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.