your first and last name.  Honestly, what did you think I was talking about?  But seriously, this is an interesting phenomenon.  Just searching the term “googling yourself” brings up 730,000 pages.  There is a term for it- Egosurfing.  I had no idea.  Perhaps it is due to the fact that the internet generation is the most self-referential and egotistical generation to date.  Think of it as a full-length mirror that you can bring anywhere.

And for years, I have lived in the shadow of a homonym.

Justin Elledge, a one-hit wonder of the movie world.  He appeared in a minor role in Problem Child, never to be heard from again.  He was such a bit player, his entire biography is summed up in one word: male.  I can’t even find a picture of him.  And he plagued me for years.  Always occupying the first few hits on Google.  If anyone needs reminding, Problem Child came out in 1990.  Even 15-18 years later, the ghost of this single-serving actor’s career was haunting my self-googling.

But a couple years back, after I started blogging about my business, I googled myself.  And there it was.  In black and white, 72dpi glory.  Myself, the first hit on Google.  VICTORY.  Hi-fives all around.  To myself.

Sorry, doppelganger.  Your reign of terror and mediocrity is over.

And in the extraordinarily unlikely event that the other Justin Elledge is reading this, my apologies.  We should get a beer and discuss at length our battle of egos.

I don’t know where she learned to walk like this, but she did it a lot that day.  Pretty saucy.