When we decided in January to move from the single family news site to that plus three separate blogs on a new domain, everyone came up with cool name (WeatherGirl and Sub-Evil Boy) but me. I’ve never had a nickname that stuck, and when pressed didn’t come up with one.
After a few months of this, though, it’s clear that “I am … unhindered by talent” is a weak title for the blog, and Phi is a downright terrible name for me. You can’t google for the damn things (esp. “Phi”), and “I am …” conflates the name for our radio show and our domain name with my blog in ways that are at best confusing. (I’m conceding a lot of ground to the family here, but I love them, so we can share the cool name.)
Since my theme got all murphed up by the transition to WordPress 1.5, now would presumably be a good time to change the name, especially since I’m not exactly on a ton of blogrolls at the moment (3 that I can think of).
WeatherGirl and I have contemplated this for something approaching a minute and a half, and have come up with a handful of options for your consideration and discussion:
- Leave things alone.
- Maybe change the title to simply “Unhindered by talent” and hope the family doesn’t object.
- Lone Radical on the Prairie. A name a student came up with shortly after we moved here. It’s not really accurate, though, since there are lots of excellent wackos here in the wide open spaces (Pharyngula‘s just down the hall!).
- Free Radical on the Prairie. A variant on the previous option that has some cool layers that I like.
A quick check suggests that both the “radical” suggestions are quite google-friendly.
It’s also unclear what to do about the URL. Leave it alone and press on? Certainly http://UnhinderedByTalent/FreeRadicalOnThePrairie would be insanely long and annoying. Thinking about these kinds of things makes my head hurt, which suggests that I really don’t care all that much :-).
I get a kick out of “Unhindered by talent” because it has a kind of optimism that I like, but I like Free Radical on the Prairie too.
But I’m not very good at this kind of thing – I think my own moniker is fairly lame (though I’ve got so used to it now it doesn’t really register as words with meaning but just a name, like when kids get named things that are actual words, like Dakota or something). So I might not give the best advice on this topic!
I vote for the pedestrianized unhindered by talent . It is whimsical, obviously untrue, and encourages exploration of your site by those who dont know you. I image people thinking …. ‘I gotta look around here and see if I can find any sign of talent from this guy’
Of course calling yourself Prarie ‘radical’ would be pretty radical for a guy who just recently proclaimed his liberalism ….
You’re a puzzle.
Thanks to you both for the feedback. Maybe I’ll have to stick with the original name after all.
Desert: I’m afraid the irony in my post title didn’t come through very well. It’s been pretty clear for a long time that I’m somewhere in the tail of several distributions (you should see my music collection). I was just struck by how clearly that burst of posts had exposed that vein. I hadn’t set out in this blog to be particularly political (or to avoid it), but it’s clear looking back on the last few months that it’s a recurring theme :-).
But, hey, I like being a puzzle. And together we’re a Puzzle Donkey…
Unhindered by Talent is a triumvirate these days. If you claim it for yourself consequences will ensue! Desolation? Agony?
I’ve got a dragon here and I’m not afraid to use it. I’m a donkey on the edge!
LOL
That’s the problem, isn’t it? Unhindered by Talent belongs to us all now, which does complicate things. How would you and Sub-Evil feel about me changing the title to just “Unhindered by talent” and leaving the name as φ? Or just leaving well enough alone?
PuzzleDonkey. That was a great way to start the day with a smile.
And I dont think we want WeatherGirl torturing you with lukewarm tea or the like.
Appears that her inner Shrek could be dangerous.