I started to post here because Andrew Careaga wrote a book called e-vangelism back in the early days of the interweb and he published a newsletter that talked about technology and faith.  I never read the book (sorry Andrew) but I did read the newsletter.  In it he talked about Blogger and how you could use it to keep a church website updated.  That is how I discovered Blogger and the rest has been history.  When I started blogging, there was Andrew Jones, Rudy Carrasco and myself blogging about the church and theological issues.  Other than them I learned a lot from Doc Searls, AKMA, Jason Kottke, Caterina Fake, Jeneanne Sessum, and Rebecca Blood.

I am not really sure why I keep posting here.  There never was a plan behind it.  I had no ambitions to be a thought leader, create a movement, make money, or achieve fame.  What I wanted was a place to explore ideas, keep track of interesting things and later on, share things with friends.  Hopefully I have done that.

I have also made some enemies.  One city councillor continues to block me on Twitter and called me an “first class asshole” over some comments I made last summer, one prominent Christian leader threatened to sue over comments, I think it’s a contributing factor for why my dad and I haven’t talked in eight years and more than one former colleague has questioned my Christianity over my more liberal views.   Still the site has brought more joy than angst so it’s all good.

There has been a lot of friends made as well.  Too many to list but thanks for the emails, comments, tweets, and time spent together over the last decade.   Hopefully there is an interesting link or two in the future.  Of course with entire companies moving from the open web to closed Facebook, I am now quite a bit behind the times but that’s the story of my life.

Not sure what the future brings.  I am writing a weekly column now at The StarPhoenix so some of my longer (and better written pieces) will be posted there.  I’ll still be posting links, sports (including my scheme to purchase the L.A. Dodgers) and some photos as well.

Thanks to everyone who reads this rather odd collection of links, rants, and articles.  You have been the ones that have made this so much fun.

When I was asked to put a logo and link on my blog back to The StarPhoenix and be a part of their community bloggers, I was thrilled.  While I have always rejected logos and link requests like this, it’s my paper, my hometown and my community.

Of course with The StarPhoenix being a print publication, never let me know the community bloggers section was active.  So after seeing the referrals in my log files, checking it out, reading their horrible description of my blog, grabbing a screen shot of the blogger graphic, and cropping it, we are good to go.  At least they spelled my name correctly, which is more than what CBC has ever been able to manage.

To kick this off, I should reciprocate with a link to their excellent feature, 52 Things to Love About Saskatoon, an ongoing feature about what makes Saskatoon a great place to live.  They are only eight weeks into it but I agree with the first seven and am about to check out the Park Cafe this week.

The bulk of my visitors are from the United States and then Canada followed the by U.K.  The site used to be blocked in China but I see the Great Firewall of China has invited me back in for 2010.

Of course there are countries that aren’t so found of this site.  In 2010 it received no visitors from the following countries; Western Sahara, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Gabon, Mozambique, Somalia, Swaziland, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.  Then again Sean’s blog could be sucking up all of the traffic from these countries.

My worldwide marketing efforts paid off and I received one visitor each from Cuba, Palau, New Caledonia, Greenland, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Maldives, Laos, Turks and Caicos Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Helena, Congo [DRC], Montserrat, and the Solomon Islands.

My march towards worldwide media domination is working as traffic has doubled in other parts of the world and I have received two visits from each of the following countries.  Benin, Namibia, Grenada, Gibraltar, Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Haiti, Madagascar, Myanmar [Burma], Libya, Paraguay, Albania, Botswana, Yemen, Zambia, Moldova, and Réunion.

The top ten keywords of 2010

1. jordon cooper
2. jordan cooper (they could be looking for this guy)
3. narcissistic personality disorder
4. impact of facebook
5. facebook impact on society
6. ford festiva
7. impact of facebook on society
8. facebook impact
9. salvation army christmas hampers
10. social impact of facebook

As far as technology goes, most of you still use a horrible web browser.  You may want to upgrade to Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.

The most popular phone to browse the site is the iPhone/iPod touch, followed by the Blackberry, Android, and even some T-Mobile Sidekicks.  In 2010 there was also one visitor running OS/2.

Some of the more interesting networks visiting the site more than ten times in 2010 were the RCMP, the Whitehouse (I have had readers now from three different administrations), CTV, Kentucky Department of Corrections, Department of Veterans Affairs, Apple Computer, Briarcrest College (which is interesting in that I used to be banned by them), Defense Research Establishment(apparently there is a military industrial complex), University of Tehran, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Justice (was researching a case I had posted about – someone called me to talk about it), USA Today (I think it is a sports blogger), The New York Times (over 1000 page views), Time Inc, Toronto Star, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Energy (nuclear secrets, second door on your left), U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, the Privy Council Office (page views show a loyal reader in the office), Oral Roberts University (?!), Halliburton, Foreign Affairs Magazine, Council on Foreign Relations, Department of Homeland Security, Department of National Defense (looks like a P.R. thing… looking at my posts on the F-35), Canadian Football League, Canadian House of Commons, Canadian Senate, Canadian Space Agency, Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, and CBS.

As far as Twitter goes, I am being followed by 1,132 people and am blocked by one Saskatoon city councilor.

