Late Night Ego-Surfing

Ever Google your name to see what comes up? Of course you have, admit it.

I check every now and then just to see if my recent guidebooks are being picked up under my name or if this blog shows up. So far, it's mostly just my books. I used to have the first full three pages of Google links all to myself. It was actually kind of odd, given that "Doug Walsh" isn't a very original name. I mean, when you think about it, that's about as vanilla as a name can get so having the first 75 google links was something I was proud of. Oh, those were good times. I was flying high back then. I could have been a contender.

Now I find it more fun to Google the names of people who have come and gone in my life. You know, to see what they are (or aren't) up to. I highly recommend doing this if you ever want a little pick-me-up. These are the first relevant hits I found for the two names I Googled tonight.

1) I typed the name of a friend who my wife and I had a falling out with sometime last year. The link that came up for her? To a site of people passing bad checks. They had everything there: her and her husband's full names, their address. Even how much the bounced check was for. The sad part was that this was the only link in the first 100 that was related to them. Being that it was the very first link in that list, I gave up looking.

2) Next I typed in the name of a former girlfriend. A girl I dated in high school and then briefly one summer while in college. She had it all going for her -- looks, smarts, good family. Everything. We ended up having a falling out in college because, well, I met my future wife. Anyway, want to know what she's up to? Me too. The only link I found relevant to her is to the results of a 5K road race she ran back in 1996. I don't know what's worse, the fact that there's a website out there actually wasting bandwith with 9 year old results to an 80-person 5k or the fact that Google doesn't think she had done anything more interesting than an 8th place finish in her age group in almost a decade. I'd chalk this up to her getting married and suffering a name change, but my brother ran into her in a bar earlier this year and she introduced him to her boyfriend. Besides, she was defiitely going to be a hyphenator. Google would have still got her.

So there you have it. If you're ever feeling a bit run down or tired or just feeling like crap. Log on and Google some blasts from the past. Your miserable existence might not be as miserable as those you once envied.