(no subject)

People who know me in real life, which I presume is most of you reading this, have probably asked me why I'm not on Facebook, and have probably heard my stock answer about how the real-name thing creeps me out and I'm not sure I want random people from my past being able to find me. About six weeks ago, I decided to try an experiment: I'd sign up, but not tell anybody, and see how quickly I was found. This is what I learned:

1. My best friend from elementary school found me within four hours;
   
2. Then one person from Case found me, a few weeks later;
   
3. Then came a couple people from high school;
   
4. Then a cousin, which led to a bunch more cousins.

Notably, all of these were people in one of two categories: I keep in touch, but irregularly; or I haven't talked to them in years. Not one person from my Madison life, for instance, found me. Also no DaPper types.

So my conclusion is that the only people people search for are the ones for whom they wonder, once in a very long while, gee, whatever happened to X?

Anyway, this is my way of saying, hello, I have joined the cult. If you know my real name, which, again, should be most of you, you can find me if you wish. I still do not really know what to make of the service*, but someone I met on this roadtrip, who is nifty and worth keeping track of, started a game of Scrabble with me; and there have been rather a lot of nifty people worth keeping track of on this trip; so it can't be all bad.

* Evidence accumulates that I am an Old Fart.