Numine.com: Seattle working-class blog

by Kat

I get a lot of friend requests. I mean, sure, a lot of people do. But I don't even use facebook. My profile sits completely unmaintained while hordes of people I don't know peruse it and then friend me, most of them from non-English speaking countries.

There isn't anything WRONG with this, it's just a little weird. See, I have a small Facebook "problem." If you look at the Google image search results for Facebook, you will get an idea as to why. That profile screenshot is mine... and some days it floats at the number one result. It's also in the first page of search results for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Why? Because back when I was working on the Web 2.0 Awards for SEOmoz.org, I used that screenshot to illustrate my interview with a Facebook employee. The Web 2.0 Awards got a lot of notice and a lot of links, thereby rising rapidly in the SERPS (such is the "magic" of SEO). So my screenshot, which Google associated with "Facebook" and "Mark Zuckerberg," got a lot of 'street cred' in the image search.

(Google image searches are weird, a friend once told me that she was searching for "dish cloth patterns" or something like that and my picture came up on page 2...)

Some people have friended me asking how I did this and why my profile shows up in an image search, but this is only a prelude to the real oddity. Apparently, and probably for lack of a better source, the image has been appropriated by several publications, all of them foreign. Let's see if I can find a few examples:

Do you know that you were on newspaper in Turkey. Check it out at (address removed because link no longer works) Actually it's just a small article on growing interest for FaceBook in Turkey. There's nothing about your personal info or photo.

hey !!! How's life
i searched 4 u coz ur profile were in an article about facebook in a journal... r u famous zat much 4 posting ur profile in a jounal

i saw ur profile on a news paper
i was visiting egypt two days ago on a vavaction tour to the pyramids
and i saw it by accident
never knew u were true lol

And most recently, someone sent me a link to this article. Have a look and through to page nine.

It's an odd sort of notoriety, and it certainly doesn't bother me. I get maybe one or two messages a week from someone who looks me up on facebook after seeing my profile somewhere. It's a bit strange, however, to think about all the people who are probably passing through who DON'T say anything. To them, I would like to just say that yes... I am "true."

Heh.

Posted on November 08, 2007 @ 9:02 PM | 4 comments

Comments:

the internet is a fucking weird place.

By Anonymous, at 10:22 PM, November 08, 2007

tru dat.

By Kat, at 10:54 PM, November 08, 2007

geez, you'd think that they could have at least blocked out your name in those screenshots when repurposing it! wow, you must get a lot of traffic.

gleek, at 1:51 PM, November 10, 2007

This had me laughing out loud. Sorry, it's scary and funny at the same time.

You could milk it on your résumé, saying you've "contributed" to news papers all over the world.

By Louie, at 9:10 PM, November 10, 2007

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Whatever I think I see...

by Kat

Is there anyone out there who actually LIKES Tootsie Rolls? And no, I don't mean Tootsie Pops, because at least they have that rockin' owl and "how many licks" thing going for them... I mean the brown wax-paper-wrapped, turd candies that seem to flood the market at Halloween. Does anyone LIKE them-- not "tolerate" or "choke them down" or "oh they're OK" like them, but ACTUALLY like them? If so, please show yourself and enlighten me as to why.

Really, it baffles the mind that they can still market and sell these things. I always hated getting them as handouts when I was a kid, and so did all my friends. They were the last things we ever ate, if at all, because usually by the time we got to them they were stale enough to pull all of our fillings. Yet they're still around! And they're still the last things remaining in every candy stash I see... at home, at the office, anywhere!

Were Tootsie Rolls actually popular in the past? Maybe during and post WWII when there was a definitive shortage of anything that might resemble real candy ingredients and some company was forced, in desperation, to combine imitation chocolate-flavor and wax into a disgusting Lincoln Log-shaped monstrosity??

Let us ask the Wikipedia...

Tootsie Rolls are a chocolatey chew candy that have been manufactured for more than 100 years*. The cylindrical cocoa-flavored candies come individually wrapped, and are an American cultural icon**. They are one of the best-selling candies in America and throughout the world today**. The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois.

* My guess is that they made one batch and are still selling from it
** Damn lies!!
*** WHAT.

In 1896, Leo Hirshfield came to the United States and started his candy in a small shop, when he decided he wanted a chocolate *tasting* candy that would not melt in the heat, and would be an economical artificial alternative to traditional chocolates.

LOL. "Chocolate tasting." That explains a lot.

In 1931, the Tootsie Pop, a hard-candy lollipop with Tootsie Roll filling was invented, and quickly became popular with Dust Bowl refugees during the Depression era due to its low price. During World War II, Tootsie Rolls were added to soldier's rations because of their ability to withstand severe weather conditions.

Oh, sick! It's like the SPAM of the candy world!

The ingredients of the traditional Tootsie Roll are sugar, corn syrup, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, condensed skim milk, cocoa, whey, soy lecithin, and artificial and condensed flavors.

Mmm... DELICIOUS. >_<

From the company's website (love that design): Who doesn't love Tootsie Rolls?

The answer: ME. o.0