I was preparing a new header image for the Eyebrow today and noticed that I hadn’t put up three others from over a year ago! So, today you get a four-fer, with no extra charge.
Introducing headers 23 through 26, appearing randomly on the Evil Eyebrow near you.
Of course, now I notice a typo in number 25 (Quabbin) which I’ll fix eventually.
I did some blog administration today, with a bunch of behind-the-scenes updates and changes, most of which won’t be noticeable. However, there are three new things that will directly impact you, the user (assuming you read the site, rather than an rss feed).
I’ve been meaning to make this site mobile for a while, and whilst I was at it, I figured I’d take care of a bunch of other items as well.
That’s it. You can return to you regularly scheduled web experience.
Yesterday I had two people post links on a Facebook discussion regarding the Ashford Dunwoody diverging diamond. Apparently this drove a lot of traffic. In fact, it upped my site traffic by 1.5 orders of magnitude.
So, welcome everyone! Here are the aggregated posts on the diverging diamond, or you can just peruse the blog.
Update and Correction:
Whoops. From an analysis of the traffic I received, I see that only about 0.5 orders of that magnitude came from facebook (still, Welcome!), the rest came from the hacking that had occurred yesterday.
Update no. 2!:
Welcome to everyone who’s coming in from Applachaintrail.com. You’re presence is welcome, too!
The Eyebrow got hacked sometime recently. It was pointed out to me today by a kind commenter. I believe I’ve slain the beast, but to be double sure I’m going to make some upgrades. This will include changing up the “secret keys” that WordPress uses for site security.
The only thing this means for you is that your comments will probably get dumped into the moderation queue, even if you’ve been previously approved, as described in the comments policy.
Have no fear, I’ll approve them as they come in.
6/19/12 Update
I believe I’ve cleaned everything out. If you notice anything, please let me know.
Two days ago I alluded to a sea change coming to the Eyebrow. I may have been guilty of just a bit of hyperbole, yet what is happening is unprecedented.
There are now two authors on this blog!
Everyone welcome Thomas Chapman of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He likes long walks on the beach and puppies and tells me he plans to spend most of his time writing about the NFL. I expect that we’ll see other items of interest as well, occasionally.
The Eyebrow hasn’t been very sports themed to date ((Go Braves!)), and I think Thomas’ contributions will contribute to the diversity that we like to see. I already know he’ll raise the level of analysis around here.
The why and how of Tebow-time
If you are a football fan, or even reader of any type of news, you witnessed the phenomenon that is Tim Tebow. Recently, Tebow was traded to the New York Jets. This doesn’t add up, for two reasons. Why would you trade such a mesmerizing player, and why of all the teams did the Jets trade for him? Let me recap Tebow’s accomplishments before we dive into that.
The Denver Broncos were 1 and 4 heading into their bye week of the 2011 season. Coach John Fox made a change at quarterback, putting in the 2010 first round draft pick Tim Tebow. He was a star at Florida in his collegiate career where he won a Heisman and national championship, then week seven rolled around where he officially became a starter. Tebow went on to win 7 of the next 8 games in an unorthodox fashion. Tebow would play near awful football for three quarters and then magically become an all-star player in the fourth, winning most games right at end and catching everyone in the football world’s attention. He would make plenty of plays with his arm but what was so outstanding is what he did running the ball. He was like a fullback playing the quarterback position. It was amazing to everyone, except the Broncos GM John Elway. The Broncos won the division and hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers in the wild card playoffs. Unbelievably, The Bronco quarterback lit up the Steelers defense and advanced to the next round on an amazing over time play. Tebow and the Broncos would later on lose to the eventual AFC champion Patriots. Denver’s great season came to an end, but they had accomplished so much, digging themselves out of the 1 and 4 hole and making it to the divisional round of the playoffs. And this was all thanks to Tim Tebow. He rejuvenated not only the offense with his leadership but also the defense, which played stellar football in that 8 game stretch. Tebow, in short, is awesome and puts fans in the seats.