The personal goals first

1. Take a photo each day of 2011 and post it to my Project 365 set on Flickr. I’ll also post some to the Project 365 group.  This is designed to force me to carry a camera every day.  I went out and purchased some better camera cases which will make it easier for me to carry a point and shoot camera as well as my Fuji S2000HD along with me.
2. Get the front deck done at the cabin and build a back patio or replace the gazebo with another one.
3. Finish up my documentary this year.  I have about 40 interviews but it’s not even close to being done.
4. Head to Calgary for an extended weekend this summer.  Take the boys to Calaway Park, Heritage Park, Banff via the old highway, Johnston Canyon, the Husky Calgary Tower, Calgary Zoo, have coffee with noted local photographer Dave King, Cave and Basin National Historic Site, the gondola, and visit Sawback picnic site (my favourite place on earth).
5. While at Johnston Canyon, take the hike all of the way to the ink pots (which I have never seen).  Maybe I can get a ride in Oliver’s stroller.
6. Spend at least one uninterrupted week at the cabin with the family.  All of us.  Including the dogs.  With a visit from Lee in there for a couple of days.
7. Walk or bike to work 100 days of the year.  I am going to put a 1500 km goal on the bike this year.  We’ll see how I do.
8. Create some online historical walking tours of Saskatoon’s historic sites.  I have been waiting for the Saskatoon Historical Society to be doing it for ages and it never happens.  Plus the best ones that I have seen are done by individuals and not organizations. 
9. Put up at least three posts a month at The Hedge Society.
10. Hike with Mark to Grey Owl’s Cabin in Prince Albert National Park.
11. Learn Adobe Premiere Elements like the back of my hand.  I know there are some seasoned video editors out there who scoff at the term elements but let’s keep in mind that I am a hack, not a professional.
12. Make Evernote a part of my daily life.

Now my work related goals

1. That documentary thing is kind of work related.
2. Finish up a comprehensive manual for front line homeless workers and post it online.
3. Finish up and launch a website for homeless individuals, front line workers, and the public on housing resources and homeless issues in Saskatoon.
4. Take John School on the road.  John School is incredibly effective but it’s only for guys who have been picked up for solicitation. By that time a neighbourhood has been affected, marriages have been destroyed, and women have been hurt.  The idea is to get the content and message from John School out there before lives have been ruined. 
5. Put together a conference on human trafficking in the city during 2011.  I realize that I am a libertarian deep down which makes me quite liberal minded but there are 600 known sex trade workers in Saskatoon and many of them are underage.  No, not all of them are like Julia Roberts or Heidi Fleiss.
6. This may not happen this year but I would love to start the work on having some policy discussions on poverty and homelessness in Saskatoon with policy makers.  I hate meetings and rallies that don’t take into practical and financial implications for homelessness, poverty, and housing.  I can stand on the rooftops and scream for more money as well as the next one but the reality is that there is always going to be competing political and economic realities.
7. Move the $10,000 goal that we (hope to) raise online with the iKettle and increase it $25,000 for Christmas 2011.

The goals for the website

1. Become functionally literate.  The spelling mistakes around here are killing me when I read old posts.  I twice fired the writing staff this fall but unlike Conrad Black, I forgot to change the locks when I let people go and they keep sneaking back in.  Stupid helper monkeys.
2. Incorporate some more video into the site.  I really enjoyed Warren Kinsella’s W@AL segments and want to do some more fun stuff with video here.
3. I plan to do some long form writing on some more serious topics.  Writing 10,000 word essays is not my idea of a fun job and as you can see, there isn’t a lot of revenue being generated through advertising these days (apparently I fired my advertising team as well).
4. I plan a lot more time doing some street level photography.  I have long been a fan of what Jake Dobkin has done with BLUEJAKE and what Sam Javanrouh has done with Top Left Pixel and I would love to do more of that in Saskatoon.  This will be related to #8 of my personal goals.

* for a better life list, check out Maggi Mason’s Life List.

What do you give to someone who spends his day working in a non-profit and then comes home every night to take care of the boys?  I had Jordon give me a few suggestion which I combined with a few ideas of my own.

32 gb iPod Touch | Jordon being the geek that he is, bought a 1G iPod Touch as soon as they came out.  He has sat out the last two upgrades but now the iPod Touch has a new high resolution screen, camera, and Facetime.  Even I can see it’s time to upgrade and get him a new one.   The iPod Touch is a music player, gaming platform, video player, and a Personal Information Manager.  Jordon carries his with him each day.  If your loved one doesn’t have a smartphone, he will love one of these.

Sony PSP 3000 / PSP Go | Lee bought Jordon a PSP a couple of years ago and Jordon loves it.  While he was devastated that NCAA Football 11 or the Force Unleashed II are not being released for the PSP, there are still a bunch of good games to play and toss in as additional gifts.  Here are a couple of suggestions

• God of War: Ghost of Sparta
• Tom Clancy’s End War
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories | Not sure what Jordon sees in this game but him and Mark love to play it.  It must be the reckless driving, high speed chases, and random violence.
• FIFA 11 | Jordon once asked, “Why do people play soccer?  So they don’t have to watch it on television.”  I am sure that is why he likes to play it on his PSP.
• Grand Tourismo
• Call of Duty: Roads to Victory

Amazon Kindle with Wifi | Jordon loves books but he hates taking books back and forth to the cabin.  With the Kindle he can load it up, bring it to the lake, grab some more books if he needs to, and has them whether he goes.   The Kindle also works well with Instapaper, RSS feeds, and can access the web.  While it’s not a iPad, it’s not just a book reader either.  One of the things that pushed Jordon towards wanting a Kindle was it’s support for major newspapers like;

1. The New York Times ($19.99/month)
2. International Herald Tribune ($19.99/month)
3. The Globe and Mail ($15.99/month)
4. National Post ($14.99/month)
5. The Washington Post ($23.99/month)
6. The StarPhoenix ($13.99/month)
7. USA Today ($23.99/month)
8. Slate ($8.99/month)
9. The Financial Times ($27.99/month)

There is also magazines like Time ($3/month), The Atlantic Monthly ($2.49), Foreign Policy ($3.49), among many others.  I am not the news junkie that Jordon is but I was surprised that you can’t get Macleans or Sports Illustrated yet.  Maybe down the road.

