Brief Experiment In Installing Ezoic Back on July 27th

Today, with low visitor numbers in the morning and with nobody on the website, I decided to attempt to re-install Ezoic to see if my basketball website would still function properly with its integration, and to my knowledge, it was installed successfully.

However, it brought in a whole new set of problems.  I tried to figure out how to block certain ads, and I went into ad categories to try to do it, and I did not want political ads on my site, and I definitely didn't want to see ads relating to Trump.   I do not endorse him at all, but those ads started flooding my website.  Even when I tried to block those ads, those ads kept flooding in.  It was infuriating, especially since I keep reiterating, I'm not a tech person.  🤷♂

On top of that, even though the ads were showing, the Ezoic counter wasn't tabulating the revenue from those ads today.  But I especially did not want those ads on my website.

It was infuriating.  I had blocked political ads, and had tried to block the Trump ads specifically, but those ads kept showing up.  And suddenly, it wasn't just one ad.

Like a horror show, they started covering...the WHOLE....page.  By trying to block and report those ads, they suddenly started popping up rapidly, and it was not listening to what I was trying to tell the Ezoic app to do.  I felt like I had no control over the Ezoic app or through the ad program, and it was as if it ran on some sort of odd, Google-based algorithm.

So I did what I felt had to be done again.  I uninstalled the Ezoic app, because I felt like I couldn't control what ads were being shown.

Maybe in a downtime, maybe I'll see if the Ezoic app will behave in a way I want it to.  But for now, it's uninstalled again.  And just maybe that's okay.

Website Incompatibility Issues

Awhile back on September 18th, my basketball website was able to install Ezoic onto its platform, after months of tedious hard labor and website renovation.  We had moved away from a solid web hosting service, Wix to accompany the needs of Ezoic, to Siteground, which is also solid, but we've had more issues with our website crashing due to auto-updates and incompatibility issues. 

In the summer of 2019, we've had to back up our website and move numerous full-length articles to the new web hosting service, and multiple attempts to integrate Ezoic had briefly crashed our website offline, but finally in September 2019, we finally were able to figure out how to pair Ezoic and Siteground together to integrate those element to our new website and into our new website design.

Today, we've had another issue once again.  Website incompatibility issues are undesirable, and ideally, the website would never crash or go offline, ever.  The latest incompatibility issue may be a setback and also a blessing in disguise.  Earlier this afternoon, the basketball website was down, as it was a blank white screen filled with no content, which was strange, because usually there was a lot of content and a handful of ads to accompany it.  After talking with Siteground's technical support, we had worked our way through the problems, and after testing each plug-in one by one, we figured out that the Ezoic integration was the thing that had messed up the website's functionality.

Therefore, we disabled the Ezoic integration, after multiple attempts to minimize ads or to figure out how to keep the integration aspect, we had to shelve and disable the Ezoic integration function once and for all.  We figured it's better to serve information without ads, then to try to attempt to keep the ads but have no website for people to read.

So that's where we are at right now.  I'm not really a tech guy, I'm a person who brings his knowledge to the table, and I just try to do my part.  I'm kind of bummed, but maybe the whole Ezoic integration aspect just ran its course.  My basketball website had ads from September 18th, 2019 until the early afternoon of July 16th, 2020.  It was a good run, I guess.

On the other hand....ads did slow things down considerably.  The mobile site speed grew considerably worse, and the worst part of it was having absolutely no control or knowledge in deciding what ads go on the website.  Again, I'm not a tech guy.  Some of the ads I surely would've absolutely disapproved of and not had on the site if I knew how to manage the ads.  But with limited funds and knowledge of that area, the ads were basically auto-run through Ezoic and through their ad system.

So for now, the website is back up and running, but this time without ads.  Since I haven't figured out how to integrate that back once again, the Ezoic aspect may be permanently shelved.  Time will tell if we run ads on the website in the future, but what's first and foremost of utmost importance to us, is being able to have a website that allows us to dispense our information and knowledge to you, the reader.

Thank you for your time.

Summer Thoughts on Sports Leagues Re-Opening, Hamilton, and Other Interesting Tidbits

Hello readers!

It is Independence Day, and welcome back, or welcome new readers, if you have stumbled upon this blog.

