Wendy and I at home

From the New Yorker

jordoncooper.com vs. warrenkinsella.com

Warren Kinsella posted about the Top 25 Political Blogs yesterday and mentioned what I said here. My comment was that I think his ranking is hurt by bloggers who are still linking to www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm which was his old web location instead of linking to www.warrenkinsella.com which is his new one (it took me a couple of months to change my link so I am not judging anyone). A quick look at Technorati shows 1,213 links (or as Technorati says, "blog reactions") to his www.warrenkinsella.com and another 530 links to www.warrenkinsella.com/musings.htm. Google's algorithm shows 2,010 links to his site from both blogs and other websites. (of course those numbers will be one behind as soon as I hit publish)

On the other hand, jordoncooper.com has 1414 total incoming links on Technorati and oddly enough I beat him with 2,050 links on Google.

What's the point of this? 1) It shows how flawed most web data analysis is because the number of readers or linkers does not equal influence. A better metric would be how far does ones ideas travel and who is reading one's blog instead of how many. Also my links come in from areas a long ways away from politics in Canada, mostly from church leaders and pastors with some sports blogs tossed in for good measure. Another way to look about it, when I write something brilliant, Mike Duffy doesn't hang on every word.

Of course links and clicks are often used out of context and even if they were, I liked what Warren wrote here.

Here’s one of Warren’s truisms, then: legitimacy is not found in numbers. Rightness does not equate with popularity. You can be entirely, utterly alone, as Jesus Christ was in the end – as the other prophets were, like Mohamed and Moses, at key moments in their lives – and still be irrevocably right.

So how does all of this relate to web stats? Because, for me, this blog stuff is worth doing because (a) it is truly DIY punk rock journalism, and (b) it is a literal extension of diary writing. Personally, it permits me to write in a way that newspapers and magazines – having quit or been fired from not a few – never permit me to write. It allows me to write as I am writing right now – and then, three inches later, link to a hardcore punk band I currently adore. I do it, too, because I am – when you distil me down to my base elements – a diarist. I am alleged to have been writing 1,000 words a day since I was eleven years old: it is as fully part of me as is breathing, or Slurpees.

This made me ask why I keep this site going. It isn't a money maker. Despite my bluster, there is no jordoncooper.com media empire coming. I find myself using Twitter more and more which doesn't have stats and I have no idea if anyone is reading my most random and random thoughts. Yet at the same time I enjoy writing complete thoughts in 160 character or less and find it even more fun reading political campaign coverage in 160 character or less.

I think the reason I keep this blog is it is a place that I can explore new ideas that I am thinking about and a borderline extrovert, it allows me to process and get feedback. The random links here and there get formed together later on and occasionally become and idea worth caring about.As I have written before the person who probably influenced my thinking and writing this blog is Thomas Homer-Dixon and his book, The Ingenuity Gap which is the idea that the problems and issues affecting us are far more complex than we often understand. I think my keeping this blog is my part of exploring and understanding the world around me (which does at times include sports).

Best Canadian Religious Blog of 2007

In a weird fluke, jordoncooper.com won the Canadian Blog Award for Best Religious Blog.   Thanks to everyone who voted for this blog and all of the finalists would have been excellent choices as well.  Here is a link to the announcement video.

Technorati tags: Canadian Blog Awards, religion, YouTube

Tweaking the site

Yesterday we had the Accord in the shop for some TLC. It was nice in the morning but by 5:00 p.m. it was almost -40 below with the windchill and I decided to walk home rather than take a cab or a bus. I regretted this decision by the time I had walked a block but I had forgotten my wallet so I had limited options and I had only 15 more blocks to go at that time. Of course the walk home was into the wind. It wasn't too bad but my cheeks had frozen and I wasn't able to talk properly by the time Mark walked over from the sitter (she is just a couple houses over).

After warming up and eating, I drafted up chapter 4 of The War Room but then Mark had karate and then we had to battle each other in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for a bit. I was just about ready to resume reviewing the book when I saw Rick's list of his favorite NFL players. This is just a long way of saying sorry for falling behind my review shedule.

