Here we are, picking up where we left off..
I'm not necessarily back at LJ, and would only post here perhaps when nostalgia strikes or if there was something I wanted to think about aloud. I haven't told anyone about my renewed interest in writing at LJ, and probably won't, because the reason I'm writing at LJ again is because I want to be uninhibited as possible here. Just be myself without trying to maintain some kind of persona on a blog, and basically write about whatever the heck I want to for my own purposes.
With that out of the way, there's also another concern I've been letting my mind percolate about. Since I stopped writing at LJ way back around 2007, I picked up a hobby of starting niche blogs and have gained new online personas for these blogs. I would decide on a certain authorship style for example, my video game blog to be light hearted and informative, whilst my art showcase site would be a bit business like. Along with the authorship style, I assumed different names and along the way, I eventually absorbed these names into my very identity. I'll give you a bit of case study to further illustrate what I'm trying to explain.
Case Study:
I'll start with a bit of background information. I was interested in World of Warcraft, and got hooked to it when I started playing it way back in the Burning Crusade expansion around 5 years ago. I had always liked video games, but never had I ever gotten so immersed into a game like I did with World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is usually abbreviated into 'WoW', and that is what I will be using from here on out.
At first I was a casual player, logging only after work occasionally and it took me several months to get my first toon, a Hunter to the maximum level of 80. After getting into a hardmode raiding guild and were a self proclaimed hardmode raider after several years of playing WoW, I felt that I had enough authority to start my own blog about the game. There were several blogs that I followed, and had always wanted to make a blog dedicated to something I really love to do, but felt too intimidated to start a blog. I was only a casual player, who played the game occasionally so it didn't really make sense to write about it then. I looked up to people who were just as passionate, and were more successful in the game in terms of progression raiding and loot gain. Their blogs were the ones I followed, and I never imagined I would one day meet some of them in person (true story). I adopted my druid's name as my online persona for my newly set up WoW blog, and have used it ever since.
In doing so, I created a different mind set that I would use specifically when I was under the guise of my Druid from WoW. At first it was fun, I socialized with other people as a different person, presumably under my Druid's name, and wrote about things from my Druid's perspective most of the time. Guides, information on dpsing or healing in different scenarios and the like, you name it. I used that name because I believed it would protect my real identity, because I perceived using my real name in the video game communities on the Internet wouldn't be a good idea.
It worked for a while, until one day, I decided I wanted to write about a topic that was somewhat relevant to the game, but it was really my own voice. I hesitated, because the blog was a very niche one, so I had also limited myself about what I could write about. It became more problematic when I stopped playing the game because I wanted to concentrate on other things like my degree. I couldn't talk about anything else as the real person behind the blog, for the same reason again, it's supposed to be about WoW.
I realized I lost my voice and my WoW blog was no longer a place for me to continue living out this alternate life.
So what happens now?
I used my WoW blog as an example in where it was stifling me, forcing me to assume a different identity whenever I was online. The WoW blog isn't the only blog I've run over the years so there are a few online names I have to maintain. I've struggled with identifying myself online because of the dangers, internet stalkers and the like. So how am I supposed to express myself without revealing my true identity? How can I protect myself? I need a home for me.
The point hits closer to the heart when I'm trying to decide if I want to use my real name on an art website that I started a while ago. I want to change the domain name to something like shannoncreative.com, because I hate my last name, and shannonrusnak.com sounds a bit ridiculous. The last bullet point is that I've often felt that it would make me feel like I had a huge ego if I bought a domain using my name. But I've seen many people do that, so I've asked myself if I really should be frowning upon that.
i used to take pictures of myself and post them online when I was younger, but they were tasteful pictures. I'm not hailing myself as an Amish, but my boobs for sure wasn't spilling out of the too tight bra purposely bought for these self photo ops on Myspace and Facebook. I haven't done that in a few years now, and the only pictures taken of me would be by other people at community events. That's right, I don't cam whore anymore /pats back. Because when I do it, it makes me feel like I have a huge ego and I really don't have the gonads to take pictures of myself everyday.
So I'm even more reluctant in trying to be just me on the art blog, and trying to find a name that works with Shannon. While I'm debating on this bit of gold nugget, I'll be over here at LJ writing stuff whenever the mood strikes. That's the purpose of this LJ account, it's for me to write about anything that interests me, however confusing it might be to you. I purposely left out links to my other blogs because I don't want to be tied to them when I'm here. I'm not telling anyone on purpose because I don't want to be worrying about who might be reading this.
It's not that I don't want to get criticized, I get enough of that on my other blogs along with internet trolls and spam. This LJ account would always have comments on by default, and i really don't care if a passerby wants to leave a comment. The whole point is to leave this place untouched by other people, and assumed identities, to be a place for me to come here to put down whatever my brain is compelling me to think about. I'll eventually figure out what to do, but for now..
