i never knew how popular i was until a few tried to prove how unpopular and non-notable i am

the latest test that someone had was to show that i got just as many Google hits as many of the Looney Tunes characters except for Buggs who has 1.2 million and a few others.

(Yosemite Sam has 307,000 Google hits. Tweety Bird has 449,000 Google hits. Elmer Fudd has 430,000)

to disprove that theory someone said oh theres the actor and the soccer coach and they get way more than the dumb blogger

so i went to Google and i put this in there

im sleepy right now cuz i have to go to the Disney Animal park tomorrow early in the morn, but that looks like weeding out most of the other “major” tony pierce’s including the actor the baseball player the Microsoft software dude and several other fellas

i still have pretty close to a half million Google hits.

color me impressed

i know i have some haters out there, do me a favor if you will and put together a better link than the one above so i can see what the number really is

im sure its closer to 400k no way are more people talking about me than yosemite sam.

and im sure you dont want me to spend my vacation with a big head

by the way, its fascinating to me how many of the so-called tough guys over there causing trouble totally shut up when they get called out and enter a discussion of logic

one reason i love Metafilter is if youre full of shit you get called on it and trounced by the group.

you have to base your allegations on facts, you have to link to your theories in some way and no one is afraid of anyone.

at Wikipedia people can waltz into a vote/discussion/witch hunt and say the most outrageous things as if they were facts and people will just let it slide.

one dude posted that I was listed on Google a ton and another guy said to remove ‘blog’ from your search results and “Most results seem to be for ASU coach Tony Pierce”. now what idiot would remove the word “blog” from a discussion about a blogger and whether or not he’s notable?

likewise when challenged about whether or not i have been quoted in major newspaper a guy said

“A quick search of the Dow Jones/Reuters Factiva service shows Pierce has been the subject of articles from the New York Times (27 May 2004) (followed by an echo to the Times-owned Int’l Herald Tribune on 29 May); Reuters (10 July 2004); Straits Times (Singapore) (5 March 2006); Reforma (Mexico City) (2 April 2006); EL PAIS (Madrid) (20 April 2006); Los Angeles Times (16 October 2003, 27 Feb 2003, 12 July 2004, others); Le Monde (25 June 2005); and others”

a differnet guy basically yawned and said “In terms of references, all I’ve seen are passing mentions in articles about blogging, or short interview blurbs used alongside many others. Is there anything specifically about this person?

Hi, im a blogger. its the only reason i was in wikipedia in the first place and the only reason i will ever be in there. if i find the cure for cancer the headline will be Blogger Discovers Cure for Cancer. so OF COURSE the articles are going to be in reference to blogging. and now since my Job is to blog, other than my amazing skills at chowing box, there really arent any other reasons for a newspaper to write about me. pardon me for being committed to the field that i am possibly notable about.

by the way, i do plan on obsessing over this as long as the debate rages on, so if you are getting bored by all of this, feel free to take a short break from the busblog. before all of this i was a big fan of Wikipedia, but now that the curtain has been pulled back, showing the wizard(s), it’s actually really depressing and disappointing and it makes me wonder how Wikipedia’s final product is actually as good as it is.

i know some of you dont believe that it’s good, but for someone who does an hour or more of research for many posts that i write, Wikipedia is either a great place to start or a great place to cross reference for factchecking. also, as far as the writing goes, often times its quite good and concise. unlike your boy who needs to hit the hay.

nite yall

complaining about my coverage of WikipediaGate, it probably represented several of my readers. so for those of you who would rather not hear about the latest, may i recommend that you go over to LAist and check out some Gogol Bordello videos, of which I posted four today in celebration of their show tonight at the Palladium.

two interesting things have gone down since i last wrote about the issue. the first is the reason that im writing to you about this today, and it is the claim from a user that I originally posted the entry myself, and thus in some bizarre logic it doesn’t deserve to be on Wikipedia.

such logic would conclude that if Kurt Cobain was the first person to post the entry about himself on Wikipedia then to punish him Wikipedia would never have an entry about the leader of grunge.

I bring up my favorite guitarist because one way that I can prove that I was not the author of the original entry about myself on the controversial site is from the sentence that describes my novella “Stiff”.

He has published much other material online including photo essays, podcasts, and photos. He has completed several books via cafe press including How to Blog in which he discloses some of his blogging secrets, and Stiff, a novella in which he travels to hell, to meet Kurt Cobain.

