Checking my 6

Okay, every once in a while it's good to google yourself.  (not to set up google alerts, unless they really are out to get you).


Wired.com has a good simple breakdown on online brand management - especially if your brand is your name. 

An hour ago, I started this exercise.  Since i'd been a news writer for 10 years there should be a metric f-ton equivalent (FTE) of information out there under "Karl B. Hille."

I was thinking what stories I wish people would find - the one about my own son born blue came to the top of my head.

So on page one of the "Karl B. Hille" google image search, I found this gem.

The story links back to my article about newborns with heart defects, like my own son Brendan, pictured here two and a half years ago - born with transposition of the great arteries. (not from Peru)

Why the caption and comments relate to an intern story about rebuilding "nubbins" with toe bones is beyond me - I can only guess the braintrust at Examiner.com mixed something up in the translation.

Apparently the Nubbins story, written by talented intern Danielle Ulman, now a business Writer at the Maryland Daily Record, has infected a number of Examiner.com properties I wrote, including this story about the University of Maryland's battlefield patient simulator robot, amusingly named Stan.

Ok, so far I'm not showing up on any questionable pages, not that I expected to. 10 years of publishing legitimate news stories kinda does something to one's online persona that one freaked-out ultra-nationalist blogger on Angelfire couldn't overcome. (fortunately there are no links to the "hillbilly crabbers" diatribe - if you find one, email me or post the link in comments below).

And so far, Orly Taitz hasn't come calling about my apparently immigrant boy. 

Why does her pic creep me out like that?  I half expect her to start talking about her home-made religion a la "A Mighty Wind" or her close encounter of the 4th kind and how she actually kind of liked it.

And the angelfire post reared it's mighty head again as BrianAdrian continues his campaign against reason and intelligent discussion.

I won't link to it because I don't even want to give him one page view, but I will say inserting spurious drivel like "Let Unemployed Americans Eat Spoiled Claws" into text you copied from another site is just wrong.

Here's the other one I'd like to be remembered for.

"It's My Heart: Dealing with congenital heart defects"