How ego surfing changes over time

It started out simple, really - just on dejanews, as a way of finding out what conversations I've been missing that I really should participate in. Then later as more websites sprung up, it started to become a passing fancy - who's referenced my name? Who basks in my awesomeness? Eventually the obsession began, the technologies all merged together so that I can go to one place to search the newsgroups and the web and now... inside books.[1]

The only reference I truly deserve is this comment, about the quality of a whitepaper I wrote 6 years ago. I poured my heart and soul into that whitepaper and although it is long since out of date, I still love hearing about it being useful in its heydey. It takes me back to those days when I actually had a job where I could look back at the end of the week and point to my output, pile up the tangible results of my productivity. And Henrik's nod to the job I held last year is very nice, thanks man[2]. Perhaps most inspiring is hearing that this blog helped out Sue because I gave her so many examples of sucktastic code to improve upon - if that's not a good reason to blog, then I don't know what is!

[1] You know - those big heavy things that you can have your kids sit on so they sit up higher on their chairs?
[2] That HDTV I promised you for mentioning me will be delivered shortly