[Updated November 1, 2004]
While this site is titled “not Mike,” that is not what I use as my online handle. A Google search reveals that there are others who are thus identified, and I have no desire to step on their toes. I covered why I called this site “not Mike” in another post.
So I have established who I am not, and will now shed some light on who I am (below). I refer to myself as Michael in my posts, which is my real first name. I will continue to leave my last name off of this site to prevent those who Google my name from stumbling by. My personal web site is just a redirect away from www.muzsai.com.
However, I plan to continue to hide my surname under a cloak of anonymity. Because my personal history is rather unique, my cloak will become increasingly translucent the more I discuss my background on this site; I imagine that it will be like a sheer black dress under the strobe of paparazzi flash bulbs to anyone who knows me. My semi-pseudonymous identity is not essential to this site; however, it is a convention that I will adopt for now to allow for more freedom in my writing.
[Not applicable anymore, but still interesting]
Fellow pseudonymous blogger Liliputian Lilith was recently drawn into a debate about anonymous blogging.
While some ascribed such anonymity to a fear of reprisal by employers over critical blog content, others attempted to find gender-based reasons for anonymous authoring. I tend to skeptically chaff against any argument that tries to bend correlation into causation such as the latter. I would have to agree with LiL that the reasons for anonymity tend to be personal and individual.
It is, though, a little weird when you read an anonymous blog and also know the author’s true identity in meatspace. I admit that I even feel a little guilty, for example, when I read LiL’s blog. It is if I am violating her privacy on some level by peering past her pseudonymity and peeking into her personal diary. I am certain that she would not feel this way, but I thought that this was an interesting aspect of the combination of anonymous blogging with privately contextualized postings.
[/Not applicable anymore, but still interesting]
Effective search engines really have transformed the accessibility of random bits of information over the web, and I do not want anyone who Googles my surname to stumble across my journal entries. I am embarrassed enough by the random bits that already come up.
Furthermore, as this blog is an exercise to hone my writing skills, I suspect that my writing might suffer if I constantly worried about casual acquaintances or colleagues who might be reading my posts. As such, I have only revealed this web address to my most trusted friends.
Anyway, after that lengthy intro, below is the Cliff’s Notes version of my life story.
I was born a hair less than 32 years ago in Johnstown, PA, and grew up in Ogletown, a small, rural town in Western Pennsylvania. Skipping ahead past eighteen academically over-achieving, but socially retarded years, I attended Princeton University in central New Jersey until I became burned out. Withdrawing temporarily, I joined the army, where, ironically, I was sent back to school for a year and a half. After basic combat training, I studied at an intensive language school in Monterey, CA, to learn Russian. Then the army trained me as an interrogator (we have ways of making you talk). A short while later, I attended airborne training, where I first got to experience the exhilaration of falling out of an airplane from 1500 feet up.
With little use for Russian interrogator/linguists in a post-Cold War world, I was assigned as an intelligence analyst to a psychological operations (propaganda) unit whose area of operation was the former Yugoslavia. We extensively prepared for the evacuation of the fluster cluck known as the United Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR) until the signing of the Dayton Peace Accords transformed the nature of our mission. Deploying to Germany and then Sarajevo, we provided the informational media campaign to assist the implementation of the peace accords.
After my tour in Bosnia, the army sent me to Serbian and Croatian language school, and from there the infinitely wise army sent me back to North Carolina to wait out the remaining months of my enlistment. With service to “king and country” behind me, I returned to New Jersey to finish my thoroughly useless liberal arts degree. (Cue music: “What do you do with a BA in Politics?”)
I worked for a brief time in my alma mater’s information technology office, but was anxious to embark on my quest for fame and fortune. An evil dot-bomb advertising firm sucked away a year and a half of my life before slowly imploding thanks to the gross incompetence of its CEO. After an extensive period of post-9/11 unemployment, I returned to Princeton and the world of academic information technology administration, where I still draw my paycheck.
I reside in Kingston, NJ. I am [still] single and [still] looking for love in all the wrong places. Every time I think I’m about to pass “Go,” I get thrown back three spaces.
However, my closed-off nature tended to not be particularly conducive to my goal of finding female companionship (a deficiency that I have been struggling to correct in the past few months).
I’m a Virgo, my favorite color is blue, and my turn-ons include…
I agree that it’s up to people to decide whether they want to be anonymous or not and it’s not for others to criticize them for that decision. I think there is a downside to both types of blogging. My blog is not anonymous and so there are certain topics I leave off of it. One downside I see for anonymous bloggers is that they may not be able to get credit in full (in whatever way that credit may come to them:) for insightful, interesting, valuable blogging. Moreover, they (you:) still have to be careful about what you blog because in order to stay anonymous you still have to leave certain details of your life off the blog.
What I dislike very much is commentators leaving very ugly/disrespectful/offensive comments on others’ blogs (especially others who are not anonymous) without an actual email address or better yet, Web site. If someone is going to attack another who has put themselves out there, they should have the decency to stand up for their opinions and views openly.
I’m thankful that I have yet to experience any malicious commentors, just the occasional spammer that gets through MT Blacklist. Of course, it has only been a month.
Having to be careful what I say can be a drag at times, but I sometimes treat it like a game (how much can I say without revealing too much).
It will be interesting to see what the Lore contributers will have to say about anonymous blogging.
Hello Michael, I stumbled upon your blog searching for war stories from Sarajevo. I found it an interesting read, as your descriptions of my hometown are truly breathtaking. A little bit of background is needed here. :) I was born and raised in Sarajevo, loved the city as only Sarajevans can, however not enough to stick around throughout the war. Since 1995 I’ve been living in Toronto, Canada, and visit Sarajevo only occasionally. The reason for my Internet research is I am in the process of writing a novel about my experience, about life during the war and life as a refugee. I was hoping you could give me some pointers, or share some stories and views. I would love to hear from you, my e-mail is attached. Your input would be of great help, as your writing style is engaging and hearing the views of someone who spent time in Bosnia by sheer coincidence would give my story a new aspect. Thank you in advance. Tatiana
Sounds intriguing, Tatiana. I will e-mail you soon.