anonymously

Truthful Tuesday — Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

Fandango12 Comments

Frank, aka PCGuyIV, is back with another episode of Truthful Tuesday. The idea behind Truthful Tuesday is for us to respond to the question (or questions) Frank asks and to be 100% truthful in our responses. No glib answers, no funny business, no fibs. Just raw honesty.

For this week’s Truthful Tuesday, Frank wants to know…

Are there certain topics that you won’t discuss or questions you won’t answer on your blog? If it doesn’t give too much away, what are some or all of those topics or questions? Regardless of you answer, what’s the reasoning behind it?

I blog anonymously because I want to maintain a certain degree of privacy and attempt to protect my identity from falling into the hands of potential bad actors. So, I don’t share my real name or the real names of any of my family members. I also don’t post photos of me or my family members on my blog.

That said, most of my readers know I live in the San Francisco Bay Area in an unnamed East Bay town. They know I have a daughter and a son, each married, and that I have two young grandchildren. They know I hobbled myself when I fell off a ladder last January and have been struggling in my rehab. They know I’m retired, that I’m a liberal Democrat and an atheist. They know I drive an electric car and that my wife and I have e-bikes.

What else they know about me is anybody’s guess. Despite blogging anonymously, I’m sure if someone was bound and determined enough, they could crack my real identity.

They’d be disappointed.

WDP — What’s in a Name?

Fandango4 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.
View all responses

No, I’m not going to write about my first name. I’m not going to tell its meaning, significance, or etymology. I’m not being difficult, it’s just that I blog anonymously, so why would I reveal that kind of information here? That sorta runs counter to maintaining anonymity, doesn’t it?

Now if you want to know about my stage name, my pseudonym, my screen name, my handle, or whatever you want to call how I identify myself on my blog, that’s a different story. I’m happy to share that with you.

The name I use for my blog is Fandango. Where did I come up with that? Here’s the story. One of my favorite songs of all time is Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” There’s a stanza in that song that goes:

“I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.
Galileo, Galileo, Galileo Figaro,
Magnifico-o-o-o-o.”

At first I though of using “Scaramouche” as my pseudonym, but every time I typed it, those squiggly red lines beneath the name showed up and autocorrect kept changing it to “scary mouse.” So I decided to go with “Fandango.”

I wanted to find an avatar to go with my chosen pseudonym, so I Googled “Fandango” and discovered that there was a computer adventure game from 1998 titled “Grim Fandango.”I’d never heard of nor played the game, but as soon as I saw the image of Fandango, I decided that I had found the perfect avatar for my blog.

And now you know everything.

Sunday Poser — Online Privacy

Fandango8 Comments

For today’s Sunday Poser, Sadje wants to know…

How careful you are regarding your online security? Do you share details on your blog? Do you think we should share pictures, etc. on our blogs?

I’ve had my online identity stolen twice. Maybe three times. I can’t remember now. I didn’t suffer any huge financial losses, but I had to cancel all of my credits cards and get new ones with new numbers. I had to deal with all kinds of vendors and financial institutions to straighten things out, and, of course, I had to change all of my passwords. So it was a lot of time and effort to recover each time it happened.

That is the main reason I blog anonymously. I want to try to protect my real-world identity to the extent possible. On my blog, people know that I’m an old fart who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, that I’m married, have two kids, two grandkids, and a dog. Also, I’m an atheist, a liberal Democrat, and I’m retired. I suppose, for people who read my blog regularly, there are other details of my like that could be gleaned from what I write and post on my blog.

But you won’t read my real name or see photos of me, my wife, my kids, or my grandkids on my blog. I don’t share precise birthdays, ages, Zip Codes, or other specific details on my blog. What others do on their blogs is their business, not mine.

All this said, I’m not naive enough to think that if someone wanted bad enough to find my real identity, they couldn’t. Of course they could. But why? I’m not famous, I’m not wealthy, I’m just your average Fandango.

WDP — NMN

Fandango7 Comments

What is your middle name? Does it carry any special meaning/significance?

I blog anonymously. I don’t reveal my real world first name, nor my last name. I do have a real world middle name, but since I blog anonymously, I’m not going to reveal my middle name either.

My blogging nom de plume, pen name, pseudonym, the name under which I blog, is Fandango. Fandango has a last name, according to WordPress. It’s Fivedotoh. So for blogging purposes, my full name is Fandango Fivedotoh.

Fandango Fivedotoh has no middle name, so if I am to write a post about my middle name, it would have to be “NMN.” And that makes me Fandango NMN Fivedotoh

NMN means “No Middle Name.” It has no significance other than as a placeholder for where a middle name would be if Fandango had one, which he doesn’t.

As to the meaning or significance of my real world middle name, which I’m not going to reveal, I have no idea. I’d have to ask my parents why they chose that particular name for my middle name. But I can’t. They’re dead. So if there was any special meaning or significance to my real world middle name, my parents took it with them to the grave.

Oh well.

Blogging Anonymously

Fandango21 Comments

In case you didn’t know it, my real name is not Fandango. It’s a pseudonym, a nom de plume, a pen name, a handle, a nickname, an alias, a pet name. I use it exclusively for my blog because I wish to be anonymous.

Why do I want to blog anonymously? Good question. My blog is like my house. One that I’ve built with years of sweat equity and I’m proud of it. It’s my bliss. But I choose to keep my true identity secret because I want to protect this house that I’ve built. It’s not because I have a sense of entitlement. It for my own protection. Let me explain.

As a reminder, I will, upon occasion, go on a brisk tirade about some controversial topics, like sex, religion, or politics, and such rants might anger or upset a few folks. By keeping my blog anonymous, I can sleep better at night knowing that no one is going to be able to find me and firebomb my home.

Furthermore, I can feel free to comment on other bloggers’ posts without fear of being identified and having someone hire a hit man to end me for having cast aspersions about their beliefs, perspectives, opinions, thoughts, or even their very existence. In this day and age, such a drastic action seems to be one way people respond to others who express ideas they don’t share.

But I don’t always come across like a screaming banshee on my blog. Some of my posts can be rather pedestrian. Dare I say even boring?

So there you have it. That’s why you know me only as Fandango. And let me just add that I wrote this post not to bilk you, my readers, but just for fun so that I could in fit in a bunch of daily prompt words. Because that’s how Fandango rolls. And that’s the way it should be — for those of us who want to blog anonymously.

This utterly ridiculous post was written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (anonymous/bliss), The Daily Spur (house/entitlement ), My Vivid Blog (sweat/brisk), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (reminder/pedestrian), Your Daily Word Prompt (tirade/bilk), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (comment/aspersions), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (banshee).