Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ego-Surfing

In my post the other day, "Jumping around and having fun," I ever-so-briefly envisioned the Apostle Paul doing some ego-surfing (had he been around today). If Paul was to do internet searches for himself, can you imagine what kinds of information he would find! I imagine he's one of the most quoted (and misquoted) people ever to have lived!

Anyway, ego-surfing is one of those things that can be a vain (but fun) thing, and it can also be a useful tool for businesses, ministries and even individuals, for the purpose of finding out what others are saying about them, who is linking to them, who is quoting them, who is using their products, etc, etc.

I've mostly had fun with ego-surfing, and I've found it to be useful from time to time. I've googled (and yahoo'd) "Grace Roots," "Joel Brueseke," "Brueseke," and other such things, just to see what's out there. I've found distant relatives. I've found blogs and websites that are similar to mine. I've found blogs that have linked to things I've written. Because of all this I've been able to "meet" new people that I wouldn't have otherwise met.
[By the way, I have a question that someone might be able to answer. When I google "Grace Roots," one of the entries has a 'thumbnail view' of my blog. The thumbnail image is a picture of Mark Metcalf, who played sadistic ROTC Leader Doug Neidermeyer in National Lampoon's Animal House and also appeared in two Twisted Sister Videos (angry father in 'We're Not Gonna Take It' and angry high school teacher in 'I Wanna Rock'). I'm sure this thumbnail image has something to do with the fact that I posted a Twisted Sister video on my blog early last year. :) Not that I'm bothered by the image, but does anyone have any technical advice on how that image could be changed?]

Last week I mentioned how I had visited alexa.com and found old (archived) versions of my own website, as well as old versions of several other websites. I had fun doing this! Here is what my website looked like back in 2005 and 2006 (note: some of the links no longer work, nor does the contact form), compared with my website now. I'm kind of thinking about changing it again.

A couple of other things I found using Alexa's "Wayback Machine" are archived versions of the websites of the radio station I used to work at, including my old DJ profiles. My on-air name was "Joel Sommers," AKA "The Breezeman" (check out my profiles to see why). Here are my profiles from kwof.com in 2002 and 2005. This is before the website was changed to 891thespirit.com. The Wayback Machine worked for that site too, but the links to the more recent profiles didn't work. Anyway, it's not as if these profiles are ancient, but since I've been gone from the station for almost two years, it seems like forever ago!

"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!" Ha ha!

7 comments:

  1. If Paul was to do internet searches for himself, can you imagine what kinds of information he would find! I imagine he's one of the most quoted (and misquoted) people ever to have lived!

    An amusing thought. Imagine being corrected in comments by Paul, or even better, Christ.

    Have a good weekend.

    Russ:)

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  2. Russ,

    Very good point. :) Sometimes when I've had a hard time understanding something Jesus said, or something Paul said - or even when I think I've understood it - I think about how great it would be if they were standing here talking plainly with me about all these things.

    But the good news is that even though they are not physically present, and even though billions of people such as myself have quoted and misquoted them, we're never lacking in access to the Spirit of Jesus, who is one with us and who Himself is our wisdom. :)

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  3. Joel, I enjoyed looking at the old versions of your website. Bino has encouraged me to start a blog and I've been thinking about it for some time but have hestitated for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm not sure I would have enough to say to keep one going.

    The other reason is that I look at everyone's blog and they all look so nice and colorful. I haven't a clue how to do all of the neat stuff everyone's got on their blogs.

    The simplicity of your early website has encouraged me to think that maybe it's okay to start with something simple.

    You all are such an encouragement.

    Aida

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  4. Aida,

    I'm with Bino in encouraging you to start blogging! One great thing about this new world of blogging (or at least of it being common) is that you can blog as little or as much as you want to. :) No pressure to keep it going; you just blog when you want to / when you're 'led.'

    And indeed, as for the look of it, Blogger lets you choose a template right off the bat, which makes it easy to have a nice looking blog right away. In time you can figure out how to add various things on the sides if you desire. And although I haven't tried using any other blogging sites (such as Wordpress), all the blogs I've seen have a decent look to them so I'm sure they all make it easy to make a nice looking blog.

    Why not go for it? :D

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  5. Joel, I did it! I set up my blog last night and posted my first entry this morning. I was surprised at how easy it was to do. Thanks for your encouragement.

    If you want, you can check it out at http://forgettingtheformerthings.blogspot.com

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  6. Aida, congratulations on your new blog! Wow, I got to be the first to comment over there. :) Everyone, go on over and check it out!

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  7. Joel, I appreciate you checking out my blog. Setting it up wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be and it was actually a lot of fun. I've already thought of several things I want to post so I guess that won't be a problem for a talker like me.

    Thanks for your comment and for all of your encouragement.

    Aida

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