Signs of the Times, Issue No. 143 - 02/08/11

Everybody comes from somewhere.

Greetings to one and all. Today is Tuesday and that means that everyone in the world is reading what I'm writing. I guess I'll try to keep it G-rated today. What's up, people? The thing that really freaks me out is that I send this out for everybody to read, but I really have no idea who you are - or really even anything about you, for the most part. Oh, technology... The things you do to me. Topics to be discussed today: the history of my blog, statistical proof that I have eyes all around the planet... watching you... my much-anticipated analysis of Super Bowl XLV,  my hopes for a romantic Valentine's Day out on the town, and the freedom to learn about whatever I choose. On we go!

I started my first Newsletter back in 2005 after I graduated, as I've explained before, mainly in an attempt to ensure that my friends wouldn't forget about me. (Obviously that hasn't worked very well.) "The E.P.B. Newsletter," as it was called, went on for a little less than a year and then I went on my mission. When I was over on the East Coast, I emailed my family "The Story of My Mission" in 100 short Chapters almost every Monday of my mission (with the exception of maybe a holiday or two). When I got home in the end of February 2008 (coming up on three years, here!!), I figured most of my friends were either married or still on their missions, so I didn't start up a new Newsletter until about a month later when I had received enough death threats to convince me to start blogging again. That brings us to today - Issue No. 143 of my "Signs of the Times" Newsletter. Honestly, I'm surprised anyone reads this anymore. Actually, no I'm not. It doesn't surprise me because the stuff I write about is awesome. Who wouldn't want to read this, other than Scott Aylett? Incredible. I think I'd probably keep writing even if nobody read it, though. It's like a type of journal for me, I suppose. A very sarcastically pessimistic journal.

I redesigned the blog site (www.SignsOfTheTimesNewsletter.blogspot.com) the other day, giving it a new color scheme and adjusting a few other things while I was at it. As I browsed through different templates to potentially use, I came across a tab called "Stats," which I assumed was probably some sort of paid-subscription, premium feature that I wouldn't be able to use. However, to my surprise, I clicked on the tab and it uploaded pages upon pages of statistics showing me where you people come from, when you generally visit my site, and even how you access the site - what kind of browser you use and which sites referred you to my blog. The one thing it didn't tell me was who you people are. But we're going to get to the bottom of this today.

According to Blogger, 12 of you peeps viewed my blog site during the 7:00 hour last Tuesday night. The site had 40 page views total last Tuesday. There were also 12 page views during the midnight hour on Thursday night. You night owls, you!

In the past month, the most page views came on January 22 (47). That was a Saturday, interestingly enough. There were 41 page views on Tuesday, February 1, and 37 page views on February 4. I believe that was the day I renovated the layout and begged people to go look at it.

The most page views in a single month in the past 10 months came in January 2011 (372) and the least page views came in July 2010 (12) and September 2010 (87). Hmmm... I can't remember what made my life so boring back then. I'm sorry. At the current rate of readership, this month is on pace to crush the record set in January. In eight days, February has already had 128 page views. Impressive, my friends.

This week, 39 of you (33%) used Google Chrome to visit the blog site. Twenty-nine (24%) of the page views came from Safari, 22 (18%) were from Internet Explorer, 17 (14%) were in Firefox, and approximately 1% used a mobile phone. Eighty percent of you used Windows in the past week. I had two page views from the Netherlands and one from Russia in the past seven days.

You bet.

In the last month, I also had visitors from Latvia, Canada, and Germany. Sixteen (3%) of the last month's page views came from iPods, with seven page views coming from my rich, iPad-toting Subscribers. 

In the past 10 months, my readership spans to Italy, Moldova, Thailand, and even one page view from the Ukraine. Overall statistics since May 2010 show that 27% of Subscribers use Internet Explorer and 27% use Chrome. Twenty-two percent use Firefox and 18% use Safari to round out the top browsers. Seventy-seven percent are PC users, compared to 13% Mac users.

Now what is really interesting to me is looking at the traffic sources, or referral sites. Last week, six referrals came from the blog site itself. This means that readers probably clicked on "Older Posts" or on a link to visit a previous Issue. There was also a referral from Andrea Chapman's blog, 20 referrals from Facebook, and it looks like a couple people even have gadgets on their desktops or handheld devices to send them to my blog. Wow!

In the past month, four people were referred from Suzy Petersen's blog, two people followed a URL from Twitter, and there were 73 total referrals from Facebook. There were three hits from Google searching (one of which was typed in as "www.signsofthetimesnewslatter.blogspot.com). If I ever did a completely doctrinally-based blog, that's what I'd call it.

This is the part that totally blows my mind... In the past 10 months, Facebook is the top referring site with 311 total referrals. Second is the blog site itself with 68. Honorable mentions include Twitter (7), Google (10), and www.chapmaninsiderprivate.blogspot.com (8). But the number one overall referring URL is http://altahawks2005.blogspot.com/ with 56 referrals. What?! People from my graduating class actually care about me?? I'm... touched. I really am. The Alta High School Class of '05 blog boasts links to other blogs posted by members of the graduating class, including my own, but I had no idea that people even visited that website. Oh yeah, baby. Not only do they visit it, but they read my Newsletter THROUGH that site!! That is awesome. Eight people visited my blog because of the Alta site in the past seven days -- that's an average of more than one former classmate per day! Well, whoever you are, wherever you are, you're cool. Thanks for reading. And thanks for being you. I hope you Feel Good About Yourself. I certainly do.

