The Bookmark

 I have a penchant for making bookmarks while I'm browsing online.  I'd like to think it's just the logical thing to do when you find something interesting and want to return later.  They do add up, though, if you don't ever come back to them.... or worse, if  you do come back to them, but find it interesting enough to keep because it was... well, interesting enough to come back to the first time, and naturally, it will be worth it again in the future.  It's no matter, though, as each one of those bookmarks will inevitably be blanketed by dozens more in short order.

I rationalize the habit as being a logical, normal thing to do for anyone online, but I suspect that its roots are thanks to my dad.  He does a similar thing, except his bookmarks aren't on the computer.  They're with physical books, old magazines, printed-out emails, etc.  That adds up as well.  I'm not a huge fan of clutter; I loathe it, to be honest.  Seeing what his workspaces look like as a result of his bookmarks is ... unsettling.  This morning, I thought I'd check out what my digital workspace looked like with all my bookmarks.

I've used Firefox as my browser of choice for a long time, and I've always used the same profile (your profile keeps track of your history, bookmarks, settings, etc.).  When I've updated or reinstalled Windows, I backup my profile and reapply it ... meaning, it's never been cleaned out.  I knew it had grown to a large file size, and I suspect that a lot of that was due to the number of bookmarks I'd accrued over the years.  When I opened my bookmark library to view all of them, I figured it was several hundred.  That was ... inaccurate.  It was over 4,200.

Yeah.

"Well, this won't do," I mused.  Unlike my dad, I can easily say, "to hell with it," and bid farewell to things once thought worthy of revisiting.  I set about deleting old ones and working my way forward.  It wasn't a haphazard process, but I also wasn't doing it one-by-one.  Hold the Shift key and keep pressing the down arrow.  Lumps of fat being trimmed and tossed into the digital void.  Wait, skip that one.  Trim, trim, trim.  Skip that one, too.

Then I came across one with a goofy, orange and white "B" called Blog.  Hah, I remember that.  I had to click into it to see if it even still existed on these interwebs.  Naturally, it did (thanks Google for not deleting it), and then I couldn't help myself but to click on some of the entries.  It's amusing to reread some of the stuff and find myself back in those shoes.  Some are more worthwhile than others, of course. Let's be honest, some are barely worth the digital space they take up.  My last entry was over eight years ago, and it revolved around planning for St. Paddy's Day (incidentally, at that time, I was the unwashed dope using Patty instead of the correct version of Paddy ... yes, it makes a difference).  The Good Professor and I have unfortunately missed the last two St. Paddy's Days due to a tiny problem called a global pandemic.  

Maybe GP and I will remedy that in spirit sometime this summer.  Maybe we'll do it in conjunction with another SKC game (of which I haven't attended in person in almost two years ... my eight-year younger self would've abhorred such disregard for the beautiful game).  Maybe I'll do this again and write about it like I planned on doing eight years ago.  Maybe.  Let's bookmark that.