This is a big week for a lot of reasons. I have a very important meeting that could change my future. Tuesday is the end of the “option period” for the contract on our house – meaning if we make it past Tuesday we’re moving. Thursday and Friday my wife has 3 doctors appointments – 2 with surgeons. This is when we find out if they want to do surgery, yet, or not. Big week. Need prayers for wisdom, direction, guidance, discernment, healing and provision. Thank you!
The latest is that we have an appointment with a kidney specialist on Thursday and will be doing several tests to try to diagnose what disease is causing cysts in both of my wife’s kidneys. As you can imagine, it’s tough to wait ’til Thursday. We should know more after that visit. Thanks for your prayers. We can feel them.
Yesterday was an emotional day. My wife got her test results and they weren’t good. We’re now looking at a future surgery on her kidneys and dealing with the big “c” word – as it looks like she has cancer in her right kidney.
The amazing part of yesterday were the hundreds of Twitter responses that I received (plus text messages and phone calls from family, friends and ministers around the country). I saw the Body of Christ acting like the Body of Christ. I know we’re covered in prayer and we move forward with hope and trust in our God who heals.
We still have more tests, doctors and weeks of waiting to make sure we approach everything right. When you think about it – please lift my wife up in prayer. Her name is Chrissy (seen below) and she means the world to me.
***PERSONAL:
Today is my oldest child’s birthday. Grace turns 9 years old today. She’s a blessing beyond words. One of the emotional parts of yesterday was taking her on a walk last night to tell her that her mom has cancer and is very sick. She said she was sad, but knows that God can heal her – just like we pray for others to be healed every night.
Yesterday my son Tommy had surgery. All went well and he is recovering. Today my wife is seeing a kidney specialist – I’d appreciate your prayers as she gets some tests results and we find out what’s ahead of us. In the midst of all this, we’re also trying to sell our home.
Life can be crazy, but I (we) know we have a Rock to hold on to. He is faithful and we place our hope and trust in Him. Thanks for your prayers.
My son, Tommy (age 7) is having surgery today to get his tonsils taken out. This is our first child to have surgery so pray for mom and dad, too. Pray that Tommy isn’t in too much discomfort and heals quickly.
While you’re at it, pray for my wife – she’s having issues with her kidneys and may need surgery soon, too. Thanks!
The following is an article by Daniel Scocco that I found on Daily Blog Tips.
Sooner or later most of us need to collect some Internet statistics. Maybe it is for your homework, maybe it is for a market research you are doing for a project, maybe it is just out of curiosity. Over the years I came across several websites that provide these stats, and I decided to list the best ones in this post.
One of the best resources for people looking for Internet statistics. Their research cover social networking, web 2.0, broadbandand digital divide. Apart from detailed reports you will also find infographics, presentations, trends and surveys. The research topics are quite actual as well. For instance, they already have a bunch of reports and numbers on Twitter.
w3counter provides a web analytics program for website owners. However, they also use the data collected on the websites using the program (over 28,000) to create a monthly report called “Global Web Stats.” On the report you will find the most popular web browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions andcountries.
The w3schools website also publishes a report with browser, operating systemand screen resolution statistics. One advantage of this site over the previous one is the fact that you can see at a glance the market share evolution of the different browsers over time. They have data going back to 2002, and there is also a section about the adoption of JavaScript.
If you are looking for Internet usage and adoption statistics from around the world, this is the website to visit. It comes with data regarding the total number of Internet users, a break-down by continent and penetration rates. The data seems to be updated frequently as well.
Not all of us are Alexa fans when it comes to traffic estimations. However, we can’t deny that Alexa has been tracking traffic numbers for a long time, and its list with the 500 largest websites on the Internet seem to be relatively accurate. If you need to get an idea of what are the largest sites on the web, it is worth a look.
Another company that offers decent traffic estimations for large websites is Nielsen. On the free report that is available inside their website they list the top 10 web parent companies, top 10 U.S. web parent companies, top 10 U.S. video sitesand top 10 U.S. search providers. Nielsen also offers a monthly newsletter with the latest online trends and numbers.
Hitwise is a company offering competitive intelligence services. Inside its website there is a section called “Data Center” where you can access all sorts of Internet data. For example, they offer a list of the top 20 search engines, top 20 websites per industry, top 10 search terms per industry and the like. Make sure to check the Reports & Webinars section as well.
8. Point Topic
Point Topic is a research company specialized in DSL and broadband research. Most of their reports are paid, but they have a section called “Free Analysis” where you can get access to a bunch of free reports and studies. As far as broadband numbers go, they are the most complete I have found online. The only catch is that you need to register an account before getting access to them.
If you want to see some data regarding the early days of the Internet (i.e. 1993 – 2000), check this website out. Apparently it was created by an MIT student, and it is not complete, but it does have some data available. For example, you can see the growth in the number of websites, web hosts, and the usage of the different protocols over time.
10. Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief
Verisign is the company responsible for the .com and .net domain registrations. As you can imagine, they have a lot of data regarding domain names, and they provide a quarterly report detailing all the latest numbers and trends on the domain industry. You can download the PDF documents directly, and they are well structured.
For fans of WILCO, IRON AND WINE, DAVID BAZAN, SUFJAN STEVENS, DEREK WEBB – you might dig So Elated’s new Christmas album “The Bewildering Light”. You can get it for FREE by telling 5 friends or pay what you want. I’m always looking for fresh sounding Christmas music – especially stuff with a Sufjan Stevens flavor to it. Check it!
