Happiness Is...

…a re-supply of cigars (brought by "The Brown Truck of Happiness," as Phlegmmy calls it) and a new humongous ashtray, which was a freebie that came with ten Montecristo cigars (five white Toros and five Media Noches). I strongly suspect cigar.com was just trying to rid themselves of excess inventory, as the ashtray commemorates Montecristo’s 70^th anniversary... which happened back in 2005. This ashtray is huge! So much so that I have no idea where I’m gonna put the danged thing. For the moment it’s resting exactly where you see it in the picture: on my stove top. That will change, come dinner time.

I tried to sit outside and smoke the Monte you see in the picture while indulging in a Shiner hefeweizen. Alas, it was just a mite too chilly to stay the course… so I came back inside and snapped this pic. The cigar will wait, the beer will be finished.

Today’s “Fun With Site Meter” entry…

Location
Continent : Asia
Country : Saudi Arabia (Facts)
Lat/Long : 25, 45 (Map)
Distance : 7,844 miles
Language: English (U.S.)
Time of Visit: Dec 6 2007 11:23:45 am
Last Page View: Dec 6 2007 11:23:45 am
Visit Length: 0 seconds
Page Views: 1
Referring URL: http://www.google.co...=u tuib pakistan sex
Search Engine: google.com
Search Words: u tuib pakistan sex

Hmm. I suppose YouTube could be spelled U-Tuib if English is your second language. I just wonder if the searcher found what he was looking for. Pre-vacation planning, one assumes. Or perhaps “best places to train for jihad, with benefits.” “Benefits” meaning goats, one further assumes.

Hockey Night In Portales (And Irmo, SC)

Your Occasional Hockey Update… SN1 and I watched the Red Wings game together but separate last evening, as is our custom when Versus broadcasts the Wings nationally. And befitting a team in sole possession of first place in the NHL…by a wide margin… the Wings systematically dismantled the Canadiens (4-1), to the great displeasure of Montreal fans. And, as usual, I have a bone to pick with Versus. Last night was a special night in Montreal— a “Tribute to the Original Six.” Pre-game ceremonies (about which: here), which were NOT broadcast, included appearances by some of hockey’s greatest legends:

Hockey legend Gordie Howe was accompanied by Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Marcel Pronovost and Marcel Dionne as the Canadiens honored their long-standing rivalry with Detroit in a pregame ceremony.

Jean Beliveau, Dickie Moore, Jean-Guy Talbot, Stephane Richer and Claude Lemieux represented Montreal, which celebrates its centennial in 2009.

Current Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios, who began his career with Montreal in 1983-84, also took part in the ceremony along with Carbonneau.

The 45-year-old Chelios was given a standing ovation by the sold-out crowd of 21,273 when he was announced as the third star following the game.

And about that third star: During the post-game announcement of the evening’s “three stars,” the usual practice is to name at least one player on the home team as a star. But not last night. All three stars went to Detroit… an indication of just how poorly Montreal played last evening. And those Habs fans? Dang, what a tough crowd. I’ve never heard so many boos, catcalls, and the like in my life. Fans of Les Habitants have HIGH expectations… Montreal has won 24 Stanley Cups, the most of any NHL team, and the third greatest number of championships in all of North American sports. Only the Celtics and Yankees have better championship records, and not by much.

A short entry in the continuing series…“Fun With SiteMeter,” “We Can’t Spell” subcategory:

Location

Continent -- North America
Country -- United States (Facts)
State -- Kansas
City -- Wichita

Lat/Long --37.691, -97.3292 (Map)

Distance -- 412 miles

Language: English (U.S.)
Time of Visit Dec 4 2007 5:12:00 pm
Last Page View Dec 4 2007 5:13:03 pm
Visit Length 1 minute 3 seconds
Page Views 2
Referring URL http://www.google.co...o&btnG=Google Search
Search Engine google.com
Search Words october 17, 1978 drug bussed in portales new mexico

Heh. Two page views, too.

