Have YOU Seen My Dopplegänger??

DISCLAIMER: This post has been written for satirical purposes only. It is a joke. The conversations and investigations I describe have been exaggerated and embellished for entertainment purposes only. Of course this man is not really evil - and he has not actually instilled the level of fear at BU Law that I have described. He is just a student and a guy that my friends decided looks a lot like me. Or maybe I look like him. Anyway, apparently we sort of look alike. The point is that this post is a joke and not meant to offend anyone - especially not my Dopplegänger. That being said, on with the post...

Have you seen my Dopplegänger? Do you understand what it means for a guy to have a Dopplegänger? Here is a link to a relevant Wikipedia article. Basically, a Dopplegänger is someone who looks just like you. Well during the fall 2009 semester at BU Law, I began hearing reports that I had a Dopplegänger in the LLM class. Many of our LLM students at BU Law are foreign, and initial reports suggested that my Dopplegänger may have been from Germany, Austria or Switzerland. We later found out that it was, in fact, from Dallas, Texas.

I'll never forget the first time I saw my Dopplegänger - it was getting onto the elevator at the Law Tower, and we made eye contact. My Dopplegänger's hair was quite a bit longer than mine. I'm also pretty sure that I am slightly taller than him. But I instantly knew that this had to be the Dopplegänger that I had been hearing about...

This all sounds like fun and games, but some people believe that encountering your Dopplegänger can be an omen of bad luck or even impending death. Some people believe that if a person is generally "good", then that person's Dopplegänger will be "evil" - and vice versa. If I am the good one, then my Dopplegänger is to be avoided. Even worse - what if IT is the good one...?

While several of my friends got a kick out of seeing and even meeting my Dopplegänger, I decided to stay away from it. The fact that my Dopplegänger is from Dallas is also a little threatening. I have spent quite a bit of time in Dallas, and I fear that our paths could potentially cross again one day even after my Dopplegänger's tenure at BU Law has expired.

I'm getting tired of writing "Dopplegänger", because each time I have to figure out how to type that little "a" with the 2 dots over it - so for the remainder of this post I'll be referring to my Dopplegänger as "Bizarro Bullock". Assigning a name will also allow me to quit saying "it".

On Thursday, April 29, 2010, my friend, Eric, sent me a message on Facebook that he had just seen Bizarro Bullock. "[We] just had a staredown," Eric told me. "I think he knows you're coming back sometime soon." It dawned on me then that the semester was ending and that Bizarro Bullock would soon be leaving BU Law. Since I am in Argentina, I suppose I feel some security based on all the miles of ocean and land between Bizarro Bullock and me. I decided to find a picture of Bizarro Bullock - so as to document this phenomenon on El Gringuito...

I wrote to Eric and suggested that I was looking for someone who would be up to the challenge of snapping a photo of Bizarro Bullock. The person would have to be courageous, and maybe even a little stupid. Eric quickly responded that this might be really tough, as he was pretty sure that Bizarro Bullock was already on to us. Eric suggested that I try to locate a good photo on Facebook. One thing was clear - Eric was afraid, and he didn't want to be involved.

I posted a message on my Gchat status - "Who can snap a blog-worthy photo of my Dopplegänger?" If you go back and read that one more time, then you can imagine the plethora of smart-ass responses that I received. The point is that nobody appeared to be up the challenge - so I decided to pursue the Facebook route.

This was when I realized that I didn't know anything about Bizarro Bullock. I didn't know who his friends were, and I didn't even know his real name to do a Facebook search. I asked my friend Dan if he knew Bizarro Bullock's real name. Dan's response was quick and curt - "I don't know anything about him. Sorry." Holy sh*t , Bizzaro Bullock really had a lot of people very scared.

Then I approached my friend Thadeous. You may remember Thadeous as the guy who got a bunch of people to write my name into the BU Law Student Government elections last year. Well, Thadeous had a run-in with Bizarro Bullock at a party last year. They got into a heated argument about Texas college football, and Thadeous's report seemed to suggest that Bizarro Bullock may, in fact, be evil.

Now I've grown tired of writing "Bizarro Bullock" - so for the remainder of this post I'll be referring to him as "BB".

Thadeous claimed not to know BB's real name. I replied, "Man, this guy has really done a number on you, hasn't he?" I couldn't see Thadeous's response, because we were typing on Gchat. I can only imagine that he lowered his head in shame, though. That was when Thadeous coughed up the name of another LLM who might know BB.

I looked up Thadeous's contact on Facebook, but it seems that the girl's photos were inaccessible due to privacy settings. I decided to try to find BB among her Facebook friends - but she had nearly 700 contacts. "I not willing to try to ford THAT river," I said to myself. "Not today... not today."

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The next day I decided I was up to the challenge - so I began quickly scrolling through the girl's nearly 700 contacts, until suddenly I saw him - BB (Bizarro Bullock, in case you've forgotten).

The thumbnail of his profile picture was very small and had several people in it, but I instantly recognized BB. My cursor cautiously moved toward his name, and I clicked the link. The rush of fear and excitement that I felt as the page loaded was quickly met with disappointment when I realized that he had no pictures available to non-contacts on Facebook. From his profile, I learned that he had studied at LSU, which is a rival of my undergrad. This is very suspicious, because you don't encounter many people in Boston with ties to south Louisiana. Even more suspicious is the fact that BB and I have zero Facebook friends in common.

I didn't know if this was some ploy designed to discourage me or to throw me off-course. All I knew was that BB's FB profile would not provide an easy path toward obtaining a photo to demonstrate our likeness. This was clearly another dead-end. You win this time, Bizarro Bullock...

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UPDATE: On Tuesday, May 4, 2010, I received an email that my Dopplegänger had been spotted in the depths of the BU Law Tower. A witness was able to snap a quick photo using his cellular telephone. The image came out blurry, which just serves as yet another example of the very elusiveness of my Dopplegänger:

"Hey look - there's Bullock studying in the library!
Oh nevermind, its just his Dopplegänger..."

As of the date of this posting, this is the only known photo of my Dopplegänger. He is blond-haired and has a Bullock-sized body (although, again, I am pretty sure that I am slightly taller). If you have any information as to Bizarro Bullock's whereabouts, please contact El Gringuito. Remember, you can remain anonymous.

UPDATE - 05.05.2010: Since this blog posting, there have been additional sightings of my Dopplegänger. The following images have just come in recently. Again, the pictures are a bit fuzzy - but little by little this new information helps us to develop a more comprehensive idea of who he is.

"Hey look - there´s Bullock getting onto the elevator!

Oh nevermind, its just his Dopplegänger..."

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"Hey look - its Bullock hanging his jacket on that chair!

Oh nevermind, its just his Dopplegänger..."