Random musings about search engines and spam

To the person who found my blog by searching the phrase "having a lot of inconsistent contractions at 38 weeks": you have my full and complete sympathy. I hope you'll stop in and let me know when you actually go into labor. I hope both of us go into labor soon.

The same to whoever found me by searching for "prelabor stories." Those I can deliver--in excess by this point, I'd think. If you're looking for prelabor stories, you have definitely come to the right place.

To the several who got here by searching for cryptomnesia and/or carl jung--nice to know I'm attracting a few people who are interested either in writing or in expanding their vocabulary. That was one of my favorite posts, actually. It made me feel very . . . literary. Hey, it even got a coveted rare comment from Richard Lawrence Cohen, which made my day. So I'm glad someone is still reading it occasionally. :)

To those who found my blog by the following searches: "jax mush cornmeal," "puzzle how many purple," "kangaroo jumping board game" and "PURPLE BUTTERFLY TATTOOS"--you probably didn't find what you were looking for here, but thanks for clicking through to my blog anyway. I hope you enjoyed reading about cornmeal mush for breakfast, M's birthday party complete with butterfly temporary tattoos, and maybe the infamous pantry project. (I really need to write an update to the pantry project post, especially since I took pictures of the last batch of the liver as I was cooking it and then never made it into a post.)

Now a note about e-mail spam.

How can anyone possibly think I'd open an e-mail from someone I don't know and have never heard of, with any of the following subject lines? (These are the actual subject lines of several e-mails I've received in the past week and deleted without opening.)

Re: Is give of portent

As hear do befriend

For fly the wont fox

My learn the loyalist waken

Is do by rewards

Re: It cough he optician

Re: I fly or shorten celebrated

was learn the rubric lecherous

Just do itt

Do these spammers use programs that just combine random words to attach to an e-mail in hopes of spreading their nefarious virus? Or do they not speak English and just think random English words will draw someone in to open an e-mail? I've gotten several in German, too, but I don't have a clue what they say.

Those last two might have a slightly better chance of being opened by an unsuspecting person, perhaps. Kind of like the multiple e-mails I get advertising free phone minutes, etc. They're even addressed to Sarah in the subject line. Nice try. Except that my name isn't Sarah. Never has been, never will be.

Oh, and to be totally random, I thought I'd share an e-mail forward I actually hadn't seen before. One I enjoyed. (!!!) Of course, I found it posted on a message board instead of getting it in e-mail. But I think it's worth sharing.

Subject: Screen Cleaner


takes a few seconds to load but very cute!


> I noticed that my monitor was not quite as clear as when we first got
> it. Apparently the electrons build up on the inside of the screen
with
> time, and the picture deteriorates. I found a free program that I use
> to 'clean' the inside of the screen and the improvement was quite
> noticeable.
>
> I highly recommend it. If you'd like to try it, simply click on the
> following link. The program is free, works automatically, and takes
only
> about 45 seconds to do its job.
>

Drumroll please: www.legrady.hu/sc.html