The Second

Well, now. I’m not sure if I originally thought I’d make it this far…or not. But I have, nonetheless. Today marks my second anniversary of blogging…in other words: it’s my blog-o-versary. Two years. Wow.

So! Let us (well, me, anyway) celebrate two years of mindless drivel, mediocre photos, dumb quizzes, plane pr0n, and somewhat relevant commentary on a wide range of subjects most people don’t give a dang about. But… ya know what the absolute best part is? I’ve made new friends and reestablished connections with a few old friends, as well. Which has made it all worthwhile, Gentle Reader. Thank you!

There's single-malt, beer, cigars, and sushi in the back*. Help yourself.

* OK...I'm lying about the sushi. There would be sushi were I on either coast, or the Third Coast, for that matter.

A Couple of Small Things...

Here’s another in a long line of interesting (well, that’s subjective) lil quizzes…and my results:

71%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

The outcome is about what I figured…I seem to be fairly well-addicted, but I’m not in that over-the-top, “completely gone to the blogging dogs” category. Yet. Give me time.

(h/t: Mushy, a former sky-cop, blues aficionado, cigar smoker, and beer drinker. What’s NOT to like, eh?)

More video, this one via commenter Casca at Lex’s place…and originally posted at Theodore’s World:

I have no comment other than “George Bush! Yeah!” Pretty cool.

Thursday, Part Deux

Laundromat AAR: The laundry bag is empty, the clothes are put away, and if it weren’t so danged early I’d pop a beer and try to recover from the traumatic experience that is the laundromat. I’ve only occasionally run into folks with whom I can have a pleasant conversation with while doing laundry; today wasn’t one of those days. Nope…today was Morbidly Obese Women’s Day at the local washateria. Not plump, not large, but morbidly obese… as in 300 pounds or so. Four of ‘em. Complete with Ritalin-deprived children pushing those little wire baskets on wheels all over the place while giving their lungs some serious exercise. Continuously, for the first 20 minutes I was there. Then they left.

Thank God for small favors. I was left wondering just exactly who would mate with such women. They couldn't have possibly gained all that weight in only four years or so, which was the approximate ages of the little monsters playing with the laundry carts. A mystery, that.

I frickin’ HATE laundromats. Have I mentioned that before? I think I might have.

Now this is Way-COOL!

You’ve heard of air pollution and noise pollution? Don’t look now, but another depressing form of toxicity is taking the fun out of life: ad pollution. That’s the creeping commercial crud that has sapped the pleasure out of TV, faxes, e-mail and, of course, radio. These days, it seems as though AM radio has 52 minutes of ads an hour.

But you have an alternative. Internet radio stations offer an endless smorgasbord of audio entertainment. Some of it is a simultaneous broadcast of what’s on from NPR, ESPN, the BBC and so on; others are Internet-only stations that serve both mainstream and niche tastes. The variety is staggering, all of it is free, and it is largely uncluttered by ads.

Trouble is, to listen to Internet radio, you pretty much have to sit at your computer all day. Why doesn’t somebody invent a physical radio that can tune in all of this streaming goodness? Not a stereo component or computer peripheral, but a true-blue old-time tabletop console, with a row of preset buttons and built-in speakers?

Somebody finally has. Several somebodies, actually. Companies like Roku, Com One, Revo, Terratec and Tivoli have all produced tabletop or bookshelf radios that are freaky hybrids of the old and new. You tune into radio shows just as you have for decades, but the radios’ antennas are internal Wi-Fi receivers that connect to a wireless home network. Talk about good reception: these radios can pull in any of 10,000 Internet radio stations from all over the world, without a single pop of static.

I won’t buy one. Well, not until I resume a conventional sort of life, anyway. As it stands I can listen to Radio Paradise …and do… from anywhere within El Casa Móvil De Pennington, and often when I’m outside, if the windows and door are open. All I have to do is turn it up. While my ‘puter doesn’t provide the sound quality (or the sheer volume) my stereo does, it’s perfectly adequate. Just ask my neighbors. But an internet radio that isn’t a computer IS a way-cool idea.

