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Tag: Chris Stocker Inc.

Weird Words How People Found My Blog

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I was running my monthly Google Analytics reports from the many websites that I manage.  I usually don’t look too much into the stats for this site because it is simply a personal site and the number of readers and subscribers doesn’t mean more money I make, unlike the other sites that I manage.  But I decided to take the time to look at some of the keywords that were bringing people to my blog.  Below is a list of the top 8 keywords that brought people to my blog and a short explanation of how I THINK it happened, and questions as to why and how people are even coming up with these search phrases.

Top 8 Keyword Searches

  1. Recent Misleading Store Ads – this one is pretty simple.  I had a few posts about how CVS was printing an ad that advertised a certain test strip on sale for a box of 25, but yet not a single store even had it in stock.
  2. Diabetic at Pei Wei – this one is a little weird.  Maybe someone was thinking of eating Pei Wei and they wanted to see if other diabetics ate there?  Not too sure, but I did find a Fired Up Friday post about places not having many drink options for diabetics.
  3. I am Diabetic and I still love to eat a lot? – Well, this one doesn’t make me feel too great about myself if that is how people are finding my blog.  I have a lot of posts on here about my weight though and my journey of trying to lose it.
  4. Is my life over when I am diabetic? – Short answer, NO, it’s just beginning!
  5. sexhollywood.blogspot.com – Ummm….ok?
  6. “Submit a guest post” – money – seo – Looks like somebody was trying to make some money off of my guest posting week.  No shame in it, submitting guest posts is great for SEO purposes, but I would expect a phrase like that on my business blog, Chris Stocker Inc, and not on here.
  7. Chick fil a diabetic – Ok, this one just weirds me out, sort of like the Pei Wei one.  Once again, I think the only post it could be about is the limited drink options.

So, these ones weren’t that bad, but there was about 1,000 other phrases, but these ones were just the most common out of them all.  What are some of the funniest / weirdest keywords you have had people enter your site through?

Life of a Diabetic Weekend Recap

Chris Stocker

First, I want to thank you all for your feedback, RT’s, and comments from the Fired Up Friday post about drink options.  I am glad to hear that I am not just being a drama queen (or would it be king?) and overreacting to something like this.  Anywho, the weekend was great!  It of course went by way too fast, but I accomplished a lot.  Friday night, Amanda and I were going to see that Shutter Island movie but decided to wait a week or two so there is not as many people there when we go to see it.  I hate being in a crowded movie theater, I don’t like tight spaces.  Plus, since I’m diabetic, my blood sugar can get high as we all know and I will need to run to the bathroom a million times during the movie.  Since, we decided not to go that night, we didn’t do anything.  My blood sugars were still a little high all night Friday, in the 175-190 range.

Saturday morning was the WordCamp Miami conference, so I was up at 6:00 a.m.  I got my stuff ready the night before because I knew I would forget either my meter, or extra insulin, or a couple extra infusion sets, etc.  The conference was a lot of fun and I learned a lot more about WordPress then I initially knew going down there, so it was well worth it.  If you are interested in that type of geeky, web stuff as well, then read my other blog as well, Chris Stocker, Inc. because I don’t talk too much about on it here.  Saturday night we headed up to West Palm Beach for the Opening Night of the Waterfront.  It was basically just some streets blocked off and lots of food, beer, live entertainment.  I’m not so sure about the exact history of it, but I gave you a link if you’re interested, but it was fun.  Amanda and I ate at some Mexican place and the insulin didn’t seem to take, so that type 1 diabetes thing I have made the sugars a little high, about 275.

Sunday morning was another little community thing that Amanda, her brother, and myself went to.  It was in Lake Worth, FL and it was some outdoor thing where artists and kids were drawing on the street with chalk, it was actually pretty damn cool.  I’m having trouble with my camera uploading things, so I will post some of the pictures tomorrow from it.  Other than that, it was time to go home and get to work.  I have a few blogs that I am almost finished designing for clients and a couple of other websites that are still in process.  I’m getting a little stressed from the work, but after these couple projects are finished it will slow down because there aren’t any other large projects lined up right now, but I prefer to be extremely busy like that.  The busier I am, the more of these I drink.Rip It Sugar Free Energy Drink - Diabetes

Finally, for the bad news.  My ear is still clogged up pretty bad, so I am going back to the doctor on Tuesday to just make sure that I don’t have an infection or something else worse going on.  I found a place that will accept the insurance, so it won’t be as much money to pay for this visit.  I really appreciate all your help and suggestions.  The Neti Pot worked miracles, but it doesn’t keep it un-clogged, it always seems to clog back up after I use it, or sometimes it doesn’t even work.  It’s just becoming frustrating right now.  But, just another obstacle to overcome when you have a life of a diabetic

My Three Words of 2010

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

I have been extremely busy since the end of the year up until just the last couple of days.  I was either sick, spending time with my family up north or just doing regular holiday type things.  During this time I decided to step away from the computer and take a break, just get away if you will.  I have been catching up on e-mails that I have just been flagging that I wanted to go back and read.  I subscribe to Chris Brogan’s blog.  He writes great material if you are into the whole social part of social media.  He came up with his 3 words for 2010, as he has done over the past few years and this has inspired me to do it as well.  In today’s blog on here, you will read about how these words affect my personal life.  On my business blog today as well, I am writing about how these three words affect my business.  If you would like to read that as well, go to my Chris Stocker Inc blog.  Now, onto the three words: growth, dedication, health.