I'll get back on track with a review of lessons four and five tonight. In addition to the writing, this weekend there are some site tweaks happening. I am busy consolidating some content labels as well as adding some new features to the site. Look for a new update to the site this weekend. I am hoping to clean up my del.icio.us links as well. I don't know how many of you are using Twitter but you can find me at www.twitter.com/jordoncooper which I may enjoy more than blogging right now.

This weekend the hope was to take the camera with me and do some walking but I think I mentioned it was -40 out. Instead I am taking Mark to the Diefenbaker Centre and showing him the display about the Underground Railroad. It's on until the end of the month.

No endorsements yet

I hope you have voted in the jordoncooper.com Presidential Primary where the number of delegates we send to the GOP and Democratic convention is about as significant as Wyoming.

Before endorsing our candidate(s), I am reminded of this video of Mike Huckabee who in addition to being endorsed by Chuck Norris and Jesus, he made this cameo with Rick Mercer. Mike Huckabee could be the Stockwell Day of the GOP.

Technorati tags: Mike Huckabee, Chuck Norris, Stockwell Day, Rick Mercer

Advertise on jordoncooper.com

While I promote services on this little blog of mine for free, there has been several advertisers who have asked if I would consider running their ad on my site and I always so no. Today I decided to try something different and that was give Adbrite a try. If you want a text add on the lower right hand side of jordoncooper.com, now you can. Prices are set by Adbrite and then I get to approve all of the ads that want to appear. So far on the first morning, I have denied about 20 ads so far but you know, you may get lucky.

The truth needs to be told.

There has been a whisper campaign that I didn't fully disclose all of my associations in my disclosure statement. Personally I think it is all part of a vast right wing conspiracy but after talking to my advisors, I decided I need to disclose that I am a member of the Secret Order of Stonecutters. I am still denying rumors or HGH use, connections to the Bay of Pigs, and my role in the 1972 Summit Series.

Evolution of jordoncooper.com

I updated the site last night with a slightly new look. I want to thank everyone who wrote to say they hated the new look.

Here are the highlights (lowlights) of the changes.

• The store is now gone. It has been with the site since GeoCities but no one uses it anymore and it was a pain to update.
• Updated profile page
• I added a disclosure statement to help with accountability and transperancy with the site so it is clear where I come from, how I make my money, and identify any conflict of interests on the site. Read it and met me know what you think.
  
• The quotes section has it's own search engine now so you can search just that section of the site.
• There are new header images being created but they aren't done yet.
• I put some thought into the footers for the first time ever and I think they add a bit to the site as well. There are links there to the social networking sites I am a part of (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Last.fm...)
  

The site still isn't in CSS, although a CSS version of the site is almost completed. I am having problems with IE6 and IE7 and then I looked at it with Safari and it looked funny there as well. It will be uploaded in a couple of weeks if I get around to it.

Jordon Cooper Aggregated

I am not sure if any of you care but I created a Tumblr website which aggregates all of my blog entries, Last.fm entries, del.icio.us links, photographs, and Twitter tweets all in one place. It's all in one place at jordon.tumblr.com and I am not sure how it is at all useful but you never know.

What just happened?

For three weeks I had been WordPressing along until I got an e-mail from my ISP saying I was using up a huge chunk of the server's CPU power. I deleted some wiki's and got another e-mail saying that I was using even more CPU usage while at the same time felt that WordPress was slow, even with the caching on. Reading the site was slow but internal Wordpress functions were painfully slow and much slower than WordPress.com At the same time some little things with K2 and WordPress started to bug me formatting wise so I decided I would make the switch back.

Instead of building my own theme, I decided to come back to Blogger and then redesign my site later. I'll see what I can do about integrating some of the features back into Blogger.

8000

I just logged into Blogger and it told me that this is post #8000 which I actually find embarrassing. Apparently I occasionally have something to say which is kind of weird because I was logging in to post why I haven't been blogging that much lately.

The New Blogger

I am finally on the new Blogger. The big difference will be the support for labels which may or may not make it easier for you to find content here. I hopefully will integrate some new features in over time.

Introducting Blogger

This is my "Blogger" a great piece of content management software for webpages! I am going to integrate it into jordoncooper.com and it will be a place for me to post new and current info. Check back here for a lot of new sites and reviews.