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Category Archives: Site Updates

My Top Ten Posts of 2011

Posted by Rob on January 1, 2012 – 11:52 am

Filed under Music, My Personal Life, Randomness, Sacred 2, Site Updates, TV Shows, Video Games
Tagged as 2011, american idiot, big bad bob, bigbadbob, character build guide, firefox, ghost, google analytics, google chrome, green day, high elf, internet explorer, jurassic: the hunted, nedna, oneonta, PlayStation 3, PS3, ps3 review, rogue, Sacred 2, safari, shadow warrior, Simpsons, skyrim, stumbleupon, top ten, undertaker, web traffic, wrestlemania, wwe

With the start of the new year, I will once again take a brief look at my ten most popular blogs of the past year (thanks to the cool tools available through Google Analytics. I’m really curious to see which old blogs are still getting activity, and which new ones were strong enough to make their way into the top ten. Before I get into that, I just want to spout out some statistical info:

My site had 69,771 unique visitors over the past year

9,536 of these visitors liked my blog so much that they became repeat visitors

42,852 of these viewers found my blog off of a typical Google search, while 16,831 came across my site via StumbleUpon

42,969 visitors were from the United States, 6,282 were from Canada and 5,536 were rocking from the UK

The average visitor spent 31 seconds looking at a particular post before leaving the site

31,240 visitors used Firefox, 20,858 used Chrome, 11,540 used Internet Explorer and 8,665 used Safari (I wonder if next year will be the year that Safari beats IE)

Now on to the blogs!!!

I’m Back (Though I Never Really Left)

Posted by Rob on April 8, 2011 – 5:09 pm

Filed under My Personal Life, Site Updates, Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, co-optimus, dead nation, facebook, google buzz, job, north carolina, platinum, plugins, raleigh, teaching, trophies, trophy, twitter, work, WP to Twitter, wwe allstars

All’s been quiet on the Twitter/Facebook/Google Buzz front as I stopped linking my blog to these formats. I never stopped blogging, but I sure have been getting less traffic coming here. So I guess I’ll publicly explain the story now.

A few months ago, I received a comment to a Google Buzz, which was picked up from Twitter, which was picked up from my blog. Basically, an ex-employer saw this blog via Google Buzz and then wanted to offer me a job. He somehow found Shell’s phone number and called her in an attempt to find me. He then left me a comment after calling my wife. She was a bit weirded out by this, as was I. First off, if he noticed my blog via Google Buzz, that means he knows my e-mail account, so he could have easily shot me an e-mail to make his offer (which I wouldn’t have taken regardless, since it was a crummy, boring job.) Secondly, since I did work there I would think he would have my phone number more readily available than Shells. Thirdly, who the heck comments on a Google Buzz with a job offer?!

All in all, the whole situation was a bit creepy, and it felt like I was being stalked. After this incident I made my Facebook account private (something, for whatever reason, I didn’t do with my Twitter account) and I removed the links between my blog and Twitter and Google Buzz. So for the past few months, I’ve been blogging away and whatnot, though most people didn’t know about it. About two months ago one of my co-optimus buddies was wondering where I’ve been, and I told him the gyst of the tale. Then today, he asked after me again, and he also gave me the idea of just making my Twitter account private. When I read that, I couldn’t believe that I had done that with Facebook and not Twitter! So I went to Twitter, made it a private account, and then reactivated the WP to Twitter plugin on my blog. So I’m back in the game! Read More »

Cooking/Food Category Now Food & Drink

Posted by Rob on February 19, 2011 – 9:51 am

Filed under Food & Drink, Site Updates
Tagged as beer, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, cooking, f.n.beer, Food & Drink, food & drink, restaurant, wine

Since this site first started up, I had a blog category titled “cooking/food”, which is where I lumped my adventures in the kitchen along with restaurants we ate at and different things we drank. Today as I was writing up my previous blog on my brother-in-law’s F.N.Beer, I realized that I didn’t like lumping beer and wine talk into a category called “cooking/food.” So I went ahead and changed it, and it will now be called the more stylish “Food & Drink.” This category fits about everything to do with consuming anything, so it works for me.

