I now have a full week of stats from SiteMeter. Much to my surprise my most popular blog page is my Nelson Mandela speech post. If you google "Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech" my blog comes up first. Bizarre. This page has had 28 hits on it this week. Other honorable mentions in order are: Toronto Gourmet Food & Wine Expo with 5: Sidewalk chalk art with 5: New wings or new bra? with 4: Deformed Baby Vomits on Salvation Army Worker with 4: Power Protein with 4: Fattest Fatter Fat with 3.

It's surprising to see my blog come up in the top 10 at google when you search for things like: Sidewalk chalk art, Deformed baby, Fat fatter fattest, New Bra, Kids and Doctors, good crack, chocolate fountain Toronto, looking through glass photos, food and wine expo and last but not least curried carrot & parsnip soup. There was one search that was a bit disturbing where the person was looking for Naked 8 year old boys My blog  came up in the 40's and the perv clicked all the way through to it. If you want to see the results you can click on the SiteMeter logo at the bottom of the page. Now I have to  go figure out how to sell bra's or advertising to Victoria Secret.

Here is an excerpt from Barbie's blog.

1/1/2004 Sealed with a Smooch

Last night was a blast! The black-and-white theme made the whole place look super swank. Riv and I danced nonstop 'til the big countdown. Then he kissed me at midnight, and -- I swear -- I saw stars! 2004 is gonna be one totally sweet year!

For a plastic doll she is sure getting a lot of action. I wonder if Mattel is concerned about how a blog will have an aging effect on Barbie? Or will she still be 15 and blogging strong in 2054? I wonder if Barbie is going to blog about her first time? Will it happen at Toy's R US or Walmart? Oh yea WHO IS RIV? And what happened to KEN? Is he not pissed at this RIV guy for stealing his ride? Ya know Barbie has a lot to blog about now that I think about it.

While surfing around checking out other blogs I noticed a site counter icon at the bottom of one of them. After I checked it out I couldn't help but sign up. I've always been curious about if anyone reads my blog. (With out logging in that is) and now I can. With the help of Sitemeter I will know for sure. It was super easy to install, I just created a custom object, copied the html from sitemeter and placed the object in my footer. The coolest part, It worked right away. I love technology that works right away:). So come one come all and be counted. Now if Blogware would just put a spell checker in this interface.

There are three things that I hate about the Internet. Spyware, adware, popups. Over the past 6 months I have tried numerous times to remove an annoying piece of software that keeps popping up on my PC called GAIN ad serving software. Today was the day I hit the wall. While googleing for information regarding protein diets I was bombarded with ads for diet drugs, exercise plans, equipment, books and an array of other unwanted products and services so I turned my attention back to the GAIN issue. This time I threw $20 bucks at the problem and bought some software to help me. Before installation and execution of the product my system resources were at 51% available, afterwards they were at 90% available. It's like I own a new computer now. The product is called "NOADWARE" and I highly recommend it to anyone who is having the same issues. After it scanned my hard drive it found 47 unwanted files. I even had spyware on my computer that was recording my keystrokes. It was a wonderful feeling clicking on the delete key and removing them all in one fell swoop. I just wish it could remove the people who designed the shit in the first place. This feeling of newfound privacy was followed by a heated discussion regarding my blog content with my wife. It seems she had given my blog url (as well as hers) out to a coworker and after this person had checked out our sites a comment was made regarding the "intimate detail of the information contained within". Particularly regarding the photos of our children, which I have published. I now find myself at a crossroads so to speak. On one hand I feel that the safety of my children is paramount in my life and I would not hesitate for a moment to relentlessly hunt down and KILL anyone whom I discovered had ill intentions toward them. Therefore it would seem prudent to remove or at least restrict the access to these photos. On the other hand I have been involved in the Internet industry since 96 and have an understanding of the vast amount of content on the web and realize that there are many other websites that have photographs and information about children on them. I have researched numerous websites/blogs and found dozens of photos of other peoples children. I was of the opinion that my content was nothing more than a snowflake on a glacier or a speck of cosmic dust in the universe we call the Internet. I thought that my WebLog would only be of interest to my audience. (Family, friends and/or people that know me or share similar interests) I would restrict the access to this content but many of the people I churn out this drivel for are technically inept and its hard enough for them to open a browser and click a mouse let alone acquire a user id and password and log into my site. So I am left to ponder this dilemma and will soon be forced to make a decision. Any comments on the subject would be greatly appreciated. I would also like to see the product provide more information as to who is reading my blog. How about a hit counter or an option to record more than the last 5 visitors. Maybe IP addresses that users could log and view the info somewhere in the dashboard. What do you think Ross?

I've been adjusted. Today Dr. Sandra Simpson B.Sc., M.Sc., D.C. Chiropractor, examined me. She is a firm believer in spinal health and wellness and is an advocate for long-term spinal care. All the things I don't like about chiropractors. But after a 10-minute conversation she agreed to give me "emergency care" and adjusted my lower back. It feels allot better but still not perfect. I am going back tomorrow for another adjustment. the 2 visits will cost me $123.00 She said I have some decay in a disc in my lower back. Too many sweets I guess ;) Hopefully I will be well enough to go to the gym by weeks end. I also see that the snow-shoveling gods are calling my name again.

