analyze this…

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So I finally installed Google Analytics on a couple of my sites this evening – namely L7 Comix and Just Laugh – just to see how it does. One of my long-standing concerns about running sites in general is that every single stat program seems to come up with different numbers and in not getting anything to match up, I’ve always wondered about the true performance of my sites.

Anyways, I’d heard cool things about Google’s offering when it first came out, but never put forth the time to even try to get in on the beta, so I’ll be curious to see what kind of traffic it wants to report. At least with L7 Comix, the ads are coming from Google as well, so you would think they should be a pretty good indicator; I might even consider moving Just Laugh over to AdSense eventually, too, if they can show me that it might be worthwhile to switch. Then again, that’s another thing on the ever-so-long list of creative tasks to undertake – rebuild at least parts of Just Laugh so that I can at least make a little money off of the people that still visit for the jokes, despite that the rest of the site hasn’t updated in years.

One thing at a time, there, kid… 🙁

what I’m watching…

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Welcome to fall!

Weeds
This show has gotten crazy! Maybe it was just too good over the first two seasons, but after that stunning finale last fall, I had my doubts that they’d be able to continue with a storyline worth following and so far, I’ve kinda been right. I mean, it’s just hard to top such a climactic finale like that, and then to have Nancy running errands for the guy who jacked her last season – it’s kind of my same problem with Entourage this season … too serious with not nearly enough humor underneath. Last season may have been intense, but it also had some great lighter moments, too, whereas this one just seems to have U-Turn cussing, “Where’s my money, bitch?!” every five minutes and because he didn’t earn it, I don’t have any respect for that.

And I know that “the real drug world” probably isn’t very “kid friendly,” but this is TV – lighten up a little!

Top Chef
I literally got hooked on this show during a marathon over Labor Day weekend and watched pretty much every episode ever since. There was another one like this on the Food Network that I probably would’ve enjoyed, but just caught the tail end of, but this one has been fun so far, too. They’ve been cooking a lot of stuff that sounds fancy, but still contains things that I’ve heard of – which is one of the primary factors in obtaining my interest when you’re a cooking-type show!

Curb Your Enthusiasm
Season premiere was last night and … it was ok. I really enjoyed seeing new Curb after almost two years of hiatus (keep in mind that I didn’t really start watching this show until season 4 was on the air and then proceeded to go through the On Demand offerings like mad…), but it just seemed to lack a little punch compared to other episodes. Then again, a single episode in is just way too early to judge, so I’m still hoping for the best!

The 4400
This is the sci-fi show that Sara got me hooked on last year, but I’m sad to say that I’ve been really disappointed with it overall this season. The plotline has been very dark and borderline creepy as those from the future have been playing a more prominent role in the story, and there’s not a whole lot of discovering new abilities as much anymore as everyone’s just fighting with everyone else, and I can watch that on the news any day of the week. There’s only one more episode left this season and I really hope that it can help reverse some of this to help keep my interest, but I don’t know…

Bridezillas
Call it a guilty pleasure, but watching this show I guess kinda makes me appreciate everything that Sara isn’t as far as wedding planning is concerned! I’d love to know what they have to do to pay these people off so they can still use their footage at the end of taping because I don’t see how any of them could have any friends left after this stuff airs! Needless to say, I will not be wearing a crown on my wedding day, nor will Sara subject all of her bridesmaids to trying on a glass slipper prior to her arrival…

Entourage
I’ve got to say, this hasn’t exactly been the best of seasons as far as I’m concerned. I was certainly glad that Ari came back into the picture because he was a key part of the show, but I also just hate the Billy Walsh character to the point where I really don’t care for him being on the show anymore. The show’s supposed to be a light-hearted Hollywood story that always ends each episode with that cheery, the boys are all together and everything’s alright feeling, but when was the last time Vince had a paying movie? I hope they pick things up next season because struggling to pay bills vs. living the rich, movie star life – it isn’t too hard to guess which most would prefer to watch.

Hogan Knows Best
I just started watching this tonight because, yes, another marathon on TV, but out of all of the horrible VH-1 programming that Lori watched while she was here, at least we can say that Hulk Hogan seems to be a pretty decent guy. Some might know that his family has a house nearby in Clearwater – that would be the place shown on the show before they moved to Miami – and the son has been in the paper a lot recently because he wrapped one of his sports cars around a palm tree. But regardless, we all know that I need just a little reality TV in my life at all times – why not let it be a dude with good morals and the ability to dropkick anyone who doesn’t agree with him?!

