I Got Boortz’d, Fark’d and Stumbled Today!!!!
WHAT a day this has been! I don’t think I’ve had quite this much blogging related excitement since I started blogging. Its not like its the FIRST time I got a high profile link. I’ve had a high profile link here and there that created what I thought was a big buzz. I’ve gotten stumbled a few times. I admit that I enjoyed watching my traffic counter spin and thought that was just loads of fun. Now I know that those were just minor league compared to what happened today!! Maybe some of you are accustomed to hundreds of thousands of people coming to your blog, but I’m not. My poor ol’ site meter is worn slap out.
Being a blogger, one of the first things I did when I logged on today was look at my site meter. Its an obsessive-compulsive ritual kind of thing I do. Well, my traffic was pretty high (for me) so I thought isn’t that nice. Of course, that lead me to looking to see where it was coming from. It turned out that Neal Boortz had linked one of my post on his front page. How cool is that!!! I was all excited.
I checked my stats again and the dadgume thing was just twirling as fast as it could. So I went back to my blog feeling quite pleased with myself and when I refreshed my site it wouldn’t load. And it wouldn’t load. And it wouldn’t load. I wasn’t getting THAT much traffic. I called my ISP and they said that they were doing emergency recovery. They said it wouldn’t be a problem, it was just a couple of thousand hits an hour, they just had to rearrange a few things. They said give them a couple of minutes and things would be back to normal.
I went and did some laundry and came back and this time my blog said my account was suspended. I started to call my ISP again but before I could my ISP called me. The tech supervisor called to tell me that I’d been Fark‘d!!!!! I had no idea because I wasn’t able to get to my blog. I told him to PLEASE get me back on line. He said almost 300,000 had tried to access my blog pretty much all at once and it had crashed the shared server Blue Star Chronicles is on which shut down 100 other blogs and websites. They had to shut mine down so the others could get back up. Okay, I understood that - but when would they get mine back up and how would they get mine back up. I ended up being on the phone with that poor guy for what seemed like hours while he shuffled things around so they could carry the load. Meanwhile, my site was down more than it was up during the biggest influx of traffic. That meant that I got none of the work done on it that I had intended to do today - but tomorrow is another day.
Long story short - we ended up putting the post that had gone ‘viral’ (does that traffic constitute viral?) on a plain html page and redirected traffic there so that I could get my blog back up. That of course, left me not getting the comments. You can read them here if you are interested.
The story has since been stumbled and is on numerous forums including the History Channel forum and I don’t know how many websites and blogs. All of them pale in comparison to the traffic that Fark brought here.
Of course, during the bulk of the traffic my blog was down, so I didn’t get to watch my site meter twirling around to all that traffic. But it was fun none the less.
The post that created so much interest was one I wrote about a week ago about the 80-year-old Green Beret who was court martialed for shooting an intruder. We created an html page to handle the load. You can read it here.
Since you can’t leave comments at that post due to the traffic being redirected to the html page, you can leave comments for Smokey Taylor here if you like, although there are a couple hundred comments at Fark about it.
If only I had to get used to that much traffic!!!
I’m just glad my little post helped in its small way to get Sgt. Smokey Taylor the attention and honor he deserves!!!
Sphere: Related Content
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:03 am
Beth…how wonderful for you ! Couldn’t happen to a nicer person !
Well deserved traffic…you have worked so hard !
Now…how ’bout ya kick Murtha is the fanny again
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:01 am
(After the trial he said the ammunition was indeed old and added the new information that the perp had soiled his pants as he crawled out of the house.
I would have had an even worse mess to clean up if it had gone through his forehead, Taylor said. It was good for both of us that it didnt.)
I think it would have been a real mess to clean up after hearing that. That Gentleman is a real PATRIOT and my hat goes off to him
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
oh my. this is the funniest and yet most sobering story i’ve heard this year.
props to you for defending your home and your family.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:45 am
We all love good stories like this but it’s still too bad that the bullet didn’t go throw his head. One less elderly abusing thug would be gone. I just thank God it was Smokey who came face to face with him.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Speaking as citizen of the USA, I would like to thank every one that serves their country- retired or not! This man is a hero many times over! Most boys today have nothing on the gentlemen of yesteryear. @>-
February 2nd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
That story is just, so cotton pickin EXCELLENT! It made my day.
Thanks Folks.
>-)
February 2nd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
That absolutely is a delightful essay! Well written and thoughtful.
Congratulations on the Boortz’ing!