Pictured is the Phoenix radio (one of five boxes featured in the article), about which the NYT sez: “(Com One, $250). This model is made to move, thanks to its small size and weight (just over two pounds) and its ability to run on four AA batteries. Indeed, it’s the only portable stereo Internet radio here; the others are all monaural.”

Dang. I wish I had been here last night, instead of in P-Ville:

Mr. King was headlining his own tour, the B. B. King Blues Festival, which made a local stop at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden (formerly known as the Theater at Madison Square Garden). So it’s his party, but he makes a lot more of these in-between monologues than the average concertgoer might want. Maybe it’s just that he knows his physical limits. (It’s no joke to be 81, with diabetes and one-nighters scheduled into the foreseeable future.)

[…]

Etta James was to be on the tour but canceled two weeks ago; she is recovering from complications after abdominal surgery. This left more time to the third performer on the bill, Al Green: about an hour and a quarter of magnificence.

In a tuxedo with cummerbund, gold star of David hanging from his necklace, and chewing gum, the Rev. Al Green spent the first 10 minutes laughing, singing a few newer songs, and delivering red roses to the audience. Then, with two synchronized male dancers working around him, he began a row of hits from the early 1970s: “Let’s Get Married,” “Let’s Stay Together,” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart,” “Tired of Being Alone.”

I’ve seen Etta James…several times. But I’ve never seen Al Green. And The Reverend Green and B. B. King on the same bill? Priceless. I’m gonna go dig out an Al Green CD now…

Dang. Just DANG!

Today’s “imagine the disappointment” moment…is a tie. First:

Location:
State: New Mexico
City: Portales
Time of Visit: Aug 9 2007 11:26:38 am
Visit Length: 58 seconds
Referring URL: http://www.google.co...s&btnG=Google Search
Search Words: women looking for sex in portales
Out Click: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_esgHMfCm1AYVQomGmzIu8PABwEJa0lk5LUQgLupoGbxfp_lQj1PYiK578_Fq8hzU4ZP-UpusLRz-C_A6d4Mp2NqANrxiy-nUjqMCwYN59HA_9HX25bQiHrSBSkoNUJGAMP78Iy5396ar/s200/Father and Friend.jpg

That was interesting, especially the out-click… but this?

Location:
Country: United Kingdom
State/Region: Norfolk
City: Saint James
Time of Visit: Aug 9 2007 10:43:06 am
Referring URL: http://www.google.co...ear old boys&spell=1
Search Words: pictures of a good looking 14 year old boys
Visit Entry Page: http://exileinportal...looking-kids-eh.html
Visit Exit Page: http://exileinportal...looking-kids-eh.html

Just weird.

Today’s Pic: Pelicans…yes, pelicans…on a mirror-calm lake somewhere in Yellowstone. I was up, out, and about quite early in the morning, if memory serves, and stopped by this lake to take in the sheer beauty of these graceful birds feeding on the lake. The picture just doesn’t adequately capture the moment, Gentle Reader. But it’s close.

May, 2000.

It's HOT!

Well, the Dog Days of Summer are upon us. This term has always fascinated me from the time I first heard it in the way, way back. The etymology of the term is here…and says, in part:

Popularly believed to be an evil time "when the seas boiled, wine turned sour, dogs grew mad, and all creatures became languid, causing to man burning fevers, hysterics, and phrensies" (from Brady’s Clavis Calendarium, 1813).

The Dog Days originally were the days when Sirius, the Dog Star, rose just before or at the same time as sunrise, which is no longer true owing to precession of the equinoxes. The ancients sacrificed a brown dog at the beginning of the Dog Days to appease the rage of Sirius, believing that that star was the cause of the hot, sultry weather.

While I’m not into sacrificing innocent animals, I’m sure there are more than a few people in other places that would be willing to give it a shot. I feel particularly bad for those folks, and their numbers are legion, that suffer from the oppressive combo of heat and humidity. As for YrHmblScrb, well…not so much. It’s 90 degrees as I peck this out, but the heat index is “only” 89, a function of our relatively low humidity (currently 35%).

