The Google Meme, Courtesy of Strawberry Singh

Having thought several times about blogging in the past week I've thought more often about avoiding it and thus a lackadaisical and slothful attitude prevailed. That changes today, though, as Strawberry Singh has another of her weekly blog challenge series with a twist by Emily: The Google Meme.

Meme instructions: Google your SL name and answer the following questions. Don’t forget to leave a comment with a link to your post so we can all drop by, read and be nosy. Optional: click over to Emily’s blog and do her Google challenge as well. Don’t forget to leave a comment in her post if you end up doing it, so she can come stalk you guys too!

Google your Second Life name in “quotations” and share your results.
What is the first link that comes up?
Which link were you surprised to see?

In 0.37 seconds, our friends at Google turned up about 99,300 entries for "Uccello Poultry." More show up if one doesn't use the quotation marks. The first link that turns up is my blog, not unexpected as it is likely the one source on the Interwebs that contains my name most often and it is hosted on a Google-owned property, Blogspot. The Slow Poke Post entry was a surprise I can't say I've ever seen that site before, though I guess I did subscribe to this syndication service at one time.

Click on the “Image” tab and tell us where the first 5 pictures listed are from.

Each of the first five pictures (and quite a few thereafter though not all) are from my blog. Some will also be found on my Flickr feed. Google probably favors my blog images as they are the storage site for same.

Click on the “more” tab and then click “news” and share your results

No news is good news because there are no News search results, I suppose, so I thought I'd share my Patent results instead. Similar results for Books, but I do appear under Discussions and if you search for my name without quotation marks I'm mappable!

Not precisely, though. That's not me. Uccello is a reasonably popular name. It means bird in Italian and that's why I chose it to go with Poultry in SL (I tried to get Columbo, my brother's last name iSL, but couldn't).

Searching via that twist mentioned earlier is another matter ... Can I find the real Caitlin?

How did the two digital footprints compare, and did that surprise you? I searched with my full name and just my first/last name with the same results ... I'm Interwebbily Invisible. Normally I show up once, on a NASA page that lists names engraved on a teeny plaque attached to a planetary probe, but with the US government shutdown in effect, that page is not available.

Does anyone interesting share your name? No, however, when I search with my first, middle (my birth mother's maiden name), and surname several pictures of Sarah Palin pop up amongst some seemingly random dross. Since I know my middle name I can understand why, but I'm still creeped out and you are more than welcome to be creeped out, too.

Are you happy with the size of your digital footprint, or do you wish either one was larger/smaller? Being invisible to the world. Pretty darned cool. My name does show up in some pretty specialized and not-really-public databases so you might get to them eventually, but more than likely you'd need some skills to find me. Since I have a gun permit, though, I'm rather shocked that I don't see me on the Interwebs for it. Isn't that stuff public knowledge?

If you woke up/ logged in one morning to discover over night you had suddenly gained rock-star status, and everybody knew who you were and wanted to know what you were doing… what would you do? Panic. Or try to figure out why I'm still broke. Maybe both at the same time. Eventually I'd have to sit down and wonder what I did for said status. The only musical instrument I can play is an iPod, I can't act my way out of a paper bag, and I don't think rock star status is conferred upon people for being expert with a pistol unless they go rouge in a bell tower or something. And I'm pretty sure that the Real Life me doesn't hold any patents, either.

Monday Meme: Your Avatar's Private Life

Yes, I skipped Strawberry Singh's last Monday Meme (original here). It sounded simple but I just don't care all that much for Autumn and there are so many people taking wonderful pictures of beautiful places in Second Life (often the same places, from what I see on MySecondLife.com). Honour McMillan posted one just today on her blog (here). Today's challenge seemed simple, too.

Meme Instructions: I’m giving you two options to choose from this week. I will be doing both of them but you guys can pick and choose, unless you’d like to do both as well.
1. Meme Suggested by Mr. Jefferson: “What does your avatar get up to after you log out?”
2. Blog about one of your closest friends in Second Life.

Not too long ago I had a long discussion with a few friends and acquaintances on the topic of our avatar's lives when we weren't looking. We all had some fun ideas but I couldn't really nail anything down, though I did have some funny stories about a time long ago when for about a month my brother and I would log in as each other and leave the avatars in odd (sometimes compromising) places. Sometimes when the viewer doesn't show a Last.BMP image of my log out I take those few seconds of blank screenage imagining what my avatar has been up to while I was stuck in Meatspace.

More often than not I hope as I log in to find her snug in some jammies and enjoying her iPad, something I don't get to do as often as I'd like in Real Life. Maybe with a tall, cold Mt Dew and some cookies. And a cat on her lap. *sigh*

Maybe sitting with her big sister.

Yes, Uccie has a sister in Second Life. I met her under the name Threshin about 7 years ago and since then she's changed "main" characters a few times, though the other accounts are not gone. Sometimes change is good. But regardless of her form or name, she's always the same kind, loving, witty, and caring person on the other side of the screen. Like me, she's had some rough times in Real Life that we wouldn't wish on anyone short of the very worst of our enemies, but she's pulled through and uses SL as a way to catch up on some things she's not able to do iRL. There are people I know that unless we meet in SL we don't chat, but my sister is someone I talk to almost every day despite hardly ever seeing each other in the pixels. Everyone needs a sister like mine.

This is a very old picture of me and my big sister at the Isle of Lesbos at one of those little builds that popped up just about every week because she was bored or frustrated or bored and frustrated. Sometimes change is good, but she'd drive me nuts changing things out of boredom and thus creating a lot of frustration. However, I love her such that if I were to win the lottery she'd probably be the first person I'd send a big check to. Really.

So there's the two parts of the meme. Now I'm off to avoid Autumn. If I look across the street from my house I can see Spring-green leaves everywhere, probably the last green trees in Maine. It seems the trees in our yard change before everyone else's just to spite me.

Cool Beans Gacha Yard Sale

One of the people I admire a lot in Second Life is Sean Brady, entrepreneur extraordinaire. He's the owner of many properties, including the Cool Beans Cafe that I frequent (SLurl) and the newly rebuilt Cool Beans Gacha Yard Sale (SLurl) included. Sean always seems to have fun with whatever he does, but it is clear that he especially enjoys landscaping and coordinating the best pre-fabs in SL to make his properties some of the best builds I've seen. As an example, check out the new "Yard Sale" ...

That's Sean behind me, pacing. One of the few times in recent memory I've seen him in human form. He loves to play with Furry avatars and the cute ones he gets from Gachas.

Whoa .... this isn't your mother's yard sale! This is a lovely little shopping district with several rentals available so you can unload re-sell your spare Gacha goods. Of course, some great vendors are here already and it is not unusual to find items at less-than-retail price. Sean's place is my first stop for shopping when I need a gift or to find a Gacha item I want but don't feel lucky enough to win.

Happy Furs-Day!

Happy Furs-Day!!

Happy Furs-Day from the New Port Yacht Club (SLurl) where I recently installed a kayak rezzer (not pictured, natch) for public use!

Happy Topless Tuesday!

Happy Topless Tuesday, y'all! This lark of mine has turned out to be no Mickey Mouse thing. Check out the Topless Tuesday in SL group on Flickr (here) and add your own snaps, too!