Googly-eyed

I can't believe I didn't post at all the entire month of February. I mean, I know it's a short month, but still. I was hoping I could get at least one post in (I tried last night, but I actually fell asleep beside my laptop. Not the first time that's happened, and surely not the last, either).

But wow, Feb. was really busy. I can't even remember half the stuff I did, at this point, but I know a not-insignificant amount of cleaning was done, a goodly number of movies and hockey games were seen, there was a friend's art opening I went to, a couple stitch 'n' bitches to attend, and Johnny & I started going ice skating with the gang from the unofficial Panthers board every weekend, which is awesome. It ain't roller skating (I miss my quads!), and it gives my knees a bit of hell, but it's still pretty bitchin'. All in all, a very busy month.

So anyway, to atone for being such an absent blogger lately, here are some tidbits of what I did this afternoon, in the bloggy spirit of oversharing. I do Google myself every so often (as I'm sure you all do, too - it's really sort of like good internet hygiene, y'know?), and this post linked by one of my Twitter acquaintances reminded me that it's that time again. I'm actually quite difficult to find via Google, as my name is common enough to return multitudes of hits - there's even a journalist (formerly of the Washington Post, now with the Wall Street Journal) who shares my name. I'm rather pleased with my Google anonymity. That's why you won't see my full name on this blog or on my Blogger identity. But even if it did end up on here somehow, it wouldn't matter, because I'd still get lost in a sea of like-named individuals, many of whom are way higher-profile than I'll ever be. I've got a couple friends who, if you Google their full name, pages about them are the only results that show up. That just boggles my mind. Here, on the other hand, is what you get when you Google for me:

If you Google my first name and last name, on page 3 of the results you'll get the LinkedIn directory for everyone with my name, which I am on (one of 39 people). On page 7 of the results, there is a link to a page which cached a link to my Twitter account when I still had my full name attached to it. I am nowhere else to be found in the first 10 pages of results.

If you Google my nickname and my last name, a link to my old blog url shows up on the first page. Pathetically enough, I have still not placed a redirect from my old url to here, so I'm sure there are still some folks out there who think I abandoned my blog in November of 2007.

If you Google my full name plus "twitter," the page with the cached link to my Twitter account is the first result.

If you Google my full name plus "blogger," I am not anywhere to be found in the first 10 pages of results.

If you Google my full name plus "blog," there is a link to my old blog url on page 5.

"My name".blogspot.com gives you the same page as "my name".org, which appears to be the online resume of a theater director out West (interesting projects she's worked on!). "My name".com gives a placeholder page. "My name".net does not exist.

If you Google my e-mail alias, you get 3 pages of results, none of which are related to me at all. If you Google my personal e-mail address, you get four results, two of which link to comments I've made on Threadless, one of which links to my old blog url, and one of which links to some site which appears to be for spammers, as it just contains a list of random e-mail addresses, and Google warns "This site may harm your computer" (this would explain the large amount of spam I get, all of which Gmail catches - thanks, Gmail!). If you Google my "grown-up" e-mail address, which is the one I'd use for any job application or anything, you get no results.

So. Thanks for giving me a boring name, Mom & Dad! Actually, I like my name alright - it's just a little long. At 19 letters and 7 syllables, it was kind of a pain when I was learning to write as a kid, and it's still a mouthful to say. It's not so weird that I have to spell it for people all the time, but it's not John-Smith common, either. It's got a "z" and a bunch of "i"s in it, and since those are two of my favorite letters, it's just fine with me.

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