Everyone should Google his or her own name. Not every day, but now and then it’s fun. In a weird way. Just because.
If you have a very common name — or relatively common name — you may get so many hits you don’t know where to start. I’m sure Mike Smith would get tens of thousands of hits. Even with careful filtering, it’s a bit much.
My name is just right. It’s common-ish in the sense of not rare, but not extremely common. If I Google me, I get a fair number of hits, but not an overwhelming number. Most of the hits are me, largely because of this blog, or reviews I’ve posted on Goodreads, Amazon and other places. Other references involve jobs I held, articles I published, my book … stuff I did in another life and world.
Thus, in some far corner of the vast universe that is today’s Internet, I am forever young. I am still living in downtown Boston and Roxbury. I have made peace with my former selves, frozen in virtual time. I’ve gotten fond of the various Marilyn Armstrongs. She’s done well. I am glad the ghosts of times past linger on as neo-Dickensian wraiths.
It turns out that some of me have died. Several times, in various places. I was old and covered with honors, or not so old but nonetheless covered in honors. I am glad my many children and grandchildren miss me. I am pleased I got my doctorate in several subjects, including psychology, social work, and something unpronounceable and scientific.
I am and have been highly successful and have practices (medical, legal and psychological) in two California cities, Orlando, Florida, somewhere in Oklahoma and a few other places. There is at least one British me (probably more) and another in Alberta, Canada. I am highly educated in all my incarnations, far better educated (more talented and accomplished too) in my other incarnations. Even those in which I am deceased.
I was particularly pleased to see that I am currently a well-known and well-regarded Aboriginal artist in Australia. That was unexpected and I am delighted to be doing such lovely work. I like my art and wish my namesake the best of luck.
Now, if only I cold actually migrate between my various selves. How cool would that be?
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Categories: #Writing, Humor, Media, Personal, social media, Words
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Never googled myself. I’m aware of some of the other ones out there. I should do it. I will.
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It can be interesting. Even enlightening.
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I “Googled” my name & I barely exist! LOL
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Rare name?
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I’m a rare being – LOL
Hispanic first name – Irish (by marriage) last name.
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Well, at least you don’t get 100,000 hits 🙂
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British comedian Dave Gorman did the same thing, but in his case, he actually went and sought out a lot of them face-to-face. He wrote a hilarious book about his experiences.going to meet all of them. He ended up going around the world for six months. The book is called “Are You Dave Gorman?” if you ever want to read it.
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What a cool idea! I’ll have to check out the book. That would be so much fun!
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Haha! As far as I know, there’s only 2 with my name. One is a very pretty child in the Phillipines, and the other is an overly enthusiastic teen with a YouTube account. 🙂 Ah well.
I love Other Marilyn’s artwork! 🙂
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Me too. That’s why I posted it. Really beautiful stuff.
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And I’ll bet there are more of you out there hiding. There always are. A lot of me’s just surfaced in the last year. Before that, there were mostly versions of me past and present.
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