A friend of mine today asked me about the popularity of ryanjallen.net. I’ve maintained this web log for nearly 4 years and previous to that had a sort-of blog in recurse.org. So how many people actually read this drivel?
Some time ago I switched on Google Analytics, mostly just to see information in pretty graphs and formatted tables. Boy has it delivered. I referred to Analytics to see if I could give this friend some numbers and found that I could export the report to a PDF.
Here is the ryanjallen.net Google Analytics Report for the past 30 days.
The thing that interests me the most is the search terms. Popular search terms and their respective pages include:
I don’t know what I was thinking when I posted Don’t Damage Your Amygdala. It’s almost shameful to read.
I’ve decided to challenge myself to limit my spending for the rest of the month of September. It’s only 8 days or something like that. Beginning yesterday I’ve decided that I will make allocations for my church offering, my October bus pass, and groceries. I’m limiting myself to buying groceries today (no Superstore trips during the week!) and I’m going to try to keep it around $50, but I’m flexible on that.
Basically it’s just a challenge to see if I can go a work week without spending money. So far so good. I spent under $18 at the Superstore but still have the Fresh Fruit Company and Wal-Mart to visit. That should conclude my shopping for today. And for the rest of the week…I might leave my wallet at home. That would be a first.
I want to get rid of some shrimp that I’ve had in my freezer for a while so I found these two recipes that look good:
I couldn’t decide which one I wanted to do so I think I’m going to do both, giving me some leftovers for the week. I’ve invited a potential seafood non-eater for dinner so I might offer a chicken alternative as well, modifying the recipes as appropriate and as I feel necessary. I haven’t actually read the recipes yet but the simple ingredient list of each appeals to me.
It should be clear from August and, soon, September that I am no longer serious about not spending money. But that will change right….soon.
Unnecessary: $344.69
- Gifts
- Wendy’s
- Bio Shock (video game)
- McDonald’s
- Pan Chancho Bakery
- Tim Horton’s
- Phnom Phen
- KFC
- Jagermeister
Questionable: $338.07
- Website
- Haircut
- Clothes
- Inter-city Transport
- Parking
NASCAR: $445.19
- My actual NASCAR costs for camping, ticket, food, travel, etc. was $250. The rest was spent on miscellaneous stuff at Wal-Mart, but does include snacks, a couple of small gifts, and a US cell phone.
Groceries and Household: $234.36
Rogers: $171.33
- I may drop the Rogers bill from the monthly totals because it should remain fairly static at this amount and thus be rolled into the usual monthly expenses.
Debt: $835.49
In honour of Nail’s last day doing Job A, here is a food challenge that was introduced by him. I have not personally ever attempted this challenge. I would suspect that being intoxicated provides a significant advantage in completing this challenge–an advantage I will never get.
The Trifecta involves performing the following gastronomical feat: eat 1 Philly cheese steak poutine at Elgin Street Diner; go around the corner to House of Georgie’s and eat 2 slices of pizza with gravy; then follow that up with a large chicken shawarma at Maroush’s Place below Inferno. Note that this feat must be completed within 1 hour. The hour starts when the poutine is delivered to your table.
I am a slow eater, and generally not a fan of time-based food challenges. The Trifecta presents a unique quantity based challenge even without the 1 hour time limit. I do hope to someday make an attempt to complete it.
I have been meaning to bring online a listing of the various food challenges I have encountered in my life. There is a wide variety of them and I’m sure I don’t even remember them all. But those that I do remember are all very interesting and deserve to be shared.
Many months ago Nail noticed that the four of us were able to consume an entire box of a dozen doughnuts in a very short period of time. “I bet you we could finish a dozen doughnuts in 2 minutes,” he stated. And the Doughnut Challenge was born.
Today we attempted the Doughnut Challenge. It was decided that filled doughnuts or cake doughnuts must be used. The doughnuts that made up the challenge included: boston cream, double chocolate, chocolate glazed, apple fritters, and some maple doughnuts. After the doughnuts arrived we began the challenge. 2 minutes was set on a timer and we began.
Muis was going for three boston cream doughnuts–an incredible challenge; a challenge that he powered through with success. Brian: two apple fritters and a double chocolate. Brian was the laggard of the group, consuming nearly both of the fritters but not touching the double chocolate. Nail had three maple doughnuts, which he nearly finished but not quite in time. And myself, I had a chocolate glazed, an apple fritter, and a double chocolate. At the end of two minutes I was left with a piece of double chocolate and a piece of apple fritter in either hand.
An unsuccessful attempt at the doughnut challenge.
Last night I had dinner with Ma here in Ottawa. In town for a business conference, she was mostly kept busy but did have time to get some food with her eldest. She had decided that she would like to return to Mamma Grazzi’s, an Italian place in the market where we had gone a year and a half ago after she ran the 10 km race during Ottawa Race Weekend 2006.
