Going Public

I'm asking about a name (poll on the right) because in three weeks, ads for this site will be put into circulation on a few small webcomics via Project Wonderful. For maybe the first time since Derek was kind enough to put me on Reddit, people I've never met will probably be reading.

Words of Power

A new name is what draws people in and gives them an impression what to expect, however wrong or right. "Sluggy Freelance" doesn't say anything, but somehow it does something. I've got a few new names for the blog on the tablet:

VanVelding: It's the URL and what I generally go by on the internet. It's everything in one mysterious package. Turns up my stuff on search results. Is that a benefit? Mostly.

Honestly, the most shameful thing here is the lesson about storing screen caps as .jpgs.

Number Four Tested Well: It refers to both the overwrought process of finding a name (four is quite popular) as well as being a fairly odd sentence outside of context. It has a sound of clinical detachment to it. However, I may just like it because of all of The Prisoner I've been watching. Pretty unique in terms of search results.

Automated Compromise: I like it, but apparently it's already a computer term. It's a snappy title I've wanted to use for something for a while, so I might be overlooking the fact that it's a two-words-that-don't-go-together title that's so common these days.

Powered by Indifference, Focused by Caffeine: A long, evocative title that's got a simple reversal that subtly funny while still being memorable. Long is good because I'm tired of short names for things and I'd rather have a definitive concept behind the name that makes it stick. It also conveys the low-powered, unfocused expectations I'd like to set up here.

No, too obvious.

Not quite...

There we go.

Anyway, I'm letting you guys (or anyone else really) vote, but since my last comment was from Derek a week ago, I'm not counting on "innate drive to participate" to get results. For the first hundred votes, I'm going to give $5 per vote to The Red Cross to help out in Japan, and about $1 per vote after that. Granted, if I even get fifty votes, I'll know either someone's been practing their amateur hacking or telling friends. I'd rather you just told friends.

Preparation

So by making myself public, I have to really reign in my internet presence. I've googled both my real name and VanVelding a couple times and with the exception of some My[Confined]Space shenanigans, and a Yahoo Answers thing, it's gone pretty well. Most of my hits are for people using my Bob Kelso and Deadpool Peanut images, which I don't begrudge, so I'm cool.

On the other hand, people like shitty images more than you expected.

That said, I've referred to myself as Kris entirely too many times on this site for me to go back and redact it and, really, referring to myself as VanVelding is incredibly pretentious. The persona associated with this site (and I guess everything I do on the internet ever from this point forward) has to be Kris VanVelding. If I can, I'll even try to score both of those domains.

Me Week

So the are many things you guys know about me that an outsider obviously wouldn't. It's not that presume anyone is intensely interested in the background of a guy who's on blogger for its own sake, but context is worth some explanation. That probably calls for a few more Green Box issues, but in a simpler way, it means that the week after next will be Me Week, where each day will have a blog that's Kris-centric in a new way instead of the regularly Kris-centric blogs, where I pretend to talk about something else.

[Picture of me here. Don't forget this. This will be a professional blog in a few weeks and you don't want to look like an ass in front of three additional people Kris.]

Somehow, showing your picture on the internet is verboten. Well see-boten, or something.

However, my perspective on me comes from me. If there's any particular fact that a regular person on the internet might need to enjoy this blog, I'd be open to hearing about it. I know Jordan did an amazing piece in a game he ran where he had a PC that was everything I hate. It wasn't much more than my own rants made into a person and directed back at me in a game of Vampire, but it was still pretty epic[1] and shows insight into a more distilled view of my preferences than I can usually conjure up.

Why

But why publicity? There's no profit in it. Ego is the first thing I expected of myself as well, but I think it's more than that. Exposing oneself to the beating heart of the internet is fraught with naught but danger. Well, nine parts danger and one part success.

Probably more than nine parts danger for every one of these.

Here's the deal; my friends are supportive folks that give me respect (except my roommate, but he gets a pass because I have to live with him). No, it's that ego mass of criticism that I want to tap. Don't get me wrong; I want people to like what I write--

--well, no. I want write something that people like. Not everyone; I could write porn if I wanted everyone to like what I'm writing (again, depending on the porn).

No, it's not approval I want. I guess I'd like a crucible that can burn away the irrelevancies of what I'm doing and leave truth; truth in its purest form.

Even if that truth is that I quote Star Trek.
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[1] Yes, "Epic," used unironically after 2009. On Thursday, I'm calling something "Legendary" and not even smirking a little bit.