Growth

When I sat down to think about words that could describe what I want to either accomplish or work at this was one of the first ones that popped into my head.  Even though I have been 6′ tall since the 8th grade and haven’t grown since, well not vertically at least, that’s not the growth that I mean.  I want to grow as a person, a human being.  Over the years I have caught myself saying to myself, “how would you feel if somebody did that to you” and I look back at situations and feel horrible.  Whether it is yelling at a customer service rep over the phone, it’s not their fault, they are just doing their job, or getting impatient at an elderly person driving in south Florida (for those of you that live here you know that’s at least once before every stop light!), or even being short or rude with Amanda or family or co-workers.

In 2010, I want to work hard to not be that type of person and to grow into becoming a bigger and better person at heart.  Be more considerate, take others feelings into affect more often.  I don’t want this to sound like I’m some inconsiderate prick right now because that’s not the case, but there is always room for improvement and that is where I want to be.

Dedication

What’s the point of having goals and setting benchmarks if you don’t have the dedication to stick with these things. How are you to lose weight when you can’t dedicate 30 minutes a day to exercise or eating a healthy meal.  In 2010 I plan to work hard at dedicating myself to tasks that I put my mind to, no matter what it is.  Exercising, work, business, relationships, anything.  There is no more laziness in my life.  Sure there will be things that I have to give up, but what I gain from them will help me get back what I am missing.  What do I mean by that?  Here is a perfect situation that usually happens every day.  I have two options, watch tv and spend time with Amanda or work out and be healthy.  If I make the decision to work out then I am losing out on that 45 minutes of spending time with my girlfriend.  Well in the long run, by working out and spending that 45 minutes to exercise, I am saving myself who knows, maybe 1-2 days or even months added onto my life in order to spend more time with her in the future.  Dedication is about being able to see the long term goal and pushing yourself to get to it.  Knowing that what you are missing out on now will come back ten-fold in the future.

Health

I think this word pretty much summarizes the entire thing.  This year I have set some goals for my diabetes, in regards to my weight and A1C.  With plans that I have worked out already, this should be manageable.  Becoming a healthier person will make me happier, feel better about situations and I feel grow as a person.  I will need dedication and growth within myself to get to this healthiness that I am seeking.

As you can see all three of these words fit together in the end.  Do this exercise yourself if you haven’t already.  Also, like I said if you would like to see how these three words relate to the other side of my life and how they all interact with each other than check out my other blog as well.

Have a great day everybody.

Long Days, Late Nights, No Sleep

Chris Stocker

Last week was filled with a lot of work, I mean a lot of work for me.  I have been working on continuing to re-design this blog because to me it just doesn’t seem right.  Is it easy for you to read, anything distracting you, or fonts too difficult to read?  Along with that blog I have been working on a re-design on the other blog that I write about internet marketing and social media, Chris Stocker, Inc.  I have also been updating the Facebook accounts I have, and my LinkedIn, and Flickr, and about 10 other things including designing a website for my new company, CSI Marketing Solutions, LLC.  I also recently read Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuck, which if you want to get things and not sleep for about a week, I recommend that book.

With all of this work, and it’s not been completed yet, I foresee the same thing going on this week as well.  Last week from Monday-Friday I slept, in total, about 15 hours.  I was going to bed at 3:30 and waking up at 6:30 and getting back at it for an hour before I would begin getting ready for work.  See I work a 9-5, and run a business and do contract work on the side so I need about 8-10 hours a day to do that.  Then there is the 2 blogs that I write on a daily basis which adds about another 10 hours a week.  So, adding that up, we’re looking at around 20 hours of work a day, and no time for sleep.  This picture pretty much sums up my week last week.Coffee and SF Red Bull

Typically, the later I stay up, the more my blood sugars go up.  It’s basically a hand in hand thing.  I tend to start eating snacks in the middle of the night as well because I am up later and getting hungry and need to eat something.  I told myself last week that I am not going to let this happen, if I’m staying up later, I will make sure my sugars don’t go crazy.  I have done a pretty damn good job of it.  Throughout the nights my sugar didn’t really go over 200 maybe once or twice.  Here is a breakdown of my morning sugars this past week (my best ever):

Monday – 112

Tuesday – 88

Wednesday – 94

Thursday – 104

Friday – 125

Friday night however ended up being a different story.  My sugar, after being great in the morning, just shot up all day long and didn’t come back down.  It was on average about 325, with a high of 496.  I went to the movies to see Saw VI and I went to the bathroom when I got there and then I usually will go right before the movie starts so I don’t miss any of the movie.  So, I went as soon as the previews started but when I came back I told Amanda that I feel like I already have to go again.  I just thought that maybe my jeans were a little too tight and they were pushing in on my bladder, because that sometimes happens if I’m wearing a pair of jeans that don’t fit me the best.  About halfway through the movie I just had to go again, I couldn’t hold it any longer.  And for those of you that know the Saw movies, you know you can’t miss a second, because something is going to happen.  I literally ran out to the bathroom and ran back within about 20 seconds and didn’t miss anything.  As soon as the movie was over, I had to go again.sawVi

