2006
To ensure that I am a real, live, non-diabolical human being, the interweb frequently requires me to parse the contents of a small graphical box containing warped characters, generally of an upper and/or lower case alphabetical nature, before I am allowed to create an account to use some web app or other, attempt to purchase something, or post a blog comment.
Problem is, either these are often harder than you’d expect, or I’m not very good at them. Most of the time I can recognize the letters, but the warping is such that I can’t tell if they’re upper or lower case. Occasionally the noise in the graphic is so extensive I can’t tell what the letters are supposed to be. (I’m not colour blind, and usually they’re black/white/greyscale anyway.) I don’t fail these tests that often, but often enough to question my own intelligence, or whether, perhaps, I am the product of advanced technologies or a Person of Dubious Reality (PDR).
However, given that my childhood imaginings of perchance being the biological offspring of Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers have not yet come true, more than likely I am simply the average bear, and should welcome our interwebbian overlords.
