In the state of Wisconsin, each digit of your drivers license has meaning*. Amber and I went to the comedy club downtown a few weeks ago and the woman checking IDs told us that the last two numbers represent the number of people with similar names in the DMV database. Ironically, my number is 09 while Amber’s is 01.
This had me slightly baffled, but then again I don’t really know what “similar names” means or how that relationship is calculated. So I started wondering – are there many more Carson Monroes out there? I decided to head for my usual source of information – Google.
It’s been a while since I’ve googled myself. The last time I tried it I don’t know that I really saw much except maybe some old track and field results from high school (I’m pretty sure those are still out there if you know where to look). This time, though, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the top results are for…well…me. Number one is a bid that was written for me by one of my organizations in college for a service award. The theme of the bid was pretty cheesy and they got plenty of details wrong, but I appreciated it nonetheless. Number two is my Blogger profile – it’s kind of ironic because I haven’t used blogger for quite a while now. From three on, the majority of links have nothing to do with me. However, if you dig deep enough you’ll probably find a few other references from K-State along with graduation honors and a question submitted to Ask iLounge a while back. That’s pretty much it, but I can’t complain much. The top two are decent first impressions for anyone who might happen to google me. (And we all know how likely that is to happen…)
The interesting thing is that I don’t really see other real people with a name even close to mine. There’s all kinds of results for people with the last name Carson from places with Monroe in the name, but that’s really it. I guess this means I can continue to assume I’m one of, if not the only Carson Monroe in the world. And yet…I still sign my name with my middle initial just in case. Thanks, Dad.
*I stumbled onto this site with more information on unique IDs.