Google this!

I have an unusually spelled name. If you go to GoodSearch, Google, Yahoo, or MSN, or whatever search engine you prefer, and type in my name, without quotes even, 95% of the hits are me. The bottom of the second page you start to get some questionable ones, things about spaceships with my name on them and wikis and lesbians, but even then I suspect they may be me anyway. (This is why I discourage those of you in cyberland who know my full name from POSTING it, or even parts of it.)

At least once a year I perform this experiment, and today was the day. Google found me an astronomy forum post - my name, astronomy, gotta be me. The forum post read...

I've got Zandperl Lastname to thank for my love of astronomy- THANK YOU ZANDPERL!!! I was so lucky to get a teacher like her.

OMG. *blush* That's awesome! I want the forum to come back up so I can troll and see if I can figure out who this is. It's not clear what year it was posted, but the person joined the forums in March 2004, so it could've been from anywhere...

They person is from Rochester - making it possibly when I TA'd as an undergrad though unlikely since I wasn't the only one in charge of the astro classes, or possibly one of the astrocamps I did back at my Alma Mater, but not guaranteed. Their LJ name is gefilte-ghoti, and they're on various "spacefem" -named things, making me think it's a Jewish girl. Their only LJ friend just posted a survey with all their biographical info. That person is currently 19, making it likely this person is also 19, and therefore likely that it was an astrocamp or nerd camp student.

And with that, I am stumped. A virtual cookie to the first person to identify this person for me!