Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Here We Go!

So, here I am! Thanks for moving with me to my new and now (hopefully) anonymous blog. And if you're new here and didn't move with me from the old spot, hi. Although how I'd manage to get new readers is beyond me. Besides, I'm pretty satisfied with the, oh, 4 to 7 of you that read regularly now.

As you know if you followed me from the old URL, I decided it was time to attempt to make my online writing as anonymous as possible. I want to keep blogging because I like this as a way to stay in touch with friends and family. I need to be a bit more cautious about my identity here, though. I want to be able to write about my new university and this next step in my career, but I don't necessarily need my new department or my potential future students to be able to easily find my writing here. I figure I'd be sort of hard to find ANYWAY since I think I'm pretty under the radar, but one can never be too cautious. Honestly, I don't really like blogging pseudonymously, but I also realize that I've reached a point in my life where it's necessary.

So I'm going to see how I do blogging fairly anonymously. As I discussed on the old blog, I think my field of study is going to become obvious fairly quickly, unless I choose not to write about my research and studies at all whatsoever (in which case I'd have nothing to talk about, frankly). But I'm going to try my best to keep my name and the name of my university out of here, and I'm going to try to be as vague about my exact location as possible, although I imagine that my general location will become obvious at some point as well. I'm also going to give pseudonyms to everyone I interact with, although I'm warning you right now that I suck at giving pseudonyms and so if you read this blog and you're also someone I write about fairly regularly, you may want to e-mail me with your own suggestion. My own pseudonym is the ridiculously uncreative *A*. I was going to give myself a fake name, but that just felt dumb. I won't hesitate to make up fake names for the rest of you, though!
Basically, I don't mind people reading this blog and being able to make logical guesses about my identity, but I'd rather not have anyone read this and be absolutely positive that I'm the writer.

As for the new URL, read the post below this one. It's my favorite scene from one of my favorite plays, Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman. The scene has always resonated with me, particularly the last bit about allowing yourself to be blind. Lord knows I need to stop "watching out" all the time. When I re-read the play last month, I was also strongly affected by, "She was petrified, but she did it all the same." Because I have to admit that I am. I am petrified that this next step is going to prove to be too much for me. I spend way too much time these days thinking, "What if I get to the east coast and I hate it? What if I start this Ph.D. program and it turns out that I can't actually do the coursework even if I try? What if I'm making a huge mistake?" But I'm going to do it all the same. So maybe that's a little sappy and cheesy, but it feels fitting right now.
And do you like how I was able to use the same sort of play on words I used on my old url? Yeah, me too!
As for the title of the blog, I didn't want to come up with a title, so in the "Name your blog" box I typed "YOU name it." And so now that's the title. I guess it sort of works, though, because it makes it sound like this is the sort of site where "You name it, I write about it!" Although I will probably still write mostly about school and my dog. Sorry.

I think that more or less explains everything. Thanks for reading!

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