Internet privacy = oxymoron?

So, I grabbed a picture from my sparse Flickr account because I was having second thoughts about linking to the whole set of pictures.  Because once you look through that set, someone could look through all the other pictures, too.  I supposed I could set certain ones to private, but that seems like an awful lot of work.

It makes me wonder if I should even bother trying to fly under the radar when dealing with the internet.  Are there enough holes in my routine that I’m easily found anyway?

When I started this “blog”, it was because I had all sorts of tidbits running through my head: grumbles against the world, funny snippets I’d come across, or just something I wanted to get off my chest without having to say it out loud.  Then I’d add food things I thought were clever of me to discover.  There were local restaurants I loved that weren’t getting talked about, but I also didn’t want to get smushed by Chowhound opinions.  I actually didn’t tell anyone I had put up a website, except T.  Little by little, friends found out, and then my mom.  I think my dad reads it, too.  I’m not sure about my sister.  Oh, wait, I think she might.

Anyway, I don’t think you’d find this site by Googling my name.  I’m pretty sure I don’t have anything linked that way.  I’m on MySpace and Facebook, but this site isn’t in my information there.  If I’ve e-mailed you through Gmail, you’ll know who I am.  Google is a funny thing.  The internet is a funny thing.

When T and I started dating, he confessed he Googled me and do you know what he found?  A recipe test review I had written up on Leite’s Culinaria (hee!).  When I Googled him I found a) an Australian folk singer who died, b) that he had been in a geological society in Colorado, and c) someone with his first name had a blog, loved hiking, and Ikea furniture.  It was kind of odd and unsettling and for a while I had to convince myself that there was no way he had a double life in Canada.  Now if you Google me, you’ll probably get a lot of ASCE links.

I’m not interested in long-lost people discovering me through this site.  Isn’t that what all those social networking sites are for?  I’m also not keen on people I haven’t kept in contact with following my daily/weekly/monthly life events.  It’s weird.  I think it’s a great way for my mom to see what we’re doing, and if my friends want to check in here, that’s cool, too.  Oddly enough, I have no problem with internet people I’ve never met reading this and keeping up with my life.  I suppose I just really don’t want my exes (or that one guy from high school who keeps finding me in an almost creepy way) or T’s exes to be able to keep tabs on us.  I don’t think his ex was expecting their relationship to be really and truly over when she found out we were dating.  If I were in her shoes, I’d be curious to try and see what he’s doing now.  Maybe not after all this time, though.  You never know.  That’s probably why there aren’t many people pictures here, or full names.  I find it hard to believe that anyone would be able to stalk my friends from what I talk about here, especially since they aren’t linked from this site.  I’m linked from Cami’s, but I’m not scared of anyone who comes through that way.  I’m pretty sure my bases are covered.

Do you think that’s weird?  To have a public website, to talk about my personal life and the people in it, but not want to be discovered by people I used to know long ago?  I can seriously say that Cami is the only person I talk to out of everyone I knew before college and I’m okay with that.  I don’t have any voids in my life, I don’t feel like I’m missing out on connections, and I’m actually pretty thrilled that I can say we’re friends because of who we are instead of just how long we’ve known each other.  Now, I like hearing tidbits about people I knew and I like reading their updates on Facebook.  But that’s pretty much my extent of wanting to get involved.

Of course, I still believe I could put on a better show than most of the fluff on the Food Network and that we deserve one of those travel shows where we get paid to go somewhere fun and discover new sights and tastes.  T is getting very good at outdoor grilling and I pretty much rock in the kitchen, so I’m thinking we should have a tv show that combines indoor and outdoor cooking.  We’re also way less anoying than the Neelys, in my opinion.  We’ve also gotten really good at seing major city sights in 1 or 2 days.  We conquered Seattle in a day and a half.  We saw practically all the good things in London in 2.  And I refuse to eat bad food on vacation, but we also try not to spend a lot of money.  That’s got to be a riveting show right there.  I’m just saying.  Should we be offered a ridiculously fun time on tv, I will gladly give up any anonynimity.  I would even commit to actually visiting my Facebook page, or whatever the new site is by that time.