Every now and again, like, I'm sure, many people do, I google my name and see what I get.
As I discovered years ago, it turns out my name is not as uncommon as I would have thought.
A few French-Canadian folks and one guy in France shows up frequently. Occasionally, a few pop up in the states too. Recently, I found one of my namesakes as close by as the Tampa Bay area.
But only on 2 tries have I found a reference to the REAL Michael Chausse (yours truely of course).
The first was a few years ago. The link was already at least 5 years old when I found it but it pointed to a gay-oriented Catholic brotherhood of monks. The site credited me for contributions to it's web page design.
Yup, it was me. You see, back in the mid-90's, my friend John C. and I ran our little home-based computer reseller/consultant business called Cozmo's Gizmos.
I founded the business to cater to mainly word-of-mouth contacts, as well as some of the loyal customers of John's former business, Hard Soft Supply Company. He had been forced to close his business as part of a sentence he received when he, for reasons not entirely clear, withheld producing goods and services for which he received advance payment. Basically, he got someone to pay several hundred dollars for him to build a computer but failed to deliver said computer. The customer happened to be a cop. Not good. The cop pressed criminal charges and John went to court, had to pay the guy back and was assessed fines, plus, was forced to give up his already struggling business, in leiu of jail time, that is.
But I digress. I'm getting off subject here...this isn't a FLASHBACK post.
Suffice it to say that one of the customer's of Cozmo's Gizmos was a friend of John's he knew through a Gay Catholic support group he attended. This guy, Brother Ron, was a nice middle-aged guy who had just recently gotten into computers and he wanted to create a website for his brotherhood. We got him a Pentium I computer (back then...state-of-the art) which we bought at Sam's Club for about $995, marked it up a fair 20% and called it a sale. He needed basic instruction, and John had no patience for the customer service side of the biz, so I helped him out, setting it up and showing him the ropes. And as an added benefit to his purchase, I threw in an offer to help him in web page design.
Back then, there wasn't a whole lot you could do in HTML to jazz up a site. Too graphical, and noone would be able to access it due to the rarity of broadband and ubiquity of dial up in the range of the standard 14.4 baud modem. But I was able to design a neat little header for his site incorporating the name of the Brotherhood in "Medieval manuscript-like" font and using a picture of the special crucifix they associated with.
Ron loved it and on the credits page for the site, he threw up my name in appreciation.
The site lasted for several years...it was still in existance when I googled my name about 6 years ago, but it seems to be gone now. Though I've long since forgotten the URL or even the name of the Brotherhood so I can't be totally sure.
In any event, to make a long story short (too late for that, huh?), I want to explain the title to this post.
Yesterday I googled my name and found another obscure (and subsequently "ancient") reference to me in the results. It was to a site, now defunct, which housed hints, strategy tips and maps for the Heroes of Might and Magic computer game series. I loved this turn-based, fantasy-themed strategy game from the first volume and when volume 2 came out in the late 90's, I started creating custom maps and scenarios for it and sharing them with the game's fansite community.
This is the text description of one of the games I designed that I found with my google search:
MAGELLAN'S MAP SUBMISSION
Map Name: revolt.mp2
Map Maker: Michael Chausse
E-Mail Address: cozgiz@worldnet.att.net
Map Type: [Singleplayer] [Humans Or Computer]
Description: Revolution! The ancient lands of Nastralia. The Imperial Nobility has become decadent and cruel. Become the first Lord to overthrow the Emperor.
Special Win: Take Melanacrastian Citadel.
Special Loss: [NONE]
Special Other: [NONE]
Narrative: The Nastralian Empire was once a wonderful world to live in but the Noble Class became decadent and squandered the resources of the planet. Now the Emperor...called the Riothamus Clovis XIII and his Court have neglected the starving cries of the people and have sent hundreds of dissenters to the work-camps. The Lords of the Three Continents have each undertaken the call to arms and are busy organizing the resources of their respective lands and eliminating the pesky monsters strewn about the countryside. The Riothamus has declared all 3 Lords guilty of treason and has fled to his secret fortified palace, The Melanacrastian Citadel. With him are the Duke of the small island of Glopak and the Prince of the wealthy and powerful Algeon Island sub-continent. Their feifdoms, though ostensibly neutral, are loyal to the Imperium and the castles are well-guarded against potential intrusion by any of the 3 usurpers.You play as one of the 3 Rebel Lords, and have only monsters and terrain obstructing your domination of your respective continent...but in order to even attempt to overthrow the Riothamus in his heavily-fortified stronghold, The Melanacrastian Citadel, you'll likely need the full resources of one or more other lands as well.
All Human SidesCompletelyPlay-Tested: Yes
The actual map file and in fact, the whole web site seems to have disappeared long ago, but, for some reason, this text still exists.
No matter, I long ago discarded this old DOS game in favor of it's successors over the years, so I wouldn't have been able to view it or play it anyway.
It got me to think about the other great games I had designed and posted to this site back then.
One memorable one was a game where you played the part of the "warrior" and his army from one of the many tourist venues in Central Florida like Universal Studios, Sea World, even Gatorland. Your goal was to assemble a motley force of tourists and ex-cast members and lay seige to the great fortress in the center of the game map: Disney World. There you'd fight the Great Evil Rat, Mickey and his netherworld minions as they try to defend the ultimate relic...the cryogenic remains of Walt Disney buried under Cinderella's Castle.
It was a great game, but now it seems, it's lost to posterity.
And all I have to show for my decades of work on the net is one link? What does it take to have more than one Google result? Sheesh!
