And now for something completely different.

I grew up on an Apple IIgs. I must have been six or seven years old when my father bought it for our family. I remember spending my computer time learning how to use a mouse with some pretty addictive games — and then there was Bolo.

The Apple IIgs days were pretty exciting, but they didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. For about 18 years, I completely forgot about what I did on the Apple II (and my favorite game Bolo, including the title of the game) until the game screen flashed into my head this past weekend. I was determined to find that game to relive my childhood.

My efforts asking peers were fruitless. Not many people were using computers at all in the 80s. The revolution began in the 90s when computers were deemed to be useful tools for every home.

I searched and searched, and thanks to Webomatica, I found out the name of the game and took it from there. I can’t believe there are emulators for this — but I guess there’s nothing to do now that the Apple II has been replaced by bigger, better, and more powerful machines.

It seems that marketers on Facebook are getting desperate. Today, I checked my email account and was welcomed to the following two messages from two individuals I don’t even know:

I’m a bit frustrated. I graduated college several years ago and I use the system to network with old friends and make new friends. The friend invites are fine (and I encourage them from among my readers ;)), but the group invites just aren’t.

I hope that Facebook takes proper measures preventing abuse of their system, especially because I don’t want random people sending me group invites when I’m not in their direct network, and I think that enabling that kind of communication is a nightmare waiting to happen.

However, even though it is annoying, it’s also pretty smart. I could always Adblock the ads I don’t want to see. Gmail and other mailing services generally do a good job flagging emails as spam — and I can whitelist addresses I know are good. Since I assume that Facebook emails are generally well-intentioned, I’m inclined to read all of them, so the email is in my face. And the URL is in my face too. (Now I know that YouTube has a competitor.)

I read with interest about Dean Hunt’s bizarre Google request where an online store owner threatened him via email since Dean’s blog ranks better than the store for a particular keyword term. He writes for a partial SEO-themed blog, yet he needed more advice from individuals on a number of forums (with a link to his story, of course, one of which was removed).

I wrote about the story myself (since I think it’s a good lesson regardless), but I can’t help but wonder if this was all a scam. I mean, after all, Dean wrote on October 4th that he will be creating a viral campaign with the intention to promote his site via related sites. And since his site is still really in its infancy (138 blog posts in 6 categories since June), I don’t think that his blog could truthfully rank better than an established online store.

Without providing the search terms in question for verification, nobody is really able to believe that Dean is actually telling the truth.

Well, maybe Matt Cutts can — if Dean really told him.

So — which is it?

Here’s a little known present-day fact about me: when I was 15, I had an “AOL boyfriend.” (My parents, had they known, would have freaked.) In my high school yearbook, I was voted most likely to have an online wedding.

Back then, it was strange for people to grasp the potential of online networking. It was geeky. (I never minded.)

Fast forward 11 years. I’ve been married for nearly two years. My husband and I met the old-fashioned way. “AOL boyfriends” are not so abnormal. Online relationships are flourishing and people going great lengths to meet their dream dates that they met online.

Online dating communities are very active and people often make their own assessments of an individual based on an online profile followed by a few email exchanges and maybe a phone call or two.

I’ve seen successes and failures with this model. I’ve had a friend from Falls Church, VA meet his “AOL girlfriend” who lived in Seattle — after meeting, they decided they were meant for each other. I believe they’re on their 7th or 8th year of marriage now.

• No Wonder our Perception of Beauty is Distorted: Excellent Dove video on models — a must watch if you haven’t seen it already.
• Online Etch-a-Sketch: A cute little flash game that is intended to brings back our childhoods.
• Ajaxload: Ajax loading GIF generator — to make everything Web 2.0. You can download the resulting file for your own web sites.
• StrangeUSA: A consolidated list of haunted, alien, and other abnormal occurrences throughout the US.
• Textorizer: Vectorizes a picture using text strings. This is what my logo of Google looks like (with 1000 strokes):