Googling Around

        For those in the know, my real name isn't Dexter.  Dexter is the "screen name" I use whenever I go online in various forums and mailing lists, thus a lot of my online friends know me as such.  Other pseudonyms I go with are "Dadi Dexter" and more recently, "Papa Dexter". 

        No violent gastronomic reactions please  ;-)

        As to how I got that name, it's another story in itself that I may get to writing about when I'll be in the mood for it hopefully sometime soon.

        So what's my real name, you may ask? 

        I recall my parents telling me that they named me after a priest who hails from Belgium.  He was based here in the Philippines a long time ago (and up to now) and they became good friends ever since. 

        Wow!  I feel blessed already, imagine me being named after a priest! 

        Father Florent, as they called him, now resides in Agoo, La Union (I think).  I haven't met him yet although I should meet him -- I wonder how he looks like and I also wonder if he knows that I exist?  I fear that he might have a stroke or something if he gets to find out that we share the same name... ooops!  Anyway, since people called him "father", I also adapted that prefix, modified it and used "dadi" instead, hence the "Dadi Dexter" name.  And I modified it again recently, this time using "Papa" for "Papa Dexter" (a la the pope). 

        So that's one-half of the story of the name...

        As for my surname, Dictionary.com has several definitions for "Flora":

• The goddess of flowers (OK, so I'm a priest of a goddess???)


• Plants considered as a group, especially the plants of a particular country, region, or time (Ahhh... I'm a priest of the plants!)


• Plants considered as a group  (Or maybe a vegetarian priest??)


• The microorganisms that normally inhabit a bodily organ or part.  (Microorganisms? Germs?!!  OH NO!  I'm a dirty priest!)

        Flora is also a city in the state of Illinoi, a town in the states of Indiana, Mississippi and North Dakota, and a street in Ottawa, Canada where the FLORA Community Web (no connection to me or the Flora Family) is based.  Our family actually hails from La Union although I do not recall any street or town there named Flora.  However, there's a small town named "Flora" in the province of Kalinga Apayao.

        Now, I wonder how popular I am in the web...

        Googling for my name yields the following relevant information pertaining to ME:

• My name in included in The Names Database.

• Some of my email posts to the PH-ISP mailing list are archived here and here.  In one email, I was communicating with a prospective client and in another email I was inquiring about how to register *.mil.ph domain names.

• A manufacturer's directory indicates that I am looking for suppliers/vendors of PDA phones and wireless PDA devices.

• A CIDR Report also indicates that I am the maintainer of PhilWeb's (old) APNIC IP address pool and AS Number.

• A Spam Report Notification record here and here indicates that PhilWeb's mail server was exploited by spammers to broadcast spam mails. 
  
  
  
  
  

• An online article from Autoindustriya.com reports that I landed third place in the Subic-SVI Grand Prix "Run What You Brung" series in 2001.  My name is mentioned in the last paragraph :-)

• A writeup in Nissanbayan provided the time sheets for the 2003 "Run What You Brung" Round 1 held at the Subic International Racetrack.

        SO there it is...  My name states that I'm a "dirty priest of a goddess who is a vegetarian".  And I am not a famous personality on the net.  Thankfully, the net says that I'm NOT a porn star, so my name comes clean  :-)

        I like my name, of course.

        But call me Dexter  :-)