Looking forward to…
• The Office
• Dexter
• The Simpsons
• Family Guy

Sept. 11th

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Seriously, how many documentaries for this can there be??? I’ve had them running in the background all night long and seen hours of them now – some good, some kinda pushing it, in my opinion. I guess ultimately I’d rather see the documentaries than the feature-length films because I still don’t think United 93 and World Trade Center were appropriate movies to make, but I won’t get into that now. Of course, the other side of the coin is that all of this stuff also reminds me of the videos that I’ve seen online disputing what’s happened and our quagmire of a political system whose actions do way too good a job of supporting such tales than most ever want to admit, but I really don’t want to think about that, either.

No matter what caused it or how much money was made after it by those “telling the story,” that was just a very scary day and it’s very tragic to think of what went on during the last minutes in those buildings and planes. ‘Nuff said.

updates

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Exercise
I haven’t really been doing it.

Well, the other night I did go for a walk and I suppose technically the night is still young tonight, but I’ve gotten really bad since about the beginning of August. The scale claims that I’ve been maintaining where I had gotten to during my last diet/exercise efforts, but I certainly haven’t lost any weight in a long time, which is kind of discouraging. But it’s totally my fault and I know exactly what the problem is – I just haven’t really been trying for the longest time. I blame the usuals – stress, laziness, no drive, no time – but I really need and somewhat want to get back on the horse again, so to speak. It just sucks knowing that I’ll have to go through that whole getting started phase all over again!

House Hunting
So we’re pretty much at a stand-still…again. Our notice to vacate our current living arrangements has officially been turned into the landlord and it’s less than two months before we have to be out, and yet we still haven’t been able to do a single walkthrough because we’re “too far out” for real estate agents to give us the time of day. And I technically understand the concept because all of the current sellers want to get their properties off the market tomorrow so they can start collecting rent, not at the end of October, but that certainly doesn’t help us when we’re trying to make sure we have someplace to live in two months! I love how it’s totally one-sided to benefit the landlord – you have to give us 60-days notice to leave, but we won’t hold a property for more than 20 days if you’re on your way in. October is going to be hell…

Comedy Weekend
Last night Sara and I saw Kevin Nealon perform down at The Improv, which was a whole lot of fun and something I think we both wish we did more often. It’s kinda weird to look back at my life five years ago when I was running Just Laugh and I’d have loved to be able to frequent comedy clubs, if there had been any in Northern Michigan, and now that I’ve got several within a short drive, I hardly ever go. That’ll have to change because we had a great time and it was really cool to see the actor in person who we’ve been watching on Weeds for a year or so now.

Also, it was made abundantly clear how much we don’t go out when Sara didn’t want to go home at 9:00pm because we’d kind of made it an evening out for us, and yet we had no idea where else to go! Of course, it didn’t help that it was a Sunday night and hardly anything was even open…

Creative
I’ve been really trying to find the spark here lately … lots of little ones, but it seems never quite enough under one pot to really get things cooking and get me moving again. The same avenues are still there and I’m slowly doing a little something here, then there, but not enough to put online or publish or even get started along the road of making any money, which is frustrating. And it sucks because Sara’s working ridiculous hours right now so I’ve got all the time in the world – pretty much from whenever I get home in the evening (7pm-ish) to whenever I decide to go to bed, at least during the week, so you’d think that I could just take a couple of hours of that time and dedicate it solely to breaking down this creative wall once and for all. That’s always the thought at the beginning of the day, but when I walk through the door ten hours later it seems to be a different story. I’ve gone over what I need to do time and time again – I just need to DO it!

So frustrating…

VERY random videos

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A few links that I’ve been collecting over the past weeks…

Kipkay Videos

Kipkay Videos Homepage

I was actually pretty impressed with this one – the various videos on his site kept me entertained for more than an hour. Lots of cool science here, referred to as “hacks” because apparently that gets you more links these days, but nonetheless some neat experiments…

Chill a Coke
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/501345/chill_a_coke_in_2_minutes/

Laser Flashlight
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/756433/laser_flashlight_hack/

12-Volt Battery
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/773138/12_volt_battery_hack_youll_be_surprised/

Off to Iraq

Super Mario Bros Meet Grand Theft Auto
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCLB8vBmIEw

Stewie … “Where’s My Money?!” (Family Guy)
(favorite line – “Yeah, you’ve got money to pay for fake moustaches, eh?!”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5HP8H-Jvoc

Patrick Norton is My Anti-Drug (ever-reminiscent of The Screen Savers…)

“Disney Cast Members – Dream Makers” (not a dry eye in the house!)

a few more Wal-Mart rants…

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…because I finally went grocery shopping tonight and apparently I’d forgotten…

Us Customers Aren’t All That Bad
So quit acting like we’re this huge inconvenience when we squeeze our way around the pallet that you’re unloading to try to grab a measley tub of yogurt! Either convince your manager to close the store for two hours so that you can restock the shelves without interference from all of us pesky customers or simply come to terms with the fact that if we didn’t keep buying all of this crap, there’d be no need for you to restock it in the first place.