While it doesn’t have the feature set that the Kindle does, you may also be interested in Chapter’s Kobo book reader which also has a growing list of newspapers available to be subscribed to. $149 from Chapters/Indigo

5.1 Channel Surround Sound System | This one works with seven different audio sources (for those of you who need hook ups for your PS3, TV, Wii, stereo, computer and whatever geek devices they fancy).  If you have never watched a movie with 5.1 channel surround sound, you have no idea what you are missing.  It’s a gift everyone in the family with thank you for getting.  It even hooks up to an iPod and if you want to go old school, the radio.  $99.99 at XS Cargo or $183 at Amazon.com

The Wire | Season 1 ($30)| Season 2 ($30) | Season 3 ($30) | Season 4 ($30) | Season 5 ($30) | Complete Series ($105) | For Father’s Day we went out and bought Jordon a portable DVD player and Season One of The Wire and was blown away by how good the series is.  It is by far the greatest television show that I have ever watched on television and I was sad when it ended.  I could go on but Jason Kottke has devoted so much energy blogging The Wire over the last couple of years, I’ll send you there.  I’ll give you a warning though, this is not a series you will watch with anyone under the age of 16.  It is brutally violent, offensive language and the occasional sex scene.  If your significant other has already seen The Wire, check out this Re-Elect Clay Davis t-shirt. $22.

Battlestar Galactica | Season 1 ($36.49) | Season 2.5 ($33.49) | Razor ($11.49) | Season 3 ($37.99) | Season 4.5 ($34.99) | Complete Series ($140) | In case you were isolated from popular culture for the last couple of years, here is the story line of the incredibly popular science fiction series, Battlestar Galactica.  Battlestar Galactica is set in a distant part of the galaxy, where a civilization of humans live on a series of planets known as the Twelve Colonies. In the past, the Colonies had been at war with a cybernetic race known as the Cylons. With the unwitting help of a human named Gaius Baltar, the Cylons launch a sudden sneak attack on the Colonies, laying waste to the planets and devastating their populations. The approximately 50,000 human survivors flee into space aboard any spacecraft they can reach. Of all the Colonial Fleet, the eponymous Battlestar Galactica appears to be the only military capital ship that survived the attack. Under the leadership of Colonial Fleet officer Commander William “Bill” Adama and President Laura Roslin, the Galactica and its crew take up the task of leading the small fugitive fleet of survivors into space in search of a fabled refuge known as Earth.

American Heritage Leather Duffle Bag by J.W. Hulme | In case you are looking for the greatest duffle bag ever made, your search is over.  The J.W. Hulme leather duffle bag is the Rolls Royce of carry-ons.   It’s the kind of bag that says, “I’m better than you and I am not afraid to talk about it”.  The bag is made out of distressed leather and then refined by buffing and antiquing each bag by hand which gives it it’s one in a kind look.  It’s only $899 and available at J.W. Hulme.  At that price, I would leave the price tag visible.  Now Jordon really wants one but we have a rule around here.  Any Christmas gifts that will cause us to choose between making our mortgage payment and being homeless will not be considered. Maybe next year, Jordon, maybe next year.

Sergio: One Man’s Fight to Save the World by Samantha Power | I haven’t read it yet but Jordon said it was the best book he read in 2010.   The book is about Sergio Vieira de Mello’s who was a Brazilian United Nations diplomat who worked for the UN for more than 34 years, earning respect and praise around the world for his efforts in the humanitarian and political programs of the UN.  He was killed in the Canal Hotel Bombing in Iraq along with 20 other members of his staff on 19 August 2003 while working as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Iraq.  While the book was quite compelling, it has also been made into a HBO movie.  The book is $5.17 on Amazon.com and the DVD is available for $19.98 (in DVD-R format)

Homicide: A Year in the Killing Streets by David Simon | Another one of Jordon’s favourite books of 2010.  After falling in love with The Wire, Jordon went out and bought both of David Simon’s books, Homicide and The Corner.  David Simon, who was a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, spent four years on the police beat before taking a leave of absence to write this book. He had persuaded the Baltimore police department to allow him unlimited access to the city’s homicide unit for calendar year 1988, and throughout that year he shadowed one shift of detectives as they traveled from interrogations to autopsies, from crime scenes to hospital emergency rooms. Baltimore recorded 234 murders during the year Simon spent with the homicide unit. During the two years he spent writing Homicide, an additional 567 murders occurred.

The Pacific | The Pacific is an epic 10-part miniseries that delivers a realistic portrait of WWII’s Pacific Theatre as seen through the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, John Basilone and Eugene Sledge. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day. The viewer will be immersed in combat through the intimate perspective of this diverse, relatable group of men pushed to the limit in battle both physically and psychologically against a relentless enemy unlike any encountered before. ($42.99 at Amazon.com)

Survivorman | Hand Made Fire Piston | A fire piston, sometimes called a fire syringe, is a device of ancient origin which is used to kindle fire. It uses the principle of the heating of a gas (in this case air) by its rapid compression to ignite a piece of tinder, which is then used to set light to kindling.  Jordon and Mark enjoy learning different fire making methods at the lake (which often fail and they default to matches). $80 from Les Stroud Productions.

