WordPress Summarizes Referrers
I was just roaming around, and discovered that the Summarize feature is also working on Referrers, in WordPress. What an eye opener – see where the majority of your visitors have come from through the entire life of your blog!
You go to your Blog Stats page, click Referrers, and you will see a range of options, including Quarter and Life Time of the Blog. Click any for the summary of all your referrers. Amazing.
Oh wow. I just checked Search Engine Terms – it’s there, too, and they also have a summary by year! And in the Clicks section! (The all-time top click is for my niece, Little Diamond, followed by I Can Has Cheezburger.
Weekly Stats
The WordPress week goes from Monday to Monday, so I try to check my stats on Mondays, see how I am doing on a weekly basis. Now that I have learned how to take photos of things on my desk, I am a moster! I can do anything!
I was totally on a roll up to Christmas. Huge drop between Christmas and New Years, and then back up – and FLAT! Four weeks, each with almost exactly the same amount of readers. Have I hit my plateau?
StatCounter
A week or so ago, fellow blogger Macaholiq8 mentioned StatCounter in his entry, and how much fun he was having with it. I had a couple minutes, so I took a look, and signed up to give it a try.
Oh, what fun.
It doesn’t work on all WordPress functions – or maybe it would if I knew how to tell it to, but the things it doesn’t do for me – analyze key words, most viewed pages, etc – WordPress does just fine.
UPDATE: THANKS TO YOUSEF at Some Contrast who rescued me with the key key command to take a photo of my visitor map:
What StatCounter does is something else. My very favorite part is looking at where the viewers are coming from, they divide it up, give you percentages. I can see that a lot of schools in the United States follow the blog, but also, people in Australia, China, Iran – oh, it is so much fun to see all the drops show up on the map.
You can get an idea what StatCounter can do for you at their website demo:
And it’s free. You can buy upgraded service that gives you more, but for me, and for right now, the free service is just fine, fascinating, really.
Thanks, Mac, for a great recommendation.
Scattered Clouds
At seven this morning, it was already 50°F/10°C – BIG change from last week. At seven in Kuwait, it is 8 PM in Seattle, where the temperature is 49°F/9°C – almost exactly the same, just a little warmer in Kuwait as the day gets started.
Weather Underground Kuwait tells us today we will see scattered clouds, and that right now we have “mist.” I am seeing a while lot of mist. I am a little shocked, because my balcony was all misted this morning; that doesn’t happen often. But “scattered” clouds? Right now, there is a thick cloud cover, but it may dissipate as the day warms up.
This is what the scattered clouds did to the sunrise this morning:
You might wonder why I do this every morning. It all started because I really love sunrises, and every sunrise has something that makes it special from the others. (Well, not every single one; you will see some mornings I miss sunrise or skip it.) Also, my friends and family like being able to see through my eyes, to see a little of the world I live in. As an additional bonus, there are Kuwaitis all over the world who miss home, and who like to see a glimpse of what today looks like in Kuwait. I get e-mails in the background from expats who lived here as children, and are shocked by the changes.
Now you know all the reasons for the morning report.
The clouds are for my blogging buddy Fonzy who photographs clouds the way I photograph sunrises.
Wooo Hoooo WordPress!
From the very beginning of my blogging time, I have been asking WordPress to give us a way to summarize our all time entries – like tell us what our top ten entries have been over the life of the blog. They just gave us that – and more! You can even summarize by quarters, as well as the life of the blog. Woooo Hooooo, WordPress!
Title Views
Christmas Divinity Candy 4,614
On the Worst Day 2,818
Levantine/Gulf/Persian Warrior Women? 2,669
Christmas Punch – Rum and Rumless 2,434
St. Nicklaus Day 1,598
Easy Kraft Christmas Fudge 1,553
One Year Today 1,301
Mayonnaise, Aioli and Rouille 1,281
Tudo’s Vietnamese Restaurant in Pensacol 1,279
Christmas Cookies: Russian Tea Cakes 1,274
Mom’s Fruit Cake Recipe 1,128
About Intlxpatr 1,033
Is This News?