Why Stock ‘Em High?
I can only imagine what goes through the heads of the employees who created the latest product display in housewares. The idea was to display plastic hangers, like you would hang clothes on, so someone had taken two of those gigantic ladders that extend all the way to the ceiling and done exactly that, then hung said hangers across poles between the two ladders all the way to the ceiling. Problem is, I didn’t really see too many shoppers around that were twenty feet tall, so I’m still a bit confused as to how they expect to actually sell any of those things!

Hide Behind a Rock
…or a pole, in the case of leaving the store to see where the “door greeter” was hanging out to avoid doing his job. Apparently this dude had pulled up a stool from the nearby Subway and setup his shop behind one of the poles to the restaurant so that he could lean on a garbage can for all the support that he would need greeting shoppers to Wal-Mart at 11:00pm at night. Way to earn that $7.25, buddy…

Watch for Missing Items
Now either I just happened to miss a bag or the cashier that checked me out made out with some of my stuff! It’d normally be rude to accuse someone of such things, but I guess if I got better service from Wal-Mart’s cashiers this wouldn’t be the first thing to cross my mind. Lines are always so ridiculously long as it is because they don’t staff enough people that these folks are typically so angry that they really couldn’t care less about the quality of service that they give. And even if I did just forget to grab a bag, isn’t it the cashier’s responsibility to make sure that I grab all of my newly purchased items before she begins begrudgingly checking out the next person in line?

Now I have to decide if it’s worth an hour of my time tomorrow standing in lines and arguing with people to try to get the bottles of body wash and conditioner that I rightfully paid for this evening, but didn’t get to bring home with me… 🙁

…

My Mom and I spent a little bit while I was shopping this evening going on about Wal-Mart and she commented about people being afraid to buy toys at Wal-Mart now because of the whole lead paint thing with products from China, but all I can do is laugh because point blank, Wal-Mart wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the low, low production costs of China. We want toys for $0.97 but then somehow expect them not to be made out of poison?! Mom remembered how Wal-Mart’s commercials used to boast Made in the USA and all sorts of positive things from their employees, but I couldn’t even tell you when the last time I remember seeing one of those smiley faced ads on TV anymore. I think it’s a conglomeration of all of this and more as to why I find myself shopping pretty much anywhere but Wal-Mart if at all possible. I don’t even mind paying a couple bucks more for groceries – mediocre customer service is better than absolutely none at all.

Disney pictures minus one week

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Not sure if you heard, but I had a birthday last weekend!

It was a great time – Sara surprised me Friday afternoon at work and wisked me away to an undisclosed location which later turned out to be Walt Disney World, and Lori was even still in town, so she got to partake in a good portion of the awesome weekend, too. Now I could go on and on and on about every intricate detail of the entire trip, and in fact I am right now to the tune of about five pages so far for a new edition of My Hilarious Travelogue to go on that writing website that’s yet to see the light of day, so instead I thought I’d just post a few random, yet hopefully entertaining photos from the weekend instead…

…ok – a lot of photos…

Continue reading →

stupid comment spammers

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I just wasted a half hour of my time putting a simple security check in place on the guestbook page of our wedding website because some spammer started filling it with advertising spam this evening. I’ve never had to do this sort of thing before, so I hope what I did will be enough – I just added a simple field for the person commenting to type out Sara’s or my name to validate that they’re making a legit post. Assuming that this was just a spider that found the board, this should be fine, although I guess if there’s an actual person behind it, it’ll be back to the drawing board and even more time wasted… 🙁

Funny thing is, I actually wondered about this when I first built the site, but then wrote it off thinking that it would be such an isolated page that no one outside of our friends and family would ever see it anyways. I guess I do have a link to it here now, so I shouldn’t really be too surprised, but still … talk about a pain in the ass. As if having a link from Scott and Sara’s Wedding Info is going to just skyrocket your Google Pagerank right to the top!

the WHY?! dept

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I don’t care what they change the signs to – I’m still calling it MGM…

Disney-MGM Studios Will Change Its Name
http://origin.mercurynews.com/travel/ci_6592775?nclick_check=1

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—Disney-MGM Studios is changing its name to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, starting January 2008.

“The new name reflects how the park has grown from representing the golden age of movies to a celebration of the new entertainment that today’s Hollywood has to offer—in music, television, movies and theater,” said Walt Disney World Resort president Meg Crofton in a statement.

“As a park all about entertainment, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will deliver like never before. Now we can say that Hollywood is literally our middle name,” Crofton wrote.

The park opened May 1, 1989.

Funny because if anything, I would’ve expected something more along the lines of Disney-Pixar Studios or something.