Snowshoes and Solitude :: We are a big fan of the show Survivorman around the house but one of the questions I always have is how we he do if his isolation lasted longer than 7 days.  According to some friends who have seen the DVD, Snowshoes and Solitude goes a long way in answering that question and I am told it is worth watching and owning.  $19.99 from Les Stroud Productions

Sportcraft Taverner Bristle Dartboard | A tournament-quality, 18 inch bristle dartboard with traditional colors, a matte finish, steel wiring on the inside. Deluxe hinges complete the look of this stylish, entertaining wall piece.  It would look great hanging up at the cabin.  The best part about darts is that you don’t really have to be that great at it to have a great time playing it.

Kodak Zi8 or Kodak Playsport video camera | Jordon owns a Kodak Zi8 camera and we love it.  It has a microphone jack which means that you can easily add an external 1/8 microphone for even better sound.    It allows you to record High Definition video (1080p at 30 fps with 16:9 aspect ratio) and comes with some half-decent editing software. Zi8 is $119 from Amazon while the Playsport is $114 from Amazon.

Some recommended accessories for the Zi8

• Silicon protective skin | Keeps your Zi8 safe and free of fingerprints.  $14.34 from Amazon
• Kodak remote control | Easy to use remote control making remote shots a lot easier. $7.06 from Amazon
• Audio Technica Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone | The main benefit of the Zi8 is allows for an external microphone.  The lavalier microphone is for video use, or any other application where minimum visibility and a low profile are desired. $17 from Amazon
• Sima Ultra Bright Video Light

• Shoe mount compatible with all pro & consumer video camcorders
• Patent pending interlocking design
• 600 lumens with built-in diffuser
• Slim lightweight design
• Safe to touch-does not get hot  $29 from Amazon

Adorama Heavy Duty L-bracket with 2 Standard Flash Shoe Mounts | Jordon has one of these and mounts either a miniature shotgun microphone and/or a video light on it.  For $9.99 from Amazon it’s a great addition to any one’s camera bag.  $9.99 for Amazon

Olympus PEN E-P1 12.3 MP Micro Four Thirds Interchangeable Lens Digital Camera with 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 Zuiko Digital Zoom Lens | The E-P1 is, essentially, an Olympus E-620 crowbarred into a compact, rangefinder-style body. Aside from the changes necessitated by the removal of the mirror and optical viewfinder – and a slight firmware upgrade (for new live view features, improved image processing) it is as fully fledged as any mid-range SLR but in a much more compact body.  $599 from Amazon

If you aren’t looking for a DSLR but want more control than a compact point and shoot, check out the Fujifilm s2000HD with 15x zoom.   After agonizing over which camera to purchase last year, Jordon bought one of these after reading countless reviews. The FinePix S2000HD is a compact and lightweight 10-megapixel camera with a 15x optical zoom lens and HD movie recording/output. The FinePix S2000HD is the first Fujifilm model to offer full compatibility with HDTV systems for both stills and movies. In addition to true HD movies (at 1280 x 720 pixels) and widescreen stills (at 1920 x 1080), the FinePix S2000HD’s HD output allows the camera to display ultra-clear high-definition photographs and movies on an HDTV.  Other key S2000HD features include continuous shooting up to 13.5 frames per second at 3MP, Dual Image Stabilization for blur-free images, and extensive photographic control including 13 scene position settings.

While L.L. Bean doesn’t offer these in Canada, if they did, we would be getting one for the cabin.  It’s a customized accent for your home or cottage, displaying the name of any US city or town, its state and its latitude and longitude. All you have to do is specify city/town and state, and they will be printed on the sign, along with the city’s coordinates.   It accommodates up to 14 characters, including spaces, for the town name and up to 14 for the state. Pine base. Indoor or outdoor use, sheltered location recommended. $29.95 from L.L. Bean

Ballpark Pens | If your husband is a fan of sports history like Jordon is, you will want to check out these great handmade pens made out of wood from historic stadiums like Yankee Stadium ($200), Fenway Park ($220), the Polo Grounds ($260 and I had to ask where it was), or Boston Garden ($140).

Maine Guide Rolling Duffle, Waxed-Canvas from L.L. Bean | Jordon hates cheap luggage.  It has no character, it doesn’t wear well and in the end it’s a waste of money.  If your loved one travels at all, you may want to consider a luggage upgrade and L.L. Bean has a great option.  Weather resistant, rugged and classic, this bag is made to go the distance, year after year, gaining character along the way. Crafted from rugged 22 oz. waxed-cotton canvas, a traditional and dependable favourite of sportsmen for generations. Leather trim and antiqued-brass hardware.  This convenient duffle is easy to pack and even easier to transport. It opens wide like a doctor’s bag for neat and organized packing. Interior straps and mesh pockets help secure gear. Twin front cargo pockets hold cell phone, keys and last-minute extras. Back document pocket keeps itinerary close at hand. Smooth-Glide in-line skate wheels and locking telescoping handle let you maneuver this bag easily through airports, lobbies and parking lots. End handles for easy lifting.  Available at L.L. Bean for $199

Kenton Sorenson Leather Natural Leather Dopp Kit | The Kenton Sorenson dopp kit is the perfect holiday gift. This dopp kit is hand made in Wisconsin using natural leather that will develop an amazing deep golden brown color with regular use. The kit has a simple leather wrap around tie closure that can also be used to keep the kit open while in use. $145 from Context

Jordon is a fan of fine watches and while some of them are totally unaffordable, this Paris Mechanical Pocket Watch from Charles Hubert is fantastic looking.  It’s a sleek, silver-tone update of a classic style which combines 17-jewel mechanical movement with a skeleton dial.  If you are shopping for a someone that appreciates a fine watch, this may be a great gift at an affordable price. It also comes with a fine gift box. $84 from Amazon

