What In Tarnation?!?!?

Rachel’s recent question about visible web counters got me thinking a bit. I have a counter on WIT. I know it is not an accurate count of how many people have visited this site, but I still like it there. It let’s me know that people are still visiting. Sure I could check the website statistics but I don’t. No, really. I don’t check the stats very often. Maybe once every two months. I know that there are many bloggers who do because I get referrals from Site Meter pages (I know that from the referral script running at the bottom of the page, but I know the numbers that is supplied from that are really wack. I think the main reason that I don’t check the stats more often is because there are six separate and distinct websites that are being monitored by that: AE, Citizen of the State, Future Hope, Time to Believe, Gone Ape, and WIT?!?!? (Plus, I still have a few things from my class site and my Mom’s website here as well.) It is just to much work to separate out the data.

I made my bimonthly visit to the stats today. I like all the graphs that are produced. I think that are pretty. That, and they really emphasize trends that are going on with the sites.

Would you like to take a look at some of my pretty graphs?

Too bad.

First up, we have the the graph that shows a whole year’s data.

See, I told you it was pretty. It is interesting to note “The Black Hole of Doom” that occurs between June and August of 2003. This occurred because Pressed, Le Renard, Erin and myself were all out of school. The number of really cool stories to share drops significantly, posting decreases meaning less content is posted, readership takes a nose dive and you have created “The Black Hole of Doom.” If it wasn’t for Michael, you would probably see a flat line there and someone would be yelling for the paddles, STAT! Momentum really starts to pick up in October when the article in Teacher Magazine comes out and somehow we have managed to keep the numbers up.

The next pretty graph shows the number of hits in an average week and last week.

I like the blue, green, and purple color scheme on this one. Plus I think it is interesting to know what day of the week brings the most visits to the Gone Ape sites. Ya Wednesday, which is interesting because that is normally the day that I don’t post. Maybe I should post less. It also appears that last Saturday we forgot to put on our deodorant because no one came by to visit.

Pretty graph number three. Average hits per hour.

This is my least favorite graph because it isn’t very pretty. All that orange. This probably sounds odd coming from a person who has an orange blog. It’s the mystery that is me. Anyhow, back on task. It appears that we have quite a few insomniacs visiting the Gone Ape site. Traffic picks up after 4 (before I get home normally) and continues at about the same rate until about 1 in the morning. 4 a.m. in the morning is our least popular hour to visit and I don’t blame you. I can pretty much guarantee that we aren’t posting a thing at this hour. Go back to bed. Unless of course you are reading this from the other side of the world and then I would only ask you why you weren’t workin’!

Top browser types can be found in pretty graph 4.

Most folks are visiting with a Mozelle Browser. In fact Mozelle browsers make up 85.86% of all the traffic on the GA sites. Here is the top 10:
1 77.17% Mozelle/4.*
2 8.18% Mozelle/5.*
3 3.40% Goggled/2.*
4 1.28% snot/0.*
5 1.16% Blog lines/2.*
6 0.82% Lib-Perl/5.*
7 0.66% Riverboat-1.*
8 0.51% Mozelle/3.*
9 0.43% Sharp Reader/0.*
10 0.33% fast buzz.com
Not really sure what most of those are. Probably spam bots or something.

I’m not really sure I should post pretty graph number 5. It lists the top referrers.

I’ll let that graph speak for itself, but I will ask, why do we have referrals from these reputable sites: Paris Hilton Video Blog, Sinful Mature S3x, RIAA, Clark for President, Joe Lieberman for President, Sharpton in 2004, PITA?

Now I just realized another reason why I don’t do this too often, IT TAKES FOREVER! Here it is midnight and I haven’t gotten through all the referrals.

Sometime, I think I should compile some of the search terms used to find our sites.
____

I found an excellent article on computer security from Mr. Webel. I recommend that you go read it too.

Class dismissed!

My entry this week for Blogger Idol was not the best but there have been some really good discussion on Freedom and the different facets of this subject. Here are the entries that stood out for me.

Most… Ah… Wow This Is Awkward:
Charlie discusses freedom and responsibility, while running around outside, with a tiara, a sock, and well, not much else.

Most Concise:
Ganns in his January 27 entry says it all.

Most Thought Provoking:
Pressed hits another one out of the park. Are we really free?

Most Technical Entry(ies):
TIE!

First up, my buddy Tim discusses freedom in relation to software licenses.

