Big Brother is Watching

For those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning, you have seen a couple of facelifts.

It started with a bunch of words on a white background.

A few months later, I found a program that let me put a colorful background behind the words.

That was followed by adding an advertisement from Amazon.com, which gave me some blogosphere street cred.

For the last month, my website has been part of a program called AdSense, where they post some rotating ads on my site, based on the subject of my most recent blog.

With all of the new blogs out there, it took more than six weeks to get approved for AdSense, which also monitors the traffic on the site.

For a stat nut like me, it is pretty cool to see how many people are visiting the site.

AdSense also monitors how many times people click on one of the ads.

I have no idea what the formula is, but if I understand this correctly, I get paid based on how many times people click on those ads.

Some days that amount is a Penny, enough to give my six-year old daughter a ride on the moving horse at the grocery store.

Some days it has been enough to buy her an Orange Juice.

But this blog is certainly not about the money, and hopefully it never will be, but I do like the fact that I am able to monitor which blogs get the most hits.

Enter Mat, with one T.

He’s the friend of a friend, who used to write a blog, and introduced me to my new favorite website.

Yes, even better than sirbacon123.com.

It’s called sitemeter.com.

Basically it's the Internet's version of big brother.

If you don't think people are watching -- guess again.

It took seconds to sign up and minutes to add the software to my website.

And for the low low low price of zero dollars and zero cents, I can now:

• See the total number of hits at sirbacon123.com, the average hits per day, the average length of each hit, the traffic prediction for the next hour, day, week and month, which website referred the reader to my site, a world map showing me where the last 100 visitors came from…

But wait, there’s more.

I can also see, pretty much to the second, who is reading my blog and which blog they are reading, at that exact moment.

Now how much would you pay?

Well, not exactly who, but sorta.

Before you think I'm some type of blogging Peeping Tom, the truth is I have no idea who you are, but with the help of sitemeter.com, I can see where many of you are from.

For most people, it lists an IP address and a location.  

It also tells me what operating system you are using, like MacOSX or Microsoft WinXP, along with what browser and the resolution of your monitor.

In some cases, I can even see if you prefer Coke or Pepsi.

I really hope this is not going to scare you away from coming back to my site, but if it does, you should be terrified to go to ANY site.

If some unemployed guy who can somehow manage to put some words together a couple of times a week can figure this stuff out, just imagine what else is out there.

But the truth of the matter is, THIS IS AWESOME!

I log onto sitemeter.com about nine million times a day to see who is reading about my life.

It is by far the worst addiction of my life, even worse than fantasy basketball.

I have absolutely NO idea who is reading my blog in Kirksville, Missouri or Mcallen, Texas or Pine Lake, Georgia or Brookline, Massachusetts.

But I thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing it.

It has been an unbelievable thrill to see people log on from the Czech Republic, Korea, Vietnam, France, India, Australia, Mexico and of course my brothers from another mother in Canada.

And that’s just in the last few days.

Sitemeter.com shows me the last 100 visitors for free.

If I want to spend $6.95 per month or $69 a year, I can monitor the last 4,000 visitors, plus some other cool stuff I’m sure.

As a guy who spent most of his childhood memorizing the stats of the great Steven Patrick Garvey, let there be no doubt, I LOVE NUMBERS.

But the numbers I’ve seen at sitemeter.com have absolutely blown me away more than the four straight years Popeye knocked in 100+ runs in the mid-70’s.

I will never forget the night that someone I have never met, and probably will never meet, gave me my first sitemetergasm.

From thousands of miles away, I monitored as a person from Citrus Heights, California spent nearly three hours on MY website reading 62 of my blogs.

Some wonderful person gave up nearly three hours of their life to read about mine.

Those are numbers that Steve Garvey could only wish for.

The Golden Blog

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you -- BLOG #50!

Cue the band and dancing bears.

Who woulda thunk it? 50 blogs!

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting on my couch eating a Klondike bar watching the Biggest Loser.

Ah, the good ole days.

Three months ago, I barely knew what a blog was and I certainly didn’t plan on writing one, but fortunately that all changed, thanks to Meryl Streep.

I mean Julie & Julia.

After my wife and I saw that movie around Christmas time, the idea of writing a blog on my journey through unemployment seemed like a natural fit.

It was also a perfect way to fill out my day, instead of waiting for future employers to NOT call me back.

