The darndest things...

Yellow, originally uploaded by FlickrBugForever.

Some "controversy" about a certain beverage container I gave to a friend got me thinking. Just how "visible" am I on the Web?

It turns out that I'm quite visible and getting more so by the day.

For example, I found the photo above using one of my commonly used "handles." The photo was on a Web site using the search term "drapes." Who on earth would be interested in a completely random (but pretty) photo I took of drapes? Go figure.

Some background: the ISP of the college I attended showed up in my blog stat report this morning as a result of the beverage container I blogged about previously (post has since been removed and replaced with the "tamer" version above). I doubt they were pleased to see the entry.

Frankly, I wasn't pleased they ran across it either, because it made me feel as if I were being watched more than a decade after graduation. (I know this isn't the case, that they were doing a routine search to see who is talking about the college and how.)

Like diamonds, the Internet is "forever." I am well aware that what I post today will be around decades -- if not millenia -- from now. But how much should I care?

I have heard horror stories about people not getting jobs after potential employers found unsavory "stuff" about job candidates on the Internet. However, I am careful not to post anything incriminating. (Not that there's much incriminating to post. I am one of the most "boring" people you'll ever meet.)

Let me put it another way. If anything I have blogged in the last five months, or will blog in the next 30 years (give or take a decade), is "bad" enough to prevent an employer from hiring me, I don't think that would be the kind of environment in which I'd like to work.

Who knows? Maybe this very post will get me "not hired" one day. That's a risk I'm willing to take.