“Meem”
Is your blogging persona more serious than your real life persona?
Yes, absolutely. (At least — I think it is? I don’t know now. Ack!)
Do you think that your blog could ruin your career?
No, but I think it’s a risk I don’t want to take. Employers prefer to hire saner people, on average, I think.
Do you use a pseudonym out of fear?
Not really. Employability wasn’t my main concern, being randomly googled by acquaintances was. (Many people in my field blog, but it’s usually about work and work-like issues.)
What is the biggest drawback to writing pseudonymously?
Sometimes I feel somewhat silly signing something wolfa or wolfangel. Wolfangel always seems so girly, though the number of people who’ve called me “he” suggests that other people don’t find it girly.
Has anyone stumbled on your blog and found it accidentally?
Yup. Sometimes I have admitted it, sometimes I have avoided it (I do not think that person still reads, but am not sure). These are the I-think-it’s-maybe-you people — there are people who knew absolutely, too.
Have you outed yourself to any other bloggers?
Yup. Based on memes here, you can figure out my (very common) first name. But I’ve given my full name to lots of people, addresses to some (postcards!), and met a few others (I like meeting people). This is made easier by my total openness about where I live.
Has your blog allowed you to experiment with writing?
Yes. And in a way, it’s allowed me to come back to it, via a backdoor. The “blogs” I had before this — on opendiary, when it first opened, which I still have saved, and which are sort of pretentious — were fairly quickly discarded. This is coming on three years now. I’m not sure if that’s an experiment — I don’t really do much experimenting in writing styles or forms. But it’s practice, though I am not practicing for anything more than further blogging.
Why do you use a pseudonym?
To avoid the google factor. I don’t, as other people have mentioned, particularly care if someone who blogs and read blogs, finds me and recognises me. And realistically, people who knew me a while ago wouldn’t recognise me from my blog unless we interacted mostly via writing. (I’ve been recognised by my writing style, amazingly enough, though not on this blog.) But I don’t want bored ex-classmates and coworkers to know quite this much about me. And by now I am used to it, and it’s nice to give myself a little distance from myself.
jo(e) made this one up!