What's so important about Owain Yeoman?

He's unique. Or, at least, his name is.

When you search for this name, you immediately get one and only one person as a hit. Many hits, yes, but still all for the same person.

Not for me. My name is just normal -- not John Smith but ... well, pretty basic. Nothing unique, not even in the combination of the names. Well, my middle name is a bit different, but I don't use it. If I use it at all, like on my credit card name, it's abbreviated. Why? Because I don't want to have to spell it out, etc. Then again, I often have to spell out my first and last names for people, particularly over the phone.

So, I'm hard to find on the Internet. Sometimes this is a benefit, but if like me you have written some books, you kind of want to make it easy for people to find them. Googling my name doesn't do that. I tell people to look for the name of my co-author, which is much more unique.

So, while I've always liked my name -- very American and simple -- now I'm seeing the downside of homogenation. It makes me feel more for people with a name like John Smith in a large organization that have to create user names with #s in them.

So, here's to simple ... and invisible. And, to unique ... and findable. Maybe I should create a unique alias for publishing. Maybe I can rent one from Owain?

Election Eve -- Who's Leaning Which Way?

I just saw the final messages from Obama and McCain at halftime of the Redskin game. I can see that each is leaning his own way. Literally. Their heads aren't straight up when they talk -- they each lean. Of course, they lean DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS! Oddly, however, they lean the opposite of what you might think -- Barack to the right and John to the left (from their perspective -- from mine, it's the opposite).

Odd, isn't it? They're leaning toward each other.

Product placement

I just watched an episode of NCIS, and boy do those guys drink coffee! Not just any coffee, but Starbucks specifically. However, it's slightly sneaky -- they don't show the logo head on really much, but you can't but tell it's theirs. And, they ALWAYS are getting coffee. They drink nothing else. Except also bourbon.

I do like their taste -- coffee, bourbon, a little beer, maybe some water.

Still, these guys drink coffee like they used to smoke and do cocktails in old Hollywood movies. They ALWAYS have it. Wow.