Somebody else has already thought that!

There are a few truisms I've figured out in my old age (ok, so I'm not yet 30, but who's counting?). The first of these is that there will always be somebody richer and somebody poorer than you - a LOT richer and poorer, both ways. The second is that there will always be somebody healthier and somebody sicker than you ... it's like all those male models with their ripped abdominal muscles put me off exercising altogether, but at least I'm better off than that one guy with the peg leg and the foggy eye.

The third, however, is possibly the most frustrating of all: whatever you're thinking, somebody has already thought it. Honestly, anything. When one of my University professors once told all his students 'There is no such thing as original thought - all you're doing is regurgitating somebody else's ideas', we all wanted to rebel. The older I get (so so OLD), the more I'm willing to concede that at best, original thought is very very VERY difficult to obtain, and even if you do manage this rare distinction, you're likely to see your original thought unknowingly copied by somebody somewhere else.

Why am I sharing this now? Two discoveries just today of somebody having gone where I wanted to go before me, before I knew I wanted to go there.

Firstly, like all good little bloggers, I've been considering the future of this humble blog. A quick Google search confirmed what I'd already guessed: hundreds of bloggers have grown out of Blogger before me, and all of these appear to be advised to move towards their own domain and the WordPress platform. That's ok, I'm prepared to follow the herd, but that's not what smarted worst.

No, what smarted worst is discovering that www.reillusioned.com already exists. And yes, it's somebody else's WordPress blog. And - insult to injury - they never made a single post, since initializing the platform in March 2012. That strikes so close to the bone because it wasn't until December that I even thought of the title 'Reillusioned' for my little blog here, and until now when I decided to migrate to WordPress. Pipped to the post on both scores!

The second realisation is that another dream of mine has also been dashed. When I was informed by Dreamhost that www.reillusioned.com was unavailable, I immediately searched for another magic string that had been knocking around the back of my head, hoping to one day be born into a website I've been thinking about: www.thisisromania.com. Yes, you guessed it - it's already been taken.

Here's the stinging part: it seems like an awesome site! The Romanian flag, proudly displayed; the stories of inspirational Romanians; the beautiful photos of Romanian landscapes (oh man I can't wait to visit in December!) ... all present and accounted for. Pretty much everything I'd been thinking about, although my version would have had a brighter colour scheme (take THAT originality!).

Back to the drawing board on all counts, it seems. I still want to upgrade to WordPress, but I'm going to have to select some URL that nobody will ever have thought of or ever want to copy in the future. I'm also going to have to think of an equally awesome future-proof idea for the website, because even the idea for this site is going to become a bit moot once I eventually move to Romania.

You've been warned. If you ever type in www.reillusioned.blogspot.com and come up with no results, try www.myREALLYawesomewebsiteTHATnobodyWILLeveryCOPYeveryinAmillionYEARS93847847739294384732.com