The very first sentence of my most favorite story that I’ve ever written, “Stiff”, is “i knew i was in trouble when i saw kurt cobain waiting for me at the front door.”

although i am flattered by whoever is “Shaky Bear”, the person who put me on Wikipedia, that person has a poor recollection of Stiff because as you can see from the opening sentence, Kurt Cobain came to Earth to meet ME.

this should be evidence enough to the user “cacophony” who, in his attempt to be a modern day Sherlock Holmes, accused me, in all caps, so pardon the shouting as I quote him, “I can only conclude that THIS ARTICLE WAS CREATED BY NONE OTHER THAN TONY PIERCE HIMSELF, AND IS THUS DIRECTLY IN VIOLATION OF WP:Vanity”.

yes i know that arguments on the internets are the lamest forms of lameness imaginable and blogging about arguments on said internets are even worse but when i went to his userpage to give him these telling facts (among others, to follow) he said something to the effect of “hey how do i even know this is tony pierce?” (because so many people pretend to be me? because im just that freaking notable?), so i told the distinguished gentleman that i would post these arguments on this blog.

exhibit 2. The original entry says of me “He has also been known to converse with such celebrities as Howard Stern, and Matthew Good.” Although it’s true that I have a friendly relationship with the Canadian rock star and will hopefully visit him in Vancity this winter, I have never had the pleasure of meeting the King of All media, nor have I ever had a conversation with him.

Most readers of the busblog know that I spent four-plus years at E! Entertainment and I was lucky enough to meet Stern Executive Producer Robin Radzinsky as well as intern-turned-producer Mike Gange, as well as getting to work occassionally though very rarely with LA-based post-production producers at the E! HQ since I had to schedule time for them to go into the Paintbox room to mosaic-out the nipples when ladies would get topless/naked, I never got to talk to The Man himself.

And if I had, I would have written about it on the busblog. Of course. I have 153 mentions of “Howard Stern” over five years on this blog. I am a huge fan. Huge. I bought Sirius weeks before he switched over and I listen on average of 4 hours a day. Those things could make someone believe that I have something of a relationship with him, but I don’t. I’m a fan. not a superfan like some, but a serious fan. But please click the link above and show the time that I got to interview him, I am intrigued the questions that I asked him, for example, “why don’t you ever give props to Steve Dahl who was in Detroit a year before you were, and whose style you clearly patterned yourself after which lead to your success in Detroit and then later in DC and NY?

And lastly, back to the original post by Shaky Bear writing about my blooks “He has completed several books via cafe press including How to Blog…”

This one is trickier so you’ll have to stay with me on this one. I used to work at a company called PeopleSupport. During the dotcom days companies sprouted up where they mushed their names together… (LiveJournal, etc). Any reader of the busblog knows that my spelling and grammar is totally lacking mostly because i dont care and also because im lazy and also because i wrote stoned a lot, etc.

The correct way to spell CafePress is just like LiveJournal and PeopleSupport, you mush em together. If I were to write a definitive entry about myself and my very favorable relationship with the selfpublishers, I would definitely have spelled their name properly, the way I did 86 times on this blog. Have I separated the words ever on this blog? of course, i can get lazy and two shift keys are not enough. how many times have i done that? 9 times. was the 10th time when i allegedly posted an entry about myself on Wikipedia? doubt it.

And here’s one bonus one. Shaky Bear wrote: “He is patriotic but politically critical, while at the same time charismatic and quite the ladies man.”

First of all, the ladies dont really like it if you call YOURSELF a “ladies man”, nor do i think i am one, nor do i think i ever was one. i believe i like the ladies just as much as the next guy and i think i have had just as much luck with them as any normal man who does what it takes to get women to make out with them: ask nicely.

but the telling point are the words “politically critical”. first of all, in my mind you are not patriotic UNLESS you are critical of those who work for you: the government. being patriotic and being “politically critical” and not mutually exculsive, indeed they go hand-in-hand. and furthermore if you put “politically critical” in my search box you will get Zero results.

i am not a blogger who writes specifically about politics, but I do my fair share. and i certainly did during the year leading up to the 2004 election. in five years i have written 4376 posts, not little baby one-sentence posts like our boy the Instapundit, but indepth masterpieces like this. anyone who believes that i wrote that original entry about myself and used the phrase “politically critical” for the first time on the entry on Wikipedia and never again is, i hate to say it, an idiot.

when i brought these facts to my accuser he wrote this:

To be perfectly honest, nothing you’ve said has convinced me, despite the overwhelming evidence, that you did not, in fact, create your own article. While you may or may not have done so, my comment on the AfD will remain so other users can draw their own conclusions from the evidence.

clearly cacophony is living up to his name and believes that people are guilty until proven innocent and believe that the way to hold intelligent debate is to ALL CAPS WILD ACCUSATIONS and then underline them, and then keep those accusations up there even when proven wrong.

welcome to wikipedia.

the second thing that is fascinating is the fact that there is a user named timecop who we discussed before, who linked to an old resume of mine and said, despite having nothing to do with the debate at hand typed, “Self-proclaimed ‘blogfather’, never held a job for more than a year…” when the proof that i have held a job for more than a year is right there in the 2000 resume.

whats fascinating is when I mentioned it in his user “talk” page he asked me not to talk to him in his talk page, and when I wrote about it in the Moderators page saying its libelous to write something in a public place that you know is a lie for the sole purpose to defame someone. Actions taken by timecop and the Moderators: nothing.

Libel is ok in wikipedia?

the problem with all of this is it was linked from Digg, meaning that defamatory statement could effect my future earnings, meaning if i was the type of person who sued huge sites like Wikipedia, and since all edits on the pages are public, and since i have asked repeatedly to more than a few people on Wikipedia, through timestamped wikipedia messages to please take down the libelous statements that are disproved in the resume, i am closer to owning Wikipedia than ever before.

and if the jury does grant me that type of award i will rename it to Timecopedia since that’s what the current mods and users pretty much are supporting.

in nicer news, today is raspil’s 22nd birthday + she designed Lick beautifully

because we can see both sides very well. all i know is i am a good editor for LAist because all i think about is the web and blogging and all i want to do is write and edit and make things better. when people try to accuse me of not having a life i want to say, as long as theres an internet connection, i have a life.

im here in orlando florida secretly advising the cubs during the winter meetings. i come back to the hilton resort that me my mom my sister my brother in law and their two kids are staying in and they want to hang out with me and i say, im sorry i have to now work on LAist and they say but youve been on the computer all day and im like, yes but not for LAist.

ever since i began seriously blogging it has always felt like there are not enough hours in the day. it always seems like its 5:44am and i havent been to sleep yet. btw its 544am and i havent been to sleep yet. i have the day off tomorrow with the cubs which means i can go to Disney’s Animal Park tomorrow with my family (who wants to be there at 8am) because im so far from sleepy right now, but i wont because theres always more work to be done for LAist. always. in a good way.

my mom reminded me that i do have a life outside of the web, she reminded me today that i did travel the country in october, in a shitty car, and i kissed pretty girls and interviewed people and saw cool things. she reminded me that i do hang out with my friends, friends ive had for a ridiculous amount of time. and that ive had some pretty sweet jobs over the years including being an undercover superhero for the xbi.

but what my mother doesnt realize or want to believe is i would much rather be blogging. in the woods. alone. life is what happens to me when people yank me away from the computer. sleep is what happens when the sun has been up for a half hour and the cover of darkness taps out.

i could live so easily in a small apartment near a chinese restaurant in silence as long as the apartment had high speed internet. i know i dream of owning a house, but what would i need that for?

i arrived in orlando a day early and i sat at the beach with the kids and they are little (4 and 1.5) so they were throwing sand and i felt like such a jerk because i had my laptop on my bare legs and i was all easy kids, dont get that sand on my laptop. but what on earth am i doing with a laptop by water and sand?!

my sister cooked wonderful steak and as soon as i digest it im back on the computer.

theres something very wrong with me.

there are several stories in my head that i want to write about in LAist but i really have to go to sleep since its 6 and now i feel like i should get up at 8 and be a good son. but here are the stories incase i forget

i need to list all the new cds that came out yesterday like gwen stefanis

i need to write about the dude who was caught videotaping new movies or soon-to-be released movies and got 7 years in the slam because he was caught with a fake social security card and he threatened peoples lives, etc

i need to write about the Mere Mortals who’s singer Axel used to live in my apartment for a summer who are #4 on the new band record chart thing despite being unsigned. therefore theyre like the hottest unsigned band in LA

i need to write about this 120 year old woman who says she is that old because she smokes weed every day

and i need to write about how local Florida news should be nationally syndicated because more fucked up shit goes down here than anywhere in the world, its just not a joke on Countdown or Love lines, theres something in the water because people are psycho here.

but the weathers nice.

so they tell me.