Too bad you didn’t research it. Didn’t I read the exact same essay a week earlier at PCFreezone?
Nice cut and paste!
Pale Rider
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:13 am
Beth, I know what you went through, some HBO forums linked my article on the final episode of the Sopranos and the YAHOO servers went down. In fact, I updated my article but it wouldn’t publish for hours.
Good for you.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:48 am
It’s Neal (not Neil) Boortz.
BSC: Thanks for the correction - I fixed it. I actually knew that - just typed it too fast.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 am
Kudos to you Sgt. Taylor. Thank you for your service to our country. As a police officer of 18 years, I am glad to see that someone can defend their property not face any jail time. I disagree with your court martial, however, and think it was a waste or taxpayer’s money. No matter what you were taught about weapons, you have done your time in the service and should not be punished by the military anymore. It’s too bad the shot didn’t penetrate. That could have saved the taxpayers even more money. Now we have to waste money on a trial. Great job, keep up the good work.
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 am
Cool deal, Beth!
February 3rd, 2008 at 9:44 am
Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup - Super Bowl Edition…
Happy Sunday! The Sun is shining, the birds are singing, the Super Bowl will be played (surrounded by way too many commercials and an idiotic halftime show.) Another fantastic day in the USA. These pinups are by Ted Hammond, no need to add the Flag,…
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:19 pm
You Mr Taylor are an asset to our constitution and may i say thanks to you for your years of service to the free world.
THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart.
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Pale Rider - if you notice in the first sentence I wrote that I saw the story at PCFreeZone. I don’t take stories without giving credit as to where I found the story.
Besides, Chrissie is a friend of mine. I wouldn’t reference a story I found at her site and not give her credit. The original story was at military.com so in essence we both cut and pasted the story and then put our own comments on it.
More importantly, this story isn’t about me or Chrissie. Its about Sgt. Taylor.
Sorry if that upsets you.
February 3rd, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Good Shot Good Shot Good Shot
February 4th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Give me Smokeys home address and I will send him some CCI Hollow points for his .22 calibre pistol. The velocity of these rounds is around 1700 FPS. Which should get the job done in the future..
February 4th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Will you please run for PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?!
February 4th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
OUT fucking STANDING Sgt!
I will be happy to send you a box of hollow-points that will surely do the job right next time.
As the post will have a problem with that, I would be happy to send a $20 to cover any future ammo needs, although I am sure your fellow chapter buddies are hooking you up with the right ammo as we speak.
Keep up the good work Sgt!
Carry on.
==chuck
February 5th, 2008 at 12:56 am
There are a few of US that understand the soft lead .22LR’s use for the quiet jobs. Smokey my Brother you missed his eye or nose but you are Number One with me. This story gave me a laugh such as I haven’t enjoyed in far too many years. Your generation of SF NCO’s trained and led me and I remain in awe of you even to this day. I will share your story with many of our brothers. I completely agree with Ms. Curry with her recomendation of ammunition selection. May God bless your life and ease your nights and days. If you guys keep having this much fun you’ll end up with your own TV show. ;^)>
February 7th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Good for him! I will gladly donate ammo(stingers) to him
February 11th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Right between the eyes!
Good shooting, Sgt. Taylor!
From one old vet to another, I salute you.
HOO-RAH!
February 15th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Great job !! Smokey for President , has my vote !!
February 17th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
This old retired AF Officer says many thanks to a fellow serviceman..and if I may…Semper Fi!
February 19th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Bravo Smoky!!!
Everyone knows that the French are the biggest cowards in the world so why would an organization of the world’s finest choose to honor you in French? I have no idea what all those French words mean so I think you should review the above contradiction and maybe consider using the language of the Fighting Scots if you need another language other than English.
Randy Thompson
DaNang 1967-68
March 4th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I am the Secretary for Chapter XXXIII (33) Special Forces Association. We are the ones that Court Martialed Smokey Taylor. One of our members wrote this article and, evidentally, posted it on the Wire Service. Please rest assured that Smokey is a well loved member of this Chapter and the trial was all done in fun. Each of us being Retired or former Special Forces (The Green Berets) Soldiers would have done the same in a heartbeat. For those that thought this was a waste of Tax Payers money, we leave that to our Politicians. They need no help from us.
We try to do something like this at each of our Quarterly Meetings. It is really so much fun and we get so many laughs from doing so. I have to hand it to you, you have topped us all. We have gotten so many more laughs from reading your comments. So keep it up and may God Bless each of you.
Bennie R. McDonald, Secretary Chapter XXXIII, SFA