Vox etc.

[norwich36]

Thanks to itsaslashything, I now have a Vox account here: http://norwich36.vox.com/ Who knows if I'll ever use it, but when I get invites I will pass them along, and if you are over there and I haven't "neighbored" you yet, let me know and I will.

In the five minutes it took me to set up the account before rushing off to the dentist (the interface is very easy as long as you assume it's a totally different system than lj), I made a decision that I've been thinking about for a while, which is that I want to change my name. Not my lj handle--I kind of like norwich36, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to ever have to fight off other folks who are norwich_36 or anything like that--but my actual nom de net.

Way back when I was deciding to maybe emerge from lurkerdom for what was really the second time (since I was briefly active on usenet under my real name in the mid 90s), I was looking for a name that I could keep while switching fandoms, which I used to do a lot, and I picked "Julie Norwich" when I set up my yahoo account because I was reading a lot of Annie Dillard at the time.

But it didn't take me long to decide I didn't really feel like a Julie, so I decided to just go by Norwich. I still kind of like Norwich--I'm keeping it--but now that I'm starting to meet other fen in person it feels a little cumbersome. I wanted a nickname. Or a first name. Or something. So I've been pondering this for literally three months (yes, I am slow), and I even thought about doing a poll, but instead I drove my best friend in RL crazy with suggestions.

Me: "What do you think of Jaye."
D: "Why do you have to come up with a new name? I like your name."
Me: "It's a net thing. Look, just tell me what you think of Jaye."
D: "No, you are definitely not a Jaye."
Me: "Well, I was only thinking about Jaye because it could kind of be short for Julie, which is already sort of my fake name."
D: "Oh my GOD, you are totally not a Julie. Your hair is completely wrong for a Julie. What about Kate? You look more like a Kate than a Julie."
Me: "No, there are way too many Kates on lj already. Maybe Annie?"
D: "Why do you have to change your name, anyway? I like your name. I don't think you should change your name."
Me: "Because (my RL name) is too distinctive, and I actually need to remain anonymous for work reasons."
D: "You can't be Annie, because Annie is (D's ex-girlfriend's) current girlfriend, and that would just be WAY too confusing for me.

Etc. etc. etc. D was very resistant to the whole idea of a pseudonym! We even spent a lot of time brainstorming variations and anagrams of Norwich: N? Which? Nor? Whorn? Horn? Chorn? Ichor? It didn't seem very nickname friendly.

But then I was reading the latest Laurie King novel, and there was a character named Nora, and I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of that, and I called D up right away, and she said "Nora? Oh, you could TOTALLY be a Nora."




So, the short version is, call me Nora. (Or Norwich--I'll answer to either, but Nora rolls more easily off the tongue). And as soon as I get a chance to set up my exciting new gmail account, courtesy of the invitation bop_radar, I'll be Nora Norwich (or the closest non-taken approximation of that) over there.