This sort of weather always makes me wonder how folks survived prior to air conditioning, particularly in places like N’Awlins…and the entire Gulf Coast, for that matter. I still have painful and vivid memories of long, hot, sleepless nights spent sweltering in the UN-air conditioned barracks at Keesler AFB (near beautiful Biloxi-By-The-Sea) in the summer of 1964.

I’m reminded of this American Standard TeeVee ad for their AC…maybe it’s TOO comfortable (and us, too).



This could be good news, if it’s true. Well, sorta. If it IS true, it’s definitely a mixed blessing. On the one hand, I’ll be able to read David Brooks again. On the other, that skank Dowd and her male counterpart, Krugman, will be unleashed upon the American public again. Maybe the NYT ought to keep TimesSelect. It’s two-to-one FOR keeping it, in my book.

Captain Ed has a similar thought:

Two years ago, the New York Times provided on-line readers with a strong disincentive to read their columnists. TimesSelect, which I called the Firewall of Sanity, charged $50 per year for people who just couldn't get enough of Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich. Now the New York Post reports that Pinch Sulzberger has finally realized that he has marginalized his own columnists in an on-line universe.

To quote another Big Dog: Heh.

Today’s “imagine the disappointment” moment:

Time of Visit: Aug 7 2007 10:01:35 am
Page Views: 1
Referring URLhttp://images.google...1%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN
Search Engine: images.google.es
Search Words: ladies viagra

Sometimes I really don’t understand why folks click thru. This is an image search, Gentle Reader. And the Ladies of Deuce Four (click the search link, if you’re interested) certainly get a lot of hits…but not for reasons one would expect.

 

Today’s Pic: Apropos of nothing…Granddaughter Anastasia captured celebrating the Fourth in Birmingham, MI (a suburb of Detroit) at my great good friend Kim’s house. A good time was had by all. As always.

July, 2000.

I'm Baaaack....

Suspicions confirmed:

OK, I don’t code, can barely spell “SysAdmin,” and, like 87% of the Western World, I use a PC…not a Mac. But being nerdy goes beyond computers. And I think that’s what upped my “nerd quotient.” That, and 17 years in the IT Biz.

(h/t: Kris, in New England)

This week’s tempest in a teapot… Doubtless you’ve heard Queen Elizabeth knighted that bête noir of the radical Islamists, Salman Rushdie. And the usual suspects have their knickers in a twist. My language is way too dismissive, however. It’s so far over the top as to be unbelievable when a cabinet-level minister of a government, any government, endorses suicide attacks for any goddamned reason. In the West, that is. Not so in countries dominated by 7^th Century political ideologies, I suppose. Here’s Captain Ed on the subject:

This points up a well-known problem among Muslims, even those considered somewhat moderate and cosmopolitan. They refuse to allow for any criticism of their faith, even from fellow Muslims. While Christians and Jews and Buddhists react to criticism with debate and protest, Muslims react with violence, usually encouraged by governments throughout Asia. Twenty years ago, it was Iran that encouraged assassins to target Rushdie, and now Pakistan has renewed the contract.

Sometimes I buy into the “clash of cultures” meme, sometimes I don’t. Today? I’m buying the whole nine yards. You simply cannot reason with idiots like these, much the same as you cannot reason with a rabid dog. You just gotta kill it.

More from the Middle East…an interesting take on the situation in Gaza. “An Israeli in Ramallah:”

Wearing Ralph Lauren polo shirts and speaking fluent Hebrew, they told hair-raising stories of teenage boys presumed loyal to Fatah being flung from the fourteenth floor of office buildings, their hands shackled and their mouths taped shut. One man said that the Hamas fighters had behaved worse than the Nazis. All this should be taken with a grain of salt, of course: Nazi comparisons are flung around with abandon in the Middle East, and we have not heard from the Hamas fighters what the Fatah guys may or may not have done to them. The unspoken message, though, is interesting: suddenly Fatah represents the reasonable, civilized Palestinians. They speak Hebrew, they look like us and they sound like us, and Islamist militants threaten them just as they threaten Israel.

As a commenter to this piece noted… “This is better writing -- and MUCH better reporting -- than we get from The Times.” Agreed.