Another good technically minded analogy comes from another Tim (hmmm, is this some kind of pattern?) Freedom, rules and the ‹body› tag. If you know anything about HTML, it’s a good read.

Class dismissed!

There are some good entries and posts around the blogosphere, unfortunately, they aren’t coming from me. Sigh. However, I can show you where some of that good stuff is posted.

Pressed has been churning out all kinds of good stuff. Maybe its the new design that has him inspired? His latest post is about Children and worship. Where should the little kiddies be during corporate worship? I have my opinion, now go leave yours.

Both Joanne Jacobs and Country Keeper have been discussing No Child Left Behind. I left a bit of my opinion at Country Keeper.

Bryan needs your advice, and I know that you guys have some. Hopefully the days of long permalinks will coming to an end for CAC.

Sophoristically Speaking has a preview/review of The Passion of Christ. So remind me again, when do I get to see this movie?

And finally, courtesy of The Thinklings, your moment of zen.

Looks like I will have to go to work tomorrow, so have a good one.

Class dismissed!

It’s time again to take a look at another blast from the past. Stories with this title occurred before I had this blog. This particular story happens before I was even out of college.

In the three summers before I graduated from college, I had the opportunity to work in a Pre-Kindergarten Summer School in several facets. For some of the kids in this class, it was the first time in a school structured environment. The little darlings learn that it isn’t all about them. Some important skills that are learned in that month include standing in a line (most master this), following directions (continually having to be mastered), and letter recognition and a phonemic awareness (really stressed). The last year I worked in the class, I had the privilege of working with Allen (name changed). Allan had to wear a brace on his legs that kept them at a 45 degree angle. As a result he was in a wheelchair and didn’t get to run around much which made him a rather large Kindergartener. Part of my job was to make sure that Allen got around where he needed to be. When Allen had to go to the restroom, I would take him to the handicap accessible restroom down the hall, lift him out of the chair (remember he was quite hefty), and lean him up against the toilet, leave and wait for him to call me back in. Rinse, lather, and repeat. Allen also had a speech problem which made it difficult for me to understand. For those who have read my first Blast from the Past can probably figure out where this is headed.

One day in class Allen got my attention and told me, “Checha, chi cha choo cho chou che chach choom.”

Quite predictably, I couldn’t figure out what in the world he had just said. “What?”

“Checha, chi cha cho cho chou che chach choom.”

We went through several variations of that phrase, fast, slow, loud, and soft. Finally I was able to decipher what he was saying: “Teacher, I have to go the bathroom.” By this time the request had become rather urgent.

“The bathroom! Let’s go!” We take out of the room as fast as possible, which wasn’t very fast because the braces on his legs made it difficult to get him through the doorway. When got through the door, we hit a full stride all the while Allen was screeching, “Chacher, cheacha, chacher!” (”Faster, teacher, faster!”) We went around the corner on one wheel. “Chacher, cheacha, chacher!” Thankfully the restroom was empty and I was able to hoist him from the wheelchair into the bathroom.

Needless to say, Allen enjoyed the ride quite a bit. From then on it was, “Chacher, cheacha, chacher!”

Class dismissed!

Freedom is the opposite of school (for the purpose of this entry I will be referring to elementary education from the perspective of a student). If you were to look freedom up in the thesaurus, school would be listed as an antonym. Imagine being told what to do all day, get this out, put this up, turn this in, line up, sit down, stop doing that, the list is endless. The only real freedom that can be had in school is a day like I am having today and will have tomorrow, a snow day. It is interesting to note that kids will often hate the absence of freedom, but at the same time they will find comfort in the structure. Home life for some kids can be so “free” that their own freedom becomes a trap of uncertainty. At school, they know what they are going to do. They know what the results of their actions will be. They know that in my classroom they will be as safe as I can possibly make it. Many homes don’t provide such certainties.

Teachers have to be very good at giving the illusion that there is freedom. We are taught how to in teacher school. Make the child think he has power. You do that by giving children a choice, the child thinks, “Sweet freedom,” (I’m paraphrasing) but in reality, the child is given such a narrow range of choices that there really is no choice, vis-a-vis no freedom, ergo only perceived freedom. (My best imitation of The Architect, sorry.) To illustrate, part of our reading program is Accelerated Reader. We say to the kids read any book you want and take a test on it. But (that word is the real linchpin here), you have to read in this reading level. One popular discipline model is Love and Logic. Love and Logic is all about perceived freedom. If a child is not getting work done and interrupting students around him or her, I will pull them aside and we will have a little chat about the behavior that I am seeing. Ultimately I will give the child a choice, giving him or her a false sense of power, you can work on that now or you can spend some time inside during recess to finish it. (Here comes the important part.) It’s your choice. What! What kind of choice it that? It isn’t one, but it works. Students get a sense of freedom, they could have chosen to stay in, and I get the behavior and work that I wanted. Everyone is happy!

