blogging is not a spectator sport

I haven’t done one of these in a long time.

The last I can recall (well… Google) was for May last year (link.)

In that time we suffered the great server problem of 2009 (it’s probably not completely unrelated that less than a month after the worst was over (and it went on for months) I lost my marriage), we’ve seen highs and low, good money months and not so good.

The good news is that today we remain on track, although we’ve never quite broken through the targets we once set ourselves.

Our stats since May run between being 20k short of 3m pv, and 60k over 2m pv, and everything in between. Our income ranges from just scraping to be profitable, to having a record month, and a following month that I won’t complain about at all.

Despite my personal issues at home (see above) the team has stuck by me despite days where I occasionally struggled to function, and I can never be more grateful.

Indeed, if there’s one highlight over the last 10 mths is (mostly) how stable the writing team has been.

January was particularly slow for us, but we still managed to keep things over 2m pv, and we started to pick up in the last week. $ Stats this year (after a bumper Nov-Dec) are down (as they were the same time last year) but the balance is better now: even in a rough month we can still break even, and even afford a small payment to me. Despite the personal issues, I’ve started trying to balance out the good and bad months in accounting to allow for both, and it’s starting to work well; even if we start going backwards (unlikely, we’ve never booked an actual loss since Dec 08) we’ve got a permanent buffer now, and we’re not losing money, an important consideration.

We’ve had a problem with an external content provider that remains unresolved at the time of writing, so change might be afoot there, but the rest goes well. Hell, we even had a writer at CES this year covering stuff for us, and that to me was one of the things I always wanted to do.

Our head count sits at 6 + 1 occasional writer + 2 assistants (one who posts syndicated content, one who does admin) = 9.

I’ve always had visions of expansion but given the non-site issues I’m quite happy to continue sitting where we are now, at least until I get fully back up on my feet. We’ve turned around a minor slump, are focused going forward, and there’s no reason why we can’t get back to passing the magic 3m pv goal and beyond. For the next 6 mths though, it’s a conservative ploy, but who knows.

Hopefully the team is happy, and although I have my days, I’m still one of the luckiest guys in blogging, and a lot of that is thanks to the team. Every now and then I still can’t believe we do what we do, but we do, and although we might not be the biggest site, we power on and we’ve carved out our space on the internet, for better or worse.

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The folks behind MTUB (Melbourne Twitter Underground Brigade) have organised a poker night Feb 24.

Details here.

If you like poker (and there’s no secret that I love the game) and want to meet some Twitter/ tech people over a friendly game, sign up, it’s completely free.

If you’ve ever played Pub Poker before you’ll also know that a poker table is a great way to meet new people as well. Poker is the great equalizer.

My only disappointment: it’s an “annual” event. If we can get enough people it should be more frequent. If not, I’ll have to start holding poker nights at my new abode…well, when I eventually get that place that is

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Wikipedia:

“In warfare, ramming is a technique that was used in air, sea and land combat. The term originated from battering ram, a siege weapon used to bring down fortifications by hitting it with the force of the ram’s momentum….”

No matter how many times I watch this video, I get the same result. The front of the Sea Shepherd boat hits the SIDE of the Japanese boat. If the Sea Shepherd was rammed, wouldn’t it have been the other way around?

Of note as well, it would appear that the Japanese vessels attempts to avoid collision at the last moment, trying to turn away. At all times though the key is: the Japanese vessel is IN FRONT of the Sea Shepherd. If the Japanese were trying to ram the Sea Shepherd vessel, wouldn’t they have been behind, and not side on?

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The Age: Burned Indian faked attack to claim car insurance: police

And this follows the recent murder of an Indian man by other Indians. Both cases were cited in the Indian media as examples of Australian racism.

So is an insurance scam racist?

Side note: the funniest thing this morning was listening to the head of the Indian Students Association on ABC Melbourne. The same guy who appears in the media at the drop of a hat crying racism as loudly has he can, told Comrade Jon Faine that these cases should be left to the courts to decide and not the media. LOL.

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I’m the first to admit that I shook my head when news of Tony Abbott’s alleged claim about virginity surfaced during the week.

It was claimed that Abbott said that women should remain virgins until marriage; if he believes that, fine (I don’t agree but he can believe what he wants,) but saying it out loud is political stupidity.

But here’s the catch: no matter how much anger, general coverage and editorial space was handed over on the alleged quote, turns out it wasn’t true.

via Andrew Bolt:

Check for yourself. Here is every last word that Abbott, himself the father of three girls, said: “It (sex before marriage) happens … I think I would say to my daughters if they were to ask me this question … it is the greatest gift that you can give someone, the ultimate gift of giving, and don’t give it to someone lightly, that is what I would say.”

Now I don’t have a daughter, but if I did I might well give the same advice, and millions of other Australian’s with daughters either have or would as well.

There’s a mile of difference between a fathers wish that his daughters wait for someone special to sleep with (and note, there’s ZERO mention of marriage there) to the media reports suggesting that Abbott was claiming women should wait until marriage to lose their virginity.

Disgraceful from media who pride themselves on reporting the truth, and the politicians who feed of their lies.

I wonder if Julia Gillard, Gabriella Coslovich, Fiona Scott-Norman, Jon Faine, Catharine Lumby, Eva Cox and the others will apologize?

Nah, just joking there, of course they won’t. Why let the facts get in the way of a good ol’ fashioned crucifixion.

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I use to like Troy Buswell, but it was when I realised that he cared only about himself that I lost faith. Not saying I’m exactly skinny myself (but I’m only 10kg off my ideal weight now.) That said, the issue was with the ex: maybe I should forgive now, and accept he had good judgment.

Still: maybe chairs are bad for your weight

via Yahoo News/ The West. If you don’t get the reference, you either don’t live in WA, or you don’t follow WA news. Nothing wrong with that, but this is one of those posts.

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I may not agree with every conclusion, but some decent balance and some reasonably fair perspective. Warranted in the broader picture of the debate.

It’s simple: India doesn’t want to see its citizens harmed

In a few elegant words, Tharoor cut to the heart of the issue and it is worth quoting him in full: ”For an Indian mother to hear that her son has been assaulted in Australia, it little matters to her whether he was assaulted because of his race, or because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or because he was the wrong colour or the wrong height, or was carrying an iPod. She doesn’t want her son to be assaulted.

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And here I was thinking that it was just us dumb Australians….

Daily Camera:

Denver schools’ menu for Martin Luther King birthday hard for some to digest

Denver Public Schools apologized Tuesday for what it called a “well-intentioned but highly insensitive” attempt to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday’s DPS lunch menu, headlined “In Honor Of M.L. King,” offered students “Southern Style” chicken and collard greens — a meal that some say is an offensive caricature of black culture.

In a statement issued Tuesday night and posted on the school district’s website, DPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said the meal was “highly insensitive in light of certain hurtful cultural stereotypes still harbored in parts of our society.”

Emphasis is mine, but it’s key.

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Follow up to the last post, I made this little video:

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