School daze

I'm spending half of Saturday in the Douglass campus cafeteria at Rutgers while my kid takes tests preparatory to beginning her college career this fall at Mason Gross School of the Arts.

Cooling my heels here is a chance to reflect on two things: the welter of social media I need to update (this blog is the most neglected patch of my online turf, behind my CBS MoneyWatch blog, Che Underground blog, Sceneroller, Facebook, LinkedIn, about six Twitter feeds and all the social media we're warming up at TheLadders) and the excitement I feel about my daughter's college trajectory.

Like many friends my age, I kind of backed into college -- and even more than most, I hurried through it with no particular idea of what I wanted to do when I got out the other side. My alma mater of UCSD is a top-notch school, and staying in San Diego occasioned the wonderful adventures documented in Che Underground. But I have a great deal of respect for the career focus my kid has demonstrated and much more regard than I ever did for the process of applying to a variety of schools, making decisions and possibly facing rejection. (I'm proud that she was accepted into every program for which she applied, but that reflects in a large part the specificity of her career goals. Few of us had such clear ones at her age!)

It's risky to live vicariously through your kids, and I wouldn't trade my choices considering the joys I've experienced as a result. But it's an awful lot of fun to watch mine make their own choices and see those choices rewarded with success.

Plus, the salad bar here is fabulous!

I'm in the Times (not)

Mazel tov to The Other Matthew Rothenberg for a story in today's New York Times that features a fetching photo and his views from high atop the Flickr digital-photo empire.

As my own social graph will tell you, the presence of two high-tech Matthew Rothenbergs has caused a bit of confusion at times and reminds me of the inconclusive negotiations my father had back in the dear, dead analog days of the early '60s with The Other Jerome Rothenberg, an architect who also happened to write poetry on the side.

And while my wife Nancy Tobin remains at No. 1 in the Google sweepstakes, she's in a similar pickle: For some reason, art attracts Nancy Tobins like poetry attracts Jerome Rothenbergs and Internet technology, Matthew Rothenbergs. She vies with a sculptor, a photo researcher, and a sound artist.

I've suggested to Nancy that they all team up and do a big "Nancy Tobin" show. In the same vein, my doppelgänger suggests "we go in 50/50 on something like whichmatthewrothenbergdoyouwant.com , put a line down the center, our clickable faces and bios on opposite sides of the page, and then pile on the google juice till it becomes the number one search result for our name. We'd be providing a valuable service to the world! (Well, the very small yet incredibly savvy portion of the world who is looking for a Matthew Rothenberg)."

I'm in ... There can never be too many Matthew Rothenbergs!

Remembering Robert Hess

It's a bit of a shock to realize that Jan. 12 will mark the 15th anniversary of the passing of our friend and MacWEEK colleague Robert Hess, whose 29-year stint on the globe ironically ended while the rest of us were covering Macworld Expo San Francisco 1996. (Robert's love for the show and its attendant revelry inspired Ilene Hoffman to maintain the Hess Memorial party list for many years after.)

I still cherish the T-shirt from our Mac Black party I kept when Stephen Howard-Sarin and I cleaned out his office that weekend; I wish we could stage another Mac the Knife party at Bondage-a-Go-Go or some other sort of bacchanalia to remember our witty, resourceful and brave friend.

Trying out my new MacBook ...

I'm taking my blog for a spin on my brand-new Mac laptop, thanks to my amazing spouse, Nancy Tobin. Nancy is as nice and thoughtful as she is talented, which is kind of incredible on both counts. I'm absurdly lucky — and this machine is fabulous!

Matthew Rothenberg: Guy on the home page

The book tour I did with TheLadders CEO Marc Cenedella to support "You're Better Than Your Job Search," a mess of media interviews and my recent appearance as spokesmodel on TheLadders home page has given me a certain status as company mascot.

At a recent dinner we had in honor of Diwali, some of the newer employees were referring to me as "the guy on the home page." I feel a little like the fellow who brandishes his pants on the Subway advertisements! (Seriously, it's been a lot of fun and a very good chance to improve my media chops. I'm also considering buying some nubby ties.)

More Matthew Rothenberg!

That was funny: I actually did get mistaken for the other Matthew Rothenberg while on the road to promote "You're Better Than Your Job Search" with Marc Cenedella.

The last night of our tour, in Chicago, our host at the bookstore introduced Marc as CEO of TheLadders — then began to read off my bona fides as social technologist for Flickr! I stopped her and cleared up the confusion.

It was actually a great object lesson in our career guidance to Google yourself, the better to be ready for any identity UFOs.

Rothenberg vs. Rothenberg!

Why did another Rothenberg family have to name their son "Matthew," and why, oh why did this younger, slimmer model have to grow up to to become a social-media specialist?

I'm no slacker on the Web, and (I'm afraid) I do have a few years on my counterpart — but he's undeniably doing a better job of cultivating his personal online findability.

In fact, this blog is my accidental beachhead when it comes to keeping the mid-'60s model of "Matthew Rothenberg" near the top of Google ... While I'm putting a lot more care and feeding into my day job at TheLadders, my Facebook profile and the Che Underground blog, this little online homing beacon just keeps glowing despite my benign neglect.

So until I can induce the other Matthew Rothenberg to change his name to "Martin" or get a job building furniture or herding caribou somewhere remote and offline, here's a good spot to find me!