Lobster Fest, More Google Analytics Fun, And Barry Bonds Finally Ties The Record
- Man, was it HOT in Monterey Park this past weekend!
I probably got a total of five hours of sleep in the two days, due to the immense heat.
*hugs my Honeywell Tower fan*
- To the moron constantly calling my temporary AT&T cell phone (ten calls in three days), leave me the hell alone, please.
- So my cousin visited my parents’ house yesterday, and she brought a gigantic plate of food: fried Lobster in a spicy sauce, with fried noodles. That was damn good, and I couldn’t eating too much food.
I should mention that her husband owns a Chinese restaurant, and I don’t mean some $4.99 doggie-bag takeout on-the-corner grease-fest that is, apparently, typical “Chinese” food. I’m talking a high-class, banquet-style, commonly-used-for-weddings Chinese restaurant.
I’m such a sucker for lobster or crab. Now if only the dish had some scallops and shrimp.
Speaking of food and Monterey Park, I had a couple cans of Coke Zero over the weekend. Yuck! Damn MexiCoke! I don’t think I’ll ever be able to enjoy regular Coke or Coke Zero again! Methinks I need to take a trip to Costco to get some MexiCoke.
- According to Google Analytics, no one had visited my site in the past three days. That broke my heart *cry*. What was strange, though, was that Google Adsense registered about 20-30 pageviews/day. So what caused the discrepancy?
My stupidity! When I switched to Wordpress, I completely forgot to re-copy the Google Adsense code somewhere onto my blog. Now, all is well again.
Speaking of Google Analytics, here’s some fun data of my visitors over the last 30 days (27 or so, actually, since I have no data for the days in which I didn’t restore the Google Analytics code):
- Krunk and I pretty much agreed that 1024×768 was still the most common screen resolution used; over the last 30 days, nearly 1/4 of my visitors were using that resolution. We both figured that 1280×1024 made sense at #2, but 1680×1050 (WSXGA+) was actually #2, at 22%! Third was 1440×900, which is my screen resolution. 1280×1024 was fourth, and nobody visited my site using 640×480
- I expected Firefox visits to outnumber Internet Exploder visits, but I didn’t expect only 44% of my visitors to use FF, versus 36% for IE. I would have expected the gap to be much larger.
- Visitors that use Windows outnumbered Mac-based visitors by nearly an 8:1 margin. Not at all surprising, IMO.
- Now here’s the stat that I’m very happy with. For the longest time, referrals from three sites–the IMBC site, Hank’s blog, and Blogger–made up nearly 90% of my visitors. Two recent blog entries, mentioned here, have now shifted the demographics of my referrals; now, about 35% of my visitors come from the three sites mentioned above. Google referrals, on the other hand, account for nearly 40% of my visitors over the last 30 days. Now I gotta figure out another topic to blog about that will generate even more traffic to my site.
- Finally, Barry Bonds finally tied Hank Aaron’s home run record, hitting #755 against Clay Hensley on Saturday. My thoughts on the record-tying blast:
Yes, I found it amusing that Clay Hensley once tested positive for using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs).
Yes, watching baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s reaction to the home run was absolutely amusing.
Yes, I wasn’t surprised to see Bonds not play on Sunday. Now, he gets to hit the record-breaking homer against a horrible Washington Nationals team, in the comfort of San Francisco.
So, what are my feelings about Bonds and the record? Well, just by looking at the guy, comparing him to images of himself as a skinny kid playing in Pittsburgh, and noting the fact that he got much better and stronger in the tail end of his career, I can’t help but suspect that he is taking some sort of PEDs. However, in the absence of concrete evidence, I can’t deny Bonds as the rightful record holder–that is, once he breaks the record. If people are going to assume Bonds is guilty because of his incredible achievements during his 40s, shouldn’t they also suspect Lance Armstrong is guilty of cheating for winning seven Tours-de-France after recovering from near-fatal cancer?
Now, don’t get me wrong; I’m not comparing Armstrong to Bonds. I understand that there is lots of support and respect for Armstrong because of his foundation, and the fact that he’s not a jerk like Bonds is perceived to be, but is it that far-fetched to assume that Armstrong may have cheated as well? Of course, in the absence of a smoking syringe, Armstrong is still a hero and a seven-time champion, and I’m going to acknowledge Bonds as the record-holder (once he gets it) until there is proof that his numbers were “enhanced.”
And yes, that pains me to say, being a Dodger fan.
If anything, I hope that Bonds’ chase for the home run record serves to further magnify Hank Aaron’s accomplishments, and that true baseball fans really appreciate what Aaron did for the sport (if they don’t already). Besides, Bonds’ record will go down in about ten years, when A-Rod will be going for HR #800.
Happy blogging!