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Google Search I Ching

Because I desperately need a hobby, I have invented a game for you. It is called Google Search I Ching. It is played thusly:

1) Get out your bingo set. If you do not have a bingo set, reconsider the path your life has taken, and select an alternate method of choosing numbers at random, such as dice.

2) Make four columns on a piece of paper. Label them "Page," "Line," "Word," and "Number."

3) Use your bingo set (or paltry substitute) to select a number. Write this number in the "Page" column. Do the same for the remaining three columns.

4) Select a book from your library.

5) Using the numbers you have selected, find the appropriate page, line on the page, and word in the line in your book.

6) Starting with the word you arrive at, count out the number of words designated in the "Number" column.

7) Enter this string of words into Google, sans punctuation.

8) Surf away!

A note on numbers: if the number you select at random is too high to be applicable or convenient, reduce it by adding the digits together. So if your bingo set tells you to count out 23 words, for example, you can add them together to get 5 instead.

Some examples of the results:

Hollywood Husbands by Jackie Collins (21, 33 [reduced to 6], 18 [reduced to 9], 64 [reduced to 10]): A search for had met on assignment in africa she was doing leopard led me to this interesting peek at the history of comic books.

The Selected Short Stories of Edith Wharton, edited by R.W.B. Lewis (49, 2, 33 [reduced to 6], 12): A search for he brought with him was due less to the influences of the proved less satisfying - sometimes the oracle is cloudy - but eventually, I discovered this treasure - an astrological chart reading for Zeppo Marx. (The number of religion or superstition-related sites that came up with this search was quite astounding. Was it the word "influence" that did it?)

The U.S. Armed Forces Survival Manual (54, 56 [reduced to 11], 62 [reduced to 8], 19 [reduced to 10]): least 15 minutes before loosening the tourniquet if after 15. This was tough. I could not decide between the Texas Junior Naturalists' snakebite page and these instructions from Trevor about how to enlarge one's penis so that one can, like Trevor, measure it down to the last decimal point. Lucky Trevor!

Posted by hilatron at December 16, 2002 10:01 PM