So I had just finished typing my Month 11 post and was looking through photos to upload… when the iBook screen flickered and died. I think it’s the video card. I think getting tech support from Africa is going to be a pain. I think I’m very, very sad.
So until I get the thing fixed or find the energy to retype that post… just know that I had ice cream like five times last week. It was great.
I occasionally look through my site statistics page to see how many people are viewing the site, what they’re looking at, where they’re looking from (Brunei Darussalam? Tuvalu?!), and how they’re getting here.
It’s that last part that can provide the real entertainment. Plenty of links from friends’ and other PCVs’ websites: cool but not surprising. Cannibalized source code, including entire blog entries, on under-construction sites: kinda obnoxious (god knows I stole code, but I at least picked new fonts), kinda flattering, but not surprising.
Then there are the random ego-boosts. I hear from a lot of prospective volunteers who have enjoyed my site or found it helpful, and sometimes I swear the most valuable thing I’m doing over here is giving Peace Corps moms back in the US some idea of what their kids are up to overseas. And that’s cool—being a useful source of information about Peace Corps was one of my main goals with the website (the other being to keep my own mother happy, naturally). But it’s awesome to find unexpected thank-yous or REALLY unexpected listings.
Then there’s the freaky stuff the internet gets up to when you’re not looking.
Exhibit A: limbermen.com, a site dedicated to bringing you “images and informations about men’s efforts in flexibility.” My role in promoting “men’s flexibility at it’s best”? Someone apparently came across and submitted to the site’s collection my photo of Bryan drinking a beer with his foot. Poor Bryan knew nothing about this until I sent him the link. Odd? Yes. Kinda creepy? Perhaps. Being included among the illustrious ranks of the highly flexible?
Outstanding.
Exhibit B: Random German girl’s website.
This is where it gets creepy.
So this person, Claudia, has pages about being a lesbian (good for you!), hot chicks (great!), what AltaVista translates as “life assistance” (alrighty), sign language (that’s nice), and cutting (um. super?). And then she also has a page of friends.
Scroll to the bottom.
Apparently—little did I know—I’m living a double life as Judith, friend of random German girl, and (again, according to AltaVista) “We know each other now already eternally.”
Um. I, uh. I mean…
Hunh.
The part that I don’t understand is who’s doing the pretending here. Did Judith swipe my photo and pass it off to Claudia as her own? Possible, except that the photo is being taken directly from my site—dear Claudia had to either type or cut & paste that link into her source code. So how could she not know that I’m not Judith? Has she constructed an entire page of imaginary friends? Should I just take it as a compliment that I was cute enough to merit either impersonation or… what? wishful thinking?
Either way, a response was called for. The solution? Replace the linked photo with this and wait to see what happens:
And that is my cross-cultural exchange for the day. Thanks, Internet.
This week was really only good for being sick and being the week before I go to Thies to help out with Pre-Service Training, so in lieu of any new content of my own devising…
Go check out Josh and Cory’s photos: they’ve got a great collection, which they have organized very handily into exciting albums such as “Fixing Up the Place,” “Work,” “Around Tamba,” and “Hell is Other Volunteers.”
Also, if you wanted to see what it’s like to be a Peace Corps volunteer in a tropical paradise, may I suggest fellow UT-Austin alum Logan‘s gallery. He’s in Jamaica and lives in what used to be “the minister’s house.” It has a “veranda.”
Indeed.
I posted a few Month 11 photos today. Card games, a donkey, and corn. What more could a girl want?
