Thanks Chris.
HN user
miserabletemp
Thanks andymoe - I took your advice immediately. I've posted a more complete response above in the thread.
Thanks so much for the advice.
The second I read @andymoe's comment I knew it was exactly what I needed to do. I left, went home and must have sent out two dozen resumes.
I'm back at my desk today and I've 'confessed' my feelings to my office best friend. I was surprised to find that she feels just as crapped on.
It's honestly like a weight off my shoulders. I'm not alone here anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm still following through with @Chrisclark1729's advice. I think it's really really solid - but it takes more time to accomplish.
I'm going to wait until Monday to see if there are any hits on those resumes - and spend the weekend trying to weigh the cost/benefit of getting out 'now-ish' vs. earning while I look for work.
Before I bought stumbleupon stumbles I was amazed at the exceptionally high pageviews per visit I was getting from SU. As soon as I dropped real money on it, the PV/user went to roughly the same as everywhere else.
I looked at the "referring sites" (in google analytics) and found that one of the pages was /refer.php which was the advertising page you mention.
I have an unproven feeling that my analytics from SU were somehow artificially inflated or something like that. My own personal experience is that I'm unimpressed with SU.
Others would disagree with me, and hopefully, someone somewhere will be able to convince me otherwise.