Forward Biased (Less-than-current Events)

Searching for Mr. Goodbar?

I get a lot of traffic from search engines.  I mean a lot.  And I'm grateful, don't get me wrong—but, as you probably know, when it comes to search results, you don't always get what you typed in the little box.  Especially if you don't use quotes.

So, for your amusement (and just a tiny bit of bragging on my part) here are a few search terms that have somehow landed people at Forward Biased:

Google: Did Sarah Hughes Have Any Other Achievements?  (I was the first return on this one, oddly enough.)

Google:  team usa tried to get rid of michelle kwan in 1998 and 2002 (Second hit.)

Ask Jeeves:  are bear's color blind?

Yahoo:  Snopes.com, vodka, cleaner

Comcast Search:  danger of mice

Google:  things you dont see every day  (I was the third hit, and no, there weren't any quotes used.)

MSN:  a civil law biased to woman

Yahoo:  the funniest joke in the world

MSN:  society view of anti-collectivists and libertarians

Yahoo:  robert+debra+raich

Google:  dextrosphere (Fourth hit.)

Sympatico MSN:  pierre Trudeau political rhymes (Don't ask me.)

Yahoo:  Los zetas music feature:audio

MSN:  Mersa Bacterial Infection

Yahoo:  which amendment more important

Yahoo:  Obi-Wan  (yes, they had to drill down a long way to find me here.)

Dang

Seattle's whipping the Panthers rather badly.  Oh, well.

Another quiz

Rohirrim

To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

Saw this at Left Brain Female, who got the same result I did.

Lucky me

Winning a multi-million-dollar lottery jackpot isn't the most likely thing that could happen to someone, but they say that you have to enter a lottery if you want to win.  (Which explains why I'll never win one.)

Except that I got this email today, informing me otherwise:

FINAL WINNING NOTIFICATION:

Dear Lucky Winner,

See?  I'm a "Lucky Winner."  That sends a Warm Feeling through me already.

RE: BONUS LOTTERY PROMOTION PRIZE AWARDS WINNING NOTIFICATION

We are pleased to notify you the draw (#915) of the UK NATIONAL LOTTERY, Online Sweepstakes International Lottery Program held on Mon 7 Nov 2005

Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from a
pool of over 25,000 names of distinguished professionals drawn from Europe, America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Middle-East, parts of Africa, and North & South America as part of our international promotions programme conducted annually to encourage prospective overseas entries. We hope with part of your prize awards, you will take part in our subsequent lottery jackpots.

And I'm also a "Distinguished Professional."  Who could disagree with that?

But now, they seem to imply that I have to actually enter future lotteries in order to win.  Something isn't right here—if one could win this lottery without entering it, where did the jackpot money come from?

The result of our computer draw (#915) selected your name and email address attached to e-ticket number: 56475600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers: 03 06 07 17 30 34(bonus no.08), which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category i.e. match 5 plus bonus.

You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £650,000,00 (six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pounds Sterling) in cash credited to file KTU/9023118308/03.This is from a total cash prize of £3,900,000.00 shared amongst the first Six (6) lucky winners in this category i.e. Match 5 plus bonus.

Never mind the typo in the figure they say I won.  And that would be using American notation.  Europeans would type £650.000,00 instead.

According to this piece of spam correspondence, all I have to do to claim "£650,000,00" is to contact them.  I expected to see some reference made to supplying my bank account number, but I guess they don't ask for that until they have their prey thoroughly hooked.

Good advice, but...

The National Motorists Association has a list of tips for avoiding speeding tickets.

You might notice that "don't speed" is not on the list.

(Via Ralph Bristol.)

No real surprises here

The three-dimension luck and power test

You Are Internal - Realist - Powerful

You feel your life is controlled internally. If you want something, you make it happen. You don't wait around for things to go your way. You value your independence and don't like others to have control. You are a realist when it comes to luck. You don't attribute everything to luck, but you do know some things are random. You don't beat yourself up when bad things happen to you... But you do your best to try to make your own luck. When it comes to who's in charge, it's you. Life is a kingdom, and you're the grand ruler. You don't care much about what others think. But they better care what you think!

The Three Dimension Luck and Power Test

Heh.  Don't know why I find these silly little things interesting, but here's another one.

Now, this next one was a little more useful, i.e. based on reality—I was a little disappointed by the results, though.  How observant are you?

B-

Your senses are pretty sharp (okay, most of the time)

Via Blogthings.

I'm not too sure about this...

So, which Star Trek character are you?

You are an outcast learning to cope and understand the ways of those around you. Your blunt honesty and intellectual capacity cause others to mistake you for egotistical...when really, you ARE just smarter than everyone else.

Take the Star Trek Quiz

It's flattering and all, but I tend to doubt the usefulness of a personality test with only five questions.

A.M. miscellanea

Man, I had no idea that I had gone three whole days without posting anything.  Sorry about that.  Therefore, although I have nothing in particular to say at the moment, I shall post nevertheless.

I was rudely rooted up this morning at an ungodly hour, made all the more rude by its being Saturday morning, but after I got out running necessary errands I saw the sky.  Beautiful Carolina-blue skies stretching all the way from the foothills to the sea.  Now, actually I'm a lot like Phoenix in that I like thunderstorms, within reason.  I don't really know why I do, but I do.  But three days under Tammy's wet, grey thumb is plenty, I think.  I was ready to see that glorious clear piedmont sky this morning.

Which reminds me—I had been thinking that, the way she writes (and writes, and wr...koff, sorry) Phoenix should consider getting her own blogging forum.  Then yesterday, what did I discover but that she seems to be a sort of co-blogger over at Steel's place.  Pretty cool.  Y'all go over there and check it out.  (I think she writes better than Steel, but don't tell him I said that.)  She's got some impressive photography over there, too.

Now I'd better catch up with the comments.  No telling what mischief she and Rob have been up to.