On anonymity and pictures

(NB: This post used to be called "Check it out!" I revised it to put it in my posting policy links)

It's as clear to me as always that I want to keep names off the blog. This is not an anonymous blog, exactly. I'm happy for readers to know who I am and I know a lot of you in real life already. Most people who find me from comments in other blogs will already know my first name because I use it all over the place.

So why not use it here? I want to keep this blog off search engines so that I don't need to worry about people from my professional life reading it. Needless to say, this also means that any references to my business will not be by name. I am trying to stay vague about my neighborhood for the same reason, though it's readily identifiable to anyone who knows Philly. If you slip up, no big deal, but I will delete the comment and invite you to redo it in my next post.

But photos aren't so googleable, so I decided that there's no reason not to put up a picture, and a few reasons to do so: I just plain like seeing pictures of writers on other blogs. It's fun. It also adds to my feeling that the person is real by shorting out the function compulsive fiction readers develop of deciding what the character looks like in our heads. And you know, I'm real, too. Also, there's a picture in my files that I think is a good match for this blog. For copyright purposes I should say it was taken by a wedding photographer at my friends' wedding.

Then I couldn't get Blogger to shrink the one I wanted to fit the sidebar, so I stuck it in my profile--if you want to see what Z. and I looked like when she was at about 17 months, click on the tiny little postage stamp over there. This way everyone can learn about my Helen Mirren fixation, too. (Jane Tennison--wow. Rocks my world. She was pretty good as Elizabeth Windsor, too.)

When Z. saw this picture she said, poking the screen, "Dat's Z.! Dat's Mama! Dat's Z.! Dat's Mama! Dat's Z.! Dat's Mama! I'm Z.! I want a binky!"