It's Been a Thrill(er)

[DianesDigitals's Photos]

Michael Crichton - 1942 - 2008

My first Michael Crichton experience was watching the movie Andromeda Strain on TV around 1973 or so. It scared the shit out of me. Especially the scene where a dead guy gets his wrist cut open, and only powdered blood comes out. Ewwwwwwwh!

[The Andromeda Strain (1971) TRAILER]


Fun fact: Crichton has a brief cameo as a doctor in the original. The director made him sit down because his height (6'9") was too distracting.

(IMHO the remake sucked several different types of suckiness.)
Since that first viewing I've enjoyed most of Crichton's books. I first read the book Andromeda Strain when I was about 13 and loved it.

Yes I know he didn't write serious literature, and he got criticized for some of the science. But he knew how to write a engrossing thriller.

Your fans will miss your work Michael.

In A World....

...Without an announcer.

Voiceover actor Don LaFontaine died last night at the age of 68.

And yes you do know who he was.

He was:



And:



But mostly he is known for movie trailers. This one is particularly fine!



How did I manage to miss that spiffy film.

Better:



Seems he did many previews for Cannon Films. One of the finer film companies out there.

And to finish. A short documentary about him.

George Carlin: 1937 - 2008

[schwinghammers'Photos]

I'm a big fan of George Carlin's.

Although I didn't always agree with everything he said, he always said it in a funny way.

I saw him live once in the late '80's, and it was an incredibly funny show. I'm sure my seat was a titch damp afterwards.

Have a look @ his site, especially the media section (can't link directly), and try to keep a straight face.

Here are a few bits (the first one is oh so very NSFW!)

Early (ish) stuff!:


And from last year:



George died last night @ the age of 71. He was raised a Catholic, and I don't think he held any religious beliefs as an adult. But I would like to think that he's sitting with God and saying:

A Rabbi, and Priest and an asshole walked into a bar...

P.S. If you enjoyed that shit - try this!

Arthur C. Clarke...

...dies at age 90 in Sri Lanka.

Farewell

and thanks for all the books.

What Are You Looking For?

I thought I would do an entry highlighting some of the searches people use that find this blog.

Needless to say no-one is actually looking for ME! (My poor, poor ego) but they end up here anyway.

I use a web statistics site called Statcounter that lists everyone that visits this site. You can sort site stats in many ways, including the top keywords used to find you.

Here are some of the top ones listed for this blog, and my interpretation of what they where looking for.

But first, a Google lesson. If you put your search terms in quotes Google searches the words as a phrase. For example searching for "Vancouver public library" will find you more relevant results than just the words Vancouver public library without the quotation marks. The second search found this site: Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, when what I was looking for was this site: Vancouver Public Library.

Also, Google is not a natural language search engine. You will have better results with "Vancouver Public Library" than: where is the library is Vancouver?

If you want to become an effective Google user, have a look at some of these links: "Google tutorial"

You're welcome.

Now on to the results.

The number one search is (with variations)
~~ funny stanley steamer tv dog commercial ~~

This is the blog entry they found.

And this is what they were looking for:



Another popular search:
~~ false internet forward, soapbox rant ~~

This one didn't lead to a particular posting here, and frankly I can't figure out what the hell they are looking for. Any clues anyone?

Here is one of my Favourite searches:
~~ hmmm ~~

Yup, that's it, that's the search. Not. A. Clue.

Maybe it's some retro kid looking for the video for "Things That Make You Go Hmmm" Well offer it up, the video ain't on YouTube. The fact that I actually looked is really, really depressing.

Here's another odd search:
~~ myspace quiz so far in 2007 ~~

It landed the searcher here. (All my entries with the label "quiz")

But I think they may have wanted this: So Far in 2007 Survey. (At least I can't find anything better)

Whatever....

Another one that defies logic:
~~ hip bones poked ~~

I don't think I want to know what they were looking for, but this entry is what they found. Doubt that's what they wanted.

And to finish, something completely not relevant.

I was at the reference desk today looking over the newspaper and I had this conversion with my (much, much younger) colleague.

Me: "Hey, Charles Nelson Reilly died!"
Her: "Who?"
Me: "You know, the guy from The Match Game"
Her: "What?"
Me: "Never mind"

Mr. Reilly on Match Game (longish video)