If you can find what you are looking for, make sure you check out one of the other 2010 Christmas Gift Guides

• November 1st | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Tween Boys
• November 4th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for the Sports Fan
• November 8th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for the Outdoorsman
• November 11th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Wives/Mothers of Your Kids
• November 15th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Really Smart People
• November 18th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Toddlers
• November 22nd | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Husbands and Fathers (guest post by Wendy)
• November 25th | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for Geeks and Gadget Lovers
• December 2nd | 2010 Christmas Gift Guide for the Road Warrior

In case you are looking, here are the 2009 Gift Guides

• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Tween Boys
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for the Sports Fan
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for the Outdoorsman
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for the Geeks and Gadget Lovers
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Really Smart People
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Kids Under Two Years of Age
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Fathers
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Wives (and the mother of your kids)
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for the Road Warrior
• 2009 Christmas Gift Guide for Your Hard to Shop For Co-Workers

I’ll keep updating this page when updates are posted online.

I also spent some time writing up the Saskatchewan Party, NDP, and Liberal campaign platforms for them this weekend although I really dropped the ball big time since I don’t have an iPad app for the Sask. Party cabinet members to read this with.  The Liberal platform will be out later this week.  Look for the NDP and the Saskatchewan Party campaign platforms next week.  I am working on some federal campaign platforms to come out after Thanksgiving.

So I’ll let you know now, expect some long pieces on urban planning and economic development as well as some long form politics pieces coming out.  I should also be launching a new housing portal and a tweak of this site in October.  As usual, if you have any feedback, let me know in the comments or at jordoncooper AT gmail.com.

I turned off comments in the last redesign of powazek.com because I needed a place online that was just for me. With comments on, when I sat down to write, I’d preemptively hear the comments I’d inevitably get. It made writing a chore, and eventually I stopped writing altogether. Turning comments off was like taking a weight off my shoulders. It freed me to write again.

His entire post is worth reading.  For me, I have gone another route.  I don’t interact a lot in the comments, not because I don’t enjoy doing it but I don’t have time to do so.  jordoncooper.com has never made any cash which means I need to work for a living elsewhere as well as spend time with the boys and enriching my own life doing things I enjoy.  While I appreciate comments, I do ban personal attacks or comments that fall below my threshold of stupidity.  WordPress may not have the best commenting tools but they do a good job of letting you ban or refuse abusive commenters. 

Derek’s post is in response by this post on Daring Fireball.

Is my soapbox bigger than Joe Wilcox’s? Yes it is. But that’s fair, because I built this soapbox myself. It’s my firm belief that all websites eventually attract the attention and respect that they deserve. The hard work is in the “eventually” part.

Used to be, back in the early days of DF, that those complaining about the lack of comments simply were under the impression that a site without comments was not truly a “weblog”. (My stock answer at the time: “OK, then it’s not a weblog.”) Typically these weren’t even complaints, per se, but rather simply queries: Why not?

Now that DF has achieved a modicum of popularity, however, what I tend to get instead aren’t queries or complaints about the lack of comments, but rather demands that I add them — demands from entitled people who see that I’ve built something very nice that draws much attention, and who believe they have a right to share in it.

Exactly, I made this site and I have the right to decide to the level of interaction that is here.  If you want YouTube type commenting, go build your own site but if you are happy with the way things are here, feel free to stick around.

I have never thought advertising was that big of a money maker.  If you have time, look at the rates that many of the blogs on Federated Media are making and it isn’t that much.  Compared to big media sites, blogs don’t generate that much traffic.  Despite all of the sites claiming to make big money from Google Adwords, without the traffic and a narrow band of content, I can’t see you making that much money from it.

The Cooper Cabin Weblog

The site generates about 150 hits a day, mostly from Google involving information on architecture and design.  The site is kind of interesting as hits never seem to go up or down on a seasonal basis or around holidays.

Advertising: Google Adsense serves up one ad block per page.  As you can see, it’s not a big revenue generator.  $52.37 since I added ads to the site over a year ago.

Most of the ads from what I can tell come from when I am talking about architecture and design and the ad gives some purchasing options for that or a competing product.

Jordon Cooper Outfitters

It’s a new site and traffic is all over the place but averaging about 300 views a day with most traffic coming from Google.  It’s too new of a site to distinguish traffic patterns yet and it can vary greatly from day to day.

Advertising: Google Adsense serves up one small badge of advertising per page.  I also use Google Adsense to serve up ads in the feed (as explained by this comment).

The site has made a couple of dollars so far in 2010.  I don’t expect it to made $100.00 in advertising until early 2011 and the traffic has time to grow.  Google Adsense is the not the best long term advertising option for the site.

JordonCooper.com

It’s generated about 700 hits per day and about 1000 people subscribe to the RSS feed.  While not nearly as popular as it once was (the quality of the site seems to have gone down), the revenue from the site comes from it’s Amazon.com affiliate account.

I was making just pennies on the Amazon.com account until November 2009 when between it and December 2009, I made almost $1000 in affiliate fees all because of the series of Christmas gift guides I created for the site.  When I started them, I didn’t expect any bump in traffic at all and the main audience of the gift guides was a friend I work with who was dying trying to figure out what to get her dad and father in law for Christmas.  By early December, the site was serving up 15,000 hits a day from basically 10 different blog posts.  Not only did it generate a lot of traffic to Amazon, I also got thank you notes from several other sites for the traffic and the orders.

The site doesn’t employ much in terms of SEO practices so I contribute the traffic spike to dumb luck and there are a lot of people who are in similar demographic positions as Wendy and I who liked my suggestions.