And finally…a condom ad that’s painfully funny.

And here’s something you’ll probably never, ever see on this blog again: the hat tip goes to LitBrit at Shakesville. Credit where credit is due, and all that. She has more condom ads posted, by the way. Just in case you might be, ya know… interested. In a strictly academic sort of way, of course. (Work safe. And pretty funny, too.)

Today’s Pic: Two scoots, taking a break beside the road in Colorado. I like this pic…a lot. The ‘Zuki looks like it’s same size as Buck’s bike, but it’s not. The fact that she’s parked about six or eight feet behind Buck’s ride conceals the fact that she’s bigger…a lot bigger. Maybe even too big.

May, 2007.

Mostly Filler

Christopher Hitchens, writing in the June issue of Vanity Fair (Londonistan Calling):

In the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, which killed 52 civilians (including a young Afghan, Atique Sharifi, who had fled to London to escape the Taliban) and injured hundreds more, I found that American television interviewers were all asking me the same question: How can this be? Britain is the country of warm beer and cricket and rain-lashed seaside resorts, not a place of arms for exotic and morbid cults. British press coverage struck the same plaintive note. One of the murderers, Shehzad Tanweer, was a cricket enthusiast from Leeds, in Yorkshire, whose family ran a fish-and-chips shop. You can't get much more assimilated than that. Yet Britain's former head of domestic intelligence, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller (and you can't get much more British than that, either), said last year that there are more than "1,600 identified individuals" within the borders of the kingdom who are ready to follow Tanweer's example (including those in whose honor we now all have to part with our liquids and gels at the airport). And, according to Manningham-Buller, "over 100,000 of our citizens consider the July 2005 attacks in London justified."

[…]

In the 1960s, many Asians moved to Britain in quest of employment and education. They worked hard, were law-abiding, and spent much of their time combating prejudice. Their mosques were more like social centers. But their children, now grown, are frequently contemptuous of what they see as their parents' passivity. Often stirred by Internet accounts of jihadists in faraway countries like Chechnya or Kashmir, they perhaps also feel the urge to prove that they have not "sold out" by living in the comfortable, consumerist West. A recent poll by the Policy Exchange think tank captures the problem in one finding: 59 percent of British Muslims would prefer to live under British law rather than Shari'a; 28 percent would choose Shari'a. But among those 55 and older, only 17 percent prefer Shari'a, whereas in the 16-to-24 age group the figure rises to 37 percent. Almost exactly the same proportions apply when the question is whether or not a Muslim who converts to another faith should be put to death …

As usual, Hitch nails it…and damns multi-culturalism as the principal “prime mover” in turning London into Londonistan. I know I’m preaching to the choir, Gentle Reader, but do go read.

And lastly (on this particular subject), I’ll offer you this: The “Islamization” of London has been going on a lot longer than most people think. One small piece of anecdotal evidence: when The Second Mrs. Pennington and I arrived in London in 1980, all wide-eyed and positively amazed at our great good fortune to be assigned…for three whole years!… in the crucible of our cultural inheritance, one of the first things we noticed was the amount of graffiti written in Arabic. And there was lots of it. We then began to notice other things…such as women dressed more appropriately for Riyadh than the West End (no burkhas, but lotsa veils) and many, many more than one or two men walking about in jalabiyas, and certainly not last…the HUGE numbers of kebab stands and shops where English was spoken only to customers, but not amongst the help. (We patronized those kebab stands willingly and often, too, food being what it was—or wasn’t, more appropriately—in 80’s London.) Other than considering the phenomenon(s) passing strange enough to remark upon, we gave them no further thought. But, 1980 was indeed a different time. It all begins in the most innocuous manner, now doesn’t it?

(h/t for the link: Chap)

Dang! I just glanced at my watch and it’s now 1137 hrs (as I type) and my self-imposed posting deadline of “sometime before noon…usually” is hard upon me. And, aside from the one paltry entry above (paltry, in terms of quantity…not quality), I have nothing to show for the last three hours of link-chasing and reading. So, that said, Gentle Reader, you could do a lot worse than clicking on the “Chap” link above…as the greatest part of those three hours of which I speak was spent chasing links from his site. Great, good stuff in great quantities.

