Tag Archives: Harrison

Analytical review of 2010

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As done in mid 2009, I decided I should take a look into this past year – with relation to website vistor analytics. For someone like myself, seeing these datasets is very fascinating and raise some very important technical points – with regard to technology (such as browsers, software platforms etc.)

Take a look at the post from 2009 (Review of noelharrison[dot]net) if you would like to compare results. When reading this post, do note that the data collected by the statistics package is not 100% accurate. It is near impossible to give exact figures when it comes to tracking visitors.

From the beginning of January 2010 until the end of December 2010, noelharrison[dot]net has seen over 5950 new visitors and over 165000 page hits. The blog has used over 1,6GB of bandwidth.

From the statistics generated, it is clear that the more I write, the more visitors I get (this is obvious). The monthly unique hits have grown from early January at 384 to 731 in December 2010.

When looking into the day and time that people view the website the most, the following was discovered; People view the website most on a Sunday and a Monday between 11am and 1pm.

The following I found most interesting. I am able to track great amounts of geographical information. Certain packages are able to break it down to suburb level, however for this blog post, I will keep it nation based. As it normally is, the United States of America ranks in first place. The interesting second runner is the Russian Federation. South Africa is third and Great Britain is fourth. Other nations in order – after fourth are;

  • The Netherlands
  • Canada
  • France
  • Germany
  • Romania
  • Ukraine
  • Brazil
  • Latvia
  • Australia
  • Japan
  • Italy
  • Indonesia
  • South Korea
  • Czech Republic
  • Malaysia
  • India
  • Finland
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Poland
  • Austria

The next bit of interesting information is the content that viewers have found most interesting – based on the number of views. Ranking very high up is the first blog post on noelharrison[dot]net, Government Intervention; Destroyer of the Free Market and the Hot Top: Gaza / Israel.

Again, on a more technical note, 67.9% of all viewers on the site were Windows users and 18,8% are Macintosh users. I have looked at the hits to date this year, I am very proud to say that Macintosh is on top in 2011 (I do wonder how long this will be the case).

Browser wise, in 2010, 47,2% of viewers were using Internet Explorer, 17,1% were using Firefox and a small 14,5% were using Google Chrome. In 2011, I have seen that Google Chrome is sitting at 49,1%, Internet Explorer at 26,2% and Firefox at a dismal 6,9%.

I have found that posting on Facebook is a huge traffic driver to the site, along with Twitter and actually interacting with other blogs – ie. commenting.  Some of the top keywords used to find noelharrison[dot]net are:

  • Economy
  • Free Market
  • Intervention
  • Forces (economic)
  • Production (economic)
  • Interference
  • Government
  • Africa
  • Life

In conclusion, there has been dramatic growth of traffic on the site, which is exciting. The site has made it onto the first page of Google, in 2 or 3rd position over the singer – Noel Harrison. Silly, but it is a rather large challenge to compete.

Im looking forward to huge growth in 2011. Thank you for reading. Comments are always appreciated and generally (if need be) responded to.

Noel Harrison

The Vineyard Hotel & Spa

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I was lucky enough to of been introduced to the Vineyard Hotel and Spa in Newlands. I was there on Sunday, 2 January 2011 and then again today (3 January 2011). It is a beautiful setting – much like the Kirstenbosch gardens. On a pleasant day, the outdoors seating is perfect.

The setting was enjoyable and I found it great to get away from busy shopping centers at this time of the year. This will most defiantly become a regular location for me when I am in the area. Price wise, I would say that it is on par with a normal coffee shop that one would find in any shopping center.

One line summary: High quality service and cuisine in a perfect setting, at an affordable and competitive rates.

The address is: Colinton Road, Newlands, 7700.
Online: www.vineyard.co.za

2011 is here!

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Above: Photo taken on 1 January 2011.

So 2010 is gone. 2011 is upon us. I can honestly say that 2010 was an amazing year. I have learnt many new things, worked very hard, had great experiences and some not such amazing ones. I guess that is part of life – the good and the bad times. However, we learn from both – I finished this year with a very positive attitude with some amazing friends that I have got to know other the last 12 months.

As I traditionally do (if one can call it a tradition – considering this is the second year I am doing this), I would like to give an overview of 2010, and then also talk about my plans for 2011.

Looking Back:

  1. Possibly the most memorable experience this year was the experience of loving someone – for me this was very new.I mean, I love my family and many of my friends – so I speak of a more romantic type of love – I have gained love and lost love this year.

    However I do not regret it – I have learn so much from the process and also have come out as a better person – this person helped me make many important decisions in my life – for one – urged me to register to study in 2011.

    For this I am grateful  - I needed a kick to get that done. With love comes a fair amount of pain – this I have also experienced – yet again – I do not regret this at all – it was such an amazing experience.2011, I will be open to love. Something I was always closed to – I thought I never needed anyone else.

    So, thank you.