The Cooking Blog

This is Wendy’s site and I mention it because it has made about $500 a year on Google Adsense Revenue.  I attribute that to it’s narrow focus, large Twitter following, and ads that are really closely linked to what people are searching for.

So now you know.

A quick search around some of advertising sites plus reading blogs like Dooce give you an idea of what kind of traffic you need to make a living doing this (Dooce has over 4 million).  Yeah, her and her husband are able to work at home and just run the site but 4 million hits a month is more than some blogs will see in a lifetime.  Even Tony Jones is on record for saying he made $5/day blogging on Beliefnet.  Online advertising isn’t going to make any of rich, maybe I should look at whoring myself out for publishers again.

Bill brings up the idea that we are doing this for free and he’s right but what struck me is the damage we do to our own reputations when we allow ourselves to be bought off by free products.  It’s one of the reasons why I posted a disclosure statement as part of my weblog.  It let’s people know where I am coming from and why I do what I do.  It also allows me to communicate my associations and conflicts of interest.  One of the nice things about TheOoze Viral Blogger and Book Sneeze buttons is that it allows me to see right away that the writer has sold out.

This isn’t the same for all of you but there is a price to be paid for being independent, for the views you have being your views and for your voice being your voice.  It’s also why journalists (should) never accept free gifts, trips, or anything else that influences their stories or coverage of events.  You can see it the coverage of Tiger Woods by the golf media.  Many of them knew something was up but because their livelihood was linked to access to Tiger, they never ran with it.  It was the National Enquirer that broke the story because their bottom line wasn’t dependent at all on Tiger’s career (sadly though it was by his sex life).

Of course many church bloggers gave up that independence years ago (twice this week friends said to me “I agree with theologically but I don’t dare say that in my church”) as it is part of many of your spiritual journeys.  By prescribing to church doctrine and practices you don’t agree with in exchange for a paycheck probably makes giving favorable reviews for free books quite palatable.

The other thing is that with most credible news organizations not run by Rupert Murdoch, there is a large degree of journalistic independence that is completely separate from the business side of the organization.  With bloggers there are not normally is not a wall between your editorial and marketing sides (which is why Google, The Deck, and Federated Media help). 

If you are reading this, you know I am not a journalist.  This site has the reach of a fraction of what even a small daily paper does.  At the same time you mean something to me.  Much to the detriment of my savings account, my independence means something to me.  I don’t know how to measure how much you mean to me but you mean enough that I won’t be bought with free stuff here.  There is no pay to play.  It’s the same reason why I don’t have advertising here.  If that changes, I promise you, you will be the first to know.

• I am posting once a day because it is easy to set up a posting schedule with WordPress.  Right now I have posts set up to go five days a week into early March which means that I don’t have to worry about the site every day like I do with this one.  As the content is added to the site, it will be formed into other content like gift guides, seasonal guides, and best of lists.  Look for those lists to start as we start to escape winter and then for things like Mother’s Day days like that. 
• The site won’t be an instant success because there really isn’t that much content.  It’s funny because most of the questions that I get about blogging often deal with SEO stuff which is a craft that I have never cared about.  Blogging is pretty simple.  Write well, post it online and if people find it worthwhile, you will generate readers.  We’ll see if people find Jordon Cooper Outfitters worth reading.  If not, I’ll have learned a lot about a topic that interests me.
• The most encouraging stat about the site is the amount of people who have subscribed to the RSS feed.
• While I get a small commission from linking to Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, it isn’t going to pay any bills.  I may add some advertising but even with 1000 people a day coming by the site, that isn’t going to pay very many bills either so there isn’t a great business plan.  If I add advertising, it will be discrete like what you would see on Kottke.org or The Morning News.  There will never be ads all over any site that I curate.  It will never ever happen.
• I will be trail testing some items this summer.  Mark and I planning to hike to Grey Owl’s Cabin this summer and I hope to hit Johnson’s Canyon as well in addition to a lot of mountain bike riding. I’ll let you know how those go.
• I am open to other people contributing to Jordon Cooper Outfitters.  If you are interested, drop me a line.

It’s frustrating because when I talk to them, we explain all of this to them.  Guys listen, tell me how much they appreciate us but say, “I’m not really ready to come indoors yet.”  There has been a lot of articles written on the need of a wet shelter but I am not even sure if that would deal with this problem.  I think it isn’t so much a shelter problem as it is an issue with the mental health system.  Either way it seems to be a growing problem.

1. Since I moved from Blogger, I have neglected to update the copyright information on the site.  As stated in the footer, the site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.  Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.  It means that you can use my stuff but you can’t copyright any derivative works that make from them.  It’s pretty basic.
2. The other thing is that over the last couple of weeks, I have rethought my policy on comments.  The site has generated over 10,000 legitimate comments over the years and I appreciate the vast majority of them but some comments have gotten personal.  Here are my thoughts, if I wouldn’t invite you back into my living room after you made some of those comments, I am probably just going to denote your comments as spam and let Akismet take care of them like it has with 60,000+ other comments.  That way I won’t have to see or deal with them in the future.  I pay for the hosting, I write the content, it’s my own personal website and for three different people (out of a couple thousand people), I block their future comments.   If you want to let me know how stupid I am, feel free… on your own blog.

That’s about it.

Since I have moved to WordPress from Blogger, I have used Akismet to combat Trackback and comment spam which has caught 55,253 pieces of comment spam at the time that I posted this.  I found about three to ten bits of spam slipped by a day once in a while so I enabled comment moderation which is setup that once I approve your first comment, all of the rest of your comments are allowed.