In thinking about freedom, especially in the US where we like to go around pounding on our chests trumpeting our “freedoms”, I have about come to the conclusion that just about all freedom is an illusion. At least on this side of Heaven.

This has been another gripping episode of Blogger Idol! Take a look at other weeks:
Blogger Idol Week 1: The 80’s [Picks]

Now go read other Week 2 entries:

Class dismissed!

Thanks Pressed.

BOLD = Marks the states that I have visited.
ITALICS = Marks the state(s) that I have lived in.

1) Alabama 2) Alaska 3) Arizona 4) Arkansas 5) California 6) Colorado 7) Connecticut Delaware 9) Florida 10) Georgia 11) Hawaii 12) Idaho 13) Illinois 14) Indiana 15) Iowa 16) Kansas 17) Kentucky 18) Louisiana 19) Maine 20) Maryland 21) Massachusetts 22) Michigan 23) Minnesota 24) Mississippi 25) Missouri 26) Montana 27) Nebraska 28) Nevada 29) New Hampshire 30) New Jersey 31) New Mexico 32) New York 33) North Carolina 34) North Dakota 35) Ohio 36) Oklahoma 37) Oregon 38) Pennsylvania 39) Rhode Island 40) South Carolina 41) South Dakota 42) Tennessee 43) Texas 44) Utah 45) Vermont 46) Virginia 47) Washington 48) West Virginia 49) Wisconsin 50) Wyoming.

My family vacations and mission trips took me all over the place. 33 states and counting thanks to the four corners.

Class dismissed!

Map found via kevin

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Today’s Friday Five is a little like Jared’s questions from my previous entry.

At this moment, what is your favorite…

1. …song?
Right now I would have to say that Oh Praise Him! (All This For a King) (Window’s Media Player file) by the David Crowder Band.

I would also like to take some time and mention that there is a new release from the Passion gang, as of today. I will certianly be looking into Passion: Hymns Ancient and Modern

2. …food?
Steak will always rate up there on teh top of the list.

3. …tv show?
You’re kidding right? Can’t pick one: Angel, Alias, The Practice, Smallville, etc. That sounds familiar.

4. …scent?
Coffee. Yummy!

5. …quote?
“I’m getting too old for this.” I said that last night at the Halo-a-thon.

I know, it’s sad.

Class dismissed!

Jared has some questions up at The Thinklings.

Here are my answers. You are, of course more than welcome to leave your answers in the comments.

1. Muppet?
Kermit

2. Sesame Street character?
The Grouch (though he terrified me as a youngster)

3. Author?
Whatever I am currently reading.

4. Band or group?
Caedmon’s Call

5. Musician or solo act?
Chris Tomlin

6. Superhero?
Prof. Xavier

7. Soda/pop/”coke”/whatever you call it in your neck of the woods?
Coke as in the real Coke.

8. TV show currently airing?
You’re kidding right? Can’t pick one: Angel, Alias, The Practice, Smallville, etc.

9. TV show all time?
Sitcom: Seinfeld
Drama: Buffy, ST: TNG & DS9, Now and Again, there are too many so I am just going to stop at this point.

10. Sport to watch?
Baseball

11. Sport to play?
The one where I don’t have to move.

12. Blog(s)?
Clarity admist Chaos, bloggedy blog, Super Blessed, webel.net, Avoiding Evil, Mysterium Tremendum, refer to my blogroll as well.

13. Cartoon character?
Optimus Prime, on an 80’s kick, what can you say? SpongeBob is also good. Don’t forget about Charlie Brown.

14. Comic strip?
No contest: Calvin and Hobbes… and Dilbert… and Peanuts.

15. Sylvester Stallone movie?
Blech! Could you hand me that hot, sharp poker for my eye?

16. Arnold Schwarzenegger movie?
Terminator 2

17. Fast food joint?
Subway or Mr. Goodcents.

18. Ice cream flavor?
Coffee!!!!!!!!

19. Color?
Green, dark green.

20. Snack food?
Coffee and Creme Oreos.

Hmmm there has to be something to eat around here.

Class dismissed!