Google Is My Middle Name.

I am a curious person by nature. I ask lots of questions, all the time. I usually come up with more questions too, depending on the answers. It’s the main frustration Jim always has when he takes care of any calls that need to be made regarding our house or family (contractors, doctors, in-laws, etc.). He hangs up his phone and my interrogation starts immediately. Usually the conversation ends with Jim sighing and saying, “I didn’t ask THAT…” I ask so many questions that I annoy myself, truly. (Really Jim, I do!!)

When it comes to facts and figures, I am constantly feeling ever so grateful that I live in the age of Google because I use it ALL. THE. TIME.

Like three hours ago, I had to look up “How to remove a GE Profile Microwave” because Jim and I had to do that before installing the new one (duh), and we just couldn’t figure out how to get that thing off the wall. Google to the rescue: I found the answer immediately.

Thank goodness too, because that kept a smile on his face, which kept a smile on my face, all the way until we were done with the installation.

Installing the microwave
Smile not pictured, but it’s there. Trust me.

I probably use Google more than ten times on any given day. I love to learn new tidbits of information about anything that crosses my path. Just like my questions often lead to more questions, my Google searches can lead to more Google searches and I can get lost for hours. Knowledge is power! Let’s look up ALL THE STUFF! I wish Google had been in existence when I was in college. Kids today don’t know how good they have it. Related: get off my lawn!

One of my very favorite things is when someone wonders about something out loud and I can drop whatever I’m doing and look it up. Seriously. Is that sad? (Don’t answer that.) This happens often when I’m working out (which is so convenient for me, especially if it’s a tough class); the instructor will wonder about a musician or something from pop culture and I’ll say, “I’LL GOOGLE IT!” and after I finish whatever set we’re working on (honest!), I grab my phone and find that answer. I can’t tell you how triumphant I feel when I can provide answers. Simple pleasures, you know? This is not an invitation, by the way, to send me questions. It has to happen ORGANICALLY, you know?

An aside: One of my least favorite things is when people ask questions on Facebook and Twitter that can easily be answered by Googling. I mean, it seems easier to type the question into Google and get answers immediately rather than crowd-sourcing, right? Grumble grumble grumble. Jim tells me I shouldn’t get so annoyed by it because not everybody has the same thought process as I do, so I’m working on my patience with that because he’s right. Probably.

Anyway, I seem to have forgotten where I was going with this. I just Googled, “How should I end this blog post?” and I found a great article that suggested, among other ideas, that I ask a question to encourage comments. So here goes.

Would you say you use Google as a tool only when you need to look something up, or do you ever use it just for fun and/or to waste time?

I hate that I just asked you that because wow, what a letdown at the end of what started out to be a very promising blog post. Sorry about that. The good news is, I just Googled “What is the worst ending ever?” and I saw A LOT about the series finale of “How I Met Your Mother” but nothing about what I have just written.

Shew.

I guess I’ll just put us all out of our misery and end there.

The end.

11 Comments

  • Liz

    Hah! We also e ALL THE THINGS and most recently “How to change the thermo-couple on a water heater?” And saved us a couple hundred bucks and bonus points for not blowing up the house…YO!

    • Liz

      Google all the things, even. Stupid man-fingers. I can’t see your new header on my phone, but I’m betting it’s awesome!

      • Melisa Wells

        Ah, but you CAN, Liz. Geek alert: scroll all the way to the bottom and click “View full site”! HAH!

    • Melisa Wells

      Not blowing up the house definitely = WINNING!!!
      (I’m also quite fond of saving a couple hundred bucks. We saved about $150 by installing our own microwave, hurray!)

  • Natasha

    I love that you are as curious as you are, because there is always someone that won’t think that I’m crazy for all of the things that I share that I’ve looked up. Well, the stuff that I *can* share. Heh!

    Can you imagine 20 years ago, we would have had to go to the library JUST to do that? Nothing at our fingertips. Although I do love me a good library, but I digress.

    • Melisa Wells

      SERIOUSLY. The hours we would’ve had to spend with our heads in card catalogs, encyclopedias, and microfiche would’ve left us with NO TIME for Facebook! Oh wait.

      Also, you made my day by visiting and commenting. Big smooches!

  • Laurel Regan

    I swear we are search engine soul sisters! Not just Google, either – IMDb makes regular appearances in movie- and TV-related discussions in my world. And when I read your aside I knew for sure that we are on the same wavelength, as that kind of thing drives me CRAZY. Love this post.

  • Luo Lohman

    Good job encouraging comments. and yes – Google is my god. (Notice the lowercase “g” in god – because … you know – I wouldn’t want to piss Him (or Her) off).