even though you've made it pretty obscure

I've been meaning to write a post about my take on internet anonymity for a long time, but kept putting it off in favor of the World Series of Pop Culture and other such Important Thoughts and Commentary.

But, as my attention's been drawn to this article, I suppose now's as good a time as any:

Hi, Mr. or Ms. Future Employer. You can find me on the internet. It's not difficult. Yes, I'm on Facebook, I'm on MySpace (even Friendster, but like, who uses Friendster anymore? psssshhh). But I've been google-able for years, even before googling people became commonplace, and there's not really much I can do about it. The nice part is that my life is a fairly open book and I don't feel like I have anything to hide. You'll discover that I once spent a lot of time talking about a now-defunct band. You'll find references to my college radio days and possibly some stuff about the undergrad glee club or my a cappella group. There's an archived email I wrote to a photographer telling him that I liked his photos of another favorite band. I once filled out an "honourary Canadian" certificate. I got railroaded into giving a presentation about my senior thesis to my e-commerce class (and the powerpoint presentation might live on forever). Perhaps most embarrassingly, I received a tepid review in a college play. But sorry, Matt--the horrendously unflattering fuzzy boot photo in front of the bowling alley has long since vanished (as has, somewhat fittingly, the bowling alley itself).

As far as this blog goes, I thought about removing the link to my website/from my website. But I'm pretty self-sanitizing when I write here (liek omg my personal life stays personal, kthxbye) and I really feel like what you'll learn from this blog is that I love music, I collect nuggets of pop culture knowledge, I can wind myself pretty tightly when I'm stressed but hopefully I still manage to be fun and mildly entertaining while under duress. I know better than to say things that should be kept to myself, which might make this a less-interesting blog than those that maintain some semblance of anonymity and can therefore post more freely.

I won't apologize for that, though. I write for me more than anybody else, and secondly, I write for people who know me but whom I don't see often and who therefore might care about what I'm up to. I appreciate anybody else who's out there reading, certainly, but I'm not actively trying to cultivate a broad audience. The power of the internet is crazy and unpredictable and I've been on board for ten years now (expect a retrospective in November, the 10-year anniversary--I'm big on landmark anniversaries, as you may have noticed. I love birthdays, too--mine and everyone else's), so I like to think I have the hang of it. I pity these kids who need an orientation class to tell them not to post underage photos of drinking or doing drugs (I've never done drugs, Mr. or Ms. Employer, and I'm not a big drinker. I don't smoke, either, and I avoid red meat and a lot of fried foods, so I won't run up your company insurance plan premiums, I promise).

But the violinist in Salt Lake City? Sorry, that's not me. I'm not dead, either, all obituary evidence to the contrary.