My 15 mins

[susandennis]

I just got an email from a former co-worker that just tickled me:

"I was talking about you the other day, walking to Mariners game with wife's family from out of town, gave the whole susandennis.com story, they were impressed. We should get lunch again sometime soon."

I'm not only a story but an impressive one! He's talking about my Kingdome days. In 1997 I started taking pictures every week of the Kingdome which was just outside my terrace. Then they announced they were going to implode it and build a new football stadium. So I started taking a picture every day and I started to get an audience and they started asking questions and then I added a little commentary. The whole thing took on a life of its own.

Then just before the implosion, Sports Illustrated called. I was at work and Mark (the guy who sent the email above) was in my office. The woman said she was a fact checker and was checking the facts on a story about the implosion. She asked me to spell my name and confirm the URL of the website (both of which she could have gotten on her own with a browser...) ... I put her on speakerphone because she was so dingy I thought it was funny and then she said:

"So you used to work at Microsoft? Are you a millionaire?"

Mark and I lost it. Totally.

Sure enough, the next week the issue had a story about the implosion and right next to it was a little sidebar about my website. Needless to say, my hit rate skyrocketed. I ended up averaging about 1,500 hits a day for about 2 years. I met wonderful people.

One guy - a Seahawks fan from England - even brought his family over during the construction of the new stadium. I had a party at my house for them and invited all the local website 'regulars' none of whom I had ever actually met. It was great fun.

And now you have heard the susandennis.com story.... you impressed?