pondering about identity

just a short note (I'm twittering enough today...)

Why do I default to using "itesser" as my username/pseudonym on the internet (LiveJournal being the notable example). I never take great lengths to hide my real name, but so more and more often I notice people using their real names for email addresses and usernames... on sites like twitter.

For the most part I'm in favor of this move (I see it as a change, anyway). It goes a long way towards encouraging people to own what they say online and realize that engaging in social activities of online is just polishing another facet of humanity in the modern world. I see it as a sign of honesty and forthrightness. Plus using your real name is a lot "cleaner" than a craptangular username that's unpronounceable and has numbers or special symbols involved.

But I don't know if I'll ever do it myself, ever voluntarily drop "itesser" for "annierush" (or "annielodge"). I've been presenting myself as "itesser" as long as I've been on the internet, and in another year or so I'll have been self-identifying as such for over half my life. It is one of the most consistent parts of my identity, especially the one I've had a say in creating.

Partially this musing comes from hearing Chaz of YOGAmazing read one of my tweets at the beginning of the recent Yoga for Abs podcast. (And did he give me a fistbump?) Hearing myself quoted made me laugh, but it was definitely a new experience to hear someone say "itesser" out loud and mean me, personally, not just my website or brand.

It's a statement, a description, so itesser makes for a bad pen-name (comes from a daydream about performing stand-up poetry), but thoughts about this are still bouncing around in my mind.

also bouncing around in my mind... scanning, vectoring, and modifying an illustration from Wrinkle In Time to make an iTesser graphic, riffing off the iPod ad meme that's so 2007