My Top Ten Posts of 2010

Posted by Rob on January 24, 2011 – 8:39 pm

Filed under Books, Food & Drink, Geocaching, Movies, Sacred 2, Site Updates, TV Shows, Video Games
Tagged as aliens vs predator, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, captain morgan, combat arts, Gathering Storm, geocache, Geocaching, google analytics, high elf, jason lee, king of kong, lime bite, my name is earl, PlayStation 3, posts, PS3, Resistance, Sacred 2, shadow warrior

Last January, I checked out my top ten most viewed blog posts ranging from when the site started in April 2009 until January 2010. Today I was using Google Analytics to see how my site traffic has been the past week, and I decided to see how it was for all of 2010. While some of my posts continue to be popular, it seems that some new ones from the past year have swooped in and usurped some of my posts from 2009. So without further ado, here are my Top Ten Blogs of 2010 (in order of visits received):

Finally Updated to WordPress 3.0.1

Posted by Rob on August 10, 2010 – 10:22 am

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as 3.0.1, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, plugins, Wordpress

I’ve been kind of slacking, and never updated my ol’ blog. I think I was running on WordPress 2.7.something probably, it was so old. I guess I was afraid of losing content if I updated and it didn’t take well.

Today I backed up my blog in case something went wrong, and then went ahead and updated. It worked fine, and everything is still here (I just had to reactivate some plugins.) I don’t really see too many changes yet, aside from a cosmetic change to the backend of the blog. But since everything went well, I guess it’s all good.

A Less-Personal Site

Posted by Rob on June 26, 2010 – 7:48 am

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, family, friends, personal, site, wedding

In order to try and make my site more accessible and less cluttered, I removed a lot of the personal stuff. I had about three pages with all kinds of personal information about my wife and myself, as well as a page devoted to our now-past wedding.

Now as you can see, the only pages that remain are the main ones, the reasons I built this site in the first place…video games. While I will continue to post the happenings in my personal life, the site is definitely going to take a turn to being geared towards other stuff that don’t necessarily have to do with me.

To those close friends and family members: the family site is going to kind of be the replacement to what I am taking away from here. Once again, if you need the address, hit me up.

New Site Page: Game Reviews

Posted by Rob on April 12, 2010 – 11:40 pm

Filed under Site Updates, Video Games
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, Boom Blox, demo, DS, ds review, first impressions, ghost squad, Mario Strikers, nintendo wii, PlayStation 3, PS3, ps3 review, PSN, psn review, quick review, Resistance 2, review, Sacred 2, super smash bros. brawl, video games, Wii, wii review

In an attempt to make my game reviews easier to find, I have put them all in one section. Now if you go to the “Game Reviews” page, you will see an alphabetical listing of all the full reviews, quick reviews, and demo reviews that I have done, broken down by system (PS3, PSN, Wii, and DS). You may see the same game listed twice, but that’s because I wrote a quick review, and later wrote up a full review for the same game, and can’t bring myself to get rid of my older posts.

Also, as a heads up, many of the Wii game reviews really stink. These were mostly done on my old blog (thejournalofronconnery), and I didn’t really have much of a professional feel back then. Thus, many of them will only be a few sentences long and contain no pictures. I also realized that as I went through all my game review posts, some games I never reviewed that I should have (particularly Uncharted 2, Resistance 2, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Sacred 2), and that a lot of my Wii game reviews are way to short, and don’t do some of the great games any good (like Boom Blox, Ghost Squad, and Mario Strikers Charged.)

From now on I will update this page continously as I add new reviews, whether they be for new games or full updates of the games I only skimmed over.

Enjoy!

My Top Five Traffic Sources

Posted by Rob on January 19, 2010 – 3:58 pm

Filed under Randomness, Site Updates
Tagged as big bad bob, bigbadbob, blue host, co-optimus, google, google analytics, tweet, twitter, web traffic

So again as I looked over some reports in Google Analytics, I came across one that stated where my site traffic came from. This was pretty interesting as well.

1. Google

No surprise there, since it is the biggest (and best) search provider

2. Direct Traffic

This was a big surprise, with most people directly hitting up my address

3. Google Images

Kind of goes along with google. I didnt realize they would be counted as two different sources.

4. Co-optimus

This was good to know. I post regularly on the site, and I have my website embedded in my sig, so I guess thats where it comes from.

