Background Noise

The other day Ernie linked to this article that I went and read, about happiness and wealth and how choices about spending can and cannot increase well-being. The gist of the article is that the flashy things that people spend money on (fancy cars, big houses, TVs, etc.) don't tend to make you happy for very long, but the invisible things that you can choose to use increased wealth for (eliminating a long commute, more time to sleep, exercise, see friends) contribute a whole lot to health and well-being.

There was a part in the article about background noise and how the conscious brain will tune it out after a while but it continues to be a stressor. My neighborhood is bordered by a busy highway. I can see the cars going by right now, from my window. Sometimes I notice the noise more than others. When I first moved here I came here from the middle of nowhere, a cabin in the woods at the far end of a mile long dead end dirt road, surrounded by 10 square miles of wildlife refuge. I couldn't sleep at first. Now I'm used to it. But maybe it is a low-level stress factor to me even though I don't much notice it.

I don't know why I think of this as analagous but somehow I do. Since I first started this weblog I've had access to the referrer logs, and therefore I see a lot of the Google searches that mistakenly lead people here. And I suppose it's natural that searches for "execution" would get people here. But before I started a weblog I would have had no idea how frequently people are searching for websites devoted to "execution of women" or, worse, "execution women pictures." I don't like knowing. I'm used to it now, but, yuck. It troubles me if I think about it too much. And Google is bringing them here, as regularly as the cars going by on the highway outside.

Comments

[Sherry]

i get loads of hits for "armpit hair pics". eeeeuuuuuu!

[David Giacalone]

You might be relieved to know that those googlers looking for weird things are probably not actually reaching your weblog. The referrer logs count every time your weblog merely comes up in response to a query -- there does not have to be a click-through to you.

I like the "referrals" from the enquiry "Dick the Butcher," even when the topic sought is meat rather than kiling all the lawyers. Because I once wrote a haiku about unpacked swimsuits that smelled like moth balls, I show up at Ask.com when anyone wants to know how to remove moth ball odors. I shall definitely stay away from armpit poems.