Apropos of nothing, and simply to fill space, as it were… I’d be interested in knowing how all y’all blog. Your mental and physical processes of blogging, that is. Most folks post single entries on discrete subjects, one at a time, and make several entries over the course of a day. I do what I call “omnibus posting,” which is to say I usually put up a single post a day with several discrete subjects, all included in the same post. If I come across something that just won’t wait until tomorrow, I’ll post again…but that’s not too common.

So anyway…My modus operandi, in condensed form, goes like this:

1. Open my monthly blog file in MS-Word, if’n it isn’t already.


2. Open a new tab in Firefox and begin my daily reads, usually with Lou, Laurie, Lex (that does it for the ells), the two sons, and the rest of the blog roll as I see fit. Most days I don’t come close to hitting them all.


3. Open new tabs in Firefox to chase linkies.


4. Cut ‘n’ paste excerpts and linkage from interesting stuff into the aforementioned Word file.


5. Write my comments to said linkage.


6. Save often.


7. Rinse. Repeat.


8. Open my image editor and peruse the photo galleries for a candidate for “Today’s Pic.”


9. Agonize greatly over the lack of good pictures and swear I’ll take a bunch of new ones, today.


10. Select something, anyway (most of the time).


11. Or not.


12. Copy from the Word file.


13. Paste into Bogger and publish.


14. View post.


15. Edit. (I always miss something…)


16. Close it all out and go do something meaningful, like finish the coffee and smoke a cigar or small portion thereof. Or go riding. Or do laundry. All of which are on today’s agenda, by the way.

Did I say “condensed form?” Yeah, I did. Disregard.

So…how do you do it?

1157 hours…time to POST! (Insert smiley-face here.)

Mostly Hockey, with a Little Site Meter Weirdness

News/politics: I’m not gonna go there. Not today—except to say my heart goes out to the families and friends of the people killed at Virginia Tech in yesterday’s mass-murder. What a sad, sad, story. We’ve had more than enough of this stuff, yet it keeps on happening. I’m simply at a loss for words, beyond thinking what everyone else is thinking: “Why?”

Hockey… I watched three…count ‘em: three! …games this past Sunday, which was perilously close to Hockey Overload. But not quite. I’m not sure exactly where the limit is before I go into overload, but it ain’t three games. The Wings’ game was best (of course), followed by Dallas – Vancouver (Dallas lost in OT). I’m rooting for Dallas in this series, mainly coz I think Dallas would be the easier team to beat should the Wings advance to the Western conference finals…disregarding all the other possible permutations.

The Ottawa – Pittsburgh game had potential but turned out to be a bit of a snoozer. I was hoping to see some of the patented Sid The Kid fireworks, but there wasn’t anything exceptional. Good, most definitely. Exceptional, no. On the whole, though, I’m beginning to believe all this best-player-since-Gretzky stuff. Crosby IS good. But he and his line mates aren’t quite good enough (yet) to save this series. Ottawa should win in six, maybe less.

There were two games available to me last evening and I watched them both. The Sabres – Islanders series is shaping up to be a real dogfight; the Isles are giving the Sabres much stiffer resistance than Lindy Ruff (and the rest of the Sabres) anticipated. Last night’s game was close, but Buffalo prevailed, 3 – 2 to take a 2-1 series lead. The outcome was in doubt right up until the very last seconds of the third period. Be that as it may, I gotta go with the Sabres in this series; they lead the series 2-1 and should win in six.

I tuned into Nashville vs. San Jose with great anticipation. This series might turn out to be the best quarter-final in the West and it’s been marked with lotsa bad blood and rather nasty play between the teams.

San Jose and Nashville are tied 1-1 in their Western Conference quarter-final heading into Game 3 tonight, and perhaps no other post-season matchup has featured as much controversy and open contempt between competitors.

