<p>So I was having lunch with my D yesterday and she gave me the opening of a bit of fiction she’s working on as a summer relaxation. We’re talking back and forth when she made mention of a story that I’d published more than 20 years ago. I was pretty sure that I’d only shown her one or two of my stories, thinking that showing one’s fiction to one’s children is either a poor way of seeking approval or a prime cause for inducing eyerolling (or both) and thus to be avoided, and I said something to the affect that I hadn’t remembered showing this particular story to her.</p>
<p>I just about sprayed my ice tea when she said, “I was bored one day last Fall and Googled you and I read it on-line.”</p>
<p>I think many of us have electronic footprints left behind that we never even stop to think about. (I had no idea that someone had put this particular pub on line.) </p>
<p>All I can say is thank goodness that we didn’t have blogs where we talked about our social lives.</p>
<p>OK, I couldn’t resist, so I Googled TheDad and found out that he is:
[ul]
[<em>]a 27-year-old male on MySpace (probably fibbed a little about his age)
[</em>]a member of World Domination (online game)
[<em>]a gardener with his own garden web site
[</em>]a member of the Forsaken 50th Level Inconnu Necromancer (huh?)
[<em>]described on a woodworker forum as a “jewel in the rough”
[</em>]And,… has something to do with “Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo.”
[/ul]
What a life!!!</p>
<p>I love to google random s/n’s and such. I also think TheDad has his own blog too…and it says he’s 56…age’s conflict…which one is it TheDad? digmedia was harder because people abbreviate digital media like crazy</p>
<p>Well, two of my collegeconfidential posts show up, and that’s it. But someone in Korea has “dmd77” as part of their email address. But when I google my real name, I’m apparently running a medical clinic somewhere in the third world.</p>
<p>That was fun! For my screen name here, I got a couple cc posts and a VERY old profile at epinions, as well as some unrelated items. I tried my first and last name and discovered that I am a fairly prolific freelance writer in Minnesota, work for University of North Carolina, and am involved in the cotton industry in Australia. Wow! No wonder I feel tired! When I added my middle name, I found several links to the one article I have online and to my writing critique group. That was about it.</p>
<p>I’ve always wanted to visit Australia. Nice to know I’m already there!</p>
<p>Aries, if you stumble across a couple of critical essays, they’re probably better written than the fiction. I read one when I stumbled across it a couple of years ago and it’s held up pretty well. I think it was more incisive than most of my writing these days…probably due to a combination of fatigue and the demands that come from looking like Johnny Depp.</p>
<p>Yes, finding others with my real name is interesting. There’s the high school student in XXXXXXX, the convicted pervert in YYYYYYYYYYY, and the _________________ engineer in ZZZZZZZZZZZZ.</p>
<p>Digi, I think that woodworker thing got transcribed wrong. It was a “jewel in the buff.” Cf., Johnny Depp.</p>
<p>Well, I just Googled “TheDad,” prompted by Digi’s list. Fascinating.</p>
<p>I have to disavow any connection to all others, as “TheDad” is a CC-only nom de guerre and if I had it to do over again, I’d chose something different. </p>
<p>Did I say “de guerre”? I mean “de plume,” of course. Surely.</p>