I was just checking out some of my usage statistics for thingy.org. Every now and then it's interesting to see where the "hits" are coming from, and how many there are. My stats program also allows me to track search criteria. If a user enters "Whatever the hell" in Google, Yahoo, or just about any other search engine, and then clicks a matching link to Thingy, the search string is recorded for all posterity. I've noticed there are a few strange ones that I can't figure out.

But first, the obvious ones. These are also the most common. For example, thirty-three searches on "thingy" led to this joint. Then there were a few on my name and a couple 91 Argyle-related queries. The rest are pretty interesting. Some of them illustrate the effectiveness of search engines, such as:

• paige davis ass (That lead them here)
• slogan for a-1 steak sauce (That lead them here)
• st. bonaventure francis hall haunted (That lead them here)
• boxing tanya harding (That lead them here)

While others are just plain bizarre:

• guestbook of putzi (Who...?)
• sahara ground makeup (Wha...?)
• rodolpho arruda (Who...?)

It's also interesting to see the various countries represented in the viewer logs. For example, in September, there were 121 page views from Poland. I have one friend in Poland. I'm sure he represents the vast majority, if not the entire lot, of that score. Thanks, Ty. Then there are 100 some-odd page views from "US Educational". (The app lumps together any referrer from a .edu domain.) Many visitors from Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, UK, Taiwan, Brazil, and France. It would be nice to put names to faces, people. See the "post a comment" link.

The most interesting source has appeared in every month's logs. This is a Thingy regular...from the Seychelles islands, that paradisiacal archipelago off the coast of Madagascar, smack dab in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There are probably more spear fishermen there than there are laptops. Whoever you are, I'd love to learn more about your oh-so-sunny home and its people....