more fun than outlining

Given that I should be studying, this is a perfect time to tell you my thoughts on anonymity. My hit counter shows me that I have at least a few readers who didn't contribute directly to my genetic makeup, therefore this is clearly more pressing than my property outline.

I don't belive it exists. (I'm referring to anonymity here, though upon reflection I could say the same thing of my property outline.) I worked in software for too long to believe in the myth of online anonymity. The one serious effort I could have made to hide my identity would have been not to blog.

Other than not putting my name and school on my blog, I haven't attempted to hide my identity. There are not many female software engineers to begin with, and there are even fewer of them in law school. When I write I assume my audience knows my name. A substantial percentage already do.

So why not simply put my name up?

I tell a story in my blog more than anything. I'm not a pundit. I'm interested in sharing the experience of going back to law school.

But telling a story necessarily means that I tell the story of others as well, not just myself. I have a choice in what I blog about, but the other characters in my blog do not have the same choice.

So I change their details. I change their initials, their gender, the timing of events, and other potentially identifying details. I deliberately avoid gossip that admittedly might make the story more interesting. But, fundamentally, they do not have a choice in what I blog about. My friends, by sharing their experiences with me, are giving me a gift. My return gift to them is this piecemeal attempt at anonymity.

My other motive for anonymity is far more geeky. I chose my moniker, Transmogriflaw, for one reason. Well, actually two, but I'm not sure if the fact that it was a warm summer afternoon and I'd had two mojitos when I started this journal really counts as a good reason. The main reason for the utterly awkward name is that it's completely uniquely identifiable. I think the Latin names for other law blogs are considerably more poetic, but they don't serve as unique identifiers.

A single word unique identifier in our Google-enabled world is a powerful thing. I'd like to hold onto it if I can.