Today in the Arab Times I see this announcement:
Ministry monitoring Internet networks to block porn sites
KUWAIT : The Ministry of Communications is monitoring Internet networks to block porn websites and clamp down illegal Internet telephony, Al Seyassah daily quoted the Director of Telephones Monitoring Department at the Ministry of Communications Eng Nasser Al Khandari as saying. The department is also monitoring various areas for such illegal telephone service providers.
Is this news? One time, I was looking for tablecloths, and the site was blocked for inappropriate content. It seems to me that the Ministry of Communication has an ongoing battle, trying to block content providers. As for illegal telephony . . . it appears they are cracking down mostly on large scale telephone service providers, not on the individual VOIP phones. VOIP users complain from time to time about “listeners” and about echos, but I think this is more a result of poor connections than any local actions. Am I wrong?
Which ministry is it that will be/is monitoring bloggers?
Diet Soda Problems
In a recent blog entry Gout and Soda frequent commenter Abdulaziz speculated that there is also a link between diet soda and over eating. Today I found an article in the New York Times that substantiates his gut feeling.
From The New York Times in an article entitled Symptoms: Metabolic Syndrome Is Tied to Diet Soda
. . . Over all, a Western dietary pattern — high intakes of refined grains, fried foods and red meat — was associated with an 18 percent increased risk for metabolic syndrome, while a “prudent” diet dominated by fruits, vegetables, fish and poultry correlated with neither an increased nor a decreased risk.
But the one-third who ate the most fried food increased their risk by 25 percent compared with the one-third who ate the least, and surprisingly, the risk of developing metabolic syndrome was 34 percent higher among those who drank one can of diet soda a day compared with those who drank none. . . .
An Invitation to Bloggers
This is exactly the kind of event I love passing along to bloggers and blog readers in Kuwait. I hope to see you there! 🙂
Digital Prints of the Everyday Life
(Art Exhibition)
From 2-13 February
Dar Al Funoon Gallery
10 AM – 1 PM and 4-8 PM (Sun.-Thu.)
4-8 PM (Sat.) and 10 AM – 1 PM (Thu.)
Digital Prints of Everyday Life by LOAAY
The art work exhibited by the artist LOAAY shows eclectic artistic expression which makes the exhibition more enjoyable. Each piece has its unique visual identity, yet they all revolve around everyday life. ‘Love tree’ is inspired by nature; ‘It starts here´ comes from his urban environment and both ‘Lunchtime by the pier’ and ‘Cold Edinburgh’ that are works evolving from his frequent travels. The twenty eight piece artworks collection has been described as a visual feast.
The artist, LOAAY is a branding consultant who started to express himself artistically after surviving cancer. He is an internationally recognized artist who has exhibited in Connecticut, USA, in Algiers, Algeria, in Helsinki, Finland, and now at Dar Al Funoon in Kuwait.
Dar al Funoon is located at the Behehani Compound, House No. 28, Al Watiah (behind the Church). The exhibition hours are from 10 AM – 1 PM and 4-8 PM (Sun.-Thu.), 4-8 PM (Sat.) and 10 AM – 1 PM (Thu.). Call 243 3138 or visit http://www.LOAAY.com for more details. The artist can often be found at the exhibit during the evening hours.
Not Spam
My apologies this morning to UmmAdam, GreY, Mirror Polisher and Touche, all of whom left comments which I found in the spam section.
I DE-SPAMMED them, deleted all the ones that wanted to sell me Viagra and lengthen my penis and help me get a credit card, and then when I went to the Dashboard – the de-spammed comments weren’t there! I have looked everywhere.
I don’t know what is happening, why WordPress is not allowing commenters who have been active before, have never had a problem. Aaaarrrgh!
Another Glorious Day
Woooo Hoooooo, Goooooooooooood Moooorrrrnnnnning, Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwaaaaiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttt!
It is COOOLLLDDDD this morning again, 4°C/39°F, and the sky is clear. There is a very thin layer of haze on the horizon; it is so clear I can see the freighters far out in the Gulf and the gleam of roofs out on Failaika Island. Woooo Wooooo, a glorious day in Kuwait!
For you non-morning people, I apologize for my enthusiasm and for waking you. 😉
And finally, I have added a Sunrise Series to my catagories, it’s about time, hmmm?
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