    “If you love someone, let them go: If they return to you, they will be your’s forever; If they do not, they were never your’s to begin with.” – Anon.

  2. In April 2010, I decided that I needed to follow my vision. I left a company I was working at for around 6 months and started my own business again – SpinningYourWeb.I started SpinningYourWeb in 2005 – when I was 13.

    It is now going into its 6th year of operation. It is finally looking financially viable and I guess this is testament to the power of hard work, consistency and dedication. I love my work – this helps greatly.

    Someone wise said something along the lines of – do what you love, then it is not work.I know where I want my business to be – I know where I want my life to be. I will succeed.

    “There is no chance, no destiny, no fate, that can hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  3. I have made many great friends. I love my friends. They are what keeps me alive, keep me from loosing my sanity and who are there for me when I am going through a rough time. Without them, I would be nothing.In 2011, I wish to get to know my friends better, to become more involved in their lives and in general, to build some more amazing bridges.

    “You can have friends as numerous as leaves on a tree, but only one good friend will change your life. My life has been changed” – Davide Mancinelli

Looking to 2011:

I have divided this section into two – personal and work.

  1. Personal:

    I have many aims in my life.  One of my aims is to be the best friend I can be to those who mean so much to me. I want to always keep my eyes open to new relationships and bridges that can be made. I find I have a very closed mind – this year, I want to expand my horizons and I want to be open to new things and new experiences.

    I start my studies this year, while working a full time demanding job. I made a decision to drop marketing and to move to my initial interest (which I was talked out of in 2010). I will be starting a long process of extending my education.I will be starting a Bachelor of Commerce in Economics. I would like to take this far – how far – that I am unsure of.

    I want to live a healthy life style in 2011. I want to remove things that make me stressed or add additional complexity to life.Life is not meant to be complex and difficult. Living a healthy life includes relationships (both friendships and romantic), healthy eating, fitness and such. I want to be fulfilled in all these areas – however I want to be open to what fulfillment is in these areas.There is so much I could say with regard to my personal life, however as I experience things – I will write additional blog posts.

  2. Work:

    With regard to work, I aim to continue my commitment and dedication to the businesses growth and success. I want to work harder – I often feel I do not put my all into my work.

    I guess it is important to do this – in order to reach the maximum potential. I need to be more harsh on myself and I need to force myself to work towards goals.In mid 2010, I launched a software project called Capital Software. This product has been in development for over 5 months. We have a number of clients wanting to license this software. This is very exciting for me – I would love for this to become the core of my business – and I know that it has the ability to become financially viable early on in 2011 as we expand the functionality and make the correct partnerships.

I think that is about it from me for now. I wish all my readers great success in 2011 and I hope that it is a productive year for all.

Here’s to 2011 and whatever it brings us, lets be open to anything.

The Lighter Side of Life :)

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Today I wanted to take a few photos – so I got the camera and looked what was on it. Now understand im not home all the much – so I had no idea what had been happening at home, but as I looked through some of the photos that one of my other family members took – I realised that we had some visitors. Im not going to say they were cute – because frankly – they are darn ugly ;)

Also, I found a few nice shots from the garden. So enjoy.

(CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO SEE LARGER)

- Noel

Clear the kitchen. Im cooking tonight!

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This evening I decided I was going to cook for my family. I went into the kitchen with no idea of what I was going to make – but in the end the outcome was most acceptable.

So incase (by some rare chance) you want to try and make it yourself, here is how to go about it;

You will need the following things;

  • 1 fresh tomato
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 small can / tin of tomato paste
  • 550 grams of ground beef
  • Spices (ginger, cinnamon, chili powder, chili bits, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt)
  • 1 can / tin of red kidney beans
  • 1 1/2 cups of greek style yogurt
  • Olive oil

So now that we have these details, you would go about producing the end product as such;

  1. Wash the tomato and onion
  2. Chop the ends of the onion of and peel the skin (I think thats what you call the layers covering the actual onion)
  3. Chop the onions and tomatos (they can be fairly largely sliced / chopped)
  4. Put the pot on the stove and insert a fair amount of olive oil
  5. Wait for the olive oil to start heating up, then add the chopped up onion
  6. Add the spices all together and mix with the onion
  7. Once the onions have become brown, add the ground beef, kidney beans and tomatos
  8. Add the tomato paste and 1/4 cup of water
  9. Once the ground beaf has cooked, drop the temperature on the stove to a simmering level and add the greek style yogurt
  10. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes

This can be served with rice (as I did) and I also added some peas and corn and a few carrots (more for colour). Hope it works for you.

Enjoy,

Noel Harrison

Introducing Music I Like

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musicilike

So today I was sitting and thinking how much I love music, my first idea was to blog the lyrics – but that was not the ideal for me. So the solutions to this is to release an article “Music I Like” once a week with one of my favorite songs accompanied by a video / slide show of images from the week.

The first one can be seen below. If you have any suggestions, I would appreciate them.

signature2

Noel Harrison