I noticed this week that several of you were being held in a moderation queue and I really don’t know why.  You are using the same e-mail addresses that I associate with you but you are still being tossed into limbo.  I am not sure why it is happening but I am pretty sure it isn’t anything I have done.

One thing to note is that I do delete comments on the blog.  99.9% of you are awesome but there a couple of people out there that make comments to abuse Wendy.  Those comments are just marked as spam.  All of them come from the same ISP and I just mark them as spam which solves the problem as easy as anything.  I haven’t had any complaints about this and as far as I know, no legit comments have been lost.  Let me know if you think your comments are going to spam because it is probably a fault of Akismet than me marking it has spam.

I started to think about how I rely less on RSS and more on Twitter to follow sites and decided to put JordonCooper.com on Twitter.  My personal Twitter account will always been me talking about whatever I am thinking about in 140 characters.  The JordonCooper.com Twitter account will be automated and generated by the RSS feed and content on JordonCooper.com as it is published to the site.  Not quite a media empire but hopefully it will make it a little easier for those of you who are fans of the site and also diehard Twitter users.

This isn’t the only place where we tweet around the house, you can follow the entire household on Twitter

• Follow my personal account on Twitter
• Follow JordonCooper.com on Twitter
• Follow The Cooper Cabin on Twitter
• Follow Wendy’s account on Twitter
• Follow The Cooking Blog on Twitter
• Follow Mark’s account on Twitter
• Follow Maggi’s account on Twitter

On the suggestion of some of you, I have talked to my ISP about it and asked them to make sure there isn’t a security hole in WordPress or in my site that someone is exploiting.  They looked into it and it isn’t coming from my domain.  Their reply was

…the spammer is just using your domain as the return address so they don’t have to deal with the bounce messages and to try to throw people off the scent (so to speak).

In addition to this I have set up a Sender Policy Framework which makes verifies which mail has been sent from my site and which is sent from a forged address and gives that information to spam sites.  Sadly that information isn’t used by most cell phone carriers.

There is a solution!  When looking into the problem, I found this blog post from David Pogue of the New York Times on how to block cell phone spam.  It blocks messages from the web while allowing SMS messages to go on through.  You can also block domain names (like jordoncooper.com which is fine since I don’t send e-mail from it anyways). This way it blocks the moron who is using my domain name in vain AND allows you to keep getting your SMS messages.

Finally, this is a non-commercial hobby site with no revenue stream.  It would make sense to go after the site that is selling whatever products the spam is promoting.  They are the ones that would benefit from the spam and are probably the ones paying the jerk who is spamming you and making my life difficult.

I wish I could offer up more help but I haven’t even seen the messages that are being sent out.  Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

The only e-mail address that is active at this site is coop AT jordoncooper.com and I never use it to send out mail, it just forwards to my main email account.  If you have any other questions, let me know at that address and I’ll try to answer them.

Update: I have posted some more information about what is happening here.

Thanks for being patient.

Jordon

• The header images are all my photos and over the next couple of weeks I will be adding some more to the rotation.  I haven’t decided to keep them rotating or change them up monthly but time will tell which way I go with it.
• The favicon is finally back. (that may not mean anything to you but I missed it a lot)
• Pages now have a different look from the post pages.  This separates the blog part of the site from the other content.
• The Contextless Links will no longer be handled by del.icio.us and will be handled by me again.

I still need to do some things.

• The archives and categories are moving to their own page.
• Some of the old emerging church content from my old Blogger and Dreamweaver powered site is coming back.
• The Quote Library still needs a lot of work.

I am still undecided if my recent Tweets should or should not be published to the blog.  You can let me know what you think in the comments.

While I was at it, I found out that my theme has been updated by it’s creator and it now includes gravatar support.  For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about, you can sign up at WordPress.com for an account that allows you to create a profile that also allows you to easily leave comments on WordPress powered blogs.  If you wish, it can include an avatar as well.

Some of other changes included some new themes that I will be developing in 2009.  More of the focus on the site in 2009 will be on justice, community, poverty (and it’s many causes and results) and theological issues.  Theology is impossible to separate from the church and the church is local.  The theological issues I am wrestling with are shaped by the injustice and poverty I see on a daily basis and will involve a process of me examining some of my theological roots.  As Barth said, we have to begin each day again at the beginning.

Theological work is distinguished from other kinds of work by the fact that anyone who desires to do this work cannot proceed by building with complete confidence on the foundation of questions that are already settled, results that are already achieved, or conclusions that are already arrived at. He cannot continue to build today in any way on foundations that were laid yesterday by himself and he cannot live today in any way on the interest from a capital amassed yesterday. His only possible procedure, every day, in fact every hour, is to begin anew at the beginning… Yesterday’s memories can be comforting and encouraging for such work only if they are identical with the recollected that this work, even yesterday, had to begin at the beginning and, it has to be hoped, actually began there. In theological science, continuation always means “beginning once again at the beginning”.

The other change is the contextless links.  They won’t be quite so contextless this year and will be more focused around those issues and ways to engage with them.  Twitter will still be as random though.  The tweets posted here exclude any conversational tweets (those beginning with an @) which will mean less tweets and a little less confusing).  This isn’t so much a change as an update as it has been going on for a while but any architectural/design links that I find get posted at the cabin’s weblog.

Thanks for sticking with me and I hope to hear from you as I explore some new ideas as well as revisit some old ones.

7:00 a.m. :: Good news, the car started.

7:45 a.m. :: Used the command start to start the car again.

8:05 a.m. :: I pulled into Tim Horton’s and was startled to find that it was almost empty.  There were 20 employees all waiting to get my two coffees, an extra-large Double Double Decaf and a large black coffee.

