Work, sort of

I am very unenthused about being at work today, along with five other employees and the six office mice. (Who aren't stirring, incidentally.) All the supervisory personnel have already disappeared on their vacations, so there isn't quite as much work getting done as there might be. We did get permission to go home at 3; and we'll have to actually stick around till then, because I'm sure one of the supervisory personnel will call the office at 2:59 to see if anyone answers the phone.



Well, gotta get back to work. No, really, I mean it.

'Tis better

Maybe I'm crazy—I have been wondering if I've got a manic or hypomanic episode coming on—but, dang it, I'm actually buying things from the wish lists of people I know solely online. Or planning to, anyway. I've tracked down the Amazon wish lists of everyone I've blogrolled who has a wish list link I can find, or whose name or e-mail enables me to search Amazon for one. Because I feel like it, darnit. And because, for a change, I have the financial wherewithal. And because I actually do like giving things more than receiving things. (I like receiving things, don't get me wrong; but giving is my favorite part of the holiday season.)



So if you get a package from Amazon in the next couple of weeks and wonder "Who the heck is this from?" it might be me. Happy assorted holidays—Christmas, the brief remainder of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Saturnalia, Boxing Day, New Year's, Epiphany, Junkanoo, whatever—and rest ye merry, and to all a good night, and [deity of your choice] bless us every one.

Sort-of correction of the day

I have previously asserted, with some asperity (okay, a lot of asperity), that there is no such fucking thing as African moldavite. It turns out, however, that there is such a fucking thing as African moldavite (read the comments to the entry I just linked to). Or, at any rate, there are meteorite tektites in Africa that are similar in chemical composition to those found in the Moldau region of the Czech Republic from which the name "moldavite" is derived; although meteorite purists, like this guy on Meteorite Central's meteorite mailing list, say that "moldavite" is "solely associated with the Ries impact event," which the Lunar and Planetary Institute has more to say about here (PDF link).



So, in a limited way, I stand corrected. But I'm going to stand firm on the Moldavite Fragrance Collection—or any gemstone-derived "fragrance"—as being a big load of hooey. (There are a lot of perfumes that advertise themselves as having an amber scent, including this one from the ever-so-reputable Burberry's. I've actually burned amber, and believe you me, it's not something you want to smell like. But then, venerable perfume bases like ambergris and civet, in their natural states, are also pretty nasty; maybe they do something to the amber so it doesn't reek of burned pine tar.)



(I sincerely apologize for using a Wal-Mart link for that fragrance, by the way, but the actual Burberry's site is so overproduced and Flash-intensive that it would be even more annoying to link straight to them.)

The sky (is|isn't) falling

Top headline on AP: Terror Alert Prompts Tighter Security.



Top headline on Reuters: Americans Urged to Go on with Holiday Plans.



Perhaps I'll hide under a desk with a festively-decorated gift bag over my head.

The year in searches

From a Hollywood Reporter article on the year-end report of search requests from AOL, Yahoo!, and Lycos:

• Paris Hilton had the biggest increase [your sex joke here] in search requests since last year—212,000%.



• A quote: "Lycos is predicting, based on its growing number of searches, that the movies 'The Passion of the Christ,' 'Troy' and 'Catwoman' will be hits." I wonder what the market overlap on those is going to be.



• Another one: "'Finding Nemo' has the dubious honor of being probably the year's most downloaded movie at peer-to-peer file-sharing services." Hm. It's stealing; but it's a family-friendly children's movie. Does that balance out? (I suspect the Paris Hilton video is really the most downloaded movie, but I guess that doesn't officially count.)



• On Lycos, Michael Jordan was the third-most-searched-for athlete. What, is he still around? I thought he and all his championship rings had retired to Planet Nike.



• Britney Spears actually "fell off Lycos' top-10 list of search terms for several weeks" (somehow I feel like "fell off" deserves a sex joke too), until she did that kissing-Madonna thing and some sexy magazine covers and rocketed back to the top. Yes, when in doubt, and when unsupported by talent, the best way to grab the spotlight is to take off most of your clothes and engage in para-sexual activity with anyone in sight. (Well, it's less bizarre than when she humped that snake at the 2001 Music Video Awards.)



• And, finally, perhaps the most surprising thing of all: "Al-Jazeera...generated three times as many search queries in April than did the word 'sex.'" I didn't think anything could knock off "sex" as a search term. Wonders never cease.

One of these days I'll have to figure out the most frequent search requests for my site; I fear "m0n$terc0ck$" is going to be one of them. (Characters replaced to avoid further search requests.) I wonder where that ranks on AOL, Yahoo!, and Lycos...

More spam names

This week's spam names:

• Shelby Gamble



• bagron schreier



• lessa urena



• Tightrope S. Ferociousness



• Alfonso Koenig



• milam louthan



• Felecia Medrano



• Lazaro Pendleton



• shively vecchione



• Bemoan T. Timbered



• casavez grannum



• Mary Mento



• villada ortman



• Aubrey Friedman



• Regretfully J. Individually (clearly not trying very hard for this one)



• Spencer Macias

Cool Google logo

One of my favorite things about Google is their holiday/commemorative logos, but I'm usually not Web-searching on holidays, so I always miss them. I got a kick out of today's, though: in honor of the 100th anniversary of airplane flight, they've got a Wright Brothers' plane logo.



(If you're reading this any day other than 12/17/2003, the logo will probably be archived on their holiday logo page.)