As I discovered years ago, it turns out my name is not as uncommon as I would have thought.
A few French-Canadian folks and one guy in France shows up frequently. Occasionally, a few pop up in the states too. Recently, I found one of my namesakes as close by as the Tampa Bay area.
But only on 2 tries have I found a reference to the REAL Michael Chausse (yours truely of course).
The first was a few years ago. The link was already at least 5 years old when I found it but it pointed to a gay-oriented Catholic brotherhood of monks. The site credited me for contributions to it's web page design.
Yup, it was me. You see, back in the mid-90's, my friend John C. and I ran our little home-based computer reseller/consultant business called Cozmo's Gizmos.
I founded the business to cater to mainly word-of-mouth contacts, as well as some of the loyal customers of John's former business, Hard Soft Supply Company. He had been forced to close his business as part of a sentence he received when he, for reasons not entirely clear, withheld producing goods and services for which he received advance payment. Basically, he got someone to pay several hundred dollars for him to build a computer but failed to deliver said computer. The customer happened to be a cop. Not good. The cop pressed criminal charges and John went to court, had to pay the guy back and was assessed fines, plus, was forced to give up his already struggling business, in leiu of jail time, that is.
But I digress. I'm getting off subject here...this isn't a FLASHBACK post.
Suffice it to say that one of the customer's of Cozmo's Gizmos was a friend of John's he knew through a Gay Catholic support group he attended. This guy, Brother Ron, was a nice middle-aged guy who had just recently gotten into computers and he wanted to create a website for his brotherhood. We got him a Pentium I computer (back then...state-of-the art) which we bought at Sam's Club for about $995, marked it up a fair 20% and called it a sale. He needed basic instruction, and John had no patience for the customer service side of the biz, so I helped him out, setting it up and showing him the ropes. And as an added benefit to his purchase, I threw in an offer to help him in web page design.
Back then, there wasn't a whole lot you could do in HTML to jazz up a site. Too graphical, and noone would be able to access it due to the rarity of broadband and ubiquity of dial up in the range of the standard 14.4 baud modem. But I was able to design a neat little header for his site incorporating the name of the Brotherhood in "Medieval manuscript-like" font and using a picture of the special crucifix they associated with.
Ron loved it and on the credits page for the site, he threw up my name in appreciation.
The site lasted for several years...it was still in existance when I googled my name about 6 years ago, but it seems to be gone now. Though I've long since forgotten the URL or even the name of the Brotherhood so I can't be totally sure.
In any event, to make a long story short (too late for that, huh?), I want to explain the title to this post.
Yesterday I googled my name and found another obscure (and subsequently "ancient") reference to me in the results. It was to a site, now defunct, which housed hints, strategy tips and maps for the Heroes of Might and Magic computer game series. I loved this turn-based, fantasy-themed strategy game from the first volume and when volume 2 came out in the late 90's, I started creating custom maps and scenarios for it and sharing them with the game's fansite community.
This is the text description of one of the games I designed that I found with my google search:
MAGELLAN'S MAP SUBMISSION
Map Name: revolt.mp2
Map Maker: Michael Chausse
E-Mail Address: cozgiz@worldnet.att.net
Map Type: [Singleplayer] [Humans Or Computer]
Description: Revolution! The ancient lands of Nastralia. The Imperial Nobility has become decadent and cruel. Become the first Lord to overthrow the Emperor.
Special Win: Take Melanacrastian Citadel.
Special Loss: [NONE]
Special Other: [NONE]
Narrative: The Nastralian Empire was once a wonderful world to live in but the Noble Class became decadent and squandered the resources of the planet. Now the Emperor...called the Riothamus Clovis XIII and his Court have neglected the starving cries of the people and have sent hundreds of dissenters to the work-camps. The Lords of the Three Continents have each undertaken the call to arms and are busy organizing the resources of their respective lands and eliminating the pesky monsters strewn about the countryside. The Riothamus has declared all 3 Lords guilty of treason and has fled to his secret fortified palace, The Melanacrastian Citadel. With him are the Duke of the small island of Glopak and the Prince of the wealthy and powerful Algeon Island sub-continent. Their feifdoms, though ostensibly neutral, are loyal to the Imperium and the castles are well-guarded against potential intrusion by any of the 3 usurpers.You play as one of the 3 Rebel Lords, and have only monsters and terrain obstructing your domination of your respective continent...but in order to even attempt to overthrow the Riothamus in his heavily-fortified stronghold, The Melanacrastian Citadel, you'll likely need the full resources of one or more other lands as well.
All Human SidesCompletelyPlay-Tested: Yes
The actual map file and in fact, the whole web site seems to have disappeared long ago, but, for some reason, this text still exists.
No matter, I long ago discarded this old DOS game in favor of it's successors over the years, so I wouldn't have been able to view it or play it anyway.
It got me to think about the other great games I had designed and posted to this site back then.
One memorable one was a game where you played the part of the "warrior" and his army from one of the many tourist venues in Central Florida like Universal Studios, Sea World, even Gatorland. Your goal was to assemble a motley force of tourists and ex-cast members and lay seige to the great fortress in the center of the game map: Disney World. There you'd fight the Great Evil Rat, Mickey and his netherworld minions as they try to defend the ultimate relic...the cryogenic remains of Walt Disney buried under Cinderella's Castle.
It was a great game, but now it seems, it's lost to posterity.
And all I have to show for my decades of work on the net is one link? What does it take to have more than one Google result? Sheesh!
Hmmm, maybe the March 25th post and this one, pretty good plugs for Google properties, will earn me the Geek Cred I deserve, dammit! ;)