My name's Shannon, and that's all you need to know. Merry belated X-mas.
With that out of the way, there's also another concern I've been letting my mind percolate about. Since I stopped writing at LJ way back around 2007, I picked up a hobby of starting niche blogs and have gained new online personas for these blogs. I would decide on a certain authorship style for example, my video game blog to be light hearted and informative, whilst my art showcase site would be a bit business like. Along with the authorship style, I assumed different names and along the way, I eventually absorbed these names into my very identity. I'll give you a bit of case study to further illustrate what I'm trying to explain.
Case Study:
I'll start with a bit of background information. I was interested in World of Warcraft, and got hooked to it when I started playing it way back in the Burning Crusade expansion around 5 years ago. I had always liked video games, but never had I ever gotten so immersed into a game like I did with World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is usually abbreviated into 'WoW', and that is what I will be using from here on out.
At first I was a casual player, logging only after work occasionally and it took me several months to get my first toon, a Hunter to the maximum level of 80. After getting into a hardmode raiding guild and were a self proclaimed hardmode raider after several years of playing WoW, I felt that I had enough authority to start my own blog about the game. There were several blogs that I followed, and had always wanted to make a blog dedicated to something I really love to do, but felt too intimidated to start a blog. I was only a casual player, who played the game occasionally so it didn't really make sense to write about it then. I looked up to people who were just as passionate, and were more successful in the game in terms of progression raiding and loot gain. Their blogs were the ones I followed, and I never imagined I would one day meet some of them in person (true story). I adopted my druid's name as my online persona for my newly set up WoW blog, and have used it ever since.
In doing so, I created a different mind set that I would use specifically when I was under the guise of my Druid from WoW. At first it was fun, I socialized with other people as a different person, presumably under my Druid's name, and wrote about things from my Druid's perspective most of the time. Guides, information on dpsing or healing in different scenarios and the like, you name it. I used that name because I believed it would protect my real identity, because I perceived using my real name in the video game communities on the Internet wouldn't be a good idea.
It worked for a while, until one day, I decided I wanted to write about a topic that was somewhat relevant to the game, but it was really my own voice. I hesitated, because the blog was a very niche one, so I had also limited myself about what I could write about. It became more problematic when I stopped playing the game because I wanted to concentrate on other things like my degree. I couldn't talk about anything else as the real person behind the blog, for the same reason again, it's supposed to be about WoW.
I realized I lost my voice and my WoW blog was no longer a place for me to continue living out this alternate life.
So what happens now?
I used my WoW blog as an example in where it was stifling me, forcing me to assume a different identity whenever I was online. The WoW blog isn't the only blog I've run over the years so there are a few online names I have to maintain. I've struggled with identifying myself online because of the dangers, internet stalkers and the like. So how am I supposed to express myself without revealing my true identity? How can I protect myself? I need a home for me.
The point hits closer to the heart when I'm trying to decide if I want to use my real name on an art website that I started a while ago. I want to change the domain name to something like shannoncreative.com, because I hate my last name, and shannonrusnak.com sounds a bit ridiculous. The last bullet point is that I've often felt that it would make me feel like I had a huge ego if I bought a domain using my name. But I've seen many people do that, so I've asked myself if I really should be frowning upon that.
i used to take pictures of myself and post them online when I was younger, but they were tasteful pictures. I'm not hailing myself as an Amish, but my boobs for sure wasn't spilling out of the too tight bra purposely bought for these self photo ops on Myspace and Facebook. I haven't done that in a few years now, and the only pictures taken of me would be by other people at community events. That's right, I don't cam whore anymore /pats back. Because when I do it, it makes me feel like I have a huge ego and I really don't have the gonads to take pictures of myself everyday.
So I'm even more reluctant in trying to be just me on the art blog, and trying to find a name that works with Shannon. While I'm debating on this bit of gold nugget, I'll be over here at LJ writing stuff whenever the mood strikes. That's the purpose of this LJ account, it's for me to write about anything that interests me, however confusing it might be to you. I purposely left out links to my other blogs because I don't want to be tied to them when I'm here. I'm not telling anyone on purpose because I don't want to be worrying about who might be reading this.
It's not that I don't want to get criticized, I get enough of that on my other blogs along with internet trolls and spam. This LJ account would always have comments on by default, and i really don't care if a passerby wants to leave a comment. The whole point is to leave this place untouched by other people, and assumed identities, to be a place for me to come here to put down whatever my brain is compelling me to think about. I'll eventually figure out what to do, but for now..
My name's Shannon, and that's all you need to know. Merry belated X-mas.