[…]

Heading into yesterday's games, no two teams had combined for as many post- season penalty minutes. San Jose and Nashville have amassed 186 penalty minutes through their first two meetings, where goals and fists have been traded in equal measure.

But last night’s game was much more subdued…there were only 20 penalty minutes, with Nashville taking 14 of the 20. San Jose outplayed Nashville in nearly every category—e.g., shots: 41-20; hits: 37-27—and where it ultimately matters most, the scoreboard (3-1). This series could go either way.

Tonight it’s the Wings again, preceded by game four of the Sens – Pens series. I’d rather watch the Rangers vs. the Thrashers, or even the Dallas – Vancouver game, but those games aren’t options for me. None the less, simply having two games available is cause for wonderment. After all, I am living in New Mexico…not exactly a hotbed in the hockey world.

So… if the Wings win tonight it’s all over save the shouting crying (assuming you live in Alberta). And the good folks in Calgary know it.

I have a minor issue with Site Meter I’ve been meaning to rant about mention: SM doesn’t display the results of image searches in the “Search words ranked by Visits” section of the metrics. This simple fact obscures the number and frequency of site visits from folks looking for something quite specific by omitting all image searches from the search engine metrics. In my case it’s a serious dilution, but I have no way of tracking it. As an example, lately I’ve been getting approximately three or four hits per day from people doing this image search (and variations on that theme), and this one, too. From Finland, no less! And once in a great, great while, I’ll get a hit from an image search like this:

Time of Visit: Apr 16 2007 2:26:03 pm
Referring URL: http://images.google...0%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
Search Engine: images.google.com
Search Words: profile sexy oldmen

Why, thank you, Ma’Dear! At least I hope I can call you “Ma’Dear.” One would hope that search is from one of those (prospective) eastern European mail-order brides…otherwise one shudders to think of alternative possibilities.

And speaking of alternative possibilities, it’s time for an EIP semi-regular feature… “Fun with Site Meter,” or… “Weird Searches that Bring Folks to EIP.” You gotta keep in mind: Every single one of these searches resulted in a visit to the blog, however brief it might have been. Let’s begin with these two from today:

Time of Visit: Apr 17 2007 3:26:26 am
Referring URL: http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&q=aieeee&btnG=Google%20Search&meta=
Search Engine: google.co.in
Search Words: aieeee (You hit paydirt, Sir/Madam. My favorite term of alarm!)

Another of the occasional hits from semi-bizarre sex searches, such as this:

Time of Visit: Apr 17 2007 1:21:34 am
Referring URL: http://images.google...hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff
Search Engine: images.google.com
Search Words: lompoc sex (The image was an aerial view of Lompoc Air Force Station…)

One of my favorites are these five variations on a theme, plus one that might be associated (one visit, each)…

woah-oh oh-woah-oh-oh-woah woa...-woah-oh-oh techno song lyrics
woah, woah, woah, woah techno lyrics
woah woah woah wa de da baby techno song
woah techno
woah oh oh oh techno
"hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo" techno lyrics

What am I missing here? I’m certain there’s something I’m missing…

And finally…lotsa hits for people looking for “stuff” about P-Town, including…

portales sucks
portales sex
portales rehab
portales nm sexy wives
portales nightclub
portales dog pound pics
portales bubba
portales aliens
porn portales

A few of these hits were directly from P-Town, most weren’t.

And that’s it for this installment! Of course, all the links above are available to be browsed in my Site Meter, which is open to the public. If you care. And I cannot, for the life of me, imagine why you would.

Today’s Pic: Yet another bike pic. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, we are. This tells me I gotta get out more…

Last Thursday.

Still Mired Down...

I’m still in a bit of a funk when it comes to “meaningful” blog posts. You know, things like Putin reviving the Cold War, Obama’s formal announcement (yeah, like that’s news), or even another incidence of academic political correctness winning the day. Wait. Back up. Let’s reconsider that last item:

The feminist takeover of Harvard is imminent. The Harvard Crimson reported yesterday that the university is about to name as its new president Drew Gilpin Faust, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Harvard’s Corporation, which is likely to recommend Faust to the university’s Board of Overseers for confirmation, could not have more clearly repudiated Lawrence Summers’s all-too-brief reign of meritocracy and academic honesty, or more openly signaled that Harvard will now be the leader in politically correct victimology.

