Almost Famous (aka: Remain Anonymous Part III)

Any of you peeping this site for any period of time now know that despite the witty banter AvBro kicks on the daily, I'm pretty private, at least when compared to some of my blogging peers. The reasons for my desire to remain anonymous are many, but just in case you were wondering:

1) I don't need to screw up my future employment prospects. And believe me, as a hiring manager, I know firsthand that corporations give every serious applicant a thorough WWW sweep. Anything even potentially questionable (ie: the entire content of this site) can land a promising prospect in the shred pile. Note to my undergraduate friends: get rid of that Facebook account before you start looking for gigs.

2) No mixing hobbies with home. Simply put, this blog is a good creative outlet, but I'm not here to Win Friends. Influence People? Sure. But that's about it. And besides, the last thing I need is a cyberstalker showing up on my doorstep. It happens.

3) I just don't think it's necessary. I mean, you guys come here for my witty and irreverent spin on politricks, pop culture, and general Negro Nonsense. I don't think your lives would be any better off knowing what I did last weekend (it involved AverageToddler, and it wouldn't be incredibly exciting to you). I could be wrong, but I believe folks can be interested in the message without needing to know the messenger.

That said, when I started this blog, I didn't expect much. I sure didn't expect to win a coveted Blog To Watch Award. I didn't expect to see my blog jacked referenced in print media. I didn't expect to agitate some very well known people who've contacted me offline. I didn't expect the pleas for other black men to join me in the mentor program I'm a part of to be taken seriously. And I sure didn't expect what's happened the past couple of weeks to happen, which has be re-examining the whole anonymous blogger thing once more.

Long story short, in the past couple of weeks, I've gotten at least a half dozen invitations from widely circulated newspapers, national radio shows, and even a cable news station asking me to either make an appearance or give a quote on some odd issue. For a guy from a small four stoplight Southern town, this is pretty flattering stuff, but it also presents a quandary. Do I ditch the vow of anonymity for what could be great national exposure for this blog, or do I stick to my guns knowing the risks involved?

AverageSis says play it by ear, and to that effect, I will more than likely be making an appearance on a national radio show in a few weeks, albeit using a pseudonym, and hopefully one of those voice alteration machines that they use on the 6 o'clock news when they interview the witness of a grizzly murder who doesn't want to be identified for fear of retribution, but still wants to floss on TV anyway.

Ok, so maybe I won't have the voicebox or dim lighting, but I will have to choose a pseudonym.

That said, I'm open to suggestions from you guys about exactly what kinda name I should make up choose. Should I go with something super-urban (read: black), like Tyrone, Leon, or Hakim (I've always wanted to be called Rasheed)? Something ethno-neutral like Chris, James, or Steve (I've always wanted to be called Steve too.)? Do I flip the script and toy around with some remixed variation of my government name? The choices are many, but once I decide on one, I have to stick with it moving forward.

Drop your best pseudonym for AB in the comments, of if you're anonymous like that, just email me.

[Editor's Note: Learn even less about AB by reading prior installments of the Remain Anonymous Saga. Links below.]

Remain Anonymous - Part I
Remain Anonymous - Part II(The Sequel)