Thoughts On: Being "Anonymous"

So, I've been thinking about "being anonymous" lately, and I do what all normal people do when they think about stuff... browse Google. So I was searching "blogging anonymously" and whatever, and I have realized that in most people's minds I'm not really anonymous because...


1. I am myself on my blog. I'm not pretending to be someone else (as apparently people do) - I really am an 18-year-old girl from Canada who likes to write and read and discuss stuff. I guess it might be fun (?) to pretend to be someone else, but that was not for me.


2. I'm very transparent about a lot of things - for example, the back of my head (granted the picture shown in the sidebar is from grade 7 and I have since gotten my hair cut to above my shoulders), as well as where I live and a whole lot of other supposedly "identifying" stuff. (I've even made the fact that I'm not using my real name fairly transparent...) If someone were to care so much to do in-depth research, they could find out my real name - although it doesn't matter because the person you'd find is the exact same person as me, they just go by a different name!


3. I'm not paranoid about letting too many people in real life know my blog address. A bunch of the sites I found talked about not telling too many people about your blog, otherwise your identity could be revealed!!! :O Anyway... my entire family reads my blog as well as a few other people I know. It's not something that I try and spread around or anything, though. Why not? Well...


My reasons for being so-called anonymous:


1. The "internet safety" thing we all learn in elementary school.
2. Um, this reason is dumb. But I was (am) like, "Well, what if someone looked up my name and found this?"


Yup. That's basically it. And you probably knew this was coming but I've changed my mind, methinks.


My reasons for deciding not to be "anonymous" anymore:


1. My main reason for being anonymous is stupid.
2. I like my real name.
3. This post by Nicole at WORD for Teens (which is an awesome site).
4. It's just easier, being real. Haha. :)


So, hi! My name, my real name is Alyssa Sherlock. And yes, that's Sherlock as in, well... Sherlock.

And this is me:

Photo Credit: Emily

...and now I start the process of changing my name everywhere. Fun! :)

Teen Writers Summer Blogfest: My Writing: THE REAL THING

I originally wasn't going to participate for this day of the Teen Writers Blogfest (see all the other participants stuff here), mostly because I accidentally skimmed over that day on my list and just didn't see it but also because I didn't really feel like sharing any of my writing.

But I figured since I talk quite a bit about writing on this blog thing, and I also now have quite a few followers (yay new followers! Say hello!) I might as well. (Although I'm sure Linda and the Dragon was an excellent peek into my writing. HAHA.)

So I haven't really been working on anything for awhile, because I was stuck on the thing I was working on and I was taking a break. But the thing I was stuck on I am now becoming unstuck and I just in the past couple of days read over what I wrote and went, "There's hope in this." (Sometimes when I do this I go, "This is trash, why I am writing this??") And now I have some ideas, so I think I will continue working on that for awhile.

But you want an excerpt, don't you? Okay. Here goes.

After about twenty minutes I find I've been running my palms along the surface of the mountain and have turned my hands a deep red colour, as if I've dipped my hands in bleeding ash. I guess it helps to feel like I'm pushing the walls out from beside me, because it is extremely claustrophobic. Up is blackness. Left and right is red mountain walls. Forward and back is both black, one unknown and the other known. But there is no going back.

Yup, that's all you're getting. (Because if you didn't already know, I am a cliff-hanger expert.)