Yada, yada, yada, I present to you, Sir Bacon -- a nickname given to me by my six-year old daughter, for no apparent reason.

From my first word to number 28,494, which is where my computer tells me I am at exactly right now, I have really enjoyed discussing my life as a stay-at-home dad.

This could EASILY be a very bitter read and who knows, some people might find that more interesting, but to be honest, that’s just not me.

Am I bitter about what happened? Yes, but a little less each day.

Does it do me any good to be bitter? Absolutely not.

People moved on so quickly, it blew me away.

The people who are still working at my former employer forgot about us before the bodies were cold.

The people who were let go and found new jobs, have their new jobs to focus on.

The people who are no longer employed and haven’t found new work, don’t want to talk about it.

Fortunately for me and my insides, I have found a fantastic outlet to talk about it.

My blog.

I can wake up happy, sad, bitter, drunk, it doesn’t matter.

I turn on the computer and 45 minutes later, we’ve got a new blog.

After writing my first few, I was actually impressed. It made me laugh, sometimes made me cry, but most of all, it made me feel good.

I felt so good about the way my blog was turning out that I started sending it to some close friends and some people I never met before.

People like Oprah, Rosie, Regis, the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Time Magazine...

Well, all of those fine folks did not respond, but someone who did was the editor of Businessinsider.com -- a website with two million hits per month.

To be honest, I’d never heard of them before and I’m not really sure how I ended up with their email address.

Their editor, who replied immediately, said that my blog was “often moving” and he wanted to publish some of the entries.

Where do I sign?

In the first hour on their website, there were 6,000 hits. By the end of the first day, we were in the neighborhood of 15,000 hits.

You can still search “unemployed” and “tv” on their site and you will see that it’s about to pass 35,000.

35,000 hits! Did you hear that Oprah?

That high lasted for several weeks, not to mention a whole bunch of people joined my blog as followers.

A lot of the early comments from readers on the businessinsider.com site were skeptical, make that nasty, but aside from that, the feedback has absolutely uplifting.

One of the people who found me through that story was Nicolas Berube, a writer for La Presse Newspaper in Montreal.

He contacted me a couple of weeks ago, saying that he wanted to do a piece on Sir Bacon.

After Nicolas and I spoke on the phone, for about an hour, he wrote one of the most beautiful articles I have ever seen.

Of course it was beautiful, it was written in French.

French is such a gorgeous language, he could’ve said that my writing is the quality of a third grader and it would’ve still sounded beautiful.

As great as the response was from my businessinsider, the reaction to the La Presse article was even better.

We are talking dozens and dozens... and dozens... and dozens of incredible French-Canadians contacting me to offer their support and their stories.

As I stated before, Canada has always held a special place in my heart, but after the absolutely amazing reaction to the article, I know where I’m moving if the U.S. ever holds a military draft for 40+ unemployed male Jewish TV Producers.

Since that article came out, my followers have stretched over 100.

Of course, that’s not Jim Jones territory, but I’m not serving Kool Aid.

I’m serving reality.

EVERY time somebody adds me and I mean EVERY TIME somebody adds me as a follower on my blog or Twitter or Facebook, I get very excited.

I realize that may sound silly, but it’s the truth.

I was excited when there was one follower, but one zero zero, you’ve got to be kidding me.

I really don’t have any long term plans for Sir Bacon.

I did just buy the domain, www.sirbacon123.com and linked it up with my blog.

(PS -- the 123 are for my three kids.)

I am planning on printing (at least) one “I Believe in Bacon” XL long sleeve t-shirt so that I have something to work out in. If you are interested, send me an email.

I have a multi-million dollar book deal in the works -- well, not quite in the works. The only thing missing is a publisher and the multi-million dollars.

I am planning on a motion picture deal as well. I’m playing me.

Ok, enough with the dreams.

Seriously, the last two-and-a-half months have been amongst the best in my life and I have Y-O-U to thank for that.

Yes, the writing has done me a lot of good.

But when I get a note from someone I have never met before (and probably will never meet) and they say that my story is inspirational to them and to hang there, that’s all I need.

I will leave you with these beautiful words from my new cyber friend, Andre:

• ce qui ne nous tue pas nous rend plus fort’

That means, "whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger."

Damn, that language is beautiful.

P.S. If you thought this blog was long, wait for #100.

Mon Nouvel Amour, Part Deux

Let’s face it, we all just want to be loved.

