Remembering things: elephants do it well. We learn to do it young and some do it well. Some don’t do it well, and some, well, some lose their edge at some point. The Internet however, now she’s a machine when it comes to memory.
I’ve been actively online since 1994. I used to build websites; I used to be an active reader and commentator; I was a editor/writer/blogger for some time as well. I *know* there are traces of me scattered higgly-piggly all over the Web. So I shouldn’t be surprised to see that The Machine has remembered some of my words here and there.
A while back, for kicks, I put my URL into Google. As I expected, links to most pages within my site came up. But a few unexpected links came up as well, content and comments that I hadn’t intended for publication or distribution. Here are a few of the hits returned (and to my great relief, nothing embarrassing or unsavory, since, well, who hasn’t posted something like that at one time or the other):
- Doublesquare, a company associated with the developer that built an earlier website, using that site as an advertisement for their design services. I like the showcase theme of this link, and the number of detailed images they highlight, like the logo and key photos. They’re “representin’.”
- Bookreview.com, a review of my novel, from 2006. This tickles me to no end. The only distribution for my novel came from word of mouth, and me plying friends and relatives with free copies, so to see a still-living page… saying of the novel: “Excellent!” and “the characterization is suberb” is rewarding in countless ways.
Finally, a video I put up for the benefit of a bunch of palm enthusiasts (that’s the tree, not the upturned hand). I’m an amateur grower, and being in Japan, it was great to find this program on a local channel highlighting not only a Japanese artifact (the brush shown at the end) that I have in my own home, but the fact that it’s made from palm fiber in little cottage-industry shops in rural Japan. https://youtu.be/54xXYqssiIQ