Of course I love Italian food and was happy to go to such a fine establishment. There are two things that I really love about Italian food: bruschetta and calamari. I especially love it when calamari is served unbattered and not fried, just as Mamma Grazzi’s does. As with my previous visit I had the calamari to start and it was nothing short of fantastic. I offered to share but the offer was declined, mysteriously.
Yesterday Muis and I went to the Superstore at lunch–me to get buns for my chilli and him to get some lunch. We’ve recently been walking there, using a path forged by a mysterious “bushman” who we believe works at QNX. On our return trek yesterday we noticed this wild zucchini plant! We’ve decided to keep an eye on it to potentially harvest the vegetable when the time is right, assuming an animal doesn’t get at it before we do.
Today’s trip to the Superstore was less innocent; we went primarily to purchase chocolate milk. In our trip yesterday we noticed that the 4 litre bags of chocolate milk were on a Real Price Drop to only $3.88, better than $1 per litre. I had recently declared that I must stop buying and drinking chocolate milk, as my consumption levels of the nectar are relatively high, but I was easily persuaded to ignore that declaration.
A large reason for this turn on my previous wishes was the special cup that I now have for consuming chocolate milk. Pictured above and to the left it is what it appears to be: a rocket ship. What isn’t evident from the photos is that the straw provided with the rocket ship is a twisty straw. This special cup takes the chocolate milk enjoyment to new heights, as can be seen in both of these photos.
Weekend update, in no particular order.
Genesis: Awesome.
Boustan’s: Awesome.
Dot’s House: Awesome.
Ritz-Carlton: Awesome.
Jalapenos from the Garden: Awesome.
iPhone: Awesome.
I was sitting in the park on Yonge St. in Kingston. In this park there is a jungle gym that is identical in structure to the the jungle gym that was installed at my grade school while I was attending. The paint has worn off of the metal stairs. The plastic walls are faded and marked with graffiti–one featuring a hole that has been burned through it. The gravel remains unaltered, though likely out of its original palce.
I spent a lot of time on this jungle gym. The sound of gravel under my shoes is a familiar one. Even sitting on the wooden edge that contains the gravel is somewhat familiar.
There was a tyre swing beside the jungle gym. We were timed when using it–a sort of gentleman’s rule–because of the limited number simultaneous users on the swing. I can remember feeling like I won the jackpot when no one was queued and I could swing on the tyre again.
A post I began authoring while I waited to visit Nana. It was cool to visit an old memory like that. Maybe I’ll go visit my old public school this weekend. I really liked that school.
Here’s a real first update of my trip to Germany.
I flew out on Sunday evening, which meant arriving to the airport Sunday afternoon. I arrived about 3 hours early, as suggested by some official website, and ended up through security in 20 minutes. Thankfully the next two and a half hours went by fairly quickly. I explored the Ottawa airport, called home, had a 1/4 nap (I only got about 4 hours of sleep the night before due to preparations). This was followed by dinner at whatever bar and restaurant is in the Ottawa airport. The food wasn’t great and it made me have to fart.
Boarded the plane shortly after 6:00 p.m. and departed the gate at 6:35 p.m. We were in the air by 6:50 p.m. The plane was a Boeing 767 and it included personal in-flight entertainment. The gentleman beside me got up and found another seat after take-off so I had the pair of seats to myself. Still, a 7 hour plane ride is a long one.
I arrived to Heathrow the next morning around 6:25 a.m. local time. I had 1 hour and 40 minutes to catch my connecting flight. This involved going through customs, getting my luggage, walking from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, checking in, re-checking my baggage, going through security, and getting to my departure gate. Oh, and when I got my boarding pass I learnt that the gate closed at 7:45. My time at Heathrow was stressful, but I made it to my next flight.
By the time I arrived in Germany I was tired, but happy to have finished flying and happy that my luggage made it! I proceeded to the rental car desk to pick up my rental car. The woman picked a car from the bunch and then asked me if an automatic would be okay. I told her that I’d prefer a standard so she went back to the bunch of cars and picked out my BMW 318 with Navigation System.
This was going to be my first post from Germany–turns out I barely posted at all while I was there. I decided that the post was boring, as I think you would agree after seeing what I’d written. It certainly doesn’t match the eye-catching title.
Today QNX Software Systems announced the publishing of the Neutrino source code and a new hybrid software model. Furthermore–and perhaps equally as interesting–is that QNX has greatly lowered the barrier of entry for those interested in trying the products and seeing what it’s all about. For commercial users a 90-day evaluation is now available, and no contact with a sales rep required. For non-commercial users you can download and use a full-featured version of the OS and tools–this includes both hobbyists and academics.
Now at community.qnx.com you can get source and binaries, create your own projects, interact with developers on forums, and learn a lot from the various wikis, blogs, videos, etc. It’s kind of neat and I’m sure especially exciting for the QNX geeks out there.
