Behind the Scenes: A Look at the Statistics of Stadium 110

Right after I finished packing to return to Carleton, I began browsing the blog editing section of Blogger and realized that they added a wonderful new feature without me noticing. Once again displaying its tendency towards world domination and evil without being quite evil, Google has begun recording statistics about how many people visit Stadium 110. One can see how many people visited on a certain day at a certain hour, what OS they were using, which browser they browsed upon (through? is it a window into the internet?), and from what country they were surfing this complicated series of tubes known as the World Wide Web. These results are, of course, fascinating.

These statistics reveal the demographics of our pageviewers. While Stadium 110 has an obviously strong appeal to citizens of the United States, I must say that I was proud to see 7 pageviews from Russia. I believe that the most surprising statistics may be found at the bottom of the graph: 4 people in Latvia and 3 in India and Luxembourg have experienced the force that is the Ocho. If YOU happened to be one ofour international viewers, well done sir (or madame)! You have discovered a future cornerstone of American society.

Our viewership is also surprising Mac-oriented, with both Safari and OS X taking the top spots in the browser and OS categories. I must admit that I am surprised by the fact that Internet Explorer defeated both Opera and Chrome. If YOU use IE: SHAME! I am also interested in the fact that Android defeated iPod and iPhone. If I had to guess, I would say that the typical Stadium 110 viewer is an upper-middle class American who just can't use AT&T. Google can make a fortune on this info!

Another interesting feature of Google's statistics is that it reveals the search keywords used to find Stadium 110. As can be seen above, our blog has provided valuable advertising for Middlebury's Moscow Program, MSTRKRFT, and Guido van der Werve. It has also provided valuable information for those looking to find naked black men and Elliot Bartis. Dave showed a lucky person just how wonderful being funemployed can be and Tim brought it to Minnesota, while Alfredo didn't exactly answer the question regarding the safety of pajaretes but provided priceless information about milking cows for the sake of alcohol consumption.

I look forward to using this data to make Stadium 110 more user friendly and appealing to its viewership. With the help of Google, Stadium 110 is already one step closer to the oh-so-lucrative joy of Monetization. This post here already contains every single element that has made Stadium 110 a phenomenon that has taken 3 of Earth's continents by storm! My goal: a view from Antarctica by graduation.

UPDATE: At approximately 1:00 PM on September 11, 2010, Stadium 110 received a milestone 50 page views. This is unprecedented in the history of Stadium 110 and is a sign of the pageview potential of Stadium 110. A stock broker would be unable to handle statistics like this if we went public.

It all makes sense now!

So, the trailer to Megashark vs. Giant Octopus is no stranger around the Ocho, but I know that there have been questions about the validity of this documentary - specifically around the scene (which is shown in the trailer) that has mega shark jumping up and munching on a plane. Now I know for sure that Elliot and I have actually watched this fine film, and I recommend it for anyone who enjoys bad acting and great movie music. Because I've actually seen the whole thing, I, of course, do not question how such an act can occur.

For those of you, who have not seen it though, do not fear, let me calm your worries: Enjoy this explanation.

MN Challenge

Hey you all, so I know I haven't really posted anything on the blog in a while but I figured I would write a little bit about how my last meet went. It was my last time tapering and I remember last year I decided I wouldn't get a LAZR because I would wait until this year to get it. Well, the suits ended up getting banned and our team is broke so they didn't help us out as much to pay for the suits. Because of this I decided not to spend 40-90 dollars on a new suit and just used my aquablade from last year. I used the analogy that the color of a car is not what makes it go fast but the engine and most importantly the driver that makes rip down the racetrack when I made my decision on the suit.

This years taper also felt a little different since I swam one new event and also because I'm starting to become an old man and everything seems to always be sore, but I was able to get through it. I also had to prepare for this taper meet a little differently since it was a championship style meet as opposed to the Olaf dual meet that I've tapered for in the past. This would be the toughest meet I've swam at since I was in seven events. I knew I would have to focus on flushing out and warming up before and after every event, which are my two least favorite things about swimming. Even with this strategy I was still nervous for the meet. I was worried I would end up dying out in my last few events. I decided to focus on one race at a time and if died out, I would just go as strong as I could and hold on for the ride. I also got some inspiration from a Brian Dawkins video Pete sent out to the team a few weeks back. This helped me get pumped although I only usually did some of his rituals in my head to save myself some embarrassment. My meet ended up like this:

200 Free Relay: .25mid
50 Free .25.8 (season best, even after I slipped off the blocks)
400 Med Relay: 100 fly, 1.03 (previous season best 1.13, previous lifetime best 1.08)
200 Med Relay: 50 Breast, .31 (previous best was .33, but I'm not sure if I should count this especially since both me and Schlaef jumped early on our relay exchanges. The ref said we got DQ too but our results got posted as a normal relay)
100 Breast: 1.09 (previous season and lifetime best 1.13.5)
100 Free: 55.3 (previous season best 59.09, and lifetime best was 55.8)
400 Free relay: 54.9 (I just wanted to go sub .55 and I just got it)

I was very surprised with all my times. I knew I would swim fast, but I wasn't sure if I would still be able to go as fast as I've gone in the past especially since it didn't feel like I was going very fast when I swam them at the meet.

When I finished my last 100 Free I got out of the pool and realized I was done forever, so I said screw it and didn't cool down. It was definitely bittersweet though I will miss competing as I'm sure most of you do now. I have also accepted the fact that I will probably get fat by the end of this year since I will have no motivation to stay in shape now. If anything I'll try to keep lifting and maybe I'll be able to bench as much as Elliot and Jared did last year. The last time I benched I think I did 185 for 6 reps so look out Elliot. Well I should get back to work since I didn't do any work yesterday because I didn't get out of bed until 5:30pm only because Mark came and woke me up too. I will try to post more often on the blog.

Video Games: Because we have a big ol TV, but no cable

Now, I haven't played T.A. in a long time, but this made me think of it and made me laugh.



T.A. may have taken a backseat to Alfredo's panda power attempts at beating really fast drag racers in Need for Speed Pro Street, but I still know (in fact I really don't even know the half of it) that T.A. has a special place in Stadium 110's collective heart.

Breaking down the video game zeitgeist from the past 7 months:

• Sept/Oct/Nov - Call of Duty 4 and only Call of Duty 4 is played... Elliot is amazing, Nonberg and BK snipe, Ted plays a lot, Toto plays very little.

• Jan/Feb - Someone (I think BK) convinces Nonberg to purchase Little Big Planet. We play it all throughout dry season. Tim thinks it sucks, but than plays it and realizes its awesome. We play it until we get to a hard level with bombs and missiles, and we kinda give up. COD4 is still played consistently. Ted plays it much more often than anyone else and somewhere down the line surpasses Elliot as king of COD. We also start playing TA on a somewhat regular basis. Post swim season Elliot starts a game called Oblivion. Fight night may have been played once or twice to settle an old score between two past Casa roommates.
• ALSO CHECK OUT OFF-ROAD VELOCIRAPTOR SAFARI, IT'S AMAZING.
  

• Mar/April - Alfreddy moves in and starts playing Need for Speed Pro Street. When he drag races in a car with a panda on it, the gods smile and everyone is happy. Elliot and Nonberg plays Oblivion a lot. COD is played occasionally.

With 5 weeks left in the term, will the tides change? Will TA get played as much as it did? Will we all whip out our game boys and start playing pokemon instead?
Who knows? Honestly, as it gets nicer out, we'll probably (hopefully) be spending more time throwing around the vortex than getting vortexed into watching Elliot kill cat-begger-lion mages who give him quests and tell him about rumors.