The Quest For A Stat Tracker

So, a few weeks ago, Laurie pointed me at a online tool named "Sitemeter". It's a little icon you put on your webpage which then lets you know how many people are visiting your site.

They're apparently not that good about respecting the privacy of their users.

So I went looking for alternatives.

I found StatCounter. They seem like they're on the up-and-up. But I couldn't get my online registration to work. I registered and put the counter up, but they wouldn't let me log in.

So I moved on.

Now I have RiteCounter. Which seems decent enough.

And now I've found a website dedicated to the discussion and review of free web stat trackers. And it tells me that while RiteCounter is fine, it's not the best because it only keeps about a months worth of data. So out with RiteTracker and in with OneStatFree... We'll see how long this one lasts.

About two seconds. I don't like the way the stats page looks on OneStatFree, so I bailed on them and went over to W3Counter who have a good rep, pretty stat pages, and no ads.

Birthday Surprise

As has been noted elsewhere, I just celebrated my 29th birthday. I am soooo old. (Not as old as YSA though.)

Nelly (who is very young) got me a fantastic gift. A Wii! Hoooray! So I have a Wii. We haven't had a whole lot of time to play it. But we've played enough to know that it's tons of fun.

The boxing game that comes with it is quite entertaining:



Inevitably there's a victory dance:



(Of course I am playing in my pajamas. That's what birthdays are all about.)

Hillary Wins

(I really shouldn't make predictions, as I am incredibly bad at them.) Still, after Hillary Clinton unveiled her health care plan this week, I cannot help but say that she will inevitably be our next president.

This is not because the plan is so amazing that it will vault her automatically into the White House. It's just that her plan (and the way it is presented) is so masterfully done. There's a level of polish on this thing that is just unrivaled in recent politics.

It's just a gut instinct, but I don't think any of the current crop of wanna-bes can match Hillary now. Don't get me wrong, Obama's great, but this week's news shows that he's not in the same weight class.

Hillary Clinton did everything candidates are supposed to do. She went out and talked to the experts. She sat in on panels and talked to "Real Live Americas"(TM). And then she did something that, well, is pretty novel in these times. She came up with a legitimate, fleshed-out plan that appears to address one of the most pressing and intractable social needs of our country.

It's not a "me-too", it's not a sound-bite, and it's not an empty promise. It's legitimate policy.

And for the first time in a while, I am feeling pretty good about the 2008 election. Now, it's possible Obama could flex some heretofore unseen political chops and come on strong. That would be great. Because then there'd be two legitimate leadership candidates.

The problem is that we're so used to the bungling Bushies that we've forgotten what political leadership is supposed to be about. The past week's other excitement springs to mind as a perfect example. Petraeus and Bush do not have a plan; they have a prayer. And while they may be in charge, neither seems willing to approach this disaster and prepare for the inevitable collapse.

Hillary Clinton has me thinking that she is in fact capable of doing just that. Unfortunately, I have to wait almost two years until she's in position.

Dog? Cat? Rat? Typhoon Wipha!

I just wanted to mention this typhoon hitting China. Nearly 2 million people have been evacuated. With winds of up to 165mph (well maybe not that much, see below), it's apparently the largest Typhoon ever recorded.

They're gonna need all their kung fu to survive!

Here's some science-y tracking information. Apparently 165mph would make it a LEVEL 5 SUPER TYPHOON!!!! which I am sure CNN would love, but the storm trackers are saying it's somewhere between 115-155mph.

Everyone remain calm and please evacuate to the other side of the world.

This is not my fantasy

I was invited to participate in a friend's fantasy football league. Such an opportunity for mass distraction could not be passed up. So I signed up and proceeded to get down to business.

First I sifted through the bajillion pieces of information about each and every player in the NFL. I created a catalog of desirable players, grouping them by position, expected points and weakness of opposing defenses. From there I estimated when each player would be likely taken in the draft and proceeded to lay out a plan several optimal draft strategies depending on what number I ended up picking.

Or rather, that's apparently what I should have done.

What I did was briefly look at the list of 200 or so players and try to figure out which names looked most familiar. Then, when the actual draft started I picked randomly from the list of the 40 or so names I recognized until they were all gone. At this point I had about 4 of the required 12 players. After that, I picked based on how much I liked their uniforms*.

Most of my players underperformed. My starting running back is injured. And the resulting 117 - 74 route to a team called "Maerling's Muppets" does not bode well for the future.

* In fact, I didn't do that. Though I wish that I had. It was made difficult by the fact that they don't show the uniforms with the draft information.