Time was.................

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I have been online for about as long as there was a line to be on. I have participated in a large number of online email groups, newsgroups, YahooGroups, and other online groups, and now I read and comment on a large number of blogs.  I've pretty much always been out there, and not in a lurking invisible way.


Time was, if you googled my name, I was at the top of the list.

At some point, I decided I didn't want to be quite that exposed, and I started deliberately not putting my name out there, on everything.


Time was, if you googled my name, I was still on the first page, despite the actress who shares my name.


Time passed.

I googled my name this week, and was bemused to learn that it's only after clicking down page after page that you'll find me at all.

The first hit was something I'd never seen before, and didn't know existed.  You want to know what that first hit was, don't you?

Well, here it is.  (as always, click on a pic to embiggen)

That first hit on my name was in the caption for this pic, which was taken in 1986. We were a bunch of people connected with the University of Michigan who were interested in online communication.

I remember going to this picnic.

The thing I remember best is that someone I'd known for years was there, with her puppy. I was talking to her, when someone I knew as a cat person came up and asked us if it wouldn't be wonderful if the puppy could stay a puppy forever.

Um. No. Puppies are cute, true.  Very, extremely cute.  But.  They have no manners, are not integrated into the household, chew everything, pee everywhere, and generally are a LOT of work. The puppy's mama and I enlightened the cat person on a bunch of ways that grownup dogs are vastly preferable to puppies............

That's what I remember.

I do not remember meeting the man who would become my boss about ten years later. I do not remember that someone my better half would work for later was there. I do not remember meeting someone (in addition to the boss) who would come and work in my group, many years later.

My better half doesn't remember that it even happened, but there he was.


I showed you our Spot dog, not too long ago. See her? First row, fifth from the right?


It's odd to google myself, and to only find me with difficulty, so many pages down, when I used to be so readily findable.  I believe I prefer it this way, but it's very different..........

I am considerably amused to have this pic (that I don't remember being taken) be the first thing I encounter, when looking for myself online.


This pic was published in the University of Michigan "Computing News" in August of 1986, and is available on the web because of Google's work digitizing, and publishing, random elderly printed material.  You can see many issues of the "Computing News," including this one, here.

One of the many things I find amusing about this pic is that it is available.  Of all the important documents that might be digitized and preserved for posterity, thank goodness this blurry old pic has been saved and published for all to see.  Lol................


I read the text about whether it's ok to re-publish this image.  It's my belief that it's ok for me to publish it, with attribution.  I am sure someone will tell me, if they discover I'm wrong about that.

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