It's official, I've given up on the rest thing for my back. Its been 10 days now and it still hurts. I thought I was better last Friday but I was wrong and after shoveling the snow on Monday I'm back to where I started, which is in a great deal of pain. This morning I finally gave in and made an appointment with a Chiropractor, for 10am which is in 25 minutes. I hope she is not a quack. I am looking forward to eating my lunch pain free today. The YMCA is after me big time regarding the Y-try and because of my condition I have been less than helpful. Not too good for the Chair of the event. Well its off to Dr. Cracker. Ill let you know how it goes. Its funny how you take your health for granted untill your not healthy.  l8ter

In 1987 I hurt my lower back playing baseball. It was so bad I had old mans syndrome or at least that’s what I call it. This is when you are unable to stand up straight without a great deal of pain. It hurt so much that I went to emergency, but all they suggested was physiotherapy for 6 weeks, which did nothing to relieve my discomfort. A coworker suggested I visit his chiropractor and since I had nothing to loose I booked an appointment. The treatment consisted of some deep heat ointment and electronic massage pads placed on the affected area for about 30 minutes. This loosened all the muscles and was quite a relief in itself but the best was yet to come. The chiropractor came in, a petite woman in her 40's and proceeded to perform a lower back adjustment on me. It took about 15 seconds and the pain was gone instantly! I now knew what a good chiropractor was capable of and was thankful for the knowledge. My next flair up happened several years later while lifting some furniture. It was in the same spot with the same chronic, intense pain. The woman that I was working for at the time offered to take me to her chiropractor as she was suffering from some type of neck pain and was going anyway. Remembering my last wonderful experience I quickly agreed. We drove to a small office in Chinatown and I was introduced to Dr. Wong (or something like that) He had a very similar method of muscle relaxation but also quite different, let me explain. Instead of Deep Heat ointment he used some sort of hot ember type thing. He would put it on a spot on my back for several seconds and just when it would start to burn me he would move it to a new location. This process went on for about 10 minutes and it sucked big time! It felt like someone was randomly burning me with a smoke. Next instead of using the gentle pulsing of electric massage pads he chose to use a jumbo vibrator. The best thing about it was he did not stick it up my ass! After several minutes with the wand he decided I was relaxed enough to attempt an adjustment, so just like before he tried to crack my lower back, back into place. After numerous attempts he was unsuccessful. I actually left in more pain than I went in with. I did learn that the body will repair itself with time, and in about a week I was almost back to normal. My next experience with a chiropractor occurred in 1996’ish as my brother-in-law decided he was going to pursue the vocation. One of the tasks he had to complete for school was to perform a number of adjustments on willing subjects (about 300 I think). I can still remember how I bravely stepped up to the plate and let him take a crack at my spine. (His own brother said, "you’re not touching me") He graduated about 5 years ago and is quite good at it now, his hands are almost magic and he gives great crack. Unfortunately for me he lives 1500 miles away, practicing and living in Florida. About 2 years ago I re-injured my back again (same spot) and checked out the chiropractor in the mall down the street. He talked allot about health and spinal wellness. And tried to tell me that a skeletal adjustment can cure everything from a cold to bladder infections. I gave it a chance and went to about 6 sessions with him. He never performed a manual adjustment on me but instead choose to use a thing that looked like a giant syringe with a little hammer on the end. He would click it several times along my spine and send me on my way. I knew that time would make my back pain go away from experience so after 2 weeks I felt better. This did not stop him from trying to take credit for it. I stopped going to my appointments after that never to return. 2 days ago my old familiar lower back pain flared up again. I decided to wait this one out and treat it with painkillers and hot baths. I know that if I went to a chiropractor he/she could fix it in 15 seconds and I could even tell them what I needed them to do but.... They would want to take x-rays and who knows what else. It’s too bad but in my experience 50% of the chiropractors out there suck, 25% practice in Florida, so that leaves me with a 25% chance of getting some good crack.

Exercise

Monday against my better judgement I went to the gym and did a 1km swim and a 17 mile bike ride and weights.

While at the gym Friday night I watched a woman run around the track with wooden clogs, 4-inch platform wooden clogs. The fact that she had a large chest and no sports bra seemed secondary to her choice of exercise footwear. Today I watched a 60+-year-old man get on a treadmill with a large coffee. He could not locate the drink holder on the inside portion of the equipment so he decided to rest his hot beverage on the horizontal side arm. He proceeded to enter his personal information and adjust the settings. One of which is "incline". As the front of the treadmill rose his coffee slid off the arm and hit the ground with a splash. The best part, after he cleaned it up he went and got a refill. I wonder if he went for a smoke too?

Exercise

Friday

Bike 13 miles, Run 2km

Saturday

Bike 16 miles, Run 2km

I can't remember exactly what I ate on Friday but I can tell you I have lost 5lbs over the holidays.

go figure!