.

Blog Stats through today (from inception)

I ran some statistics on the 93,000+ hits this blog has had. Most, as you know, are related to the topics of Led Zeppelin and Crazy Frog -- people come in to those pages and leave from them without ever seeing the rest of the blog. The remaining pages have a steady viewer-ship -- the blog received about 60 hits per day from "regulars" most of whom I assume I don't know.

Here's a table with the breakdown. I can explain Brazil because that's my Orkut contingent. The hockey posts here explain quite a number of entries. I guess the terrorist posts explain another batch, but who can explain "Reunion Island" -- I didn't even know they had the Internet!

COUNTRY (11-12-06 @ 17:34 EST)	Visitors	%Total
United States	26537	46.87%
Brazil	9504	16.79%
Canada	4833	8.54%
United Kingdom	2450	4.33%
Malaysia	1728	3.05%
India	1012	1.79%
France	902	1.59%
Mexico	678	1.20%
Germany	519	0.92%
Singapore	475	0.84%
Argentina	468	0.83%
Australia	467	0.82%
Italy	423	0.75%
United Arab Emirates	362	0.64%
Philippines	356	0.63%
Sweden	322	0.57%
Spain	266	0.47%
Iran, Islamic Republic of	255	0.45%
Hong Kong	202	0.36%
Belgium	200	0.35%
Romania	183	0.32%
Venezuela	180	0.32%
Switzerland	176	0.31%
Netherlands	170	0.30%
Chile	167	0.29%
Morocco	163	0.29%
Portugal	153	0.27%
Finland	148	0.26%
Japan	125	0.22%
Norway	122	0.22%
Pakistan	115	0.20%
Puerto Rico	114	0.20%
Saudi Arabia	114	0.20%
Egypt	110	0.19%
Algeria	101	0.18%
Hungary	97	0.17%
Poland	94	0.17%
Turkey	90	0.16%
Denmark	89	0.16%
Austria	84	0.15%
Korea, Republic of	77	0.14%
Israel	73	0.13%
Ireland	73	0.13%
Slovenia	69	0.12%
Qatar	68	0.12%
Indonesia	68	0.12%
New Zealand	65	0.11%
Kuwait	57	0.10%
Jordan	56	0.10%
Satellite Provider	53	0.09%
Taiwan	52	0.09%
Sri Lanka	52	0.09%
Czech Republic	49	0.09%
South Africa	49	0.09%
Greece	48	0.08%
China	47	0.08%
Colombia	43	0.08%
Slovakia	42	0.07%
Latvia	42	0.07%
Lithuania	40	0.07%
Croatia	36	0.06%
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of	34	0.06%
Jamaica	33	0.06%
Bulgaria	32	0.06%
Serbia and Montenegro	30	0.05%
Thailand	30	0.05%
Estonia	29	0.05%
Bahrain	28	0.05%
Peru	28	0.05%
Vietnam	27	0.05%
Uruguay	26	0.05%
Trinidad and Tobago	24	0.04%
Oman	24	0.04%
Dominican Republic	22	0.04%
Malta	22	0.04%
Russian Federation	22	0.04%
Cyprus	21	0.04%
Panama	19	0.03%
Paraguay	19	0.03%
Costa Rica	19	0.03%
Tunisia	16	0.03%
Luxembourg	15	0.03%
Syrian Arab Republic	15	0.03%
Iceland	14	0.02%
Mauritius	14	0.02%
Guatemala	14	0.02%
Bahamas	13	0.02%
Macao	13	0.02%
Bosnia and Herzegovina	13	0.02%
Palestinian Territory, Occupied	13	0.02%
Honduras	13	0.02%
Iraq	12	0.02%
Ukraine	11	0.02%
Cuba	11	0.02%
Nigeria	10	0.02%
Georgia	10	0.02%
Monaco	10	0.02%
El Salvador	9	0.02%
Lebanon	9	0.02%
Ghana	9	0.02%
Ecuador	9	0.02%
Barbados	8	0.01%
Unknown	8	0.01%
Europe	7	0.01%
Bangladesh	6	0.01%
Guam	6	0.01%
Brunei Darussalam	6	0.01%
Moldova, Republic of	6	0.01%
Antigua and Barbuda	5	0.01%
Albania	5	0.01%
Yemen	5	0.01%
Kenya	5