5. Blue Host

I guess its nice to know that I get some traffic thanks to my site’s provider.
All interesting stuff. What I guess Im surprised at is that my Twitter tweets arent making it onto the list. Either google analytics doesnt interpret it as google, or maybe no one clicks on my tweets when they link to my new posts…

My Top Ten Posts of 2009

Posted by Rob on January 19, 2010 – 12:51 pm

Filed under Board & Card Games, Books, Sacred 2, Site Updates, Video Games
Tagged as arkham asylum, Axis & Allies, batman, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blog, book, character build, combat arts, demo, Gathering Storm, high elf, nhl, PlayStation 3, post, PS3, Resistance, review, Sacred 2, shadow warrior, Whale Wars, Winter Classic, Wolverine

Ive had the site since April, and I was curious to see what my top ten blogs were. So I went into my Google Analytics records and checked it out. I love using Google Analytics, and its so much easier than trying to read the reports from Blue Host. I knew two of the posts would be up there, but others were quite a surprise.

1.Explanation of Combat Arts in Sacred 2

This came as no surprise. I knew from looking at other reports that this was my most popular post. I think I did a search to see why, and there is some combination you could put in about Sacred 2 and combat arts that landed me on page one on google.

2. Whale Wars Sucks

This also was not a big surprise, and was the post that had the most random comments. If you google the term whale wars sucks, I come up at number four, which is awesome. Man, I hate that show…

3. My Shadow Warrior Character Build Guide

Another post I knew was very popular. I had made a build guide for the Shadow Warrior in Sacred 2, who seems to be the most popular character to play as. Thus, this was a pretty big hit on my blog.

4. My Announcement of Future Character Builds in Sacred 2

For some reason, a post about what I intended to do in the future made it to my number four most popular post. It doesnt really do much but say “hey, pretty soon I will start making some character build guides.”

5. Axis & Allies 50th Anniversary Edition

This one was a surprise. I didnt even play the game…I just commented on how cool it looks and how much I would love to play it. Man, I need to get some nerd friends up here to play a game of A&A…

6. Resistance: Gathering Storm Book Review

This one was also a surprise. I dont know how it got on here, but my little review of a fairly unpopular book (as far as I can tell) made it to #6 on my blog. Bravo Resistance. Bravo.

7. My Guess At an NHL Announcement

This post makes me laugh. In July the NHL announced that it would make a major announcement at Fenway Park. Common sense told me that that would be the location of the 2010 Winter Classic, and I indeed was correct in my guess. The best part is that this post did not get popular until December, when the Winter Classic was approaching.

8. Batman: Arkham Asylum Demo Review

This only cracks me up because my review of the demo is more popular than my first impressions of the full game… Hmmm, I just realized that I never wrote up a full review of the game…

9. Wolverine Game Review

This came as a complete surprise. I didnt notice that my review of the Wolverine game was this high up on my blog.

10. My High Elf Character Build Guide

I thought this one was going to be more popular. Its my build guide for the High Elf in Sacred 2.

So there you have it, my top 10 most popular posts. Thanks for looking, and I look forward to seeing how it changes in the coming months.

Updated My Shit List

Posted by Rob on January 19, 2010 – 11:30 am

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as albany, Hillary Clinton, money, oneonta, research paper, shit list, work

I was just going over my Shit List (I keep forgetting I have one), and I made some corrections, as you will see. I have removed “working” and “research papers” from my Shit List. For one, now that I havent been officially working in like 8 months, I miss the moneys, so yeah, I like to work. Secondly, I want to confirm that I do in fact enjoy writing out research papers. I think I added that to the list while I was at Oneonta, and before I learned the joy of researching historical notes and writing about it. However, last semester I had a choice of writing a research paper or preparing a unit plan, and I chose the paper because I missed writing them.

So those are my corrections. Everything else on there knows why its there. Im talking to you, Hillary…

Things Almost Back to Normal

Posted by Rob on September 24, 2009 – 5:55 am

Filed under Site Updates

Well, I found the last two remaining problem posts this morning, and removed the bothersome code from the html. Now all the posts are up and running in IE.

