You don’t have to tell me that in some cases, numbers and rankings on the internet don’t mean anything. There are a lot of webmasters who will tell you that Google’s Page Rank is a mere green line across your web browser. And they might be right. But on the better things…

At the beginning of this year, I made a few goals for myself and my endeavors with the web. One of which was to achieve my dream of working all day from the luxurious (and oh so yummy) Panera Bread. Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

Another of my goals, or shall I call it a fun quest for Blogebrity status or perhaps simply notoriety, was to see if I could climb my way up the blogging ladder and crack Technorati’s Top 100 Blogs list.

This morning I woke up to the pleasure of seeing that my blog surpassed 500 in the rankings. Just thought that was cool, and worthy of a post. Seeing that when my blog started, it was ranked well over 2,000,000. Stay tuned to see if I can be the first person ever to crack the Technorati Top 100 without having a Google Page Rank!

As Shelly and I are minutes away from leaving for Indianapolis, I thought I’d give you all something to comment about. Just wanted to apologize to my good friend in advance.

Today
Bears 24 Saints 10 (Final - Bears 39 Saints 14)
Colts 41 Patriots 21 (Final - Colts 38 Patriots 34)

Super Bowl
Colts 37 Bears 13

In a little over 72 hours from now, I will be subjecting myself to 115 decibels of madness, and will be screaming among 60,000 of my very closest friends! Both Shelly and I will be saturated in blue and white, wearing our #18 jerseys and possibly face paint. We’ll be chowing down on hot dogs, nachos and a whole lot more…

Spending $700 on playoff tickets. Sunday afternoon roadtrips with your wife. Watching the NFL’s greatest player ever whoop the New England Patriots on the road to the Super Bowl.

Priceless.

Not even 10 seconds after San Diego Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding missed the potentially game-tying field goal were my fingers frantically pressing the Buy it Now button on this auction.

I don’t know what made me happier. Me getting the tickets, or that my wife Shelly is a football chick who was dancing around the room singing “We’re going to the Colts game, we’re going to the Colts game!” And I also want to send out a warning to the winner of the Chicago Bears/New Orleans Saints…HERE COME THE COLTS!!!

Have you ever heard of the saying “The customer is always right?” In the line of web design and creating custom themes, I have really learned that this is the case. It’s pretty obvious that satisfying the customer is the bottom line, as it should be, and I try nothing short of aiming to please my clients.

But what about non-paying clients? Well, if you go ahead and take a look at the thread that is occurring on my Blue Zinfandel Enhanced theme release page at Theme Viewer, you’ll see that even those who are using it freely have requests.

As much as I pride myself for being a tech geek, an internet guy and a web-whatever, there have been some things I have avoided to learn simply because I was intimidated by them. You see, every thing I know about computers and the internet is self taught, so when I come into contact with the “Goliath” of new technology, I sometimes have a tendency to run.

Which I did at first, with the idea of Widgetizing my Wordpress Themes. (The concept of Wordpress Widgets was created by Automatic, thus the little logo image I’ve placed at the beginning of this post!)

However, if you read that thread, you’ll see that it’s pretty obvious people want Widget-Ready themes. And since I would like to get my name out there in the web design world, I am happy to jump head first into the pool and do the widgetty thing.

I’ve always wanted to make a list of my favorite blogs, and I am finally getting around to doing that. The following is a list of my favorite blogs of 2006. I encourage you to take a look at these blogs, as they have been influential to me, as well as provided me some great entertainment over the past twelve months. (By the way, these are in no particular order.)

Dooce
For those of you who have never heard the term “dooced” before, you should read what it means. Utah blogger Heather Armstrong contributes in whimsical, sarcastic and sometimes vulgar way on her blog. And I love it. I do have somewhat of a risque side to me, and Heather touches on that almost every day. If you want a taste of how funny she can be, you should read her Frequently Asked Questions page.

Matthew Good
I came across Matthew’s personal blog when I used to frequent Thought Mechanics. As far as I know, Matt doesn’t really contribute there anymore, but he opens himself up very candidly sometimes on his blog. During last year, he went through some pretty rough times, and my heart goes out to him. Matt, if you ever come across this, I’ve been through similar circumstances. Hang in there. (and by the way, I’m still here to do your site design if you choose to go that route!)

Standards for Life
Aside for my love and devotion to my wife Shelly, Natalie and I share in common my other two favorite things. God, and design. I can go on and on about how great of a designer she is, but I’ll focus more on the fact that every few months (as often as she reboots her site) I fall into extreme envy, and want to rip off her design. She is such a talented designer, and I really find value in the things she writes about on her blog. Natalie is a great resource for web standards, as well as Christian writing.

Zero Rule
Repeat after me. Theron Parlin is da bomb. The creator of a top 100 Technorati blog, Theron is hands down a cool guy. Not only is he a wicked good coder, he’s also quick on email. A number of times I have emailed him about cool stuff he’s done on his sites, and he’s responded each time, with some helpful info. Thanks man. Theron was also kind enough to allow my post “If Natalee Holloway Were Black” to end up on his Thought Mechanics website.

Whoorl
Last year, this blog was basically prego mommy meets the OC. Blogger Whoorl (aka Sarah) spent a majority of last year pregnant with her adorable little baby Anders. She’s got a very simple blog layout, which is saturated with some spunk and wit. When I need a break from the real world, I check out to see what kind of recent discoveries of motherhood she’s going through. A fun read, especially for moms.

Shoemoney
The last thing he needs is another inbound link, but I have to give props to Jeremy Shoemaker. Now, a lot of people think of Shoemoney as their Lex Luther, but I have to say that I admire a guy who went from totally geek to totally sheik. Now I’m not referring to his appearance (although he lost a tremendous amount of weight and looks great) but more so his rags to riches story. I will definitely give praise to a guy who spends the amount of time he does sharing such in depth information about his websites and making money. Although I’ll warn him, that my buddy and I (who you met, Shoe, at the Elite Retreat) are aiming to overtake you in the SERPS on certain keywords of that coveted niche you’ve managed to be the pimp of.