8:30 a.m. :: Doh!, two large coffee stains on my Calgary Flames bunny hug already.

9:00 a.m. :: Voice mails all taken care of and no new e-mails to work.

9:25 a.m. :: Ollie was given a stuffed giraffe from a co-worker that even has an adoption certificate.

9:40 a.m. :: Just talked to Wendy, we need to get a present for a friend.  It’s Wal-Mart to the rescue.  I have never shopped on Christmas Eve before in my life.  Wendy tells me it isn’t so bad crowd wise after lunch.

It’s weird living in Saskatoon right now.  Our city and province is booming and seeing a lot of prosperity while around the world economies are crumbling, a lot of good people are out of work and have lost everything.  It feels a bit like I am experiencing Christmas in a bubble.  I hope in midst of the turmoil, people can find a bit of peace over the next couple of days.

11:00 a.m. :: Did a bank deposit against my will.  The cart broke and… well I don’t want to talk about it.  I think I am banned from RBC for the rest of my life.

11:30 a.m. :: Set up over 70 duffle bags of gifts for the guys for Christmas morning.  Thanks to a couple of co-workers, it went really fast.  The guys are getting nice duffle bags, dress watches, and wallets for Christmas.  In addition to that, Wal-Mart donated a lot of new clothes for the guys as well.

1:30 p.m. :: Everywhere but the shelter and the kitchen is closed for the holidays.  Still at work despite not being paid.  That’s okay, I am just chatting.

2:00 p.m. :: I just drove by Wal-Mart at Confederation Mall.  It looks like the fall of Baghdad when anarchy and the looting hit.  Who leaves all of their shopping for Christmas Eve?

3:10 :: Lee just walked in with a load of presents.  He wants to open them all now.

3:30 :: Lee gave Oliver an Amazon Rain Forest playset.  It was too big to wrap so Mark and Lee assembled it.  Oliver is loving it while Lee, Mark, and Wendy are whining that we vote on when we open presents.  I vetoed their decision.

4:30 :: Turkey is served.  Kristi has come over.  She is sick but is allowing me to play with her Nikon D80.

5:30 :: Out came the stockings.  I got a couple of McFarlane figures, Joe Mauer and Nomar Garciaparra, U2 concert DVD, a new wallet and passport holders, and some Old Spice cologne.

6:30 :: The gifts are opened. 

I gave Wendy a CBC reporters bag and a Coleman watch, while Mark gave her some photo frames and ear rings.  Ollie gave her a hand made journal from Ten Thousand Villages while Maggi gave Wendy a bake set.  In both hers and Mark’s stocking is a portable iPod case/speaker set which is designed to keep us all happy at the cabin.  Neither one of them are big headphone people.

I gave Ollie a Megablocks boat and this iPood shirt, Wendy gave him a glowing Winnie the Pooh, Mark gave him a Winnie the Pooh tub set.  Santa brought him a Lullaby Glo Worm and some Winnie the Pooh books.  Lee gave him a rain forest play set, and a Winnie the Pooh blanket.   (There seemed to be a strong Winnie the Pooh theme this year).

Wendy and I gave Mark a remote controlled helicopter that really needs to be flown outside.  Wendy gave him a learning how to draw book.  Maggi gave him a cookbook and a fishing tackle box.  Ollie gave him a 3D puzzle.  Santa brought him a skateboard, an Air Hog, and a full sized hockey net.  Lee gave Mark a Nintendo DS Lite while Hutch gave him Lego Batman.  He also gave him a Star Wars playset.  Wendy and I also got him a Sonic Superstars Tennis game, a couple of PS2 games (the advantage of having a PS2 is that games are extremely cheap), and a case for the DS.   Along the way was a Nerf soccer ball that has done a surprising amount of damage to the house.  While Mark is the most excited about the Nintendo DS, I was the most excited about getting him a tackle box.  I am looking forward to fishing with him this summer.

For Lee I gave him season one of Battlestar Galactica on DVD and a shirt from Jinx that says, “I am only here because my server is down.” Mark gave him Farcry for the Wii as well as a fishing rod (to take him fishing), while Ollie gave his uncle a gun for the Wii.   Wendy gave him a nice waffle maker as well as some mix.

For myself, Wendy gave me Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Outliers, Mark gave me Ghost Recon 2 for the PSP, Ollie gave me a Kanye West CD (which he isn’t going to be allowed to listen to), Lee gave Mark and I Guitar Hero World Tour with two wireless guitars and he gave Wendy and I a Tim Horton’s coffee maker with a massive tin of Tim Horton’s coffee.  Maggi gave me a Roughriders Road street sign which will hung at the cabin in the spring.  Wendy really struggled with depression this Christmas and shopping for me isn’t easy at the best of time but I was pretty happy with what I was given.  There was some confusion on what kind of fishing rod she was going to get but there is a lot of time between now and the start of fishing season.  The gift that I was the most happy with is my new passport holder.  I hate the one I have now and the leather one that she got me is nicer to travel with and a lot less dorky looking than my old one.

7:15 p.m. :: The Guitar Hero wars have begun.  Mark is beating Wendy quite badly right now.

8:00 p.m. :: Lee took Mark to his apartment for a night of playing PS3 and the Wii.  Mark grabbed his DS and Wendy and I had a far quieter house to ourselves. 

9:00 p.m. :: Wahooooooo! Notre Dame is actually winning a bowl game.  I need to sit down.  It’s a bottom feeder bowl game but the streak may be over soon.

10:00 p.m. :: I have to be up early Christmas morning for work, I am calling it a night.