Thanks, Internet. You Work Weird

I know a little bit about SEO, and I consider my blog somewhat more successful than average, but every now and then, the way the internet works just surprises me.

I just finished my second best month ever in terms of readership, thanks to a couple of random flukes (the first best month, by the way, came from having StumbleUpon sending 1,700 people to my blog in one day--also kind of a random fluke). 

Fluke of the month #1: Sometime towards the end of May, all the EFY kids came to Provo. They bore down on us like a swarm of pre-pubescent squirrels with ADHD who were trying really hard to impress members of the opposite squirrel gender (seriously EFY kids, if you were to take a moment and look at all of you from the outside-in, you'd realize that you're trying waaay too hard to impress people). And for whatever reason, about 654 people Googled "EFY kids" and came to my blog to look at this image:

This happens to be on the first page of my 'efy kids' Google image search.

I find this ironic, because I didn't make this image. Some dude on the BYU Memes Facebook page did. All I did is find it and share it. And my blog went crazy for it.

Then, last week, another 141 people came to my blog in one hour, just because someone posted about my BYU Memes post to the Cougarboard.

So this is what the last month on my blog has looked like:

So here's what I find so weird about this - last month, I put up two Draw Something Posts (here's the first one about Hitler, and here's the second one about Batman). Both of them have drawn quite a few people to my blog. These two posts contain orignal art that I'm fairly proud of.

However, the biggest traffic driver to my blog was a post where I just copied a bunch of other people's jokes onto my blog. In academia, this is called plagiarism.

The second biggest driver to my blog was someone else telling people that I did a really good job at plagiarizing other people's work!

By the way, this is exactly how Reddit works.

The moral of this story is that my original content will never be as compelling as someone else's, and that the internet rewards plagiarism.

Thanks, internet?

Thanks for the Memories

On Thursday, March 25, the BYU basketball team was defeated in overtime by Florida in the third round of March Madness.  My school has only made it to the Sweet 16 one other time in  history, so I'm pretty proud of them.  Of course it was very disappointing when they lost, but I don't want to go into a commentary of the game here.  I just want to put up some of my favorite memories of the season.

 This season will forever be defined by Jimmer Fredette--the man, the legend, the star of the media hype.  I wrote about the start of super Jimmer Mania here.  Lets take a moment to look at some more Jimmer memes:

The Testaments of one team and many 3-pointers

Jimmer's fanbase extends beyond generations.

And lets not forget the coaches:

The fans made some super memorable signs:

Yahoo! Sports even did a story on the Ten Best Jimmer Signs:
1. "John Stockton is really here to see Jimmer."
2. "Physics says NO. Jimmer says YES."
3. "Jimmer Crossing, Brace Yourself."
4. "Romney/Jimmer, 2012. Jimmer/Romney, 2012."
5. "Cougs bring style ... And today's fashion is Jimmer."
6. "Jimmerica: Land of the three, Home of the shaved."
7. "It's Peanut Butter Jimmer Time."
8. "Gonzaga, a bunch of Jimmerish."
9. "Who needs 7 footers when you can have 27 footers?"
10. "Happy St. Jimmer Day."



But those are only signs found at the first two tournament games.  For a while, I couldn't go anywhere without seeing some Jimmer Mania:

Valentine's Day at the Testing Center

The Bowling Alley

Wal-Mart

And then there were the fan videos:

 

 

Plus THREE Sports Illustrated covers:

To Jimmer and the rest of the the BYU team: Thanks for the memories.

You Got Jimmered!!

It all started with a letter to BYU's campus paper, The Daily Universe:

Letter: Idol worship

Mon, 02/07/2011 - 21:02

"I cant walk across campus without hearing Jimmer Fredettes name a dozen times. His name comes up everywhere: in class, at work, during lunch really, people? Cut it out with the Jimmer worship. Last time I checked, idol worship was very much frowned upon in the scriptures. Dont you have a life to live? Then quit wasting it in front of the TV or in lines at the Marriott Center. At the very least, stop trying to convert those of us who dont follow BYU sports and dont care that baseball and badminton are two different things. Pushing basketball on us isnt going to make us like it any better.

Im not blaming Jimmer for all this; was it Nephis fault in the Book of Mormon when his brothers worshiped him? As far as Im concerned, Jimmer is perfectly free to live his dreams. If he reaches his goals and lives his dreams, more power to him. I would like the same courtesy from his fans: let me live my own dreams in peace, even if they dont include ever sitting in the Marriott Center screaming my brains out.

Michelle

Apple Valley, Calif"

When I first read this, I didn't really think too much about it.  The Daily Universe gets loads of crazy letters to the editor from "shocked and appalled" BYU zoobies (everything from saying BYU shouldn't celebrate Halloween to criticism for using the word 'evolution' in a headline).  But oh did this get some sparks flying.

In case you've been living under a rock or, like Michelle, never follow sports; Jimmer Fredette is a senior at BYU who is currently the top scorer in the NCAA.  He sinks 3-pointers like a fat kid sinking toddlers' floatation devices.  He's kind of a big deal.

Michelle probably didn't think too much of her letter either.  But she made one critical error: she posted about it publicly on Facebook.


 

 Well, this opened quite the floodgate.

I want you to keep in mind that this is only a small sample of the comments that were posted.  Within 20 hours of Michelle's letter, she received over 500 comments.  Yes, you read that right.  You can read the page in its entirety here. 

Pretty quickly, the response to Michelle's letter went viral.  Everyone on campus is talking about it.  2 News in Utah did a bit on it in the evening news.  Even ESPN.com took notice.

What I find most ironic about all of this is how Michell's letter did the opposite of what she intended it to do.  Since it was published, 'Jimmer Worship' has been taken to a whole new level, and I think it's hilarious.



The reason the Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness
is because they tried to find the limit of Jimmer's range.



Jimm-ception

"Must be in the sealed part. . . "



The Jimmer has touched MC Hammer.



Yes, Jimmer can make it from here.

 

He didn't even have to walk to Mordor.  Jimmer just chucked it from Rivendell.

"Let Jimmer garnish thy thoughts unceasingly. . ."



For being such a good sport, someone even extended an olive branch to Michelle:

This is what I love about BYU:  so far, no one has said anything profane, unintelligent or overtly mean spirited.  Instead, BYU has shown the web that we know how to have some good, clean fun. 

Good times.