When we got out to the car I tested and that’s when I was at 496.  I was about to correct, but I knew that it was a bad site, so putting more insulin into it wasn’t going to do a damn thing.  I took just a little bit just so it wouldn’t go any higher, I knew it wouldn’t bring it down, but I was just trying to eliminate an even higher number.  Once we got home I took out the old site and was getting the stuff together to put in a new one.  Well guess what, I couldn’t find the pretty blue insertion device to put in the infusion set.  Finally after digging through my room Amanda found it, in the first place that I looked.  In the morning when I woke up my sugar was down to 185, so it went down.  Saturday was a little of the same story, high all day long, but not as high, this was in the mid 200’s.  So, I wasn’t sure what was going on.

Throughout the daytime hours my sugars aren’t going all over the place either.  Even with drinking about 4-5 cups of coffee and drinking at least 1 energy drink, sometimes 2 a day are not affecting my sugars. The coffee usually does, but energy drinks don’t ever make a difference on my sugar levels.  I know that the sleep deprivation is not good for me, but I don’t plan on doing it for a while, just until I get this work finished and everything is up and running.  I just fear that when I am done with the work and want to go to bed early, I’m not going to be able to because I will be so used to staying up later.

We shall see.

Doctors, Deductibles, Diabetes, Contract Work – OH MY!

Chris Stocker 1 Comment

Doctors and deductibles.  Both have things in common, but also a lot of differences as well.  You don’t want to have a high deductible, just as much as you don’t want to have a high doctor.  Your happy when you meet your deductible, hopefully you are happy after you meet your doctor.  But then comes my discussion and dilemma, which I know a lot of you share with me.  Do you skip or hold off on visits because you have met your deductible and then in two months it sets back to zero and you have to start all over again?

I need to go to the dentist because it has been almost a year and a half since I last saw my old dentist back in PA.  I don’t want to go right now because I haven’t met my calendar year deductible.  So why not just wait until January 1, right?  My endo was fine with that decision except that I said the same thing last year as well, which is exactly why I haven’t seen a dentist for as long as I have.  So then I started to think, is it just a lame excuse to not go and see the doc?  I also need to go get my yearly eye exam.  I do believe, however, that I went for a check-up earlier this year because I needed a new prescription for my contacts and needed new glasses.

Now, some of you may be thinking, how in the world have you not met your deductible this late into the year?  I got a new insulin pump in January, I have infusion sets, reservoirs, transmitter and sensors for my continuous glucose monitor (CGM), but they were all billed from an out-of-network provider, so that ate up my out of network deductible, but didn’t touch my in-network.  All of my doctors are all in network with the type of insurance that I have.  And of course the money that I pay every 90 days for my insulin does not go towards my deductible, why would it?  So that leaves me with only one thing going towards it and that is my doctor’s visits.  So until I meet that deductible, there is no co-pay, it is strictly going towards the deductible.

I started seeing my new endo back in May or June, don’t exactly remember and I have had monthly, well every 4-6 week visits since then.  And since the insurance isn’t covering anything yet, I’m sure you know much it is costing me for these endo appointments.  So I am paying a monthly premium for my insurance, but still paying monthly doctor bills.  I guess it could be worse because I don’t pay anything at all for my pump supplies and testing strips, at least not yet.

Now, getting a little off of the deductible topic and into a more general insurance topic, private insurance.  For those of you who have been reading my blog for a while, you know who I work for, and that has been disclosed before the FTC crack down on it.  Any who, I receive insurance from them as a full time employee.  I have also created a company within the last 60 days as well.  This wasn’t really a planned thing so I will explain it briefly.  I had friends and relatives that knew I was really into geeky, cool, tech things like website design, blogging, and social media.  A few people needed help getting started on Facebook and Twitter etc.  So then I said well why not start getting paid for doing this stuff.  Then it started to evolve and had people asking me to do their PPC campaigns, (Google Adwords primarily) and also some organic SEO stuff.  Now I definitely have to charge for that type of stuff because it is not the easiest and quickest stuff to do.  Do I have to disclose when I am talking about my own company?  Well, just in case, I own Chris Stocker Inc, with 10% of all profits being donated to JDRF.  Now you know the story, here is the question.

Since I am diabetic, I feel restricted that I have to work for a corporation that will offer me insurance.  Is this new PPC / SEO business paying the bills?  No, not really, so I’m not looking for this to be a full-time gig or expand it into something large with several employees, then in which I would be able to get some group insurance.  This is just something that I am extremely passionate about and love to do, so I do it on the side and would love for my career path to follow this way.  The only problem with that is a lot of work in this industry is done on a contract basis, and there’s no insurance in contracted jobs.

So what am I to do?  Are there any of you out there now that do this type of thing or any contracted work?  Or own your own business?  Like I said before, at this time there are no plans to expand to the level needed for insurance.  I would really appreciate all of your help on this.