My only remaining problem with IE is that the posts look bad. If you look at my blog page in FF, all of my blog titles are nice and neat within the black box of the post. However, in IE many of the blog titles are above the black box, so they are kinda hanging out on top of the post rather than within the post’s box.Its not that big a deal, but it looks ugly. Steve was successful in helping me out last night with the coding problem I was having, and now I must call on his help again to fix this. He’s my only hope!!!

Sorry for the technical issues

Posted by Rob on September 23, 2009 – 10:19 pm

Filed under Gadgets/Tech, Site Updates

Apparently the past week or two my site has been pretty much down, and I had no idea. What Ive been doing is writing up blogs while student teaching in MS Word, and then coming home and pasting that into wordpress for my blog. A few days ago Shell came up to me and was telling me my blog was down, but when I checked it it looked fine.

Eventually I realized that while Firefox had no problem with it, IE did, and when I copied my Word document into wordpress, it caused a string of code that IE cant read, thus ruining my blog.

So Im aware of the problem, and will be fixing it either tomorrow or Friday at the latest. I hope this didnt turn anyone off from my site or anything…

Sorry for the Barrage of Posts

Posted by Rob on September 1, 2009 – 7:37 pm

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as barrage, big bad bob, bigbadbob, blogs, posts

As you can see by all the posting I did tonight, Ive been slacking off, and have been behind. I think Im caught up on everything I wanted to say, so thats good. Hopefully I wont be lazy anymore, and will post more regularly.

So Much to Learn

Posted by Rob on June 28, 2009 – 10:34 pm

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as Bluehost, hosting, web site, Wordpress

I was curious to see how much traffic my site was getting, so I went and checked out the control panel to see if I could figure it out. I couldnt so I got some live chat going with the Bluehost help. Turns out, I never turned on the option to track visitors and other stats, so thats sad. I was successful in turning it on, so I’ll start keeping track now.

But I ponder…what else am I missing out on? I mean, I would think that stat tracking would be available from the get-go, not some hidden option that I had to enable. I wonder what other neat features Im missing out on due to not knowing whats going down…

Hello Social Sites!

Posted by Rob on June 11, 2009 – 10:28 pm

Filed under Randomness, Site Updates

So I set up my blog here to send out tweets to my Twitter and messages to my Facebook accounts whenever I post a blog here. Pretty good deal.

Thanks to anyone who happens to stumble their way over here. Leave a comment so I know whats going down.

My Big Bad Italian Wedding

Posted by Rob on June 8, 2009 – 8:45 pm

Filed under My Personal Life, Site Updates

I originally had wedding info on Shell’s page. But I decided that it warranted its own separate page, you can now check it out under the “My Big Bad Italian Wedding” page. It may seem a bit plain now, but Im working on it.

My Videos

Posted by Rob on April 16, 2009 – 3:59 pm

Filed under My Videos, Randomness, Site Updates
Tagged as bigbadbob

I will now begin putting my videos as blog posts. They will appear under the catagory of “My Videos.” I think it looks neater that way, then having a bunch of links to youtube where the videos are. Enjoy my past stupidity.

Giving Credit where Credit is Due…

Posted by Rob on April 7, 2009 – 3:47 pm

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as bigbadbob, PS3

Ok, so I guess I should make it clear that I am NOT doing this all on my own. Steve has been a big help, and thus far I owe him…three beers. I am definitely not techno-efficient, and am lost with simple things on how to make the site and blog function. Steve has pried himself away from Brain Age on the DS and RE5 on the PS3 to help me out.

Huzzah!!!

bigbadbob113.com is up and running

Posted by Rob on April 6, 2009 – 6:23 pm

Filed under Site Updates
Tagged as bigbadbob

So the site is ready to rock, for the most part. Basically, I was waiting to find a wordpress theme I liked, and then edited the appearance of the site to reflect it. Thus, instead of the old black, green, yellow, orange colors, Im now using black, blue, white, and gray.

Im happy with the overall look of it. Of course, now I am going to start fine-tuning everything. The site is very basic right now with no pics or images, but over the next few days that will change. Im off of student teaching all next week for Easter/Spring Break, so I will be spending a lot of time on the site then.

So enjoy my new site!

New Site Rocks…and so does the blog

Posted by Rob on April 3, 2009 – 8:08 pm