It’s like the first time you discover that there is another person in the world with your name. And you lose just a little bit of what makes you special.

As a child, when you discover something new, sometimes you think you must be the only person in the world who has ever noticed this wondrous thing. Found that clearing in the woods. Discovered the hiding hole under the loose floorboard. Braved the broken glass to explore the abandoned warehouse. Surely no other spirit had tread these waters before, as you would know. You would intuitively sense the ghosts of explorers past and wordlessly commune with them.

The first time you enter a new girl’s bedroom, that sense of crossing a threshold into some strange, but wonderful, territory. The quickened beating of your heart.

This must be like how the bears felt, to discover some interloper had trespassed on that which was theirs. Sullied. Used. Dirty.

It just never occurred to me to check. Or maybe I just didn’t want to know. The mind shies from asking certain questions. I suppose it’s the same reason that you don’t wonder why no one else is dating that cute girl you just met. Surely, she was just waiting for you. You don’t want to ponder the implications of where she might have been or what might have been done to her.

In this day and age, I suppose it’s hard to find one that hasn’t been with someone else. Why couldn’t it have been a shoestring salesman? Or a theoretical physicist? I could have handled that, even been intrigued.

I thought…I thought we had something special. And then I discovered this:

My website used to be with someone else. Self-described “avant-garde” writers. They wrote about dead girls and argued politics by quoting Bob Dylan. They wrote Jazz music reviews. Maybe I’m just jealous, as at least one has gone on to become a full-fledged novelist.

My website used to be with other people. Other writers even. I should have asked, so I wouldn’t have to discover it this way. Would I have been happier had I never known?

Don’t worry website. I think I can forgive you. Someday.

They were avant-garde. And now they are gone.

The Shoestring Theory: the theory that most businesses and projects can be launched on a shoestring budget and still succeed. Usually used with the definite article “the”.

Contrast with “shoestring theory” as used with the indefinite article “a”.

The shoestring theory has guided every project or business I’ve ever launched, mostly because I’ve had very few (or no) resources when starting any new venture. Several ideas died quickly, a few lingered on for a little while and one has succeeded. In the ones that failed, either the goals were poorly defined or my interest in pursuing them waned over time. None of them died from lack of money.

So I’m in full political junkie mode, watching the live stream from CNN while surfing the web looking for more SupTu (that’s how the cool kids say it) info.

The colors on CNN’s Republican Super Tuesday map floored me:

• McCain: Republican Red, the color of a patriot’s blood
• Huckabee: Pinkish (or coral as CNN called it), the kind of color you deck the guest bathroom out in, not what comes to mind when one names “Presidential colors”
• Romney: Sh*t brown. Sure, CNN called it bronze, but we can all see who they’re taking a dump on

Glad I got a screen shot of this one, as I couldn’t find the same map on their site.

[Update: So the ladytheorist tells me that I'm color blind and that Romney's color is in fact "Rusty Red." Still not a presidential color. What does everyone else think?]

[Update numero dos: The Daily Show ran a bit mocking all of the map colors the TV news channels used to identify SupTu candidates. I feel vindicated now. They don't have an embed code for the color map bit, but you can check out the intro after the jump or head over to thedailyshow.com.]

A primary function of the internet is to facilitate the development and growth of shoestring theories.