The Other Me

"Will the real Carolyn Soling please stand up?"













Around the time of the Gore-Bush election in 2000 a photo came out on the front page of newspapers across the country. The picture featured a woman protesting the election results with the byline 'Carolyn Soling protests Bush in Austin, Texas.'

I was a student at University of Wisconsin - Madison at the time and had definitely never been to Texas. And the woman in the picture looked nothing like me. So who was this woman in the picture?

If you Google search "Carolyn Soling" all the links are me, except the links to this one picture. I've got links to me from my last job, my website, linked in, my photography portfolio, organizations I've belonged to, a xanga profile (that i don't remember ever creating), lots and lots of sailing links, and the list goes on.

So again, who is this woman? Was the byline just incorrect? Was this woman stealing my identity and using it to protest Bush? Could there really be another Carolyn Soling? Why is she using my name?

Apparently she is using it because it is her name too. Yes, it was confirmed last week. There is another Carolyn Soling. And, apparently she is the original because she is 20 years older than me (though i know she doesn't look it in that picture). My new trainer at work informed me of this, as he worked with her when he lived in Austin 15 years ago. What are the chances of that? One guy working with two Carolyn Solings (the only two Carolyn Solings) in his lifetime?

So, will the real Carolyn Soling please stand up? Actually, sit down, because with all the protesting, the other one is probably standing up a lot more. I like to sit.

Less People! More Robots!

Suspense is often 10% exhilaration and 90% utter disappointment















I have been awaiting July 4th for some time now, not because of the pretty fireworks (though I do love them) nor because it celebrates my brother's birth (I don't get any presents).
No, I have awaited this day for over a year because it was a year ago that I saw the least descriptive, yet most suspense evoking trailer that I have seen in a long time: Transformers. All they did was all they had to do: flash the transformer sign (see picture above). It was like Optimus Prime calling out to me. And, I answered.

After answering the call, I wished they had employed our friends at ILM longer. The parts of the movie that actually had transformers in it were amazing. The chases, the attacking humans, the battles between the bots, all were brilliant. I loved the movie except for the part where humans were doing more than being attacked. Unfortunately, those good parts were less than a third of the movie. Or, that is what it felt like. Maybe it was more. Maybe the storyline of the humans just dragged on so slowly it felt like 2/3 the movie was that God awful. Maybe.

Maybe next time they need to employ actors as extras to only run around and be killed and give our good friends in the animation industry longer contracts and give us a better movie.