Whether its a spouse, a boss, a secret admirer or 50+ French-Canadians we’ve never met before.

We all just want to be loved.

Well, I officially feel loved.

Thanks to Nicolas’ article in La Presse Saturday, I will never have to buy my own Pomme Frites at a Trois-Rivieres Junior Hockey game again.

Chicoutimi could be another story.

I have been absolutely blown away by the incredible response from our friends to the north.

From sweet Murielle, who sent me a beautiful note, all in French (a language unfortunately I do not speak), to my new buddy Martin, who just wanted to wish me luck and courage.

The overwhelming message is very clear -- I am not alone.

When Mylene tells me that her husband lost his job in 2009. Check.

And he is 42. Check.

And they’ve been together for 15 years. Check.

I am reminded again that my story is one that connects with others.

And then she says that I am now one of her favorites. I melted.

Or how about the handful of wonderful French-Canadians, who admitted they don’t speak much English, but still took the time and did the best they could to show their support using the language of love.

The postings at the bottom of my blogs have never been so busy.

My confidence has never been so high.

I realize it is “just a blog” and the $60 worth of groceries I bought at the store today are probably coming out of my kids college fund, but I can smell something special cooking here.

Or maybe it’s just burnt toast. We shall see.

But the bottom line is there are a lot of us in this boat and its up to us whether we sink or swim.

Bernard told me that he “saw the same path.”

Helene reminded me to enjoy every moment I am home with my kids.

Louise said that unemployment really brings out your true friends.

Chantal’s severance will end at the end of May.

She says she is starting over for the 4th time. She has been a nurse, a restaurant manager and an air traffic controller, all the while raising an adopted nine-year old son with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

This just in. I have NOTHING to complain about.

And then there was Genevieve.

She said my children are very fortunate to have me as a father and she called me strong and brave.

Unemployed? Yes.

Strong and brave? Thank you, but that’s where I draw the line.

The single mothers who provide for their children without any support are strong.

The millions of men and women in this world who put their life on the line every day are brave.

I am just lucky.

And loved.

Oh Canada

I have always considered myself somewhat of a Canadian.

I definitely love being an American, but Canada has always held a special place in my heart.

My wife and I had a blast river rafting in Whistler.

There was nothing like the Smoked Meat at Ben's Deli in Montreal.

And the Quebec Nordiques will always be dear to me.

R.I.P.

I have enjoyed many memorable moments in the Great White North, but this morning my relationship with Canada reached another level.

Uh-boat a week ago I got an email from Nicolas, who said he enjoyed my blog and wanted to write about it in the French Newspaper, La Presse.

Little did I know that it was one of the biggest papers in Canada.

I hadn't heard of La Presse, although on a trip to Quebec City in the early 90's I do recall buying a French paper to read about my beloved Nordiques.

Of course, the only French word I knew was fromage (cheese), so gathering info was quite the challenge.

I spoke with Nicolas for about an hour on Thursday when we discussed my life, my unemployment and my blog.

This morning his article came out.

It took about five minutes for Benoit to reach out to me.

Nine minutes later it was Mehdi.

That was followed by Louis, Oza, Yves, Duane, Michele, Guy, Sophie, Caroline, Pat, Chantal, Seigneur, Francois, another Caroline, Thalia, Andre, Martin, Sylviane, another Andre, Genevieve, Murielle and Charles-Alexandre.

Now that's a wake-up call.

The incredible and positive feedback for my blog has absolutely blown me away.

So far, "Sir Bacon" has 39 official followers on the blog, 26 on Facebook and 22 more on Twitter.

Believe me, I am not bragging, but rather pointing out that there are many wonderful people in the world.

Nobody NEEDS to read my blog, not even my close friends, but to have so many people reach out with such a sincere message of encouragement has been overwhelming.

And then factor in the most recent response, from a foreign country, speaking s foreign language and this is crazy nuts.

I definitely realize, now more than ever, that a hardship such as unemployment has no borders or boundaries.

But every and I mean EVERY response I get still amazes me.

Like the note from a man this morning who lost job and lost his marriage and he is doing what he can to provide for his daughter.

He told me that my blog made his day.

My blog made his day.

Correction Monsieur, your note made my day.

Once again I am so humbled and so appreciative of what Nicolas has done for me and apparently what I have done for others.

All I can say is Merci Beaucoup.

Sincerely,

Sir Canadian Bacon