blog notes

using the site meter, that little icon over to the right, i can get a pretty good idea of not only how many people visit this blog, but who and also why. for example, i get an average of 19 hits a day, a very modest number, but probably appropriate for the content. based on the domain names of the hits, i can sometimes figure out who's dropping by - for example, i can see when my mother logs on, based on her office's business domain. i can also see that someone from mactec, my former employer, has been checking out the blog once a day. probably one of my old co-workers wondering what it's like to have a real job.

but what's most interesting to me is to see why people visit based on search engine results. for example, at 7:24 this morning, someone in the midwest (central time zone) performed an internet search for "+power +windows 'won't roll up,'" and got referred to this blog by search.com. a reference to this blog didn't come up until page 4 of the search results, but the seeker of automotive wisdom got directed to my october 23 blog entry, wherein i locked my keys and cell phone in my running car in the morning, then couldn't get the power windows to roll up in the afternoon. i'm not sure if that's what the seeker was looking for, but i hope he or she was at least entertained by my misfortunes.

(someone also got referred here on december 18 by searching google for buick century "break in" "locked out" keys.)

but as interesting as that might or might not be, at 7:13 this morning, someone on eastern europe time (russian federation zone 1) performed a yahoo search for "email contact for shokai." i'll let you know if i hear anything from my russian friend, but i was only the 33rd "shokai" to come up in his search results - apparently, there's a lot of us shokai's out there. for those wondering, the number one shokai is nobuyuki shokai of the japanese delegation to the asia-pacific economic cooperation agricultural technical cooperation working group.

i've gotten several hits by people searching for michael creighton's environmental lectures - most recently, one yesterday morning, one december 17 (for "michael creighton state of fear"), and one december 18th. i should use the words "michael creighton" more often (hey! i just did!) and see if it gets me more hits.

but my favorite category of search engine hits, though, are those that are referred here based on the blog title ("water dissolves water"). december 16, someone got sent here by an msn search for "how much air dissolves in water?" on december 17, someone came here after asking jeeves "what dissolves in water?" december 18 got me a hit from someone's soap dissolves the fastest in water search on yahoo (i was the number one result!).

i've gotten a couple of other hits from searches about the movie "i heart huckabees," an aol'er who searched for the keywords "rollover & die" (but in typical aol style, misspelled "die" as "ie"), one for the reverend soyu matsuoka roshi, and one for sean o'flanders, who, as you may recall, was the third place finisher for the "man of the year" awards.

which reminds me, there are some early entries for this year's man of the year competition, from right here in the usa. first, we have brian jenkins of new port ritchie, florida:

also, will cross of laramie, wyoming:

we will keep you informed as additional contestants appear.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia Dec 22, 2004 — A government order banning a pop song about a Buddhist monk falling in love will unlikely affect its sales, a production manager said Tuesday.

Officials recently pulled the plug on radio and television broadcasts of "Wrongly Quitting Monkhood for Love," saying it tarnishes the reputation of Cambodian Buddhism.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said in a statement last week that the song's content "affects the dignity of other monks who are striving to sacrifice their physical and mental strength to devote themselves to Buddhist teaching."

The song was released as a video CD, which shows scenes of the monk hugging and kissing the girl while bathing in a pond near a pagoda.

Iep Chimeng, manager of a studio that produced the video CDs, said the ban would have little impact on the sale of the 4,000 copies already out in the market.

He said the aim of the video was not to degrade Buddhism in Cambodia but to educate monks who might not yet have rid themselves of sexual desire.

"He was obsessed with her beauty, and, against advice from older monks, he left the monkhood for her. But when she abandoned him later, he realized that he was wrong and that he's the one who was hurt," Iep Chimeng said, adding that the man returns to the monkhood.

Some 90 percent of Cambodia's 13 million people adhere to Buddhism. About 60,000 monks live at more than 4,000 temples across the country.