Faust runs one of the most powerful incubators of feminist complaint and nonsensical academic theory in the country. You can count on the Radcliffe Institute’s fellows and invited lecturers to proclaim the “constructed” nature of knowledge, gender, and race, and to decry endemic American sexism and racism.

And from that “powerful incubators” link in the preceding quote…

…beneath the ubiquitous “discourses,” “constructions,” and “negotiated meanings”—behind the coy hyphens, parentheses, and slashes—lies the belief that there is no such thing as the “self,” or “truth,” or “males” and “females,” or “good” and “bad,” that all are arbitrary categories designed by an oppressor class of white male heterosexual capitalists to keep a victim class of minorities, women, and poor people silenced and powerless?

That particular paragraph describes the mindset of Harvard’s (rumored) new president. Hell, she was instrumental in shaping what can only be called a radical point of view and is in the vanguard of the “movement,” so to speak. My reaction?

Good Lord. It’s hard to see how the pendulum can swing any further to the left, or to imagine a more egregious offense to the values that made this country what it is today, or rather what it was...back when “traditional values” were the norm and well before we began lionizing the “victim class(es).” I only hope that some sort of backlash is forming, somewhere. Coz it’s way past time for the pendulum to begin its swing back towards reality. The fate of western civilization hangs in the balance, and I’m not being melodramatic. Not in the least.

So. Let’s lighten up. In the “Fun with Site Meter” department, I offer you the leading search terms resulting in EIP visits from Googlers for the past 45 days or so:

“My Lil Reminder” in its various permutations (IIVP): 136
“USAFA Cadet Requests F-15 Ride” IIVP: 59
“YGBFSM” IIVP: 39
“Petticoat Punishment” IIVP: 29
“Heidi Cullen” IIVP: 15
People Looking for Becky’s Place but Winding Up at EIP Instead (“Hemipenes”): 2

And the strangest search term these past days:

“Woah-Oh Oh-Woah-Oh-Oh-Woah Woah-Oh-Oh-Woah-Oh-Oh techno song lyrics.”

Could you just hum a few bars? I might have that. Somewhere. On the other hand…techno has lyrics? Who’d thunk it?

On the other, other hand, I’m surprised this got any hits at all:

“who sings, "live on the edge" for pontiac commercial.”

Why? Because the commercial in question is a Ford ad, Sparky.

I loves me some Site Meter!

I forgot to make another entry in the “nothing lasts forever” department this past week. This time it was my beloved trusty HP LaserJet 5P printer, a device that made no demands, worked first-time, every time, was economical to operate, and so on. Until about a month ago, when it refused to power up when I hit the switch. No blown fuses or other obvious indications of ill-health, just a quiet death. That printer served me quite well…for well over ten years (more like 12), as a matter of fact. But it’s gone now, replaced with a shiny new HP D7360 ink-jet photo printer, which will do double-duty printing the odd document here and there, like the annual 1040s or directions from Google Maps. And the price was more than right, too: only $129.00 at Office Max. I’ve wanted a photo printer for the longest time. And now I finally have one. This time the philosophical “nothing lasts forever” statement was good news.

The weather is always good for a paragraph or two when all else fails, and it’s gonna be pretty good today: partly cloudy with a forecasted high of 67. That sounds like top-down weather, doesn’t it? I think I just might get out in it today and see if I can’t get a February sunburn. That would be interesting, nu?

Today’s Pic: Granddaughters Anastasia and Amanda running to avoid getting wet while SN2 looks on, as a very cool fountain in Seattle dances in time to classical music. The girls unsuccessfully avoided the water, I should add: they got soaked. There are speakers arranged around the periphery of the fountain, and the music varies from up-tempo classical to pop (technical details here). The water jets in the fountain are choreographed to “perform” in conjunction with the music. Way-cool. Way-wet, too!
June, 2000.