The NBA will resume its regular season play in Orlando on July 30th.
(Photo: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images.)

If you don't know already, baseball is going to start its 2020 MLB season in late July, and they will have a 60 game season.  The NHL and the NBA will reconvene to continue their seasons, and they will quickly accelerate to the playoffs.  The NBA and the MLS both will be in Orlando, Florida, so that will be sort of interesting.

On one hand, it's fun and exciting that sports leagues will resume once again, and we as viewers and fans will get to see live sports once again, whether or not if we are there in person, or if we watch those games from home.  It's been a long time since I've watched a live sports game that has happened in the U.S., so it'll be fun to get to watch new sporting events happen.

On the other hand, the coronavirus has not gone away, and data suggests that cases have not exactly gone down.  With still no vaccine or cure yet for the coronavirus, debates have raged on how to handle this delicate issue, if we should play in despite of this, play in a bubble, or not play at all.  Hopefully, sports leagues will be able to play live games and stay safe, and it is important for people to have fun and also stay healthy.

Watching Hamilton was a very good, fun, and enjoyable viewing experience.  I would highly recommend it.
(Photo: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.)

I got to watch Hamilton on Disney Plus, and it was very good.  Very entertaining, and really educational.  It was like watching a masterpiece happen in front of my eyes, as I learned how tenacious Alexander Hamilton was and how tough it was for him growing up, the camaraderie with him and his fellow soldiers, how it was for him to work alongside George Washington, and also to see his rivalry with Aaron Burr played out.  Also, I learned that Eliza Schuyler played a big part in helping the U.S. grow, and the music numbers were excellent.  If you can learn any one thing from watching this play, you control your destiny and how you tell your story, and don't waste your shot.

A picture I took of the T-Mobile Arena back in October 2017 to watch the St. Louis Blues play against the Vegas Golden Knights.  It was a really good experience, even though my favorite hockey team the Blues lost in overtime. 
Las Vegas really knows how to put on a show.

I attempted to take a picture of all of the banners at the T-Mobile Arena, as I was hanging out with a couple of my friends.  This was before the game, and a random lady happened to walk in front of me during in which I took the photo, which blocked a couple of the NHL teams' banners.

There have been many solid stadiums I've been to.  The Moda Center in Portland is a state-of-the-art arena, T-Mobile Arena is also another really good one I've been to, Busch Stadium and the Scottrade Center always know how to make a fan comfortable, as it's always fun there.  I look forward to going to the Thomas and Mack Center when I'm in town in Las Vegas, and Safeco is an enjoyable experience, even if it lacks the banners that Busch Stadium has.  However, there is one stadium that I hold in disdain.

Here was a picture I took of where I was at the Washington-UCLA game in February 2017, just shortly before tip-off.

Unfortunately, the most uncomfortable sports arena I've been to is the Alaska Airlines Arena, otherwise known as University of Washington's stadium that hosts sporting events for college basketball.  It's a 10,000 seated stadium, where the upper deck has no backs on the chairs, and they really packed in people so tight.  To put it frankly, it is a super uncomfortable arena, and if you fall asleep, you might fall out of your backless chair or end up sleeping on the person behind you.

It was so cramped in, that I couldn't get my phone out until halftime because people were sitting very close together, and there was barely any leg room to walk, and absolutely nowhere to stretch, and there were no cup holders.  I had attended a game against UCLA several years ago, it cost 60 dollars to basically sit in the nosebleed section, otherwise known as general admission to watch Lonzo Ball and Markelle Fultz play, though I attended the game with some friends.  The basketball game itself was fun, but the experience was not, and I doubt that I would willingly attend another game back there anytime soon.  In case if you wanted to know, UCLA drubbed Washington as they won by 41, and there were plenty of future NBA players that played in that game such as Lonzo Ball, Markelle Fultz, Matisse Thybulle, Aaron Holiday, and T.J. Leaf as the players that come to my mind.  Anyways, enjoy some nice photography from me (couple of these were on my basketball site's now defunct-Google Plus page).

Me at the Washington-UCLA game in 2017. 

Washington played against UCLA, and this happened late in this game.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and that's all for today.  Have a great rest of the weekend!