**QUESTION TIME!!**

Q. "Dear Aaron,

Everybody wants to know, but nobody has the guts to ask, so we will. What were your thoughts about the Super Bowl?"

Just Curious,

- The Junior Mounties

A. You guys are so gutsy. (SALUTE!) Well, as I've made abundantly clear, I'm not a fan of either team, but I just really didn't want the Steelers to win. I suppose that means I was cheering for the Packers. It was actually a pretty good game. It was fun to see the Steelers go down big early in the game, but they kept the game interesting by coming back in the second half. In the end, it was the Green Bay Packers who hoisted the Lombardi trophy, finally giving Aaron Rodgers the hardware (and the wrestling championship belt) that he so coveted. Does this mean I have to stop making fun of him for not having a belt like I do? Probably. He got a belt and it's way nicer than mine. (This is me making a sad face.) I'll give him credit, though. He seems like a classy guy. The game was good, the commercials ranged from funny to stupid to downright perverted, the halftime show was horrible from what I heard (I was up in the kitchen eating food at the time), and the National Anthem... well... Poor Christina. That's pretty crappy. She blew it on pretty much the biggest stage imaginable. Overall, the Super Bowl was the Super Bowl, and that's fine with me. Not the best I've seen, but certainly not the worst, either. Thanks for asking.

Dang. He finally got one.

Q. "Dear Aaron,

Tell us about your plans for Valentine's Day."

Love,

- An admirer

A. Just to clarify, no, I did not write this Question. Believe it or not, somebody else did. And it wasn't a potential suitor, so I don't want to hear it. Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day... Well, this Valentine's Day will be a little different for me. I mean, it could be if everything goes according to the plan. Upon arriving home from my day's labor at K-UTE, I will freshen up for the ladies, perhaps change clothes so I look nice for the evening's festivities, spray a little cologne here and there, and then hop into my newly-vacuumed car to enjoy a Valentine's Day treat - ice cream. Yes, I think that would be fantastic. Ice cream always sounds so delicious. While eating, I plan to discuss the complexities of nature and the purpose of man on Earth - and/or anything else that comes to mind during the time at hand - all with a devilish smile on my face, mind you. After ice cream, a romantic stroll around the parking lot will be in order as the chariot awaits. A nice drive around Sandy would be nice. Put on FM 100.3's "Love Songs After Dark"... you know... Then I'll probably just drive back to my place for a quiet evening alone. Like... literally. Did you think I was describing a date? No, no. I plan on doing that alone. All alone. By myself.

I searched for "lonely Valentine's Day" and this is what came up.

When I was on the radio back in the day, I would semi-jokingly comment from time to time that homework (and school, in general) were not important. "Semi-joking," I said. But now that I'm done with classes, projects, and homework, I'm starting to realize that I spoke the truth! [School is a good thing, children. Stay in school.] My post-graduate hobby of reading actual books of my own free will and choice is turning out to be fantastic. I recently had a Facebook status where I asked for suggestions of books to read. Immediately, I received a flood of comments, which was great, but I didn't take into account that my friends were suggesting new, popular books that are all in very high demand at the public library. So when I got to the library last Tuesday, I couldn't find ANY of them. I wandered around the building for a few minutes, searching in vain for something that looked interesting. I saw a book with a picture of a guy who, at a glance, looked like Elvis. Turned out to be Tony Curtis. I raised my eyes to the shelf above the faux-Elvis biography and, lo and behold, I discovered perhaps the greatest bookshelf in the entire Draper Spaceport. I checked out two books about Disneyland, a book about Indiana Jones, a collection of essays about "LOST", and Michael J. Fox's biography. I've already finished one of the books about the Magic Kingdom and anticipate finishing the "LOST" book in the next day or two. I honestly think that I've learned more in the past two weeks than I did in some of my semesters of college. It's truly amazing the amount of information you can learn when you're not being forced to read boring textbooks. I can learn about anything in the entire world whenever I want. It's fantastic. I highly recommend that all of you graduate from school. Even if you don't actually graduate. *cough* Just get it done and discover the magical world of learning.

The Shoutout of the Week goes to everyone out there that hasn't formally introduced themselves to me. I'd give you a personal Shoutout, but I have no idea who you are... SO... head over to the blog site, vote for the polls, and leave me a comment telling me who the heck you are. I can also add you to the email list if you'd like "Signs of the Times" to greet your inbox with a virtual smile each and every Tuesday. A-Town loves you, babies.

I really wanna know.

That's about it for this week. I won't bore you any further. Have a good week, peeps. And happy Singles Awareness Day to all y'all. Oh gosh. Did I really just say "all y'all"?? Woof.

Until next Time,

Move It! Sell It! And Leave the Door Open!

Aaron