Which brings us to Tim Tebow being traded this offseason. John Elway, the general manager, traded away last year’s starter after bringing in prized free agent Peyton Manning. Of course, Manning is an upgrade at the position. But Manning was also out all last year with a neck injury and is 36 years old. Manning may last 2 or 3 years at best. This obviously means the Broncos want to win now while the long time colt has some gas left in the tank. So why not keep young, up-and-coming Tebow around to learn under Manning? Well, here’s the thing: John Elway never liked the former Heisman winner. Every General manager wants his guy out there on Sundays, playing his kind of football, and Tim Tebow didn’t fit Elway’s mold. He wasn’t there when the organization drafted him and when he inherited Tim Tebow, he made sure he was a bench player. When John Fox decided to put Tebow in, Elway didn’t think it would work and was just as surprised as America when it did.
Now in this off season, Elway got his guy. He brought in Peyton and later draft Brock Oswieler out of Arizona State. Now Elway has his current QB and reassurance for the future. No more awful first three quarters, no more heart-retching football games, no more unconventional styles of winning, no more Tim Tebow for John Elway.
Now, why the Jets? Who knows? New York could have tons of excuses for bringing him in but really, I think it all comes down to popularity. The Jets had an awful season last year, missing the playoffs and having quarterback play that was below average. New York says there is no quarterback controversy, but come on, it’s the Jets. They love having the media talk about them. Rex Ryan predicting super bowl wins every press conference, Bart Scott’s famous “can’t wait!” line in the 2010 playoffs, the locker room drama, so on and so on.
Overall, Tebow is a rare player and person. Wherever he is, he will make an impact. People want to see him play; they don’t want him on the bench. I predict, at some point this season Tim Tebow will take the starting position form Mark Sanchez and wow us again, but this time for an organization that actually wants some Tebow time.
You may notice slight changes in the blog look (if you don’t take advantage of the rss feed). I’m screwing around with a few things here and there to update the site a bit. Mainly typefaces, image stuff, a few tweaks around the stylesheet, etc.
For example, I bet you didn’t notice that there was a very light grey margin on the image uploaded to this entry. Of course you didn’t! Because I already changed it! Clever me.
So, if you notice that there seems to be something odd or broken about the website, never fear. Come back in a few minutes and it should be better, if ever so subtly different.
I’m bowing to the inevitable.
Nay, not the inevitable, the apparently inexorable.
Facebook is Juggernaut, and for now it’s where the expletive deleted happens. So, I’ve installed Wordbooker on my WordPress blog. That means that every posting will also post to my Facebook Wall. No longer will I have to go over to Facebook to alert all you poor saps who only play on Facebook that something interesting is happening over here.
I will refrain from tweeting about the new postings, but that means that anybody who only follows me on twitter won’t know. Alas, I will deal with the bereavement of my followers in that respect.
So, watch out! Here comes the Evil Eyebrow to Facebook. Now with 1000% more evil. ((This is in the nature of a test post. If it shows up on FB, great! Otherwise, I’ll have to figure out what went wrong))
So, since the grand re-hosting of 2011, I’ve apparently not been receiving emails from my WordPress install telling me things like, “You’ve got comments in the queue!” or “Somebody just tried to hack your account” or “You’ve got 800 gazillion spam comments waiting for deletion”. All of the email settings that were part of my WordPress setup had been zorched and I’ve just now gotten around to fixing them.
So, my apologies to those of you who’s comments were left in limbo for a while.
I’m on a new server again. This time it’s Dreamhost and this time it looks like we’ll be here a while.
To celebrate, here’s a picture I shall entitle, “Stop or I’ll Highlight Again!”
A while ago, I decided to make a move with all of our various websites and domains from their home of old to a new web hosting service. This process was going well when, alas, the new hosting company decided to close its doors.
Our current status is:
After the announcement, I asked some folks what web hosting companies out there they recommend. For the record, I’ve been using Crystaltech since the beginning and have always been satisfied with their performance and service. My only complaint is the amount of money I’m spending. Crystaltech is definitely in the top tier of expense.
From the various suggestions I’ve decided to go with Dreamhost. I could use GoDaddy, and they’d be cheaper, but I am in principal opposed to a web hosting company that advertises during the Superbowl.
For now, I’m going to leave Screen Space and JBWR where they are, in case there are complications. This will make Jenn happy as both the Eyebrow and Talking Traffic are my responsibility and problem; if I break them, well then it’s all on me.
I’ll let you know how it goes.