Awhile back, Jenn-ay was talking about online personas, what comprises hers, and yours, and why.
I don’t go meta very often, but I happen to be a fan of this topic of discussion, maybe because the Sociology minor in me finds it endlessly fascinating.
To be anonymous, quasi-anonymous, or not at all anonymous: that is the question.
When I first started my site in 2004 it wasn’t kerrianne.org, but I was still posting as myself and was never anonymous. In November of 2004 I switched to kerrianne.org and from then on I knew I would always use my name, my full name, and haven’t regretted it once.
I’m proud of (or at least happy with) everything I’ve written on my site, and wouldn’t post it otherwise. Some of it’s surely for laughs, silly and nonsensical, but it’s authentically me, or as authentic as I can be in front of a computer, and I stand behind everything I’ve ever published in this space.
That being said, I traditionally don’t write about work, and most likely won’t, unless it was a scenario where I was being asked, and compensated, for doing so.
Most of my family and friends know about my site, and read it on a regular basis. I’m more than fine with that because I’m the type of person who isn’t going to say anything online that I won’t say right to you, in person, too. (Though I will also admit to having a momentary panic attack when I first realized so many family members checked in so regularly. Hi! everyone.)
On the opposite end of the anonymous spectrum, sometimes, when I’m feeling particularly name-ornery, I try to find more ways to slip in the occasional “Kerri Anne” here and there on my site, so I can beat out an Australian talk show host who happens to spell her name exactly the same way I do for the top spot in the highly coveted Google Search.
Because in addition to being non-anonymous, I’m also super mature.
Some moniker-related trivia for you, for fun: “Kerri Anne” is my given name, yes, but “Anne” is technically my middle name, so certain friends call me “Kerr” or “Kerri” and certain friends and family call me “Kerri Anne.” My maternal grandmother calls me “Sweet Pea.”
So, what about you? Are you anonymous? Quasi-anonymous? Proudly non-anonymous? I’d love to know why or why not.
Also, if you haven’t ever seen the SNL skit the title of this post is referencing, I feel a little sad for you, because it was awesome, and I’d love to help you out, but I can’t a video of the skit ANYWHERE online. The Internet must have eaten it.
Stories I said I had. Tangential stories and life-changing ones.
Until today I haven’t known where, exactly, to begin. And so quiet this space has mostly been because some beginnings are tricky. Sometimes it’s quite impossible to denote where something ended and something else entirely began.
I’m not going to be able to tell you everything, but then the best stories never really do, do they?
(That’s not a trick question. I promise they don’t.)
(Unless the story was penned by Henry James, in → Read more...
This week I’ve been finding pieces of writing long lost and forgotten. Unearthing words belonging to me, and words penned by some of my favorite of all literary voices, collected and saved and scrawled excitedly on pages littered with foggy memories of past lives, obscured now in light of all that was and is and is to come.
Of the words not belonging to me, Lucille Clifton’s were the ones I found most often, recounted in notebook after notebook, or inked → Read more...
They say water changes stone, carving it over time to angles and dimensions in harmony with water’s need to reach the sea; but sometimes, stones change the watercourse instead.
-The lovely and eclectic Shari
I’m collecting my favorite corners, like the one with the stunning oak tree on display for an entire neighborhood to see, its limbs shading a bustling crosswalk shooting confidence into pedestrians like electric currents of white light, fresh graffiti on a nearby curb: an infinity symbol, black and simple.
I’m collecting stories about the apartment window filled with small elephant figurines along one of my favorite walking routes. So many trunks standing side-by-side and none of them alive.
I’m collecting the surprisingly → Read more...