Greatest Hits

I actually have a topic today! But first... I know that this link will likely disappear in the near future, but just for now I'd like to say Yay! Idiots who post themselves being idiots on You Tube get arrested for idiocy! To be honest, I'm happy enough at the public response that I don't mind if these particular idiots don't get any more punishment than the humiliation that they're already getting.

Ok, I do mind, but being known as internet idiots by the entire country counts for a lot.

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All right. On to our actual, real, non-whingy topic. Some of my two fans have probably noticed that I have a hit counter on the blog. I like having a counter. It's not so much to monitor the comings and goings of my regulars (although it's always nice to know that you have regulars) as it is to laugh or scratch my head at some of the search terms that accidentally bring people to the blog.

Over the years I've learned that there are a lot of people out there who reeeally don't know how to use search engines properly. I guess I'm at a bit of an advantage since a big part of my job is knowing how to do effective searches to help visitors or callers find the answers to nature questions, but I do find it amusing to see how other people use search engines. Badly.

So. It's been a while, but I think it's time for another installment of weird search terms and the pages that came up from them, featuring my two blogs. Yeah, I'm going to include the other blog as well since I get a few more image search hits on that one. Here we go:

Most recent hit: Tilda Swinton in a garbage bag. I don't know why this person was searching for Tilda Swinton in a garbage bag, but I'm sure that s/he was thrilled to find out that the 2008 Oscar fashions bored me.

Confusing hit: Gimme Your Gimme. Is that a song or something? Either way, the searching person ended up with thousands of pages of people saying gimme.

Unsurprising hit: Amazingly, people occasionally come here by looking for pointless blather. Which begs the question, though: why exactly ARE people looking for pointless blather?

And now a few from the arty side of life. Sorry, let's make that "arty":

I get a surprising amount of hits for wild rose in play-doh. I haven't the faintest idea why.

Same goes for shells in play-doh and how to make a cat in play-doh. Is there some sort of Play-doh culture out there that I'm not aware of?

Lots of people seem to like clematis leaves. Dead ones, even.

Dandelion heads are staggeringly popular (and look! It's the first time that I got brave enough to post to Illustration Friday!).

So, oddly enough, are maple keys.

If anyone's wondering about the current popularity of the weirdly-named Bing search engine, one of the few hits I've noticed (I think I've had a whole two) was for stargazer lilies. Actually, I think I might get the most hits of all (from any search engine) for that particular sketch, and I'm not at all sure why. Sure, it's not too bad for a doodle, but the whole attraction of Stargazer lilies is their vibrant colour. Why would so many people look up a carbon pencil sketch of a colourful flower like that?





Anyway, there's a quick sampling of what I'm currently seeing when I look at my counter. And to any of you who got to this specific post via search engine... um, sorry?