Jake’s Life

The comment form now gives you the option to subscribe to comments on that post by e-mail. I’m still working on ways to give readers the option to subscribe to individual post comments through a customized feed instead of Wordpress’ default subscription to all comments.

It definitely blew me away when I looked at my stats this morning. Each month I’ve been setting goals for unique visitors to my site and RSS feed subscriptions. Yesterday I gained some new subscribers and my stats more than doubled for the day. Maybe it has to do with the photo of Justin Timberlake playing with his junk, or with the many posts I’ve been churning out about Wordpress lately, I’m not sure.

Now that we’re on the topic of web stats, and since I haven’t posted about them in a while, they are on a steady rise each month. The beginning of every month I set a goal, higher than the last month’s stats, and try to get out as much content as I can, especially having to do with the posts that are most read on my blog. I also have to thank my referrers, led by Jay for the last 5 months straight, followed by Frozen Underwear and Our View On Superior. My own Blogger profile comes in fourth place, which could be linked from any comment I made on any Blogger hosted blog.

Other miscellaneous facts about my web stats:

So tell me, why is it that my stats have seemed to increase, but my comments have not? I still spend my time each day posting at least five or six comments on various blogs. Are my posts not open-ended enough? Not engaging enough? Interesting enough?

Recently found iconlet, a search engine for icons. Book mark it!

[iconlet.com - icon search engine - free icons, images for your project]

Hot.

This post is long overdue. I realize that I left everyone hanging with the last part of my coming out story, so here’s the rundown to finish it up. When we last left off I had left the home of the person who had taken me in.

After I moved out I moved in with some friends, then some other friends, I was able to afford my own place. My very first place…it brings back a lot of memories. A 450 sq. ft. studio…$605 a month! Anyway, despite being tiny and expensive, I spent a year here before moving into what I consider to be my favorite apartment/living situation I’ve ever had: It was a 1200 sq. ft. one bedroom right off a main “gay” area, the living room was the size of my living room now, plus the two smaller bedroom. The bedroom was big too, and the kitchen had more cabinet and counter space than I would ever have needed. I was only paying $650 for the place.

It was in this apartment that I got my cat, and it was here that I was sitting when I found out from my grandmother that my mom had died a few minutes beforehand. Based on the previous posts on my coming out it’s not hard to see what my being gay did to my mother, and to our relationship. I’m an only child, and she was an only parent, and our bond was pretty strong.

The few weeks prior to my mother leaving her body we started talking again. Due to the pain she was constantly in it was heart breaking: She didn’t know who I was sometimes, often she couldn’t understand me through the pain, and she could barely talk. The day before she died my grandmother put the phone up to her ear and I started talking, but all I heard were moans and sounds of the pain she was in.

Anyway, the only person in my family that I am still close with is my grandmother. She recently moved out of my uncle’s house and into a senior apartment building about a mile away from me. In each other’s eyes, we’re all we have when it comes to family. To be honest, I don’t really mind that this is true, all except for my mother. The other morning on Thanksgiving I realized that Christmas was right around the corner, and some of my best memories during the Holidays was with her. Sure we didn’t have much money, but we had each other. It was really hard for me to even leave my bed. Sometimes, despite what happened with my coming out, it’s really hard to not think about her. My grandmother suffers from this even more. It’s hard to watch your child die, and in many ways that’s unnatural. The only reasons I am as strong as I am is because I know she isn’t, and I have to be strong enough for the both of us.

Why am I going into all of this even though my story has covered when I came out? All of this is directly related to my coming out, and I believe that things would have been different if I either didn’t come out or my mother had taken it better. I also want to show readers of my blog the different paths one can be set on when they do come out, what risks there are, and how lucky most of them are to just get a cold shoulder from their family when they find out. I have to say, I have little patience for people who wig out when their parents have shown nothing but love all their lives, have hinted to them that they know, and the person (or in this case, blogger) still freaks out about telling them. News flash buddy, they know, they’re just waiting for you to show the trust with them that they have with you. Knock off the “what-will-I-do-what-will-I-say-how- can-I-hide-it-from-the-people-who-love-me-the-most-in-my-life” mentality and cherish the time you have with them while you can. Chances are that others have already bore the brunt of your coming out negativity so you don’t have to.

I’ve been looking for a way to manage my Wordpress blog while away from my computer. Pocket Internet Explorer can only do so much and while Opera Mobile renders the Admin back end well, it’s too slow for my taste (and T-Mobile’s EDGE network). The WPhone plugin for Wordpress formats the admin interface of your blog originally for an iPhone, but works with most mobile browsers.

You can do everything from the mobile interface that you can from the original one, save for uploading files and a few other things.

[WPhone plugin for Wordpress 2.1 and up] via [Wordpress.org]

Every other blog in Google Reader has a title with “Thanksgiving” in it. Geez, is nobody thankful for what they have all year long? Or do you guys just not show it all year and make up for it on one day a year that you pull your head out of your ass? Well, onto what I’m thankful for:

I’m thankful for my grandmother, Gammy. She has been with me through more shit than anyone else has been.

For Sandro, who puts up with my bullshit when I’m moody, comforts me when I’m in pain, and loves me for who I am.

My friends and co-workers (often one and the same) who stick with me and haven’t given into the shit going on at work.

My job, which pays my bills. Many people don’t have them, often because they don’t want them bad enough to go get one.

And my kitty, who loves me unconditionally because she knows she would starve without me.